Downfall of GunZ
2003, birth of Gunz in Korea, the games buzz exploded because the games core pvp mechanics were so unique, that even the developers had no idea how meta it would become. Keep in mind, there was no questing or pvm in this version.
2007, GunZ gets an international release, under publishment of Ijji. This was the peak of GunZ 2007-2011. Pvm modes and clanwars were added, along with new maps including highhaven and castle. Most of the good players back then were also active on Gunzfactor forums, there was a whole community with screenshots, 1v1 fights,trashtalks...
2010, this is where things start to get wrong. The game is starting to become more toxic because if you didn't follow the meta playstyle, then you would lose most of the fights in clanwars.
The clanwar, pvp feature, or any of the maps never saw an update. A competitive game can't have longevity if the bad stuff doesn't get updated.
So players start playing ratty to win, hugging every corner and potshotting walls, and straight out camping/backpeddling. Buying overpriced items , that were freshly released like fenrir set and hp/ap rings n meds.
2012, a new phenomenon appears, underclocking and OC. some of the pro players start hitting way harder because of exploits like altering the game speed so every shot is easier to hit. This was the Fatal blow, the community got very toxic, most of the active playerbase realized there was no hope left and thereby the community slowly faded away.
2013, aeria games had bought the game around this time and then closed the official server a few months later.
Fast forward to now, Masangsoft "remasters" and releases GunZ. All they did was change the lobby, menu, room UI and some graphics changes.
My take: this game was never about questing or pvm, it's the core pvp mechanic that got players hooked. One example is the swordflip mechanic, like it's just so genius in a shooter game.
But the real issue IMO is: the game was fundamentally flawed from the start, and very expensive to fix/update. So that means no big investors/publishers. There were countless of times when random developers announced they were creating their own gunz, but none prevailed sadly.
Probably because it's not possible to fix it, sometimes things just go extinct.
With the right investments and care, this game could've been one of the best competitive shooter game.