The whole business-model of this game is messed up from the beginning. Money doesn't circulate the way it should, as people are withdrawing, quitting the game, or just don't spend as much as they used to. The economy is on a constant, steady drop for over a year now. People are less motivated to hunt/mine due to the bad loots, Sweat is reaching a new rock-bottom every few weeks...
The first few years of this game went pretty smooth, but then they started adding 'equipping-decay' and other sorts of tricky little ways to gain the money they need for circulation. It was a bad sign back then, but people chose to ignore.
Suddenly MA had this urge to replace the graphic engine. Not only did it NOT attract thousands of new people, it actually made quite a few people quit due to the fact that this new engine requires some pretty new and rather pricey computer rig.
Then CND came along, there was a hype, and not six (thanks for the fix*) years later, Neverdie sells CND...
And New Oxford.. a complete, total, despicable failure.
Rocktropia got published, and it was a disaster. Enough arguing about that. I bet you less than 500 people are currently playing there right now, as you read this post.
Then, they started offering things like custom loot messages, placing Teleporters and other strange shady stuff.
There were so many signs but people simply chose to ignore them. Well, now that the fact-sheet is on display, you can't argue with the official numbers anymore.
Six million USDs aren't going to save MA, only buy them some time. As any proper economist knows, we're getting a world financial crisis once in every ten years or so, so how long is this game going to hold?..
While that change the graphics engine must have influenced the drop in the number of players is also true that it is perfectly possible to play with all settings on "high" with older machines. In my case I have a Atlhon 64 4000 + with 2Gb RAM and a 512MB ATI 3650 Raedon (AGP) and I have no problems in playing every day. I think the main factor for the fall are the two international crises that have seriously affected the ability to deposit of many players who did so regularly.
The point is, when you have no money, you cut down on expenses. This was not the case with MA here.
They engaged themselves in projects they started and have NOT finished, or ones that simply failed (New Oxford for instance).
Money was an issue, so they added the L items, the TIER system, the ridiculous taxing on pretty much everything you do in this game (equipping-fees, decay etc), but players kept adapting and seeking for ways to gain as much as possible with minimum losings. They introduced advertisement systems, large-scale player-owned land-areas (CND, TI), but to no avail, the numbers speak for themselves.
There are so many issues with this game that will ultimately lead to it's failure. For instance, the monetary system:
The monetary system in this game can and is easily exploited, which is why unless MA intervenes and adds money to the loot-pool itself, the pool is simply going to dry out. People everywhere look for ways to cut down on expenses, hunt eco, make profit over zero loses, and money does not circulate.
Traders and resellers, for instance, are probably the
biggest winners of this game. They decide to take matters into their own hands; they pay zero fees, they set the price, it's either their way, or the highway. They earn and circulate thousands, dare I say hundred-thousands of PEDs every year, but none of that money finds it's way back to the loot-pool.
Now, people all over the place say the loot is terrible. There's the explanation. MA can't intervene anymore, they're losing money, so there's no loot.
Another group are the sweaters, and FPC "took care of those"
this very last version-update. They can sweat for years, and still, their hard work will amount to nothing.
Game is going downhill. Marco promising a 'brighter future' gave me a good laugh. Unless they double or even triple their player-base every year, or get more benefactors, they have no chance to survive in the next ten years. I'd start liquidating my shit asap if I were in Neverdie's or in Deathifier's place.