WoW is an EQ clone and as such continues to funnel people towards raiding as the only endgame. Ultimately this just pushes people away as the price of a raiding endgame is making all other styles of play vastly subordinate to raiding.

Hero classes will be another wasted opportunity to actually innovate with a non-raid elder game. Much like heroic dungeons non-raiders were hoping for a lot more. Alts are not an answer for the most part. Mainly because one of the hooks to these games is developing a character that you don’t want to leave. CoX may be fun to play at low levels but I for one didn’t have an problems walking away from my characters and this is particularly because I didn’t have the invenstment and sense of accomplishment with any one of them. CoH offers a new class unlocked at max level but again I didn’t have it as the opportunity to reroll isn’t what I am after.

Hopefully by the time death knights roll around blizzard will be feeling the pressure caused by other good options from you folks

Just because you’re casual and an altaholic doesn’t mean you can’t get to 70.

I’ve been playing CoH on and off for three years now, and have several toons in the 40s but no 50 yet. I think Scott hit it halfway on the head, the lower level content, and lower level characters are actually fun to play. There are a large number of combinations of primary/secondary powersets that are appealing either in concept, or for the powerful synergy they have that make people want to play that sort of character. Altitis is easy in that game because anything you end up playing will probably be fun ( though I don’t like most defenders or blasters as much ) and because there are so many options to choose from. As for the steep leveling curve after 30, I think it really only gets to be a grind after 35ish … but different people have different tolerances I guess. If you manage to find a team that meshes well, you can actually make fast fun exp at any level – which is how I managed to get my Ice/Storm controller to 47 a while back.

One thing I do see though is a lot of people with a lot of lvl 50 characters, who are playing low level alts. I think there is a third segment of the population who play intensively but don’t limit themselves to one “main” character. I think most of these guys have engaged in some sort of powerleveling to manage their high level toons, which doesn’t appeal to me at all – but I have a friend with 5 lvl 50s who just ground them all out. He’ll get it into his head that that character is going to go to 50, then he’ll put in the hours to do it. Then he takes a 3 month break to play EQ2 before coming back again

We’re hardcore-casuals :p — Play too many hours, and spend too much time on blogs/forums to be truly casual, yet not hardcore enough to get into pvp or raids. Yet, often times, truly hardcore min/maxing about *something* – usually crafting in my experience.

Depends on if you’re a raider or a casual – if you’re a raider, the above are referred to as “casuals”, if you’re a casual, they’re referred to as “raiders.” Perhaps the best term for them is “people who actually enjoy playing games.”

Oh, and of course they’re referred to as “carebears” by hardcore PvPers and “gankers” by those who dislike PvP.

There are raiders.

There are casuals.

Then there are others – nonraiders who play as much as hardcore raiders yet do not raid. These people are likely to have alts; they are likely to enjoy a great deal of the game content. So, what is the name for these people?