Its not so much a labor system thats the problem as much as its the fact that labor is severely limited to the end that players might pay cash to acquire more labor on the marketplace.
And yes, it does stop you from doing activities you want to do. If you don't have labor, theres no fishing, no trade runs, no crafting and no farming just to name a few. If thats the reason a player wants to log on, they no longer have a reason unless they are willing to pay cash for it on a daily basis.
Why cash and not gold?
FWIW I was a trailblazer but play for free now, funding APEX mostly by just logging in for loyalty points in Europe.
Its true, you can use gold, but as long as other players pay with cash they are getting double the benefit from their labor potions. Thats one of the reasons I personally stopped. I don't care to compete against other peoples credit cards.
I understand how casual players that have trouble spending labor could see ArcheAge as a fun game. For those of us who play more competitively, its a slap in the face.
Well that's a whole other topic. I agree I'd rather have a sandbox be subscription than F2P with cash shop.
But the issue being addressed was whether the system "stops you from doing activities you want to do". I'm saying the system simply eats most of your profits.
Its not so much a labor system thats the problem as much as its the fact that labor is severely limited to the end that players might pay cash to acquire more labor on the marketplace.
And yes, it does stop you from doing activities you want to do. If you don't have labor, theres no fishing, no trade runs, no crafting and no farming just to name a few. If thats the reason a player wants to log on, they no longer have a reason unless they are willing to pay cash for it on a daily basis.
Why cash and not gold?
FWIW I was a trailblazer but play for free now, funding APEX mostly by just logging in for loyalty points in Europe.
Its true, you can use gold, but as long as other players pay with cash they are getting double the benefit from their labor potions. Thats one of the reasons I personally stopped. I don't care to compete against other peoples credit cards.
I understand how casual players that have trouble spending labor could see ArcheAge as a fun game. For those of us who play more competitively, its a slap in the face.
Well that's a whole other topic. I agree I'd rather have a sandbox be subscription than F2P with cash shop.
But the issue being addressed was whether the system "stops you from doing activities you want to do". I'm saying the system simply eats most of your profits.
Ya, but at what point does futility change gameplay from something you want to do, to something thats not even worth doing?
Its not so much a labor system thats the problem as much as its the fact that labor is severely limited to the end that players might pay cash to acquire more labor on the marketplace.
And yes, it does stop you from doing activities you want to do. If you don't have labor, theres no fishing, no trade runs, no crafting and no farming just to name a few. If thats the reason a player wants to log on, they no longer have a reason unless they are willing to pay cash for it on a daily basis.
Why cash and not gold?
FWIW I was a trailblazer but play for free now, funding APEX mostly by just logging in for loyalty points in Europe.
Its true, you can use gold, but as long as other players pay with cash they are getting double the benefit from their labor potions. Thats one of the reasons I personally stopped. I don't care to compete against other peoples credit cards.
I understand how casual players that have trouble spending labor could see ArcheAge as a fun game. For those of us who play more competitively, its a slap in the face.
Well that's a whole other topic. I agree I'd rather have a sandbox be subscription than F2P with cash shop.
But the issue being addressed was whether the system "stops you from doing activities you want to do". I'm saying the system simply eats most of your profits.
Ya, but at what point does futility change gameplay from something you want to do, to something thats not even worth doing?
[mod edit]
It is a simply bad game design, and a blatant cash grab aimed at making people pay more real cash to do normal gameplay activities, after a very short interval. And it upsets a lot of Western players, who do not like dipping into their wallet AGAIN just to play the game normally (as opposed to buying appearance and deco items and such in the cash shops, which I am personally not a fan of either).
Why should fishing and all the other activities that are not "labor" require you to use limited labor? Because Trion/XL want you to spend real money in the cash shop, even if you are paying a sub, and for no other reason.
All the excuses about limiting the economy and blah blah blah are just a bunch of crap: other crafting heavy games like UO, SWG, EvE, and others had none of this labor point nonsense and the economies there worked fine.
It is sad that an otherwise decent game fails on its business/payment model, for the most part, instead of just being a crap game, which AA isn't.
But in the end it is the same: bad game or badly run game, people do not keep playing, and the population drop off in AA has shown that.
All the excuses about limiting the economy and blah blah blah are just a bunch of crap: other crafting heavy games like UO, SWG, EvE, and others had none of this labor point nonsense and the economies there worked fine.
.......
What about the important diffrence of gear Item can decay and break (at least UO and SWG i know they did) whereas in Archeage they don't ?
LP is a very good mechanism to ensure items retain their value and make their value immune to any manipualtion attempts on the market, what ensures that crafting playstyle is viable on one side but also it doesnt dominates other playstyles.
That is even the more important point of it.
SWG was dominated by crafting for example, combat only playstyle made you being poor and stay poor.
Labor points ensure that different activities (craft vs combat vs explore) are more balanced in regards of economy.
I ll invite everyone who is intrested to follow scenario :
Take a crafter crafting a magnifcent set of armor (with the intention to sell it for gold).
Take a purse farmer having farmed 500 purses - also having killed 500 mobs. (with the intention to open them and sell contents for gold)
Take a pirate who captured a 20 pack merchant ship.
Take a miner who mined 500 nodes (with the intetion to sell everything mined that way)
Now put away labour cost, what is left ? and how to compare this situation in regards to playstyle activity at all if only the gold profit is left ? I for one know for sure what i would do n such a scenario.
All the excuses about limiting the economy and blah blah blah are just a bunch of crap: other crafting heavy games like UO, SWG, EvE, and others had none of this labor point nonsense and the economies there worked fine.
.......
What about the important diffrence of gear Item can decay and break (at least UO and SWG i know they did) whereas in Archeage they don't ?
LP is a very good mechanism to ensure items retain their value and make their value immune to any manipualtion attempts on the market, what ensures that crafting playstyle is viable on one side but also it doesnt dominates other playstyles.
That is even the more important point of it.
SWG was dominated by crafting for example, combat only playstyle made you being poor and stay poor.
Labor points ensure that different activities (craft vs combat vs explore) are more balanced in regards of economy.
You lost all credibility right there, did you ever even play SWG? I am guessing not.
Many people played a pure combat build and were not "poor". Some crafters were "rich" in the original pre NGE game, but not many as a percentage. Some were as a result of the time they put in.
AA has no decay, that is another of their poor design choices, along with the shitty, shitty, chances of making certain items on the first (and second and third) try.
The reason that your non-argument falls flat on its face is that you can overcome the "balance" you speak of by running to the cash shop. And most "dedicated" players do, every day, just like Trion wants them to. So the game is either P2W by design, or pay more to just play normally (even if you have a sub) by design, which is worse?
LP exist solely to require people buy potions in the cash shop. Period.
All of the fanboi excuses and rationalizations in the world hold no water in the face of reality.
Edit: And don't forget that Trion HAD decay in AA until whatever patch it was that took it out, but when they figured how much more they could make funneling people to the cash shop, they took it out. Which, coincidentally I am sure (not), also was done in the same time frame they reduced LP pools and regen by a LOT. Not an accident.
All the excuses about limiting the economy and blah blah blah are just a bunch of crap: other crafting heavy games like UO, SWG, EvE, and others had none of this labor point nonsense and the economies there worked fine.
.......
What about the important diffrence of gear Item can decay and break (at least UO and SWG i know they did) whereas in Archeage they don't ?
LP is a very good mechanism to ensure items retain their value and make their value immune to any manipualtion attempts on the market, what ensures that crafting playstyle is viable on one side but also it doesnt dominates other playstyles.
That is even the more important point of it.
SWG was dominated by crafting for example, combat only playstyle made you being poor and stay poor.
Labor points ensure that different activities (craft vs combat vs explore) are more balanced in regards of economy.
You lost all credibility right there, did you ever even play SWG? I am guessing not.
Many people played a pure combat build and were not "poor "
[compared to the rich crafters they were poor, to even make some credits they had to exploit the mission terminal with the AT-ST or have some Jedi Knights friends team with them on Krayts].
Some crafters were "rich" in the original pre NGE game, but not many as a percentage. Some were as a result of the time they put in.
[THATS THE WHOLE POINT, craft with no limit to dominate other playstyles need to be countered in a game offering same chences for eevry playstyle and or hardcore or casual habbit]
AA has no decay, that is another of their poor design choices, along with the shitty, shitty, chances of making certain items on the first (and second and third) try.
['No decay' gets hand in hand with RNG, thats the reason for RNG, you can put the decay away thats true but that require that players don't get all to bounded with their digital possesion, but the question is if players want to accumulate digital values, i think peaple tend to do so and thats why their belongings dont break counting in the efforts to get them]
The reason that your non-argument falls flat on its face is that you can overcome the "balance" you speak of by running to the cash shop. And most "dedicated" players do, every day, just like Trion wants them to. So the game is either P2W by design, or pay more to just play normally (even if you have a sub) by design, which is worse?
LP exist solely to require people buy potions in the cash shop. Period.
[Since the game went F2P, the cash shop is not up for discussion its a must, LP system was desgned before the decision to go free to play was taken like you also noticed in your edit, Since the free to play crowd dont have offline regen there must be a item that they need to buy - no game is free to play, wake up- to have about the same pool as patrons. The ill mentality of patrons that swim in LP and want MORE and NOW makes em buy them on top of their Patron, they not needed for a patron]
All of the fanboi excuses and rationalizations in the world hold no water in the face of reality.
Edit: And don't forget that Trion HAD decay in AA until whatever patch it was that took it out, but when they figured how much more they could make funneling people to the cash shop, they took it out. Which, coincidentally I am sure (not), also was done in the same time frame they reduced LP pools and regen by a LOT. Not an accident.
[and then KR and RU has even smaler pool and less regen and they seemingly aren't a whiney bunch crying for instant and more
Also we take again our pure combat guy, he had to fight thousands of mobs to get te gold for a decent armor and then--it breaks. Now he has again to collect the gold again to get the same armor. Now we look at the crafter, he is a fat on gold, no one holds him back to go ou and kill pplayers as wel, somepoint his armor breaks too, but now the difference, he has his replacement pretty much in few min back]
All the excuses about limiting the economy and blah blah blah are just a bunch of crap: other crafting heavy games like UO, SWG, EvE, and others had none of this labor point nonsense and the economies there worked fine.
.......
What about the important diffrence of gear Item can decay and break (at least UO and SWG i know they did) whereas in Archeage they don't ?
LP is a very good mechanism to ensure items retain their value and make their value immune to any manipualtion attempts on the market, what ensures that crafting playstyle is viable on one side but also it doesnt dominates other playstyles.
That is even the more important point of it.
SWG was dominated by crafting for example, combat only playstyle made you being poor and stay poor.
Labor points ensure that different activities (craft vs combat vs explore) are more balanced in regards of economy.
You lost all credibility right there, did you ever even play SWG? I am guessing not.
Many people played a pure combat build and were not "poor "
[compared to the rich crafters they were poor, to even make some credits they had to exploit the mission terminal with the AT-ST or have some Jedi Knights friends team with them on Krayts].
Some crafters were "rich" in the original pre NGE game, but not many as a percentage. Some were as a result of the time they put in.
[THATS THE WHOLE POINT, craft with no limit to dominate other playstyles need to be countered in a game offering same chences for eevry playstyle and or hardcore or casual habbit]
AA has no decay, that is another of their poor design choices, along with the shitty, shitty, chances of making certain items on the first (and second and third) try.
['No decay' gets hand in hand with RNG, thats the reason for RNG, you can put the decay away thats true but that require that players don't get all to bounded with their digital possesion, but the question is if players want to accumulate digital values, i think peaple tend to do so and thats why their belongings dont break counting in the efforts to get them]
The reason that your non-argument falls flat on its face is that you can overcome the "balance" you speak of by running to the cash shop. And most "dedicated" players do, every day, just like Trion wants them to. So the game is either P2W by design, or pay more to just play normally (even if you have a sub) by design, which is worse?
LP exist solely to require people buy potions in the cash shop. Period.
[Since the game went F2P, the cash shop is not up for discussion its a must, LP system was desgned before the decision to go free to play was taken like you also noticed in your edit, Since the free to play crowd dont have offline regen there must be a item that they need to buy - no game is free to play, wake up- to have about the same pool as patrons. The ill mentality of patrons that swim in LP and want MORE and NOW makes em buy them on top of their Patron, they not needed for a patron]
All of the fanboi excuses and rationalizations in the world hold no water in the face of reality.
Edit: And don't forget that Trion HAD decay in AA until whatever patch it was that took it out, but when they figured how much more they could make funneling people to the cash shop, they took it out. Which, coincidentally I am sure (not), also was done in the same time frame they reduced LP pools and regen by a LOT. Not an accident.
[and then KR and RU has even smaler pool and less regen and they seemingly aren't a whiney bunch crying for instant and more
Also we take again our pure combat guy, he had to fight thousands of mobs to get te gold for a decent armor and then--it breaks. Now he has again to collect the gold again to get the same armor. Now we look at the crafter, he is a fat on gold, no one holds him back to go ou and kill pplayers as wel, somepoint his armor breaks too, but now the difference, he has his replacement pretty much in few min back]
]
Blah Blah Blah. More empty BS to justify Trion sucking more money out people ALREADY PAYING A SUB (not even EA is so greedy with TOR and THAT is saying something) just to play the game normally. People pay a sub to play a game and do what they want to, and NOT get nickled and dimed to death, but not here.
That crap might fly in Asia (probably where you are), but not in the West, and thus the reasons for the serious population decline.
And that is all there is to say on the matter. None of the other BS you are spinning changes any of that.
All the excuses about limiting the economy and blah blah blah are just a bunch of crap: other crafting heavy games like UO, SWG, EvE, and others had none of this labor point nonsense and the economies there worked fine.
.......
What about the important diffrence of gear Item can decay and break (at least UO and SWG i know they did) whereas in Archeage they don't ?
LP is a very good mechanism to ensure items retain their value and make their value immune to any manipualtion attempts on the market, what ensures that crafting playstyle is viable on one side but also it doesnt dominates other playstyles.
That is even the more important point of it.
SWG was dominated by crafting for example, combat only playstyle made you being poor and stay poor.
Labor points ensure that different activities (craft vs combat vs explore) are more balanced in regards of economy.
You lost all credibility right there, did you ever even play SWG? I am guessing not.
Many people played a pure combat build and were not "poor "
[compared to the rich crafters they were poor, to even make some credits they had to exploit the mission terminal with the AT-ST or have some Jedi Knights friends team with them on Krayts].
Some crafters were "rich" in the original pre NGE game, but not many as a percentage. Some were as a result of the time they put in.
[THATS THE WHOLE POINT, craft with no limit to dominate other playstyles need to be countered in a game offering same chences for eevry playstyle and or hardcore or casual habbit]
AA has no decay, that is another of their poor design choices, along with the shitty, shitty, chances of making certain items on the first (and second and third) try.
['No decay' gets hand in hand with RNG, thats the reason for RNG, you can put the decay away thats true but that require that players don't get all to bounded with their digital possesion, but the question is if players want to accumulate digital values, i think peaple tend to do so and thats why their belongings dont break counting in the efforts to get them]
The reason that your non-argument falls flat on its face is that you can overcome the "balance" you speak of by running to the cash shop. And most "dedicated" players do, every day, just like Trion wants them to. So the game is either P2W by design, or pay more to just play normally (even if you have a sub) by design, which is worse?
LP exist solely to require people buy potions in the cash shop. Period.
[Since the game went F2P, the cash shop is not up for discussion its a must, LP system was desgned before the decision to go free to play was taken like you also noticed in your edit, Since the free to play crowd dont have offline regen there must be a item that they need to buy - no game is free to play, wake up- to have about the same pool as patrons. The ill mentality of patrons that swim in LP and want MORE and NOW makes em buy them on top of their Patron, they not needed for a patron]
All of the fanboi excuses and rationalizations in the world hold no water in the face of reality.
Edit: And don't forget that Trion HAD decay in AA until whatever patch it was that took it out, but when they figured how much more they could make funneling people to the cash shop, they took it out. Which, coincidentally I am sure (not), also was done in the same time frame they reduced LP pools and regen by a LOT. Not an accident.
[and then KR and RU has even smaler pool and less regen and they seemingly aren't a whiney bunch crying for instant and more
Also we take again our pure combat guy, he had to fight thousands of mobs to get te gold for a decent armor and then--it breaks. Now he has again to collect the gold again to get the same armor. Now we look at the crafter, he is a fat on gold, no one holds him back to go ou and kill pplayers as wel, somepoint his armor breaks too, but now the difference, he has his replacement pretty much in few min back]
]
Blah Blah Blah. More empty BS to justify Trion sucking more money out people ALREADY PAYING A SUB (not even EA is so greedy with TOR and THAT is saying something) just to play the game normally. People pay a sub to play a game and do what they want to, and NOT get nickled and dimed to death, but not here.
That crap might fly in Asia (probably where you are), but not in the West, and thus the reasons for the serious population decline.
And that is all there is to say on the matter. None of the other BS you are spinning changes any of that.
I don't see any effort in this reply put in trying to find arguments or reason to counter any of my points. You just keep repeating your mantra.
id come back and try it again but i refuse to play a game or support anything that treats you like a pile of crap..it would be nice if the game got rid of the cheaters / haxzors and chineese selling land for outlandish prices but highly doubt that either has been addressed ..so no
I am in total agreement. I played as founder also invested an extra $100:00 for in game items and I am not continuing past the point where me founders perks run out. It had such potential, a game I could live in and love. However the Korean idea of constant reliance on other players helping each other and failure for player redress for griefers and server glitches just killed me. I feel so burned I will probably never play a trion game again.
Originally posted by Talonsin It had the potential to be the breakout hit of 2014 but sadly will slip away to a small niche the same as darkfall and mortal online have. It will be around a long time but will be reduced to only 4 or 5 servers in large part due to the poor management of the game. Fans keep saying how 1.7 will save things but adding archum and TS trees to the cash shop so large guilds can get further ahead will only help to reduce the population even more.
This.
Archeage was probably the most enjoyable game I have ever played. It had the depth, political immersion, open pvp and sandbox elements that all mmos lack today. It was mostly impossible to run out of things to do in the game.
Unfortunately all of its potential was plundered by Trion who used it as a cash cow, milking the last drop of cash out of it, while investing nothing back into it. Not even a skeleton crew of mods or customer service to handle the most severe and game-breaking issues players faced.
Trion itself removed most of its own player base early on with their mass bans of innocent players, and updates that broke the game for so many people who could no longer log in. I saw so many friends and players in my own guild disappear as a direct result of Trion's mismanagement of the game.
I belonged to a very large and successful guild since launch, and very, VERY few original players are still members. Everyone was either wrongly banned, rage quit after being robbed and scammed by sploiters, got tired of the never ending nose dive they took as a free player, got sick of grinding for apex that keeps increasing in price due to mass inflation, etc., etc. Large and successful guilds like ours are now made up of a random mix of a few new players, a few tenacious older players who keep holding on and made it through tolerating all of the sploits, and many MANY lost souls who's prior guilds disbanded due to lack of activity and the inability to retain members - they just get swallowed up by the remaining guilds.
Trion is the poster child for "How to Ruin a Great MMO Through Blatant Apathy and Mismanagement."
SOE changes name to Daybreak games, cause dey break games.
Staying populated somewhat isn't good enough for an MMO unless they merge all the servers.
The game currently is on pace as expected to be all but empty by the end of February. Most players that came from WoW and Gw2 have quit and gone back to their respective games. Gw2 even got several large guids that came from Archage, (probably more given Gw2's current sale).
Bad game is a bad game, it never really even had potential due to Trion having no control over the coding, this is why I laugh at players still playing the game (paying or F2P), thinking it'll get better. You can't fix stupid. Those expecting 1.7 to come along to fix things.. I have a bridge to sell you, i'll hook you up, I promise.
Comments
Well that's a whole other topic. I agree I'd rather have a sandbox be subscription than F2P with cash shop.
But the issue being addressed was whether the system "stops you from doing activities you want to do". I'm saying the system simply eats most of your profits.
Ya, but at what point does futility change gameplay from something you want to do, to something thats not even worth doing?
[mod edit]
It is a simply bad game design, and a blatant cash grab aimed at making people pay more real cash to do normal gameplay activities, after a very short interval. And it upsets a lot of Western players, who do not like dipping into their wallet AGAIN just to play the game normally (as opposed to buying appearance and deco items and such in the cash shops, which I am personally not a fan of either).
Why should fishing and all the other activities that are not "labor" require you to use limited labor? Because Trion/XL want you to spend real money in the cash shop, even if you are paying a sub, and for no other reason.
All the excuses about limiting the economy and blah blah blah are just a bunch of crap: other crafting heavy games like UO, SWG, EvE, and others had none of this labor point nonsense and the economies there worked fine.
It is sad that an otherwise decent game fails on its business/payment model, for the most part, instead of just being a crap game, which AA isn't.
But in the end it is the same: bad game or badly run game, people do not keep playing, and the population drop off in AA has shown that.
What about the important diffrence of gear Item can decay and break (at least UO and SWG i know they did) whereas in Archeage they don't ?
LP is a very good mechanism to ensure items retain their value and make their value immune to any manipualtion attempts on the market, what ensures that crafting playstyle is viable on one side but also it doesnt dominates other playstyles.
That is even the more important point of it.
SWG was dominated by crafting for example, combat only playstyle made you being poor and stay poor.
Labor points ensure that different activities (craft vs combat vs explore) are more balanced in regards of economy.
I ll invite everyone who is intrested to follow scenario :
Take a crafter crafting a magnifcent set of armor (with the intention to sell it for gold).
Take a purse farmer having farmed 500 purses - also having killed 500 mobs. (with the intention to open them and sell contents for gold)
Take a pirate who captured a 20 pack merchant ship.
Take a miner who mined 500 nodes (with the intetion to sell everything mined that way)
Now put away labour cost, what is left ? and how to compare this situation in regards to playstyle activity at all if only the gold profit is left ? I for one know for sure what i would do n such a scenario.
You lost all credibility right there, did you ever even play SWG? I am guessing not.
Many people played a pure combat build and were not "poor". Some crafters were "rich" in the original pre NGE game, but not many as a percentage. Some were as a result of the time they put in.
AA has no decay, that is another of their poor design choices, along with the shitty, shitty, chances of making certain items on the first (and second and third) try.
The reason that your non-argument falls flat on its face is that you can overcome the "balance" you speak of by running to the cash shop. And most "dedicated" players do, every day, just like Trion wants them to. So the game is either P2W by design, or pay more to just play normally (even if you have a sub) by design, which is worse?
LP exist solely to require people buy potions in the cash shop. Period.
All of the fanboi excuses and rationalizations in the world hold no water in the face of reality.
Edit: And don't forget that Trion HAD decay in AA until whatever patch it was that took it out, but when they figured how much more they could make funneling people to the cash shop, they took it out. Which, coincidentally I am sure (not), also was done in the same time frame they reduced LP pools and regen by a LOT. Not an accident.
Blah Blah Blah. More empty BS to justify Trion sucking more money out people ALREADY PAYING A SUB (not even EA is so greedy with TOR and THAT is saying something) just to play the game normally. People pay a sub to play a game and do what they want to, and NOT get nickled and dimed to death, but not here.
That crap might fly in Asia (probably where you are), but not in the West, and thus the reasons for the serious population decline.
And that is all there is to say on the matter. None of the other BS you are spinning changes any of that.
I don't see any effort in this reply put in trying to find arguments or reason to counter any of my points. You just keep repeating your mantra.
I ll take this as you have no point .
I am in total agreement. I played as founder also invested an extra $100:00 for in game items and I am not continuing past the point where me founders perks run out. It had such potential, a game I could live in and love. However the Korean idea of constant reliance on other players helping each other and failure for player redress for griefers and server glitches just killed me. I feel so burned I will probably never play a trion game again.
This.
Archeage was probably the most enjoyable game I have ever played. It had the depth, political immersion, open pvp and sandbox elements that all mmos lack today. It was mostly impossible to run out of things to do in the game.
Unfortunately all of its potential was plundered by Trion who used it as a cash cow, milking the last drop of cash out of it, while investing nothing back into it. Not even a skeleton crew of mods or customer service to handle the most severe and game-breaking issues players faced.
Trion itself removed most of its own player base early on with their mass bans of innocent players, and updates that broke the game for so many people who could no longer log in. I saw so many friends and players in my own guild disappear as a direct result of Trion's mismanagement of the game.
I belonged to a very large and successful guild since launch, and very, VERY few original players are still members. Everyone was either wrongly banned, rage quit after being robbed and scammed by sploiters, got tired of the never ending nose dive they took as a free player, got sick of grinding for apex that keeps increasing in price due to mass inflation, etc., etc. Large and successful guilds like ours are now made up of a random mix of a few new players, a few tenacious older players who keep holding on and made it through tolerating all of the sploits, and many MANY lost souls who's prior guilds disbanded due to lack of activity and the inability to retain members - they just get swallowed up by the remaining guilds.
Trion is the poster child for "How to Ruin a Great MMO Through Blatant Apathy and Mismanagement."
Staying populated somewhat isn't good enough for an MMO unless they merge all the servers.
The game currently is on pace as expected to be all but empty by the end of February. Most players that came from WoW and Gw2 have quit and gone back to their respective games. Gw2 even got several large guids that came from Archage, (probably more given Gw2's current sale).
Bad game is a bad game, it never really even had potential due to Trion having no control over the coding, this is why I laugh at players still playing the game (paying or F2P), thinking it'll get better. You can't fix stupid. Those expecting 1.7 to come along to fix things.. I have a bridge to sell you, i'll hook you up, I promise.