The issue with levels in many games is that the game never really becomes more difficult, when im level 1, I fight a level 1 boar, when Im level 20, I fight a level 20 boar etc...both are just as hard for me to kill at the time and give me an amount of loot that I need at that time...sure later there are raids/bosses in some games, but if you made a raid dungeon for level 1 people it would be no more/less difficult than a level 1000 raid being done by level 1000's...anyway you get the idea.  Just seems a bit pointless..I just killed the blue butterflies in area one, now i have leveled up I can kill the Level 2 green butterflies...

I think form a PvE perspective a game should get more difficult as you go, not just scale up evenly as you level and then give you the same monster with a  different name tag and an extra 100 hit points.  You should need to apply some of the actual skills you have learned as a player to overcome the game later on, not just equip your glowing sword and other Phat loot and then hack at whatever it is you are meant to kill and bring it down in the standard 18 seconds using the exact same combo you used at the beginning of the game (I know it sounds like I am referring to wow (and I am) but there are a heap of other games out there that do this).

I dont mind levels but not when they are a pointless attempt to give you a false sense of progression.

Yep, most of the servers are dead these days, mostly becasue you have to download the PWC file which turns the casual gamer right off 'checking out' a server.

I have been playing this series for many years now and I think it has been a major point of contention when I play other MMOGs.

In Neverwinter 1 i played on persistent world server which was created and run by game owners using the tools provided by the developer.  The great thing about this is that the rules for roleplaying are set and enforceed by those who run the server and the amount of customisation and 'catering' to the players needs is amazing - ranging from a customised crafting system where the ONLY good items you can get on the server come from player crafters, making crafting very meaningful - right through to custom built guild halls for player factions including a thieves guild where players would literally make a connection there and go in to hire an assassin (a PC) to take out one of their rivals (another PC).  I think this kind of player interaction is what really made it good baecause the questing and leveling part was really not that great on persistent world servers.

Unfortunately Neverwinter 2 did not turn out so well in terms of the multiplayer system which means less people play the game but you can still get the same level of satisfaction on certain servers - they even have disguises which conceal you face and player name so you can set up robberies without people knowing who you are OOC!  It's a shame that MMOg are unable to replicate this as it is not to every players taste (and i'm sure left unmonitored a lot of griefing/ganking would happen) and would be too much work for Devs but I was just having a nostalgic moment and felt like posting this.

If anyone does still play NWN2 check out Tales of Moonsea http://www.talesofmoonsea.com/ which is one of just a few decent Hardcore RP servers left on NWN2

I dont get what is so bad about AOC?  - I'm L40 now so maybe I cant talk as I've not see a lot of it, and also all the 'terrible stuff' people mention I have never witnessed myself in the game, all my friends who play like it to..maybe we are all just retarded or have very bad taste in games!?!?...I have purchased pretty much every fantasy MMO that has come out in the last 3-4 years and it's way better than all of those....maybe it's just that people had all these inflated expectations and so they enjoy picking things apart when they did'nt get exactly what they dreamed?