If you cant get a edge with best gear best skill people sure as shit wont be buying them L guns for 130% for ages.
They will, actually. Maybe not for 130%, but the actual markup will stabilize somewhere. I didn't and I still don't like that MindArk made such a stunt out of the boxes and at some point they basically pulled the plug out. This is not defendable and looks bad nomatter how you put it.
But "breach of trust" is a very big word. Those who wanted to grind alot were captive in a model where they HAD to deposit shitloads of cash to get some good toys, save for the extremely low minority of people who already owned them, such as you. But in the same time, these VISA warriors have been played for years now by a select group of people who almost monopolized the market of uber items. It is true that at least two uber societies which host most of hardcore grinders have been built from the gound up from deposits and that these people together deposited a large amount.
But these large amounts were going directly and guaranteed in the pockets of the above mentioned people who were directly withdrawing the funds. While for random player who joined three years ago, putting in say some 50k$ (and as such righfuly regarding himself and herself as an important contributor to the game) was obviously an effort which should not be trifled, these funds were being directly funelled out.
At this level, the only real breach of trust happened between MindArk and the people who were making a big bang out of uber items trade. I doubt there are ingame more than 20 uberguns and faps in the hands of original owners.
In the same time, the biggest breach of trust happened somewhere else. 99% if not more of depositors were themselves trapped in a model where they couldn't do much save for some extraordinary luck. We were directly lied and manipulated to by players from your group, on all possible "how to play" discussions, into believing that "nobody makes tt profit". "aim for the mu". "don't tt oils, imagine what means to sell 1000 times stacks of 100 peds". And all the rest of the bullshit, while simply owning certain items allowed
tt profit. And the whole cage was of course designed by MindArk, transforming the game from a SF epic endeavour where was possible to grow through own means and efforts into a pay-to-win random mmo. And not even pay-MA-to-win as is the case with other MMOs, but pay-some-people-always-the-same-since-2003-to-win.
And here is the moment to aknowledge all the stuff wrote by Aio who was the only one talking openly on how the model actually works (and my apologies if I was ever impolite to her out of disbelief).
It was a fundamentally wrong model and I hope this one is a better one. Can't honestly talk too much about present hunting because, well, I am mining all the time I am in so it wouldn't be honest of me to throw ideas around if I haven't tested them.
But instead of a model where you're trapped dpp-wise under x save for depositing your kidneys (as can be seen currently directly from the efficiency stat) and where most of the cash goes into the pockets of a 4-5 resellers, I prefer a model where most of the cash goes into direct usage and is slowly grinded by (L) MU going to crafters and miners and back.
I am very empathic to a part of those heavy depositors. Those joining in the last few years who were tricked into paying shitloads of cash to these resellers. Fortunately for them, they payed less than previous generation of heavy depositors, in 2008-2009 all items were hugely more expensive.
But the top tier always changes. If current players will step aside, there will be others who will find their way in the new paradigm, is always like this. I would argue that (L) introduction was a biggest disruption than the present one. And still the game survived.
I hope MA learned their shit and they will create less and less traps for such huge pvp MU transfer and they will continue focusing on the large mass of players who can keep the game running.
I also hope they will never repeat again this shit of creating hype for webshop and then nerf the webshop because that can put them down for sure. And while repairing the issue was urgent, this looks bad nomatter how you look at it.