There was a lot of excitement over Dune Awakening, when it was first announced, and game-play videos were released. When it launched, it did very well, and reviews were positive. Now, they are mixed. The game appears to be dying. The Steam forums were full of PvP vs PvE threads, with PvE players asking for PvE servers. Remind you of anything? Now, Funcom did say that PvP was "optional" but they weren't really being honest. They did say that the endgame is PvP, but what is endgame? Let's just say that they were honest, but in a way that made you really do your homework to know exactly what you were getting into. While it may have been their fault many PvE players did not understand that many PvE activities were locked behind PvP. Also, where Funcom 100% lied, is that progression through the story, and class progression was not actually PvP optional. In Hagga Basin, there are static wrecks. Only the first one you encounter is PvE. The others are PvP zones. The story progression, and class progression, sends you into those wrecks. As a PvP player, I'm fine with that, and have been in every PvP zone multiple times. But that's 100% not PvP optional. The way the game is set up is that there are 25 Sietches attached to 1 server. Each Sietch can have 60 players online, so the server can have 1500. The Sietch is Hagga Basin, and is mostly PvE rules, so your base is safe from other players, but not safe from Shai Hulud if you build in a dumb location. There are multiple PvP zones throughout Hagga Basin, such as the static wrecks, as well as locations controlled by Harkonnen, or Atreides. These 25 Sietches share a common Deep Desert, as well as other social locations, like Harko Village (Harkonnen), and Arrakeen (Atreides). Below is a pic of me and a friend doing End Game Content in the Deep Desert. For fun, we chose to risk it going the most dangerous (furthest from PvE safe zone) large spice field. I'm in the Crawler, under the Carrier. We were successful. I took the screen shot as we left with a full load. The Carrier has to stay close by as you harvest the spice, because Shai Hulud [strike]may[/strike] will take exception to you being there. This is fun, and this is not an option for PvE players. Think about that. The coolest thing you can do in the game is not open to PvE players. Thee problem is that the PvE player payed full price for part of the game, with some of the coolest content locked behind PvP. So naturally, the call for PvE servers was quite loud. Now, here's the thing. Why did many PvP players take exception to that? If you are a PvP player, why would you want PvE players in your server? The claim is that player base is split roughly 50/50, but there is one stat that may show this isn't actually true. There is an achievement for going to the Deep Desert for the first time. Prior to the change that turned the lower half of the Deep Desert into PvE, the percentage of players who reached the DD was about 17%. After the change, it has doubled to 35%. But many PvE players left before that happened, and haven't come back. We've watched many bases in Hagga Basin, just decay away. So again, why would PvP players even want PvE players on their server. It takes slots away from players who would be willing to PvP. Well, now the game is dying. The Sietches can hold 60 people, but the average is 5 at any given time of day. What was once thriving and full of activity, is now mostly empty. The game is dying, and an inability for PvE players, and PvP players, to have a game that caters to their needs, is the problem. Funcom, instead of creating an interesting endgame, chose to just let players be the endgame content for each other, but it's not even good PvP. It's almost always clubbing baby seals type combat. Let me put it like this. A really good PvP Org like Shadow Moses, isn't going to thump their chest over clubbing baby seals. I like good PvP, but Dune just doesn't really deliver that. I had visions of faction based battles when I heard that you join Atreides or Harkonnen. But it's not like that. Anything approaching an epic battle is very rare in Dune Awakening. I think the takeaway is that not all gamers want the same thing. People will say that gamers are split between PvP and PvE, but I submit that they are split into many more subcategories. For instance, we can divide them into how sweaty you want your palms to be while you play. Some want that all day, every day. If that's not present, they don't see the point. Others never want that. Gaming to them is about relaxing, and killing time with friends, or alone. Then there are those like me. I like both. I just don't like either all the time, so I see Star Citizen as a possible perfect game for me. In Dune Awakening, the PvE players called for PvE servers. Many PvP players balked at that. Why? The result is that to retain the PvE players that were leaving, half the Deep Desert was turned into PvE, but with very little endgame resources to harvest. That was needed to retain the reason to PvP in the PvP section. Well, now that's gone. The recent update in a desperate bid to retain the PvE players, has added tons of endgame resources to the PvE section of the Deep Desert. There is now very little reason to risk going to the PvP section of the DD. Facepalm! If Star Citizen is going to mix PvE and PvP, I really hope they do it better than Dune Awakening did. Dune is really fun when it's right, but when it gets it wrong, it's really bad. And now, just a few months after going live, it's dying. Diehards are self-migrating to a few servers for an increased population. So out of dozens of North American servers, only 2 or 3 are hitting numbers over 400, out of a possible 1500. It's sad, really.