Golden Girl

And the 1-20 content was first announced about 2 years ago

In that case, they would have been planning it before they even started planning GR

They were planning that back in 2009?

So when do you think they made the change to reduce it to only 1-20?

The content was planned to only be 1-20 right from the start

So do I - it's an awesome expansion of the game world, and it delivered a huge amount of new lore - it was the launch pad for first part of the Incarnate storyline, which has let the devs tell a more in depth invasion story than the 2nd Rikti invasion.

It does, but it's letting you make the first move.

And what parts do you think were rushed?

Just so as you know in advance, level pacts are being disabled once I21 goes live

This is a comicbook game

And we get to beat up the ones who go too far - just like Heroes help Longbow, but also beat up the ones who become vigilantes

The heroic option is to save the people there and set them free from the evil grip of Tyrant and the loyalists - guess which option the game is giving us?

It's why Tyrant claims he's helping Primal Earth by invading it

Well, going by the repeatable faction contacts in First Ward, so do the game mechanics - anyone flagged as Resisatnce can also access the Hero contact there, and anyone flagged as loyalist can access the Villain contact - but Resistance players can't access the Villain contact, and loyalist players can't access the Hero contact - but that could just be another one of those "bugs"

And as for the contacts for the "neutral" zone storyline, the 1st is a sorceress from the Carnival of Light, the 2nd is a woman whose group are allied with the Resistance, the 3rd is an ex-loyalist guy who's joined the Resistance, the 4th is a woman who's a former unwilling servant of the empire who's now working against the loyalists, especially Mother Mayhem and the Seers, the 5th is an old shaman who's friendly with the Carnival of Light, the 6th is a wizard who works with the Carnival of Light, the 7th is a crazy but rather pathetic wizard who ultimately does something very good, and the 8th is Vanessa DeVore, the guiding force behind the entire Resistance movement, whose masterplan, according to her new bio, is to get the Wardens to take over the government form the inside.

By the end of the storyline, the player has helped the Resistance strengthen its position, and stopped the in-fighting that was endangering the fight against Tyrant and his loyalists

That means that if lesbian catgirl farmers ever evolved, they would crash any server they appeared on.

Fixed for accuracy

I thought red side players wanted to be "glamorous", and have grand plans to increase their power?

I thought that kind of mindless killer was the type a lot of red side players wanted to get away from?

And what is your reward at the end?

Here's a clue - there's only one zone storyline, so that means it's co-op - so it's heavily leaning towards Heroes/Resistance

Games based on PvP always attract more players who like being villains
Fore xample, in the well-known superhero IP MMO that crashed this year, the populations on the PvP servers are actually split slightly in favor of villains.
I think it'd be quite interesting to see the pre-GR split of PvPers here - I think it'd be a lot closer than the 60-40 PvE split

You'll find First Ward just as disappointing then
Although unlike the RWZ, there are some repeatable faction contatcs there - so Vilalins/loyalists can still run missions themed to their morality, even if the actual zone storyline ignores them.

We do - we sometimes have to team with Recluse's little helpers

You need to edit your sig

I guess you'll find First Ward as a big slap in the face then