Twitch Metrics

I think its the twitch metrics combined with other things (like the Cheeseman thread which points to the Steam metrics on lower game participation) that makes the case.

Not sure, though it could be, that reducing the RP penalty will correct things.  I mean, it's for sure going to help.  But I still have to believe the problems are at the core of this game, and that you don't have enough reward for solo players to work together.  Even if you reduce the RP debt, you can have one bad player screw your whole team up on a regular basis, with a hot drop, or ignoring whatever the other two people are doing or whatever.

Somewhere else I had started to speculate on what could fix that problem, because even if you fixed ranked play,  you aren't fixing the overall game.  Of course, most answers I had were pretty heavy handed, like tethering your team to each other so you couldn't restore shields or health unless you were within some certain range of at least 1 other team mate.  It won't help hot drops if 2 of your mates want to get themselves killed, but it would help when the 1 lone ranger goes and decides he's way more important than the other 2 of you.  The reverse could be something that's not a penalty but a reward, like slow health and/or shield regen if you are within a certain range of another team mate.  Like 50 m, so it's not onerous.

Those problems can be speculated on in another thread.  The point of this one was more like I think the signs are showing that changes need to happen, and sooner would be better.