Reminds me of when Scrabble transitioned from EA to Hasbro around 2020-2021. My friends and family and I LOVED playing scrabble with each other every day. It was something I played during breakfast, lunch, work breaks, the evenings, and weekends. EA probably made a killing off of all the ad revenue from me and my posse. Then, the dark days came. To quote Elrond, “I was there 3000 years ago. I was there when the strength of men failed.” Hasbro made too many changes all at once. They introduced puzzles, bots, and lots of other things, but the core feature, the ability to play games with friends wasn’t available. We didn’t want puzzles. We didn’t want to practice. We wanted a fun way to connect over long distances. Within a week, everyone I knew had stopped playing, and even though they returned the ability to play scrabble with friends, the damage had already been done. As far as I know, none of us have returned to Scrabble GO. We were hurt so badly, we don’t want to risk being hurt by Scrabble GO again. Those of us who have found a similar home in SimCity are feeling similarly hurt by the contents of the OP. The materials storage gift was a small salve, enough to keep us going a little longer, but if EA doesn’t rectify recent mistakes, we will likely leave and find a new home. Right now, I’m holding on by my love of trains, but even trains can’t save a burning house.
