I looked, there's no rants board any more. So I'm sure this will get deleted in about 10 seconds flat but I'm pissed off enough that I needed to flame, so here goes.
AE seem to have a congenital inability to learn from mistakes.
Mistake #1: putting in new things without fixing bugs, leaving people frustrated.
Mistake #2: putting in things that are half completed and thus frustrating people who can't complete.
Mistake #3: forcing server-wide "participation" (victimization would be a better word) in "events" - and I use the word extremely loosely here because yes technically a fire ant in your shorts is an "event" but I've yet to meet anyone who would pay money for that.
Mistake #4: making the game less fun for people
So let's take it one step at a time. First there's this F-awful plague. You have hundreds of posts on why it's a stupid idea; I won't repeat all of that. I just want to point out that you've committed mistakes 1, 2, 3 AND 4 again. Yes, again, so often I've really lost count. Every one of these mistakes has been made repeatedly in the past year and each time we get promised that it won't happen again. So let's see - screw every crafter in game, make every town annoying to be in, provide no cure or way to finish the event... yes, I'm sure that'll be good for the player base. Remind me... how much longer 'till WoW comes out? Is it really your goal to run this game into the ground because that's what seems to be on your minds.
Second, there's the wisp poop. This has to be the lamest excuse for a fix I've seen in the year-plus I've been playing, and I'm not even talking about the missing models. It's a conceptually interesting idea implemented in a way that shows essentially no thought was expended. Prior to the patch, 6-8 bright wisps outside Fela. Now we have 1-3 wisps and maybe one poop. Hint: if you take out the wisps, they don't poop, ferchrissakes. Oh, but this saves wear and tear on the game engine we're told. In other words, instead of fixing the broken engine so it could handle a few dozen more mobs, we get this severely broken hack.
I give up, I really do. I'll log in to hand stuff off to guildies and see if this annoying sh*t is over with. But I'll be spending my play time and dollars on other games.