I suppose any time spent gaming is time spent unconstructively. Getting a gamer to spend time on your game relies on allowing them to feel like they are working toward something. We all know this is the point of leveling, upgrades, unlockables, etc. Before Brink, I played Killzone 3, which I still play for fun, and because there are more levels for me to reach, and more upgrades I can unlock. The infamous Call of Duty has a large multiplayer where a person can spend hundreds of hours leveling up, becoming prestige, and doing it again. Brink contains unlockables, upgrades, over a dozen customiable weapons, etc. It needs to in order to keep us interested and feeling like we have something new to do in the game.

The problem is that Brink, especially for a multiplayer-only game, is limited in its content. The level cap of 20 can be reached quickly. Once it is reached, any additional xp your character gains is lost. I assume the low cap is meant to encourage us to create multiple characters. However, once I get a character to level 20, I feel like I have no incentive to ever play as that character again since I can gain nothing from playing. It would be better if the xp was at least recorded. Killzone 2 had no upgrades after the General rank was reached, yet additional "hardcoe" ranks which take forever to reach are available afterwards to provide bragging rights to those who reach them. I would have liked if Brink had a level cap of 100 or so, but with no points provided after level 20. The point being you could still record your points and brag about your expertise.

With all the upgrades, it is not long before a player will sort the useful upgrades from the useless ones. Since upgrades are mostly passive abilities which make little difference in gameplay, the tactic presents little oppertunity for character development.

With all the weapons, it won't be long before virtually everyone finds the one weapon which has the best all-around stats and trots it. Ideally, weapons could all be considered powerful and useful for people with different playstyles. In Brink, you're at a disadvantage if you don't roll with a Carb-9 or a Balpdaun.

With only ten small and simple multiplayer maps, only a few days of play are needed before players begin to feel like they've done everything, again and again.

Multiplayer games need to provide a degree of content to fuel longevity. Brink is a brilliant game, but I doubt a game so small will keep a community around it for too long.