By the time I started playing Mabinogi, the game was already on the verge of dying... I did meet a few good, and wonderful people, though. I even had a teacher/master to help me along the way before we lost contact. But for the most part, my adventure was solemn, and lonely. An adventure in the ghost town of mabinogi all on my own. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it. Exploring the story, and the characters. Almost like I was the only player, interacting with the NPCs. Although I do admit, it was pretty lonely. It did let me have a unique experience, though. I wonder what it would have been like if I didn't miss the golden age of mabinogi.
The first golden age was during the mids of Beam sword Event/(Black dragon event)... the 2nd Golden age was during NAO Server merge, the next one will be when the Unreal Engine release :v
Mabinogi is still extremely popular, all things considered, before the server merge I could see certain servers being a bit barren, but now? Ch1 is always packed on peak NA time. If they do Unreal 5 right this might bring more people, the "golden age" of Mabi is what you make it to be, majority of the Mid game content is soloable, and end-game there's plenty of people around running it.
Sadly I'm in the same pot as you, but maybe it's because I'm from EU so no folks to play with :/. The story is beautiful and I really enjoy it, but I still get that feeling where I want to converse with someone
The game is far from dead and I've been playing since beta of 2008 (on and off). Most people that aren't AFK are running around doing content so it looks more barren than it actually is. If you ever need a friend, let me know. My IGN is Celticmoss. :)
still a good amount of players for a 20 year old korean MMO. with pretty consistent updates and decent revenue. active modding and gold selling/buying community showing that there's value in it's ingame currency. Shows it'll keep kickin. and there's the unreal update and they're definitely going to lean in hard to advertising.
Darn.. I remember playing back around the time of G2... stayed a long time up to G16 I think? I am not sure of the number.. some G after the whole Avalon arc. a pay to win mechanic had been added, reforge I think? I gave up at that point. I wonder if the Wiki still has some of my videos.