(11-30-2017, 03:47 PM)Unnamed Mercenary Wrote: If we look at Balmung's history too though, there was a LOT more open-world stuff happening in the 2014-2015 mark, it feels like. The server had just launched Summer 2013 and people were still feeling out the server and getting to know each other. Probably it felt like there was a lot more public stuff going on. FCs and Linkshells hadn't quite been made for everything and there was a lot of shuffling around. ...and at least personally for me, I had more time and the general peak hours of gameplay/RP.
I'd argue that this doesn't have so much to do with population or a population lock as much as it does with a lot of fallout happening around such open events.
That and pretty much everyone I know (or know of) has gotten busier in some way, shape or form in the past 1-2 years. Even in my case I got a lot of ideas and plans and brainstorms but time is becoming more and more of a precious commodity.
TL;DR Maybe we're all just getting old?
To be totally honest, I haven't really felt any difference in Balmung as a whole. I feel the time constraint issue but that tends to just come and go in waves and doesn't really have to do with a server lock.