Where is the "never before seen content"?

[Vstarstruck]

Last time I played, most everything worth pursuing was locked to at least a daily schedule at the shortest - things like world quests and dungeon bonuses (such as they were). Some of the reputation grinds did allow for completing dungeons tied to them, so there was that...but I don't recall those taking long (most were the second highest rep level by the time you finished questing) so the life of that as a motivator for content was short.

I mean, speaking of current content specifically, dungeons here and dungeons there you can farm as much as you want, mythic dungeons there you can so long as you have keystones to do it (so it's limited, but in a different way), Trials here you can. Daily quests here and once a day, World quests (which are just daily quests without requiring you to accept/turn in) there are once a day.

PvP you can grind Wolf Marks here or Honor Points there...

Are you sure you're not thinking of an older time in WoW (when grinding reps and currency for gear was less restrictive/less based on daily tasks)?

PvP there is actually worthwhile doing and is not dragged down by poor servers/netcode. I could level 10- cap off pvp and do different battle grounds at any given level. I think at 20? maybe it is 30 idr, where you have acess to more battle grounds then here at max level, and the entry point of doing pvp there is small and not gated by tedious MSQ. (You have to be so far to be 30 here along with having a job)

There the different battle grounds, the acutall doing the content makes them worthwhile and an alt way of gaining exp. Here it is... dead.. unattractive, and pointless.

I agree with the reasoning but I doubt that ppl were really that sold on ultimate and rival wings. I don't really think pvp are that interested in pvp on this game also the report of 200k extra players have come so late in 4.0 that imho it should've been were the drop should've started, since lucky bancho bases itself on activity they can't just be accounts, also since it was 3.5 months after SB release the effect of a new players shoudl've been reabsorbed by then.

the first week or so people where interested in it, I guess they where "sold" upfront? then after people learned that it sucked, bombed right after.

I will preface my response by saying it's entirely speculative. So please keep that in mind.

That aside, I suspect the upswing in 4.1 came due to players still returning, Ultimate and Rival Wings. Both were hyped exceptionally, especially the latter in conjunction with the PvP changes. Collect all that with an easier Savage and promises of a scaling difficulty, and people had more to keep themselves occupied. Something else you can attribute to increased subs in 4.1 is raiders opting to stick around. After all, they now had Ultimate whereas before, they didn't have a whole lot to do. Additional housing wards also came out around this time. So why the subsequent drop? Rival Wings imploded while Savage being made easier also meant it possessed less longevity. The reception towards Alte Roite and Catastrophe weren't exactly stellar either, at least amongst my own circles. Even casual groups like NEST pointed out Alte Roite was a bit too easy, which says something.

As more players finished Stormblood, I wager many found there wasn't actually all that much available with any lasting appeal. The PvP "improvements" bombed, hard, and 4.1 offered very little outside niche content. Therefore, when 4.2 came around, you saw a noticeable dip—one that only recovered because Eureka was supposed the "next big thing." That brought players back given how much focus was placed on it's innovation. And the divisive response is why those active numbers dropped sharply thereafter.

We may see another upswing around 4.4 because of the Monster Hunter Collab, but I guarantee it will plummet severely come 4.5, especially if we're given no new surprises beyond more Eureka.

Stormblood has basically fed off constant hype yet poor sustainability. Be it Ultimate, PvP, Eureka all the way to something as simple as job gauges. They were all hyped substantially despite only Ultimate paying any real dividends. And if 4.5 does repeat the drought of 3.5, I cannot help wonder if people's faith will have been spent. After all, if they follow predictable patterns, we're looking at a very lengthily drought with virtually nothing to do. Stormblood was supposed to SE's chance to be innovative. Instead, they played it punishingly safe, going so far as to make everything even easier. I just can't see them getting away with a retread of that same philosophy come 5.0.

agreed with all of that.