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wow you are so annoying it hurts

Lets watch Kabam next Livestream

Thanks Kabam 🥳

It clearly came across wrong. Apologies. It looked an awful lot like some of what Mike used to do, and looks a lot more engaging on paper than manning a message board. No offense to those who man message boards.

There they are.

Back For more gargling? You are INSATIABLE tiger.

Because all too often "engage with the community" is really just a request to be a punching bag for criticism, or alternatively to come here and admit Kabam is wrong like they are supposed to.

On two separate occasions, once long ago and once a lot more recently, unnamed people at Kabam have asked me point blank "why do I do it?" Someone will ask a question, and I use that phrase very loosely, and I will decide to reply and I'll say something like "well, based on my understanding, this is the most likely reason why this is like that" and I will be called stupid, delusional, ridiculous, and completely illogical. Except, that is the actual reasoning that occurred, which I know because I was more or less directly told this in less public discussions. You can imagine how encouraging that is.

"The game is falling apart and the team is non-existent for the first time to this degree" are two different falsehoods. The game is not falling apart any more than it has been falling apart since 2017. And people have been complaining about lack of engagement also more or less continuously for at least as long. The past has always been referenced with rose colored glasses: its always been described as great to try to make the point that it is so much worse now, except at no point in the past were people not saying that exact same thing.

At the end of the day, each developer and community person is different, and each approaches community engagement differently, and on their own terms. But if there's a common denominator across all of them, it is that a) they don't want to enter discussions when they don't have something specific to say, and say in a way that won't get them backed into a corner, and b) no one wants to be told the only problem that exists is they can't admit they are wrong, and if only they did so everything would be so much better. If they don't understand this originally, they figure it out eventually. It took Jax only a few months.

The truth is I do what I do because a) I'm willing to take shots from the many to reach the few, and b) I've been on the internet since 1985 so my soul is already a blackened stone that is impervious to insult and injury. But the toll most internet game forums take on normal humans is generally unsustainable. The question is not why I do it. The real question is why anyone else does.

It's not that every champ will be tuned down. It's that we don't know which ones will, and that carries inherent risk that Kabam knows but we don't. And if a champion is tuned down, that's a lot of resources that are all but lost. They could have been invested elsewhere into something meaningful that had more value now that the tune-down is announced. It's fairly common principle in finance that as risk increases, the desire to invest decreases. So it's not dramatic to ask Kabam how we should invest with such uncertainty.

Basically you completely missed the point. Not that I expected you to engage in good faith. Please go troll elsewhere.

I think that's super fair and can understand why that would be frustrating/rough.

I try to be myself as much as possible, but I can see there being more room for candid responses

@Sbk really appreciate all of that, dude - means a lot, for real.

Just So you know Mike, and maybe Im in the minority, I dont know, but every time im off the rails raging and feeling completely done with the game and the community, and you chime in it makes things feel better.

Right now I feel seen and heard and what you said in this last reply did volumes towards that. You said more in this post than I have personally seen in any other thread. And although im the first to rage out Im also the first to say thank you.

There Is nowhere else to touch base with you guys. We used to be able to drop in on your or Dave's live streams here and there or engage in YouTube comments, but those channels are gone. I get more upset at the lack of communication or connection than anything and as one of the people with the biggest pention for being an azz-hat when mad I do commit to never attacking you for replying or showing up. Even if what you have to say isn't what I want to hear.

Just remember Mr. Karate, you are the one who can really fill the connection void left by Jax. You are caring and often calm and your voice carries alot of weight when you use it and even more so when you dont.

Thank you for showing up on this thread. Truly, it means the world to some of us who are worried the game we love is dead or dying and really dont want it to be.

Just like all of you, my personal feelings are various colors of frustration for many reasons.

Bluntly, when I come in to chat and joke when I don't have an important update to share, that gets picked apart, and the thread turns hostile. So I tend to refrain from doing so here until I have something important/helpful to share.

I'm working with the Game Team on the connectivity compensation package to try and have that out this week, and some other player-focused Game Updates I can reveal soon, which feels like the best use of time from a Community focus.