> What about the playerbase. Lets see a vote of every active player.

Sorry, democracy doesn't work. If the playerbase got everything it wanted over the past ten years the game would be a huge steaming pile of poo.

Remember that episode of the Simpson's where Homer's long-lost brother lets him design a car for "everyman" and it turns out stupid and horrible? Yeah. Exactly.

> With a small loyal playerbase of <30, why is the game evolving this way.

Because this system is (arguably) less drastically favorable to vets. Before you either knew the sets or you didn't. If you did, then finding your locations was pretty trivial. If you didn't (and didn't talk to anyone offline who knew all the sets) then it was about the same as what we have today.

So instead of the wand system only sucking for newbies, now it sucks for everybody, vets included. Which is probably also why you hear so much bitching about it now- vets love to bitch.

> Make wands easier to obtain. Give non-mages some perks to balance it out.

This just makes wands even more indispensable then they are now, since all your opponents are tougher. Also means you're ever more screwed if an opponent ever catches you by surprise when you're not wanded.

"Giving non-mages perks" is also really, really hard to do in a way that preserves the current balance between each non-mage class.

> The game needs to be a game.....not a full time work camp.

First, there are different kinds of games. Myst was a game. Some people liked Myst. I didn't. Some people may enjoy exploring and eventually getting the reward of finding their wands. I'm not one of them. Solution: don't play mages.

I'd also note that it isn't just mages that have this issue. Most top-tier warriors spend a significant amount of time continually harvesting (and hoarding) limited preps.

From a cost/benefit perspective they apparently find it "worthwhile" to spend that time. I could maybe support reducing the effectiveness of preps in general but leaving the "time cost" the same. This would change the equation such that many people just wouldn't bother. The payoff wouldn't be worth the time spent. Some obsessive types would still take the time but they'd gain less of an advantage by doing so.

> it pisses me off that I can't play this game any more on a casual basis.

You can.

> You can't gather preps, wands, or do much of anything.

Why not? How is any harder to do this when you're playing 1 hr/week than when you're playing 5 hr/day?

> ranking with a group is impractical when you have to leave after a pass.

Sure. Hasn't this always been the case?

> Hard to roleplay anything when the people you interact with don't see you again for 2 weeks and even then can't remember your last interaction.

Sure. Hasn't this always been the case?