Out of curiosity, what do you mean by “dire pretenses”? I remember the steam release, but wasn’t heavily into DF before that, so maybe I wasn’t aware of things going on in the community? Or is that more about the state of the game on initial release?

Hopefully not

I’m enjoying it. The story can all be done solo, as can most of the open world content. There are a bunch of group things you can join or leave as you want, and there are heaps of guilds that have regular runs through raids and other instanced group content (I haven’t spent much time doing that stuff yet, tbh). One of the biggest problems I’m having is that coming in now after 13 years (I think), there is so much to do it’s basically a sandbox, so having some structure to follow (like the story missions) is essential for me.

It sure is. Not sure how current numbers compare to other MMOs or previous peaks or whatever, but my personal experience is that there are always players around, no matter where I am, or what I’m doing. The community is also very nice. Always happy to jump in and help another player in trouble, or assist in a quest or event that requires a group to do.

Still working my way through the story in guild wars 2. I played it for a bit a few years ago, then picked it up again in earnest late last year, been slowly working through the expansion content. I’m up to the season 4 content, working on unlocking the roller beetle, which looks like fun.