[upsilon]

I agree with all of it. I don't think any sort of event improvements are going to effect player count or overall quality of play in a significant way. It takes about a month of hardcore play to effectively reach end game now-a-days. The incentive to keep grinding away at anything (dungeons, alchemy, what have you) beyond this are minimal. If you don't enjoy bsing in trade, or casual play, you're done for until some new holiday content comes around.

If there was some constant incentive to engage in pvp, (like some on going kingdom conflict, or something) maybe this would be a little different. But as it is, no such incentive exists. People gear for pvp, but there is no good reason to go outside and get your butt kicked/kick butt.