Something tells me someone likes micromanaging all-things UO related.
At the very least, EA has some serious bureaucratic red tape hurdles it likes to whimsically use - like on the long-awaited 2min video that said nothing and started out extremely confusing (The "No" answer without any context whatsoever.).
Granted it is possible that the letters were assigned a high level of vetting as a result of those spontaneous remarks.
So your theory that EA proper was irrationally spooked by our rational reactions to those remarks is a valid one.
Valid, but I don't quite buy it.
Personally, my darker and more paranoid explanation is that EA takes no interest in nourishing UO along but does take an interest in controlling it and in controlling communication related to it. I have oft-discovered that in corporate structures there are many people who take no interest in certain projects save to exercise arbitrary control for no obvious reason.
BioWare executives have publicly stated that UO, Camelot, and Warhammer are all under their control and that they and they alone decide what happens with them. This happened around the time that BioWare was promoted to the same level as EA Sports and the other big divisions/groups.
They claimed that UO, Camelot, and Warhammer decisions are made by the BioWare executives. They even laughed in an interview at the notion that EA was controlling the Mythic MMOs, and said that in reality, BioWare is in charge. I'm talking the top 3-4 people who run BioWare.
There is not much bureaucracy between BioWare and the CEO of EA -
Frank Gibeau is literally the only person really between BioWare and the EA CEO, and I don't see him or the EA CEO spending time poring over UO communications, because Frank is not only responsible for BioWare (Star Wars), he's responsible for several of the biggest titles EA makes. UO would be way down his list.
Perhaps my best evidence for this was the state of the game video on which so much was pinned but months of EA vetting reduced it to an approximately 2-minute piece of nothing that used as its primary selling point some superb footage that was done not by them, but by Sosaria Reels.
I think that was at a time when they were schizophrenic about UO, Camelot, and Warhammer, and what they wanted to do with them. Since then, somebody seems to have decided on a path for all three games. Camelot is getting new user work done, UO graphics and dungeon revamps, Warhammer is getting an arena game, and BioWare was promoted to its own level.
If I had to pick between micro-management or lack of interest, I'd point to lack of interest. Whoever signs off on Jeff's letters probably doesn't really care and he/she is probably spending most of their time on Star Wars-related issues. They'll squeeze in a review of Jeff's letter when they get around to it.
If they were micro-managing, we would have had a legitimate official website long before now, because anybody truly concerned about the image of UO would have made that a priority.
