Can't really say boycotts work for video games, either. Which is pretty much the general message of advocating one simply stop subscribing, nevermind getting people to do it en masse. I also look at it as if enough people do pull out in protest, SE would just shut the game down because it's no longer worth it. The nightmare of POL/SE account system aside, I know one thing I always felt lacking was player surveys. When I tried WoW forever ago, when I eventually unsubbed, Blizzard at least had the awareness to query why with a few generic options and then a fill in the blank. Did they ever actually do anything with such info from players? Couldn't tell you, but it at least sends a better signal. My time on RIFT saw a couple surveys over time, too, but more for general gameplay inquiries.


Just for funsies, I also recall almost winning a custom item design entry in RIFT. We had a shield contest at one point in FFXI here, I think, but pretty much nothing since then. A hell of a lot more could be done to engage players. Sure, we had a GM asking what items should stack to 99 recently, but pretty much saw posts getting pulled because some people were pointing out just increasing stack sizes wasn't really going to fix certain issues. And in this vein, I actually believe we need a completely new AH system, and not just what I proposed in my earlier post, but I figure getting all the cross-server stuff going is enough reinventing the wheel for now.


As for Trusts, yeah, they're pretty much there to help in absence of players who have no interest or simply aren't around. I was very much historically an EST night owl player, most functional between 7pm-6am. Even trying to hang with PST folk, times after 2am were usually guaranteed to be dead. I can only really imagine how much more I would've gotten done in those later hours if the system existed back in the day, but as is, SE has pretty much admitted they've ceilinged the value of Trusts for endgame content because they want people to play together. Sadly, you can't just say you want that and it is then so. The time of day you play is super important, not to forget other factors like your chosen job and its gear/mastery levels. Also never been a fan of the "advice" that people level something like GEO or whatever if it's not their actual interest, because it usually comes off as "Play this job I don't want to play, but nonetheless want to take advantage of and likely not be shy about telling you how to play it, too!" I've also run into people who deliberately won't help others during the return campaigns because they just want assume they'll be gone when the free time is over. That's just sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy in my book, and goes back to something needing to be done about content appeal.


As a food for thought process, how would people feel if SE added a fast track option to the introductory ilvl RMEA weapons or severely diminished currency costs of pre-ilvl phases? Personal guess, I'd see some people for it. On the other hand, I'd also see people complaining that their "hard work" was suddenly invalidated with a patch not unlike the Thief's Knife back in the day. Of course, I'd also say it's 100% possible to code a partial refund NPC to nip that very gripe in the bud. Refunded currency can then go toward another weapon or simply be sold. As for the newcomers to the weapon pool, they obviously don't have to put up with the same mundane time sinks of farming whatever just to get a weapon that's at least usable, albeit not optimal, in the current modern endgame. There would still need to be a viable alternate "rite of passage" so to speak, but it is something players should be able to set their sights on once they're in, say, +1 Ambuscade gear and not feel like they have a giant slog ahead of them beyond the obvious ilvl upgrade requirements that exist now. The other alternative is that players just not give a crap about RMEAs at all, precisely because it's so much for what may seem so little (especially for casters). Thus, we have a contrast it what some would view as prestige content, while others think it a waste of time and resources.