and just how many "Thousands if not more" are there? source for your data please and not just speculation. Also many have said that they are playing something else for now but are just checking back in to see if the game has gotten any better.
I also found something from the 11th that you might want to think on, and it was even posted in these forums.
https://twitter.com/...746825929818112
@PiranhaGames[color=#00FFFF] said:[/color]
[color=#00FFFF]I'm hiring for an UI Engineer. Know someone great? in Vancouver, BC Canada [/color]
http://bull.hn/l/1Z6XP/53[color=#00FFFF] #job [/color]
[color=#00FFFF]and [/color]
https://twitter.com/...744198714261504
@PiranhaGames[color=#00FFFF] said:[/color]
[color=#00FFFF]I'm hiring: Lead Software Engineer in Vancouver, BC Canada [/color]
http://bull.hn/l/1Z6XH/27[color=#00FFFF] #job[/color]
It would seem that a few positions have come open in the PGI offices, I wonder why. All I can do is speculate with out hard facts. It could be that they quit or were fired or PGI has expanded, or maybe they had babies and are on maternity leave (Canada provides 1 whole year of time off for having a baby that can be split between parents if wanted) My point is, without the rest of the story, we have no way of knowing anything for certain except what we have figured out for our selves. Many of us have figured out that PGI isn't going in the direction that we find even slightly acceptable but we love the IP and the Battletech Universe.
What do you think is going to happen now that they are charging ahead with their very poorly thought out plan? Someone said "So what is 5K players quit, there are 1.6 million players so who cares" With no option to delete your account and with these free mech weekends generating thousands of second accounts (for sale no doubt once this becomes an E-Sport) that 1.6 million is actually much smaller. Remember how someone was trying to say that shrinking faction websites and lower TS severs usage was proof that the Solo que was the preffered style of game play, it could also be evidence of a shrinking, DRASTICALLY SHRINKING player base (notice I didn't say PROOF) Using that same evidence here it would be very fair to say that the 1.6 million number very inflated when compared against the present day, or even the past 90 day active player list. Some European sites have speculated that there are less that 75K players (I don't know how they came up with that number so it too is just speculation)
So if there are thousands who don't show up here who feel the same as the people who post here and seeing as how there is strong evidence that the player base is just a small fraction the size it was at it's peak. It would be fair speculation that both sides make up a larger percentage of the global community than we can see based on these forums. With different communities in agreement that the player base tiny it is a fair conclusion to say that if PGI drives the Casual Group Player away that they will be loosing much much more than 5K, I suspect much closer to 35-40K which will cause ripples for those who remain, such as longer que times and more matches being imbalanced at launch and that's just on the player side.
35-40k players leaving (along with their wallets), even if the player base is double what it is speculated to be, lets say 150K would still be a death blow to the game but it would be like a gut shot, long, slow and very very painful right up until the end.
So how's that for pulling numbers out of
my ass of thin air that can't be supported with hard raw data and facts and then using them to base projections on? Although what I said sounds very plausible and is likely close to what will actually happen it is still speculation based upon unconfirmed numbers. I can make claims based upon those numbers all day long, it won't do a thing to make my argument any stronger. What it will do is draw out the Trolls who live on the other side of the argument.
So what is fact? PGI is going in a direction that many of us don't like, PGI is telling many of us that we are a very low priority and that our concerns don't warrant even the smallest effort from PGI to address. Many players are playing other games but are checking back in to see if the game has gotten any better, and then they go back to the other games that they have been playing. PGI is pumping out sales like crazy right now, care to speculate as to why? (maybe their budget has shrunk to a size where they had to cut some high priced positions and want to fill them with fresh out of school yes men who will work for penuts) but the truth is that PGI is hiring.
if this was the stock market investors would be dumping their stocks and heading for the hills, only the little guy would stay because he still has "Faith" that the company will do the right thing.