I wouldn't call it "mid-expansion" drought but rather "entire-first-half-of-expansion" drought.
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This game is only successful because all the other mmos are so much worse. A mcdonalds meal atop a pile of shit.
Yoshi-P isn't really a good game director and people who worship him like he is one make this game worse. His ego is bigger than Kojima's but at least Kojima backs it up nearly every time (dunno about death stranding haven't played it yet hence the nearly). He doesn't know the direction to take anymore and the job balance is so bad it's pretty sad. Also refusing to do any form of player feedback that isn't JP is disingenuous and comes off as "I'm better than everyone" yet he only plays one job and a vast majority of players are unhappy with the state of healers but it's okay because black mage will always be fixed if theirs any issues.
This game's super active when an expansion drops and then dead af for months after and I wish SE held events or did something to keep people interested because I hate watching my friends list vanish every expansion on the same timeline like clockwork. "Durrhurr pls take a break from my game" bro maybe give people even one basic thing to do each month if they choose to stay subbed and keep your game functioning. I've played games with shoestring budgets that don't even cost anything to play that will do exp events or double drop events and things, and sure it's done with a manipulative bend in mind but at least they give a shit about keeping people playing through the dry periods where there'd otherwise be nothing to do.
While we're talking about manipulation, telling MMO players "just take a break, it's fine" is like being a dealer telling your crack client to try yoga instead. MMO players are a different type of gamer; most are addicts and some will literally feel happy to just log in and do nothing, while others legit use it to substitute their social life. I'm not saying this is a good thing, but it is a thing, and Yoshi knows this because he used to be an mmo gamer himself. So I don't think he was being sincere when he said that stuff, especially since a real player drop would lead to him being flayed at work like, the very next day.
...you know it's a sad day when we're relying on League of Legends to feel better... *sigh*
Honestly, I'm having fun in GW2. I don't really understand why people dislike it so much when it's really just a different sort of game. It otherwise isn't that bad. I did try PSO2, but I couldn't deal with the controls all that well. Apart from that, it looked somewhat solid from what I've played.
FF14 is a nice game as well. But it definitely has its flaws and is showing its age. I'd understand comparing it to WoW because it's the closest in terms of gameplay, but the comparisons almost always feel like they're going to be positive. Because it's a foregone conclusion: FF14 came after, learned from its predecessor, tried for a good portion to listen to its fanbase, whereas WoW has a really old system and differences in development views have skewed the game's priorities. But just because one's better doesn't mean it's "good". And just because a game's "good" doesn't mean it can't be "better".
"Take a break and play other games" is basically SE removing responsibility from themselves to provide content with good long term play value while painting is as being out of concern for player welfare. If you get bored because content lasts 10 minutes, it's your fault, you're meant to be taking breaks.
You pay SE for a game, they tell you to pay another company for a game to get entertainment, while continuing to pay them.