They ran smoothly and had well-designed maps where the action was practically everywhere instead of a couple of specific points? Also we didn't bitch about getting oneshotted so you're mostly likely on to something with the issue being gamers.
I will quote what a friend of mine who isnt a 40k fan and tried this game(played together with me) after seeing me playing it, here is what he said after a considerable amount of matches played with me: "Its not a game I would play alone.". That reveals how bad is the solo experience in this game and that is one of the reasons the game cant keep a good amount of people.
F2P launch could of held players if they would expected the servers to shit out on them. Of course for some reason or another they didn't expect that to happen.
The devs changed their focus to cater to wider audiences, and at the same time give their products timed lifespans that allow them to keep selling products. They used to make complete games that would entertain their few customers for years and years. They included their communities and allowed them to grow their games. Unfortunately it's not a good business model - you don't want to sell the perfect game - or what need have your customers for the next game you want to sell. Yeah the gamers changed too - there's more of them, they are more casual, and they are used to the way things are done now. Plus the developers these days like to listen to the special snowflakes because that's where the money is. There's a lot of factors involved but in general the bigger companies lead the way in showing others how to fleece the masses. There are exceptions and the tables are starting to turn back in some cases. We just need people to stop buying rubbish and demand more from games - not easy when so many are so easily pleased.
I'd be willing to say that even if you played those games on an weekday at 2 AM you could get a fair, fun fight going with minimum numbers. There was none of this 15 vs 3 bullshit that has plagued the game since its inception. Right now EC is slowly becoming a "Can only be played at peak hours" game if you play anything but LSM.
Well for me it is quite the opposite. EC is a game I can play solo very well unlike games like Dota2.
GW and 40k Fans have no one but themselves to blame on this. Perhaps if GW had tried to encourage playerbases in any of the other races besides SM's we wouldn't have this issue. People aren't going to play what they have no interest in playing. The faction population issues are entirely out of the players hands right now. MM waiting for games to start(or not waiting) is just a side effect. No one wants to fight a 15v5 and no one wants to wait 5 minutes AFTER the queue already popped for 10 more players to trickle in.
They had content, custom maps, mods and dedicated servers to run those, on top of more content at launch. Oh and quake came out in 96, quake 2 in 97 and quake 3 in 99, no wonder they didnt need dlcs year down the line.
The problem with those retrospective views is romanticism and nostalgia. Back in the days you were a teenager with very little games available and a techlevel far lower compared to todays standard. I remember those days of C64's and the early gaming consoles aswell. The games had 8 Bit graphics, eardeafening sounds and were pure magic and yet timeconsuming & fun as hell. 20 Years later you have seen it all, you have seen questing systems, you have seen how whole genres evolve and you have set your own standards higher and higher. If EC was produced and released in 2000 it would have been the thing. Now it is just medicore compared to whatever else the market has and had to offer during the nearly past 2 decades. This applies even more if you strip those games of their "titles" which were able to mark them in gaming history and develop a brand around their popularity. In all honesty even then there were 100s of games which were crap and had their issues and never made it "on my shelve". Just go to the basement and see if you find one of those old paperprinted "pcgames" and check out their reviews for games noone remembers with a 60 or 50 rating. If you would strip EC of its GW license and assets, what would be left to remember for you?
Well, the F2P-Model can make a lot of money (even without P2W-stuff), IF done right and the game itself supports this model, which means regular balance, new content, a lot of cosmetics and so on. So, basically everything what be promised but not delivered.
