I think that I now understand why things work the way they work in Dust.

These guys are game programmers! They are not "real" application programmers, where they are given the "real" spec's to enter into their program so that any type of "real" battle simulations can be calculated and where any type of actual stats, or simulations, can be performed. They do not know what "reality" calls for, so they have to make things up in their own heads and listen to those "gripes" that they like, or think that they can add without much problem. They don't think that they really need to heed the words of anyone that actually knows what they are talking about, nor do they want to modify anything that won't give them a possible advantage - since it is their game and they want to play it to win.

Furthermore, they have a big corporation that takes care of the "financial" portion, so they do not have to worry about distribution, or other marketing factors, because the big corporation is financing it and will take care of this portion for them. That means that they only have to satisfy the corporation and themselves.

It is wonderful that they can pretty much do as they please, even with many that are leaving the game because of the way they are making changes; because they don't really have to worry much about financial support. After all, with the funds that the game has been bringing in (so far) with the sales of boosters and "optionally purchased" advanced items has made the parties concerned with the financial aspect happy.

On the other hand, it does take a while for the people playing the game to come to the realization that the time spent playing to earn enough SP to further their skill levels - just to find out that they have wasted their time. It is easy for these programmers to not to let the people playing know how any of the calculations are made, so most will never try to calculate the actual numbers and find out what is or isn't worth their time. Along with the fact that the programmers do not give any actual statistical information showing the players where their "gaming character" stands with the majority of the "added" skills, nor the statistics on the range(s) of their weapons. It makes it very convenient for the programmers to arbitrarily make modifications to settings without any awareness (or warnings) to the gamers, so that when they come in to play, all of a sudden, they notice that there is something different about how they are doing in a battle.

It is also very nice that when the gamers come into a map, a quick look makes them think that they know the map, but then they find out that the map is different; as the building have changed, but the land layout is the same. Isn't it nice that someone can go into battle without the knowledge (even the defenders who are suppose to know the lay of the land) of where the strong and weak points are on the battlefield.

Ahhh, the wonderfulness to be a programmer that doesn't really need to worry about how much they can perturb the people that are playing their game.

Where did you get this information?