I can't say I agree, nor can I say I disagree, with everything he's saying.

However, if I were to play devil's advocate for a minute, I might mention some of the following:

1) Kinslayer was heard and listened to when it came to staggered downtimes. So there is some direct and tangible evidence that he isn't ignored or unheard in his needs / wants. A sensible and feasible compromise was implemented by the devs. Perhaps they're still devising similar, workable compromises on some of the other issues.

2) If prelude is to be 6 to 12 months, then we're looking at September 15, 2011, to March 15, 2012. Perhaps his past year of experience leads him to believe things like agriculture or religion won't actually be added in that time. Difficult to speak to that because I don't have that year of experience with this company, nor does the company have the same set of employees minus a few. I believe most developers are fairly recent, which is one reason Xsyon has given for needing to catch up on things. Still, the understood prelude, at it's longest, is nowhere near over. One shall see.

3) Far as the safe zones, I may have your position confused with someone else's... apologies if that's the case. I thought you felt capital totems should not be destructible because people put so much time into them? If so, that's not far from what those you would consider carebears have come to agree with. Myself as an example, I used to believe safe zones would be adequate, but understand a number aren't all that happy with them. So, a capital totem like the one I think you've mentioned and a gate to keep me safe from too much babysitting duty would work. I know of other so-called carebears that have said the very same thing.

4) I don't think I remember Jordi himself ever saying he was planning different pvp rules for different zones? Might have missed it. I know that's something players have talked about, and in an environment where players are listened to a lot... it does make one wonder if what is said on forums will eventually become the reality. My thought on that is we will see viable attempts at compromise from the devs... where feasible and workable. Some on the extreme carebear thoughts of things won't be happy with it. Some on the extreme side of whatever you want to call the opposite of a carebear won't be happy with it... but hopefully a healthy number of middle-roaders will be having a great old time and inviting all of their friends.

/ end devil's advocate.

I made 100 baskets today. I learned something new to me about gathering grass and being able to consistently get "high quality" grass. I got my basketry skill up to 50 which means when I get back home after this trade I'll be able to make better grass armor, or maybe even better skirts . I'm going through the grind I have to to raise my skill, but I have a trade with MrDDT that means I'm very happy with what I will get for that grind rather than just grinding for the sake of it.

Taking a break helped me get back into the game a bit. Hopefully that will be the case for many more others as well.