So I've owned this game for maybe 2 years or more. The first time I played. I got through the  tutorial and I understand the type of game it was, similar to eve. It has grinding, marketing, player corporations, gamma islands where you control land and resources with bases, crafting system, bla bla bla.

But as a new player who is playing the game when its old. I see in general chat only 14~ people.  I browse the other chat channels and its maybe 10 in another, 5 in another, a few outlying 1's.   And I could assume some players are in multiple chat channels which would mean the sum of players is less. So the population on the game would appear to be less than 30.

So how many people are really online in this game?

And I feel if you want more people on, shouldn't you people not in general chat come join it?
My brother started playing this and that's why I'm back to check this game out again.
He says everyone is hiding.

Are you all hiding and not in general chat? 
Its a real turn away to new players looking for a healthy community in a game that is about player interaction.