>Here's my well-meaning but ultimately useless input:
>
>1. I don't think the gulf between staff and players is as big
>as you suggest. Not least of which because many people on
>staff are also players. I will agree that the gulf
>between staff and certain players is pretty big, but I
>suspect they are not representative of the majority of
>players.

This is a game very similar to "think of the children", in that anyone can invoke the silent majority, but no one can speak for them. So just speak for yourself. The gulf between you and the staff is not that large... I don't think anyone is surprised by that. That's just true.

>2. I agree that adding things (up to and including making
>game-play relevant changes, so long as they're not broken)
>that players "really want" is generally a good thing.
>Halloween forms are a good example. On the other hand, if
>you'd asked me in September how big a deal it would be if the
>staff didn't do Halloween forms I'd have guessed "not that big
>of a deal"; I suspect those in charge would have guessed the
>same. I'm honestly surprised they're such a big deal to
>people.

Lack of Halloween forms isn't that big a deal. Handling it really poorly, and insulting your player base repeatedly in the process kind of is. It isn't what you do, it's how you do it.

>3. I'm also surprised that everybody seems to think lack of
>coders is the primary problem facing CF right now. Would more
>coders really make the game more fun? Honestly, thinking as a
>player, I'd rather have a ton more Ishulis and Rahsaels.
>They're heavy on interaction with players and doing one-off
>events like the recent "missing children" thing. Yes, the
>game needs coders (to fix bugs if nothing else) but do you
>really need a steady stream of code changes in order to enjoy
>the game?

Yes. New gameplay content is required for a game like CF to thrive. Look at WoW, regularly releasing new expansions roughly every 2 years. Or Hearthstone, with it's 3/year expansion cycle. I can't find the Ad I'm think of, but the one I'm remembering is Valg talking about the long development cycle of a MMORPG because artists and voice actors and coding, and how CF would always outpace such a game because of text and theater of the mind.

You want Immteraction, and "special events". That is one kind of play, and, it seems lately, the only kind that is acceptable, but I don't want that. I want to try a build that's never been tried before. I want to experiment with game mechanics no one has figured out yet... I don't want to play giant sword spec #234234 or d-elf dagger spec emperor #2342, I want to try something new. Halloween forms (would have) scratched that itch, even if I failed to get one, for a least a little while, but the game has not only stagnated, mechanically, but actually moved backward since edges are less available, and rewards are less available, etc.