Hi, I'm Tydeus's friend, KAYNE_WEST. I'm just going to share my thoughts on the topic.
As a fairly new player (gen-1, 8.3 mil into 31) at about 70 hours into this character, I can tell you with certainty that I will not play the c-RPG mod any longer with the reductions on the XP bonus.
For what purpose was the XP bonus nerf put in place? To cut down on heirlooms? To cut down on rewarding those who play more often than others? For either of these two reasons, if you support either, you're fucking stupid.
1.)Cutting down on heirlooms:
First of all, heirlooms didn't mean too much before. Let's be serious here, I'm fucking horrible, yet I would rape some kids with heirlooms. Case in point: Watching Rhade in the battle server. Pretty sure he isn't rolling in gen-16 looms.
Second of all, were they not nerfed heavily with this patch? Damage, whatever else got fucking buffed with looming, pretty sure it all got lowered. They were also indirectly nerfed with double-slots and upkeep increases. Maybe not by a lot, but this stuff adds up.
2.)Rewarding those who play more.
LOL.
Was trying to cut rewards to those who play more a serious reason? You do know that's at the heart of every MMO, even more so for every MMORPG, yes? Better yet, it's at the heart of every game. As someone who was still riding that grind pony to his first retirement, I had no problems with the next guy being gen 10. Gen 12. Gen 16. And seeing them retire every 2-3 days. In fact, that drove me to play more. I wanted that. Fuck the heirlooms. I wanted to be able to experiment with builds, try hybrids, try cavalry, try archery. That has been robbed from every low gen player right now. For myself, it is no longer a possibility.
The change in XP simply decreases the possibilities of fun, and widens the gap between the rich and Poor Richard.
I did not get raped because the guy had looms, I got raped because he's better.
I did not get raped because he can retire faster, I got raped because he's better.
In an RPG, you have to have something to build towards, to strive after. With these changes, I have a better shot at this in a Korean MMO. I'm pretty sure that's not the direction this game wants to be taking.
EDIT: Fixed my Engrish.