I'm really grateful for the innovative and hard work STS have done to bring us this expansion. I think STS recognises that we need content that takes time to engage with, and we've certainly got that. So hard-core players are well catered for.
My only concern is that more casual players like myself might disengage. I'm working (often more than one job at a time) and doing post-grad study as well. I do, or at least did, buy plat though. Being so time-poor I really did appreciate the shortcuts plat offered. I'm not sure there's much value plat can add at the moment except for making gold. I have all the gold I need and so I haven't bought plat in ages, because it doesn't offer the same advantages it used to. Not necessarily a bad thing, but a change I've noticed. I don't want a pay-to-win game, that's lame. But a game in which my real-world financial investment has tangible in-game rewards.
Often I don't get to play at all on any given day; I rarely, if ever, play for more than an hour at a time (except during events, I do try play twice as much then). This means it will take me a LONG time to work my up the ranks. There simply isn't any way I can squeeze more time out of the day! So it means that regardless of the community progression, I'll be stuck in the first and second level of mausoleum. In previous expansions, I could at least access all the maps. In this expansion, I'm not sure how long I can stay interested when so little of the new content is available to me.
This isn't a complaint, btw. I realise that AL needs to decide what kind of game it is, and who its intended audience is. To move beyond casual gaming, content like the Twilight expansion is desirable and necessary. If AL is gonna go down that path, like fully developed MMOs, it would be nice to see a similar depth in customisation of gear and skills. This may in fact be the plan.
I have been playing the new content but yeah, I'm not sure if I, and perhaps other players in my situation, will be able to keep up. Like I said, this isn't a complaint, and I think the work STS has done is great. Maybe the game is just evolving beyond me. It's been fun though, no regrets

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