I see opinions on the current state of the game seem to come in only two flavors:
The EA is broken, patches have become infrequent therefore TW bad
TW awesome no matter what, therefore first flavor bad
The second point is not without a solid supporting argument: that being that this is an EA game and we knew darn well it was an EA game and it would be buggy, broken, maybe even a bit unstable.
I would agree wholeheartedly except for one, tiny detail: the purchase price.
Back when the original M&B released, the purchase price reflected the state of the game. I got in for $16. The game, at that point, had the odd crash bug, very little content (the only town was Zendar, and the only parties you could encounter were a few River Pirates and the Manhunters who were inexplicably hostile) and was already behind the times in graphics. But the new gameplay style hinted at great potential so we played, tested, reported bugs and brought more people in by word-of-mouth (I'd heard of the game on the beta forums for the original Age of Conan MMO). Each new patched-up version they released came at a higher price, slowly approaching release price, making those that got in earlier really happy they got a good deal despite the bugs.
Where this differs now is that the game released at full price. NO, a 10$ discount is not an EA price; that's a promotional sale off a full price. I bought in thinking that the higher price meant the product was more developed than that old original M&B I paid half of a purchase price for. Instead, the opposite was the case. I paid full price for late, cold pizza. I am getting LESS for my money.
IF the price had reflected the QA state of the product, I'd be happy with frequent crashes as that would be me helping them test.
IF the product was at a state at least PLAYABLE (crash to desktop is unplayable), I'd be happy with a higher price as it would be me getting to play a game early with a few *minor* bugs but overall still a releasable product.
IF T.W. were to show some awareness that they majorly messed up on this, that what they launched wasn't worth $40 or even $30, and even offered a mild apology, I'd be happy with the screw-up of the two preceding conditions.
NONE of these is true.
T.W. shows not even the slightest care (that I've seen, correct me if I'm wrong) that they gave us less for our money. Patching pace has slowed DRAMATICALLY, in fact, showing if anything a CONTEMPT for the fact that we paid more for less.
EA is not a privilege for the gamer, except in the rare cases an EA game launches with just some final polish needed (again, not the case here). EA for a broken, unstable and heavily buggy game is a boon for the developer to get massive testing across multiple platform configurations. WE are helping THEM, not the other way round.
Asking full price for a true testing EA is unethical.