>I just don't get why, when a majority of people come with
>ideas they are all shot down because YOU or the IMMs aren't a
>fan of the ideas. I mean votes, polls, are non existent?
>Considering that it is something for the player base which we
>all see is dwindling. I don't know why it's always an
>iron-fist with IMM's about anything being changed or looked
>at.

Dallevian isn't wrong. We're all chasing fun. For players, that means choosing whether to play CF or something else, managing the expectations, and others things. For the staff, it (usually) means balancing other people's fun with their own because oftentimes their fun is derived from that of others. Which is to say that most of us enjoy CF more when, and perhaps only if, it has enough (some subjective amount of) players. On the other hand, we have to also prioritize our own happiness in working on CF otherwise it doesn't make sense to do it at all, which means no CF. Because CF isn't a product and we're not getting paid, the only motivation to contribute is fun, and building someone else's vision when that vision doesn't match one's own is probably not fun. For 22 years now the proposition hasn't changed: we build the kind of game that appeals to us and hope other people enjoy it too. It's a little more complicated than that, but sans the sugarcoating that's basically the crux of it.

So there's that.

Also, you're taking one example and using it as a foundation to assert that we unilaterally ignore players and their feedback, which isn't true. We've changed or implemented a lot of things based on player-submitted ideas and feedback, include some very favorable changes to skill learning and experience. IIRC, the item search (and later upping it's level ceiling) was a player idea, and I'm sure I could come up with many more without even dipping into Santa Zulg.

If a dozen players demanded we let them start at level 51 or allow them to load equipment citing that it would "reduce the grind" or make the game more fun we would say no over and over, no matter how many times they asked. If your assertion is that somehow means we're tyrannical or unreadable then I guess I'll have to get used to your disappointment.