I returned back at the end of Oct (I left like the start of March). I've been loving my time since returning. I regret not getting to 'grow' along with the community and experience things when they were 'fresh' to all - but if the game lives, I'll have the expansions for that.
However, that said Shinto - I only left due to RL time pressures, my wife and I had a son in March
So, I am not a good example. I am not a fanbois or whatever, this is NOT the game I wanted and expected from the years-long development and my time in Beta 2/2.5/3+ but it is still a fun game and I LOVE the way it looks when playing in the highest graphic settings. Looks good otherwise too of course when not, but just pointing it out (in beta I'd put up the graphics to see what was ahead the day I'd upgrade heeh - it is even better by time I did)
I am not as big a crafter as I wanted to be since I lost so much time I am not even playing my many alts much until my main is like 45+. However, I had gotten my lvl 15 Smith (who was delayed back at start cos he couldn't complete the damn armorer specialization when that was bugged for so long) to 22 during the +50% week (I studiously avoided logging on any of my Adventurers since I didn't WANT to level FASTER... I want to be higher level, but I want to experience CONTENT on that way - as it is, I keep outleveling potential areas, I've skipped dungeons I thought would be great simply because of following other questlines made me pass them in levels...) and since then to 23 and it has been fun. I stopped when I heard tokens were coming, figured time to get back to my Psi and also wait until that system b4 going to do batches for recipes. I must say I delayed going back tot he Psi for like 2.5 levels of crafter cos I was addicted to doing it and the lvl 20s quests for a while - I think it wasn't until a week AFTER 50% thing ended that I played my Psi. Didn't expect that to happen.
I think the XP on crafted items is possibly a bad change (meaning from other games, items used to level flood the game and economy...) but if you didn't like WO grinding, this is a good change I guess. The tokens should at least making getting recipes a guarantee if you want them, without needing to gather hoards of cash. I will prob start on that during the weekend (I generally craft now when having to be on-call for the baby so I don't mess up groups)
So much promise from Brad's letters/posts is dust in the wind, groups of crafters working together and 'battling' to make an epic item never appeared among a gazillion other things but ... I love MMOs and I do not like any others as a better fit than this one. I just wish it really was like old EQ modernized (but not WoW-ized of course ;P)
They DO need a 'Vision', hopefully the have something blurry at least in partial focus as they wait for more subs then pin it down. Atm, the most important thing is a non-buggy game (I don't run into many, but I think several areas are still bugged up the wazoo ;P liek Pantheon, which I had to skip due to leveling anyway) and get things 'settled' then re-advertise get good reviews etc to grow the base and THEN stick to a single Vision going forward. I don't recommend this Vision AFTER thing, but I can't see how SoE would do it otherwise from a business model perspective. They already pissed off (Sigil really) the old base and didn't attract the WoWers (they never had a chance if they wanted to make a game REMOTELY as they intended, and I think that's a GOOD THING(tm)) but they also didn't gain many new mmoers or on-the-fence people due to all the mishaps and poor advertising/reviews
I'd try it if you liked anything about the PVE stuff in the past, it only has gotten better. Crafting I cannot yet speak to and certainly cannot compare - I was and am a lowbie still.
I hope someday most of the old guys will return and the names I used to know on these forums especially. So many ppl