About 5% of them, perhaps.
Perhaps it is because I express my passion differently. I work to make things I love better, even in the bad times.
My kids found that they were in a minority, having both parents show up to parent teacher meetings, still married.
Let me put it another way. When I first moved to the city I am now in I needed to find a barber. So I would randomly choose one and get a haircut. If I did not like it I was quiet about it, I just never went back there again. Several months later I would try another. And another. Made notes of what I liked and did not like and moved on. I felt no need for theatrics, just trial and error. Then I got one that I liked, even after I washed my hair the next day (a critical test for me). So several months later I went back. āHi Mike, same again?ā
I blinked. āUm, what do you think the same is?ā She quoted back to me what I asked for, last time, months ago. Shocked I nodded, sat down and that is who cut my hair for the next 4 decades. We would talk, maybe make changes as I and my hair changed as time allows.
I find what I like and stick to it, What I do not like? I leave, no production, no tantrum. The things in the middle? I work to see what needs changing, me or it.
m
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I knew it! I just knew it! Instead of coding, does the reference to barbers mean CCPās devs are running around with scissors and hair clippers?.. 
Just joking.
I do agree with what you said about looking at a situation and working to improve it and yourself. Good advice for RL and for Eve. Of course not everything can be solved, but positive efforts do make a big difference.
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In my case,
I see a Barber, itās a very good one. Actually, later onā¦ I found out it is exactly the one you ended up with for decades.
This barber is walking towards a pot hole.
The pot hole doesnāt seem too survivableā¦ In fact, this pot holeās appearance unequivocally leads to a deduction: It will definitely degrade a fine Barber into a rusted, unusable mower with very little chances of barbing again.
I see people shouting in panic, as they consider having to go again through multiple barbers, silently but inexorably into a spiraled loopā¦ looking for that perfect Barberā¦ I hear more shoutsā¦ HISTERIA!
Then, I realize I was only watching the news at the exact moment of a loss of signal on the cable.
I can only hope the shouting alerted the Barber! Otherwise, poor you, CSM you!
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Worth repeating!
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I have gone on hiatus. I just logged in for the first time in about 4 months. Same discussions on here, same focus on terrible āeventsā that are no fun for 99% of the playerbase and donāt offer any changes to combat and/or warfare.
As far as I was concerned, there was simply too much required of me in terms of time, vs what weāre getting back.
We all agree and disagree on various things, but the way CCP did their spring/summer releases indicated a lack of respect for the playerbase. Dropping stuff into live with little or no notice, or putting it on Singularity in one form, and then launching it in a different form with no indication of what was changing.
For me it was something as simple as the probe scanner docking. A needless change, that served no purpose, and is almost universally loathed. Sure, I can work around it, but why? Why should I? ā ā ā ā that. If they explained what purpose it served, then maybe Iād understand, but they didnāt, because they donāt care.
I have 2 accounts and Iām probably just going to bin the game off in the next few months. If I did, what would I lose? The delightful prospect of the odd relic site in W-space? Their latest gouge to get money from people?
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BRAVO MIKE! I applaud you for that!
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See, the problem with that approach is that the barbers that you donāt like will not improve their work quality. You donāt have to become a Karen, storm in and demand to speak the manager about your disappointment, but you could tell them what you didnāt like. When I still went to hair dressers, they always showed me their end product after they were done cutting and I had the opportunity to tell them if I was satisfied or if they should do a bit more here or there, or if it was a bit too much here or there. If people keep quiet about their disappointment and just never return, the barber will probably not notice that and just keep on living in their bubble of āhappy customersā.
The good thing with online games is that you donāt have to embarrass yourself by doing so because you have your online personas. Even if you donāt like the game you tried, you can tell them what you didnāt like and leave. Thereās nothing theatrical about it. Itās how things should be considering that everyone and their dog demand feedback for literally everything these days. And people loudly telling you that they are leaving because of XYZ is feedback.
Naturally, you donāt have to follow all feedback and in case of EVE a lot of it is based on misconceptions about the nature of the game. In that case you could take the opportunity and try to correct the misconceptions and suggest ways to improve their experience with common and tried practices. You wonāt win back a large number of people by doing that but some might return or reconsider their departure and give it at least another shot.
Problem here is that CCP is already falling down the rabbit hole and caters to people who donāt understand EVE and just want it to be something else. Best example for that is Abyssal space, which is something that should have never been introduced as it goes against everything EVE has been marketed as up until that point. On top of that they even started to introduce special rules restricting EVE emergent gameplay in events and around arena filaments, which are 3 more things that cater to fragile egos and incompetent players just so that they may not have a bad experience. In a game ā mind you ā that marketed itself proudly with the slogan āBuild your dreams, wreck their dreamsā until not so far in the past.
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I agree with you that feedback is important, and you alluded to the other side of the equation: how you give feedback is just as important.
There are players who have been playing the game a long time, and for whatever reason, they quit. Those who post āleavingā posts, in my observation, go somewhat quietly, after enumerating their reasons for leaving.
There are others who have played a length of time, but whatever causes them to quit, they come in raging like the proverbial bull in a china shop, and whatever good points they might make are lost under all the rage.
As I said before, truth will get ignored if delivered with the grace of a jackhammer. The majority of leaving threads Iāve seen are tantrums, and even those that arenāt are often impeded by other issues, like a lack of understanding regarding basic guidelines of grammar and formatting.
Bull in a china shop? Ignored.
Wall of text? Ignored.
Poor grammar or fluency? Ignored.
Such is human nature. Perhaps there should be someone who sifts through the posts to glean what usable information there is, but then another set of issues arises. Perhaps they didnāt understand the nature of the game, or they want something that isnāt feasible, or they might have some valid, actionable feedback.
In any case, it raises the question: Why bother going to all that trouble to appease someone who has ejected themselves from the game? Thatās not a facetious question, and I think there is an answer.
Itās what you said: feedback is feedback. Having worked in a complaint department, I know what a pain it is to sift through complaints, because itās human nature for our language fluency skills and rationality to hit the floor when weāre upset. Weāre generally not wired to type coherent sentences in the midst of severe frustration or blind rage.
Hell, some folks canāt even speak when theyāre angry, much less type a sentence that makes sense, never mind provides rational, actionable feedback. Throw in the plague of autocorrect and duck it, weāre shirt out of luck.
I donāt have the slightest idea how CCP structures its complaint department, but they should probably have a small army of paid employees whose job is to sort through the posts with a fine comb and see what feedback they can get. My guess is that would be a bit like panning for gold in a river with a herd of bulls upstream; youād have to sort through a lot of crap before you got a bit of gold.
Thatās the sort of work that shouldnāt fall to the CSMs, becauseāas far as I knowāitās an entirely unpaid position. In any case, the juice isnāt really worth the squeeze when thereās players willing to stick around and offer valuable feedback without all the rage and incoherency. There are some who stick around and offer rage and incoherency, too, but theyāre probably ignored as often as those who leave in a huff.
Lastly, I donāt get the impression from most āleavingā threads that the players who quit are interested in improving the game. As I said in my initial post in this thread, theyāre after emotional satisfaction for themselves, not to improve a product they have no intention of using anymore.
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I donāt think it is that black and white - you get a whole range.
Reading through a couple of threads here had me contemplating about the thread for Eve on another forum I frequent - out of ~950 players who posted in it somewhere in the region of 90% left 2014-15 and I think maybe 1-2 of those people quit because they were bored or similar - only about 3% of those people are still playing the game. Posts like āI donāt play atm but I keep up with all the shenanigans.ā are quite common. CCP are losing a lot of people who IMO could quite easily have been retained as paying customers.
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We have different experiences, sure. Mine has been limited to this forum for the past six months. Off the top of my head, I recall two threads that at least attempted to amount to more than, āIām going home and never coming back.ā
In any case, we agree feedback is feedback and may be valid, but I really doubt it would be worth sifting through. Where there might be more benefit is improving the lines of communication before it ever gets to the point where players leave.
Iāve never had issues personally with CCP customer service, but they do leave me scratching my head on some things that havenāt affected me (I.e., the āconnection is lostā problem they claim is absolutely not an issue on their side).
I do wonder how much is peopleās experiences vs how the game is marketed in the ads - I see them a fair bit on Facebook because I have a couple of friends on there who play. Someone who took the ads to heart would probably be in for quite a cold awakeningā¦
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The connection loss issue is a good one The problem always seems to be most prevalent after an update - pure coincidence of course, hehe. And it seems to magically fix itself with either the next update, or within a few days after many people reported experiencing it. Funny how that happensā¦if the problem is not on their side
Whatās funny is that disconnects cannot be the fault of my ISP. Why?
Because Iām multi-boxing and most of the time only one of the boxes disconnectsā¦
Hehe, I agree! When it happens I can go to any website, download, stream stuff etcā¦ Everything else works. Only Eve complains about the connection.
Let me offer a different perspective:
If Iām leaving the game definitely, Whatās Iād gain (/maintain) leaving silent? Why would I care if people will be mean to my disposable alterego?
I can put all the frustration, not only with the game but also with whatever is bothering in my life in this single post, and make it as outrageous as it can be, then logoff and uninstall.
Nothing of importance was lost but I feel better for venting out some frustration.
Perhaps I even feel smug because, despite of the utter irrelevance of all I posted, someone actually cared. And none less than @Mike_Azariah , community representative.
And now Iām leaving this thread to never come back. Yes, I blame everyone but me and for anyone asking fo anything (including likes) the answer is the traditional āNo, ā ā ā ā youā. Just so I donāt leave answer that is too constructive. 
You still have hair after all those years spent on the CSM?
No one knows this.
A forumpost does not imply ID proof.
Still, yes, I agree that many old farts just go unnoticed, aware of futility in voicing.
I lost it during chemo but it has come back slightly wavier. And a bit darker, which is kind of cool.
I read as much as I can, including the leaving posts. I respond to some, others i do not as I take them at their word that they are āalready gone, never to returnā.
I get a free few accts (of which I only use one) and IF there is ever a summit? Flight to Iceland (plus accomodation) to sit in meetings for a few days. I am sure they have their people who also look for trends etc but yeah, a canary in a coal mine is part of what I do.
m
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Complaint depts exist when complaints negatively affect (are foreseen or detected as a threatā¦) sales. Never forget!
No one has to read anything. If there are issues, Itās cheaper to poll pre-sales customer awareness and detect potentials of where it comes fromā¦ easier and extremely cheap.
A complaint dept is useless when you have a forum. You could create something like a CSM and then ask why pre-sales poll or inquiry shows that projections could look betterā¦ or something like first sale or repeat customer (player base) ā¦ This of course, in other words.
That CSM is more valuable and cheaper than an army of bloated ants, again by polling with questions like: āI know you feel bad but why the tantrum on the forum when leaving?ā
Do you know why I think of it this way?
Because the narrative itself reveals no interest in what was said, but how it was said. There is not even a hint of curiosity about where it comes from.
When something is not said within the rules of a forum, there are moderators. But not even they read anything. Itās the forum users who report such cases. Maybe a Dev creates something here and there or perhaps even read whatever OP aligns with his deptā¦ but not much else.
I donāt think anyone truly expects their tantrum to bring asteroid cranes or anti-missol lazorsā¦ no!. (man itās hard not to bring BO as classical example of self backpatting after a f**kd up decission)
What most do is on purpose! they voice it out believing that someone will read and decide not to get in the game or perhaps even getting out of itā¦ not as single reason but such things echo in ppepsā minds, fueled by any feeling of discomfort when playingā¦ and at some point their inner voice goesā¦ āhe was right!ā.
But does this imply that tantrum=lies?
No. A deceiving tantrum is self disqualifying. And do you know by who?.. yeeesssā¦ the other guys in the forum. You see?
So, there is NO COMPLAINT DEPT if you have the forumā¦ it eats, behaves and self nourishes based on the āfreeā that we provide. There could be some technical personnel that go through code fails and yesā¦ ādisconnectionsā and a CSM here and thereā¦ nothing else.