I'm not one of them, but, after what you've been putting people through, I think you guys need to sweeten the pot. Now, I'm not famous, but, I do make a living as an actor. What allows me to not work a 9-5 in between gigs is residuals. for those that don't know, if you have a speaking role in film/tv/commercial, you get paid not only for the days you worked, but, also whenever your episode gets played on TV, or if it's a film, on how many DVD's are sold(it's percentages that I won't get into here). What I propose for your lifers is a similar deal. offer them a small, symbolic, piece of the pie. a small piece of residual income from the game. not enough to affect your profits, but enough for lifers to feel invested in the game. the payoff would be enormous on several levels.

You would do something I've never heard of a gaming company doing, so, good PR; You would be throwing a bone to those people who trusted you enough to part with a large chunk of change, and have, so far, been disappointed(not all, but with all the QQ'ing going on, enough to make this statement); The lifers would, just because you treated them with this respect, in turn respect you by being the most helpful players to the playerbase anyone has ever seen. think of it: people already spend hours and hours crunching numbers, making guides, charts, etc based out of their love for ST, for free. Give them a feeling of ownership, and watch the community(and the sub numbers) grow and grow. Your income would increase exponentially, for just a small outlay back to your lifetime playerbase. that's much better than a del taco shuttle, I think. Please consider it.