You forgot...
6. The "its just a game, whatever" group. Those who accept whatever CCP does with relative indifference until they get bored and go play something else. This group does not complain when something is changed, they do not proclaim that they're unsubbing, they just do it without a word, never to be heard from again.

wat

wat

You forgot one,

6) Dont care, All sub caps/weapon systems trained.

I would like my own category please.

Because intelligent discussion and constructive feedback requires more effort and usually provides less results.

Balances are good for the game, nerfs suck, and most people are opposed to change either way.

Asking someone to like something that does not benefit them is a ridiculous request and will not only not be honored, but ridiculed.

I think everyone who's read my posts knows which category I fall into (the good one).

You forgot...
6. The "its just a game, whatever" group. Those who accept whatever CCP does with relative indifference until they get bored and go play something else. This group does not complain when something is changed, they do not proclaim that they're unsubbing, they just do it without a word, never to be heard from again.

Over the almost 3 years I've been playing, and the various rebalancing passes or other changes I've seen, I have noticed a few types of responses from the playerbase whose playstyle is being nerfed. Which one are you?

1. The first (and loudest) is the rage train, or tears of unfathomable sadness. Signature phrases are overblown, inflammatory, or uninformed ("Eve is dying", "I am unsubbing my 37 accounts", "You killed small gang PvP, gj", etc). The people with this response opposed the nerf thoroughly, going as far as recommending a buff instead. Some of them even resort to personal attacks ("CCP are goons in disguise / CCP doesn't play their own game / You're just a CCP fanboi/alt!").

2. The schadenfreude enthusiasts, or trolls. Mostly make fun of group #1, and try to rile them up more, for purposes of collection of the tears of unfathomable sadness. Signature phrases include "posting in QQ thread", "umad" and similar.

3. The people who hate everything forever, or bittervets. These people will never be happy, and remind everyone of it. Signature phrases such as "It's about time tech got nerfed, what sort of drugs has CCP been on for all these years?" or "Why is the Tristan the T1 drone boat, but the Ishkur the T2 one?! This is an outrage!" Their arguments are typically a bit more well founded than #1, but the mad is strong with these ones, so #2 likes having fun with them too.

4. The opponent/skeptic offers intelligent discussion and contributions before and after the nerf. Accepts CCP's expertise and authority over Eve, adapts to change, but doesn't necessarily like it -- and expresses this via respectful discourse. Example: "Don't be so quick to judge titan tracking by the titan hitting MWDing, TP'ed Drakes, which are bigger than carriers," or "As we [opponents] anticipated, the nerf turned titans into little more than space taxis again; can we have a viable combat role for them?"

5. The supporter/enthusiast is very similar to #4, but holds the opposite position, arguing for why the nerf is a good idea and encouraging its implementation. Example: "It's ridiculous and unbalanced that a fleet of 30 people (albeit in titans) should be able to take on several hundreds of people and win, and goes against core Eve principles" or "Glad to see sanity return to fleet battles, thanks CCP!"

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Every nerf seems to trigger varying amounts of composition of each of these groups, but #4 and #5 are usually (at least apparently) woefully small in number. How can we as players, forumgoers, mods, or devs (whoever is reading this) encourage more of that, and less of #1-3?

(Technically these groups show up in all changes, not just nerfs, but nerfs have the most pronounced effect because of someone 'losing out')

Note how I mentioned non-ship specific nerfs as well, like the tech nerf. Other examples are nano nerf, incursion nerf, the coming FW iskfaucet nerf, etc.

7) Dont care, Have enough ISK.

Care enough to post on forums. #2 or #3, not sure

<3