Even then, you have PLENTY of places to go without being "competitive". Stop trying so hard to act a victim when you still have plenty of options.
I think you're still missing the point by a fairly wide margin.
The problem is that without OT, many people feel as though they don't have a place to casually and comfortably socialize with their Skullheart friends. For example:
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Let's say Denizen and Zidiane are friends and they enjoy conversing with one another about their shared interests. It doesn't matter what the topic is, they just enjoy having a casual conversation. Let's now consider how some of these changes will be limiting their ability to socialize.
Any of the gameplay centric threads aren't going to be a place where they can relax or talk casually. They may cross paths and still enjoy the other person's presence, but they'll pretty much only be talking about SG, and they'll generally (though not too strictly) be expected to stay on topic and discuss game specifics.
The Lore/Canon/Art/Media threads are more open to free discussion, but they are also very limiting. They are restricted to SG related content, meaning that Denizen and Zidiane will only converse if they share the same SG related interests. And perhaps they do, but this still means their discussion is going to be limited to the topic at hand. The Non-Game Play Characters and Other Fighting Games section are just as limiting because they're tailored for very specific subjects.
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The point is, people don't have a place where they feel comfortable just chatting with one another, and sometimes that's all we want to do. I'm not going to go into Chicken's art thread just so I can share a funny picture with her, I'm not going to write in Sharpie's training diary unless I have some feedback to provide, I'm not going to pm people just to shoot the shit, I'm not going to move over to another forum to meet up with anyone, I'm not going to ask Denizen for his phone number so I can text him about my day. In reality, I'm simply going to stop casually talking to people. I'll still post combo vids, new tech, and my opinions on gameplay changes, but I'm less likely to socialize now because I don't feel like there's a comfortable place to do so.
The people here simply want the freedom to socialize with their friends in what has been, up until now, a very open and relatively inviting culture. They all like SG and will talk about SG which is why they are
here, but it's not why they
stay. They stay because they like talking to the other people here. If their speech is restricted too much, they'll simply stop talking. There's no reason why you or anyone else should want to get in the way of anyone's friendships.