Something I've noticed is that on the voting pages, there's only us and one other low-rate (y'all know which one I mean) that seems to be in the top 10. Other than that the servers are either high or super-high rate, or have 3rd job classes, or both. A lot of people would rather play high or super high rate because they're too lazy to level on a low rate.
As for the other low rate, there are a few reasons I think they rate so high. One is that they monitor their votes, and voting affects the exp level rate and the rate for gaining what is basically ad credits. Two is that they have 13.3. Three is that you can earn ad credits in game by playing minigames and killing certain monsters (which monster changes periodically). This leads to four, you can get MVP cards a lot more easily; forget the MVP, just play minigames.
That got me thinking. We have battlegrounds, which reward players with badges which they can then use to get some pretty decent gear. However, battlegrounds are for level 80+. What if we had some games
anyone could play that also offered badges as prizes, and an expanded catalogue to choose from that included headgears and cards lower than $5 from the item shop? Or something like that. Make it a little easier for newer players to get gear that will help them.
I know when I started Val and I ran into a social guild called Eternal Snow (the Eternal in Eternal Moon is a tribute to them) and they gave us things like 50k and uncarded but slotted gear to help us get started. They gave me a 24k sword that I then went and foolishly gave away not realizing what it was worth, but hey, I helped another newbie and I love doing that. The point is, anyone can help a newbie, even non-trans chars who aren't very rich. I know I go through my kafra each time a newbie asks for advice on levelling to see if I have any extra stuff I'm not using, like the AoA I gave a little 24 archer a couple months ago; she joined EM and is now a level 50 high archer, which just warms my heart. =)
