Back in the early days towns were released every two weeks or so, and I have to say those were the best days on Graal I have ever had.(I'm sure the majority of old players will agree with me on that.)
The towns were not based on spammed hat shops or the same items with changed graphics. In fact we did not get the usual "the tv and awesome hat have been added to the graal hat shop".
The updates were meant for exploring.
then towers and guilds came out in february 2010, then the game rocketed. It was one of the greatest updates Graal has ever had, and it had me hooked. I would stay up late every night past like 2am just to hold towers.(sad I know)
A quest came out in April, it was awesome.
after June 2010 or so when Snowtown was released, thats when the game started to go downhill. The game become a giant hat shop and updates never had new things, just new looks.
Deadwood came out, it was a giant shop as well.
ctf came out, but it died quickly due to the greed of admins making us pay to play it.
then just graphics after that.