Personally I tend to see that more as corporate greed than anything else. Why should they cater to their long-term, loyal audience when they "know" they'll stick around? We saw that frequently with World of Warcraft, with all the promotions coming out to entice new players or bring back people who had left ages ago, while doing nothing new for their current players. Would it really hurt them that much to throw out a free week of game time here or there? A pet or toy or mount for loyal fans?
I will agree that I do see a lot of companies get too obsessed with metrics, though again I think that comes heavily from corporate culture, top-down as it were. We need Executives, CEOs, Presidents, and so on that are more willing to focus on making a valued product rather than milking as much money from people as possible... but good luck convincing them of that.Every time my bosses get too focused on metrics, I remind them that if we focus on the client first and foremost, all the supporting metrics will fall in line.
I think I would at least partially disagree with this myself, if only because I very much welcome the American ideal of a melting pot. You only have to look at American cuisine to see the benefits of taking things from other countries and cultures and integrating them into a greater whole.Focusing on creating something that people want to buy is still a better recipe for creating a strong company versus focusing on hiring folks based on their immutable characteristics on the chance that their lived experience produces a superior product that we hope someone will want.
- - - Updated - - -
You say it's "forcing", but it's not. Companies are choosing to do it themselves. That's not forcing, that's just a business decision. You can trace it back to them wanting to sell to, as I mentioned before, wider demographics. They're all just chasing $$$$.