The game is more dead than it was pre-3.1

[RiceisNice]

The expansion effectively removed more content than it added. 3.1 was late and very small compared to other major patches. This community and many like it told people that were unhappy they should "take a break and go play other games." Well, maybe that wasn't the hottest advice. Often times when people go play other games, some of them never come back.

We've seen the full moon... now welcome to the "waning period" of this MMO. Most MMOs have such a period. I'm sure server merges are something that will have to be talked about in the coming months. Population will eventually stabilize (at a lower level than we have now).

The waning period usually happens when an expansion is near end of the cycle though, not closer to the beginning. That difference is what makes an effective, good expansion.

In regards to LoV, I feel it's too innovative for it's own good, and it's definitely not what the game needs when it's already at an all-time low from an extended 3.0 period (which was already weak on it's own in same areas). It's too much time commitment to get a hold of, the queuing of it is a mess. I much would have rather had something that's easy to pick up, fast paced, but has the capability to have strategy and thought. Like...pokemon or WoW's pet battles. TT did it nicely (aside from other issues like collecting cards and ranekd games), it's fast to pick up but the time commitment is there if you want to master it.

Not sure I'd want it similar to FFXIV crafting as that's boring as boring can be, but rather just critters you find similar to WoW. Unless you mean only you can see the mob, or rather everyone has their own critter on their screen, in which case that would be nice.

I liked crafting in this game, up until it became a chore to even craft because of the favors (esp when it was an hour of gathering minimum to make a piece of material, and you needed 3-5 for one craft). By the time I could even get to the crafting steps, I felt so exhausted and burned out that I just didn't want to do it a second time. As well as the lack of provisions (until 3.1 for the glamour aspect) toward combat and gathering classes at level 60.