pepperjack

I've been watching this thread for a while and I agree with a lot of Phorlaug's points, as well as other posts, but have to stress (without jumping on some people's bandwagon) this is a stress test. To amplify my statement: I have been a part of beta testing of WoW (actually started pre-beta when there were only humans and dwarves), EvE-online, E&B, Saga of Ryzom, RF-online, SWG, and many others back in the day when you actually had to fill out an application with essay questions (all of these were closed beta or alpha, don't get me started on what most of you know today as open beta (that DOES NOT count as testing, just a pre-launch try out usually with a few dedicated players, a fair amount of players who know how to level quickly and love to PK new players to the game, and a metric butt-ton of gold farmers getting ready for launch (most games in recent history do not wipe between open beta and live)) So I have seen many wipes in many games (I typically quit at open beta for reasons given above) and take it as part of the process. I think the major difference between those other games and this iteration of E&B for experienced players is remembering what it was and how long it took to reach 150, now it is quick and we are settled in to our rememberences; and for the players new to E&B used to the relative ease of leveling in recent games just can't handle a decent grind (not to say all games currently are easy but at the moment E&B grind is). Face it, when you can max level in a few days to a few weeks and play at max level for what 6-8 weeks now, the thought of starting over can be very disheartening when you are used to running around with (in my case) 3 bile ml's and a smiter's wrath and 5 lvl 9 devices. But I would only feel bad for a day. Even in live games I may spend months creating, experimenting, deleting and remaking a toon til I found my path; even when I found my path I may remake the toon a couple times to re-experience a few things and make different choices. Didn't even settle on my JE to max in live til like 6 months after it went live, but that's just me. Don't get me wrong, if I had been playing (and paying a monthly fee) for a game for months and years and had a high lvl toon with great gear and a wipe was announced even for a critical database error or exploit I'd be mad as freaking hell and may quit. That is not the case here (and again I say I am not jumping on the generic "it's a stress test" bandwagon), but there IS a lot of work to be done and a lot of rash changes made that pile up and bite the project in the ass. The grind isn't that bad as things are now, I only have 1 lvl 150+ toon and not because the grind is too arduous to lvl my alts but because I am part of a guild and spend most of my time on my 150+ helping others in the guild and outside the guild. Do I welcome a wipe? no I don't; will I quit after a wipe? no I won't, tho I will probably take a few days to a week for a break to regroup and recompose myself. I know I've gone off topic a bit and some will agree/disagree with me even within my guild so I will say my main toon is the Terran Scout Bill so you can blast me in teamspeak or guild chat or we can discuss my OPINIONS. Cheers mates