As a "veteran player" I can wholeheartedly say that this current version of cRPG is so much better than it used to be. It was great, it was great.
I have no idea what the turnover rate for new players actually was but I would put money on it being much higher back then than it is now (ie, how many new players actually played for a good time than left.) because of the just frankly, ridiculous peasant game.
There was no banner balance, there were tincan archers, there were insane builds, the exp system was good for what it was, it was fun, for a time but that time has passed and no matter how much people will look back, and I do, and think "heh, that was good, I enjoyed that a lot" it will never be the same.
I dislike the new exp system but I also disliked the old one, they've both got their annoying flaws and not everyone will like either of them, or any system for that matter. I'm not a high kill count player, I have mediocre skill and i've practically reached the top of my game with regards to equipment (going downhill in terms of actual skill) and therefore I would prefer a system based on how much you helped the team, be it through "saviour" moves (stop damage on an ally) or simply how much damage you caused to the opposition minus what you caused to your team.
If you look at all the big named games out there, Battlefield 3 for example since most people will have played it lately, their exp is based on what you do, you don't necessarily have to get kills to get high exp and nor does winning actually effect anything, they have multiple ways of getting exp depending on how you most want to play, be it reviving allies, fixing vehicles or just simply camping with a rifle and waiting for the unsuspecting fool 1000 feet away to walk into your scope.
Theoretically transplanting that into cRPG with what I can't say would be a light workload for the devs would give something that might be reasonable for all.
My personal view that wouldn't screw things up and would increase the amount of teamplay would be to reward people more than a multiplier does. Not by counting the number of kills that a player makes but by some value of how much impact he makes for both teams, whether or not it's to stop someone from murdering their ally, killing a high value target or just basically being plain lucky and surviving the odds on low hp till your team wins it out.
I have little idea of specifics past "saviour" and already done "teamplay elements" would be implemented and I would have to give a lot more thought to it but as general rule, the nostalgia I feel towards the old cRPG doesn't mean I want to see it's return, it means I have fond memories of that time, much like I have fond times of my 12th birthday party it doesn't mean I want to relive it even if it didn't mean (time to be not so subtle but it was the first thing that came to mind for obvious reasons) that today, 8 years on I have to work instead of playing pass the parcel.
In short, things have moved on, sure there is more room for improvement, maybe little bonus's with the exp system (which appears to be the main thing that people want back from the old days, or a more refined, edited version of it at the very least), i'm inclined to stay with my set hours of gameplay to reach a certain level and have a nice laugh with the community while dead instead of whining about how I could have done something different that running into the middle of the mob and getting my head cut off by someone.
This is a real big wall of text and I apologise for that, but if you take the time to read it then thanks but to paraphrase;
Nostalgia is memories of old times you enjoyed clouded by time to obscure some of the less desirable traits and it should stay in the past. Reliving it would be fun for a while but would ruin a good thing. New cRPG is much better than the old one.
