Tango Strike.

The speed issue is also interesting to me. I found UT99 slow because I came from playing quakeworld. I never found quake too fast. Just other games to slow.

What game did everyone play first? I'm curious.

The funny thing is when quake was released in 1996 everyone complained about it being too slow.

If a developer seems threatened by negative feedback that is always a warning sign to me and will certainly put me off trying out their game, far more than the negative feedback by itself (everyone has critics). Even if you suspect that someone has other motives like jealousy etc and is deliberately out to sabotage you, it's better not to confront them. Trolls will just find counter attacks encouraging, and to a neutral observer it may just look like you are being paranoid and defensive.

Like others have said XNA would be a waste of time (I think), and with opengl you can target PC/mac/linux/mobile etc. Zeboyd's sales on steam (for instance) slaughtered their sales on XBOX indie games:

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/11/23/cthulhu-saves-the-world-bundle-drives-100k-insane-on-steam/