How many people are REALLY still playing Maplestory?

I find this discussion to be most encouraging.

My better judgment tells me that the foundation of Maple is so lost that even if 5th jobs were released tomorrow, that alone would not be enough to declare the game as being a success or even doing ok.

However,
The phrase, "Believe in the me that believes in you" is the first thing that I am reminded of. Or in this case, I will choose to believe in the Maplestory that believes in its players.

I think some of the foundations are too worm-bitten already... as in... the coding, else too irrelevant. It's not very well thought out at some places, and downright frustrating elsewhere (e.g. the bloody looting delay). Content is ok. Service is... meh. GUI has improved, but UI and etc. functions can be quite lacking and inconsistent. Any of these frustrations will erode the interest of players.

While nothing is future-proof, I think Maplestory wasn't designed with the future in mind i.e. not sufficiently flexible in some areas to allow it to move with the times.

Hadriel