That's funny because most of the people who play this game are actually the type who prefer the older, sprited look. Retro is making a comeback. The "chief" problem is that the game's creator is over ambitious, lazy, and a procrastinator.
He's got a game with a decent enough following (it's not like he has to start anything from scratch.) and complains that his game doesn't get enough traffic. Let's address some of the "Chief" problems.
1. Lazy design / upkeep:
When one looks at the "What's new" section of logging in, one notices there have only been two posts for the past two years. These posts contain little to nothing in the way of game design updates, but instead detail the rise and fall of an over ambitious attempt to expand to the wrong market.
Now, they idea was clever enough but any high school graduate can tell you that making goals which are far out of your reach are the first step to failure. Mickey wanted a successful game and came up with a creative, but totally asinine way of getting what he wanted. Instead of further improving servers, sprites and game play - he decides to spend over a year working on something no one will ever see.
At the time of this writing, there is only one server available. It is "rebirth" which is a v1 server run by a third party. There is absolutely no excuse for this. Who the hell wants to pay for a game with which has no stability to offer? Who wants to pay to look at a blank server list or pay to start new characters over and over and over again on servers with less quality and less content?
There's no excuse, mickey. I love your game and I appreciate your work but someone has to tell you how it is. You're lazy. Nobody likes excuses. Nobody likes promises and disappointment. Make a server, develop content and don't promise anything you cant absolutely stand by. Stop trying to bend your customers will to what you want and start bending your will to your customers. If you want to make money you must realize it's not about what you want, it's all about the consumer. You should treat anyone who pays you $20 a year like a prince.
2. Terrible Leadership
When thinking about bad leadership in RPGWO most players will immediately have one person come to mind. One leader who single handedly turned any server he ran into an oppressive, ban-heavy regime. Again, what makes you think someone who pays for a game wants to be banned for being around at the wrong time in the wrong place. What makes you think it's appropriate for an admin to scan through all chat logs looking for any allegations against him and banishing anyone who shows the slightest sign of dissidence? Is this a north korea / chinese oppression emulator or is it a video game?
How about a little objective leadership? How about you require of your admins to adhere to the basic tenants of the constitution and allow players to maintain some of their human rights, mainly freedom of speech? Imagine if the instead of welcoming people, the greeters at Walmart cursed at you and kicked you out of the store if you said anything negative about the store? What kind of business practices are you allow?
Again, you should kiss the feet of any paying customer. It's all about the dollars, mickey.
3. Obtuse and Stubborn Administration
Rpgwo has seen a pattern of abuse by it's creator and administrators and that is the absolutely obtuse way it is marketed and directed. You have a community driven game which should cater to players and interaction, yet it took you 10 years to come up with a forum, (I should say, before a player came up with a forum) and the one you have now is as stock as it gets. Come on, even 13 year old Naruto fanatics can design and maintain their own forums, with custom graphics no less. Again, we come back to the laziness issue.
If this message seems to disrespect you, mickey, then please kindly grow up. I'm not going to be sweet and cuddly about this, take criticism like a man. I know you probably worked very hard to get the game where it is now, but the simple fact of the matter is: you didn't work hard enough. Your effort wasn't good enough. You failed yourself, the community and most importantly, you failed your dreams. The only way to succeed is to get back up and try again. Don't give up on yourself, don't give up on your customers and most importantly, don't give up on your dreams.
Some suggestions to consider if you want to make money with your game:
Develop a server and keep it active as long as you humanly can. Be very careful about who you place in charge. Do not alienate your players with laziness and poor leadership. Learn from your mistakes.
Out reach to more sites. Get your game published throughout the internet. Stop hiding your light because you feel like you're too good to advertise or submit to certain practices. You obviously aren't. What you have done so far hasn't worked, so stop hitting your head against the same brick wall and try something different.
Consider micro transactions, they are the way of the future. I reiterate, if you are serious about making money it's not about what you want, it's about what's good for the consumers. Dungeons and Dragons online, Lord of the Rings Online and plenty others have done away with subscriptions in favor of micro transactions. There's a reason for this, because it works. Charge $1-5 for karma and let that karma buy flat land, el tikis, sprite changes, name changes, ext. Be more creative and less obtuse. Don't be afraid to listen to what your consumers want and deviate from what you want.