@stonedbooty
my point is having fun and maybe roleplay a little.
I am year one legend, i am athena 20 for many month and also have all factions at 75 plus almost all commendations, only a few left, but i dont grind and never have grinded.
the beauty of this game is, i dont need to and everything happened by the way playing and immersing into the game.
The things you mentioned just make it hard to balance and open the field for flaws and glitches etc.
I dont need such things and since UO i allways disliked stuff like this and wanted a game like SoT.
If i would be able to make an MMORPG it would have zero progression, only cosmetics and would be about players knowledge and skill in the game.
The features would promote roleplay when and wherever possible, even in the heat of a battle PvE or PvP.
If i would have made SoT it would have no factions, only message in the bottle and nothing gated behing reputation, but only gold.
I'm a sandbox RPvPer, the stuff that got so popular the last 20 years arent that much my thing.
Mincraft it would be but i cannot stand these graphics, sorry i'm so happy to have cool looking games and i dont need to play 8 bit pixel stuff anymore, that i - although i played them a lot - am not that retro hyped regarding grafics :P
A good game needs not only cool grafics, but gameplay is way more important, but without a shiny and cool look i also dont get hooked and play it a lot.
There is ton of good games i refuse to play because the look and feel is not my thing.
To me immersion/grafik is key followed by the gampleay and when online and with PvP without any gamemechanics influencing progression.
For SP or pure PvE Games i dont mind it and just play my way.