Warning: This link is like 5 posts worth of information about bf3.
http://www.mordorhq.com/showthread.php?3880-The-True-Story-of-Battlefield-3-the-Battlefield-Franchise-Its-Community-amp-EA-DICEThe part i'm interested is near the end, i'll quote:
Quote:If you are new to the Battlefield franchise (Bad Company 1 through Battlefield 3) you are part of the new audience. Players that have enjoyed Codename Eagle up to 2142 are part of the old fan base.
First let me say this to the new guard, if you are enjoying Battlefield 3GǪ great. IGÇÖm glad that you are and I wouldnGÇÖt try to convince you that the game is not fun or that you shouldnGÇÖt be playing it. That being said, the new guard has absolutely no right to tell the old guard, GÇ£if you donGÇÖt like it, leaveGÇ¥ or GÇ£quit complaining.GÇ¥
Hear me out. IGÇÖll tell you why I think so. The old fans are the reason the franchise has lasted to make the sequels you now enjoy. The old fans know the legacy the franchise has built. They know what makes the series unique and have certain expectations based on previous entries.
More than that though is the following point that I posit to you in a hypothetical. You enjoy Battlefield 3 for its insane amount of unlocks, the destruction, the vehicles. LetGÇÖs suppose Battlefield 4 removes all of those things. Whatever you liked about Battlefield 3 is removed from Battlefield 4 and a bunch of people new to the series end up loving it. ItGÇÖs great, fun, better than anything else out there. Battlefield 4: BarbieGÇÖs IRS Lecture Seminar has nothing resembling your beloved Battlefield 3 but the fans wonGÇÖt allow you to criticize because they love it. If you donGÇÖt like it, leave.
This right here is exactly how i've felt about the direction EVE has been taking regarding Highsec/Carebears.
We've got the oldschool eve pvp'ers who are the reason EVE is so successful, who know EVE is all about the ruthless PVP risk.
And then we have the newer players, who enjoy collecting things in highsec and doing their mining/missioning thing.
CCP has basically done what EA/Dice has done, and catered to the new crowd. Every patch increases CONCORD response times and limits pirating options. Players will shout "HTFU AND ADAPT" but this doesnt change the fact that PVP is being nerfed repeatedly in favor of carebear safety. The new players even say things like "but this is what i want to do", "pirates are ruining the game" etc...
How many PVP'ers have joined Hello Kitty Online and complained that the lack of PVP is destroying HKO? None. Because you dont play a game like HKO for the PVP. Its absurd to join it and then complain that there isnt pvp. Over at eve this is exactly whats going on though. We have a bunch of players who want to do nothing but grind for their 'best lvl 70 armors' for their highsec Golem and thats all they want to do, and they complain to CCP (successfull) to make fundamental mechanics changes to nerf PVP so that they can play WOW-in-Space.