In response to RabbitTRK's post, (and I agree with the points made, which I sumamrize here)

1. Loots has increased 2) grinding 3) supplies
   All 3 of these increase "stuff". #2 increases stuff and XP. It is XP that determines the levels, feats, the skills, the individuality of characters (at least according to the character sheet)
   But the increase of lootpower and supplies outstrips the increase in levels, so it just comes down to who has what loot.
   Balance the server so the levels are higher, to match the loot level.

@AronFF:

It's the contrary for me, I will be more likely to enjoy a plot if I can see the human being struggling between choices. Even if the being I play isn't human, merely humanoid.

Or even if I see some OTHER human having to decide bewteeen choices

Some of my fav plots were ones that had to do with wars, talos war, grey circle, etc because it was easy for non-central people to get involved.

Some fav struggles were non-violent blackmails ending up in LG people deciding whether to give in to blackmail to protect a friends reputation.

Note that Neither actually involved my characters except in a supporting/side role, so my opinion had nothing to do with my involvement, just the simplicity.

keeping in mind the theme… a journey seeing the various misbehaviors (as seen by Dogs) and appropriate punishments...
I thought i'd perhaps layout the reason for the lairs, as opposed to punishments as others have done.
1.Dogs with no pack due to no fault of their own
2.Dogs who sit in the corner/under a tree instead of playing with others
3.Dogs who don't help bark/yowl/alert at intruders
4.Dogs who refuse to be sniffed even a little
5.Dogs who eat out of place
6.Dogs who eliminate on kills after their turn at eating
7.Dogs who are loners/refuse to join pack
8.Dogs who lie with their body language
9.Dogs who pretend to be packless, join a pack, but are spies.

At the center of course would be a giant Fox-
A semi-dog-shaped being who exhibits the opposite of dog qualities.
and who is Beatrice ? person-mommy with treats?

What Lunatichigh said. I generally do not have the non-playing time to create/push any plots of significance, although i greatly enjoy doing what I can to assist others via in-game rp.
I also have for whatever reason, a low amount of self-assertion, so generally would not reach out to dms for assistance with a plot.
due to my recognition of that, and that my contribution is mostly that of RP/setting-feel as opposed to setting-CHANGE, I find any recognition to be wonderful.

@Darlene:

Costing gold to simply exist would be very bad for me, pretty sure everyone else would survive.

there was one other server i was trying as well in the past, and they instituted something similar, i quit that server in short order, not exactly what you are wanting to hear..unless you want to be shed of me

not neccessarily "costing gold". That was just a off-to-of-head simplistic example. The point is, there should be ramifications to being aligned with one "side" or another as opposed to simply it being a choice of which gank squad you join.

@Thune:

As a player looking in, I know next to nothing. There are few forum posts, little rumors, and very little public knowledge. Its all being handled internally in faction and faction forums, which makes it hard to

1. Be excited over something with little public news
2. If I was visiting the forums, I would have little more than small hints of big stuff going on
3. If I was trying to involve myself in something, I would have to create a character and ask what was going on, rather than make a character and jump right in

ditto. There have been several obviously very large events that have occurred in last 6 months that even though I do follow (cuz i care even if i dont play) the bulletin board/rumor/suggestion/discussion boards clearly I have no idea what they were.

1)As the OP.. let me clarify… My suggestion would involve not just a tax here and a tax there... but carefully planned edicts, one here, perhaps one there in response, with discussion able to be made IC, (such as the legion petition/debates a while back), with PCs able to effect what happens. and able to reap benefits and opposition suffering. That, I believe, would give people a sense of belonging, a sense of investment, a sense of success/failure in ways other than just being able to buy more potions than the other side.

As far as rift stuff mentioned... i -MUST- come out and defend the DMs on that.
2) Often DMs have given support to outlaw groups and still people leave because they dont like the issues of being outlaws.
For example, I had a character who at least three times tried to use rift-stuff to get groups/actions going.
A.) recruited some people, who, when they found out they couldnt use normal, cheap, healing/buffing sources OOC gave up on it, and decided to whine to get "fixed'.
Scratch that plotline. Vanish and come back another season.
B.) gathered in a half-orc tribe calling self their, 'witch who makes chief much strong'. had a pretty decent plot going involving getting redharts attacking west gate and then when forces called to defend, 8-10 or so super-rift-buffed hot-pant-teleporting 1/2 orc warriors attacking Tymoran temple.(yes,Minna, thats why Shevarra hung with you) That group fell apart, I believe because a couple key people in that, and other groups retired characters. Not due to DM stuff.
C.) a group of somewhat demented criminal elves who I had recruited to rift-power. Although I IC called it selling their souls to me in exchange for My own power, rituals n everything. Most of them quit the characters - or in one case, suicided in a rift-buff attack against some npcs (with DM supervision) because they couldn't, once again, deal with the OOC consequences of all the easy buffs and healing not being available.

In these cases, it was Players not liking the Mechanical consequences of their choices that led to Characters being quit, groups falling apart, etc.
Never, not once, due to DMs doing stuff. if anything, i can only think it was some DM guidance with PC miltia faction that kept her from execution for so long.

DMs gave plenty of support. More than was asked for. (I'm terrible for asking for aid. I just like to let things flow)

I Can't speak for other rift-groups that failed. just sheverras

as mentioned by Syrus mentioning dripster… "A Big Thing"

often good vs evil or chaos vs law has a clear "theyre the good guys" when looking at it from player moral/player ease perspective.
What if "A big Thing" can be setup so both sides have drawbacks, and both sides have advantages.
with the edvent of the Chaos brigade, theres a clear conflict.
Well, so whats new about that. The criminals will be outlawd, and law/good will stomp em and reap the rewards.
but why would a "typical" adventurer want to be on the Chaos brigade side... or even consider it ?
Not a whole lot of reason "Hardcastles a tyrant is easy to say", but c'mon who really sticks to that when it comes down to event access? (some do)

Lets make EACH SIDE have in-game mechanical RP (not combat) effects.
Such as... Hardcastle is a tyrranical money-grubber? A tax. A damn heavy tax. Like... 2% of your consumables every time you enter the Citadel. And 5% of your gold. And things are very very expensive in stores. Want to be considered on his side? it'll cost you. And it gives you incentive to get things changed.
Unless.... of course... you earn bounties/favor by turning in those who evade taxes (and dont have the 'receipts'). Whether in-person or ratting...

Want to be Chaotic? well, that will have a cost too. like.... npc pickpockets... or limited access to goods and services. or., or not having 'papers', so there is the chance of random NPC searchs getting you tossed into jail for a RL hour

Gives the fence-sitters real reason to if not Join a side, to at least act in accordance with one side or the other. Or, lol, deal with the "penaltie" of both.

Just a thought, but its a way to have large, over-arching things going on that make people give real consideration to who they want to associate with

Syrus, verkosh, as you know, we have had many, many, many years-old characters here. Including low-mechanical actively evil ones.
And it was during times when PvP did not need DM permission/oversight. Just a good reason to be mentioned later if it was asked. PvP does not lead to short-lived characters.
People made characters that took time to be established, made allies, formed longer alliances, generally around existing groups, both good and evil, instead of coming up with a concept group that would flash and be considered long-term if it lasted 3 months.
I believe a large part of that is because in the last few (3-5?) years people have focused on "Telling their story and trying to 'change' the server (aka "win") " as opposed to "Being part of the overall story that is Arabel"

It was certainly easier to be of a larger story, because I'd guess there were 500+ active players. So there were many many stories to intertwine, and stories that would just develop un-imagined from that intertwining. Now, it is damn hard to try and shift people's focus from their "goal". Not always, but often.

How that affects increasing player count I don't know. Perhaps a discussion on what type of long-term flow of stories (short vs long, individual vs major group,proactive vs reactive,? vs ?, some of all?) and how they affect the overall feel of the server, and what type of mix is desirable might be warranted. Maybe even in its own thread.

@solarfall:

How to improve player numbers? Stop with so many stupid / "funny" (they aren't funny) OOC DM shouts and stop pausing the damn server so much!

Absolutely shatters the RP vibe, so pack it in.

Might bother some, but not all. Just as tells bothers some people but not others. Different personality types - some people like to focus, some people like to multitask.

I would like some way for opposing conflict sides to be more about larger numbers of somewhat equal individuals - such as 3-5 lvl 5-8's being opposed .. as opposed to what happens too often, which is 6-10 lvl 4-7s being against a single lvl 10 geared-up uber subrace. Hope to see this happen with as DMs have stated, more support for team anti-establishment, (aka team Chaos) as long as that support is of appropriate amount.

That could go a ways towards reducing the feel, mentioned by others, that the individual "Win" is whats important. Screw the Win, in my opinion. I'm there to experience the journey.