The majority of the people i game with have left sparta.
Most left because of abuse by moderators in the forums. (especially the abuse directed toward members of armed forces that share computers on post in the field)
Some left because they did not like the fact that they worked hard, and spent money to gain advantage with things like generals gear, only to have that advantage they worked or purchased gifted to people that do not even log daily.
Some left because they decided there was limited future in the game of sparta and they would stop investing time and money into it (new players have zero chance of being anything more than fodder for experienced players, all the new updates require more and more time to process your turns,
Salt is not making things any better - denying reality and what is happening to try and gain favor with palarium moderator staff does not fix anything but irritates the players that remain.
Moderators that erase posts and ban people for attempting to improve the game or make our opinions known also further damage the game.
It is truly sad to keep reading about forum posts being removed, and bans for speaking the truth.
The future of sparta is not based on devs making updates, but the chasing away of its player base, the silly time and clicking needed to maintain your account, and the inability of new players to join the sparta theater.
This is not such a hard thing to comprehend.