I'd say the problem is that whilst UI improvements are essential moving forward, the focus has let the game engine slide. That's inevitable given the lack of resources for developing the game, we all know and understand that.

Now what setherick is saying isn't that JDB sucks, new UI sucks, everything sucks - what he's saying is that from the perspective of someone who gameplans heavily, the game has drifted so far away from that, it's damaging. We see WRs at TE. We see DEs at DT. We see CBs at DE - and there's no game engine rule or tooling for league admins to block that.

The effective removal of long passing from the game due to the game engine means a significant part of the real game - let's face it, people love mad bomber QBs - is missing. You're new, want to play the game and find out the game works, but you'll only win by doing X, Y and Z which have been worked out by what remains of the community makes people wonder why they should play.

I think setherick sees the potential of the game and is probably - and imo rightly - frustrated by seeing the game not achieving what it could. IMO, whilst the UI changes are needed, whilst the removal of the overly tight integration between web pages and backend are vital from an architectural perspective, the damage to the community by the game engine being, not neglected, but de-prioritised at this point in time has hurt and hurt massively. 4.6 as a match engine, for me, has had it's time and needs to be Old Yellered.

I personally think the match engine should have been the absolute priority - and it always should be; that retains players. The UI changes were absolutely needed, and I have no issue with that, but right now, the match engine lets things down.

I've little doubt JDB has plans to improve the match engine, and I'm sure that'll take priority now the UI side has had the bulk of the work done. The problem is that experienced players have now quit the game. Is there enough "publicity" to attract new players, will the UI retain new players? Hopefully it will.