[plamzi]

What's an example of "special items that aren't worth having more than once"? To me, it seems like an item that's not worth having 'more than once' is not worth having 'even once'. The only context where I can think of such an item existing is a game that allows only one character, with all unique eq slots, saves eq, and disallows all item trading?

"But if players can advance through repeatable content, they will bot."

To me, this statement cuts extreme in two ways. First, it make it sound like everyone will bot any repeatable content, which is simply not true in my experience. Second, it sets up a situation where, if you want to prevent botting, you have to aim at a game with no repeatable content at all. That's because if the only way to advance is via non-repeatable content, there's no point in having any other kind of content. To me, a game with only non-repeatable content is a linear game. True, no-one cares to bot these, but also hardly anyone cares to stick around after they've run through the content once.

I agree with most of your individual points but I think we need much finer strokes if we want to draw useful conclusions and recommendations. This is a complicated subject with no universal recipe and, one can argue, no solution we can point to in the real world. All you have is a bunch of levers that you tug this way and that and observe the effects in your particular game. But when you tug one lever, all the other levers shift in different directions...