To explain my case, the Problem of the Great CC Decline will be reiterated:
[spoiler]1. Membership has been falling because CC members allocate more/all their leisure time to other online games of similar enough characteristics.
2. The similar characteristics are: online, active games, war/strategy theme'.
3. The recent rise in online gaming has largely occurred over smartphones.
4. The competition's comparative advantage is: 'smartphone-savvy'
5. CC lacks 'smartphone-savvy' (i.e. smartphone functionality and its superior standard of aesthetics).
6. So, if CC wishes to stay relevant, the owner(s) should magically make CC extremely suitable for smartphones.
Now, remember why CC will continue its decline:
The 'awesome smartphone conversion' requires money. The owner of CC calculates the net present value (NPV) of the 'awesome smartphone conversion' investment and then compares that to the NPV of the 'status quo'. If the NPV of the 'awesome smartphone conversion' > the NPV of status quo, then (a) do the online thing properly. If it isn't, then (b) maintain the status quo of marginal modifications to the site.[/spoiler]
Here's where my case is made:
Why has (b) [maintain status quo of marginal modifications to the site] continued to occur?
1. It's the most profitable option. Contrary opinions on the site's future do not matter in the sense that these opinions have no instrumental value; they only have expressive value. In other words, your opinions don't change the owner's goal, which is (b). They mostly serve as a way for you to vent your frustration/praise. They may also alter the marginal modifications, which have no clear impact on stemming the Great Decline, so in reality such opinions are still expressive--not instrumental.
In this regard, your opinion does not matter; however, there's a hopeful twist:
2. The marginal modifications have largely been ineffective in affecting membership rates, but the rate of decline is still holding! How is this possible?!
It's from the expressive value of this site. The marginal modifications make you people bicker about largely pointless, superficial changes to the site. BUT, pointless bickering is much better than realizing that this site is DOOMED to DECLINE. If more people realized this, then they'd lose hope, thus becoming more likely to leave. But they don't leave, and they don't wish to realize this. They wish to indulge in the expressive value of bickering. This is how your opinion of CC matters.
