Discworld from a players point of view.

Players ususally come in three variations; Number-chasers, Roleplayers and a mix of both. Discworld does a good job of providing for all types... I should know, I'm all types :P

In the 8 years of playing Discworld I have never lost the desire advance my character in one of the many different aspects that the place offers... skills available... quests to find... places to visit... secrets to uncover... items... clothes... brews.. animals.. social intrigue.. politics. The place can be as complex as you like it to be. And the sociology has been nothing short of remarkable, until recently.

Discworld had in the past been very successful at balancing the sense of 'unlimited character development' with 'providing a constant challenge' to the player. Over the past couple of years this balance has slowly been tipping.

These days the balance is in a shambles as the developers seem to have gone overboard with their development. (Who could have believed such a thing was possible). There seem to be so many features available now to everyone, that Guild identities have been all but erased.

A character of any profession may cast almost any magic spell, go anywhere at a whim. Almost anyone can perform any Godly ritual and multi-playing rules have been all but lifted, creating an environment where anyone can be a self-sufficient demi-god and as is the case in such situations. More and more people are becoming self-sufficient demi-gods which in turn has a negative affect on the social aspects of the game.

There are no challanges anymore because there aren't enough restrictions. There are no Geographical restrictions. There are very few skill restrictions. Even multi-playing restrictions have now been removed. There isn't really any need to create new characters anymore, one character can do it all.

On the other hand, the Disc is a lot bigger now spanning over 10 million rooms and filled with thousands of unique npc's. It's just unfortunate that it's so hard to play the different aspects of the game, and socialize at the same time. These days you have to go out of your way to do so...it didn't used to be like that.