My bye-bye post - with strategic bolding.

[_______________Zonov]

I'd originally intended this to be a reply to Transcendent's "To whom it may concern." post, but I thought I'd get this off my chest out in public. =P

I've been around since Beta2 (which was a lovely experience - more on this in a second). A little while back, I noticed all these newest changes are driving the game farther and farther from what I envisioned, to just another "whiner's-choice" gameworld.

I was hoping for a world full of intrigue and mystery on one side, with fierce combat and competition on the other. So far, Anarchy Online has offered neither, and what is there to play isn't fun. This was to be a game for the roleplayers - not the dice-throwing folks mind you, but those that enjoy acting in a gameworld as characters.

Now, about what I'm calling "the beta myth." I'm only speaking for myself, but I'm sure others who were in beta feel the same way. Gameplay and gameflow in beta were awesome. Except for some exploits, everything was fairly smooth - if they'd stopped at simply taking away the exploits, I'd still be playing the game. During beta, the devteam stuck with thier guns for the most part and went with thier instincts - whiners were usually ignored and each new patch was a joy. (Why are they making all the wrong decisions now?!) We enjoyed it because at the time, AO felt like just a platform for something bigger and better. The "stupid parts" of the gameplay were satisfying, and promised hours of exploration and combat that were always enjoyable. Again, though, only because we beleived it was only a foundation for something much more.

This "much more" we were anticipating was the story. The folks I talked, teamed, and hung out with during beta and I had predicted that the story would actually be a completely new engine - something that made roleplaying matter, and something that kept the world alive. We were hoping to see things like an espionage system, a market/black-market system, a news system, and of course - a war system. People need a little help to get into a character-playing mood - people need a purpose, and something about AO beta made us feel like FunCom understood that.

Well, we got nothing of the sort. Retail was no more than beta dressed up with some better graphics. Sure, our hopes were in the sky, but FunCom gave us a reason for it to be. Until retail, the team had worked wonders. I was crushed to see retail as it was. The game was nothing more than wasting ammo and running around. Our actions in the gameworld didn't really change anything, and still dont.

I've given up hope that FunCom cares (wow, I cant beleive this is actually coming from me! - I was such a FunCom groupy) about these posts, but at least I can talk to you all. People, I'm disgusted at FC, and I'm disgusted at myself for giving them so much of my time only to be completely let down.

An·ar·chy On·line (an'er-ke on'lîn'), n. 1. A state of uselessness and disappointment 2. [c. 2001] Blunderous experiment in which users connect to an artificial online world. 3. Technological failure.

-Zon

[Isisnorfret]

As much as I hate to say it, I think I'm going to be going down the same road soon

With every single patch I just got more and more disgusted with the game. Eventually I set myself to the singleminded task of running endless missions untill I could get a yalmaha, but then Funcom messed up my ability to do even that when they messed with the mission terminals. Now there isn't really anything left. I'm sticking it out for a little while longer though, I still have that last little glimmer of hope, but I know that the way Funcom is managed isn't going to change, and I'm going to be driven away like everyone else.