As someone who's pretty much quit this game [and I usually only return for the sake of keeping in touch with friends who have decided to stay here, once in a while] after playing for several years, I think I can answer this question easily. Before I get to that, however, I do have to agree that the issue of the huge ice/snow storms and internet being knocked out is definitely a part of the problem, but not the entire problem.
Now ignoring some more controversial subjects such as the staff or the fact Kov is neither updating the game nor decided to make it opensource yet, let me just point out some little things could certainly cause some big problems.
1. The too warm of a welcome to under 13 yr old children.
I'm not sorry when I say I firmly stand by that a game designed in a manner such as Feral-heart, whether intentional or not is not suitable for anyone under 13 years old. Notice that a few of the Impressive Title servers forbid this and most of the younglings either learn to "Act like the grownups" in order to blend in so that they don't get caught or they just flat out don't play the game because they know if they act up, guess what? They're getting banned. Ever notice on online games, there are disclaimers saying "Online interactions not rated?" Heh. Yeah. There's a reason for that. I feel safe in saying that a 13 year old knows enough about right and wrong to make a decision on how to behave. Anyone under that age range [And I could care less about those little ones or their parents who think they're "more mature." You're never "more mature" as a solid whole, only in pieces.] on average is not and the hell that comes from giving them the freedom to make those stupid mistakes without consequence does NOT outweigh the good and joy that comes from a few "more mature youngins" who get to play. They can wait. Afterall, for every under-age you let in that is "more mature" there are likely ten or more immature brats that come with them, all of which if they only caused one problem each, is STILL ten problems. Children under thirteen still need to be on restricted games and websites or at least on ones that are tightly supervised. Feral Heart is not tightly supervised and that combined with underage children is a recipe for disaster.
2. Terrible Roleplay Trends. Now this, I can't pin on the game's fault. Its not the game's fault but this game is the point of origin for a lot of things that I can safely say were not present [or if present, nowhere near as extreme] in the original Impressive Title game before Feral Heart.
A. Realism is everything....too often. I can recall in the months before I left Feral Heart that I would be ignored and branded as a n00b roleplayer for having a character with *gasp!* an unrealistic color on it.
B. People have somehow gotten the idea that different species can't roleplay together. And before anyone opens their mouth and tries to say that its more realistic to keep the same species together, lets get our heads out of population mechanics and go to a slightly bigger area in biology. Community mechanics. Species in "real life" interact on a very frequent basis and it is what makes our world go round. Bacteria are interacting with you in your gut right now. That's not realistic? And for a more similar example, a wolf chasing a coyote away from his kill is not realistic either? Please. Save your breath. Personally I like to see species interaction on an unrealistic level [Cat's and dogs living together *insert quote-pun here*] BUT thats my personal preference but regardless of that, even on a REALISTIC level, species interact. All the time. So why does everyone seem so freaking bent on keeping them apart? Might be the problem below
C. The desperation to run a disorganized pack/pride/clan/group. Or not even that, its the way the groups are run and like letter B I have seen this spread to similar games, usually because FH players tend to head to similar games and take their bad habits with them. No big surprise. On Impressive Title, there was NO group system. If you wanted a group you had to make a thread with some actual effort put into it, not to roleplay but to keep track of your members, and you would have between about 10 and 40 and they were close knit groups. You knew all the people you RP'd with and they had to actually apply [and I don't mean just a RP sample] and make an effort. With the group system, people just add you at random regardless of whether or not you will commit. Everyone has become so number's focused and trying to be "big and awesome" when really all they have is a long virtual list of names, half of which won't play for more than five minutes. I'd rather have a close knit group of ten people to RP with regularly than a 100 I would lose in two days. Oddly enough for most of my time here I had that in a group of my friends but I know that most people do not. Consequently? That's more than enough reason to leave.
[[And don't tell me a 13 year old cannot be relied on to do something like that because when I was 13 and playing Impressive Title /EVERYONE/ did that just fine. What they didn't know, they asked and learned. Being a kid in that respect does not equal being incapable, ESPECIALLY in this generation.]]
D. Dang'd if you do, dang'd if you don't. What do I mean by that? Well for starters let me begin by talking about the novices. There are a few who want help and ask to improve. The problem? Anyone nice enough to do it is expected to play teacher all the time. So they lose. And the novice RPer? They tend to lose too because when they're /not/ around that one nice friend, they're getting bashed by /supposedly/ more experienced roleplayers [Though to be honest I've seen these bullies and their posts are usually filled with so many errors, its laughable to call them experienced.] for not being that good. And the other way that the "Teacher" loses is that BECAUSE they are one of the few experience roleplayers who is trying to help when asked, when they get too tired to play "Teacher" and just want to RP with someone on their level, they're branded as being one of the bullies. That's a seriously vicious cycle going there. And sometimes, even when they exhaust themselves to help out the novice roleplayers and do not refuse, this /still/ happens because goodness forbid that they post better than "how u doin?" and that automatically makes them a bully. Because of COURSE anyone who knows how to make a proper roleplay post is a bully. *Much sarcasm intended there* This is among one of the many, but main reasons why I left.
And can I just say that its incredibly sad that the novices can get branded as n00bs, those of us who were on the side of being experience roleplayers who were NOT bullies and got bashed, labled, and ignored by both novices and bullies alike did NOT have a rabbid-foaming-at-the-mouth support group unlike the little novices? Yeah, chew on that for a while because I can tell you from experience it sucks. At least someone sticks up for the novices, but anyone else? They're thrown to the wolves. [Not making a joke there.]
3. Overall presentation. Partly due to the clinging of players to same-species same-looks but the downhill roll of creativity is startling. I'm more than a little annoyed that the vast of variety of maps made in the early versions of the game, particularly the ones that took a great deal of effort [the ones that still work in the current version] are far superior to the ones being made now. Yes, I made a lot of complex maps but I'm talking about mine, I'm talking about everyone elses. How many people have actually bothered to learn how to use object maker? Or even use a downloaded mesh? [That one is a slightly more frequent skill in the FH population but still not frequent enough]. The better maps are getting buried by billions of copies of "LOOK AT ME! I put 100 trees of the exact same size, facing the exact same way, on a /grass/ texture. Its a bootiful forest!" No its not. Its ugly and its been done about a 1000 times before, why didn't you just save yourself the five minutes it probably took to work on it and download the carbon copy on the next page? Or does anyone even look on the second page anymore? I don't know but the lack of attention to detail and creativity is startling.
And thats even if you ignore the number of "Warrior cats maps" although I ignore that simply because /that/ is up for interpretation and Im all for different interpretations of the same thing. Fair enough. Now I would blame it being kids allowed on the game but this started happening long before Feral Heart got overly warm and fuzzy with letting under thirteen year olds in, so I won't place blame on that. And also, is there anyone even ALLOWED to download a map on the game anymore? Or willing at least? I ask that question sarcastically because toward the end of my time on Feral Heart, when asked if someone wanted to do a downloaded map RP their answer was "I don't know how [and it takes zero effort to learn, even for a 13 year old Its copy and paste!] and I dont want to learn, or its "My parents wont let me" [which is understandable in some cases but Id hope to god you're old enough they trust you. I take this one lightly], or its "My parents have to help me because I dont know how [again, if you're 13 and can copy and paste, I HIGHLY doubt this is true. If you can download a song on your ipod, you can download a map or preset.]
3. Availability of other similar games WITHOUT as many of the problems I've stated above. There is a vast array of Impressive Title servers, Last Moon, Wolf Soul, Royal Skies, etc. as well as other non IT-server games in the making such as Feral Tales [though as others have said I highly doubt that is accounting for the sudden drop in attendance but it is a possible factor for a few people], or Primitive Call.
That is what I did, I found a game with less of these issues and left. And you know what? I'm happy. Its sad when someone has to leave a game they were happy with for several years just because of a few silly little things that turned into huge problems because they managed to get out of hand. And as mentioned at the top, this is only addressing a few issues, not all of them. So yeah, I can see a LOT of reasons why Feral Heart is empty besides the bad weather.
And interestingly enough, several of the folks who vaguely claimed in the "leaving threads" that they were "leaving just because" or kept their reasons or where they went vague, I've run across some of them in other games. So yeah, there are definitely some things driving people out/elsewhere going on right now.
