I think its fairly obvious that long time players are losing interest at an ever increasing rate. A large number of these players are people who have supported the game financially. If we don't have some "hope" soon , many more will join the exodus. Without getting too vitriolic (yes one of my specialties I know)I'm going to throw out a few random large scale ideas for the future.
What keeps many players here are two things - one the friends they have made along the way or their desire to help others. Notice I didn't mention actual "game play" ?. That's because for the high level player it is insignificant. The incentive to log on every day certainly does not come because of the game play. However neither of the two reasons I mentioned will last forever and certainly no reason to keep supporting the game.
The number of long term players who have left is mind boggling and to keep supporting others will get old at some point --especially since the turn over rate of new players is higher than its ever been.
So what can BB do? As a long time player said to me last night "I just want my guildies back and to fall in love with the game again"
Well how about help us make communication with friends easier and more interesting. Most guilds have two or three other guilds that they are very friendly with for various reasons. What I have seen in other games is one of the benefits of having "alliances" is a "alliance" chat room, where your allies could all chat. Usually was limited to two or thee guilds if I remember correctly. Or if that's not possible how about a system where you could invite a small number of non guild members to chat for a limited time.
As far as game play is concerned we need something to strive for --more goals more "stuff"! New isles which you have to earn in someway would be great. New adventure would spark interest. And (gasp) new levels would be amazing. Even something like a special general buff to make the generals go faster or at least return to camp faster would be nice. (obviously possible based on PVP generals). Speaking of that if all that time and effort put into pvp, which the majority of players did not want anyways, had been been put into normal game play things would be much better now.
One other thing that is a joke and discourages many active guilds - the guild inactive system. So many large guilds aren't really "large" guilds. Worst I've seen is guild of 90+ players with only 15 active players. But inactive rates regularly hover around 50% on many guilds. Human nature has many new players looking to join the biggest and presumably best --when they join guilds that aren't what the claim to be many quit quickly.
Take away the advantage real or perceived of carrying inactive players. My suggestion would be three weeks then system boots them auto from guild -you have the mechanism already I believe.
These are just few Ideas -the real point is long term players need HOPE! Throwing us a bone like a new building now and then will not keep the high level players here.