[Bashar]

As I have said many times, the way to improve the game is not a simple case of "tweaking this" or "changing that". All the issues that people mention are symptoms of the underlying problem, which is a problem of attitude. Unfortunately, PA Team and the community are scared of losing more players and obsessed with increasing the player base. Consequently, every decision is made on the basis of speculation on what would best increase the player base. This is absolutely the wrong approach, it is equivalent to a business focusing on increasing profit. In theory, it sounds like a good idea as that is what the ultimate goal is, however focusing on the goal is a serious distraction. What you have to do is focus on the product and, if you get that right, the final goal (be it more players or more profit) will look after itself.

What I am trying to say (in a very verbose way) is that basically, worrying about how many players there are is utterly pointless whilst the game is crap and the game is crap simply because both PA Team and the community have spent too much time worrying about how many players there are rather than how to make the game good. The distinction between the two approaches is pretty fine and I am sure many will argue that changes have been made to try and make the game better, however from every discussion I have had with Appoco (I am sure he looks forward to my regular "feedback" PMs with a real sense of anticipation and delight), it is obvious that whatever good ideas they take on board, PA Team then waters them down based on their perception of making the game attractive to new players.

As I said at the start, I have said this before many times. Whilst I always find a whole string of people who agree and share this viewpoint wholeheartedly with hardly anybody disagreeing, it doesn't seem to make the slightest bit of difference. Hopefully, this time will be different, but after >10 years, I doubt it.