I've played for close to 2 and a half years, on several servers. Universally, the reason people have quit is they have other things in real life they have to deal with and no longer have time to play. So, they either reset their account, sell or give their heros (especially high attack heros) away, or sell their accounts to someone else as an alt.

This wouldn't be necessary if people could place their accounts in a long-term holiday mode, where it didn't cost any money. Paying evony not to play is the single stupidest idea on the face on the planet they've come up with thusfar. Then, people who have stuff to handle in real life that will take 3 or 6 months can still come back to the game without needing to start all over again.