Good riddance. I un-subbed a few months back having played since Beta, and this news doesn't surprise me at all. Rarebit knows the game is dying, and he's retreating to a safe distance to watch it burn.

I'm sure Rarebit is a nice guy, but his attempts to "expand" the matrix only woudn up driving the game further and further away from its original intent. That is, to make the players a key part of the story, with the real ability to affect changes and outcomes. Instead he turned the story into a farm-fest, putting emphasis on items and gear that only served as a means to keep people busy between paltry Live Events. The majority of the community is content to put up with this stuff because they desperately chant the mantra of "It's better than nothing." Yet in the same breath they will all agree that this is no longer the game they originally signed up for.

Though the fault is not on Rarebit completely. SOE bought the game from Monolith, then failed miserably to do anything with it. Month after month it was nothing but staff cuts. The game had real potential. It could have been the quintessential cyber-punk MMO, truly driven by player action, reaction and interaction. SOE was simply not willing to allocate the time and funds necessary to make a great game. Now with Rarebit gone, the dubious "development team" consists of maybe two QA reps and a Community Relations Manager.

Hopefully now this game will die completely and we can all stop kidding ourselves.