@PLGuy - Thanks for presenting these well thought out arguments. It's also pretty cool that you got in touch with Hero Interactive. It's clear that you care a lot about this (as do the rest of you) so let me give your points the consideration they deserve. N.B. I don't speak for the admin team, who would have the final say on this matter. But I think I have a pretty good feel for what they might say. I wouldn't expect them to respond here because the issue was already addressed by RavePenguin. But maybe together we can understand the whole situation. Sorry if this ends up being a rather long post (which it probably will).
1) It is the only game with quests that's not working so far. (I know the situation with Adobe and Flash Player)
That's a good point. But it's important to keep in mind that these are *not* the only quests that are unachievable. Let's imagine that you've managed to complete the 1,000+ other quests--every single one that you can complete. All that's left are the 2 quests from BT3. You might think that you would just be a few points behind our top leaderboard position. But in fact, you would be hundreds of points behind.
This is because there are legacy quests that were given out when AG moved to the whole quests system. Several years ago (I can't remember how long ago), you would earn ranks, much like you do today (from Serf to King). These ranks were pretty much based off how many forum posts and comments you had made (I think merits counted, too). AG then got rid of the ranks. But to reward those players who have been around for a long time, they gave out quests to people based on the rank they had. If you were a King/Queen, for example, you would get the 'King' quest--plus all the other quests for the ranks below King. And there were a *ton* of these ranks. For each one (say, Knight), you would have a Wood, Silver and Gold version before you got to the next title. Those who had a King title would have 18 quests--ranging from easy to hard--that are no longer possible to achieve.
2) It is the only solution that I can think of that could be called fair by everyone involved.
I feel like the people who have earned the quest--only to have it taken away--would call this move unfair. But I see your point: sometimes a few people have to endure some harm to level the playing field for everyone. This, I take it, is what is at the heart of the issue here. The playing field simply isn't level. It is not possible for anyone who hasn't already earned the BT3 quests to reach first place.
This ties into my earlier point about the so-called 'legacy quests'. It seems to me that the legacy quests make the playing field much more uneven than these BT3 quests. But what's the reasonable solution here? AG wanted to reward those users who have been around and have supported the site through the years. And if you think about it, those ranks--which were based on site activity--do reward users who have helped to keep this site active, fun and engaging.
I totally get that it's kind of depressing to think that there's no possible way to reach 1st place. (EDIT: this point, it turns out, is wrong. Please see the edit at the end of this post for an explanation. This makes most of what I'm saying here entirely irrelevant.) But this is a very complex argument. People were understandably upset when AG got rid of ranks. Adding these legacy quests helped ease that blow. And we can use this same kind of reasoning with the BT3 quests. It's a game that has been around for years, and those players with the quests helped to keep it going. I have the intuition that many people who are upset would not have even heard of the game had it not been for the announcement that it was being removed.
So now this is a question of who deserves what. Do the people who have earned the quest deserve to keep it? What about the people with the legacy quests? Should they be removed too?
Personally, I would prefer a level playing field--no quests that are unachievable. I would support removing the BT3 quests and the legacy quests. But I would never push this position because (a) it's not even remotely my call to make, and (b) I genuinely don't care about quests. But a lot of people do, and it would be wrong of me to try to push my position on them.
3) According to an e-mail I received Hero Interactive would be glad that the game is still played against all these adversities. And the possibility to earn from now on allegedly impossible quests would encourage some players (I'm sure that the number would not be extremely high).
I'm sure that HI would be happy people are playing their game. That's what a game developer wants, after all. But this isn't really relevant to the argument over whether the quests should be removed or not. I would, however, like to bring your attention to something important that Eric said: "... [U]nfortunately, a time is quickly approaching where [our games] won't be playable anywhere on the web."
This has to do (as Eric pointed out) with how Flash players interact with the Hero Interactive servers. I can't even pretend to understand the details here, but the implication is clear: we may well reach a point in the near future in which all of the HI games have to be removed because of server issues. HI currently has 31 games on AG and at least a few of them have quests. This seems like an issue AG will likely need to address when the time comes.
But let's take a step back for a moment and look at the whole picture. There is currently no one who is being harmed by the BT3 quests not being achievable. A quick look at the leaderboard confirms this. In other words, no one (at least, no one that I can see) is missing out on making it to the top spots on the leaderboard simply because these quests are no longer available. Without any actual harm, this issue is simply not going to be a priority for the admin staff. They're currently working very hard to roll out the full version of the new profiles, fix other bugs, solve current user issues and do whatever else is involved in running a Flash game website.
The admins are not idiots, nor are they heartless. I'm sure they fully understand why people would be upset about this issue. And I'm sure they considered the blowback from this and at least considered removing the quests. It may well still be an option that's on the table. But as it stands, this issue is such a low priority that it's not currently worth their time to fix (for the reasons given above).
Finally, this issue of workload speaks to your suggestion about recording gameplay in order to award quests. Simply put, no one has the time to review this footage and award the relevant quests. It might also be the case that, because these quests are automatically awarded, there might not be a mechanism in place for manually awarding an in-game quest (I honestly don't know; this could be entirely incorrect). But given the picture as a whole (again, as described above) it's just not worth the time investment to review gameplay footage in order to manually award two quests. And keep in mind that, in the background of all this, are the other (at least) 18 quests (the legacy quests) that are also no longer achievable.
This very small issue ends up becoming a rather complex one that would include other unachievable quests. That's a conversation that the administration team has already had and decided on long ago. And like before, I'm not here to support or even defend their position--only to try to help explain it as best I can.
EDIT: I just realised that it is, in fact, possible to reach 1st place on the leaderboard without getting every quest. (Sorry for the confusion. I don't pay attention to the points system or how they're earned because, as I mentioned, I don't care.) This makes the above considerations about a level playing field completely irrelevant. The only reason I saw in favour of removing these quests was the whole 'level playing field' argument. Since this argument doesn't work, I no longer see a good reason for removing the BT3 quests or the legacy quests.
In short, the admins' decision makes complete sense to me. There is no longer an issue of fairness or what is/isn't deserved since it's entirely possible to reach 1st place on the leaderboard without these quests. Points are awarded from quests, yes, but also from site activity. For example, Gantic has 2 fewer quests than ivan (who's in 2nd) but has 820 more points. Since your position is determined by points, rather than quests, my considerations in favour of getting rid of unachievable quests is rendered completely useless.
