Ok, here is the scoop. CCP has promised, and until now, delivered, some sort of expansion every six months. Over the past two years, they have been getting smaller and smaller, and also more and more useless.
Incarna was supposed to be people mingling in bars, actually seeing each other's avatars, and the ability to actually DO things there; all we have is a single room that no one else will ever see, with no customization, and nothing new to do there. It also consumes a great deal of resources; I get better framerates playing MWLL than I did walking around in the captain's quarters, and I run MWLL on high settings. So, complete fail.
Then you have the "Noble Exchange". This is their macrotransaction store; we already were paying for subscriptions, and a lot of people even bought ISK with real money (legally, by purchasing game time cards, then selling them for ISK). Apparently, this was not enough. Also, you will notice I called these macrotransactions; that is because a t-shirt cost 20 US Dollars, roughly. When people complained, the CEO essentially told everyone to shut up, because that is what t-shirts cost in real life.
A second part of the "Noble Exchange" is the ability to purchase painted ships. Note that this is not a paint job you purchase for a ship you own; you pay real money, and a ship of your choice, painted the way you want, spawns in your hangar. This was not implemented yet, but was clearly stated as being implemented this way in the near future. Some ships in EVE are vastly more powerful than others, and those ships are typically rare; people who farm up the loyalty points to get the blueprints for them, then farm the mats to manufacture them, are now being completely cut out of the loop by this. No one will need the ISK or time investment to own and fly these ships; therefore, pay-to-win was going to be implemented. Also, the economy is the cornerstone of the game; this effectively bypassed it.
Nullsec/lowsec. The lower security areas of space are being changed by CCP, but CCP does not seem to have any idea how things work there; the changes they are making are rather idiotic, and I have yet to speak with anyone (and I mean ANYONE) who actually likes the changes. The changes brought about in Dominion effectively broke up a few alliances, because no one felt like going through their entire area of space and re-doing all the sovereignty crap they instated.
Balance. There are a great many balance changes that have been needed for years, but have been ignored. Take railguns for example. They take almost as much energy to fire as a comparable laser, but roughly half the firepower. In order to get decent firepower, they have to load antimatter charges, which halve their range, and they STILL cannot come close to the laser's firepower. They also track horribly slowly, and cannot hit anything at close range, unless it is a large target that is being held in place, or stationary targets. They also take 10 seconds to change ammunition types; lasers change crystals instantly. Again, this is just one example of something that needs adjustment, but has not received it in years.
I could probably think of some other things, but I am beta testing SWTOR, and my companion just got back from a mission I sent him on, so I am going to go kill more stuff now.
