Originally Posted by
LunaticAsylumLA
Not only they have destroyed the AoC solo, raid, and group content; they also forced, as I can see from the signatures on the forum, a lot of veterans to leave. I assume someone at Funcom decided that the instant-gratification model proposed by Kellisia and Combat, whose instigating speech both in the game and on the forum was only directed at undermining the game, would be a great solution to a game that has had its revenue going down.
Yet, Funcom refused to notice how they themselves started the decline step-by-step, little-by-little with
* XP potions in 2009-2010;
* offline levels in 2010;
* T3 debuffs in 2012 (I missed the T1 and T2 debuff, so I cannot speak about it);
* even the proverbial "give back the key to Saddur" was a result of a minor step in the wrong direction that made people attack me on a personal level (I even received death threats for speaking about such problems in the game and no actions from moderators towards the perpetrator: they just asked me to shut up (I am not joking) and not answer it, not knowing how to deal with the situation);
* skills like concentration, running speed removed;
* world bosses introduced;
* and finally, the worst kind, the accurst raid finder that, if used by veterans will only make them accept the change gradually, which will cause the game fall down into the pit.
Game directors like Joel Bylos (and, at a lesser degree, Craig, whose ridiculous propositions like giving PVP armor for free at 80 were controlled by the other department) at Funcom refused to see the whole picture and killed off the game with gradual steps that repulsed veterans and attracted a player whose attention span is at a good match with modern games like Call of Duty or Bejewelled (look at the daily rewards: that is a typical mobile-phone idiocy).
Anyway, Funcom will never understand it. Neither shall we. The steps towards AoC's demise are so minor that they do not reveal the whole picture until it finally hits everyone.