[boogerific]

I wonder how many people here actually know the reason for the slower-than-molasses exp rate on Live? Evidently not too many. For some odd reason, "Live exp" seems to be some sort of standard that should be matched, otherwise gameplay would suffer? Nope. The *only* reason that Live sets their exp rate so low is to make money. You know, the Corporate Mentality thing. Keep the exp grind as slow as tolerable, call it a "gaming experience" and players are willingly duped into thinking that the exp grind is good, making them spend their money by the millions (collectively speaking) just to keep on top of it.

People can have just as rewarding of a gaming experience without having to spend ridiculous amounts of time leveling at Live exp rates.

Ever wonder why Live set AA exp at level 51 equivalency? It's what the market would bear. If they set it their normal rate people would be a lot more reluctant to bother with AA. Less time played, possibility of less people playing, dollars go down.

Tradeskills? Call the goal Accomplishment and a company can make something go as painfully slow as they want. Those people who played on Live before SOE decided to throw the players a bone in the form of the handy-dandy window that calls up recipes and does inventory know how that goes. Picking up each component, putting it in the container and hitting Combine took forever. I can just hear the meeting where they decided to change that. "What? Some players quit tradeskilling over that? Make it easier so we don't lose anymore revenue!!"

And so it goes... lol.