I have to say the hesitation is warranted from my point of view as well. After Gravity acquired DS from EA Games, i logged in a number of times in the past, only to be met with empty servers, and no one in the arenas for pvp. Game felt like a ghost town, even in the first main port city.
Hihi, made my day. If EA had ever in any possible way touched this game at all, I never would have touched it. Not even if somebody had offered me a billion to do so. Sorry EA, but nah......
Yes, DragonSaga is been trough some really tough times since Gravity took over the game. We've had some good ups and many deep downs. I've personally been through all of this, on here, on Sea and on the EU servers. I was close to giving up more than once. This is the time you describe, empty towns, empty servers and lots of players on hiatus waiting for better days to arrive. But many of those, as myself, found their way to the last running official DragonSaga server worldwide, which happens to be exactly this one here.
Many of us oldies came back, many new ones are arriving on a daily base. The so called "ghost towns" of the game are now crowded. In an amount nobody here, I believe not even Warpportal itself, ever expected.
Yes, there is still some more room for more players, this is true. Everyone out there is very welcome to join in. But with 3 of the 4 channels being on "good" on a constant and consistent base the game is doing pretty well the last time. "Ghost towns and game" are now terms of the past that hopefully never come back.
I myself find it more crowded on here than the EU server ever were and I simply love it. I love it to see people running around, farming, selling and buying stuffs, doing Dungeons and Mission Maps together and all the chatter that is going on everywhere between people that never met before. I just love the simply fact that people of any nation are playing on this one server now in happiness and peace.
First here are things to clarify:
Gravity Games didn't acquire DS from EA Games. DS was developed under the name "Dragonica" by Barunson Interactive, and Barunson Interactive has been acquired by Gravity Games. Besides this the North America publisher of Dragonica has changed from THQ*Ice to WarpPortal (which is a subsidiary of Gravity Games).
EA Games was never involved in Dragonica/Dragon Saga development or publishing.
Besides this, at EU daytimes the servers aren't empty anymore. Since the server closings in EU and SEA the server population grows.
He's right with everything he said.