www.beyondprotocol.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=4484

The need to curb cash colonies is needed, however the method they are attempting to us to do this will is yet another ham handed attempt to fix an issue they did not foresee. They are fighting the nature of gamers and systematically killing reasons to play.

I should note that this thread on their message board had many good posts on it, however they were all removed and the thread was locked down because they feel that non-postive posts are more dangerous to the games survival then their own actions.

Looks like most/all of the french players in BH quit.

I would think we will see the exit of all of the viral players.

I agree something needed to be done about the Cash Colonies. However I don't think what we have see of this patch is the right way to do it. If nothing else they should take Worm Holes in to account when figuring how close something is. As it stands now it would cost me much much less to have colonies in unconnected systems then it would ones that are just a WH jump away. Seems silly.

And the way the DSE crew has handled the players who are vocal about the change is really no surprise, its the same way they have handled every other time someone got mad or vocal. Hey its their game, its their msg boards. But when people in game get told to shut up and that they (DSE) no longer cares what customers have to say it sort of makes you want to speak out. From what I have seen DSE doesn't get that a happy customer on average only tells 1 person about their happiness, where as an unhappy customer will tell 10 people about whats made them unhappy.

Personally I can take just about any change in a game if its presented properly, and I feel that I am valued and respected as a customer. However not only are their game changes ham handed attempts to fix things their near sightedness caused but they are insulting their player base nearly every time they log on to general chat. (Hell, Aur even was joking around about getting on there to cause trouble the other night. ) And they have been rather dismissive of players concerns even when the customer presents them in a rational and calm manner.

DSE live or dies by its own actions. Some will be sure to blame the player base for this games failure but in the end it all comes back the the Customer Service from DSE and how fun their game is.

I can take bad customer service for a REALLY fun game. I can take a game that isnt all that fun from a game with wonderful customer service. This one seems to be failing at one degree or another on both fronts.

Wow this seems to be the MO over at DSE. Every few weeks freak out about something or suggest a near game breaking patch, then after they have pissed off enough people, change their minds, retract or water down the reaction/patch they caused the up roar.

The patch that was going to make spreading yourself out over a few systems has been watered down from what it was. I don’t know exactly how much because a bug I reported weeks ago still does not show my income correctly in the budget screen. So I will just have to hold my breath while I wait to see what the effects of the patch really are. So much for the preview.

So what was the cost of this patch for DSE? By my estimates they lost about a dozen active players. Now in most games that wouldn’t be many… but in this game that’s a ton of people. Especially since most of the ones I know about at all former beta testers. Over the last few weeks the three biggest guilds all lost a ton of players. Frustration with the game, other players and DSE has casued players to question their enjoyment of the game. In many instances that has caused players to quit or act out in such a way that they have been banned from the game. Many people that have left the game also vow to right reviews for the game from their playing experience. In many cases that experience has been negative so we can expect to see some negative reviews. I would love to see what an unbiased PG Gamer review of the game would look like.

My own experience has been best destribed as “meh” the game is fun at times but tedious and pointless at others. Many times I find it more work then fun, and the changes I seen in the game since launch have been more about further restricting the player base then it has been about making things less work like or making the game more fun. This is not a good trend.

I should however note that this morning I had a positive customer service interaction with DSE so that is a good thing. This is a trend that I hope continues.