Originally Posted by
Rathothis
Easy to elaborate.
Why does power progression motivate people to play? Because (i) it gives them something to show off, and (ii) it may allow them to do more difficult content, which they couldn't do previously (as they didn't have the gear, were too low level, etc).
Now,
(i) is something that can also be achieved by other means (vanity gear, achievement systems, titles, etc);
(ii) may be of relevance to a game like WoW, but isn't all that relevant to AoC due to the small team size and related slow development cycle.
Why does power progression make peope quit? Because (iii) it may give them the feeling that they cannot do sh*t, and that it would take them a lot of time and effort to finally be able to do said sh*t.
Now,
(iii) is very relevant to AoC on the PvP side of things, as most vets have a significant gear and AA advantage over new players.
Bear in mind that even WoW does a much better job at levelling the playing field. PvP is structured by arena seasons, which last for approx 6 months. Once a new arena season starts, the previous season's arena gear becomes available to casual players, which can buy that gear by grinding a rather limited number of battleground tokens. Also, even in PvE, gear advantages are reset by increases in the level cap.
So even if you support power progression in MMOs, AoC takes this to an extreme even compared to a grinder like WoW.
But back on topic. New AAs don't sound like a bad idea as long as they don't introduce any new bronze perks. Also, I'd hope for new silver / golden perks to be more situational than many of the must-have perks we have now. If they do it right, new AAs would not have a significant effect on balancing while allowing for some more flexibility than is currently the case.