Recently returned but having trouble getting into post 99 content, please advise ...

[Jin_Uzuki]

In 2006, people still spent a significant amount of game time leveling.

You are right, and pretty much everywhere you went leveling there was competition, to the point people actually needed to discuss camping spots. Not only that, but every time you went NM hunting you had competition. Also Sky, even 2 parties doing sky could run into huge problems. Coffers/chests hunting? Huuuge competition. Crafting was also far much more competitive given that even if you level slowly you still had to deal with like... 10k+ players. Oh yeah, people had run schedule for Dyna.

In fact, the game in 2006 was far much competitive than now due to 1) Much more people around running stuff 2) Far less spots to do stuff 3) Lockdown and general difficulty to set up things meant people weren't spread in 360 directions like they are these days

Now please I want to hear about how you handled zoning into Aht Urhgan and finding 1000 ppl running around doing stuff. What about zoning into Crawler Nest and Garlaige cittadel and finding 2 parties exping any time? Or going zoning into Giddeus and finding 7+ people camping Hoo Mjuu the Torrent?

In fact, the game got much more less competitive with time. Compare Escha to Sky, escha actually allows several people to run stuff in parallel. Sure, there are more people running endgame but 1) Not everyone is running escha at the same time 2) 1000 people are actually very little in MMOPRG. You have people from Asura LITERALLY telling you that "competition" is not an issue and people still think Asura is populated like 2006 Crawler Nest. It's honestly kind of hilarious, I wonder what imagine people have of more "populated" servers in the mind. (especially given that populated servers don't even have 1/10 of their server population in 2005 or so)

Back then, it was to your advantage to have as many players as possible seeking invites, to quickly build your exp/merit party.

As opposed to now? Last time I checked you want 6 people to CP and even for T2+ (Even some T1) most people want full party. Avatars too.

Whether that's easier on a larger or smaller server is debatable.

No, it's not, what the hell? How is easier to find people to run stuff if there are LESS people online?

"Woah, there is no one online, all my friend are AFK I can't rely on shouts, but somehow it's easier to get stuff done!"