What I see is People logged in for LoML, the T9 event a tiny bit, but mostly because Lost Ark was on a content break.  Then when all the LA streamers went back to LA, all their lemmings went back to LA as well, and that 10k new players just poof went away.

Too late tho, the "new players" destroyed BDO with their demands to be more like the game they were on break from, then after all those changes went in they left, most left before the changes went in.  

There is crafting, its called "enchanting".

It's not possible to both have proper, meaningfull crafting system and cash shop aided enchanting at the same time.

Also you are not even right, the overwhelming majority of the mmos have almost useless crafting system, altrough they still better than bdo's.

There was a time that this did happen i remember it well, the community needs something so out there to react to and get them moving were PA has found ways to take little bits at a time and it wont stir the pot.

Now a lot of us are at end game to find there is nothing left.. The over all community was too complacent while trying to get through the 650-700 GS that up until the past year and a half was so far out of reach it felt like climbing a mountain.

NOW i think a lot of players are coming to the realization that the world is now a empty lonely place, everything that made BDO great to keep 30-40k players logging in for 7 years is no longer there.

Our small community of PvP'rs is shrinking as well as the over all community is.. we have no more interactions between players, NW scene is more about scripting. PA has slowly over time made it to were everything is capped and NO ONE  but those few of us yourself included Peace were here in these forums sounding the alarms.

Now after all the changes over the last 2 months it has driven most of the players right out of BDO... So what is PA's reactions???

Lets just increase damage for PVE so it will make the classes stronger to grind with.... so YUP lets toss out a bone and everyone will be happy cuz yah know the most misserable experiance in Black Desert Online running around in circles for 1000's of hours will keep at least 20% of the top players pushing for gear without complaints.. and the rest of the 80% dont give a Shit anyway.

FIXING PVE GRINDING TO MAKE IT EASIER IS NOT CONTENT IN BLACK DESERT ONLINE...

BRO we need to get people with some common sense in here and help us with a voice cuz BDO in my opinion wont be here when games like Chrono Odssey or hell even Crimson made by this company comes out. Players are already looking for a different outlet the second one comes out this game is done and NO amount of advertisment will save it.

We need Actual content to Bring us back to being a MMORPG not a single player game, Multi player grind spots, more open world content that can be done that will only give a specific reward that is worth the time you spend doing it .... Open the dungeons we do have to be continuous that you wont have to wait a week to do them again.. give rewards for fastest clears... ALLOW PLAYERS TO INTERFEAR WITH RUNS give us a reason to play this game not a reason to leave it.

You are 100% correct in your assumption some came from LA others from AsmondGolds snivling ass you can pick were it came from...

The explanation is that PA in its response to its new found Hype and expansion of its player base found it was easier to apease the New people than it was to rally around the veterans and long term players that stuck with this current state of a shit game that PA created...

Those of us that fell in love with the world of BDO and have stuck it out through all the let downs and PA falling on its face AND are still here waiting for Some little hint that PA will actually for once LOOK IN OUR DIRECTION and do the right thing to make this game awesome..

My Hopeum is running out though and not sure how many more of these idiotic directions that PA is choosing to go with  i can follow with them, i will eventually move on as i am seeing a lot of my guild mates already going.

@ReconKangas

Yeah man, complete agree with everything you said.  What BDO is lacking is meaningful group content -- things it had in the past, but got eliminated for a solo-player experience.  BDO was already way more solo-oriented than other MMO's, and this aspect is one thing that made BDO special, but it's undeniable that group content is what makes any MMORPG shine.  Like, why would we play an MMO if it weren't for player to player interactions?

Back in the day, we had Sausans and Pirates.  These spots frequently had people looking to group up in main rotation -- but you had the option of grinding other rotations solo.  Epic battles would be fought in these zones.  Anyone remember Lacari's ManUp vids?  I know you do.  Those vids will live on forever as BDO legendary tales.  Same with Pirate Island -- my most fond BDO memory is a massive multi-guild GvG that broke out that lasted hours -- freaking EPIC.  Even things like walking up to a group of strangers and asking if you could party with them.  Those little things that made BDO feel "MMO-y", know what I mean?  Those kinds of lasting memories and experiences are far and few these days it seems.  Now, everyone just does their own thing and even hearing or reading the word "PvP" triggers PTSD or something in some people, as evidenced a lot in this forum. 

"Meaningful" I think is a word that can be easily misconstrued, but ImPansy and Shaky's recent video on YouTube describes it all very well.  But even things like fighting over GK's...actual PvEvP content.

Bring back meaningful group content.  More lucrative group grind zones.  Gatekeeper-like mobs.  Elite farming.  Incentivise PvP as a tangible form of progression instead of a silver sink.  Almost every MMO has tangible ways to progress via PvP, but not BDO.  People can love or hate PvP, whatever, but it's group content and is meaningful group content.  Produce content that is actually FUN (do the devs actually know what "fun" is?  Honest question).  Give us more avenues to use the gear we worked for (uncapped PvE / PvP / PvEvP).  Keep AoS permanent, at least the unranked part and tie good rewards for AoS.  Don't make NW's / siege a silver sink, develop it better so we aren't literally wasting time PvP'ing.  Dungeons, allow us to do these more frequently.  

The devs have made a lot of good changes to make the game more streamlined and easier to get into, that's great --- now, what we need is a reason to stay.  Because you're right -- after a certain point, you start to realize there's little incentive to stick around and little meaning to playing the game since it's so focused on the single player aspect and heavily lacks in group content (PvE and PvP) and meaningful gear progression -- things that make an MMORPG and MMORPG.  My hopeium is running on low too, my friend...

What I think personally is that both the PvE and PvP players should have a way to motivate the players to progress in a way.

What one should ask him/herself is what would make and keep players motivated to progress in the game? Materials dropping left and right? % chance increase on outdated gear that's no longer BIS? Increased silver gain? Or make some kind of a group content with rewards to keep the players want to do that said content. Rewards they strongly would need nor or in the near future. What's being most sought after?

There might be other options and I am open to read them. But I will say it again. From my perspective the game has like "high risk low reward" (not literally) right now to keep going for the BIS gear. What's the point of getting it, when it has almost no uses other than mindless running in circles?

PvP is ok, you got nodewars and solare, stop complaining you can't compare a 3month player gerar to a 5 year player.

Well Solare is around for 3 months and then is gone for 6 months or longer.  So that really is an invalid argument.

Node Wars is all Gear capped, so no need to get gear.  That point was addressed in the initial post.  

Catch up mechanics are one thing, making it so that progressing beyond a certain point is pointless is another problem all together.  

If I suddenly get 10% more powerful I should be able to do 10% more, instead you get 10% stronger gear, and you are maybe 0.1% better than you were before a massive gain.  Gear caps are stupid, limiting what you can do to the loot speed of pets is also stupid.  Every time something players enjoy is found, it's like PA has an obsession with deleting whatever that was.