Original sentence: Afterwards, the release of the infamous "Trials of Atlantis expansion" and market competition caused these numbers to gradually decrease over time.When DAOC first launched, the subscriber base quickly rose up to almost 250,000 subscribers by July, 2002 and held steady even through the "SI expansion"
Edited sentence: Artifacts are obtained once you complete the encounter.Changes have been made to the method of obtaining powerful non-artifact loot as well resulting in those items being easier to obtain.DAOC population decreased approximately 50% in the first year of World of Warcraft's release.Finally, bounty points earned in RvR combat can now be used to purchase ML encounter credit, artifact credit, and scrolls.Subscriptions then declined to just over 200,000 in the Fall of 2003.That number rebounded to 250,000 with the release of its third expansion Trials of Atlantis.The scrolls needed to activate the artifacts are common place.ToA has had its difficulty greatly decreased in recent patches.When DAOC first launched, the subscriber base quickly rose up to over 250,000 subscribers by July, 2002.While Raids are still done, all of the content can now be done by a group or less.While there were many complaints over the ToA expansion, subscription numbers stayed at the 250,000 mark until the Fall of 2004.With  the launch of World of Warcraft in Novemeber 2004, the number of DAOC subscribers fell