I can't find the fun in this game any more

[Striker44]

To have that amount of passion for something is to be commended, not belittled. If everyone who had passion for what the game was, and no longer has passion due to what it is, left the game as you recommend, you would create the circumstances for the start of the 'death-spiral of playerbase leaving' that causes MMOs to fade out and die. Also, telling someone to 'take a breath' when they're literally just expressing their opinion, quite calmly imo, is exceptionally patronizing

Who said I was belittling it? Nostalgia has a pull for long-time players, but doesn't draw new players in. If everyone who had passion for what the game was left...the game would still be fine, because it's brought in far more new people (and that's also assuming people who had passion for what the game "was" can't still have passion for what it is now - speaking of patronizing...). But if the game focused only on retaining veteran players and did nothing to appeal to new players - that's when it would either die out or at least cease to be meaningfully profitable, since over time a population will always slowly bleed out. What keeps something going strong is maintaining an influx of new customers.

Nostalgia has a strong pull. Heck, it does on me in some ways. I have BG3 on my wish list, a massively critically acclaimed game. What single-player game am I playing right now? Custom player-made maps for Warcraft II from 1995. Why? Because it's familiar and I enjoy it. I get the appeal of nostalgia. It doesn't mean, however, that it's still a sensible development decision today. The next generation of gamers is focused on mobile games, MOBA's, etc.. Warcraft II is awesome for me, but I also understand making a new version of it likely wouldn't sell sufficiently well today, and I don't go telling Blizzard they're making all the wrong decisions because they're not making a Warcaft IV as an RTS-game.

And there is a point where having so much "passion" for something can be unhealthy. Again, there's nothing patronizing at all with suggesting someone take a breather, especially when they're using words like "sickening", "plummeting," etc.. You know what is condescending? Telling people the game they might enjoy is incredibly bad because you personally happen to think so.

Now every job's the same yet the balance is the worst it's ever been with some jobs needing to be locked out of week 1 Savage

I still don't get this "every job's the same" claim. Similar? Yes. The same? Not even close. If it was, I wouldn't have a favorite Tank (PLD) or Healer (SCH) while finding other ones (DRK or AST) unappealing. That happens because there are still very clear distinctions between them that make each unique in some way. It's even more apparent with DPS. Oh, and jobs being sufficiently unbalanced that some get "locked out" by the playerbase has been happening since MMO's came into existence. It's not nearly as drastic as it was before. (Ironically, isn't pointing out that some jobs get locked out actually acknowledging that the jobs are in fact different? O.O)

It's sad to see it go after it rose so far.

Note: From an objective standpoint (i.e. size of the active playerbase), the game is still steadily rising.