Okay I know I have become more of a naysayer, but this referral thing basically says to me, this game is way way way away from release and we have spunked so much money already that even though we have $150m dollars we only have like $30 m left and we know you are all tapped dry waiting for actual progress which is still way off. Hence we desperately need more mugs to sign up. If they wanted to reward the streamers you tubers just do that separately, world of tanks gives people free tanks its just advertising no big deal and no outrage, this pseudo fake competition is just horseshit.
They of course cannot be honest because if people believed this game was not going to make it then why invest and they need that investment basically due to wasting money partly because they did not expect to get so much, i.e. they keep having to redo things the worst so far is star marine. This so blatant cash grab is starting to send out the message that they are desperate, none of the ships this year have done well and quite frankly with the defender its all their own fault. The fighter with a turret as its main weopon when turrets suck to the extent that the hornet has a replaceable turret! Even if they work its a two player fighter again a negative for running cost reasons. The prowler extremely expensive and you can buy a cutlass black for $110 supposedly with the same function.
What do I actually see people doing with referral thing is creating fake accounts and transferring the credits to their main account, this will in no way encourage people to cough up more. If they get free ships arguably they will spend less, after all how many can you use.
Bens comment was just saying we heard and we do not care. ("Monorail")