Quote Originally Posted by Basileus View Post
I can remember on Odin, when I started, there were upwards of 6000+ people on each day. In fact they had to stop letting people join that server. This was before level Sync, before crazy exp gain (DC was still only 50 xp), before pages etc. It's amazing that even though the game was so hard and difficult at that time, that there were more people playing at that time than there is now. I understand there are a million reasons to leave the game, however, assuming that making the game easy would make this game better isn't necessarily the answer either. A lot of people enjoy a challenge, regardless if you want to acknowledge that or not. I think the populations of the past, show that people like a challenge. Granted, it's probably an older crowd by age. This of course, is just my "personal" opinion.

Personally I would love to see another game come out that was as difficult as FFXI of old was. But then, I look at the game as something I would like to play for a while, not something I will conquer in a few months and be bored with.
first of odin is a bad example because it was an overpopulated server compared to the other servers.

2. every MMO dwindles after some years. People "outgrow" them, this has nothing to do with the changes, infact I would rather say makeing the players life easier is what kept this MMO alive, because if it were as hardcore as several years ago i wouldnt be playing, because I and ALOT of other people dont have the time anymore to invest that much time into a game. They found the right amount of effort needed and amount of time needed to invest. Its still not an easy MMO compared to others, but its luckily also not hardcore grinding like it was.