Regarding the whole poopsocker argument. Yes currently you have to run AK 50+ times if you want all the best gear right now to run the raid dungeon (technically you don't because there are other 50 dungeons that give comparable amounts of seals, and you don't need full DL gear to run primals, etc, but hey let's spout so everyone else has to suffer like poopsockers did). But 2.1 will be coming fairly soon, and a lot of the content being added, they have been working on since before launch, so I'm not too worried there. I'm sure there will be other ways to also gear up. Anyways, the people who are taking their time will be getting 50, doing some gearing up/finishing story etc, and boom we *should hopefully* have 2 new dungeons, and a 24 man raid that is duty finderable. There will be more shit to do, and more ways to gear up. This is why I don't mind taking my time and enjoying the game rather than burnout/skip all the story content, to get to the endgame which is not that amazing yet. The ball is in SE's court now. People like their game and want to keep playing it. Now they need to keep delivering content to keep the subs around. Whether they do or not is anyone's guess.
To people comparing this to WoW though, let's get real here. WoW has what, 4 expansions under it's belt? Do you remember when WoW came out, literally, 1.0. Do you REALLY remember, without rose-tinted glasses? There was running UBRS 500 times for a felstriker. There was running UBRS/Strat a hundred times to get all your dungeon set. And this was without a dungeon finder. Having to sit in Org spamming shout 2 fucking hours between runs. And without a proper loot system, so everyone could need on your shit, and if ML was set, you always had some fucker who would ninja or give to his friends the loot on the chance that you did get a rare drop of Felstriker, or even some shit like the life leech sword in strat, BoE set pieces, etc. That shit was straight up broken. There was no battlegrounds. There was no other shit to do. There was Tarren Mill all day, or run the same fucking dungeons over and over. And then, this was all to gear up to a broken MC that didn't even have proper loot, and Onyxia who was broken.
You know why people didn't leave? Because what else were they going to play? You could argue that they didn't want to go back to EQ. But the main reason why, is because the large majority of players weren't at MC levels. They were leveling up and enjoying the good content at the estimated pace when developed. When they got to max level and did a few dungeon runs for dungeon gear, MC was tuned and itemized, Onyxia was doable, and around the time they were finishing up MC, BWL was launching. The ones that weren't raiding and just hitting cap, had Battlegrounds come out. It was staggered to the needs of the majority of the players. The 1% had burnt up the content in the first couple months, and quit, only to come back every patch like they always do. MMO's are not made for the 1% anymore. It's not worth the dev time to cater to them, because you realistically cannot make enough content for them to keep them subbed, without having cockblocks to which they then vocally rage about. Which is why they just get hard modes. Which will be coming in 2.1 here anyways.
Just some fun facts for those with rose-tinted goggles. WoW launched Nov 2004. Over the next 6 months, added 2 non-endgame dungeons, Mauradon and Dire Maul. Battlegrounds came June 2005, 7 months after launch. Finally July 2005 we got our 2nd raid, BWL. 8 months later.
And thus why I don't poopsock anymore. It's like going to a banquet, a poopsocker getting his salad, shoveling it in his face, and then slamming his fists on the table yelling because he wants the second course which isn't ready yet, while everyone else is still enjoying their salad, socializing while eating, etc. Everyone just gives him some looks, but whatever. Then his streak comes, and he does the same thing. Shovels that bitch into his mouth so fast it's a miracle he didn't choke to death. And then again, he screams out loud making an ass of himself, while people are just taking their first bite literally. Then to make matters worse, the poopsocker jumps up on the table and starts kicking people's plates off the table and yelling at them (while spitting food from his mouth) for enjoying their salads/steaks. He calls them retards and worthless casual fucks, because they should be up in arms at the chefs like he is, and everyone should just leave now with him because the desert isn't even fucking ready yet. And if someone didn't quite finish their salad, and intended to go right into their steak, lord help them. As they are called a fucking drag on society for not conforming and finishing all of their salad first before starting their steak, like the poopsocker originally did, even though they paid the same price to get in the door. He suffered through it, therefor they must also suffer. There is a reason the hardcore get such a bad rep. The majority just want to enjoy their meal without some antisocial douchebag screaming out loud and telling them what they should and shouldn't like, while they are trying to eat. Cmon, it's a fucking video game. You like it or you don't, you sub or you don't. Yes it's fun to burn through the content fast so you can have a big epeen and show you are better than everyone else (at a game), but don't expect everyone to feel sorry for you and buy into your "there is nothing to do in this game" because you poopsocked 2 months of content in 3 days.