I'm a neutral party here, as I've been playing less and less as of late. I do however, care about this game. It was a large part of my childhood, and I've been apart of Tlopo since its conception in the alpha. I will say that: Never in my life have I seen the community of a game, and the development team be as At Odds with each other as The Legends Of Pirates Online. Its pretty saddening that a large portion, perhaps even a majority of the players feel the Crew doesn't have their best interests at heart. The same crew that is working diligently to present the game to us in the first place.
I think it is very important that the team takes a step back, a breather, and addresses this fact. How could the very players of your game be feeling as if their privacy and security is at risk. The fact that this is an issue in the first place displays its need to be resolved. The development team of ANY GAME should be working with and alongside their community. NOT against them. If the community overwhelmingly feels as if its voice is being restricted, then it goes without saying that that community will lose faith in their ability to contribute beneficially to the life of the game; and will thus feel that the staff are working against them, regardless of how much work they are doing for them.
Regardless of the intentions of the crew, the fact remains that many members of the community feel as if the moderation facet of the crew is seriously lacking, or perhaps even breached. The very fact that this is the case, demands a solution be presented/ Regardless of the veracity of the situation. It will not be in this games best interest to further drive a wedge between the staff and the community. Something needs to happen, as right now, the wedge is widening.
These are my thoughts on the matter. This situation MUST be addressed, and then a solution presented publicly to the community. I have no personal thoughts on who did what or who deserves what, I am simply stating how i feel this situation is affecting the community. I strongly believe that the Tlopo moderation team is mature enough to address this, and has the utmost intentions of providing its community an enhanced version of the game we all knew and loved. We are human, and humans make mistakes. What is unique to us is our ability to grow and adapt from those mistakes. The team could come out of this with an immense amount of garnered respect, or with an immense amount of lost faith.
It is important that a statement is released to the community, addressing the teams feelings on the matter, and it is even more important that they resolve this issue. My position is not that they should remove long term members of their staff who have put heart and soul into the project, but for the team to address to the community as a whole the scope of the situation, and their intentions to resolve it.