BACKGROUND:

WildStar is an MMO designed by ex-WoW developers that was originally supposed to be like old school WoW but with a more colorful feel and humor. It got a lot of hype, had a big launch last year, but was lacking in content for casual players and fairly buggy. The developers Carbine have spent the last year getting the game stable and injecting a lot of casual content, which has highly improved the game, but the game population is still somewhat low and many in the wider game community consider WildStar a failure.

WildStar is a full subscription model like WoW - you buy the game and pay a monthly subscription fee. A lot of people are interested in picking up the game again with the improvements but think the subscription model is dead. They want to see the game go buy-to-play (B2P), where you buy the game but pay no monthly fee, or free-to-play (F2P), where the game is completely free, with maybe some customizations for sale. People in favor of the subscription model feel that those models open the gates for teenagers, who typically can't afford a monthly sub, to flood into the game and "ruin" it with trolling and negativity.

Posts about F2P/B2P in the subreddit were usually angry battlegrounds between the two factions, and most posts in the subreddit are generally downvoted to 0. People complain all the time about how toxic /r/WildStar is, and most of the moderators have stopped playing the game and left. The only active moderator still playing the game was /u/girlwithruinedteeth, aka Franbunny or Fran.

THE DRAMA:

Two days ago, Fran announced via mod sticky that she was tired of the toxicity and negativity and that any posts dedicated to whether WildStar should go F2P/B2P would be banned. She claimed it wasn't censorship but an attempt to cut down on "trolling." Some people are pleased. Some people are not pleased, and then a lot of the posts expressing their displeasure and accusing her of powertripping get removed by Fran.

However, someone points out that NCsoft, the game's distributor, is releasing 1Q 2015 results that same day, which will spark a lot of discussion about the game's future, so she rescinds the ban and says she was wrong. A few people wish she hadn't. The 1Q 2015 sales for WildStar are abysmal, which leads to lots of drama about whether NCsoft would shut down the game.

Even with the ban removed, a number of gaming news sites take notice, with articles going up on MassivelyOP and MMObomb.

This finally arouses the attention of the top mod /u/Lawlta, who no longer plays the game, and takes action by demodding Fran and all the other inactive mods and announcing applications for 5 new moderators. Lawlta claims Fran was added without mod input, but Fran claims that all the mods other than Lawlta added her. Regardless, Fran deletes her reddit account.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

A few dataminers figure out what WildStar is going to be for sale via Steam, which sparks more discussion and arguing about the subscription change.

In the background of this whole mess, a user purporting to be a Carbine employee, with "proof" provided via W2, starts posting "insider knowledge" that the game is going F2P in August. Both Fran and Lawlta, wary of his credentials, delete his posts, ask him not to post, and eventually start banning his accounts. Finally, one of his posts blows up while Lawlta is AFK and they decide to leave the post up "and let the community decide." Since Fran originally posted the W2 image, users try to decide if he was doxxed by her.

Lawlta goes to the admins to make sure the user is IP banned for evading bans.

The rest of the subreddit try to decide if they can trust the Carbine "employee". Is it Fran looking to screw with the subreddit for payback?

Regardless, the gaming press is all over it again (MassivelyOP, IGN, PCgamer).