@merchantHelios @AngryWraith @brimshae Did you only play PSO2 Global? Because like I said, they really packed in a crazy amount of content in a very short time. JP had that stretched out over 8 years, and even with Global you saw the player count consistently dwindling in just a year. So, I don't really think the comparison is very fair.
I am maybe not the right person to ask, since I have always been playing and enjoying it. I will say, though, that my average playtime per day has increased because there typically is more stuff to do. They have been expanding the current content that exists while working on new stuff, which is due for this June I believe. They have been pretty open to player feedback, and have openly admitted that they have had to change gears and it has been pretty difficult. I can tell they're going down the right track now though, more or less. There are some story elements that are beginning to hook into some neat stuff as well, the new area coming in June appears to be an original ARKS fleet ship's urban district.
If you hopped in now, you'd see a higher level cap, Ancient Enemies to farm for the current BIS gear, Leciel Exploration rotations, extremely difficult variations of the Dark Falz urgent quests that can be played at any time (one of which gives you SG every week), whatever the limited time quest is, and as of the patch that went live just an hour ago a new mechanic in one of the combat sectors called "the crimson realm" which seems pretty interesting. There's a new boss there that will drop better loot depending on how much damage is done to it.
We're getting more of a roadmap for the next 6 months or so I believe in the headline next week. I'm pretty sure within the next few months we're getting another new kind of quest, an expansion to Leciel Exploration, and then in June we get that new field (which comes with more stories) and something similar to the AIS suits. I'm pretty sure there's a bit more, and likely more to be announced more specifically, but I can't think of it off the top of my head. Probably because I didn't care too much about it lol.
I think most people's problem is that they just don't like the content, not that there isn't enough of it. At least now. I legit had a friend tell me he didn't think there was enough content and I'm pretty sure the dude didn't even get halfway through the current story. Just parroting what he'd heard online and since he didn't like the game he just gave that same excuse. At least, that's my theory. Then you have the people who will grind out a new update for like two days straight and then complain there's no content afterward. It's like... yeah, there's no content because you played all of it, and maybe even spent money to get your gear at min-max.
I don't see it as a game that you can spend like 4-5 hours on a day like a lot of people do with their MMO of choice. It's more like an hour long play session a day, maybe a few longer ones here and there when new content drops. If that's not your thing, then it's not your thing, but honestly that's pretty much how PSO2 was also, unless you were really going ham on like Challenge Miles.
Gear was a lot, and I mean a LOT harder to obtain in PSO2 also, so it gave you more of a reason to grind a lot. NGS made it significantly easier to not only get good gear, but to augment it as well, and now you have people complaining that rare drops are too rare! I really don't think people actually know what they want, they just know they don't like the game and they channel that into complaining about stuff that, if it were changed, they probably wouldn't like playing it that way either.