ESO Population size... are we losing players?

anitajoneb17_ESO

I would actually like to join more end game contents, but I pull 20K DPS, not 25, not 30, just 20.
I know for sure that 15K is enough to complete all vet 4-man content, provided you do the mechanics. But many good players want to burn the bosses down, and don't want to play mechanics (they usually don't even know those mechanics).
As a result I never answer to zone, or even guild calls for 4-man vet content, and I only play those dungeons with my closest friends.

Another annoying sentence you hear quite often is "pulling 25K DPS is easy". No, it's not. If it were, everybody would do it.

If you're being selective and have expectations, you can't complain to be lonely.

smacky

I total;ly agree with the idea of a 2 man trial / arena.

I constantly run around playing most of the game with just one friend, and then we will decide to join a trial / dungeon / cyrodil etc.

I am also the social officer for one of my guilds and run 1-2 social events like fishing / skyshards / pub dungeon runs / etc per week.

I am in 5 guilds, 3 of which are social and 2 trade / social by way of ingame chat.

In those times I am playing with nly 1 other person, and we can't commit to something that affects other peoiple, eg trials etc it would be nice to have a 2 man trial or some such thing to do together, where if one of us needs to leave for a bit, we can without disturbing others.

That said, both me and my friend have medical conditions that affect out ability to commit to events at times, so there is valid reasons for what I am saying. I only mention this to prevent the arguments from people who don;t have a clue and will simply say things like we are too lazy when infact the point is we are trying not to have a negative affect on other people's gameplay.

I know I get upset when someone leaves halfway through a dungeon, especailly on vet.

newtinmpls

Vaughndaunted wrote: »

@teaser 3 Years of playing. We need non dps activity. Put other armor sets to use. Speed builds where orcs are king as sorcs..

Hmmmm a lot of my characters are orcs. Never really thought about a speed build. That might be fun.

Lady_Sleepless wrote: »

We need a 2man trial like Maelstrom/Dragonstar. This needs to happen, so much fun for us who love to partner up. Seriously would love a 2man Maelstrom arena. If it gave good rewards like VMA then it would keep people around for a fun farm and challenging arena.

iFord wrote: »

I would squeal like a little girl if a 2 man arena was introduced. Just imaging all the hours of fun to be had already and its amazing.

Wow that would be cool. I panic and give up too fast when on my own to seriously consider VMA Or even any MA; but a two man? Sure that would be great! My spouse is my best partner, we would absolutely go for it!

red_emu

On the opposite! I think we have more active players now than six months or a year ago. Game is still going strong and with new chapters, DLCs and dungeons it will stay alive for a long time. Plus, PvP is soooo addictive!

Ch4mpTW

I’ll try to identify the problems which ESO are facing currently.

The PvP in this game is based entirely off of cheese, and things of the extreme of “gank” or “zerg”. The middle grounds have pretty much been done away with, leaving for the most part it being almost impossible to have small to medium-scale PvP. Combine all of that with the huge amounts of: Lag, exploiting, and bugs/glitches. And you essentially have PvP in this game in a nutshell.

The end-game PvE in this game is pretty much an ego-fest, that is houses a bunch of “DPS fiends” for the most part. The guilds are filled with: Drama, elitism, dishonest play, and other things of the sort. Often leading to players not wanting to be bothered with getting involved with trials and things of the sort. I mean, can you truly blame these players for not wanting to get involved with a bunch of man-childs, who nonstop compare DPS times and accolades? All the while gossiping in between about what this person from such and such guild did with another guild? And how so and so’s trial run performed this or that way, because so and so was subbing for so and so’s “A-Team”?

The overland content is almost too easy, but must be that way given as to how wide of a variety the player base’s skill and overall knowledge of the game is. Mind you, most people still are clueless about champion point “jump points”. Let alone how to properly and consistently animation cancel. And let’s be honest for a moment. Lack of said knowledge regarding those 2 things leads to significant DPS loss. Combine said things with the fact that pretty much every dungeon is a “DPS Race” due to mechanics. And what you have on your hands is a bunch of ill-equipped players, who feel bad after queuing for a dungeon. Only to realize that their damage is extremely mediocre and subpar, and some scumbag who is in the group goes and insults them for it. Resulting in them staying as far away from anything non-overland as best they can.

It is the fault of both the player base, and ZOS that the game is in this current state.

...My solution...?

ZOS needs overhaul the entire game, and actually adjust things appropriately. Don’t listen to the top 1% claiming that every single thing they touch is far too easy, while also not listening to the extremely casual players who pretty much run around with double bow builds; light attacking and sniping everything. Find a middle grounds, and stick to it no matter what.

We players on the other hand need to seriously STFU some times, and chill out with the ego circle-jerking. Yes, it is nice to be proud of what it is you’ve accomplished. But the world’s first threads, the nonstop bickering over DPS comparisons in zone chat, and or in the middle of a PUG, and constant linking of hard mode clear treasures need to cease. Because all you’re doing is making an ass of yourself, and making players disgust and revile you. Rather than admire and look-up to you. You think you’re trying to inspire someone to do great things, when in fact you’re making people want to stay as far away as possible. Chill tf out on saying, “Git gud.” to people who are genuinely struggling. Help those people, and show them where they made said errors in a respectful manner. Don’t just say, “Lel lrn2play.” and proceed with linking your gold gear you got from a trial. Oh, and last but not least? Stop the carry run stuff. That isn’t too healthy for the game either. Why? Because you’re not going over the mechanics, and teaching the people who are being carried how to go about doing the content. You’re just taking their gold, and then acting as if they’re not even a factor in the run.

jedtb16_ESO

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

http://steamcharts.com/app/306130

that's just the people playing through steam. not everyone does.

Nighn_9

FearlessOne_2014 wrote: »

Vaughndaunted wrote: »

I’m finding myself short on players at my level of play. What’s going on ESO? Are we working on keeping end game players or getting new ppl in the game? I’m getting bored of writs, dps testing and etc. what’s out there for us advanced players? We need 2 man team trials and content like VMA. ANY THOUGHTS?

Lol it's because trials are not rewarding for the time and effort you put into them. Also unless you are willing to help new players to learn and progress in your guild. I can totally see why you would think it's hard to find players to do trials with. Maybe groom and teach the new players who are replacing the vets? Or yall can continue to ask for only players who can post 35k plus dps. Only to complain about not being enough players to run trials with.

I see no issues with finding players who are willing to learn to run trials. I do see a bunch of vet guilds who are demanding players already be top noche before joining their guild and crying about that lack of players in game.

/kowtow

Marisana

Lady_Sleepless wrote: »

We need a 2man trial like Maelstrom/Dragonstar. This needs to happen, so much fun for us who love to partner up. Seriously would love a 2man Maelstrom arena. If it gave good rewards like VMA then it would keep people around for a fun farm and challenging arena.

This is a great idea to be honest, and I'd love if something like this got added to the game!

As for the population... I cannot say I noticed a dramatic drop, at least not in the main faction or DLC zones. Lots of characters running around, doing quests and stealing my crafting nodes.

I guess we're now in the typical right-before-a-new-Chapter MMO phase regarding content, where people who played all the story bits might take a break unless they also enjoy endgame PvE or PvP as well. But I feel the loss of populace is a lot less noticeable in ESO compared to other MMOs.

On a different note:
I wouldn't mind if the overland content was a bit more challenging, but I can understand why that isn't the case. I'd love to get some kind of veteran mode for overland content, too, though; maybe as a separate zone after one has finished a faction story in Normal, or as a difficulty that I can toggle right from the start while creating a new character.

ccfeeling

Please release VMA 2 , I could control my playtime easily

Doctordarkspawn

This game has never been good at retaining endgame players of any slight because of it's myriad issues seperating PVE and PVP balance, actually making a game the PVE players wanna play, and keeping PVP happy.

They mostly cater to new players now. We'll see where we are when Summerset comes out.

But my personal perscription for this game is actually overhauling the game and not continuing to make a game for a bunch of elite DPS. The game's core gameplay is built off stacking buffs to near-madness in a rotuine that is hard to do as it is mind-numbing. Make a game for the people you originally tried to market the game to. Make Skyrim online.

Ilithyania

February 2018 8,965
January 2018 10,271
December 2017 11,648

February 2017 9,579
January 2017 7,684
December 2016 9,664


Only numbers we have is Steam. December + January was an increase in average players from last year.
Feb was slightly less.

Asardes

The game is doing fine. It's natural that some players eventually get bored and take a break since things eventually feel like a chore. I'm pretty resilient and I've been playing without any breaks since I started, but I don't play other games, I've graduated university a long time ago and I don't travel long distances to work. In fact in my guilds there are plenty of new players with ~CP300, that want to do dungeons, trials etc. Of course the zone chats feel emptier than in earlier times because people tend to stick to guilds, rather than group from chat, due to the uncertainty of beating content with such PuGs. Yes, there are still problems, but you can't have perfection in such a complex system that's changing constantly.

jedtb16_ESO wrote: »

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

http://steamcharts.com/app/306130

that's just the people playing through steam. not everyone does.

What's even the advantage of using Steam? It's just another link in a connection chain, one that sometimes gets broken. I think there was even an incident a few weeks ago when Steam players couldn't connect for a full day to one of the servers. Always simpler is better, from a technical standpoint.

Malmai

Paul Sage maybe left because somebody was takin coin and game was left as it is. ESO will save themselves when it goes F2P they are planing that i guess...

Lysette

ccfeeling wrote: »

My main guild drop from 20ish to 1 daily , yes , only me left

Connection quality was the major problem , they left after MHW released .

Yeah, that annoys me as well, that the damned server isn't able to hold the connection - which should be the highest priority for any online service, where people need to stay connected for a longer time span. To get disconnected like 3-4 times per hour is just annoying and after a while playing like this, the idea comes to mind "maybe I should play something else".

Jade1986

xenowarrior92eb17_ESO wrote: »

ofc we loosing players...if Zo$ would fix the damn lagfest taht we are dealing with for the past 4 years....people would come back actually...whats more frustrating than having balance issues is having balance issues with tons of lags...

Couldnt of put it better myself. That is the EXACT reason I stopped.

Lack of meaningful balance

And the lagfest that is EVERYWHERE.

Azurya

I don´t know what you are doing, but my evenings are to short to do all I want

I play since the BETA, have 12 max lvl toons now
and shitloads I wanna do
okay, I have a fulltime job, so no day and nightlong playing
but I play every evening
I find enough to do after all that time^^

but anyway, sure is, the game is losing players
the cause why, is up to ZOS to find out
but I say the most frustating is every time there is "NEW" upgrade, you have to change you´re whole playstyle with your toons, probably switch gear, abilities, skills aso
that is too much, and it happens every few months
and it is definitly frustrating

anitajoneb17_ESO

Ch4mpTW wrote: »

The end-game PvE in this game is pretty much an ego-fest, that is houses a bunch of “DPS fiends” for the most part. The guilds are filled with: Drama, elitism, dishonest play, and other things of the sort. Often leading to players not wanting to be bothered with getting involved with trials and things of the sort. I mean, can you truly blame these players for not wanting to get involved with a bunch of man-childs, who nonstop compare DPS times and accolades? All the while gossiping in between about what this person from such and such guild did with another guild? And how so and so’s trial run performed this or that way, because so and so was subbing for so and so’s “A-Team”?

Lol sooo true and very well described.

Ch4mpTW wrote: »

Combine said things with the fact that pretty much every dungeon is a “DPS Race” due to mechanics.

I'd rather say "every dungeon is a DPS race because many "high-DPS" players refuse to learn and play the mechanics/

Ch4mpTW wrote: »

ZOS needs overhaul the entire game, and actually adjust things appropriately. Don’t listen to the top 1% claiming that every single thing they touch is far too easy, while also not listening to the extremely casual players who pretty much run around with double bow builds; light attacking and sniping everything. Find a middle grounds, and stick to it no matter what.

110% agreed.

LadyNalcarya

I wouldnt be surprised if they are losing players. I like the game and I think it has a great potential, but lags and bugs can completely destroy any positive impressions.
Terrible performance and random lags/ping spikes/disconnects in trials and pvp force people to give up on the game. I mean, those things are supposed to be the endgame, but last weekend pvp was unplayable and even instanced trials lagged like crazy. Not to mention the animation issues that were added in Monday patch and lasted the whole week.
Its a shame, really. The game has great potential, but the quality of service is very low for some reason.

Vaughndaunted

Hey guys, I’m saying is looking past personality and ego... we all have them. We all tolerate up to a point. End gamers don’t want to move backwards. If they want breakthrough, they need to make this game cross platform. But we endgamers need something fun. We’ve done our work for years. What else is there for us?

Vaughndaunted

We give our builds. Hitting 40k dps is easy after practice and understanding concepts @anitajoneb17_ESO . It’s really a concept and flow. We endgamers post videos with explanation. Check out my YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHppgAsLASp6-d3_Gfr-9ug

Asardes

Yep, 25K+ is achievable by any ranged build, and 30K+ by any melee stamina build. I can hit about ~30K on both ranged Templar and non-pet Sorcerer on dummy with Apprentice Mundus by using a heavy attack rotation, and 35-37K on stamina DK and NB with Warrior with Warden stuck at 30K primarily due to sustain issues even if I weave heavy attacks all the time on front bar. And I'm terrible at weaving, still missing ~50% light attack weaves on back bar on both stamina and magicka and in actual dungeons I actually end up block-casting those due to incoming damage. I also sometimes get stuck in animation or double-tap the skill instead of the attack button. But I'm confident that those things will solve themselves in time, with more practice.

LadyNalcarya

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

Ch4mpTW wrote: »

The end-game PvE in this game is pretty much an ego-fest, that is houses a bunch of “DPS fiends” for the most part. The guilds are filled with: Drama, elitism, dishonest play, and other things of the sort. Often leading to players not wanting to be bothered with getting involved with trials and things of the sort. I mean, can you truly blame these players for not wanting to get involved with a bunch of man-childs, who nonstop compare DPS times and accolades? All the while gossiping in between about what this person from such and such guild did with another guild? And how so and so’s trial run performed this or that way, because so and so was subbing for so and so’s “A-Team”?

Lol sooo true and very well described.

Ch4mpTW wrote: »

Combine said things with the fact that pretty much every dungeon is a “DPS Race” due to mechanics.

I'd rather say "every dungeon is a DPS race because many "high-DPS" players refuse to learn and play the mechanics/

Ch4mpTW wrote: »

ZOS needs overhaul the entire game, and actually adjust things appropriately. Don’t listen to the top 1% claiming that every single thing they touch is far too easy, while also not listening to the extremely casual players who pretty much run around with double bow builds; light attacking and sniping everything. Find a middle grounds, and stick to it no matter what.

110% agreed.

Anyone can start a new group and do trials if you're willing to practice and learn mechanics. I did my first vAS hardmode clear with a new group, most of them havent even done +1 versions... But still we did it. It wasnt the first try (not even tenth) but still its completely possible. You dont even need guides: my group started vHoF on pts so we had to figure out the mechanics on our own.
If there are people on your platform that are not willing to teach new players, why not to start a new guild? Theres many players who would like to get trial achievements so it wont be too hard to find enough players.
Im not being sarcastic, I just dont understand this "elitism" argument.

greylox

Plenty of people play this game but never touch 'end game' raids or similar because there's a lot to do and not everyone likes that sorta thing. The casual guild I'm in is going strength to strength.

Seraphayel

PS4 EU is quite populated. The only problem I have is with battleground waiting times (over the day 30 minutes and more and even in the evening sometimes 10 minutes or more - that's too much!).

anitajoneb17_ESO

LadyNalcarya wrote: »

If there are people on your platform that are not willing to teach new players, why not to start a new guild?

Vaughndaunted wrote: »

We give our builds. Hitting 40k dps is easy after practice and understanding concepts @anitajoneb17_ESO . It’s really a concept and flow. We endgamers post videos with explanation. Check out my YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHppgAsLASp6-d3_Gfr-9ug

Answering both of you :

- I want to play. Not do homework and study videos. Besides, many videos are not very educational and "show" instead of "teaching" or even "explaining".
- Regardless, I've watched many videos and builds. They do 45K, I do 20K DPS, with the very same copy/pasted gear and rotation (besides Maelstroem weapons which I don't have). That's it.
- I once had a guild. I mean, I was running one. My priority was the social aspect, that people would feel safe, happy, surrounded by friends. Not about performance. It's been successful for two years and got destroyed by an end-game player joining and trying to "teach" everyone...
- People want to play, not work, not learn.
- Remember it's not "average" players complaining about not being "good enough". It's YOU, top players, who complain about not having enough like-minded fellows to play with.
- It's not for us to work and reach 45K DPS, it's YOU who have to learn and accept to play with 15-20K DPS players (which, as a reminder, is ENOUGH if you play mechanics).
- I have plenty of friends in the end-game scene. Not doing 45K DPS and therefore NOT joining their core-raid-team preserves me from all the drama and disputes and to remain friends with everyone. They also carry me if they feel like it and if I ask them to. Guess what ? High DPS groups and burn strategies are BORING. I have far more fun with my close friends, who also pull 20K, because we play with the mechanics and those mechanics are far more fun than constantly focusing on rotation and DPS.

LadyNalcarya wrote: »

Im not being sarcastic, I just dont understand this "elitism" argument.

I'm not being sarcastic either. Just trying to explain how we, correct-but-not-top players feel. Now you can either adapt accordingly - or expect other players to change the way you want - good luck with that.
I have beaten vet Falkreath Hold HM while being carried (I needed the achievement to buy the Haakvild Hall). With my regular friends, we yet have to beat that minotaur boss on vet regular mode. I have more fun trying hard (albeit failing) with them than burning it down in 4 minutes with my high-DPS friends (whom I'm thankful to regardless for carrying me once).

aeowulf

I'd love to see 2 man content scaling, and 3, 5, 6 etc. One tamriel gave us monster/player scaling and it revolutionised ESO for me. I'd love to see the same principles applied to other content. I can see it making finder a little more flexible, lots of DPS queueing? no probs, we'll pop 4 DPS in this group with a tank + healer and send them into a tougher Wayrest Sewers. Too few? we'll use 1. If i have 4 friends playing, then I don't really want to be left out, or say no to someone, or limited to (soloable) dolmens

I'd love to see a new scored 2 man content like vMA

I'd love to see the days of lag free EPIC 300+ player cyrodiil battles again

I'd love to see CP expanded to include stuff like swim speed, run speed, and diminishing returns applied to more things

I'd love to see more variation in item sets, including more sets not limited to 2 or 5 pieces. What about 4? or 6 or 7? Especially at end game. I feel like I can roughly guess the sets coming in the next content...

I'd love if I could wear my ring of mara... maybe it should 'mirror' the other ring you have equipped + give your 10% exp bonus. Or at least let us put it in the outfit slot?

I'd love all classes to be viable in all roles at all levels.

I'd love to see the gap between skilled & unskilled players lessened, a lot.

I'd love to see more mechanics and less DPS race. Less running around out of AOE, which is all I seem to do sometimes. Things like RoM have great mechanics, but these are almost ruined/hidden by the amount of AE or mobs that are present on screen. I wish the content was more 'contentful' and less 'must kill' What about dungeons that require sneaking? What about content needing only 2 tanks & 2 healers? or 4 DPS? or 4 all rounders?

Vaughndaunted

@anitajoneb17_ESO you skyshard hunt, lorebook hunt, farm dungeons, mats, etc... you have to study google and various maps unless you do it blind, and that could take months. What’s the difference of being given a tool and utilizing it? Why recreate the wheel instead of making the current one better? All I ask is ESO provide more activities other than dps based content. We need fun activities that reward us.

LadyNalcarya

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

LadyNalcarya wrote: »

If there are people on your platform that are not willing to teach new players, why not to start a new guild?

Vaughndaunted wrote: »

We give our builds. Hitting 40k dps is easy after practice and understanding concepts @anitajoneb17_ESO . It’s really a concept and flow. We endgamers post videos with explanation. Check out my YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHppgAsLASp6-d3_Gfr-9ug

Answering both of you :

- I want to play. Not do homework and study videos. Besides, many videos are *** and "show" instead of "teach" or even "explain".
- Regardless, I've watched many videos and builds. They do 45K, I do 20K DPS, with the very same copy/pasted gear and rotation (besides Maelstroem weapons which I don't have). That's it.
- I once had a guild. I mean, I was running one. My priority was the social aspect, that people would feel safe, happy, surrounded by friends. Not about performance. It's been successful for two years and got destroyed by an end-game player joining and trying to "teach" everyone...
- People want to play, not work, not learn.
- Remember it's not "average" players complaining about not being "good enough". It's YOU, top players, who complain about not having enough like-minded fellows to play with.
- It's not for us to work and reach 45K DPS, it's YOU who have to learn and accept to play with 15-20K DPS players (which, as a reminder, is ENOUGH if you play mechanics).
- I have plenty of friends in the end-game scene. Not doing 45K DPS and therefore NOT joining their core-raid-team preserves me from all the drama and disputes and to remain friends with everyone. They also carry me if they feel like it and if I ask them to. Guess what ? High DPS groups and burn strategies are BORING. I have far more fun with my close friends, who also pull 20K, because we play with the mechanics and those mechanics are far more fun than constantly focusing on rotation and DPS.

LadyNalcarya wrote: »

Im not being sarcastic, I just dont understand this "elitism" argument.

I'm not being sarcastic either. Just trying to explain how we, correct-but-not-top players feel. Now you can either adapt accordingly - or expect other players to change the way you want - good luck with that.
I have beaten vet Falkreath Hold HM while being carried (I needed the achievement to buy the Haakvild Hall). With my regular friends, we yet have to beat that minotaur boss on vet regular mode. I have more fun trying hard (albeit failing) with than burning it down in 4 minutes with my high-DPS friends (whom I'm thankful to regardless for carrying me).

First of all, thank you for a serious answer.
Of course, people have different priorities, but "learning how to play" doesnt nessesarily mean something bad. Its like those oldschool puzzle games and quests: yes, you have to think and try to figure them out, but its still a part of the game and its still fun.
As for dps requirements, yes, theyre technically doable with 20k dps. The tricky part is that you would have to master the mechanics to be able to do that. High dps is easier to achieve than being able to play the mechanics flawlessly, thats why vAS is arguably the hardest hardmode in the game (basically no one is allowed to die), and with high dps numbers you at least have a room for mistakes.
vAS hardmode is possible if you do dps consistently but with lower dps the fight will take 30+ minutes. If someone dies, loss of dps will cause one of minibosses to enrage and it usually wipes the group. Of course, dpsing for 20 minutes is stressful, not to mention those overlapping mechanics - you can get lightning storm and poison blast at the same time, for example, and if you die to that, the group will probably wipe (timings in this fight are very tricky to manage).
Or vMoL hardmode, for example. You can do that with lower dps, thats for sure. Theres even an achievement for killing Rakkhat in less than 2 lunar cycles. But killing him in less than one is much easier. I did it back when it was nearly impossible to skip lunar phase, and it was a huge roadblock. Also, runners arent allowed to die or miss the shades, and of course, more runs means more chances to screw up. And of course, no one is allowed to get cursed or explode in group.
So yeah, raid leaders have 2 choices: either they set dps requirements and have more "relaxed" runs or everyone would have to play flawlessly. As strange as it sounds, the first option is easier and less stressful. I mean, 10 minutes of dpsing the boss and avoiding deadly mechanics is easier than doing this for 30 minutes...
That being said, different people enjoy different things, nothing wrong with that. Just wanted to say that there's more to this "guild requirements" thing than just elitism.

Asardes

Yes, quests are fun up to a point, but once you finish them 2-3 times on different chars they feel like a chore, knowing you've already heard all the dialogue, and you just want those skill points faster. I've done every non-repeatable quest on 5 chars and that's enough for me and I suspect ~95% of the player base. I simply can't bear to repeat them anymore because I see it as an unbearably boring chore. So the only thing left at this point is simply to improve my builds, my rotation, and progress end game content, meaning new dungeon hard modes and veteran trials, on those chars, filling different roles and also getting better at PvP. That's basically it for me. If I fail a few times at those I do the necessary adjustments and come back yet more determined to succeed. I simply find stagnation or degradation of my gameplay unbearable.

I don't care about virtually care-bear-hugging total strangers on Discord - I only enter voice chat for trials, if I am learning mechanics and need better coordination - telling tall-tales on zone or guild chat or using various animations on my characters in populated areas. Probably it's either my age - at 35 maybe I'm not that inclined to do childish things anymore - my lack of time - I work a full time job and I want to use my in game time as effectively as possible - and my general disposition - I'm pretty focused on improving the efficiency and squeezing maximum results in every situation. Generally I don't discuss personal aspects in game and I strictly enforce a wall of separation between my real persona and gamer identity.

srfrogg23

I don’t get worried when the end game content players start to dwindle down. In every MMO I’ve played, there’s always a substantial ebb and flow there. The end game raider crowd tends to shoot themselves in the foot with unreasonably high expectations and overly restrictive requirements for newcomers until they lose too many guild members through attrition, then they loosen up and allow more fresh blood to participate. When they get the participation back up, they tighten up again until they lose too many people. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Now, if the more relaxed (“casual”) content starts to die out, that’s when I get worried. Happily, participation in normal and vet dungeons is high enough to keep queue times under 20 minutes and every other bit of the open world content is still pretty well populated.