This is, in large part, due to the fact that I played Everquest and City of Heroes before playing WoW, but it seems Blizzard is keenly aware of the leveling curve as they add levels. I know that they cut down the amount of exp for 60-70 during beta testing for BC. What I saw in the beta was higher than what went live. They also reduced the experience required to level from 20-60 (or 30-60?) and also increased the experience you get from quest rewards. It used to be that level 58-60 quests gave around 5500-6500 experience as a reward. I was getting more than that at level... 40?... this time around. They also increased the experience rewards from most Outland quests recently.
I expect that a few months after WotLK goes live, they'll further trim the amount of experience you need in order to get from 60-70 and possibly even boost experience rewards a bit more, then a few months after that as they prepare for their next expansion, they'll boost quest rewards in WotLK. It wouldn't surprise me that at some point they'll let people start characters at level 30 or 40 once they meet certain requirements (ie, a level 70 character on one server).
Compare this to Everquest, where the leveling curve was already painfully steep, and where their version of talents are points that can be accumulated by earning them the same way you earned normal experience... by killing mobs over and over and over and... As I understand it, only relatively recently did they make it so that gaining experience and alternate ability points didn't require grinding out experience until you fainted. CoH has a bit of a steep leveling curve, but it didn't help that the game itself became very repetitive and boring very quickly. Ding, level 35! Go into this warehouse and defeat these mobs. Now go into this cave and defeat these mobs. Now repeat that warehouse/cave instance forty or fifty times. Great, ding level 36! What, I have to run those same scenarios AGAIN? And even more times? And I won't see a different type of instance for another three levels of this? *weep*
I just don't understand how we put ourselves through that, time after time. *shudder*
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