this game dead?

Now you see, its comments like this that give people who have genuine concerns a bad name. You seem to be stating that anyone who disagrees with you is a 'whit knight' defending the game for the purpose of defending alone. Most people who start these 'game is dying' threads give little reason as to why, and if they do it is either not constructive or is blinded by personal opinions.

People do complain on these forums, but people also state that they enjoy the game. Are they lying? Don't forget that not everyone who subscribes posts on theses forums, and that F2P players cant even if they wanted to. Don't get me wrong, people have genuine complaints about the game and they should be able to constructively give criticism, but not everyone will agree on what makes the game good and bad. Its why I hope BW, when listening to the players, do not just listen to the vocal minority/majorities and take advice from a wide number of avenues.

that should not have come across as all-inclusive of people who disagree with me. my response was specific towards andryah, and 'white knights' in general are a bit too consistent in their views to be considered impartial. that would be the characteristic that makes them "white knights." if my post was unclear about that i apologize.

also, i agree it would probably be helpful for people who don't provide good reasoning to communicate better. that goes for supportive posts as well. however, some people just aren't good at getting their ideas across. not much you can do there. also, some people are just trolls.

Its still the game I feel in love with when it launched, it still puts story and immersion first despite what people say. Its the same game, only changed in order to survive. It has still kept its identity.

I agree that some patches have dealt a lot with the CM (Although such patches also added features that a lot of players asked for, like re-customization facilities) and I can see why they did it at first. The CM is a big way that they get income, so of course they are going to add and improve to it. I will be surprised if there are any more big updates to it in the near future though. What about Patch 2.3? It has a new event, new flashpoints, nee missions etc. The only major thing being added to the CM is Treek, a companion who can be earned in game as well as bought on the CM. Don't forget that 2.4 is said to be a big PVP update too, and the space thing too.

Why do you think there is a decline in activity? When I log on, there are still a lot of players playing and I haven't seen any evidence from official sources that the game is in any sort of decline. As has been said, facts are important in deciding whether a game is healthy or not. A decline in players dose not mean a game is dying. I mean a lot of games go through a down point before new content is added, that dose not mean they are all terminal.

All I know is Pot5 PvP pops rarely take more then 3 minutes in prime time. I dont even try and do pve in between pops anymore. No point...

Yeah, they misspoke or generalized. By BWEA's definition, "Free to Play" denotes players who have never spent any money on the game. As soon as a player spends a dime on the game they become "Preferred" (if spent via cartel market) or "Subscriber". Therefore, "Free to Play" players cannot be responsible for any revenue.

And if they recommend the game to someone who then subscribes, are they not responsible for generating revenue?

No. The people they recommended the game to are responsible for generating revenue.

If I tell my buddy he should buy a Chevy, he's the one spending money on the car, not me. I might have influenced him, but I'm not responsible for generating that revenue for Chevy.

There is a reason that sites will sometimes give surveys to new accounts which ask how you heard about them. This is so that they know where to focus their marketing, what causes people to join a service. F2P is in essence, a form of marketing. In the strictest sense marketing is pure loss, it brings in zero money, and yet companies continue to spend tons of money on marketing. That's because they know that getting your name out there, getting people to try your product, and talk about it is what brings in sales.

The entire point of systems such as this is to promote those "influences". They don't care who ends up making the purchase as long as their new policies promote more. So sure, an individual free player won't bring in any money himself, but the free playerbase as a whole has had an effect on the game's sales, though indirectly (because as you pointed out, we are only speaking of free players).

Now you are just being ironic.. ironic to an extreme.

Please stop making personal attacks directed at me. Discuss the topic, not your dislike for me.

In fact.. I have a better solution. Off to the /ignore list with you. I've left you of the list for too long anyway. bye bye.