This discussion has been around for ages. However, it reached a stage where the scales are leaning to one side, the side of the powerlevellers.
Let's take a look at the most recent things that led to my conclusion:
First of all, the implementation of houses. Houses do cost money. And who has money in a game where you were able to mine gold and get money 24/7? Correct, the powerlevellers. And what piece of the pie do the roleplayers, those that spent their time enhancing the community with their roleplay instead of mining, get? Not much..as the auction of Lolitra's house showed. I am aware of the old argument that you can not officially claim to own a house in PS, since everyone does so. But let's look at this from a different angle. Why do you level? Because you get rewarded and it is fun. Why do you roleplay? Because it is fun. You can not expect a reward, even though you help to enhance the game. Shouldn't roleplayers be rewarded? Lolitra RPed to own this house for over a year, yet other persons who mined a few weeks would have been easily able to outbid the sum it went for. In my opinion, this will lead to a major point of conflict. Houses will be owned by powerlevellers, if there is no change in the economy, since the amount of money owned by RPers is "peanuts" to the PLers. The other thing that disturbed me about the auction was an obvious lack of IC knowledge of the Devs. They could have thought about what house they were going to sell. I understand it was in a hurry, the houses needed to be tested. But unfortunately it was Lolitra's house. The argument of a Dev ICly, that Lolitra did not pay her taxes, was simply ridiculous. Lolitra as a char would always pay her taxes.
At this point I suggest a wipe -a total inventory/money/skill wipe-, since so much changed. Training and gaining money is now harder then before, and new players would be disadvataged. And those that seek to powerlevel will think twice about what game they play, as Planeshift is supposed to be a mmoRPg. There are other "great" games for levelling and pwning.
Secondly, there is an obvious inbalance in the game mechanics. Again, the PLing part is far more advanced then the things that are needed for roleplaying. How do you train? Wiht pps and money. How do you get them? Through hours and hours of stupid fighting. The crafts like metallurgy and blacksmithing, or for example bookwriting, are nothing in comparison to the part of PS that involves fighting. Tons of different weapons, armors, spells. That are things a Rper does not need. I would suggest that FUTURE projects are balanced, to add something for everyone. At this point, I do not want to critize the Devs. The Devs are doing a great job. I just want to suggest something for the future.
