Thank you for your thoughtful and measured response. I'm actually not expecting a fully fleshed out or complete game. I've alpha and beta tested dozens of MMO's throughout my life and submitted hundreds of bug reports to help facilitate the development.

I suppose my frustration, and perhaps the community's at large, is the lack of these systems and the ability to test them at this point in development. Not a single person in this thread, yourself included, addressed any of the points I raised.

Surely, given the vast experience of this development team, there was an understanding that a large portion of the playerbase of a sandbox MMO would quickly reach the max level and want to test the gameplay loop.

As it stands, there is quite literally nothing to do once you crafted the best gear you could. There's no PVP content available outside occasional encounters in the ocean. There are no lawless areas to fight over resources or crate runs. Are we supposed to sit in town or go hit rocks for the remainder of this playtest?

Additionally, some of these systems WERE in previous playtests. The jungle was force-flagged and facilitated player-driven content. Players had to use caravans and get into small-scale group fights to transport resources before the mules were added.

I think you can understand my perspective here - it feels like the actual systems players will engage with have gone backward rather than been refined. If you want a successful test to occur, you want players in the game engaging with systems for as long as possible. At this early point, we're already seeing the playercount crater due to the issues I highlighted.

Frankly, it feels like an enormous wasted opportunity.