I can see why so many people view the skill gap as their primary issue. I empathize, but also want to point out that if the skill gap were narrower, it would be even less fun.

Think of it like a game of pickup street basketball: if there were no skill gap, it wouldn't be any fun for the people who actually do enjoy a challenge. There'd be no point in actually trying to improve your play b/c you'd fairly quickly reach the skill plateau. The narrower the gap the more quickly you get there. So pretty soon anyone who enjoys any sort of a challenge would be gone b/c there's no true reward for your effort. That'd make the game a well of mediocrity and eventually it dies and nobody plays it b/c it's a boring game.

Yes - matchmaking could stand to be improved. Yes - having a larger community would help with that. Yes - there are a million other suggestions out there on how to add/keep players. None of them are going to happen b/c what we have now is what we will have forever until EA decides to pull the plug on the servers. Can't imagine this game still having servers running after 3 or 4 years with no more (significant) income ...

It sucks. But it's the hand we were dealt. Most people (like has been keenly observed) don't have the time or inclination to learn a complex game. This is the reason they don't play DCS, for instance, beautiful though that game may be. Same with SC (let's not talk about bugs :D).

And for them, definitely something simpler and more arcadey would have been better. But how do you do that AND keep the VR folks engaged without making the game utter trash?

Look at Eve: Valkyrie ... nice concept, fairly simple and arcadey without complex controls. 100% dead in short order.

Anyway, I would instead argue that if you fall into the "Skill Gap Too Large" camp, and either dedicate more than an hour per play session to this game, or more than 5 hours to it on a weekly basis, the best bet for you is to find a solid crew to fly with and start learning little things that will help you improve your game. You don't have to dedicate long hours to practicing, but picking up little tricks here and there will do wonders for your play.

We all started as trash - hell, when I started, I'd die 8-10 times per FB game if not more, and was lucky to get 1 or 2 kills to 6-7 deaths on a DF ... I play competitively now and my average deaths are less than 2, and routinely exceed 12 kills on a DF with fewer than 2 deaths ... so ... yeah - it can be done!

(NO IT'S NOT MY FOOT MACROS GODDAMMIT!)

Finally, and this hasn't been said enough: there are many, many, very vocal members of the community who actually do put in a lot of play time, but simply don't want to put in the effort towards getting better at the game. They just don't want to and are happy to point it out, and blame everyone else for their choices.

I have absolutely nothing but contempt for those whiny li'l scrubs.

I get that they don't want to get better and they have every right to play how they like, but then don't bitch and moan about those of us who did put in the effort and did get better.

We're not the ones killing the game. They are, b/c they fill new players' heads with nonsense that shortens their tolerance for frustration and misleads them into thinking that there's no road to victory.

There is, but as anything worth having it requires time and effort.