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We allow people to play multiple characters (although with strict restrictions on helping one char with another) and that does help keep people interested - it takes time to play one character in every class up to high level legend.
One thing we have going for us though is that our classes are all very different - and a design requirement for a new class is that it really should do something new. No 'red mages' with different damage messages for the existing spells, or whatever. This means that playing 5 or 6 different characters up to very high level is not repetitive - and in fact just within some classes there is such variety that people have played 3 or 4 characters of that one class to legend.
It was noticable for example when we added necromancers, or even when we completely revamped warriors, a lot of our old players stopped logging on occasionally to chat and started logging on to play again.
Some of our 'power' players have 30+ characters, with 10 or more at legend.
(To explain - we have level 1->19 as normal levels then 20->29 as legend levels, once legend you can never drop down to mortal again)
Another thing as mentioned previously is the constant expansion and new areas. In particular we are doing 'legend monsters' which are more intelligent monsters, or mobile monsters or even massive multi-room monsters. (Or in the really deadly cases all of the above).
One of the latest ones just in final testing now is an Elder Wyrm a mile long, capable of devouring grazing animals whole and smashing even legends into the ground beneath its feet. That keeps people busy for a while, and (if they survive) the kill is worth a lot of xp.
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