My account is 18 years old. I played from late 2005 - 2008 with about 25 days play time.

I got my first 99 in November last year, after a 10+ year break with just a few sporadic nostalgia logins. I’ve gained 800 total levels and 4 99s since then. Play time is at 47 days now.

The game is soooo much easier now. There are many, many ways to gain xp faster and skills that were once hard are comparatively easy. From DXP weekend, to the abyss and ed3, safecracking, skill reworks, treasure hunter keys, xmas wrapping paper, keybinds, bank presets, AFK and mobile, and so many other small things, the cumulative effect is crazy. Plus I am not 12 so I am actually smart enough to figure stuff out.

To me it feels simultaneously novel and nostalgic. There is over a decade of new content to learn, but because I have the same account I also find things like notes I wrote as a kid, my terrible bank organisation, get to pick up quests I was halfway through and so on.

I think lots of long term non-maxed players have similar stories of dipping in and out and for many people this game simply isn’t a race.