So..Now what?

This is a topic that I'm sure has been broached before and will no doubt earn me a few downvotes, but hear me out before going for the knee-jerk reaction.

Once you're at level 60, once you've ground out a T6 ship, once you've run through every single Episode... Then what are you supposed to do?

I know that ultimately, all MMOs are just grinding for better gear. But that's a highly reductionist stance, as the issue is more nuanced. Many successful MMOs are built around simply getting better and better gear. In STO, that's the expectation, to get gear, and then upgrade it apparently.

But then what do you do with it? In FFXI you needed that better gear because without it you would never survive a God-Fight. In WoW you needed that gear for Raiding. In STO you gear up so that you can...run the exact same PvE content you previously ran, only on a harder difficulty setting? That doesn't make sense. The current meta game of DPS as the new PvP holds no interest to me, and is obviously highly frustrating to a vocal portion of the playerbase.

And considering the gear is not a visual component, there is one less reason to bother despite the emphasis on Space Barbie as a viable end-game occupation.

I don't have all elite amazing gear, but my Fleet Qin Flight Deck Raptor is nicely geared out and my Orion Tactical can bring some ground pain as well. I'm not complaining about the combat mechanics nor the ground fighting. Merely what is the point of it all? The game was broken into space and ground when I started at launch, but now it's split between active and passive gameplay, you either are playing or you are playing pseudo spreadsheets with the reputation, admiralty, and doff systems. They're fun for a moment but ultimately detract from the gameplay. Once my alt reaches level 11, I never have to play it again since I can just log in, update their Doffs, and hit 30 in a few days without even playing. I can hit 50 without bothering to upgrade gear at all. The grind from 50 to 60 isn't awful, but once you unlock admiralty at 52, again alts practically level themselves.

So then if there is no real endgame to speak of, then why is leveling so unbelievably easy? I returned to STO about 6 weeks ago after leaving in 2012, and managed to take 3 characters to level 60 in that time and 3 more into their 30s. That's with highly casual play and mostly emphasizing a single main character, as I am not an altoholic. That main, who I foolishly made KDF, has nothing left to do but run versions of the same episodes over and over, the same PvE queues, and to hang out with creeps on Risa. (sorry creeps on Risa, but you know you're creeps...nice creeps though)

I still feel that STO isn't so far gone, but after 6 years there could be an effective Raid system which isn't the same content from level 50 with the difficulty notched higher. As it is, I see no reason to be forced to spend $20-$30 for a ship with no destination. Maybe the PWI money grab model is to blame. Maybe the changing hands has stunted true growth. But I do not see a solution on the horizon. Console access? Without even sharing servers? More of the same, no solutions, no fixes. I know that the STO team is a small one, and some solutions are difficult to enact, but when the fundamental goal of any MMO, to achieve max level and run through endgame content with the earned friends, is completely missing, it seems that should be the emphasis.

Instead, much like Delta, the impending AoY will encourage more alts, starting over with a fresh toon to run through content, instead of promoting challenging content for existing characters.

Best of luck though.