The game is definitely going places. Aside from the big releases, such as the biomes update and the water update, I've really enjoyed many of the smaller updates. The introduction of simple things like saloon doors, canteens and buckets, coal usefulness, and simple furniture pieces can really help me think of creative new ways to build. Those kind of things always flesh out the game in greater detail however small. I really don't pay attention to the negative reviews, even though they're relatively few in number. Sure, the updates usually come between a month to two months waiting time, but I find myself enjoying new updates between that time anyway.
I've never really worried much about the survival aspect, even though it definitely could be better. The challenge of finding food, water, and an ideal place to build are really easy. The wildlife are even easier to deal with since most of them are harmless, and even the bears and tigers can be dispatched easily with a morning-star. I understand players' disappointment for this aspect of the game, since it has been a long time we've gotten new weapons and challenges. I wouldn't mind some new weapons (and even Armour ) to bring about a greater balance between pvp and peaceful servers. I love playing on the peaceful servers, but I've been itching to introduce exclusion zones into the server where players can stage battles between other players or where the server can fight an npc army of sorts. Yet, the dungeons update is impending, and with the API update released, I anticipate a lot of people will be introducing ways to expand the game in this direction even further.
The amount of new players joining the game is also staggering. I've experienced a burgeoning player base to cater since the API update, so I am confident the game will continue to grow even more popular as the devs introduce more content. The game may experience other occasional drops in popularity, but common experience tells me that this is the game's greatest input. Whenever things get bad, the devs put in 200% effort, and for it, they get 200% great feedback every time. Hard to beat that.