It is so common these days is not even funny. The lack of knowledge of the designers of their own game, the lack of understanding why people play the game. Take a look at Wildstar (MMO) as a recent example.
WS gave hard content - fail as most players are casuals who don't have time to spend 6hrs a day to raid.
Beefing up TSO and shifting time spend to managing your island instead of doing adventures - rings a bell?
WS reward for doing content was a complete mess - fail as most players don't even find raiding worth it.
Nerfing loot in adventures beyond the point of players finding it worth of doing - rings a bell?
WS pvp was (still is) a mess and end game pvp is just pure horror with imbalances of classes - fail most pvp crowd already left the game.
Introducing pvp without pvp essentials (score boards, matchmaking system, duel invitations, guild/friends matches possibilities -rings a bell?
WS dev team went into silence after overwhelming number of players express their disappointment and left the game - when no answers were given by devs.
If you read test forums you notice a lot of frustration - no clear explanation was given to how and why changes are needed, moreover testers kept proving to devs with the hard core numbers it will not work - and still no answer from design team - rings a bell?
If a designer of a game can't predict a simple consequence of shifting few numbers in the code, as testers caught quite few times on test as some changes being just illogical (don't want to use harsh language) than something is terribly wrong.
The simple truth is this: You guys design the game it is your work, but we play it. If the game becomes a chore (or rather if the chores part of the game outweigh the fun - its over. Your game is gonna tank no matter how much fluff you put in it. It is a proven historically formula. No game in history of MMO survived a complete overhaul.
From test server most people were open up to a change until the numbers started coming up over and over again magnifying the scale and the result of the combat balance. Then a snow ball effect was in full swing ending even in a whole guild openly asking on forums what's going on.. Till today no one even answered it...
You guys are designers, not gods. As we all, you CAN make mistakes we understand. Communicate, give directions of what you are planning or thinking of, poll it up on forums rather this will enhance the playing experience or the opposite. Yes you will have to endure some whines, but there will be plenty of respectful feedback in it. And even in whines there is a grain of truth too. Last 2 years of us asking, whining, complaining about more space. The truth was we needed it.

