I agree this is a fun little game but it took me 2 days to realize and decide this crafting system is not for me - definitely one of the biggest time and money sink grindy crafting systems I've seen and I've played a lot of mmo's. So I'll just enjoy the other stuff and leave crafting alone here.
I don't really care one way or another since I like slow leveling - but having said that I will say this is the slowest rested xp gain I've seen in an mmo. Doesn't even seem worth going out of your way to get in a rested xp area.
Very well said. A game has to have mass appeal if it is to survive. I've watched many MMOs fall through because their target audience was too small. I enjoy the game the way it is, but every gamer has their own style. To each their own, as long as it keeps people playing and keeps the game alive.
I would argue that by trying to appeal to the masses and appease everyone you just become one of the hundreds of clones out there already with no lasting appeal. That's one of the huge problems with the genre - companies trying to bring as many people in as possible by doing a ton of different things in their games but none of them very well because the focus is all over the place.
You say you've seen games fail if they don't appeal to the masses and I say I've seen plenty fail because that's all they try to do. Thank god for kickstarter as it seems to be the only way companies are able to fund games that are not cookie cutter copies which is all investors seem to want and pretty much all we get anymore.
Someone posted on mmorpg.com about this game saying why play this when you could be playing something like RIFT. LOTRO, EQ2, whatever - all f2p mmos also. And that's the thing - they don't have the sense of exploration, adventure, accomplishment, and community this one does. But if this game decides to do what every other game does by dumbing it down to appeal to as many casuals as possible then it truly is just another clone and there is no reason to play it over those other games.