I no longer approach games with the mind to stay in them for a long-term. The MMO market has gone stale.
At this point in time, I look to have fun in games regardless of whether I like the company or not. I play games because I
enjoy gaming. If I can have some fun for two hours, then I am happy!
I won't purposely avoid a game because people think it will go belly up or, if it is having a few struggles. If I approached every day with that sort of mindset, I would miss out on a lot of fun times. I take each day as it comes, because no one knows the future. So it's best to stop pretending you do and enjoy your days, instead of sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for bad news from whichever game you may be playing.
That said, I do look forward to all future MMOs and, being able to give them a shot. I love games and I'm not afraid to have fun!
That is basically how I always approached MMOs. I knew unexpected death was a risk, but then again so is waking up in the morning. Do the risk of keeling over stop me from going to work, making money, enjoying life, talking to people? Why bother, it's all going to end right what is the point? The point is to enjoy the ride. Except on this ride, the end of it is not usually known until it's right up on ya.
If the end was apparent and exact date of the end was known way back in 2011 I bet many people would pay through the nose to increase the profits, make more accounts and or get friends to join to boost up numbers on paper, and do everything could to save it before the end date. But even with the date unknown why not do this all along? I seen many people post about how their friend list that used to be active is all gray and how many SGs that used to have buch of people is empty, how the PvP zones went from full at all hours of the day to the rare badger running through followed by the badger hunter. To tell you the truth, the very first sign to me was way back in around 2009-2010 when people started mention how empty many servers were now and tossing around the idea of server merging. Seems like people were more worried about losing their names than anything and that idea was immediately panned by most other and most vocal posters there. Probably why it wasnt even thought of as an option in the downsizing, as they figured the strong reaction against it would make it moot when people rage quit over losing their name. In hindsight, I'm sure people can think of another name.
Many times I logged in and Atlas barely had two instances, when announcement there was a whole lot more, a number of them I havent seen since i8 and I heard they expanded the server pop cap since then no telling how many people was there. But it's like family coming out the wood work to see grandpa when he is on death bed but havent talked to him, or even asked about him or even spoke a single word to him in over two decades. Why do humans wait until the end, when its usually too late to cherish the things they love? Who knows.
Either way games are meant to be enjoyed and played, and if a game is good I personally dont give a hoot who made it. And on the flip side I'm not going to playa bore of a game just because someone I know made it. But when I play a game for fun and want it to stick around so I can continue having fun, I put in. Even when I leave, I still maintained subscription at the min. If I dont find a game to be fun, oh well I tried it, just not my cup of tea and move on.
But when things go dead by all means if it smells fishy or something could change, go for it. Games can be brought back but always remember to cherish it more than ever like never before because not many games even get second chances once they are gone.