FYI YoshiP did an interview on Famitsu re 6.2

[Kaurhz]

"Veterans only, please know the fight, know the mechanics, have bis, barse runs, discord required" whilst setting the P1S/P2S to 600 ilevel, truly prime examples of community.

Or maybe when someone who's like done like, P2S once joining clear parties and then wiping on easy mechanics. Or when people join fresh prog parties expecting clears and then getting mad with "tyfp" and dipping when there's 2-4 wipes? Also prime examples of community lol.

Don't get your point here really. Eureka is still at least active and people are good with helping spawn fates/BA runs, even if BA does require discord due to how difficult it is to set up. People there even like helping newcomers and you can easily get onto a fate train.

My point is that people largely inflate the sense of community that it actually brings or incentivizes. BA and DR/DRN have largely taken the course of action, most notably in the case of the former with the tedium of setting up a run. Equally with DRN with the limitations and annoyance. I've obtained nigh on every relic and I can easily say that the sense of community (in the truest sense) is very.. Basic, largely with people only gathering for the sake of a mutual goal rather than actual communication.

The level and sense of community I've had from farming relics in ShB and EW has really been no more substantial than what I would otherwise get farming Atma, or even when farming Luminous Crystals in HW. That's my point.

They were, yes. Shockingly some of us actually enjoy interacting with other players in a game that isn't a purely single player experience. It was nice chatting in the zone chat with other players, recognising familiar names and generally just building up a little micro-community for the duration of the time the content was relevant. Pretty sure Spriggan is on the same datacentre as Cerberus, too, so I'd raise an eyebrow if you're trying to imply that nobody ever had meaningful chatter in the Eureka or Bozja zone chats because I was there pretty frequently during their respective expansions and chatting away happily with many different players. Maybe you were unlucky and somehow always ended up in the quiet instances, though!

Pagos was about the only one I got any real meaningful discussion out of, even then it was fairly infrequent. I just personally don't necessarily think that it was down to the content itself being exploration, but rather just people spending a significant amount of time together and chatting away on the infrequencies, but alas it's just a differential in experience. I don't think the relic not being exploration content precludes the sense of community derived therein. These things I've had in about the same frequency when farming the open world for memories, luminous crystals, or atmas.

It was nice, but I think if they could pour those resources elsewhere, then that would be much better rather than exploration content for the sake of it.

edit: and if I am being frank I would rather they delve more into trying content that may otherwise attempt to revitalize the open world. It's very disappointing the only way I see more than a couple of people is at an Aetheryte or a hunt train, and arguably the sense of how barren the open world is just reflects poorly overall.