So, pretty dead lately....

[Windklinge]

heavensward was WEAK for a mmo expansion that costed money in terms of pure endgame content actually. what was inside it would have been in a free 2.6 patch aswell endgame wise. instead we got to pay for a endgame reset. pretty lackluster imo for a paid expansion.

mmo expansions should stop raising level caps and get devs doing useless leveling content but focus on adding endgame stuff only. since that is what keeps subs running. on HW so much dev time went into developing content which was useless within a 1 week because it was just low level stuff.

face it : we would have gotten a new raid and new weekly tomes anyway with a 2.6 patch for free. its the same now expect we paid for it. and we even got less content since only 2 lvl 60 dungeons now not even 3 anymore.

on next expansion they better focus on endgame content instead of leveling fluff that is basicly nonsense since we had enough of that from 1-50 already. heck daoc and age of conan expansions had more endgame content because : SUPRISE they didnt raise level cap and focused on endgame instead.

feel free to flame me but thats the truth currently. for a paid expansion HW lacks endgame content ALOT compared to other mmos. it was just a overhyped patch i say.

imagine eso tomes and savage would have been released day 1 like other mmos :

ex primals useless from day 1. may aswell not implement. as effort = reward forumula fail here.
normal mode : why do more than once? no point when esos are better anyway. also can be finished within 4 weeks.

whats left?

ex roulette daily with only 1 option which is alwaysreap.
savage mode.

THATS IT. same as before. nothing different at all. nothing new. a 2.6 would have contained the same endgame wise. except we would have gotten 3 dungeons on ex roulette instead of 2.
storyquest could have been adding without cap raise aswell for example. yet they focused way to much on low level stuff for a expansion and the sole reason was the level raise.

[Akiza]

Only people bored are people who say that gear progression is the only form of content and that is just boring. The only Free Companies that are dying are the hardcore raiding focus companies while the large casual free companies have 70 players online during peak hours and a minmum of 30 players on during low points. There is a lot of variety of content in this game its just people choosing not to do it. Casuals are the life blood of an MMO and there the one where most of the developer resources are focused on while hardcore players get the rest of the resources since they represent less than 10% of the game. Anyways for every hard core player that leaves they're replaced by 10 casual players.

[Alberel]

Only people bored are people who say that gear progression is the only form of content and that is just boring. The only Free Companies that are dying are the hardcore raiding focus companies while the large casual free companies have 70 players online during peak hours and a minmum of 30 players on during low points. There is a lot of variety of content in this game its just people choosing not to do it. Casuals are the life blood of an MMO and there the one where most of the developer resources are focused on while hardcore players get the rest of the resources since they represent less than 10% of the game. Anyways for every hard core player that leaves they're replaced by 10 casual players.

I can't remember where it was exactly but it's been shown that whilst the hardcore playerbase isn't directly worth much money to the developers they have a massive influence on the more casual players. If you think about it, the hardcore players are the ones that spend the most time on these forums and go on about the game constantly to friends. The entire perception of this game's community is based on its more hardcore members. If they get bored and leave lots of more casual players often follow suit. A game with no hardcore players has no central 'rock' in its community and the entire social side of the game falls apart. There is a reason developers still cater to hardcore players with raids and it's not just because they think it's a nice thing to do. Casuals are the lifeblood of the game, perhaps, but the hardcore players are its beating heart. It's a balancing act for sure but dismissing hardcore players' value to the game in purely monetary terms isn't quite fair.

I no longer consider myself a hardcore player anyway and most of my FC is quite casual about the game now. Most of us are bored to some degree and this is a very different kind of boredom to what we felt prior to the expansion. Between 2.X patches we were bored because we'd exhausted the content. Now we're bored because all the content just feels like more of the same and that is a much more worrying trend...

[Lexia]

I can't remember where it was exactly but it's been shown that whilst the hardcore playerbase isn't directly worth much money to the developers they have a massive influence on the more casual players. If you think about it, the hardcore players are the ones that spend the most time on these forums and go on about the game constantly to friends. The entire perception of this game's community is based on its more hardcore members. If they get bored and leave lots of more casual players often follow suit. A game with no hardcore players has no central 'rock' in its community and the entire social side of the game falls apart. There is a reason developers still cater to hardcore players with raids and it's not just because they think it's a nice thing to do. Casuals are the lifeblood of the game, perhaps, but the hardcore players are its beating heart. It's a balancing act for sure but dismissing hardcore players' value to the game in purely monetary terms isn't quite fair.

I no longer consider myself a hardcore player anyway and most of my FC is quite casual about the game now. Most of us are bored to some degree and this is a very different kind of boredom to what we felt prior to the expansion. Between 2.X patches we were bored because we'd exhausted the content. Now we're bored because all the content just feels like more of the same and that is a much more worrying trend...

There are different versions of Hardcore players, There the raiders and people that need to be best at everything in the game as soon as it comes out (the ones that get bored) and then there is the players that log in everyday regardless of what going on and still get done what first group does just in longer time frame. The second group of people usually just dump them into the casual group.

[Iromi]

snip.

Eh I do all the content in this game (Crafting, Gathering, Raiding, Fishing, own my own FC and large house and everything) and I still find it lacking in terms of variety of content. Let's get real, the zones are massive, gorgeous and have tons of potential, there is just not much to do in them. Needs way more open world PVE content. Majority of my friends feel the same way and unsubbed

[Nadirah]

Only people bored are people who say that gear progression is the only form of content and that is just boring. The only Free Companies that are dying are the hardcore raiding focus companies while the large casual free companies have 70 players online during peak hours and a minmum of 30 players on during low points. There is a lot of variety of content in this game its just people choosing not to do it. Casuals are the life blood of an MMO and there the one where most of the developer resources are focused on while hardcore players get the rest of the resources since they represent less than 10% of the game. Anyways for every hard core player that leaves they're replaced by 10 casual players.

My FC is nowhere near a "hardcore raiding" FC, and we have maybe 5 people on during peak times now.

Everyone's hit 60 and got bored.

[Obysuca]

My FC is nowhere near a "hardcore raiding" FC, and we have maybe 5 people on during peak times now.

Everyone's hit 60 and got bored.

This is how mine is too :/ and judging from looking at other people's FCs, most likely theirs too.
We had a bunch of people come back for HW, they got about 55-60, then quit again. We're midcore, we do raids but no where near super hardcore all the time raiding and we also only have about 4-5 on now. Looking at other FCs and my FC from experience, most FCs had 50+ on daily in 2.0, by 2.1 a majority of FCs were down to ~30 on, by 2.2 it was lower and by 2.3, most FCs barely had 10 on during peak hours, now in most FCs, I rarely even see 5 on at the most, even in those big 100+ member ones. That's saying something about the game. Theres also zero staying power, since the game encourages you to be solo and not make friends.

[Ronove]

I haven't really played that much lately. I log on for raid stuff, make sure to cap my esoterics, talk to my friends a bit, and mainly either work on the FC airship stuff (I mean I am in charge of that--I gotta do it) or level up a class I feel like leveling. I used to also make sure I capped red scrips for crafting but I've found that's like pulling teeth and don't enjoy it so I stopped. I do think it's a little quieter lately though because as people say, there's nothing entirely NEW. When new beasttribes show up I know I'll be pulled to play more because I like beasttribes but at this current moment I don't really care either way. Still enjoy the game but I think I got burned out early Heavensward. Looking forward to 3.1 nonetheless.

[Duuude007]

I capped red scrips for crafting but I've found that's like pulling teeth and don't enjoy it so I stopped.

Initially I would agree. What has changed?

Having folklore and decent melded 60 gear provides 2-hit access to legendary nodes, resulting in: red scrips time commitment roughly half of what it used to be. Even less time if you fish in between btn/min nodes.

Also, 3.07 made favors take 33% of the time that it used to, for the same rewards.

It is really a whole new game now. A shame that many people look at it through raid colored glasses, or they would find it varied and fulfilling.

[Ronove]

Initially I would agree. What has changed?

Having folklore and decent melded 60 gear provides 2-hit access to legendary nodes, resulting in: red scrips time commitment roughly half of what it used to be. Even less time if you fish in between btn/min nodes.

Also, 3.07 made favors take 33% of the time that it used to, for the same rewards.

It is really a whole new game now. A shame that many people look at it through raid colored glasses, or they would find it varied and fulfilling.

I haven't touched the gathering red scrips. I meant the crafting ones. Should have clarified. I'm sure if I wasn't behind on my gatherers I would enjoy the gathering red scrips. The crafting ones bore me a great deal and I dislike the grind. I know it's meant to give you something to do in regards to crafting but when I have to sit there x amount of time making all the premats (or spending gil) before I can even start the collectible I'll be spamming I just get so bored and tired of it and want to do something else. To be fair though, I never enjoyed the crafting red scrip grind. I just did it and now I realize it really doesn't matter to my playstyle. Gathering red scrips however sound fun and I'm a bit mad at myself for not keeping up with that.

EDIT: Lol wait I did say Crafting in my original post. Dunno why you thought I was talking about Gathering. Also just because I mention raiding doesn't mean I just look at everything through raid colored glasses. I enjoy raiding. Is that the only reason I play the game? Hell no. If that was it I would have stopped a long time ago.