I almost never click on these links to blogs, but I'm glad I did this time. You hit a lot of the issues that plague this game.

Between poor performance, an incomplete dropsuit and vehicle design (e.g. tons of missing racial variants making it impossible to make meaningful decisions with SP), and horrific balance issues (shield vs armor tanking (both HAV and dropsuit) and poor weapon balance/design), it makes this game increasingly harder to enjoy.

luckily I throw a mean BBQ that keeps ya comin back :P

I know that people won't like this, but for FPS games you need a single-player campaign just to onboard the player into the story and universe. Take that $20mil you got for advertising and create a solid PVE experience and you'll see Dust numbers skyrocket. You can't smoke & mirrors a F2P game like this...

Bla bla bla save the beta players.

This is all hogwash. If all the old players left this game would see a bump in use as the Pub stomps would end.

More noobs try this game in 2 weeks then the entire population of "hard core". If CCP could retain those noobs it could lose all the hard core and do better without them.

Many have recently predicted the demise of Dust 514. We dont agree, but there are several obvious core issues that have yet to be addressed for a game that has [shockingly] had a retail launch. The problem is that many natives are growing restless. Player numbers are dropping and the CCP strategy of 2,5 and 10 year roadmaps that works well on PC, is failing horribly with console players. More concerning is the fact that the patience of many in the hardcore playerbase seems to have reached their limit. These players are CCP supporters but now are wondering whether the game is still a place for them, as a nasty crop of questionable-at-best casual mechanics has crept into the game. With no word from CCP, they have no clue whether shameful elements like the cartoony LAV issues [aptly named Mariokart 514] are issues they intend on fixing or working as intended.

Its certainly not doomsday as we havent even seen a major marketing push, but CCP needs to address these issues before they spiral out of control. A recent poll showed bugs, technical issues and poor FPS mechanics as players chief complaint. Many recent changes have also tuned weapons with the unskilled player in mind rather than the skilled one. This breaks the game and fails at the core because if the average skilled player can get 30 kills with a Flaylock, the skilled player can triple that. This is the reason noob tubes in any form is a bad idea. Right now the forums are a wasteland of negative threads and shitposting that would turn away any new player curious about the Dust 514 experience. Now is the time to communicate and resolve, as it may be too late in the coming months.

read the rest here: http://tinyurl.com/krn8oga

Great points, but you forgot one thing, players are also leaving after what they saw at e3! More f2P games and shooters.

uuuggg...

Why would people leave a game for games that are not coming out for 6 months to a year from now?

What are they doing now in the mean time? Jerking it to game trailers on you tube?

I hear people talking about player numbers dropping. Has anyone thought of the possibility that it is high summer now and ALL games are suffering from the fact that most people have a life and prefer to spend time outside rather than in front of the screen?

I rarely see much gun fighting anymore. I wouldn't call this a FPS. More a RPG. I see more driving and shenanigans more than I see gun fighting anymore.

Its nothing competitive about Dust, it have NONE of the elements that competitive FPS gamers wants in a game. LAV murder taxis, spray and pray guns, "one shoot kill" sniper rifles, grenade launchers with ridiculous amount of ammo... the list goes on and on. Then you have the aiming mechanics, which are NOT innovative, they are just plain ridiculous and childless. The lag of experience that CCP have with FPS games, is not only obvious, is also SHOCKING.