I appreciate the (now unstickied?) post made by u/WalleyeHS to stop whinging about the shortcomings of Pix's business practices and choices because it gets in the way of people who just want to talk about the things they enjoy about it. I also appreciate the fine moderation done in this sub, all for the love of the game. One look at Facebook and see the cesspool of comments from the unwashed masses and it's a stark reminder at how great it is to have this sub. But I also love this game and it is that feeling that compels my commentary..

Ever had a good friend who was addicted gambling and it was damaging their relationships? Can you ignore the behaviour when they deceive you to support their habit? Or do you say something because you care?

There's been a long list of shady practices that tend to get forgotten under the new news cycles of updates and changes. New players may not be aware of it and enter a game economy that is deceitful. Here's a non-exhaustive list on some of the practices that have eroded trust over the last few years;

• The Royale game odds are greatly misrepresented with no explanation available to players
• Substantial economy changes with no detailed explanation available to players
• Weapons and bots have been released without thorough balancing
• Longstanding matchmaking issues that do not restrict league dropping
• All reward systems are short term and frequently altered
  • Silver from battles has gradually been reduced with no explanation to players
  • Supply line had bot components removed and keys reduced with no explanation to players
  • Battle rewards had Ag and tokens increased, but components changed to random values which are consistently underwhelming ... with no explanation to players
  • The Daily Deals are the only semi-consistent method of getting components but are often bundled with other components that do not pair well and the availability schedule of deals not explained to players
• Superchest progress bar is non-linear and misrepresents progress, no explanation available to players
• Pixonic Execs, notably Ilya Smirnov, making publicly available speeches about strategies to aggressively monetise your players
• New currencies have been regularly released to ensure any new content was not easily attainable
• Have guaranteed giveaways that are not guaranteed - despite players fulfilling the requirements
• Boosters that drastically increase the pay to win dynamic are released with no announcement

Constant shady behaviour tweaking the systems to ensure that there is not too much prosperity without ongoing commitment to payment. Even if you are Pix's target demographic and sink ongoing boatloads of money into the game you should be dubious. The game's mechanics are either huge payments or a game of Three Card Monte.

All of these topics are a bone of contention with the WR community, but get no air-time from Pixonic because it's not in their interests to acknowledge the behaviour. Then there's the recent article by the Pixonic community manager Artemiy Kozlov, who talks about being honest and the importance of trust, and that because players don't want to know about business, they're not going to talk about it.

"People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it"

.. was the focus of the insightful and inspiration Simon Sinek TED talk from 2010. If you haven't seen it, click here.

That is why you should hesitate to sell power.

I've said it before, Pixonic, your community loves your game, be upfront. Even if you're primary goal is to make money, call a spade a spade and you'll earn everyone's respect and maybe even get back a bit of trust.