First, let me start off by saying I'm not trying to be alarmist or chicken little here (the sky is falling the sky is falling!). I've just happened to notice a couple things and am wondering if you all have noticed it too, and if you attribute it to the same things I do, or if there's an entirely different reason(s) for what I'm noticing.
(the following is just my personal observations and opinions resulting in me reaching out to others to see if I'm alone out here with my thoughts or if others feel the same)


Server Population/Active Population
Ok so one thing I've noticed is yet another decline in active population. Last time we saw a decline like this, everyone kept saying, "Oh don't worry, it will be alright when the new content comes out and everyone comes back." And while that was true to an extent, people did come back, we did have a population surge, it was short lived before a large amount of people fell off again.

Now I feel like we're in a slump....again. The market board is wonky, things aren't selling, prices are going to high/low extremes. Not only that but the sheer amount of FC's starving for more people is insane! Some of us are branching out to recruit on other servers, other servers are coming here to recruit, I've seen an increase in fc's recruiting in party finder. Obviously we're ALL hurting for active people in our individual communities. Heck, there are even some fc's that are PAYING $18 A HEAD for TRANSFERS to their server for joining their fc! If that's not a sign of low/slow population, I don't know what is!

I realize that summer is always a slumper in any mmo. Also, the whole atma/animus thing has become unenjoyable for tons of people. But are those the ONLY reasons for this slump? Is there a slump to begin with or am I imagining it? How can we as a gaming community fix this slump, if there is one? Can we even do anything to fix it?

Negative Impact of Linkshells on Growing FC's
Another thing I've noticed is a negative impact linkshells have on small/struggling/raid oriented fc's. Our FC in particular has had an uphill battle trying to build our FC b/c of linkshells. The first question I get asked most often when someone is interested in joining is, "Do I have to join your FC?" For obvious reasons, that would be preferred. Almost everyone that inquires would rather stay in their own fc and is more than happy to let you know they are a member of any number of "raiding linkshells" and don't really need you if you're going to make them join your fc.

How are we supposed to grow our fc's when people aren't forced to make a choice to join or not? With linkshells devoted to raiding, why join an fc at all? That seems to be the impression I get from speaking to people.

I guess main issues I have with linkshells in this aspect are that it's never been this hard in ANY mmo to recruit/build a "guild" community because if you wanted to raid you pretty much had to join the "guild" you wanted to raid with. But here, there are options and those options end up hurting fc's in the long run.

For us, it's been a catch 22. We have a low number of active members, so people don't want to join, so our membership declines b/c people aren't joining, so less people want to raid with us, etc etc. It's a never ending downward spiral largely due to linkshells and the fact that people don't have to join FC's to do what they want in game. Why even have fc's at all then? What is the purpose of linkshells AND free companies? What am I missing here?

Lack of Willingness to Merge Low Membership FCs
And yet something else I've noticed is how unwilling fc's are to merge together. Being one of those fc's who doesn't want to merge into somewhere else, I can understand why. My question really is how to fix it so merging is more appealing, i suppose.

It would seem to me that with a lower population, lessened activity, fc's everywhere are hurting. All servers, if you look at their forums, you see fc's starving for players. Heck, some servers are downright hostile if you try to recruit on their server because they are trying so vehemently to covet their steadily declining population.

What I don't see is merging fc's. I've spoken to a few people about the possibility, but it always boils down to the same things: We have our core who don't want to be part of anything else, but you can come to us. We worked hard for our house and don't want to give it up, but you can come to us. Our people might come back with new content and we don't want to leave them out in the cold, but you can come to us. The commonality? Many are open to merges, but only if you merge in to them, otherwise, shove off bucko.

And I totally get that, most of the time. We're one of "those" fc's who's members don't want to merge into somewhere else; largely b/c of our unique raid schedule which no other fc on the server (that we've found) can accommodate. But by golly, at some point, someone has to give. All these small, dead, dying, struggling, starving fc's out there not willing to give up is only going to lead to more people leaving, more people getting frustrated, and only the super powers getting anything done in endgame.

How can we fix this?

Thanks for your time everyone, I know it was long winded.