Let's not forget how boring NWN was as a game engine.
Here's the problem. Like most erstwhile single-player game makers, the EQ people have made the mistake of thinking that playing against the game = playing the game.
Wrong.
Level caps are CRITICAL. The ideal game has a level cap that allows you to max yourself at about the same time that you have finished leaning all the basic game mechanics. That time period should be about 3-5 months. No more, and conceivably less.
Once you max, you concentrate on the true skill of playing the game, which is ONLY necessary against other players - all AIs are stupid). And, you concentrate on role play and community building.
Now you DO want the game variable to continue to have SOME part in actual play, or else you might as well just be sitting in an empty room with other people.
Games need to:
1) Provide a strategic set of rules and options for game play. The idea is to provide a complex set of rules that involve a real learning curve in discovering how to APPLY your powers an ability.
2) MAX OUT after a reasonable learning period so that human interacton (the ONLY long term interest in any game) can truly begin
3) Use AI as a SUPPORTIVE role in human interaction (such as NPC manipulation in old NWN fights)
I mean seriously, consider all the captivating strategic games that have survived for long periods. Chess, etc. They do NOT rely on the players always building towards having more options. They rely on players LEARNING TO USE their options as the captivation.
Nobody likes to lose a fight simply because if they'd spent a few more hours repetitively killing drones, they could have done better. It pisses people off, and the repetitive killing bores them.
BUT, if someone loses a fight because they made bad decisions, suddenly a light gleams in their eye, and they focus on becoming good. It's mentally challenging to involve yourself in, and learn a complex strategic game... it's boring and numbing to slam AI monsters... always will be for the forseeable future. AND, even if the NPCs were exceedingly smart, when you beat them... their reactions would be boring, and they wouldn't be hell bent on killing you back, and no sense of community would form, and you couldn't shoot the shit about the results of the fight, etc. etc. etc.
PLEASE HEAR ME IF YOU'RE PROGRAMMING A GAME - A GAME IS A SUPPORTIVE BACKGROUND FOR PEOPLE FORMING A COMMUNITY IN WHICH COMPETITION, COOPERATION, AND ANIMOSITY, AND AFFECTION OPERATE. A GAME IS NOT FUN AS THE FOCUS OF ATTENTION.
Ah well, that's enough babbling.
Hed