To me, the magic that made me played Graal a lot was offmap and the thrill of exploration, wanting to know what's out there, beyond the small boundaries of tiles that are blocking me from knowing. I started in 2012, and during that time, second server glitching was still a thing, and there was a horse glitch that can easily get you offmap. Now, all of that is gone. Offmap is just full of warps, or black tiles. I'm just in Graal City looking for people to talk to because most of my friends are gone. Sure, some content can be amazing, but there's nothing more amazing and magical than a thrill to do something, at least for me. After that, there's the socializing aspect of it, but most of my friends already quit now, so that sometimes can leave me pretty lonely whenever I come on as I watch other people socialize with their guilds, having fun with their friends, things that I used to do all those years ago. I sometimes wish I can go back and socialize with my friends again, glitching off-map as a 12 year-old kid but nah. I'm about to graduate high school this year and moving on.
But yeah, just wanna say that. As for has it gotten worse or better, ehh, it's still the same. Only major difference is towering because I spoke to a few people regarding their experience with the new towering system and they said it's dead.