Your player level issues stem from a multitude of reasons. Most of the longer term, been here for awhile players and devs alike already know of them and have hopefully acknowledged them and will try to continue to work on fixing them. Most they can with time and effort, but some they won't.
first, my recent port here:
http://www.hydlaaplaza.com/smf/index.php?topic=41475.msg468044#msg468044 The default UI is clunky, the default controls aren't setup to use the industry standard, and the camera controls need over hauled as well. Easily rectified with an overhaul to said controls. Easier said than done by a long shot.
Second, the world itself. Vast repetitive openness, with vaguely anything of interest placed in it. Zone after zone with a smattering of mobs to battle, herbs and rocks to mine, etc. I see some signage was put in along the paths in an attempt to try and help the player get between major points of interest, but it is very minimal and still easy to get lost. Some ease of use items have been added to help speed travel, and spice up the zones with camps and things but with the random invisible boundaries, hills and inclines that cause the player to glitch, and the still far too large openness fill with nothing of interest, desire of exploration isn't really promoted to the average player.
the economy is a bit wonky. price values, gold sinks, crafting materials, the process a player must go about to make items, etc seems far too convoluted and should be better streamlined. the current system is a work in progress so this wil improve as the game rules are continued to be fleshed out. some more simpler things that can be easily done is to better indicate to the player where they can go to at least hit a starter mine or herb or what not. and then from there let them go explore for the higher end things.
the community on the forums and more so the forums themselves. the whole no spoilers thing is a turn off. in the end, a person will find what they want to find; rather than shun you should first try to explain politely that the game is rp based and tries to promote in game character interaction to solve its quests, but if the player really wants to know the answer they could just click link X, or even better, the forum would have spoiler tags as most "modern age" forums go which would hide the contained info unless the person clicked it. the forums need to be kept tidy so players can easily search and find what they are looking for, especially the technical help areas. being greeted by a wall of search results, most from years back only puts the person off. it would also help if the appropriate people in charge of running the forums were given the appropriate access and rights to perform said functions.
some things that cant be "easily" changed would be simple facts like how long the game has been around and yet where its at in its current state after all this time. this day and age, it seems people are only busier and more demanding than ever. just look at how often other mmo's or even any type of game in general have to keep updating their finished projects with new features to keep their player base. there is simply a vast pool of games to keep players occupied nowadays. far different than what it was even 5 years ago, let alone when PS was one of the sole games out there that offered a free to play community driven, online game.
game advertisement is little to none. no, not paid ads trying to get people to buy something. simple things like setting up accounts on the indie gaming sites and utilizing community driven resources to help spur better game development, such as steam's greenlight. getting the word out about the game on the major places gamers these days use to search for games would attract a larger crowd to come try the game out and maybe a few would even what to devote some time to helping the project flourish. This again, also requires some changes to the mentality certain individuals on the dev team has when it comes to community driven game growth, but that is a completely different subject that could be had which I wont go into here.
keeping up with the latest gaming creation techniques from say sites like
http://www.gamedev.net/page/index.html and implementing some of them would also go along way. that also ties in with the engine side of things PS runs off on, and joritt and his team with their crystal space engine i hope already do. i never really got that all involved on that side of the game much so i can't really say one way or the other how that is currently being addressed.
all in all, times have changed and PS really hasn't evolved along with it, which is the primary reason why player numbers are where they currently are. with a far larger pool of games to choose from that is currently out there, most people don't have as much patience to wait on a game to get to a point they feel it is worth their time to try out and play. There was a time when PS was a bit ahead or at least on the same level both game mechanic and graphical wise to the other games that were currently out, but now the industry has evolved at a far quicker pace and this project has been left behind.
But, there will always be those that enjoy the more casual approach, and will come through here and stay for awhile until they grow bored and move on to sometime else, and as they leave, others will take their place. the game will be continuously worked on throughout this, and the hobby project will continue to live on.
i can look back and say i've over all enjoyed all the time i've spent with the game, the community and being on the dev side of things, and as that is the primary reason why most people play games, so I guess PS is fulfilling its goals, even with its low player counts.
