As a person who's played since the start. I've seen people from 2014-2015 players leave the community as we know almost every inch of the game. The only thing that can offer something enjoyable is our own creative "roleplay" scenarios. I've already spoke about how we made a fightclub-ish inspired betting behind the bank which brought many people in and it was very fun. It did break some rules (prop placement) but at least we did it because there's literally nothing else to do other than COPS VS ROBBERS. Many of mine and others roleplay scenarios are ruined by either staff telling us to fuck off (figuratively) or mingey players ruining everything.
I know staff are just doing their job, but some of these rule limits are limiting our imagination and creativity. I'm not saying REMOVE THE RULES, but rather let staff use their "staff discretion" and let them think "hmm, they're roleplaying and it's not complete cancer, why not?". We've already had a thread about this.
I also know many players that have an issue with who's leading the PLPD and general bias. We used to have a Paralake Senate that probably should have the ability to choose this but it's already dead. I won't go into detail on this because it's been discussed many times before.
Updates and new content is also important. Back in 2013-2014 StephenPuffs had this idea of Player-Owned Economy which would bring in many more legal jobs and opportunities for some ACTUAL ROLEPLAY SCENARIOS. This thread was however deleted and after questioning him on it, he told me that he has other projects and such. We've had some fun updates in the past (drug system, moon, etc) but the hype quickly dies out after a week. I think we need to take a step back and focus on content that will last long-term.