what really killed the server is seasoned players continually trying to adjust the gamemode to more suit their needs while forgetting about how these actions affected the experience for a new player
this might seem a bit hard to understand so I'll try and give an example
developing and growing the pd was fun for everyone involved. the fight against criminals and the sense of community within the pd made it seem fun and the positive energy surrounding it was attractive to new players.
however as time progressed and people turned to complaining about problems affecting them (eg. why am i always dying uwu) the pd lost its sense of being involved in a larger community and focused more on making the experience for its current members more enjoyable.
honestly it's not surprising this happened nor is there anyone to blame, but i cant help but feel like the progression of the PD has reached a point where it's too confusing / in depth for new players.
if you put yourself in the position of somebody who doesn't see perp through any sort of rose tinted glasses (aka nostalgia) it's easy to see why the server is way less popular than it used to be. there's too much of a perceived investment for a gmod server to make it worth their time.
it's not just the PD either. back when bases were regulated a lot more strictly (to at least try and emulate some form of realistic homestead,) growing drugs was a lot riskier. while people may complain about constantly being raided the risk of growing drugs being at least somewhat high lead to a diversity in organisations and the potential for anyone to be able to raid anyone, unlike now where large bases go untouched for hours on end because they contain more than half the server inside a labyrinth of wooden walls and concrete headglitches.
while this next part may not have had any impact on the life of the server i feel it's a change that should be mentioned. when i started playing staff were exemplary members of the community. perp had a reputation for having a very harsh selection process and very good staff members. it was also known for being very harsh. it drew people from other servers with less strict recruitment processes when they grew tired of the typical low quality staff that plagued most darkrp / lightrp servers at the time.
i feel like this has changed (probably around the time i became staff tbh,) this isn't a dig at any current staff member but I feel like perp's somewhat lost that repuation. idk h ow this has affected the player count but it probably has in some way.
this isn't me complaining and bitching about how things are (we've had enough of that already,) i'm just trying to give my two cents on what lead us to this position.
idk if any of this made sense but i put my serious thinking hat on for this post
@Ayjay @TinySlayer pls read