Well, now you and I have two definitions of noobs. Mind you, the forum folk are only a percentage of the premium players. There are many premium players. Many don't show their faces on the forums. Even noobs (newer unexperienced players) buy premium.
Plus, without noobs, how do you get your first village ;-)
It's like saying the world should be rich and we should do away with all of the middle class and poor. Let me tell you, that wouldn't be ethical, nor logical.
Or...perhaps it is like saying, "Let them work for it just like all of the rest of us had to do". This isn't, as EQG brought up, a "welfare system". It's a game. A war game at that, which already has handicaps in place for smaller members.
When it comes right down to it, it's one of the meanest, most conniving games I've come across to date. Is hard to get by with skill and game play alone...is also a game about manipulation, determination and hard luck, and everyone here long term has had to adjust to that or they fail. The players who continue to play here "appreciate" that style...and they continue to pay for a premium account monthly because they learn to recognize the benefit of having it. The players who do NOT appreciate that style are gonna leave anyway...60 days is not going to change their minds if they do not appreciate the game, as it is.
What TW is trying to do here, is
change the game. Obviously, that does not sit well with those who have appreciated it just as it has always been, a "WAR" game as opposed to a "welfare system". Those players who have paid for this game for a LONG time (over 2 years now myself) already deal with enough of the handicaps for new members or even just those starting into a world. Most of us don't bother with even 50% morale (and all of that is bad enough).
Harlos is also right, along with many of the others who have had their say here..."sheltering" noobie members teaches them only to be just that. If you want them to learn the game and continue to pay your premium? Then they must learn FIRST to get the hang of it, and that almost never goes well the first time around.
Getting your ass slammed time and time again is what works. Almost every "veteran" player here went through it, and they continue to pay to play this game.
*What nags me the most is that there has been a "very reasonable" solution given here time and time again, which continues to be ignored. Set up a world for new players to go if they so choose.
Besides, if you really didn't want a war game, then why do you call it that? I've never seen or heard of a "fair" war, and any I saw made to be I would regard as ignorant. -- "Wait, we killed 3 of their guys...is time to sit back and let them kill 3 of ours! We have to be FAIR."