And to clarify my OP, 2,000 players on a single classic EQ emulator is huge. I just wanted opinions from the new and veteran players here on why there aren't hundreds, even thousands more signing up. More players would hopefully mean more servers

As many have said - times changed.
Back in 99-04 there were only 3 noticeable MMOs - EQ, Asheron's Call and DAOC. AC was a disaster and DAOC (while having more innovative combat mechanic) had TINY content - their 60 levels could literally fit in just 5 EQ zones. EQ was easily the best by all standards and peak population of 640K was clearly showing that.
But then 2004 came - EQ2 and WoW delivered a major blow - more than half of EQ players clearly demonstrated that they were casuals at heart, and moved on within next year. Dedicated Hardcores STILL playing EQ1 on LIVE servers today.
So who does P99 left with? Exactly - nostalgia seekers.

As much as I cherish my newbie memories, I now would prefer a bit different game mechanics.
Even if I find time to play heavily group oriented game, I would demand significant changes to classes mechanics, questing and combat system. And lets face it - EQ raids are too blunt - give me something else to do during a raid than click auto-attack and maintain heal chain for 20 minutes (yes I am looking at you Lord Seru - 45 fucking minutes casting heals!). For example I really liked EQ2 during the first 2 years - not all of it, but some parts of combat and ability to both: to solo with any class and enjoy grouping for hard quests. I also like parts of WoW up WOTLK.
Incorporating together parts of combat mechanics from EQ2 and WoW, ability to customize parts of class specialization, AND group/raid content - that is the MMO I would play today NOT for nostalgia sake.

P.S. Oh yeah see my signature.

theres no way to really advertise the game without a budget, unless we did some type of crowd funded social media marketing, where we got on twitter, IG, and FB and everytime someone posted something about everquest, we sent them a link and invitation to come check it out.

If we paid a monthly sub to play here, rogean would have money to play around with marketing using facebook and google ppc ads. But we don't, and the money they get from donations is probably barely enogh to keep a 6-12month run way ahead of us at all times.

I hope you just described EQ Next.

Just wanted to chime in on OPs origional question, this is why we play here and simultaneously why no one else plays here: http://www.project1999.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=201275

I don't know. EQN feels like WoW play style combined with Disney graphics and Minecraft. Something fishy is going on there. I bet $20 that in 3-5 years they will either - scrap the project completely or scrap all the unusual ideas and release another theme-park MMO aka WoW-clone #54321.

This Emu actually has a huge base, but the main factor is ... Time.

Most people don't have the time to play EQ in the way that EQ requires you to. I haven't played in nearly 8 months and I wish all the time that I could. I'm relegated to reading the forums once in a while. I have at least 5 friends IRL who played classic EQ and know of this server that would all like to play, but there is no way they can commit to such a massive time sink (specifically at 50 plus).

Pvp teams yeah sure, it's coming anyway. But I'd much prefer they opened 2 blue servers. One catering for the neckbeardies. And one catering for the casuals (ie rotations).

It would be interesting to see how that shakes out. (and the subsequent tears)

I found p99 through a Reddit discussion about the holy trinity and how it isn't there on GuildWars2.

Having spent nearly a decade playing EQ from the start, I must say I miss the hardcore nature of it. Corpse runs, XP loss on death, hard fights. And I truly enjoyed playing a cleric. However, the majority of players test pla a modern MMO, like GW2, is going to just laugh at the notion of p99. The graphics, the combat system, the time commitment, the gear and level grind.

I love the way Gw2 allows me to dip into a very fluid PvP, with no wait time and no twink issues. But I miss the hardcore part of EQ and the deep camaraderie it produced in our guilds. I hope to rediscover some of that here.

This. Plenty more options now then were available then back in the day.