Before anything else, I want to apologise about the abomination of a post that was The 8BitMMO Rant. Rather than presenting my arguments in a more mature manner, I came off as a harsh asshole directly attacking Robby. So I apologise for that. Also, I do know it's 2019 and I'm late to the whole situation.
Now... to the meat of the post. I realised something today, something that lets me understand what Robby has said over the years. Pretty much whenever players were asking for new updates, Robby said that past updates to the game had never led to an increase in player count. The reason is not because of the updates, it's because of the fundamental flaws in the game's design. These fundamental flaws, including many of the game's systems such as building and PvP, as well as the perspective, made it hard for new players to actually get into playing the game. However, by far the biggest issue was the tutorial. The tutorial barely does anything more than teach the players how to move and attack, as well as how the perspective of the game works. Because many of the game's mechanics were poorly explained, a lot of new players were left confused and frustrated about what to do, leading to many negative Steam reviews about the game. This steered more players away from the game, due to the poor ratings and harsh reviews. The lack of updates only helped with the loss of players, especially when it came to veteran players, turning the game into a desolate wasteland with few players that just steers off more new players due to the fact that pretty much nobody else is online.
With these fundamental flaws in 8BitMMO's design, where does the future of the game lie? In Robby? In the community? In a completely different game, made by another developer? Myself and so many others have made such amazing memories and friends over the years playing this game, and it hurts me (and probably many others too) to see it die like this, Robby.