It's not just the end game that has issues, there is character development issues, housing, companies, PvP, community involvement... basically everything in some degree is not where it should be and that's more on the devs to look into.
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What I meant by that was that with the vast number of good games readily available to be played these days, they're going to diminish the potential enjoyment of old formulas in new games. We're going to nitpick a lot. I've played games like vanilla WoW and FFXI during NA launch and thoroughly enjoyed both for years. Dabbled a bit in EQ before that, but wasn't my thing at the time. FFXI, I've played recently (both normal and private server), and it's definitely still fun for me, but it's largely influenced by nostalgia. While it could be fun for me and you, it certainly isn't for most. When a game provides difficult consequences for failure or requires a lot out of you to do something otherwise seen as easy or normal, the masses will not appreciate it. That is, unless that very difficulty is what made it popular in the first place. Such is the case with games like Dark Souls. Great games, but if it weren't for the publicity and mass hype about it, the majority wouldn't even think twice about not playing a game designed to punish you severely for your careless mistakes in playing. Likewise if it were an MMORPG, we'd have different perspectives on that difficulty being positive. Part of the appeal of single player games is the perspective that it's just you and the game. When you play something requiring online play, you know it's made in a way that requires or influences a movement towards limiting you as a player (requiring a group, for example).
People these days don't want old school formula... or at least that's what is reflected by sales. Truth is, the masses don't know what they want, even if they claim to want something. It's like when a baby cries that you took away some dangerous object from them, but they're clearly wanting said dangerous item. They just don't know any better. You're going to be deterred away from a game because something better is out there. Because the amount of time you've spent on one product is enough to justify moving on to another, even if you choose to hate on it blindly as being objectively "boring" and not a matter of simply being human. We want "innovation" and "good", "clever" game mechanics. That's as far as we go as consumers. Ever had a client or someone in general ask something of you, but give you no details other than "make it good"? Yeah, that's us as consumers in a nut shell. Even if we say a little more, it typically falls short quickly. "Make it good, like with fights that are fun and different", "make it something unpredictable but not too random", "I expect Avatar style production quality by next week for the same price as that stick of gum you're chewing", etc. Subjective words to an objective expectation.
School's back so yeah
either way, in my experience since coming back to the game, it doesn't seem dead at all on Brynhildr.
then again, people may only be counting the Savage Raider population and I've decided I'll never step foot inside a Savage Raid, of my own choice.