I hope BB, you guys think about something new (next thing after FT adventures) in the future for pve players (majority really) to do with all the extra room/population the expansion will give us? Hopefully we don't have to wait 2 years for the expansion islands (the servers might get pretty empty by then). Like another adventure chain (similar to FT)? Perhaps raising level to 60?
"Pvp" even with rankings, better rewards and some fluff is not going to save your game. I hope you realized this by now. The huge majority of your players enjoy pve, economy/trade (hoarding included) and being/doing stuff with friends/guildies. You should rewire some of your designing effort/time into those 3 aspects of the game and stop pouring every resource into "pvp".
Whoever manager is responsible for the course the game has taken last 12 months - his ideas/perspectives cost you great numbers of lost players already. I hope the top brass at Ubisoft gets it and start re-focusing designing efforts where they bring the most impact. I don't want to see more and more people leaving because there is nothing new in what they love to do in the game - adventures/trading/socializing.

