Out of touch? PLL

[Erzaa]

Of course it is. Reaching Elemental 60 is a considerably larger investment than Island Sanctuary which is little more than a glorified retainer. Comparing the two is completely disingenuous because one requires going through four entire zones of battle content whereas the other is putting things in a spreadsheet.

Precisely. You attempted to present Island Sanctuary participation rates, based on the playerbase owning the Island Mandragora mount, which can be bought for 12,000 cowries and is available as early as rank 1? (I believe?), as compared to the playerbase reaching Eureka Level 60 participation. That's a false equivalency. The statistics you posted later show the far more popular mount, the Garlond GL-II, which costs 24,000 cowries (double the mandragora mount) and is available at rank 10, as having a higher percentage of ownership. Ergo, more of the playerbase participated in Island Sanctuary than your numbers indicate.

A true equivalency would be how many Islands have reached the maximum possible rank, as compared to how many players reached the maximum Elemental rank. I don't understand what's hard to understand about this. And yes, I'm aware Supersnow said we don't have data for that, I don't know, I trust they're correct, but still, the entire point is, don't conflate two entirely different situations. The statistics of ownership of the Island Mandragora are completely irrelevant to the total set of players who've participated with Island Sanctuary.

Funny thing. This very common misconception. Not just in this game but in gaming as a whole. The majority of people who play games don't actually complete them or stick with it "just to see the ending." We know this based on achievement data. Seriously. Pick any game, be it single player, co-op, MMO, shooter or really doesn't matter. Go look up the trophy/achievement for completing their respective story modes and you'll find very few people actually finish them.

If you're grinding through four zones of Eureka, you aren't the casual demographic this game markets towards but more in the middle. Most of those players aren't going to invest tens of hours to reach level 60 in Hydatos unless they actually like the content. Or at the very least want the rewards it offers. They'll watch the story on youtube or twitch if they care at all.

But we're not discussing players who didn't complete Eureka, or players who don't finish content. We're discussing the specific percentage of players who did complete the content, i.e. the ones who reached the Elemental level 60. The argument you're trying to make is that Eureka is more popular than Island Sanctuary with the majority of the playerbase, has a higher percentage of interaction, no?

No, it isn't. Baldesion Arsenal is a completely different piece of content that targets the raid community not the general playerbase. You're trying to conflate the two as if they're one in the same. Adenium mount isn't locked behind several Extreme level bosses that requires large scale communication between 24 players. That's the equivalent of basing DT's active player count on how many people have the EX mount. Just because BA is gated behind Eureka doesn't mean it appeals to the same demographic.

The amount of the playerbase interacting with a specific mount or not is very much relevant, considering the two items you're conflating, as I stated above. You compare apples to apples, not apples to oranges. If you're conflating player participation and popularity with Island Sanctuary, based on a mount they may or may not have bought, then you should include the playerbase willing to continue past Eureka's maximum level to get the Ozma mount. Both pieces of content don't allow you to receive all rewards by simply reaching the maximum possible rank.

If you're simply conflating popularity based reaching the maximum possible rank, which would be a state of finality, i.e. Elemental Level 60, then you need to compare it to date regarding the maximum Island Sanctuary rank 20, not a mount bought with a miniscule amount of cowries. Reaching Island Sancturary Rank 20 won't even give you enough cowries for the most expensive mounts, unless you continue playing with that awful spreadsheet simulator every week.

The question here is, "How popular is Eureka with the majority of the playerbase, as compared to something super casual such as Island Sanctuary, based on how many players are interested in it enough to interact with it to the end?". This comes from the argument that Eureka is somehow very popular with most players and they don't find it boring, they enjoy interacting with it. So, where do you qualify Eureka and Island Sanctuary ending? Is it when they achieve the maximum possible rank? Is it when they get the final reward? Or is it simply unlocking the content and never bothering with it again?

Regardless, the Adenium mount can be bought off the market board. Which immediately disqualifies it for any relevant statistical data. I am curious though why you keep bringing up that particular mount. I just double checked and the reddit post I linked never once mentions it. In fact, when I ctrl+F, not a single post came up for the Adenium mount. Bluntly stated, nobody ever used it to gauge participation. So I have no idea why you even brought it up in the first place.

The only reason I brought up the Adenium mount, is because I wasn't sure, based on the stats you posted originally, which Mandragora mount you're referring to. Different Mandragora mounts unlock at different ranks, and I wouldn't be surprised if none of them are that popular.

In conclusion, just don't take the measure of a mount that can be bought with a currency, that players may or may not be interested in at all, as evidence of the popularity, or lack of, a piece of content, especially when players interact with said content for any number of reasons.

But... yes, Eureka is probably better content than Island Sanctuary, that doesn't mean it's good content, just better that Island Sanctuary.