Realistically, we need to do gorilla marketing and invite old players back.

The emails have been relatively successful over the past several years. They returning players went to a variety of clans and that has stabilized some of the player losses. The database of the players that joined Earth empires is still there for the moderators to go through

Many of us have been playing for a long time and don't necessarily want to see the game die. It's relatively free fun. It's a niche, there are retro gaming boards out there and I have them on the majority of them sent out messages recruiting for the game. Blackhole had some decent luck on 4chan.

People come back and check in; we don't always give them a compelling reason to stay.