Thank you for your thoughtful response. I have been involved in successful and failed MMOs, and a few times as more than just a player. So I have the benefit of seeing things from both perspectives, and have learned a few lessons along the way. I believe in the end we can all agree that this MMO is not stillborn, and do have a few things in place that could make it great. It also has a few negatives (dommon mistakes/problems) that can be avoided and fixed.

I think we all realize that if the Steam release does not work out, this MMO might be shut down. The success is up to the players as much as the developers. Maybe it is time to help them, maybe it is time to apply some of your real life skills and make rational and realistic suggestions. Or be negative and let this game die.

I do not think anyone is evil. I simply comment on perceptions.

Generally when I squat and deliver pearls, I get paid a consulting fee. But for all my Very Best Virtual Friends the service is free.

There is no manual for playing MMO. There are however proven practices that makes them successful or die.

Anyway it is an opinion. Read or don't, flame or don't. Pixels are serious business.

This game already has all the components needed to be successful. What it will need is understanding and commitment from the existing players and management to make it work. The recipe is actually quite simple: you need to engage players. People in real life and in games rally to specific causes, and that emotional drive is what engages them.

You need these things:
1) An evil empire. This requires willing players that will not mind being perceived as evil. (Syndic and Ville are already so damn good at this!). But this needs careful thought and balance, as griefing players will make them leave.  The game management needs to be aware and supportive, and therefore sometimes turn a blind eye, or sometimes be perceived as to take sides to punish the evil empire. Case in point: M2S (although they really did some nasty stuff, they caused a rally and a decent war.)
2)  The good empire. The counter balance that carries the flag against the evil empire. This needs to be carefully balanced not to over run or crush the evil empire. You want a long and engaging war, you want to fight over the same territory or assets regularly. Both CEOs (and possibility the devs) needs to watch over this carefully.
3)  Engage the free market. Self sufficiency is bad, both sides need to create a culture of consumption. This will grant opportunity for the pure PVE types (care bears). It also means that there needs to be places/areas managed by smaller 3rd parties where industrials can gather resources and build in safety. Don't hog all the Betas and Gammas, leave some space and manage your killboard whores to remain mostly "hands-off" those areas. For balance those areas needs to be roamed, and carebears needs to lose some stuff - you need the QQ on the forums.
4) PVE content needs to be balanced. Any player should be able to recoup losses easily. The formula is quite simple: a player needs to be able to lose his bot and rebuild it in one play session. This balancing the devs will need to look at. In my opinion the PVE content to enable this is lacking, especially for an average skilled player. This absolutely needs to be solo-able on 1 account. When you "require friends" or a second account this is broken.
5) 95% of MMO players are casual players. They have lives, jobs, real friends, and many other reasons not to login. Corporations and the game content needs to support this. (BTW this is why WoW is so successful.) Whether a person plays for one hour or 8, there needs to be some engagement, something to do. They need to feel some form of achievement for that duration. Whether they mine or build or mission or PVP, there needs to some goal achieved for that 1 hour of play (this is why Eve is marginally successful). That is why they will login tomorrow, else they go watch Game of Thrones. Again this needs careful balancing by CEOs and the Devs.

What kills MMOs? Boredom. Repetitive Grind. Losing gear that can be expressed in real monetary terms. This is lack of content, lack of engagement. Most of the MMOs that failed in the past failed due to this. The key to success is the Sandbox, the ability to do anything, go anywhere. Real reward for taking risks.

I think Lady Gaga did that one already. She wrapped herself in beef and LARPed as the Mad Cow, while everyone else played with their Magic Missiles.

This game runs across 24 time zones. At its highest on weekends there is an average of 900 logged in accounts across about 12 of the zones. Add to that, on average only 10% of accounts of accounts are active at any given period. Consider player trends such as some people play once a week etc. Add it all together into simple maths approximately 500 accounts per timezone (500 x 24 = 12000).