The scope of features you guys are talking about is basically a whole new game. Which is... fine. 8BitMMO has been publicly playable for... almost five years now? It's stabilized and matured. The fact that it's soon entering its fifth year as a publicly playable indie game and that there are still people playing it is nothing short of amazing, in my opinion. Heck, how many big budget MMOs have launched and shut down in that time? How many AAA games have 100% empty lobbies after five years (or five months)? And we're still here! People complain about smaller user counts, but this is still a larger number than we had for the first two years before the Steam launch. That's kind of crazy and awesome.
Anyway, I think people are at the point where what they really want is a substantially new experience. This isn't a add a couple of new items or add a new mode, it's a new game. And it's been almost five years, that's probably a fair request.
But a new game isn't going to happen overnight. I do think 9BitMMO is the start of whatever that new experience is. Maybe it even ends up being radically different from 8BitMMO. Maybe it's the same monetization, or maybe it's more like EVE (monthly subscription) or Guild Wars (one time purchase). Ultimately it has to get paid for somehow, which isn't popular, but is a tough reality. Does it have crafting? Maybe. I liked making a tech tree in MOI, so it's possible. But I don't want to end up with getting Minecraft comparisons. I think the key is figuring out what is new and unique about this possible new game versus all the other games that already exist, and building from that. And then, how is it being financed? The server fundraiser keeps the machines running, but it doesn't cover my rent -- so at a certain point I either need to look at external financing or doing some contract work for a bit. Such are the realities that almost every indie dev faces.
These are not small questions, it's going to take a long while to figure them out. And lest this post cause a panic or be misconstrued, 8BitMMO will continue to receive support. These are long term musings