I agree that sure, the game is playable, but I think there are a few issues that I want to point out.
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In MMO’s by design a low player base means that a game is either dead or dying. It doesn’t matter whether or not you believe that to be the case or not, what matters is what the consumer believes. You are already here, but there are millions of others on the outside looking in, who just see a disaster and a waste of money. Take a look at World of Warcraft for example. Despite its large player base, and the fact that the community as a whole has disliked and been disappointed by Blizzard, just a few streamers leaving has caused the community as a whole to believe the game is dying. Add on top all the legal issues the company had pop up around the same time, and now the #1 MMO is no longer WoW, but is instead Final Fantasy 14. This mentality plagues all MMO’s. If the game is an MMO, it looks or feels empty, and the player to player interaction is low, then the game is perceived as dead or dying and not worth your time or money. People do not play MMO’s for the short term, they are intended to be multi year time sinks. It is why WoW has been popular for so long, living on experiences of old, and the inability for the community to move on to better experiences. Literally nothing you say will change an outsiders view on this games low player count, and any one who runs through this games portal hubs and malls and sees no one will draw the same conclusion.
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I brought this up over a year ago, and stated that lingering player constructions would essentially kill the game. For an MMO experience to have creations linger from players who quit essentially infinitely would over time cause a decline. Even if technically we can build new malls, hubs, or areas for us to congregate as a community, over time it is likely those players will quit, and the issue will only continue to get worse and worse. However back then I was just criticized for “complaining” about walking too far, or just us BUTT. I’ve seen literally hundreds of far more successful Minecraft servers that have been ongoing since Minecraft came out and don’t suffer the same issues as this game. That is because after a period of inactivity your creations are automatically removed in its entirety, and the chunks where they built are automatically reverted to before they claimed that area. There are probably thousands of plots that could be reverted in Boundless right now, and entire constructions that could be deleted and no one would care.
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For an MMO the devs have essentially done, and planned to do many things that detract from an MMO experience by segregating players. Sovereign Worlds, the eventually local world single player experience, the eventual addition of enough skill points and such to get everything on your own, and as such have 0 need for interaction with others, and so on. The community as a whole could of course fix this by selecting a planet as a central area for all to build at, creating an active malls with plots that can be managed by the mall owner for when players quit, with more than 1 owner of the mall so they can pass permissions around if they plan to quit, and using a single portal hub, with players having their own portals to other private areas to fill shops and such. If players are able to make everything, and there are farms built to essentially get everything except specific rare colored blocks, then the player interaction of the MMO declines as well. The fact that few if not sometimes a single individual will dedicate their time to just keeping portals running is already bad enough. I don’t know how they can enjoy the game doing something intended by an entire community.
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I don’t mind players being dedicated, and having hope in the games future. But MMO’s require consistent updates, content, a thriving player base, and a thriving economy. Soon it will be a year since anything happened in this game. As such why are you mad about the rumors and drama ?
This game has so much potential, but the devs are not creating an MMO experience. In fact any new players are likely to feel like this is the most lonely game ever, like they are alone. Don’t even get me started on not being able to carry your character over from console to pc. It can be done, plenty of games have done it.
At the end of the day what kills a game faster than anything is lack of communication. Just like real relationships, a relationship with a game, its devs, and their company can be entirely sabotaged by poor communication. Since the Devs have chosen radio silence, this is what you get. You would think in 2021 devs and game companies would learn a thing or two from the failures of their brethren.