Gah! (Of course, I feel much the same way about IOs and grinding Imperious as you seem to about Incarnate Trials, but...)
All else aside, altoholism makes players run the early-game content more often - perhaps many more times. When the main problem for MMOs is keeping players interested by making them feel there's something else to do, that sounds like gold dust for developers, not a problem.
I disagree with this to a certain extent. I believe altitis is something to be appreciated in a game like this, especially when you have a massive amount of power combinations. Not only that, the costume designer is extremely biased to creative types. Expecting people to not create a mass amount of alts is like asking a kid to pick only one candy the first time he/she goes to the candy store, depending on the kid, you'll most likely be there for a substantial amount of time. Now that being said I agree end game content is required as a there are those people who rush to the end and then complain "This game is too short, there's nothing to do." Personally I think a good way to fix this would be offer multiple early game paths, allowing players to alt multiple times. Incarnate trials definitely fill a hole in the CoX universe, however they do a terrible job doing so. I really don't see how repeating the same mission over and over for a new power is any different than doing so with a new power set combination or AT.
I suppose here lies the confliction of an MMO with so many possibilities, what exactly do you focus on as a development team? Do you cater to only one type of player? Or try and make everyone happy with the possibility of lacking meaningful content... I believe with enough time and money both could be achieved, I just think a certain level of transparency is required. Explaining how, why, and when certain content could be made available, to me, makes a a bit more sense than saying "It's impossible" only to have it implemented in game 6 months later. Eventually people see you cry wolf and realize you think of them as idiots, which is very much how I saw the devs treating players on the old coh forums. Don't get me wrong, I understand the justification behind their ways, I just believe there was a better road to be taken.
Anyways that's just my two cents on the whole end game vs early game dilemma.
Hopefully we can all argue in broadcast again soon like the good ole' days
