I just hope the momentum is sufficient for CCP to do some real soul-searching.
I do feel sad for many CCP employees who probably worked hard and late to get Incarna out-of-the-door, employees who put many volunteer hours into the game, both playing or helping out.
CCP still does a lot of things right, but from my perspective it is getting more and more things wrong. I simply can't imagine how an expansion like PI got shipped out. Everyone with some sense of what their customers and of what is fun gameplay would realize it is not very good (and that is putting it midly).
I applaud CCP's original attitude of ignoring conventional business wisdom and forging their own path with their own vision for the game. A vision they shared and worked upon together with their customers. That stubborn attitude is still there, but sadly I think they are now ignoring their customers and emulating their competitors rather than the other way around like they used to do. Farmville in Space, Spacebook, Play-for-free models with buying in-game advantages, it is all yesterday's news, its all CCP running headless after the competition. Dust 514 is fortunally still original in concept at least.
An important factor of the attraction of the CCP model for EVE was the great promise it holds. The promise of great depth of game-play. If CCP continually stops short on delivering on promises or appears to break previously made promises, than the great promise of the EVE game fades away. With EVE I always though things were good and could only get better. Now I'm slowly starting to feel things are ok and will only continue to get worse.
I'm not terribly shocked at any one incident, I'm sad by a lot of small incidents and the general picture it paints. However, a larger number of bad PR things are (fortunately) now all happening close together, which has created a critical mass for a modern-age pitchfork lynch mob. And sometimes you need to see pitchforks waving about to see your customers are really serious about something and not just the regular old club of whiners and bitter vets. When I saw the post of the PR employee I could only shake my head. How can they be this detached? How can they have such a low opinion of their customer base?
I'd rather see a mass unsubscription over a short period of time than players leaving disillusioned piecemeal over a longer period. Rather one strong wake up call than a slow shift into mediocrity.