Hehe, I'm curious.
When you first started Mabinogi, how did you feel about dying/living and your skills?
When you first hit total level 100, how did you feel about your strength, was the world fun?
When you first hit total level 1000, how did you feel about the game?
At your current level, how do you feel about the game, your current strength, and what you lost/gain from your newbie days?
I guess I'll answer too.
1. When I started I absolutely hated dying, but this was is my first MMO so I died a lot... It didn't help that my internet sucked and I was rubber-banding all the time, I had never heard of Nagle either before playing...
My method of fighting was to spam normal attack -> die -> respawn in town -> return to continue spamming normal attack...
Every level was a great accomplishment for me, even reaching level 20 off of gray foxes was amazing (even to other people at this time lol). I decided to play as a life skiller\mage since I decided I was terrible at combat.
It felt like there was so much to do and so so many people to meet and talk to, everyone seemed so friendly.
2. The world was still fun and full of wonders for me at level 100, I had finally asked what those 'pots' things people always told me to bring along was; useful info!
I think around this time G2 came out and Hotglue\Biginkorea\BADEND went on a killing spree in all the major towns... People got to play hero and try to PKK the PKers; I just sat it out on the side. Seeing Zaki of Biginkorea try to fight a GM during one of his killing sprees in Tir was fun, though, would've been funner if they actually banned him.
My strength was subpar compared to most but I got all the main techniques down to the point where I beat Tabhartas with bare hands.
3. The game felt kind of depressing by 1k, it was clear Nexon did not care about the players, and there was so much drama and shady practices going on in the loli server. I kept trusting people and coming out worse for it, I left for a few months and came back just as one of my friends was getting stalked and harassed by someone we both used to trust and she decided to leave for another game. I followed her and didn't look back for a long time.
I was strong by this point, I was making 7+ million a week and leveling to levels that would've been considered silly back then but I lost my love for the game somewhere along the way.
4. As of now, I'm weak compared to everyone (even people less than 1\3 of my level) and Nexon may fail epically at times but I'm content with the game; I can find enjoyment here as long as I have even a few friends I can trust. I lost the starry eyed wonder as well as my faith in Nexon ever caring, but I've learned that even with uncertainties I can find some happiness here.
Everyday can be it's own adventure even if the future looks questionable; there's still so much to do and find out, there are still decent people around too, and now, even other players to teach.