OK they can shut down the final server or whatever that tracks stats now. Last night I completed my 2000xp for knife / spikes [pun!!] and have completed all achievements. I have never weighed into these discussions before due to superstitious fear that voicing my concern would 86 the final server and I’d never complete my accidental quest.
For the record, stats are not evil, its what you do with them that decides their “moral” or whatever status. If not for the ETQW achievement stats I would have played engineer from day one and never explored the other, as I have now found, fantastic classes.
Somewhere in my playing of ETQW I became obsessed with the idea of completing all achievements, thus I left the comfort of the engie class and ventured into unknown territory [pun!]. I have learned many tricks in the game on this journey and had many LOLs. To achieve my XP for destruction by explosives (not Objectives, the other one) I was airdropped into a Strogg base, avoided the auto turrets and HE charged the deployables (about 4xp each). It was totally silly and so much fun, and even some haxusations about how I was doing things, but it was all above board, although all LOL at the very least and often ROFL. Knife XP worried me, I though it would be a grind but it was the most fun and I often helped the final objective over the line by backstabbing a few pesky engineers mid defuse.
Love ETQW, and I have come to terms with the stats, may they rest in peace, but I maintain they are not evil… MOOKA!