Originally Posted by DoctorDigital :

It is about the wipe - of course - but it much more is about Forntier's and Mr. Brookes way of communicating. "They" cannot just say weeks in advance that they'd give the testers a head start and keep stats as a "thank you" and then ONE(!) day before Gamma starts, someone says: "Well, if you force me to, then I say YES - full wipe on December!" If they knew about their balancing problems - and they knew with every built that there were some that needed tweaking - they shouldn't have communicated a head start in the first place. That is really all there is to it! Initially I was expecting a wipe on release day. Then Frontier came and said, we are doing our last wipe with the start of Gamma. If they were not sure, they shouldn't have said it! I am really disappointed, not because of the wipe, but because of the communication!

I think you're reading too much into it - I'm certainly not going to make a decision on a multi-million pound project out of spite! . If I'm forced to pick one of two choices I have to take the safe choice. I raised the possibility of a wipe, we might not need to do a full wipe, or we can balance a specific aspect (for example ranks) by a partial wipe. Until we get feedback during gamma it is difficult to be sure. I can understand why people might be upset because of that uncertainty - but if it has to become an absolute then there aren't many options left.

Michael