Forget the fact that Godslayer finally opens up AoC and makes it feel like a real wide-open MMO, instead of the small zones from the original.
Forget the fact that Godslayer has tons of fun quests to work through.
Forget the fact that Godslayer adds a many new instances as well as a couple of raids.
Forget the fact that Godslayer has phenomenal Asian inspired art, armor and weapon design.
Forget all that. Those facts make Godslayer a very good expansion. But none of them, one or all together, make Godslayer a great expansion.
What makes Godslayer a great expansion is one simple thing:
They did not raise the level cap.
Finally a MMO developer takes a queue from Mythic and DAoC and does not raise the level cap.
HALLE-FREAKIN-LLUJAH!!!!!
Finally another expansion that I do not have to level for 10 more levels before I hit the endgame…..again.
Finally another expansion that does not completely and totally invalidate everything you have done for the past two years.
Finally another expansion that allows old content to coexist alongside new content and allows it to stay relevant.
Finally.
I loved the way DAoC did their expansions. No level cap increase, more content and other ways to advance your character. People still did older dungeons and content right alongside the newer shinier stuff. DAoC’s character advancement could best be described as horizonal rather than vertical.
This is what Godslayer does for AoC. Yeah, you have the alternate advancement thingy for further advancing your character but it does not invalidate the older content at all. People are still doing it as well as the newer stuff.
Ever hear anyone look for a group for Blackwing Lair after TBC came out? Nope. Not unless it was for nostalgia purposes. The gear in there was for level sixties for godsake! Why would you want any of that stuff when you were 70, much less 80?!?
Same thing happened to Kharazan, Black Temple, Sunwell Plateau, Gruul’s and Serpentshrine. No one does them anymore. Tons of content forgotten and never experienced again. Thousands of new players who will never get to experience it. Wasted content.
And it does not just apply to raid content but to smaller dungeons as well. Sure, people still do Deadmines, Scarlet Monastery, Zul’Farrak and the other low-mid level instances but as soon as they hit 58 they head straight to Outlands. UBRS, Scholo, BRD and other 58-60 content is mostly forgotten. Same for level 68-70 stuff. People head straight to Northrend instead. The gear is better there for godsake!
But not in AoC. Not with this expansion. Tonight I saw people looking for groups for the level 80 Godslayer instances. Tons of people, in fact. But I also saw a ton of people looking for Onyx, Aztel’s and the 24-man original raids.
You do not need to increase the level cap in an expansion to keep people playing. Despite Blizzard’s insistence on doing so. Give players new ways to improve their characters, interesting areas to explore, new gear that does not need to be more powerful as long as it looks freaking cool and we will continue to play.
DAoC showed everyone that 10 years ago. Somewhere along the line we forgot.
Corpse Run 
This is spot on.
Raising the level cap means you are replacing content, not expanding it.
I would point out though that Eve, by virtue of not having levels, always produces Expansions that expand the content rather than obsoleting parts of it.
Here, Here
This expansion was a “God” send for Funcom (see what I did there?).
Now, if people would get out of this “I was a launch player, and the game only deserves that one time to convince me to like it” crap state of mind.
I have my copies (for the whole family) and plan to return come the end of June. Can’t wait.
Cheers
“This is what Godslayer does for AoC. Yeah, you have the alternate advancement thingy for further advancing your character but it does not invalidate the older content at all. People are still doing it as well as the newer stuff.”
This is the key point; they were able to avoid raising the limit cap because they included AA. RPGs are about character advancement, be it through levels, skills, or gear. Be truthful and ask yourself if the majority of the player base would continue playing if none of the following was added:
1. Better Loot
2. More levels
3. Alternative Advancement
By avoiding 1 and 2, they are able to keep the current content relevant for now. Without 3, though, you’d just have some new zones added with similar loot, and when people hit the endgame cap (no more progression, no more loot), what do they do? They quit. Look no further than WoW right now – expansion duldrums have hit (I’m on haitus, myself) and people are tired.
Even FFXI, who has been using this formula for years, finally caved and is increasing the level cap in an upcoming update. Of course in their previous expansions they generally included something I missed above – new jobs. That worked in FFXI because you didn’t have to “re-roll” to play that class.
This is a one-trick pony, though, for AoC I’m afraid.
Well I have to say its refreshing to see someone think up their own direction with regards to expansions and I quite like the idea of an expansion that doesnt increase the cap but then I’m reminded of how fun it is levelling up in the new areas and indeed the gear resets (which I like). One way or another you will outlevel older content i.e. new raids will have better gear making raiding older dungeons irrelevant.
As for Black Temple and the sunwell being unused I’d disagree even on my low population realm we have a good few level 60 only and level 70 only guilds who raid frequently. I’ve even started organising some of the old vanilla and TBC raids in trade chat to go through on my level 80 paladin, its not for the gear or anything its purely to have a look at the things I’d missed. It may take the shine off it because Im ‘above’ the specified level but still its just good to see the content and hey Black Temple and the sunwell can still be a challenge if you dont have enough members or skilled players.
So yeah Im happy with how Blizzard phase in their expansions with added levels the only thing I can criticise is the frequency of them. I do however I think it comes down to preferences on how the individual likes to progress. I’ve found recently Im just much more of a ‘leveller’ than endgame raider, with one look at Cataclysm I think its a bit of both i.e. sideways and upwards.