Absurd that after 2 years of the game being out, and a decade of development. How hard is it to develop a multiplayer system?
Step 1: Hire interns with minimal knowledge and experience, nothing wrong with that, as long as you have some veterans who can teach them.
Step 2: You realize interns are all you got. In turn, after a long development phase, the end result is, well, disappointing.
Step 3: Hire "Community Managers" who think their only job now is to post patch notes, before the EA launch their job was to create "hype" even tho it was based on false marketing nonsense like "Advanced AI" or "Advanced Diplomacy". They won't touch the game themselves but will make all the decisions without considering any of the feedback from the community, these decisions will end up hurting the experience of the majority.
Step 4: Create forum accounts to challenge those who criticize the game and how it is managed.
Step 5: You still profit even tho a vast majority of your playerbase is unhappy.
Step 6: You still profit so you will keep doing the same crap until your next "sci-fi" game comes along and sales are not that great this time, apparently leaving a bitter taste in your playerbase affects sales(!), so you downsize and continue with less interns.
Step 7: Who cares because now you are rich.