<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>The whole point of games online is that they're supposed to be persistent. If they really came out with a brand new PSO2 within this year that's the best sign that it didn't work. Granted, with consoles you can't just add an expansion pack as easily as computer, but I'd think they can at least try something like Capcom did with El Dorado Gate. Though I guess then you've the question, what will level 100 characters in PSO do in an expansion? Raise the level limit to 200? Then where will the level 50 player be?
I'd guess we'll be seeing more design issues rather than real gameplay changes. Anyone who played the first Diablo could've told you that dropping your weapon on the ground when you die wasn't going to work. The trading interface (or lack of) really doesn't work either. Might be wise to move to a server-side model, though then again, Starcraft survived fine even though it was hacked to hell and it's a competitive game, whereas PSO is not. Server-side model means more stress and overhead and usually means more lag, though I really don't think with the # of DCs around you'd ever have a situation as bad as, say, BNet Realms. Granted you can always buy smaller servers, but I'm sure there's some kind of minimum size those things come in.</div>