Well, if its helpful to the DM's.. I love Cear the world and the players i met there (mostly)... but heres some feedback, please I do not intend this to seem as a negative tirade, I think Dasaria a wonderful place. I offer this up to be helpful to the builders in terms of the debate on reduced population.
I love Dasaria, and played everyday 3-10hrs for 6 months.... That was 6 months ago. I now play on another server. I often look at caer... and choose not to login because of only 0-3 people online, so yes theres a aspect of lost momentum i guess because if everyone is doing this, thats frustrating.
But why did I leave.
1) PRIMARY REASON In all that time spent on the server I only encountered two DM event/storyline... one was a chaotic server wide/ monster melee which whilst a bit of fun, was not overly RP experience.... and was a chaos of many PC's who perhaps from a RP perspective would not actually have operated together, but were doing so as to be part of a 'DM' event (myself included)... The other was the Bards GIG at the Inn which was awesome, but again was a serverwide extreme kind of event. Whatever the case, after 6 months I had no real sense of direction/evolution of storyline of the world or my char within it.
I personally would prefer Dm interaction on a smaller more intimate scale.. even if this meant less often.... or is through forum IC email. For myself the best value a DM can provide is the unexpected event. This might at its simplest be a creature spawn (Dm plays no RP)
In a world we know is programmed, and which is repeated whenever we play... to turn a corner and find a creature spawned which is not usually there... means keeping on ones toes...(a rabid dog in a back alley), don't take anything for granted...etc.... or a standard spawn.. eg the guardsman in thieves below the washer women suddenly talking and fighting more intelligently.
Recieveing an unexpected 100xp when I have no idea a Dm is even watching, as I RP with someone at the smithy... is awesome... its not about the amount of xp, but its like someone patting you on the back and saying, hey that was cool or well done.
2) Due to the level restriction on dungeons policy, after about level 12 any questing is limited to finding other powerful chars that you can travel to the very dangerous dungeons with. To do this I was forced to compromise my char, and not truly rp. That is I would take my evil dwarf hating char on a quest with a dwarf paladin just so i could go somewhere....(and this after hours in North Caer looking RPing to find a better option)).. it felt a bit silly.... I highly recommend some wilds or something where you can wander/play that are not so extreme/powerful/quest driven.
I have found on other servers without enforced dungeon restrictions... that people tend to stick to where they get better xp anyhow, and if you are in a lower dungeon for a change or because you are having a good Rp time with low level chars you have met or are mentoring and you encounter low level chars you feel 'kind of embarrassed to be there' and quietly remove yourself and let them have the place.
Ultimately its a RP issue. I would like to be able to hang out with a PC i meet who is appropriate for my char as the first rule, rather than be forced to hang out with PC 'of my level'. Towards the higher levels I would find myself isolated from players I had RP'ed with through the lower levels because with the increasing amount of xp required to gain a level... eg PC freinds want to go to Monks, you cant because you are half a level higher than them....
At the least more areas that are wilds... which are not level controlled....might help this issue. On all servers players 'repeat' dungeons necessarily, but when the quests have such well thought out and storied nature as in Dasaria it seems to stretch RP and your ability suspend disbelieve that you are repeatedly rescuing the girl from the mages. If you had wilds, then a player could get access to the story driven quests just once each, and also only receive the HUGE xp for story completion's just once.
There are some discussions in this thread are about guilds/factions. Heres a suggestion. Player guilds/factions. If you are questing with a guild/faction eg 'the grey company'. All level restrictions are off. Xp gained does not go to the PC's but to the faction... builds fame/influence, rights etc.
3) Dasaria is very high magic, I prefer cruder low magic styles.
4) Despite my love of Das, and my char... I have to admit I have found the special scripts some servers have that add detail and flavour ARE REALLY APPEALING. CHairs you can sit on. Detailed crafting, and unique models/clothes. Tents. Hunting for food (needing to eat). Things that underline 'adventuring'.... In a way these have as much impact on enjoyability as having more locations, and are about facilitating RP rather than character levelling.
5) One of the distinguishing features of Dasaria at the lower levels which I really enjoyed was an empahasis on alignment in the story quests. This seems to disappear after the first levels. There where various threads arguing about the details and repercussions of this system. And it was far from perfect, nor pleased everyone - for example the + 10 evil points would only be applied to the PC who handed in the quest, not to all the good paladins in the party who had helped slay the innocents!!!
Anyway I would argue for keeping on with evolving this structure... and refining it.
FINALLY - yes a lot of this is about taste and time and interests of the world builders. I offer it up only as food for thought. Because i too am saddened that for the last little while I see 0/40 when i think about logging in. At the end of the day, it is about community....because without it there is no RP....
Hey i just got Pwc for v12. So ... there's one more back 'home'...
MAD
VROOLL ZARQUIN
I'VALF
MAUG
.
