[kohl]

A few things that stood out from Brad's post~

Originally Posted by Aradune Mithara

I think the biggest things that are hurting the game right now are:

1. Performance. We simply asked too much of the engine.

So the quandary here is that the engine isn't designed to do what VG is trying to do. Therefore, it will never be truly optimized. This means you are simply hoping that new, emerging technology will be able to "brute-force" acceptable performance out of the game.
How are players supposed to do basic things like have an ingame celebration or have holiday events (Christmas, etc) involving lots of PCs/NPCs in one location?

Originally Posted by Aradune Mithara

2. Underpopulated servers. The reason we are enhancing the LFG system (other than it's always a good idea in general) is because it's too hard to find a group. One of the biggest reasons it's too hard to find a group is that we were overly worried the newbie yards would be over populated the first couple of weeks post-launch that we opened with too many servers. That's why we are working on better LFG tools, having to seriously consider overland teleports, etc. If a world at peak hours had 4-5k people on it, this wouldn't be nearly the problem it is.

Even on a populated server, LFG is always an issue. I'm not sure how even the best LFG tools can solve the problem of not enough players being around.
Regardless, I will say that the meeting stones in WoW are a real godsend. I'm sure people will disagree, but the fact is - once I've put together a group of players for an instance, the ability to summon people who are really far away or bring in a replacement (with some acceptable inconvenience) takes unnecessary tedium from the game.

Originally Posted by Aradune Mithara

Relatively quickly, player run towns with an RTS element, ship and mounted combat, Diplomacy expanding to become more integral with factions, organizations, etc., user generated content, and so much more are really going to make this game shine.

"Relatively quickly", followed by more over-the-top hype. Physics cards, RTS elements, ship combat? "Relatively quickly"?
I realize you guys have a lot of long-term vision for the game and there is nothing wrong with sharing some of that, but speaking the way you do about all of these grand visions would probably best be served once you can point to solid and tangible improvement in the core game that launched.