OG Player/Whale Perspective: Bigs Changes are Needed Now

Long time players like me, who have stuck with the game since release, are finally calling it quits. Its been 4 months since Ive spent any real money progressing my character and no new OP gem is going to motivate spending. (Just some context: Im an OG player who ended up whaling to a 12K account now. Been running immortal clans since the beginning of the game and truly love the game and community.)

Why? The game is at a stand-still. You have been given plenty of feedback from your player base but no meaningful progress to the following:
- Battleground rank system and modes are stale and rewards are meaningless. Just check RipWoe's video for what would work: https://youtu.be/pA0Vxw9IU_g?si=H_h-Osu4v14ofc9o

- PVE is a slog and there's no challenge to pursue. Every 10 weeks we get back on the dungeon farm grind just to do it all over again. At least deliver on what you promised earlier in the year on your roadmap and build from there. Indez has said plenty on this subject so go to him for good ideas.

- The Shadow and Immortal system needs to be completely revamped. All the current faction activities are a chore for players (vault, wars, vigils, contracts, corvus). The only reason I enjoy immortals now is so that I dont have to organize clan-wide activities more than once a week.

- Your game is impossible to onboard new players and retain returning ones. The badge system alone punishes returning players and locks them into months of bad badges. I cant even count the number of returning players that quite shortly after because of this. Its been years and no improvement.

- The complete failure of terms of use enforcement. Account sharing is rampant and official DI channels showcase pilot players who play on multiple accounts they dont own in what is supposed to be the premier PVP event (bouts). The same group of players hop onto shared accounts and are in the top 4 in multiple regions for multiple bouts now. This is probably the biggest problem but one that will never be fixed. Not to mention the third party plat and orb services that are alive in well on every cluster.

Make a meaningful commitment to addressing the above now or expect massive attrition going into next year when new MMO-like RPGs start releasing like Guild Wars 3. At this point most of the long-time players that are still around are just waiting for something else in the market.

FYI is also not a slight against jadai who has done a great job as Community Manager and far better than his predecessors. Hopefully he can help make the above a priority and actually deliver on improvements.