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But why stop at just adding more content? Why not add more depth instead? Add new systems that interact with existing ones, allowing for emergently complex behavior among the players and player organizations. Trying to keep players infinitely entertained with the old loot n' level mechanic is a losing battle. You can't make content faster than the eager little buggers can suck it up.
I mean, if this is all that entertained players, our company would have been out of business a long time ago. Our hack n' slash mechanics are crap. We've never bothered putting much effort into them. Granted, they're better than just typing "kill monster" but they're not very good. There's almost no equipment to be gained from killing monsters either so that equipment-collecting ladder doesn't exist to climb.
...And yet our average customer on Achaea plays 35% longer than an average Everquest account. Hard to pin down precisely why that is, but considering Everquest has just about the best loot n' level ladder around, it's pretty clear that you do not need to make that sort of gameplay the focus of your world in order to entertain players.
I really think it's all about orthogonal game systems rather than trying to tack on new content to a single game system. You can add new monsters and equipment forever, but not as fast as the players can consume that content. Of course, more content and more depth is the way to go, but if I had to choose one, I'd choose depth over content.
--matt
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