One thing that drags the attention of players are updates! That is the secret behind gettin' people to check the server out if the update(s) sounds interesting.
And if the player haven't tryed Era before, he / she checks the update and think like "Oh it was cool, but not that good." OR he may love it.
Then the player explores alittle more because the guns and players drags the attention, and then the player starts thinking and wanna try more, and he starts trying to earn money to get a gun and ammo.
Players wants updates!