As I've played Glitch and loved it. I can say that I've just about reached the limit of what's fun in the game as it stands currently. It has a great intro, and buildup, but very little end game fun. It will keep most players happily busy for about 30 hours of playtime. After that, there's just no motivation (other than the social aspect, which is good, but removes the layer of playing a game).
I think something that is missing from Glitch is a better challenge curve. Most games should be easy at the start, to draw players in, give them rewards, keep them interested in the growth and progress of their characters. As the game progresses the level of difficulty should rise and rate of character growth should drop. Most importantly, this change should be non-linear. The potential of Glitch is that when someone reaches a level of challenge and growth that they're comfortable with (that is fun for them) they can camp there for a while and keep playing, or take on further challenges and reach farther. Currently, Glitch is missing this dynamic.
I think where Tiny Speck has some low-hanging fruit that can most easily be harvested to make this happen is in the SKILLS area. The skill table (though designed to be lovely and engaging) is really only one layer deep. Yes, progression in a skill's area allows you to harvest more, use less energy, and occasionally do something unique - but it is fairly shallow. There should be more unique things you can do the further down a skill path you travel (more user generated items, harvesting/planting unique things, special minerals/gems, etc). The things in the world of Glitch (food, eggs, materials) could be more dependent upon user manufacturing/growing/harvesting. Truly making the skills necessary for the building and enhancement of the world of UR.
This can be done in many creative ways. Another methodology of keeping the game engaging for a longer period of time is to make the skills more exclusive. Instead of having a lvl 25 glitch who's mastered every skill - force some level of specialization. One, it makes the game more interesting and challenging. It also forces people to work together and rely more heavily on other players as opposed to being completely self-sufficient, or relying entirely on vendors. It increases player buy-in and gives them a sense of ownership and contribution in the world (Ur). It doesn't have to be exclusive either (as many players would complain). Once you start down a skill path, perhaps it would make an opposting skill path exponentially more difficult to learn. Or you could only specialize in one skill path at a time (having to go to a central place to change skill paths). Or alternately create specializations allowing you to learn all of the skills on one path, but restricting you to only learn up to level 3 on other skills paths. Doing this increases the value and reward of the skills paths as well as creating some great sub-cultures of supply and demand.
For these things to work and flourish though, the worth of the individual skills must also deepen. In other words there must be more of a reward to learning a new skill. It must allow you to do more and have more unique benefits (whether they be unique user-created items, allowing you to harvest a necessary ore that was unavailable to harvest before, grow a plant that can only be planted by certainly level skill, etc) - and these skills should be challenging to learn!
These things will not only extend the life of the game, but make it more challenging, without alienating casual players. One of the greatest dangers of these types of games is giving the players too much too soon. It creates a big short-term win, but fails to provide long-term loyalty, buy-in, and extended playability. I understand that in beta testing everything must be accelerated to allow the test to really explore every part of the game, but I hope that these issues of depth, player contribution, and player development will be more balanced with a launch.
Why? Because I have greatly enjoyed playing Glitch. I want to see it thrive and create a really great gaming culture and community. However, as is, I have pretty much reached the limit of what serious content the game has to offer just in the last part of the Beta period. I will enjoy doing it again from scratch, but it will not hold attention for long if it doesn't gain depth.
Thank you Tiny Speck for giving me the opportunity to Beta test Glitch and to provide you with my thoughts and feedback.