Oh rly? I spent $60 - I believe I have paid for everything this game can possibly offer. Moreover, I paied when in closed beta, spending money on merc pack that was promised to be reimbursed on release - we know how that one went. So I was paying back then to support efforts to develop a game that CCP promised. Instead I am stuck with what Dust is now to far from the game CCP said they were making. I know that I was not paying for 'a pack' of things that don't even exist in the real word. To state the latter would actually be the thing that makes no sense.

You know, I've posted in threads like these before saying all the usual **** about "HTFU" and "QQ" but when I was talking to a good friend of mine today, I finally came to a realization that was rather sobering.

One of the central pillars of the EVE community is the sense of community itself. From people who like opposing playstyles all the way up to massive coalitions who spend all their time killing each other, come FanFest they would all get together for a beer and a laugh and swap stories.

I can't see that in Dust. I could actually see that turning into fistfights.

The problem with this community is that attempting to be part of it takes good people and turns them into something else. Day after day all I see is threads about how this Corporation are cheaters, or this other Corporation is doomed to fail because we're better, or this asset is OP and me and everyone I know will leave the game if you don't nerf it completely, and the list just goes on and on.

I thought General Discussion on the EVE forums was bad, and I've made jokes about other game forums being worse, but while those other games had many people getting on each other about in-game issues, these and the Planetside 2 forums are the only ones I've been on where people get so hostile and vindictive toward each other, nevermind the game.

I've had a few members of this community that I actually looked up to, that I saw as a beacon of reason in the sea of angst and backbiting, and recent events have made me see that they were all the same as the others that have come and gone, tried to be good men and been consumed. In keeping with the tone of this sob story, I'll leave identities to the imagination, because they don't really matter anyway.

I guess what I want from this thread is for everyone who reads it to just take a step back and examine what the feel, and how they want to go about supporting or discussing it. I strongly believe that all the people who post here are good people, but we're letting ourselves get wound up in all the negativity and not getting anything done but starting all these feuds that have led to our current state of not being able to get consensus on even the simplest topics that most of us actually agree on.

I'm not really sure why I started this other than that I felt like I wanted to make a statement, but I guess the thing to draw from it is that we're all here together because we find something in this game that we enjoy, or we see the potential for it to get better. Even the ones who post about being gone forever that say they're just around to laugh at those foolish enough to stay still come back when the patches drop, even if they do leave again.

For better or worse we're all here, and we might as well try and work together to accomplish something. That's all.

The part people forget is that this is a game. We should all come here to enjoy playing, whether its the corporate espionage, Faction Warfare Role Playing, showing scrubs how to play or telling each other different ways to play the game in general.

This is not reality! Dust....Molden Heath....New Eden.....these are all virtual spaces! And for those of you who realize this; kudos. For the rest that grief new players and constantly want their own playstyle/weapon/vehicle to be the best in the game forever-this game is not about instant gratification or your selfish kd/r obsession. This game, along with Eve (although not a player myself, I've read a lot about Eve from the Second Decade) is based on a longer time table; a chance to create your own path as a mercenary, a corporate monster, or the best dropship pilot that can sway a battle. But its a progressive line, not instant, that allows this to happen.

We are spoiled with FPS games. All of them offer cool stuff, but are cookie cutter copies of Doom, Wolfenstein, Goldeneye, and others that have followed. Dust is an evolving game, and unless you can *gasp!* commit to the fact this game will forever be a building process, you will never be happy; never be fulfilled and searching for the next cool shooter.

Of course that's just my .02 ISK......regardless of anyone might say, that's what I feel/believe.

Hmmm.... what's there in common between PS2 and Dust? Lets connect the dots. F2P FPS is the answer - this is the root problem.

EVE is an MMO the sense of community is in the center of any successful MMO - players identify themselves as citizens of whatever virtual world they play in.

Dust is an FPS, it attracts and foster players who are aggressive and competitive a lot of whom are also pretty young - teens and very early 20s. If you throw an untoward monetization system in our case F2P that skews the balance of this competitive environment, you end up with a lot of angry ppl.

Surely this is readily apparent to you, no?

Well, I miss the times from closed beta, where forum discussions were mostly useful, most arguments were resolved by talking to each other, testing out stuff together even if you were planning to be in different corps after they launch. Then all hell broke loose and I was wondering what did I get myself into? Nowadays forums are littered with "you suck" posts without any explanation (at least in EVE when someone says that they have something to show - like loosing a dread in low sec ;), RESPEC requests ({sarcasm}Why the hell didn't they RESPEC all capsuleers when the new SOE faction ships arrived?!?{/sarcasm}), and nerf this, nerf that posts.
I miss the old times :(

You didn't pay for Dust, you payed for items in Dust. The fact that you spent $60 does not mean you payed for the game, just means you payed for a lot of items. While I understand your motive for buying these items was to fund the game's improvement, your intention does not change the nature of the transaction; the nature of the purchases was not "pay X amount of money, and in exchange we will make this game great".

That being said, I don't like the current state of Dust, I am disappointed, and I want it to improve. I just think its wrong to feel entitled about it for the aforementioned reason.

I think the reason people get so hostile is because people care more about this game than they do most others.

There are not many game series or game worlds I care too much about. Personally, aside from this EVE story we play in and the MGS storyline, not many other games really capture my fascination quite like this game.

I Am the Dust Community. Everything else is just an illusion

So then lets forge the forums into the community we want and be the ambassadors to noobs that we should be. There will always be the asshats and trolls, but the rest of us should strive to make better posts and fight the good fight.

Dust is still growing and will always be a "work in progress" so to speak. It'll change over time, and so to will the community.

Lets set the example for how we want the forum, the community and the connectivity to the game to develop.