Like pretty much anything in life, the rewards of CF come with time. Anything worth doing (and I think that the real question anyone needs to ask themself is: Is CF worth doing?) will only pay dividends over time. That goes for hackey-sacking, blackjack, and CF.

One of the things about CF that appeals to me is that it does have such a steep learning/achievement curve. There is a particular quest that I have never completed. I have spent six hours this weekend alone trying to solve it. Where some people might find only frustration, I am glad to have the depth of involvement that this sort of thing offers (and some frustration, to be honest.)

When I was a kid my dad taught me how to play chess, but he never "let the kid win." He would not try to humiliate me, but he pulled no punches. He's hardly a rocket-scientist, so I was able to eventually beat him, even though I was only eight or nine at the time. I think this is why I have always been drawn to unforgiving games, hello Carrion Fields. The point is that I would not have wanted him to let me win. What would have been the value in that? Anyone can do the New York Times Saturday Crossword with the help of Wikipedia. Finishing it alone is truly rewarding.

I started playing CF after an absence of many years because I was looking for a more forgiving environment than micro-limits online poker. The rewards there are fleeting, gone in a moment of distraction and the frustrations are a thousand-fold. Compared to the whips and chains of poker, CF is a massage and a mai-tai.

Also, keep in mind that despite the fact that the staff is small, rewards are there if you want them. When I rolled up Homard it was my main goal to please Thror and get his Tattoo. When I realized how long that was going to take, I focused on all the aspects of the character. The result was Sapper-Training/Quest Skill; Role-Contest Win/Third Legacy; Village Leadership; and finally, Tattoo. So, if an unskilled PKer with crappy game knowledge (I still don't even know where to get the stoneskin fillets) can get these rewards, what's stopping anyone?

The fact is that if someone is looking for instant gratification, there are literally tens of thousands of games to play. If someone has the luxury of investing time into a game and wants to see some depth to the gameplay, there are only a handful.

tl;dr: If being rewarded becomes an easy thing, it will lose its value. I suck and I can get rewarded, clearly you can too.