I was chatting with an older player about a week ago ingame. I had just come back from a break and he was leaving - permanently. Now, this older player was not a chronic complainer or a forum whiner. He just got tired of the atmosphere here and the game itself.
I asked him why and he said that he was getting a bit bored of the whole FL universe and that player bases had changed the nature of the game for the worse.
How player bases had negatively changed the game he didn't elaborate on. As I've never built or maintained one, I can only speculate. Maybe the amount of time and energy needed to build, maintain and protect a pb somehow detracts from other forms of RP that we've seen more of in the past.