31/1 - Characters' max level is increased to 250!

he reward for hitting level 200 is a pat on the back and a small sense of personal achievement.

In my opinion, that only comes to these days. After... hmm, maybe the first 100 people reached level 200 in a server (and I'm probably stretching it) hitting the level cap lost any purpose, but before that it can be argued that its reward was in being among that group of 100 people that reached it first. Here is where I agree with KhainiWest, what made that anything special was that it was supposed to be set in stone, so even if you quit the game, the players coming and going through it would see you among that group, regardless if they thought of it in a derogatory way or not.

In a way I could say reaching level 200 has never had a reward, the reward was in reaching it first/among the first ones. For example in a race, noone cares about anyone below 3rd place, even if there are 1000 people running I bet you no one cares about anybody above the first 100. I agree there's nothing else to reaching lvl 200 than a personal achievement reward, which could also be found each time you level up

Now with this change, what is being taken away is not the reward of reaching level 200. but the acknowledgment of being the first ones to reach it. This is why I said earlier that the only thing to discuss about this change is how those that reached it first get screwed over all their work, and those with motivation to go for it get another chance.