Lobby/Gatekeeping Simulator.

Rushing content to catch up to Korea was such a great idea. Look at the player base from when the game was released to now. Support drought, gatekeeping, the toxic environment, the works. If you plan on starting this game now, don't. Endgame has become a circle jerk of the 1%, competing for MVP status and who has the shinier weapon. Unless you're friends with one of these guys, do not expect to get accepted anywhere.

This is coming from a solo player (no static or interaction with guilds) that's spent a fair chunk of time and ended up with above-average gear. I'm not entirely "juiced" but I can guarantee I'll get into lobbies faster than 90% of players. However, even with the gear that I have, I can still get gate-kept. Only because I haven't spent thousands of dollars to over-gear beyond the requirements for raids, so that they become a mindless damage-dumping fight to skip mechanics.

Raiding used to be a fun experience at first but it's become a repulsive environment just to get raids done "fast" and move onto the next alt. I'm not feeling burnout, I'm just not as motivated as I used to be when I started.

Server merges will not fix anything. Side content has become a joke. This game will literally have to become your part-time job. It will only get worse if Amazon/SGS doesn't do anything about it. Unfortunately this review will just get buried among the other reviews, maybe even along with the game eventually. Life expectancy for Lost Ark; no longer than a year.

Turn around and don't look back.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.