**I wanted to give my take, and ask that you give it some thought going forward, given the recent events. Normally I just come here to read, but today, this warrants more than lurking. I'll try to be as civil as possible but from the looks of things around here, that doesn't guarantee that this post won't be removed, as my feedback is going to be the negative type. Some of the very reasonable responses I read, with no cursing or inciting of drama, were locked and deleted within minutes. It's sad really, that mods have to do this, some of which I have no doubt, feel the same way as many of you or myself do. Now then, preamble out of the way; On to the discussion I want to have.**

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Straight to the point, there will be no sugar coating to be found here. The refine change is a colossal mistake. Simple as that. The issue isn't even how expensive the new refines are, though that too is frankly insulting. The problem is that this is bad from a gameplay perspective. The vast majority of players simply don't have the resources to have more than one ninja maxed refines at this point, yet alone multiple positions. Position one stacking has been a problem for a long time now, but things did look like they were getting better as time went on. All that had to be done is well... nothing. To make matters worse, and perhaps the most egregious part of this entire fiasco is the fact that the player base simply does not want this, by and large, and have been vocal about it since the idea first emerged. The graveyard of deleted posts all over general, is quite telling, though I'm sure some of it is necessary from a moderation perspective.

I've been playing Naruto Online for years now, and despite its many flaws, I've enjoyed most of my time here. There are faucets of the game that are still pretty enjoyable to me, and I've made friends since signing up. This is a big hobby for me, that I've invested time, energy, and money into. This is what makes my decision such a difficult one, and not one I made lightly. My recharging days are officially over barring a huge change from Oasis, which right now sounds less plausible that Sasquatch. Furthermore my old character is retiring, and I'm starting a strictly F2P new ninja. A true breath of fresh air, you could say. Hopefully I can still keep in touch with the friends I've made along the way.

I'm what you would call a "Super Whale" I guess. Not ashamed of it, I make a good living and I don't mind dropping cash to enjoy my hobbies. By this point, from my mental math and memory, I believe the money I've spent over the years numbers in the tens of thousands. My wife says I have a tendency to lose myself in the numbers, and always assume I've spent less than I have. Never been the budgeting type, ya know?

Here's the bottom line Oasis, you've lost a big customer today. If what you truly see when you think of players like me is a $ than by your own metric you made an error of a significant magnitude. I'm not going alone either. Even at this point I already I know of several long time friends (some of them whales similar to myself) who are taking the same stance. Business wise, I have no doubt that Oasis will see a notable drop from people like us.

I ask of you, the player base, to think about your decisions going forward. If you disagree with the changes, but you continue to recharge every froggy, like I did, Oasis will not even see your feedback and dissatisfaction. Wu Tang had it right man.... C.R.E.A.M. Make your own decision, and vote with your wallet. It's the only vote you'll get.