A term surprisingly absent from this threads' vocabulary is
meta.
Looking back, do you believe MO1 had a combat meta? How does a combat meta effect a game like this? How does a combat meta effect balancing? How does balancing effect combat characters in PvP a hardcore environment such as MO? How do all these effects.. effect the potential success and long term viability of a niche game like MO?
While some replies are predictably valuing old school "difficultly" for the sake of "difficulty", in an age of dynamic game design.. I just can't help but feel more could be done about this critical core element of MO2. While personally refreshing to return to an age of choices that matter, IMO the novelty will wear off only slightly slower than the monthly active user count. Gaming is just different now, even limited success comes at a much different cost than years ago like our benchmarks: Darkfall, Ultima, SWG, and MO1.
By indirectly encouraging multiple accounts, is SV increasing the power gap from the average player to the hardcore? Are they increasing the gap from the average player to the whale? In a game like this, if encouraged.. if allowed.. many will seek the advantage.. some will seek the convenience.
Some days I want my quick DEX focused Archer, others I may want to try magic... and then perhaps a STRENGTH based melee fighter. There are so many options in this game, and all I ask is for the ability to explore them all (Or at least several of them) on a single account.
Above is the likely sentiment of what I believe to be the vocal majority of
potential/new players to MO2. The OP is coming at this in a self-serving POV, but no less relevant. My thing here is, if limited to one build and one character.. Is the scope so narrow that it negatively impacts the potential success of the game? Will battles be comprised of mainly meta builds.. completely devoid of some archetypes altogether? Will battles be limited in tactics due to narrow scope of builds utilized by the playerbase over time?
Would it be wrong to compromise here as the player is limited to a single character? Allowing players and tactics some flexibility in regards to equipment while sacrificing something?
No, keep one character per account. It seems everyone has become so comfortable in other mmo's/games where you can decide, on a whim, to completely change your character, make a new one, reroll, whatever it may be without consequence. Why should you be able to in MO2? Why should you have the ability to be a badass mage one minute and a beefy great sword wielding bastard the next? And on top of that, you want to have additional characters strictly to craft everything you need? Did you forget this is a HARDCORE MMO? It's not supposed to be easy, you shouldn't have the ability to do everything by yourself and you shouldn't be able to play switch playstyles without any consequence or set backs.
Maybe it's just me but I like playing difficult games and this game is meant to be difficult. If you wanna completely change your character, start over.
Is difficult the right word here? What your describing, while exaggerated.. just sounds limited to me. I'm all for compromise, maybe even some sacrifice.. But if a person kept at something long enough, is it unbelievable they would seek to expand their knowledge? Possibly, learn something new? In such a niche category of a game, should we really be seeking to narrow the choices when arguably unnecessary?