Since the subreddit is panicking about the game dying, I thought sharing this take;
Realm of the Mad God has been beaten by its community.
The final boss and climax of the game O3 can be efficiently farmed with minial risk, to the point where non-maxed characters have completed it. Oryx 3, the logical conclusion to the game isn’t scary or intimidating anymore to the general playerbase, and the game starts to feel pointless from that.
The Shatters has not yet been mastered by the majority of endgame players, but enthousiasm for it seems low. Everyone has their own reasons, too difficult, too long, not friendly for public groups. A main reason for me, its that there is no narrative push to complete it. Beating the tauting and ever present Oryx is the focus of the game, thats why you are willing to continue trying Osanc, even after losing multiple 8/8s to Dammah PvP. Shatters is just another exalt dungeon, with a story that is disconnected from the rest of the game. Even if the Shatters lore was good, it wouldn’t ever justify Shatters being as difficult and important as O3. (Lore in RotMG is just not really possible to begin with with pirates, aliens and Mad Scientists ect. running around)
There are other reasons I dont want to do the new Shatters, I dislike the art (no offense), the items seem too gimmiky to be fun, dying or being forced to nexus just seems unfair and random. All of these stated issues can be fixed whitin the dungeon itself, however. Lost Halls 1.0 has quite similar issues. Fixing the lack of narrative motivation is almost impossible until Fouryx is announced, or DECA completely overhauls the game, meaning this is a challenge that will stand in the way of any future endgame content. The future of the game for me is therefore quite foreboding.