Yeah, its mostly the people on GK that are destroying it, not the lack of content or items or whatever the heck you want to insert in the blank. the majority of the players are powerplayers and their poser buddies who wish they could be "l337 pwners" too. And so these people go around making it hard for others to gain items (because they hoard them all for themselves
) and just generally create a sour, competetive and dull atmosphere where you can sit there and get PKed or try and be one of their lackeys. There isn't really a way to solve this; as satrek said, you can't just kick out all the PKers and non-RPers (Although i'd really really love to :'( ). Because of this, i reckon the level cap or the IWD removal thing doesnt sound like too much of a bad idea (although they're a little farfetched), because, think about it, you can strive to get to lvl30 (which, btw, is hard for the average player, chris...its taken me like two months to get to lvl23, and the same if not longer for a lot of other players who dont have powerplayer friends or already have sweet items that they have after resetting their character (Not saying you do personally though since i dont know anything about you)). Once at lvl30, you can go two ways:
-You can go "right, im going to be lazy and just PK others". this wouldnt be so bad because if the lvlcap is 30, then you aren't going to be massively more powerful than anyone else (due to hp restrictions and such) and so others have a chance of killing you too.
-You can go "Ok, i'm going to use the full potential of this server and try to fulfil it's real purpose, which is to help support and be a part of a fun, challenging and exciting
roleplaying community. I'll get enjoyment out of roleplaying, and from others roleplaying, instead of leeching out enjoyment from other players by causing them misery! I'll teach more how to roleplay so that i can have even more fun myself!".
HMMM, I WONDER WHICH IS THE BETTER OPTION??!"?!?"1"?!?£!?2?1?"?/!/1/2/!?"?!?"
Another option, which is a crazy idea of my own, would be to introduce a system where you can still level up, but levelling up won't increase your strength (either at all, or past a point like lvl30). This'd mean that those who play to level would still be able to do so, and could compete with each other to get the highest level and stuff, but it wouldnt mean that they have a godly advantage over low level players and couldnt spoil it for them.
The right honourable gentleman could say that this is bad because if you dont get stronger, how are you supposed to beat stronger monsters to get more experience? The answer to this is simple: dont have stronger monsters. Instead, you have monsters that are different from the others, and put them in dungeons and stuff that you can only access once you are at a certain level. the monsters in these areas would give more experience...
You could say "well, hold on, this'd mean its boring; there's no challenge in fighting monsters anymore". The answer to this is simple too. There isnt any challenge in killing really powerful monsters for you guys anyway. Killing brutal worms is as easy for you as killing battle mushrooms is to a level ten player with a bile+2 weapon.
I've probably blathered on for too long, and dont make any sense, but if you can decipher something from that, the feedback would be apreciated. Now im gunna go get some sleep. *slumps off, muttering curses about school*