L2P! My K/D is higher than yours!

I would argue the exact opposite.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law

same goes with irony. the opening post is something I have read many times on this forum (not literally but you get the point) and it was said in earnest every time. how would I know that you aren't being serious? do I have to learn to read minds over the internet? where do I learn that?

I am so guilty of this. But I stand by it. If your stats indicate to me that you don't have a basic grasp of FPS fundamentals then I won't take anything seriously without a lot of evidence backing it up and I'll just dismiss it. If a player like Liberty here or Iridar makes that same argument I'll at least look into it because Liberty knows how to play the game and Iridar wrote the goddamn guide I learned most of the game mechanics and how they work form.
It boils down to this. I have a limited amount of time. so i will prioritize Information form a player where I know that they are knowledgable about the game and demonstrate proficiency while playing.

Apologies for the slightly rambling comment.

I will admit, i am a stat *****. I can't help it. I know that kills mean nothing in this game and its about PTFO that matters in this game. Hell, in BF BC2 i was an assualt wookie who took c4, a close quarter weapon and charged in to disarm bases or suicide kill tanks - usually eating the c4 with the unfortunate tank.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand, K/d doesn't really matter but it quickly becomes my yard stick for how well i'm playing in my current session. The biggest bug bear is this: Am i spending more time holding my own against my fellow man or am i spending more time humiliating myself, not having fun constantly dying whilst the opposition and some unknown stranger having fun at my expense? If its the latter, i get very, very angry. I can either keep playing like an idiot throwing myself in stupid suicide attacks for a worthless objective or do i sit back, take a breather and make some progress/certs to ease my frustration at this game.

With certs up on offer from actual kills (my main source of income), i constantly check it to see whether i'm actually making anything. I mean, lets face it, you don't get anything from dying and the more time i spend dead, the less i get and getting stuff slows to a crawl. I have a test VS account where i do PTFO and the constant dying has meant that my certs gain slows to a crawl. In my main account i usually play more cautious and reap the rewards.

If you get rid of the K/d score it might make me a more productive player, but the fact that there is always a constant delay between respawn and dying, incentives to get a kill streak and making kills in general i doubt it might not help at all.

The problem with PS2 is the fact that stats are discussed at all.

There isn't much of anything to do in the game except check stats after a session.

It's kinda like Farmville in that way. Mindless grinding for many players. Many I know personally who PLAY OTHER GAMES AT THE SAME TIME! Keeping PS2 in windowed mode and playing Multi-player Civ V (yes, you know who you are...) in one particular case.

Stats and Directives are all that keep the vast majority going.

One can only imagine what would happen if the devs didn't always cater to the fragile ego and OCD ridden players and made it a meaningful game of outfits not individuals.

That's what PS2 COULD have brought to the genre.

That's not the game doing it, its the players. Even if the game tracked no stats (or simply didn't give an API to show them). Players would still find a way to track them, even if they had to keep a pen and paper handy.

Its not a bad thing to keep stats. Stats are a tool like a hammer or screwdriver. They can be used to assess situations and measure progress towards a goal. But frequently they are abused to measure player worth, or used to further an agenda in a discussion.

I don't blame PS2 for most of the problems. Some issues such as bugs are the fault of Daybreak laying off too many coders and devs. But other issues (typically balance issues) are conceived by the community itself. The community hates one single thing. And that is personal responsibility. They want to pass blame instead of manning up and admitting they lost, were wrong, or are just being jerks to one another.

You say the devs are catering, I don't see how they are. But lets for the sake of the argument say that you're right. What do you expect them (there's about 3-5 of them left) to do? Remove Stats? Alright.. what if I turn around and make a program that runs alongside PS2 and every time they die they hit one button and every kill they hit another. Totally legit, as long as it doesn't interface with the game at all. I could even make it overlay. Or better yet, I could make a cellphone app which would be more intutive to use.

Would players abuse it. Hit kills where they didn't get kills? Perhaps.. but I'm willing to bet most players are actually honest about their stats. I mean you're not going to see a .75 KDR person touting that he has a 3.0 KDR... he doesn't wish to be challenged on it. Players aren't so naive that they don't realize that high stats makes you a target. High KDR infantry players are rare, and I'd imagine in such a system, if they started becoming 'more common' real high KDR may wish to challenge such poseurs to see what they really got. I know thats how it used to work in such games before stats were tracked.

I will be the first to say that groups, squads, platoons, and outfits need more tools. I believe the game should be set up that a group of 12 players coordinated in a squad should be able to beat 36-48 zergling solo players on a regular basis. Whatever changes need to make that happen, should happen.

But.. to say that we have NO tools at all right now is wrong. We have tools, we need to use them. Coordination still beats zerging. It really does. Maybe not as much as it should, but it does. You just have to be clever about it and players need to be willing to follow someone doing it. Outfits help with that. But I see Outfits fading and that's an issue.

Devs can't simply code back interest into a 3 year old game. Not going to happen with out a game changing overhauling expansion. Something I doubt 3 people could code in the near future if at all.

So where does that leave us? Outfit leaders need to stick to their guns and keep their members engaged. All you need for a successful outfit (at least at the very base) is a leader and a member base that:

1. Likes the game
2. Wishes to be part of a team

As long as you have those two things, it really doesn't matter what the devs do or don't do. Now if you don't like the game. Why are you here? Wanting a game to see its potential is one thing. But if anyone here doesn't like the game, why do you play it? Don't give me the spiel about no other games like it. You either like the game or you don't.