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I know it's not a new perspective, but I would like to add my thoughts to the discussion.
As one of the people who have decided to leave, I understand the perspective that Vindictus was … (more)interesting. It was a departure from the skill-hotkey-mashing genre of action MMOs. There was a lot of excitement during the first couple of months playing Vindictus because it was new, even the early bosses were challenging, and many people were on the same boat (please excuse the pun).
However, consider that, over the years, Vindictus became a lopsided game: Many of the more experienced players were concentrated on the newer content while the less experienced were stuck on the older content. As more and more content got added, the wider the skill gap became. I remember being stuck at being stuck at Hoarfrost Hollow for the longest time because I would see 0-4 battles listed on the boards for weeks and weeks on end. Newcomers saw what was a somewhat difficult game and, without regular support from more experienced players, left early on in the game because they felt that they couldn't progress. This was because there was not a good enough incentive for experienced players to help new players. Sure, there existed systems like helping new guild joins in Mercenary Training Grounds or the Seals of Dedication, but there wasn't substantial rewards for helping new players with the Training Grounds and Seals of Dedication could be earned through Phoenix Feathers, encouraging experienced players to play on difficult raid battles with other experienced players. (Plus the rewards obtained from Seals of Dedication were not rewarding enough or took too much resources for many people to bother.) The new update seeks to remedy this by trying to push all of the players to the newer content by easing up the difficulty of combat.
However, I feel that this opens up another issue: If there is such a big push to get people to play by easing the combat, then it becomes difficult to engage the audience. This was the issue that lead me to leaving the game: Even as the community dwindled away, I found myself playing Vindictus because, even though the combat didn't make the game the hardest game ever (TM), it was still challenging enough for me to become engaged into the game. If the game's challenge becomes too easy, it becomes hard for people to feel as if their contributions matter and this makes it difficult for players to become invested into the game and continue playing the game as a regular player. While the update may encourage more players to try the game, I feel that it will make it difficult for those new players to become regular players.
While I don't have any of the answers to the problems that I laid out in this post, nor do I know what the future holds for the game. All I know is what I feel at the current moment: I do not have the desire to return to Vindictus at the current state of the game.
TL;DR - There are lots of problems with the game and the patch attempts to address them while opening up new/exacerbating other problems and this has caused me to leave the game. (less)
