Most of the people I've known in this game have quit over the past seven years from bad decisions and unresolved issues with the game. Rather than focus on fixing the glaring issues, they've done small QoL changes for the past two years.

While QoL is appreciated, more pressing issues like the fact that PvE punishes you for taking on a challenge rather than smashing things that require no effort consistently get overlooked.

PvP is an even bigger joke if that's believable.

Imagine making one of the most engaging and expressive combat systems in an MMO just to give players no way to have fun with it.

Remove crystal penalties to let players have fun and punch up, bringing challenge and enjoyment to PvE.

Add actual PvP modes that anyone can play at anytime. Like a AoS gear system that you've already designed RBF, Slayer, Team Death Match, King of the Hill, Prebuilt NW skirmishes. This will give people an approachable learning environment that is easy to que into and fast with low respawn time.

I can't even comprehend how out of touch the people making the decisions for the game right now are.

Yeah, the PvP 'content' in this game (including 'War of the Roses') feels more like MOBA or Battle Royale than actual meaningful PvP...

Or like an online version of Dead or Alive, Tekken, or Mortal Kombat (only not as fun)...

you can play those games for fun you know, just drop em when the "new" feel wears off and grind sets in. MMO arent a life dedication game for every1

Even if I have to grind for mats to upgrade my items or skills, I'll do that by quests/contract or dungeons with my friends or guild. I'm playing on CBT now and it's super fun. 

Compared to bdo where you have to grind for 25/30h to get one debo attempt and burn everything in a second im fine with TL upgrading system.

If you are super lucky or life skiller you'll enjoy bdo but for most it's like a second job but with no profit on the end. 

Rofl very true. It is the best game to play while actively doing something else lol. 

I'll eat the downvotes, but they have been trying to inject life in BDO probably since they gave out TRI Boss gear (relatively soon after I started playing for real.) Post COVID, there just wasn't much going on. People would come back and then leave again. There was an influx at various times, like new character releases, hammer gifts... the game is pretty much toast at this point.

It's tough because it's still fun somewhat to do certain things, but if the game is on a downward trend and it has no real future, is it worth doing those things? I believe most people have decided NO, and that's why they are adding more predatory things, to keep sucking money out of the people who are around.

My VP is all but finished, and I have only logged in to check to see if I got super lucky and won one. Sad.

Just here to add my comment to the comment count. 
I see the same doom & gloom sentiment ya'll are expressing, everywhere. BDO feels like it might be entering the twilight years of its lifespan, PA reaching out with events and discounts to try to secure whatever logins & sales they still can. Lots of older players have built these very strong consistent habits & routines with the game, so it'll be a while before they give up - it's so easy to just carry on with that inertia of logging in, doing the AFK minimum, saying hi to the guild, etc. But I also see more older players just finally stop and actually log out.

I'll always enjoy grinding and gambling and all the rest that BDO offers, but things really do seem quieter in the gameworld these days. Even the content creators seem less enthusiastic. Maybe we're all just depressed or something, lol? I'm probably due to touch grass for a while soon. 

Commenting here just to also voice my frustrations with this company lately, it's hard sometimes to keep enjoying this game when you get disheartened with shit like the new crystal coupons every second patch or so.

I wish they'd invest proper time into reworking a lot of things in this game to make it a better experience. I have a tiiiny hunch that all these decisions are not coming from the dev team, but the greedy executives that, as always, only see short-term profits and have no ability to think of longevity for something they just see as a quick money maker. I won't ever buy these crystal recovery expansions, and neither should anybody else that likes playing this game, because it just encourages them to do more of this. It feels like a desperate attempt to cover the losses they've been making and it'll come and bite them in their butts eventually because I don't think anyone could really recommend this game to anybody as it is right now. It's fun, sure, but why would I recommend a game to somebody that is hellbent on milking the cash out of its playerbase as much as humanly possible instead of prioritizing gameplay, content and performance.
I absolutely would pay for an optional monthly subscription that gives me all three pearl shop buffs and some extra or whatever, but only if that meant that they'd finally prioritize fixing this game instead of applying bandaids everywhere. I can't imagine them keeping their promise to keep this game going for years to come if they're doing.. this.

Yeah this was an absolute mockery of a "fix" to the glaring crystal breakage issues. I want an improved crystal system so badly and this is conversely so disappointing for that reason. I've already been thinking about slowing down on this game and this is the push to do that. Maybe if I come back to the game at some point in the future, it will be fixed then... right..? Good luck to everyone on their grinding and gambling! May your crystals stay whole and your profits bountiful.

I don't think they can actually fix this game because if they could we would be in a different spot by now. Only thing they push is the cash shop.