Unfortunately the attempt to "decrease the learning curve" leads to a less interesting game -- and quite frankly the challenge of ee as compared to literally every other game out there is why I'm still around.

Yes, a small% of total visitors will log in every day for the first week, and an even smaller % of those people will become decently productive members of the community.. because that reflects the small% of people in the real world who are looking for a game that is actually challenging to learn.

Most people in the US will not stick with something where you cannot do it on your own. So all assumptions that "facebook" [the ultimate in immediate gratification] will somehow increase the playerbase for ee who actually sticks around seems entirely off base.