so my ranger has small ass ?

It depends on your definition of empty.  The day you can't log in is the day it would be empty.  I have played games with fewer than 1000 regular users.  When the community is very small you actually feel more like a close knit family or a cult.  It has been my experience, with online games in the millions, the people are just strangers, unless you join a guild or a cult.

There is an ebb to all online games.  The population starts out huge and then crashes down to a level it will remain near, slowly losing numbers over the years... just like bitcoin.  The number will only reach zero the day the game goes offline... just like bit coin.  By the way, I don't recommend joining any cults or buying bitcoin or joining a bitcoin cult.  These are bad ideas.

Hav fun!

oh wonder. thats what i told you back in 2020, this game is a better Benchmark product.

The only thriving content they added the last few years is Valencia RBF. and i could play the game just for this gamemode alone. But the genius in our developer didn't saw the need to give RBF decent rewards. so you basically cant progress through playing RBF. Sandbox game my arse...

I would argue with it. After the initial hype went down, there is no any kind of difference in RBF playercount, compared to before valencia was added.

Yeah players do join to the valencia one.... cause it's on the top of the list, and the overwhelming mayority joins to the first rbf they see with lot of players. The biggest reason why gramoth one died was that it was put on the bottom of the list and noone bothered scroll down.

The new rbf map is kinda AIDS. Ranged classes camping on roofs, ppl getting collided to death on the narrow streets, that also full of literal garbage objects blocking path/hits. Hits constantly not registering due to the poor engine can't handle even the slighest elavation.... Also the camera can't even handle properly if you're close to objects. You literately don't see shit in some places.

This map would be decent for an fps game, but not for a mmo.

Not to mentioning that while they at least added some point system, it's shit, since they lack of experience, and was too lazzy to check other games how points in capture games should work.

90% of MMORPGs are empty right now and that's because of many factors.

#1. Everyone tried to compete against FF14 for expansions (Endwalker). This is because WoW was a dying game and everyone wanted a piece of that pie. Now that said content dried up since people have the attention span of a flea and can only focus on completing one objective before calling it the day, they left for other games. FF14 is almost just as dead as BDO right now because of the 4 month release cycles (way too long).

#2. Other games. A lot of other games released since December. Start wtih FF7:R and make your way to Elden Ring and other games that are huge hits. You can argue they're not MMORPGs but that doesn't matter because people will gladly leave their favorite MMO for what's hip and new until they eventually get bored with it.

#3. GW2 Expansion. They were smart not to compete with FF14 because they knew they couldn't. Do you know anyone who still plays it? Probably not. But now that GW2 had a new expansion and I hear it's good -- many people left to go try it.

#4. Delays. Pearl Abyss loves to do this and your guess on why is as good as mine. But people are tired of delays and sudden last minute changes. It's easy to just take a break in a free-to-play game like BDO. IF BDO were a subscription based game, people would feel more compelled to stay, it's just the nature of MMORPGs after all. But it's not about numbers here, it's about whales and normal people buying things from the pearl market. Anybody else would pretty much be considered leechers right? The more you invest your money into something, the more value you artifically add and the less likely you'll leave. Most people don't pay a dime into this game and whent here are dry spells, it's easy to see said people leave for a few months. Personally I think if they would interact with their fans more, less people would leave during delays and dry months.

#5. AFK is like 80% of what the population does. Do you meet dozens of people outside into the unknown? Probably not except in popular grind spots and usually only during peak hours. People have to go to school, or work, or have a life to attend to. BDO is tailored to support these lifestyles without falling too far behind.

#6. End Game. What's to do? What are your goals once you beat the story, have TET boss armor and weapons? You could go for the good stuff, yes... But to amass such a fortune would take eons. You gradually can make more and more silver per hour but again, who has the time? Very few and most people won't want to do this type of stuff or even care for RNG end-game mechanics since it's overwhemingly punishing. Remember, almost all gamers aren't hardcore gamers! This is super important to realize and why people just DGAF and AFK most of the time once they reach a certain point and why the game seems empty. Do you really want to deal with DFS 5 times an hour? No. You spent 30 minutes to get to your grind spot and used all of your buffs, why do you have to deal with other people's nonsense?  You were there first. Obviously if you're into that sort of thing then that's that. But again, most people aren't hardcore gamers and don't care about this and just want to efficiently do their grind so they can one day reach their milestone.

#7. Unfair PvP. For a game that is all about advertising its amazing PvP combat mechanics well... You know.... It's a shame that you're a Shai in a Striker world am I right? Group content balances itself out pretty okay from what I hear. I'm just not into it and PvP is very, very niche to begin with.

BDO could easily be better with a bunch of minimal changes but IDK what they are working on anymore and can only hope they are working on something great. They sat on potential, but also made billions of dollars so it works for them I guess? There's other factors to consider on why people aren't here right now but at the end of the day it's because people constantly need new things to keep them interested and motivated to keep playing.

And yet it is the BEST pvp content they have added in 6 years. Nodewars are crippled. Castle ruins is crippled to hospital. It was a okay map in 2017 with a shitty spawn. Now its hilariously bad map with one open space infront of your spawn, so every wizard aoe hits you on the way out. With these bullcrap artificial carpetbuff you get on low hp. Valencia city shows what kind of gamer this game has. No map awareness. No positioning. dont play with the terrain. Just throw your protected nukes at one spot does not work here anymore.

At least grinding is less of a struggle.

With the recent events going on, I thought I will go to Cadry's in a season server for some peaceful grinding. I guess whole server had the same idea. 

This last Saturday seige was so crowded that servers could barely keep up. 

BDO did lose a lot of casual players but some are trickling back in. Hunting spots are crowded now.

I can't speak for the entirety of grind spots on Seasonal, but S3, S4, and S-Arsha at Tshira, Kagtums, and Narcion Hunting was packed.  When you find 4 people on S-Arsha at one grind spot you really can't claim that BDO is empty.