^^ These words deserve to be carved in stone... or at least be QFT.
If they finally bring back the old payouts and difficulty settings most will be slow to comeback. My $$$$ will be slow to comeback as a lot of time has been wasted ruining this game!!!
Simplest analogy is four times the grind= four times long to spend the $$$$
The queues are still empty. Regardless of any alleged numerical oddities in the U.I., they really be empty.
I can currently play only The Cure Advanced, or the other 2 Advanced STF's, and Federation Fleet Alert. The rest is pretty much a not-happening thing. I used to play Starbase Fleet Defense, and many others.
I wonder what you're planning on doing about this situation. Or whether we can even get full disclosure on what is going on, really, as I find the lack of participants rather alarming, tbh. I'm pretty sure your metrics will tell you the same.
Maybe it's time you did something I know you don't want to do; namely, un-nerf the rewards for these queues. Let NPC's pay out a similar amount of XP as in Argala, for instance. Because, whatever huge loss you're fearing from making that happen, it can't possibly be as bad as no one playing (or hardly anyone, for those accustomed to taking things literal). Or maybe have regular STF's drop Ancient Power Cells too. Yes, I know, that goes linea recta against your wish for everyone to just do DR content. But, as an old saying goes, You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.
At any rate, you *do* realize that empty queues are 'dangerous', right? People can forego on the insane upgrade cost; they can still grind Argala; but they cannot ignore empty queues, as you can't play what's not available.
Thank you.
Here are a few wild guesses on why the queues are empty:
1. The grind to Level 60 takes the normal average player longer than Delta Rising has been out. Therefore, there aren't enough 60's on at any given time to actually populate the queues.
2. (Reference #1) Most people see the queues as end game content. The thing they do after they level up, to enhance their gear and reps. So, if they aren't 60 yet, they aren't getting into queues.
3. Every forum thread the past few weeks discussing the queued content has said that the difficulty has gone off the charts. That scares off the meeker Captains out there who don't want to get bullied by L33T players for failing, or who don't see the effort it takes to complete the queued content as worthwhile.
4. (Reference #1 & #2) The population has fallen far enough as to make queued content unsustainable. If 10-20% of players walked away, from each of the US timezones, how many players might that be? Those are players no longer potentially available to add to the queue population, with the remainder of the population then reduced further for the reasons stated in #1 and #2.
In short...Delta Rising is the BEST expansion ever, the players love it and EVERYTHING IS AWESOME!
"You shoot him, I shoot you, I leave both your bodies here and go out for a late night snack.
I'm thinking maybe pancakes." ~ John Casey
4. (Reference #1 & #2) The population has fallen far enough as to make queued content unsustainable. If 10-20% of players walked away, from each of the US timezones, how many players might that be? Those are players no longer potentially available to add to the queue population, with the remainder of the population then reduced further for the reasons stated in #1 and #2.
Yes, I've observed the same thing myself. When the queued population drops below a certain mark, then this only speeds up the exodus. Like if even as much as 5 people are queued for Starbase Fleet Defense, for instance, not only is that not nearly enough for the required 20, but those 5 tend to leave the queue again as well, as waiting simply takes too long (or they queued elsewhere). And then, when people only see 1 person queued for it, they decide not to bother themselves (or leave the queue, if they're said person).
All-in-all, things must truly be in aweful shape, when they can't even get 20 people for a queue. Or 5 even, for most. Metric that, Geko!
I hoped things would change and the queues would fillup again. I am just not sure this will happen anymore. There are so many things in the world to distract people that getting their attention back is not so simple. Many probably left with a bitter taste in their mouths. I miss my starbase defense and its sad looking at it dead and wondering why things had to get to this point.
Why is it that the queue for Starbase Fleet Defense is always empty? It used to be quite popular before DR at least during the evenings. Now whenever I look there's not a single player in the queue.
Has it become very difficult or tedious? Does anybody know?
Right now I doubt Cryptic would do anything since many people are still doing the Wonderland grind t get enough baubles for warp cores and the like. There is no time to do that grind and play other content if you have many toons you play semi-regularly and are not on 24 hours a day.
Really? You think that mk XIV is key to completing advance queues? If someone can't do them with mk XII, he/she still wan't do them with mk XIV. Having better grade equipment wan't magically make people knowing what to do at the mission.
yes, it was the gear. people had played these things before you know.
loook, people were using mission and whatever loot to try and complete the pve ques when DR came out. it was fail city. if what you were saying was correct the ques would have been chock full of people going "boy this is great!" but it was a complete ghost town. And not just because people were leveling, it was a ghost town for a good while.
So, some of us die hards just sort of said "ok, if this is the game then this is the game, lets see how this works". And we shelled out the dilthium to upgrade some or all of our gear. Eventually, during the weekdays dedicated lifers were pugging these ques, and getting closer and closer to the bonus timers.
Guess what happened on the weekends?
People with less free time would come out to play STO, people who hadn't climbed the gear upgrade path and couldn't get through the new mountains of shield and hull on the mobs. And, the pug ques would start to fail again.
This was nowhere more evident than during Thanksgiving weekend. In the weekdays up to thanksgiving there was a very small critical mass of players with upgraded gear and the interest in trying to complete the ques. We were completing them and sometimes hitting the bonus timers, in pug. Then Thanksgiving weekend hit and all the people with less free time joined the game and the pug ques instantly went back to fail city.
IT WAS ABOUT THE GEAR.
and quite frankly, a ton of people just said this
"what? nonstop upgrades costing me $$? no new loot drops? I'm forced to upgrade? ah, no, no thank you"
and they went to go play some other game.
Cryptic or PWE or someone just got too greedy, and they killed the active playerbase.
The wonderland grind is amazingly short for the baubles when you buy them off the exchange for cheap. Much better way to do it IMO.
Then you can avoid the place like the candy coated plague it is.
I was surprised to see only 5 instances of Undine Battlezone though, pre-DR there was on average about 40-50.
Chris Robert's on SC:
"You don't have to do something again and again and again repetitive that doesn't have much challange, that's just a general good gameplay thing."
yes, it was the gear. people had played these things before you know.
loook, people were using mission and whatever loot to try and complete the pve ques when DR came out. it was fail city. if what you were saying was correct the ques would have been chock full of people going "boy this is great!" but it was a complete ghost town. And not just because people were leveling, it was a ghost town for a good while.
So, some of us die hards just sort of said "ok, if this is the game then this is the game, lets see how this works". And we shelled out the dilthium to upgrade some or all of our gear. Eventually, during the weekdays dedicated lifers were pugging these ques, and getting closer and closer to the bonus timers.
Guess what happened on the weekends?
People with less free time would come out to play STO, people who hadn't climbed the gear upgrade path and couldn't get through the new mountains of shield and hull on the mobs. And, the pug ques would start to fail again.
This was nowhere more evident than during Thanksgiving weekend. In the weekdays up to thanksgiving there was a very small critical mass of players with upgraded gear and the interest in trying to complete the ques. We were completing them and sometimes hitting the bonus timers, in pug. Then Thanksgiving weekend hit and all the people with less free time joined the game and the pug ques instantly went back to fail city.
IT WAS ABOUT THE GEAR.
and quite frankly, a ton of people just said this
"what? nonstop upgrades costing me $$? no new loot drops? I'm forced to upgrade? ah, no, no thank you"
and they went to go play some other game.
Cryptic or PWE or someone just got too greedy, and they killed the active playerbase.
I don't say that upgrade is cheap or fast. But all advance queues are doable with mk XII (even with mk XI) all you need is use your brain and came with tactic other then "Ugh ugh smash". And this is real problem, most players can't think of any other solution for problem other then more "smash"
I'm willing to bet new weapons if any would be only available at school level 16 or 17 and it would require all elite very rare materials. Forcing players to leave the game or pay up $$$.
The players who already are maxed will be fine but the others will have to pay to get that gear!!
yes, it was the gear. people had played these things before you know.
loook, people were using mission and whatever loot to try and complete the pve ques when DR came out. it was fail city. if what you were saying was correct the ques would have been chock full of people going "boy this is great!" but it was a complete ghost town. And not just because people were leveling, it was a ghost town for a good while.
So, some of us die hards just sort of said "ok, if this is the game then this is the game, lets see how this works". And we shelled out the dilthium to upgrade some or all of our gear. Eventually, during the weekdays dedicated lifers were pugging these ques, and getting closer and closer to the bonus timers.
Guess what happened on the weekends?
People with less free time would come out to play STO, people who hadn't climbed the gear upgrade path and couldn't get through the new mountains of shield and hull on the mobs. And, the pug ques would start to fail again.
This was nowhere more evident than during Thanksgiving weekend. In the weekdays up to thanksgiving there was a very small critical mass of players with upgraded gear and the interest in trying to complete the ques. We were completing them and sometimes hitting the bonus timers, in pug. Then Thanksgiving weekend hit and all the people with less free time joined the game and the pug ques instantly went back to fail city.
IT WAS ABOUT THE GEAR.
and quite frankly, a ton of people just said this
"what? nonstop upgrades costing me $$? no new loot drops? I'm forced to upgrade? ah, no, no thank you"
and they went to go play some other game.
Cryptic or PWE or someone just got too greedy, and they killed the active playerbase.
I don't say that upgrade is cheap or fast. But all advance queues are doable with mk XII (even with mk XI) all you need is use your brain and came with tactic other then "Ugh ugh smash". And this is real problem, most players can't think of any other solution for problem other then more "smash"
With regard to this, while a super super tight organized crew will get farther, and there is some truth to what you are saying - no, it really doesn't have much to do with the reality of what actually happened in the game.
And it's a short step from your thinking to say something along the lines of "it's the players fault". Anyone with that type of thinking doesn't understand their customers.
There is a core of dps people out there, who really enjoy tweaking. I'm sure right after DR hit, if they formed a private group I'll bet they could motor their way through some things. But that is a very small group of people compared to the masses that used to be in the game.
Maybe, maybe if there had been full gear drops from whites to greens up to the occasional purple, right from the start. People would have stuck around, to find stuff, sell it in the exchange, gear up, and so on.
But force-funneling people through the upgrade system? When the game is fully monetized already? That's just hammering coffin nails into your game population.
Its not rocket science. Cryptic created epic greed instead of an epic game. People stopped playing.
Cryptic will either fold or sell STO to a better developer, or reduce the dilthium upgrade grind in the next expansion. Executives cannot admit they got too greedy so they can't just fix the game in a patch.
I really hope they sell the game to PGI, they have not gone greedy at all with Mechwarrior Online providing a true Free To Play game with nearly zero pay to win options. Also, PGI will change the game on the fly in response to the player bases wishes...
Its not rocket science. Cryptic created epic greed instead of an epic game. People stopped playing.
Cryptic will either fold or sell STO to a better developer, or reduce the dilthium upgrade grind in the next expansion. Executives cannot admit they got too greedy so they can't just fix the game in a patch.
I really hope they sell the game to PGI, they have not gone greedy at all with Mechwarrior Online providing a true Free To Play game with nearly zero pay to win options. Also, PGI will change the game on the fly in response to the player bases wishes...
If you honestly think Cryptic would sell their proprietary game engine to another developer, you're mad.
If Cryptic "loses" this game, the game is gone. Why do people fail to see that?
I hoped things would change and the queues would fillup again. I am just not sure this will happen anymore. There are so many things in the world to distract people that getting their attention back is not so simple. Many probably left with a bitter taste in their mouths. I miss my starbase defense and its sad looking at it dead and wondering why things had to get to this point.
The inactivity in the queues, is horribly bad for the entirety of the game.
Think about how many in-game activities are tied to those queues:
The queues are still empty. Regardless of any alleged numerical oddities in the U.I., they really be empty.
I can currently play only The Cure Advanced, or the other 2 Advanced STF's, and Federation Fleet Alert. The rest is pretty much a not-happening thing. I used to play Starbase Fleet Defense, and many others.
I wonder what you're planning on doing about this situation. Or whether we can even get full disclosure on what is going on, really, as I find the lack of participants rather alarming, tbh. I'm pretty sure your metrics will tell you the same.
Maybe it's time you did something I know you don't want to do; namely, un-nerf the rewards for these queues. Let NPC's pay out a similar amount of XP as in Argala, for instance. Because, whatever huge loss you're fearing from making that happen, it can't possibly be as bad as no one playing (or hardly anyone, for those accustomed to taking things literal). Or maybe have regular STF's drop Ancient Power Cells too. Yes, I know, that goes linea recta against your wish for everyone to just do DR content. But, as an old saying goes, You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.
At any rate, you *do* realize that empty queues are 'dangerous', right? People can forego on the insane upgrade cost; they can still grind Argala; but they cannot ignore empty queues, as you can't play what's not available.
Thank you.
no your mind is playing tricks on you its a bug they have the metrics
Ahh yes ... , but we were called "the pulse of the game" so that will surely keep my ego inflated for two days ... maybe even three ...
Really ? Something like 2 weeks ago we were a bunch of ungrateful whiners, and DR was the best expansion ever. Oh, and the empty queues was a bug.
What happened in between ?
However, I don't see the point in attacking the devs when they try to do something for us. I would have help in this topic, if only I was playing enough to start a queue, but I'm not. Since I didn't find any point in trolling them, and had nothing to post, I didn't post at all.
Looks like they just angrily closed the queue survey thread.
I was about to come on the forums and post about that thread being closed, thanks for saving me the trouble.
With the way it was closed and what was said, I really have to wonder if the player base was really listened to. I suppose we'll find out in the next few months, but I'm not holding out much hope at this point. I just hope that the powers that be don't remove any of the queues. I pray they make them worth doing since I have yet to run them all.
With that said, I will keep doing what I enjoy doing and avoiding that which I find tedious, boring and unfun.
Which means I'll continue playing first run story missions, not replays. Except in those instances where I want duplicates of some of the mission rewards. Thankfully, there aren't many.
I will not be running any Delta Quadrant missions until I get to at least lvl 58 since I don't like having to grind to the next level in order to open up the next DQ mish. I want to run the storyline as unbroken as I can. I foolishly started running it on my first character at 54 and had to grind so much in between missions that I more or less forgot just what was going on with the story. It really made it an unpleasant experience.
I will on occasion run the Undine space battle zone.
I will run the Advanced Crystalline Entity queue, but that's about it for the queues. Mostly because nothing else that *I* find fun starts up in a reasonable amount of time.
I will run the daily winter race for autographs, but I won't bother with Tide of Ice since it's on a clock. If it were an open, always running event, I might reconsider. Having to drop what I'm doing to be there at the top of the hour simply isn't worth it to me.
I remember looking forward to playing the game. Now it seems I spend more time on the forums than playing the game.
Hello. My name is iamynaught and I am an altaholic.
Oh I think that has not changed in the minds of those who hold that view ... , which is why I hinted at the possible detection of some thinly veiled sarcasm .
But it was funny non the less .
However, I don't see the point in attacking the devs when they try to do something for us. I would have help in this topic, if only I was playing enough to start a queue, but I'm not. Since I didn't find any point in trolling them, and had nothing to post, I didn't post at all.
Well I had so many bad things to say that I ended up doing the same .
If Smirk was told to do that survey then the fault was not his .
And if he did it as some form of initiative to help the players then he also didn't deserve my bile .
... now if it was just not as "hidden" as it was ... as the Reddit post pointed out ...
Really ? Something like 2 weeks ago we were a bunch of ungrateful whiners, and DR was the best expansion ever. Oh, and the empty queues was a bug.
What happened in between ?
Nothing ... just wait until after the Holidays, when they'll remove 80% of PVE Queue Content, because it's "not up to the standards", according to Feedback of the Playerbase, or similar twisted-words-nonsense ...
... I would feel really ashamed & violated, to give Feedback there, if that's the case ... "I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds" ...
... don't want to put the Tinfoil Hat on yet, but I really have a bad feeling about this ...
Patch Notes : Resolved an Issue, where people would accidently experience Fun.
Nothing ... just wait until after the Holidays, when they'll remove 80% of PVE Queue Content, because it's "not up to the standards", according to Feedback of the Playerbase, or similar twisted-words-nonsense ....
ugh, if something strange like that went down, that would be the last of the evidence. At that point someone is trying to tank the game for some macro-reason. like get out of a contract, make someone (or a company) look bad, get someone (or a company) fired, etc. Even though, as you said, that gets into conspiricatheory tinfoil-hat territory, stuff like that does happen, and weirder than that. The ques are great. I remember trying to do some shuttle ones with a group, good fun. Loss of any of them would be a bad idea.
Comments
If they finally bring back the old payouts and difficulty settings most will be slow to comeback. My $$$$ will be slow to comeback as a lot of time has been wasted ruining this game!!!
Simplest analogy is four times the grind= four times long to spend the $$$$
Here are a few wild guesses on why the queues are empty:
1. The grind to Level 60 takes the normal average player longer than Delta Rising has been out. Therefore, there aren't enough 60's on at any given time to actually populate the queues.
2. (Reference #1) Most people see the queues as end game content. The thing they do after they level up, to enhance their gear and reps. So, if they aren't 60 yet, they aren't getting into queues.
3. Every forum thread the past few weeks discussing the queued content has said that the difficulty has gone off the charts. That scares off the meeker Captains out there who don't want to get bullied by L33T players for failing, or who don't see the effort it takes to complete the queued content as worthwhile.
4. (Reference #1 & #2) The population has fallen far enough as to make queued content unsustainable. If 10-20% of players walked away, from each of the US timezones, how many players might that be? Those are players no longer potentially available to add to the queue population, with the remainder of the population then reduced further for the reasons stated in #1 and #2.
In short...Delta Rising is the BEST expansion ever, the players love it and EVERYTHING IS AWESOME!
"You shoot him, I shoot you, I leave both your bodies here and go out for a late night snack.
I'm thinking maybe pancakes." ~ John Casey
Yes, I've observed the same thing myself. When the queued population drops below a certain mark, then this only speeds up the exodus. Like if even as much as 5 people are queued for Starbase Fleet Defense, for instance, not only is that not nearly enough for the required 20, but those 5 tend to leave the queue again as well, as waiting simply takes too long (or they queued elsewhere). And then, when people only see 1 person queued for it, they decide not to bother themselves (or leave the queue, if they're said person).
All-in-all, things must truly be in aweful shape, when they can't even get 20 people for a queue. Or 5 even, for most. Metric that, Geko!
Has it become very difficult or tedious? Does anybody know?
Still waiting to be able to use forum titles
yes, it was the gear. people had played these things before you know.
loook, people were using mission and whatever loot to try and complete the pve ques when DR came out. it was fail city. if what you were saying was correct the ques would have been chock full of people going "boy this is great!" but it was a complete ghost town. And not just because people were leveling, it was a ghost town for a good while.
So, some of us die hards just sort of said "ok, if this is the game then this is the game, lets see how this works". And we shelled out the dilthium to upgrade some or all of our gear. Eventually, during the weekdays dedicated lifers were pugging these ques, and getting closer and closer to the bonus timers.
Guess what happened on the weekends?
People with less free time would come out to play STO, people who hadn't climbed the gear upgrade path and couldn't get through the new mountains of shield and hull on the mobs. And, the pug ques would start to fail again.
This was nowhere more evident than during Thanksgiving weekend. In the weekdays up to thanksgiving there was a very small critical mass of players with upgraded gear and the interest in trying to complete the ques. We were completing them and sometimes hitting the bonus timers, in pug. Then Thanksgiving weekend hit and all the people with less free time joined the game and the pug ques instantly went back to fail city.
IT WAS ABOUT THE GEAR.
and quite frankly, a ton of people just said this
"what? nonstop upgrades costing me $$? no new loot drops? I'm forced to upgrade? ah, no, no thank you"
and they went to go play some other game.
Cryptic or PWE or someone just got too greedy, and they killed the active playerbase.
Then you can avoid the place like the candy coated plague it is.
I was surprised to see only 5 instances of Undine Battlezone though, pre-DR there was on average about 40-50.
"You don't have to do something again and again and again repetitive that doesn't have much challange, that's just a general good gameplay thing."
I don't say that upgrade is cheap or fast. But all advance queues are doable with mk XII (even with mk XI) all you need is use your brain and came with tactic other then "Ugh ugh smash". And this is real problem, most players can't think of any other solution for problem other then more "smash"
Being able to get new gear is actually awesome - when that gear is actually new.
Upgrading and crafting is not new content and it's not new gear, in fact it's entirely thin air.
They moved some numbers around in notepad copy-paste style and then want you to re-buy all stuff for around 5 million dil...
Since they were dumb/lame enough to do that and people are lame/dumb enough to buy at this point I just want to see it get even dumber.
The gameplay now is to see how stupid it can really get.
I want to see 1500 patrol mission for permission to play a story episode.
Let's have the queue maps costing you dil to play
Ideally we also want t6 versions of all ships - after people stop buying upgrades
The players who already are maxed will be fine but the others will have to pay to get that gear!!
It's the Cryptic way!
With regard to this, while a super super tight organized crew will get farther, and there is some truth to what you are saying - no, it really doesn't have much to do with the reality of what actually happened in the game.
And it's a short step from your thinking to say something along the lines of "it's the players fault". Anyone with that type of thinking doesn't understand their customers.
There is a core of dps people out there, who really enjoy tweaking. I'm sure right after DR hit, if they formed a private group I'll bet they could motor their way through some things. But that is a very small group of people compared to the masses that used to be in the game.
Maybe, maybe if there had been full gear drops from whites to greens up to the occasional purple, right from the start. People would have stuck around, to find stuff, sell it in the exchange, gear up, and so on.
But force-funneling people through the upgrade system? When the game is fully monetized already? That's just hammering coffin nails into your game population.
Cryptic will either fold or sell STO to a better developer, or reduce the dilthium upgrade grind in the next expansion. Executives cannot admit they got too greedy so they can't just fix the game in a patch.
I really hope they sell the game to PGI, they have not gone greedy at all with Mechwarrior Online providing a true Free To Play game with nearly zero pay to win options. Also, PGI will change the game on the fly in response to the player bases wishes...
If you honestly think Cryptic would sell their proprietary game engine to another developer, you're mad.
If Cryptic "loses" this game, the game is gone. Why do people fail to see that?
Free Tibet!
Then hopefully Cryptic goes bankrupt. A Bancruptcy Court will send the "proprietary engine" to a new owner:)
And when someone with a LTS to your game says they hope you go bankrupt you really have a problem with your game...
The inactivity in the queues, is horribly bad for the entirety of the game.
Think about how many in-game activities are tied to those queues:
- Fleet Starbase projects
- Reputations
- Gear progression
- Raiding
Having the queues empty...is a very unhealthy symptom of the larger status of the game.
"You shoot him, I shoot you, I leave both your bodies here and go out for a late night snack.
I'm thinking maybe pancakes." ~ John Casey
They have to shut it all up before they all go on there vacations.
Ahh yes ... , but we were called "the pulse of the game" so that will surely keep my ego inflated for two days ... maybe even three ...
... unless my sarcasm detector perks up ...
no your mind is playing tricks on you its a bug they have the metrics
system Lord Baal is dead
Last time that happened, it was right before I heard someone say:
"These are not the queues you're looking for."
:P
What happened in between ?
However, I don't see the point in attacking the devs when they try to do something for us. I would have help in this topic, if only I was playing enough to start a queue, but I'm not. Since I didn't find any point in trolling them, and had nothing to post, I didn't post at all.
I was about to come on the forums and post about that thread being closed, thanks for saving me the trouble.
With the way it was closed and what was said, I really have to wonder if the player base was really listened to. I suppose we'll find out in the next few months, but I'm not holding out much hope at this point. I just hope that the powers that be don't remove any of the queues. I pray they make them worth doing since I have yet to run them all.
With that said, I will keep doing what I enjoy doing and avoiding that which I find tedious, boring and unfun.
Which means I'll continue playing first run story missions, not replays. Except in those instances where I want duplicates of some of the mission rewards. Thankfully, there aren't many.
I will not be running any Delta Quadrant missions until I get to at least lvl 58 since I don't like having to grind to the next level in order to open up the next DQ mish. I want to run the storyline as unbroken as I can. I foolishly started running it on my first character at 54 and had to grind so much in between missions that I more or less forgot just what was going on with the story. It really made it an unpleasant experience.
I will on occasion run the Undine space battle zone.
I will run the Advanced Crystalline Entity queue, but that's about it for the queues. Mostly because nothing else that *I* find fun starts up in a reasonable amount of time.
I will run the daily winter race for autographs, but I won't bother with Tide of Ice since it's on a clock. If it were an open, always running event, I might reconsider. Having to drop what I'm doing to be there at the top of the hour simply isn't worth it to me.
I remember looking forward to playing the game. Now it seems I spend more time on the forums than playing the game.
Losing faith in humanity, one person at a time.
Oh I think that has not changed in the minds of those who hold that view ... , which is why I hinted at the possible detection of some thinly veiled sarcasm .
But it was funny non the less .
Well I had so many bad things to say that I ended up doing the same .
If Smirk was told to do that survey then the fault was not his .
And if he did it as some form of initiative to help the players then he also didn't deserve my bile .
... now if it was just not as "hidden" as it was ... as the Reddit post pointed out ...
Nothing ... just wait until after the Holidays, when they'll remove 80% of PVE Queue Content, because it's "not up to the standards", according to Feedback of the Playerbase, or similar twisted-words-nonsense ...
... I would feel really ashamed & violated, to give Feedback there, if that's the case ... "I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds" ...
... don't want to put the Tinfoil Hat on yet, but I really have a bad feeling about this ...
ugh, if something strange like that went down, that would be the last of the evidence. At that point someone is trying to tank the game for some macro-reason. like get out of a contract, make someone (or a company) look bad, get someone (or a company) fired, etc. Even though, as you said, that gets into conspiricatheory tinfoil-hat territory, stuff like that does happen, and weirder than that. The ques are great. I remember trying to do some shuttle ones with a group, good fun. Loss of any of them would be a bad idea.