PP pretty much sums it up. (a well thought out post? Well i never
)
I dont know if areana is the way to go as i think that a lot of things could be fixed and i would certainly be happy to go back to playing again. Not long after the wipe things were pretty fun and reasonably balanced and we were getting the numbers back but since then its just been a non stop whirlwind of change after change.
I'm not sure who said it (might have been pp) but after the wipe it was hoped that the staff would concentrate on finishing/improving the areas already there and getting the balance right, have more DM interaction but since then it just seems to have got bigger and bigger and a lot of the areas just arent visited or fun and 95% of the builds useless and the numbers sadly reflect it, i just dont see where the server is supposed to be going. I do and always have appreciated the efforts of the staff though no matter if I think thier decisions are wrong they always work towards what they think we wanted (i think).
Again as PP says outside shifters there isnt any point to making many other builds and i dont make shifters
while me monks werent world beaters they were fun for me to play and solo but now like nearly all other builds they are useless at lvl 40.
Good post PP
I do think that GvM has lost alot of its community spirit though and new players find it hard to engage with established vets when it comes to partying as usual everyone is obsessed with items rather than the fun/joining in aspect of the game.
Chaoz i hope your right but there are alot of alternatives to NWN (in the LOTR side) and its a very, very old game.