Yeah, honestly I'm very happy with the number of people playing (and loving) FF. The fact that I have been able to hop on any number of <50 ping servers near me and see regulars (and new folks) at any time of day or night is all I really want, and its a solid base to build up from. We definitely have bugs to fix, 2fort to release, and so on
But there are a few big things at work here. If you've noticed, community mods for HL2 have had nowhere near the following they had for HL1. There are many reasons for this, including many more games on the market, official development teams taking on community mods or creating new games based on mods, and more. To be honest, modding is dying out. It's dying out in RPGs, its dying out in FPSs, its dying out everywhere. The simple fact is that there are more games out there, and modders just don't have the resources to compete like we did in the days of HL1. That being said, we can still create an excellent game.
One thing I've noticed after a decade or so playing games is that there will always be the 'hot new games' out, and if you keep snatching them up, not only will you never have a true gaming community (the greatest joy in gaming, in my opinion) but you'll have an empty pocketbook as well
If FF can provide a home - even for a little while - for a content, enjoyable community, then I'm happy. And I am happy, because the proof is in the pudding: we've made that community (FF Devs and community members) around this wonderful piece of art. So thank you all for joining in