But what's causing the burn out? My issue isn't with saying that the game is at fault so much as faulting people like myself for playing it too much or too hard. There's no deadline to get to mastery X or to level X. That is entirely on the player. Anyone can easily play this 50% of the time building and being creative and another 50% leveling. There's nothing stopping anyone from doing that.
The vocal majority said they wanted more to do and Trion gave them a gigantic grind as an answer. I can't say whether that was right or wrong. I suspect they are making a lot of money off that decision. Whether that is sustainable over the long term is an entirely different subject that could be debated. But the fact of the matter is, that grind is entirely optional. If you want to Buy Trove Flux play as Dusty said, in a balanced way, you can still do that. They never took that away and there is no goal in eliminating the sandbox features. There is certainly an emphasis on where they make their money, and that isn't in the sandbox, but there is no one saying you have to play that way.
As to everything else you said, you have some good points. I think Trion could make some big changes that would improve the game a lot over time. The double XP events that have been happening lately are a breath of fresh air to many which indicate the XP required to level is simply too high and needs to be adjusted before more people burn themselves out and quit altogether. Either way, I simply cannot blame Trion for that. It's the player who controls their own actions and how much and what they do when they play. If Trion is smart about it, they will recognize the problem and make adjustments.
In order to pace myself I spend just a few hours a week leveling now, mostly on Saturday when I get the XP bonus. It takes me 3 to 4 weeks to level up a class. In the meantime I spend time helping club mates with tower runs and socializing. Maybe I am in an extreme minority, but I have been able to find balance in this game and still keep up without experiencing the burnout like I did before.
ne cannot simply focus on leisure in Trove these days like one could during the beta . Trove is a race now and if I do not run , I will be stuck with a common name color . Does it matters ?
Indeed , because I have been playing for 2 years , made content and spent over 1k hours (just counting steam) into it . But I can scrap that and ignore yellow names and focus on building . But will that work ?
Nope . Because at it's current state , the social system in Trove is filled with gaps and problems . Clubs live a short life due to their lack of activities beside building . Rogue builders and home owners who spend a lot of solo time in their clubs see no visitors because the system promotes only 5 prop clubs ..... No way to search what creations players have made by the Trove Flux for sale , no way to connect beside friend lists . It should never depend on the friend list . Because it dies quickly as players never stay too long .
I wanted to create another dungeon , to build a huge creation in my home world but I keep getting persuaded out of it . The first being the shaky creations state atm and the later being so lonely due to the social club system issues .
Trove needs to slow down , take a lemonade , turn on all social apps and start having fun . Racing for leaderboards , gems , challenges and mastery left everything else in the dust . When was the rest updated last time ?