Came back after a 3 month break and started a new save due to loss of data. Went through an entire play-through without seeing a single summoning sign. Even on the DLC areas I couldn't see a single sign.

Now I'm on NG+ and still not a single soul.

Is the game already dead?

I was actually coming on here to post about my experience with DS2, I just picked it up last Friday + the season pass.

I'm maybe Slevel 90, but just noticed I completely missed some stuff that would've made life easier. Going by the Travel menu - I just got to the start of Heide's, got 2 bonfires, cleared Cathedral of Blue - travel menu page 1 is full, page 2 has 1 bonfire for Shulva. My fault for not seeing that pull chain to enter Heide's.

So far, messages and blood spots everywhere I go. I was caught off guard by being invaded as a hollow (not a scripted PVE invader). Putting on covenant rings is sometimes faster than other games matchmaking.

A lot of invasions on me around the trio in Heide's ruin, maybe 4-5 The Gutter, and really random invasions in Lost Bastille.

Forgot to mention: The side effect is so everything in these 2 areas and now heading into No Man's Wharf is 2 hits or tank and spank for bosses (with a Mace +3).

I've been playing the game somewhat regularly over the last couple months and I always see a summon sign or two in popular areas, especially if I linger there for a brief time. The game is much less populated than it was around release time, but it's not dead. According to Steamcharts, the game's been averaging a bit over 4000 concurrent players at any given time during the last month.

I can't speak to the game myself, but it sounds like you're not connecting to the master servers. Is it possible you have a firewall block on the .exe or something?

This is possibly the problem. I ran into the same issue playing Dark Souls on the PC. Meanwhile, I see messages all over the place on the PS3 version. You might have to forward some ports.