Quote from Odin;1271355:
There's no incentive for Nexon to care about older players.
In fact there is quite the incentive for them to methodically piss off and get rid of older players
Quite simply, older players already have bought all the pets they want and are sufficiently well established that nothing in game is challenging anymore and anything they want can be bought easily using gold instead of NX. They are people who Nexon has already made their money from, and now they just waste server capacity for little further profit.
On the other hand Nexon wants nothing more than to get rid of older players and bring in new ones. People who have to buy that latest pet, or haven't the means of getting gold and so are required to spend NX on gachapons for items or revival stones for a boss they struggle with.
Nexon does still care about Mabi- but only how profitable Mabi can be without triggering a mass ragequit. And to that end they are putting as little effort as possible into maintaining it with the expectation that as a 10 year old MMORPG it has made its money and is past its popularity, milking out the last of profit before it is laid down to die. Cash cow items like reforges and gachapons are just Nexon's tool of choice for extracting money from the mabi players, and if you think about it you realize it is only because of that sustained profitability that Mabinogi has even been allowed to live this long.
I've played since Pioneers of Iria, and I think the height of it was actually when G13 came out. At the time the community was strong, although G13 marked the introduction of filler storyline it also brought in a skill rebalance that really helped level the playing field. Not long after that modding became a thing, and the knowledge dervived from modding was used to create hacks as well cumulating in the Pake outbreak of G14 and G15.
I was there, and really for me that is when Mabi died. It went from being a fun thing to do to being a part time job playing detective and figuring out what was happening. For me it never really was fun again after that, although I will enjoy weekend runs with friends and still can be found in Dunbarton from time to time wearing the same Flowery Evening Dress I've had since G14.
The new skill trees are broken, and grossly overpowered. And this was by design- give the newbies a chance to be awesome, and salt the wounds of the stubborn veterans who toughed out the hacking so that they too would quit. In time they will be balanced out again, but by then the community will have changed. Most of the old players will be gone, most of the new players now won't be so new anymore, and there will be even more newbies coming in without end.
That mabiland event they did, you think that's just a fun event?
No, its really not. Its actually gathering statistics. The Mabiland event generates participation statistics for Nexon, giving them percentages of the playerbase to participate in the different game features and even directly measuring how old the playerbase is. Its quite useful for Nexon, because they can easily analyze the results of the event to better adjust the game for people to enjoy it and want to spend money on it.
I suppose its a good thing that they've finally decided to see how we measure up.
I joined at the same time as you. The day it came out, actually, on my birth day.
I quit when they made weekly rebirths. I found that the game had become too easy and more grindy.