Overall, I'd say I agree with most replies here, and its encouraging at least to see a generally confident (or at minimum, more hopeful than not) community.
I'm clearly very new to CoE, but hardly new to the world of MMORPGs, development timetables and forum discussions on the same, so I'll offer an opinion of my own, even though I don't have much background in CoE.
Basically, it comes to this: At the 50,000 foot-level, the current level of detail and in-game assets that have been made available, makes sense for a game that is sort of being built inside out, or back-to-front, versus a more traditional model. The commentary from development and "insiders", perhaps for lack of a better term, seems equally compelling and has a ring of legitimacy that I think provides the confidence most here seem to have - and that's good. The danger though, as I see it, is that things don't live long at the 50,000 foot level. At some point, you've got to bring it down, even if just for a bit, and let your audience (or community) breath......or it will suffocate, and next thing you know, your community is a collection of jaded hopefuls and disappointed malcontents. I don't see any real evidence of either here, not really, so again, that's good - but are the developers paying attention to how much oxygen is left to fuel that community confidence? Although you can argue about the why and wherefores that, for now, account for the recent lack of material in-game content, those arguments (like communities living at 50,000 feet) run out of steam unless you inject a dose of "stuff" once in a while. You've got to bring the level down a bit occasionally - 10,000 feet - get a bit more granular, detailed and content specific - let the community catch its breath and recharge, re-energize - its like a booster shot, inoculating the community against impatience and disillusioned frustration.
SO - while I understand the whys, and can even sign-on with the general high confidence, I do wonder if the developers are risking community hypoxia, by focusing too much on the way they want to do things in the long run, rather than what they've managed to accomplish so far.
Treozen.
