I'd end up playing here regardless what the rates are. However, if I was able to chose from the given 5 options I'd pick anything besides x1. Perfectly working server or not, leveling a character for what must now be 200th+ time is a chore. I can see the appeal of taking it slowly and really enjoying the experience, but I don't understand the necessity to behave as if this is the first time playing the game for so many of us, which I would gladly debate isn't the case.
Regardless what the Staff decides, I hope that they don't bind us down to simply x1. For those of us that have no interest in looking at every flower, reading every piece of text and farming mobs for hours on end, with what can only be described as miserable respawn timers; I hope we're given some sort of a alternative, even if it is just x2.
Seeing as the choices are 1-or-something-else, I suppose that voting for any option implies that we're fine with x1. But as for now, there are 195 votes for x1 and 204 votes seem to be saying they're fine with x1 but that they would like some sort of a alternative to, a notion which I'm a part of. Although, I kind of messed up in that I didn't notice this was a multiple choice poll before it was too late. I voted for 1-3 as I believe that that is the optimal range. None of these rates, even if you picked the highest(x3), would get you to 60 in a frame of time that anyone with a sane mind would refer to as "very fast", yet it is undeniably faster then what the fanatics seem to have in mind. Which, one could argue, is no more then fair if you've been at this for 10 years and it's grown old.
The reason I called it "the optimal range" is because it is a happy middle. And when I'm saying this, I'm not thinking of my own time investment in the game, because, as I've already said, I will most likely end up playing here for a couple of years. Whether it takes me 1 month or 3 months to get to 60 isn't a major concern to me. What I'm focusing on with this statement is the future. I feel that having a alternative to x1, so long as it's not lower then x1, is a great way to bring around those that x1 is a complete "no-no" to, to join in and play.
I assume some would argue that this would be going against what "Blizzlike" is. I would argue that it hardly matters how Blizzlike a server is if people are leaving at a higher rate then what people are joining. A counter argument to this would be to point out the very obvious: "There's a x1 server I know that's doing just fine!".
Well, that can be debated rather easily: The-server-that-shan't-be-named-cuz-forum-rules is like that one guild on every server you've ever been on, regardless version, the guild that has the reputation of being the best, even if sometimes it's not. There is a reason why that guild doesn't run out of people, while every other guild seems to be struggling with active population, because they absorb people from guilds that are considered lower in the standing. That guild might disband, due to GL quitting, communication breakdown in higher ranks, but oddly enough it's never because they run out of people. Same thing.
If possible, even if it is just x2, it'd be great to have an alternative. Which I think is also in the best interests of the server itself, but that is just a calculated assumption on my part.
Ultimately, some will have the motivation to do what they've done a couple of hundred times already, once again, others will lack said motivation. So I suppose that it will eventually come down to what the Staff feels about this. My bet is that it will end up being x1. A rather unfortunate conclusion but the one that is most probable.
Nim