this topic is so incredibly subjective it's really a fruitless debate. personally, having not played until EA, i'm on my 4th character and haven't taken one past 15. I wanted to see all the starting zones and get a feel for the different class types, and so far I've not discovered all that much of any of the early zones save for Everweald.
that said, I can understand how experienced beta players are feeling, and also people who have the luxury of playing with a static team and feel compelled to optimize their leveling. nothing wrong ever with finding ways to extend the time it takes to be finished with a game, so long as that time spent is still enjoyable. that generally is achieved by making each level more significant, whether that means adding more variety of gear and mobs or quests or reasons to stop and tradeskill etc..
something I wish had received more thought before EA was the economy aspect. the auction chat is pretty yucky in 2026 IMO and I don't understand from neither a lore nor mechanical aspect the concept behind "players sell to NPC, then NPC sells to players at a markup". I see we have trading bags that need to be implemented in the future so hopefully that solves the strange current concept and makes a better incentive to play tradeskill some days rather than go grind levels.
