I, for one, welcome our chatty overlords.

I wish they looked through more than just the few first pages, there are many good ideas dumped in that subforum. And yes, I am glad a spear type weapon is there yay : P xD

I personally think it's more due to the fact that Three Rings has been taken hostage and this is their way of saying 'send help.'

The future is bright.

I hope so.

I don't know. The fact that they removed the posts about the weapon/armor balance survey points me in the direction of them saying "Oh we know, we just don't care anymore."

They didn't remove the gear survey thread, they un-sticked it because the survey had a limited time period that had expired.

Sure, they've been more chatty recently, but that's just it: they're only chatting. They aren't actually addressing any of the valid concerns of their intelligent playerbase (not to say that those asking the questions they have answered are unintelligent, of course). The way I see it, they're pretty much acting like politicians and just answering the easy questions; the questions they feel like answering; the silly questions. If this is a gradual build-up to them being more active in suggestions regarding recent update problems, I'd be extremely happy. Call me a pessimist if you want, but I just don't see that happening.