Pinco is pretty much the reason some of us still play the game. He improved the enhanced client more than any developer ever did and spent a good deal of time working on it. So saying "this game may be awful to you" is just not fair.
I don't think he is trying to accomplish anything, he was some time ago though, trying to tell that the developers should invest in attracting new players by moving the game from 20th to 21st century, but he probably gave up like many others before him. His 5k guess might actually be close for the number of active players and not the number of accounts (it means about 200 active players per shard); too often we see users complain here for their falling houses as a result of some billing issues, it shows that while they have multiple accounts, they haven't even checked one in 3 months. My initial guess was 75k but this was before I learned about Draconi's 50k statement in 2009.
This is offensive since it says that the players who are realistic about the current state of the game have mental illnesses. It seems they are ruining the threads since they are not clapping hard enough. If they visit a psychiatrist, they will learn that they are not actually bitter or angry, they are just sad to see their precious game being neglected to the fullest extent by its publisher company. They are not trying to lower the morale, they are urging the developers to take action. Most of them are working for the fan sites and they do care for this game deeply. They haven't seen much effort to celebrate the 15th anniversary (now 13th anniversary was an exciting time for UO: from June 22 to October 28, 2010, just a four month period, they hosted a town hall meeting, started In the Shadow of Virtue event cycle, updated the Treasure Map system and MiB loot, introduced the Bard Masteries and released the High Seas booster pack and also celebrated the 13th anniversary), they haven't read anything inspiring for a very long time and these little facts make them even more sad: "Richard Garriott has said more in his 2-hour livestream yesterday about a game that won't be out until late 2013 than our developers have said about UO in the past 6 months."
Nevertheless, I'm quite excited for the 15th anniversary: I'm hoping for a UO.com (and maybe even MyUO) relaunch on September 24th, so that we can visit the site at 25th. I will also be glad to see Lord Blackthorn, no offense to the previous rulers but he is more unpredictable and thus more fun. Mesanna wore a GM robe at the 13th anniversary town hall, so I wouldn't be surprised to see Phoenix wearing a Lord Blackthorn robe at the party. I would love to join the party but I'm more than 4k miles away, so I need a plane to pick me up along the way.
