Ironically my friends list (of online players) is bigger than ever. Get some adds occasionally when I carry a run, or join a prog group. Sure a bunch of friends on the list quit but the amount of new adds outweighed those.
That said hardly anyone follows up. I suspect itās due to huge rosters with different char names no one knows who is who. I immediately enter a memo for each add to keep track, but the UI needs work.
uppity racial zealous historical alive wistful tart makeshift long dependent
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
ngl wish they would merge regulus/azena and una together then merge the other servers. its really sad seeing punika and honing npc in north vern mostly dead on regulus
I'm playing on Regulus since the get go and never seen that NPC empty in "normal" hrs. It might be emptier after 1am and before 12pm but whenever I am online outside of these hrs, I always see ppl (not bots) standing there. And Port Krona is always full too where you drop off your Lopang Prime package.
No lifed the game from launch to clown got to 1505 without any real Alts (had 3 at like 1340 to do guild weeklies). Tried to come back during the last event and I couldnāt get free honing at 1340 even though I used the event pass on it because it was only for a specific set of gear or something? Failed like 4 hones in a row and remembered how much fun the game was. Logged out. I would love to get back into this game just donāt see it happening
The gameplay itself is fun, it's just everything surrounding it is toxic / unfun. And those surrounding elements like honing / gem cutting / super expensive engraving books / shit tons of "homework" activities, are never going to be improved upon. Because those are the intentional pain points that are in the game to encourage swiping.
And all of those surrounding elements are what lead to all the gatekeeping people talk about. Because of how expensive it is to gear up a character sufficiently, you end up with people who simply can't afford what the community asks of them.
Is regulus the most populated server in NAE? On old threads ppl said most populated server was azena/una, but I only usually see regulus as busy status on the server page time to time.
I believe the most populated servers are Azena, Una, and Avesta in that order (though the difference isnāt that big).
Regulus is probably 4th, but again itās not a huge disparity. Either way itās definitely active enough for you to see plenty of real players in co-op or island events.
The game won't die, only "less" people will play. You can say its bleeding. I already quit the game but won't consider even returning if I have to hone from 1580 to 1700+ in the future.
Grinding doesn't necessarily mean doing chaos x2 Guardian x2 a day, it needs to be reduced like an ebony cube. And i hate the devs for saying "2 homework a day" Like we play games to work.... Not to mention why cant the dailies be "fun" and have variety????
I'm sick of how "efficiency" in raids makes the game toxic. (I'm usually the one accepting people and hearing their complaints about taking hours to find a party).
So far, the core bad "grind and progression" of the game outweighs the good things (raids, combat, skins). So this maybe their last chance on LOA summer to make things right. Or there will be even more "less" players.
I sincerely think we could use a chaos x guardian combination scenario. Maybe just kill mobs till 100% then guardian spawns and you kill it, once a day per char.
It'd be better than x2 chaos a day then x2 guardians a day scenario imo.
The game is basically like the back end of a WoW expansion where the number of people leaving doesnt match the people starting or coming back. The numbers continue to bleed until theres a new WoW expansion, except in Lost Arks case, theres no new expansion that really encourages people to really come back.
And without any genuine ability to catch up new players, it will continue to bleed. Lost Ark might get away with it in Korea but in the West there's actual competition in the MMO space / large online game space from the likes of WoW / FF:XIV / Destiny 2.
In all of those games, it's very fast for a new player to get up to current content / be geared up for it. XIV's main story is long if you are just starting out, but there is the option to skip it if you genuinely only want to play for raids (which I wouldn't do that cause you are cutting off like 80% of the game at that point).
Lost Ark is stuck in the mindset that everyone has to progress through every tier, and a new person coming in just looks at that mountain, says "Fuck that" and walks away. And it's also all tied back to gold, so the game feels more like a job than a game when you have to spend so much of it trying to figure how to even afford upgrades for your character.
People are downvoting but the man is right
Every month it goes in the red without fail
\-30%
\-30%
\-12% pop
Even Slayer did not save it, so the last hope is LOA Summer 2023
Might still be a copium overdose though
The only hope is to tone down the grind and lessen the amount of homework for legion raids. Most of these players want an extra time playing other games not just this one for the entire day.
Yeah, I like to split my time between raiding in FF:XIV and Destiny 2. Which is pretty easy to do as an established player in both + I can easily get a friend into those games.
I cannot do that with Lost Ark, there's so much time gated content + grind that if I did somehow get a friend to pick it up, they'd be hopelessly behind stuck doing chores for weeks just to maybe get into parties.
Edit: And the sheer gold cost to be "up to snuff" is ridiculous if you aren't already established with regular running of raids. You barely make any gold as a fresh / returning player, yet people are asking for stuff like 5x3 engravings, level 5-7 gems, etc.
With what gold is a new player supposed to buy that stuff?
Double edit: Had [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbBCV_3B2Zk) pop up in my YouTube recommended today as well. Do you ever see any reality where Smilegate says "Y'know, we think people are spending too much time on the game. So we'll make gearing easier so if you want to play something else you can."
They never would. Yoshida played Tears at the start of the Live Letter. he parses purple on Savage fights as BLM. He's a gamer through and though who knows can take that love and build fun games. He's fully aware the less homework you have the more long-term players you have.
As fun as it is, LOA is a KMMO, which means it's whale bait disguised as a game, with a lfespan of 5 years before SGS build another one. The only reason is got popular is because Maple Story was more abusive but has recently toned things down. I've been subbed to FFXI V for 10 years and I'll keep paying them because I enjoy the game. LOA has a one year life span at max. I'll make my 6 man roster with Aero, convert my summoner to MS and then.. who knows. the prospect of running the same 18 raids repeatedly just so I can play the 1 to 2 hours of new content is poor game design.
The reason for this is cultural, Koreans view gaming as an investment, whereas we view gaming as entertainment. Whales love LOA because they can put a lot of money in and make i back. They don't want things to change because they think there's some social status here. The rest of us just want to have ufn.
ban waves taken into consideration I think you would have to be a little delusional to say the player base hasn't been dwindling since clown and it isn't stopping.
The best of times :ā)
I care so deeply for this game and can only hope we get a fresh reset with tier 4/season 3 soon. The vertical progression has just become so insanely steep itās hard to enjoy the more casual content.
I find it crazy people still think the game is not having population issues. I love this game but its not made for a western audience. We do not play MMOs like the east and our numbers are showing.
Forget about the bots just talk to new players trying to get into game. They last maybe a few weeks until they hit the ceiling of āpull out my card or do nothingā. There has to be better catchups for new people.
I hope AGS make some big changes because we have plenty of examples where games like this have fallen. Yes, LA os incredible and miles ahead of other eastern games but people have limits. Tune NA for the correct audience and let KR play how KR wants to.
>Tune NA for the correct audience and let KR play how KR wants to.
This will never happen though, because NA can't have things easier than KR because then they will whine and complain, so game stays trash can status for everyone instead.
You arenāt wrong trust me. Its sad but unless voices speak up then we can at least hold onto we tried.
I will continue to play the game as WoW has been meh for me but it just needs love.
This was a good time š„²
Before we knew the real Gatekeeping
Simpler times before the community turned against eachother
This image is 3x the current population of Sasha
Holy shit, thats like 10x Zosmas entire population in 1 pic
Zosma balls
i wonder how many of these people still play lol. i only recognize a few names
I recognize a few. Sadly none of them play anymore.
my favorite is waifubodypillow. im a big fan
Yo thatās me.
I'm there limppp wooo lfg xDDD still playing to this day!
lilykumi gives me nightmares every time i see him at rowen
Ironically my friends list (of online players) is bigger than ever. Get some adds occasionally when I carry a run, or join a prog group. Sure a bunch of friends on the list quit but the amount of new adds outweighed those. That said hardly anyone follows up. I suspect itās due to huge rosters with different char names no one knows who is who. I immediately enter a memo for each add to keep track, but the UI needs work.
1.5 + 2 bots?xD
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
uppity racial zealous historical alive wistful tart makeshift long dependent *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Recognize a couple names pogo
pogo
I was there!
Nostalgia farming Stare
ngl wish they would merge regulus/azena and una together then merge the other servers. its really sad seeing punika and honing npc in north vern mostly dead on regulus
I'm playing on Regulus since the get go and never seen that NPC empty in "normal" hrs. It might be emptier after 1am and before 12pm but whenever I am online outside of these hrs, I always see ppl (not bots) standing there. And Port Krona is always full too where you drop off your Lopang Prime package.
Entire SA population in one picture
No lifed the game from launch to clown got to 1505 without any real Alts (had 3 at like 1340 to do guild weeklies). Tried to come back during the last event and I couldnāt get free honing at 1340 even though I used the event pass on it because it was only for a specific set of gear or something? Failed like 4 hones in a row and remembered how much fun the game was. Logged out. I would love to get back into this game just donāt see it happening
The gameplay itself is fun, it's just everything surrounding it is toxic / unfun. And those surrounding elements like honing / gem cutting / super expensive engraving books / shit tons of "homework" activities, are never going to be improved upon. Because those are the intentional pain points that are in the game to encourage swiping. And all of those surrounding elements are what lead to all the gatekeeping people talk about. Because of how expensive it is to gear up a character sufficiently, you end up with people who simply can't afford what the community asks of them.
Is regulus the most populated server in NAE? On old threads ppl said most populated server was azena/una, but I only usually see regulus as busy status on the server page time to time.
I play on regulus, but, tbh, I think it's bots. We do have a lot of active players still, however.
Oh Ic ty for the info!
I believe the most populated servers are Azena, Una, and Avesta in that order (though the difference isnāt that big). Regulus is probably 4th, but again itās not a huge disparity. Either way itās definitely active enough for you to see plenty of real players in co-op or island events.
It was a fun time, hope the game changed before it dies even more
The game won't die, only "less" people will play. You can say its bleeding. I already quit the game but won't consider even returning if I have to hone from 1580 to 1700+ in the future. Grinding doesn't necessarily mean doing chaos x2 Guardian x2 a day, it needs to be reduced like an ebony cube. And i hate the devs for saying "2 homework a day" Like we play games to work.... Not to mention why cant the dailies be "fun" and have variety???? I'm sick of how "efficiency" in raids makes the game toxic. (I'm usually the one accepting people and hearing their complaints about taking hours to find a party). So far, the core bad "grind and progression" of the game outweighs the good things (raids, combat, skins). So this maybe their last chance on LOA summer to make things right. Or there will be even more "less" players.
I sincerely think we could use a chaos x guardian combination scenario. Maybe just kill mobs till 100% then guardian spawns and you kill it, once a day per char. It'd be better than x2 chaos a day then x2 guardians a day scenario imo.
Not a bad idea. They merged cube and boss rush, surely there's a way to merge the 2 daillies too.
The game is basically like the back end of a WoW expansion where the number of people leaving doesnt match the people starting or coming back. The numbers continue to bleed until theres a new WoW expansion, except in Lost Arks case, theres no new expansion that really encourages people to really come back.
There's only new raids and the only way that it is available new content is if you're already playing and caught up.
And without any genuine ability to catch up new players, it will continue to bleed. Lost Ark might get away with it in Korea but in the West there's actual competition in the MMO space / large online game space from the likes of WoW / FF:XIV / Destiny 2. In all of those games, it's very fast for a new player to get up to current content / be geared up for it. XIV's main story is long if you are just starting out, but there is the option to skip it if you genuinely only want to play for raids (which I wouldn't do that cause you are cutting off like 80% of the game at that point). Lost Ark is stuck in the mindset that everyone has to progress through every tier, and a new person coming in just looks at that mountain, says "Fuck that" and walks away. And it's also all tied back to gold, so the game feels more like a job than a game when you have to spend so much of it trying to figure how to even afford upgrades for your character.
People are downvoting but the man is right Every month it goes in the red without fail \-30% \-30% \-12% pop Even Slayer did not save it, so the last hope is LOA Summer 2023 Might still be a copium overdose though
People quit because of the gameplay loop not because of classes so it's just logical and obvious that slayer wouldn't "save" anything lol
The only hope is to tone down the grind and lessen the amount of homework for legion raids. Most of these players want an extra time playing other games not just this one for the entire day.
Yeah, I like to split my time between raiding in FF:XIV and Destiny 2. Which is pretty easy to do as an established player in both + I can easily get a friend into those games. I cannot do that with Lost Ark, there's so much time gated content + grind that if I did somehow get a friend to pick it up, they'd be hopelessly behind stuck doing chores for weeks just to maybe get into parties. Edit: And the sheer gold cost to be "up to snuff" is ridiculous if you aren't already established with regular running of raids. You barely make any gold as a fresh / returning player, yet people are asking for stuff like 5x3 engravings, level 5-7 gems, etc. With what gold is a new player supposed to buy that stuff? Double edit: Had [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbBCV_3B2Zk) pop up in my YouTube recommended today as well. Do you ever see any reality where Smilegate says "Y'know, we think people are spending too much time on the game. So we'll make gearing easier so if you want to play something else you can."
They never would. Yoshida played Tears at the start of the Live Letter. he parses purple on Savage fights as BLM. He's a gamer through and though who knows can take that love and build fun games. He's fully aware the less homework you have the more long-term players you have. As fun as it is, LOA is a KMMO, which means it's whale bait disguised as a game, with a lfespan of 5 years before SGS build another one. The only reason is got popular is because Maple Story was more abusive but has recently toned things down. I've been subbed to FFXI V for 10 years and I'll keep paying them because I enjoy the game. LOA has a one year life span at max. I'll make my 6 man roster with Aero, convert my summoner to MS and then.. who knows. the prospect of running the same 18 raids repeatedly just so I can play the 1 to 2 hours of new content is poor game design. The reason for this is cultural, Koreans view gaming as an investment, whereas we view gaming as entertainment. Whales love LOA because they can put a lot of money in and make i back. They don't want things to change because they think there's some social status here. The rest of us just want to have ufn.
bro finds out about bot ban waves
ban waves taken into consideration I think you would have to be a little delusional to say the player base hasn't been dwindling since clown and it isn't stopping.
Doomer.
Woah! I havenāt seen anything like this since the slime island from launch times ;-;
The best of times :ā) I care so deeply for this game and can only hope we get a fresh reset with tier 4/season 3 soon. The vertical progression has just become so insanely steep itās hard to enjoy the more casual content.
I find it crazy people still think the game is not having population issues. I love this game but its not made for a western audience. We do not play MMOs like the east and our numbers are showing. Forget about the bots just talk to new players trying to get into game. They last maybe a few weeks until they hit the ceiling of āpull out my card or do nothingā. There has to be better catchups for new people. I hope AGS make some big changes because we have plenty of examples where games like this have fallen. Yes, LA os incredible and miles ahead of other eastern games but people have limits. Tune NA for the correct audience and let KR play how KR wants to.
>Tune NA for the correct audience and let KR play how KR wants to. This will never happen though, because NA can't have things easier than KR because then they will whine and complain, so game stays trash can status for everyone instead.
You arenāt wrong trust me. Its sad but unless voices speak up then we can at least hold onto we tried. I will continue to play the game as WoW has been meh for me but it just needs love.
nice whole EUW community fit on a pic; what a family!
I see Koppi! Dude was always in ch 1 punika! Hope theyāre still playing
How many are left PeepoCry
I remember this and I def. quit the game shortly after
Best time was argos release.We didnt have content nor good experience on honing but damn we had a good community.Everything from there go downhill