I've made my case on this topic plural times, so I will quote myself from
Adder's XP thread, posted before the newest wave of changes, even. If you want my proposed solutions to alleviate some of the strain of leveling, they are also in that thread. Please read them, if you find anything else I say compelling.
Salandarin wrote:
In its current state, code-wise, I would not (and do not) recommend this game to my friends. It has enormous potential, but the simple fact is that the game is not fun until you've dumped 100+ hours into it. That is not a reasonable investment, IMO. Games I buy for fifty bucks are considered pretty long if they last forty hours - and that's okay. If the game started thinking in terms of making each hour count more (which is why I suggested those ideas - concentrating time usage into an effective manner), I think we'd be a lot better off.
Bringing new players is a temporary solution. Fixing the code so the game isn't so ass-reamingly slow for the first 100 hours? That's what will keep players for the long run. We should be focusing on retention, not expansion.
I would like to add that player attitudes are not the problem. Players value GMing because GM is - holy [REDACTED] - valuable. The most logical course of action is to do the most efficient thing to obtain it, and telling players they have their values mixed up is absolutely useless in the face of this reality.
As an aside, it is on these grounds that I promote a revamp to enchanting, brewing, and scribing. Once the leveling grind stops, those grinds start.