Can't say I ever got that sense of community given I started in 2022 and was on a low-pop server, so I always had to data center travel to do stuff with randoms I would very likely never see again. Even now being locked on Dynamis I'm just counting down the days until I can DC travel again because I'm not really interested in bonding with all these "new strangers" over here, lol.

I do question if this supposedly "peak" social experience ever existed though given that people have been using cliques and plugins to filter each other since... well, every MMO ever. I'm sure you even had your diehard "if you don't love 1.0, you don't belong here" fans back then too and think *everything* that came after "ruined it all". When you have this many people in one place, you're going to encounter all kinds of different folks, and just like in real life it's not always easy to find the ones you'll mesh with. There was probably never an all encompassing utopia in this game then, but rather some very enjoyable and memorable spheres to play within, but over time other spheres formed up and now perhaps it *is* harder to find the ones certain people would like to visit or even stay in. Harder, but not impossible, I would hope for those seeking some manner of community or even just camaraderie.