Population...slightly increasing
I don't know if its steam or returning players or gw2 has lost its mojo or Obama is finally improving the economy..... but from my personal pop. stats that I keep track of the population is oh so slightly improving.
This is especially true toward the upper end levels. Just last night there were so many groups in HoC that we got into verbal fights and accusations of "poaching" bosses...although in reality there were so many players in there people were getting mixed up to which group they belonged. I smiled when this happened(although the person threatened to report me ) since this is a sign of a slightly improving pbase.
Think the target goal should be around 1500 players each night on Set US. We are currently at 800ish. maybe a bit more. I'm certain the FC crew has a plan to get the steam players to stay. I think once they get over the big hump of 1-79 then they are much more likely to stay(and sub)!