Frankly it's something of a surprise that so many people are still here. Lookit this thread. Lots of replies. Lots of views. Lots of people passionate about the state of the game and its future.
In the broadest terms I feel it's safe to divide the community into two groups. Those who are here for the experience and those who are here for the game. I'll both concede and stress that there is a great deal of overlap in priority. My own emphasis has always been on gameplay over experience, both as a player and with my own feeble contributions to server structure and development.
In terms of gameplay Freelancer has the merit of retaining its unique characteristics. Even a decade down the road there are still very few games that exist in the realm between single player and mmo. None that involve both space and modability. Space offers the opportunity for nearly unlimited modaility in ones sense of self in addition to providing some decent FPS combat.
But, man, it gets stale after a bit. A few years ago there wasn't that much competition. Nowadays you can't browse the internet without receiving 18 invitations to another FTP game that offers killer gameplay etc etc. The incentives to push past all of those to hop onto another round of hur dur Saber dwindle.
Discovery's gameplay elements remain relatively unchanged. Capship combat has become somewhat more refined. Mining has become more refined. The environment remains somewhat static. All in all it's still a solid performer, but not one that will draw from the promises of Star Citizen or compete with the slew of contemporary alternatives.
Community. Eh, you know what I mean. That's mostly what appeals to the people who're even bothering to post in these threads. The social mechanisms which allow for our (somewhat shallow and racist XD) group convergences. You carve out a little nitche, get some chums, enjoy butting heads against the other guys. At its simplest.
Sometimes its fun. Sometimes you get a conclave of mean spirited jerks. Whatevs.
That also gets old after a while. Best memories of Freelancer come from the Xeno and Reaver days. Long after the gameplay had become older than that green milk in the fridge it was still fun to man up with my chums and pew pew.
There's nothing new here. It's all common knowledge. More people are heading out than are coming in. It's remarkable that anyone is coming in at all. It's remarkable that so many people have stuck around. No one's going to stick around for the gameplay. So as long as some of you are providing the structure there'll be a body or two to snatch up. Learn 2 spek )))
I have to think it's because of the social constructs. The game itself is pretty damn old and the dev team, bless your hearts, hasn't produced much of note beyond the coding of Cannon in the last two years. When the servers get shut down the first thing you'll delete is Gallia. Or maybe flush is the term. Lord knows its been floating in the bowl for a spell.
