Let me summarize:
- The game is very old (2003)
- People choose newer games or are preoccupied by real life
- Poor staff management
- Lack of interest, mainly because people quit after they find the game unfun
- Not having an active war (like Liberty vs Rheinland and Sirius vs Gallia) or event to encourage people to log often
Been here since the early 2010s, came back fully last year, yet I only find lolwuts on Core chars farming everything. Plus the general ingame toxicity doesn't warrant quality experience here.
While there have been improvements compared to the early 2010s, where the RP quality was somewhat mediocre at best, the loss of the old playerbase is truly saddening.
For me I find nothing that keeps me from playing, but it's hard to interact when all you get are people who behave like lolwuts.
The 2020 one is an exception because of the lockdowns, which prompted people to play Disco again. It remained until May 2021 when the player count dropped significantly, because of summer and exams.
2012-2013 was way more active, you got a minimum of 40 players and a maximum of 180 players. Now, it's just 10-20 players most of the time spiking up to 30-40 (50 in the weekends) during peak server hours.