in truth, i like the raising cap alot, it gives me something to achieve, i started the game last halloween, and reached soft cap level (85) by the update, this update, i am in soft cap range at 143, i like the stretch of leveling, and being able to level more, indefinately
I believe there are better approaches to allowing character growth than just raising the level caps with every update.
I mean... In two-three years are we going to be grinding to level 650? I certainly hope not.
An example of continual growth without increasing level range would be the alternate advancement points of EQ1.
The nice thing about AA's was that characters could continue getting better and better but the advancement was significantly slower. This is important when considering new players just joining the game (think about the eventual introduction to android market)
When that mass of players joins all of us, they will be behind... Waaaaayyyyyyy behind. If they join the game and all of us are level 180, 200, 220 or whatever the cap happens to be at that time... they will be extremely discouraged from staying with the game. Catching up to us will seem nearly impossible. They won't be already committed to the game and therefor will not likely spend rl money on elixers to make it a less daunting task.
With AAs we will still be way higher level than them (because the level caps have already been drastically raised too many times) but not ridiculously so. Each time we earn AAs we get stronger but not as strong as we would become by earning a level (no stat increases, no skill points)
AAs increase character effectiveness in very unique ways such as:
Making characters run faster
Increasing innate resistances (poison, ice, armor, and such)
Increasing rangers weapon range
Allowing warriors to stun without shields
Increasing innate regeneration in or out of combat
So on and so forth... Basically, you can make the list endless and it's only limited by the imaginations of the developers. However, these AAs take as much time as your current level to earn and must be spent to earn these traits. Characters are then able to be specialized to certain tasks. Such as a warrior specializing in tanking abilities or DPS abilities.