AncientSpirit_NA

I don't remember any promises. But even if they did, and couldn't live up to it, this company has so EXCEEDED my expectations for this game that it is beyond belief. The idea that I have been kept interested in CoH for 5 years now is incredible to me. And they just don't let up with the new issues, new ideas and new goodies.

So, in my book, they can break a few promises along the way ... even "let me down" by implementing Dev's Choice selection differently than I would have liked ... but all in all, who cares? Delivering this much nonstop, always-evolving entertainment for just $15 a month means they've earned a few "Get Out of Jail FREE" cards, as far as I'm concerned.

[ QUOTE ]
Okay, so i15 is on our heels, and we have yet to have new dev choice in over a month.

I have a a couple arcs both are 4 star, one sitting at 999+ while the other is just over 100. I got the Master Builder badge. I'm not necessarily expecting a Dev Choice or Hall of Fame for my stuff, but I don't view my arcs to be as good as many others out there.

Sad thing is, of the bunch of Dev Choice content that I've played, I wasn't at all impressed. I've played quite a bit of AE content that were much better.

How often is Dev Choice content going to be selected? I'd rather not be in a "Dev’s Choice: For Your Consideration" thread, because it is then no longer 'Dev's Choice' but 'Players Choice' instead.

It would be nice to see this become more systematical. Something to the effect of "If an arc has X number of votes over Y average rating, the arc is quickly reviewed for exploits and sent to Hall of Fame."

[/ QUOTE ]

I feel your pain. Because when Mod 08 answered his own question: "So what do we consider when choosing between stories when deciding which should be selected for Dev’s choice?"

[ QUOTE ]
We found the arc thoroughly enjoyable to play.

We want to share that experience with others.

The arc found a balance between fun gameplay and a decent story.

There’s no apparent way to exploit the missions."

[/ QUOTE ]

-- he left off the first step, ie.

WE FOUND YOUR ARC ...
We found the arc thoroughly enjoyable to play.
We want to share that experience with others.
The arc found a balance between fun gameplay and a decent story.
There’s no apparent way to exploit the missions.

With thousands of arcs with 100+ players and 4 star ratings, its like looking for a needle in the MArcstack. A friend of mine mentioned the other day that one of the dev's played his arc and left comments. It's just the luck of the draw, I guess.

Although, I must admit, if I were a dev and saw an arc played 999+ times, I would check it out.

Good luck to you.

[ QUOTE ]
Must be nice to have that problem, now if I could just get ONE player to try my latest.

[/ QUOTE ]

In fairness, getting players to try your arc doesn't just happen. And I've been a publicity wh*re in so many ways it isn't funny, so keep advertising your arc and people will play it.

Sometimes just doing something silly - like when I created my toon "Dev's Choice" and declared my own arc a "Dev's Choice favorite" -- got several people to play it.

My advice, though: Try to keep the way you promote your arc consistent with what's IN your arc. My arc is a fun "anything goes" in Wonderland story - so the silliness fits in with the story. If you were doing a sci-fi story, maybe a Press Release from Starfleet Academy would be more fitting. (You get the idea.)

I think it also helps me that I don't have 3 arcs to promote. Just the one.

Another way to promote your arc (and you missed the opportunity here, but can still do it) is to piggy back on another thread.

For example, instead of ending your message - "now if I could just get ONE player to try my latest" - you could have (and still can) continue that thought with ... "I think people would like it because (insert UNIQUE reason here.)

That's one reason I like my arc so much (surprise, surprise!) In it - whether you like my little twisted fable or not -- you will see explosive devices used in a totally NEW (and fun) way!

Now, get out there and PROMOTE your arc!!!!

Hi F-N,

I've played two of your Arc's so far - Cutthroat Competition
and a Tooth For A Tooth -- and really enjoyed and recommend both.

What I especially liked in Tooth for a Tooth was the blending of history and fantasy, something I haven't seen before in other arcs. (No details or spoilers here - just a strong recommendation for people to go out and play this one!)

What I can say withouth revealing anything of the story, is that both of these arcs share one thing in common: Wonderful writing - which I always appreciate.

P.S. As per my recent post, please do not review my arc in return ... as I think the less said about my story the better. As you can probably tell from this post, in general, I fear that Review Threads are a Catch-22 at best:
1)They DO increase playership which is great ... but 2) they often give away too much of all the great twists and turns that make arcs like these fun to play.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
My problem is that when I took my level 8 scrapper into a DC arc, they started getting training enhancements again ... and I missed them from playing all the other MArcs.

[/ QUOTE ]

You realize you can buy Training Enhancements from the ticket vendors using tickets earned in non-DC arcs, right? You can get exactly what you want, instead of relying on random drops, and at +3 your level no less.

[/ QUOTE ]

Nope! Didn't realize that! I'm an idiot!

I am so used to saving merits and MA tickets for "super" rolls that it never ocurred to me to use them for training enhancements or even DOs for that matter.

Man, do I feel foolish.

It's not that I don't like the publicity, I do. And I appreciate the kind words. BUT ...

... beyond the silly poetry and custom mobs, the main thing that "Wicked, Wicked Wonderland" has going for it is its story and twist ending. Give that story and ending away and there's far less reason to play it. (I had no idea how detailed some of the reviews would be.)

So, even if I have responded to your threads about "You Play Mine, I'll Play Yours," please remove my name from your list of arcs to get around to. Thank you.

(BTW: Thank you to the reviewer who has already removed their review of my arc. Not sure if there are any others out there but wanted to nip this is the bud - especially since it is a problem of my own making.)

Well, I finally played a couple of Dev Choices. My problem with them ISN'T that I found the ones I played to be no better or no worse than some of the other MArcs I've played, and really enjoyed.

My problem is that when I took my level 8 scrapper into a DC arc, they started getting training enhancements again ... and I missed them from playing all the other MArcs.

What made this worse for me was that of both DC's I played, I faced the same mobs I've fought a million times before. In the others, I had custom mobs and new challenges to level up with.

Now, of course, there may be other DC's that are rich with custom mobs that I haven't played yet ... so one solution for me is just to find them and play them. Check.

But another solution might be for Dev's to allow toons under the SO level to get drops in MArcs. I know that there's a terrible farming problem in MA, so I understand why non-drops are necessary. But there's a part of me that thinks that no one is going to farm for Training Enhancements ... or even DOs for that matter.

So my question is, should Dev's reconsider how they implement their nodrop rules for MArcs?

Discuss.

[ QUOTE ]
Did you not read the press release at all? It SPECIFICALLY states that Villains can change sides and go to Paragon City and Heroes can fall and go to the Rogue Isles. It's plain as day in black and white.

I swear it's like people are just looking at the title of the expansion and then posting based on that without reading a thing.

[/ QUOTE ]

No need to get all emotional on me. I'm just saying that, from the press release that I read, there was a lack of details ... and the devil is always in the details.

Time will tell. And of course, this is one of those too-frequent moments in life when I do hope that I'm only being paranoid and that I'm completely wrong.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
What if Going Rogue is more like that; A new world, new dimension, whatever ... where you build a new toon and gain something other than influence or infamy ... and then choose your path. What if there is no red or blue door to go through to get to the other side? What if like in CoX, there are just new zones where you can use your new Rogue toons with Heroes and Villians?

[/ QUOTE ]
Existing characters will be able to side switch. That's the whole point of the expansion. If they were just going to add a 3rd side without allowing any crossovers, then crossing over would not be the entire focus of the hype.

[/ QUOTE ]

You're probably right, of course. But has any of the Dev postings made this specifically clear? Or am I right in noticing that there have been very few details given from official sources ... which makes everything we're saying speculation and little more?

[ QUOTE ]
There seems to be a fair amount of dissatisfaction with the ratings systems as it stands, in large part because it can be easily griefed. Zero-star ratings do an inordinate amount of damage and can instantly banish well-regarded arcs to statistical invisibility.

The first arc in my sig currently has 13 plays and is rated at 4 stars. Due to ticket awards and/or actually being on line, I know exactly how the ratings break down for this arc. It has:
<ul type="square">[*]9 5-star votes[*]2 4-star votes[*]1 Zero-star vote[*]1 abstention (no vote)[/list]Based on this information, I've come to the conclusion that most people really like it, but that I was griefed once. If players could see the distribution of votes, they could see what most people think about an arc and draw their own conclusions accordingly. The only thing this wouldn't address is being banished to page 214 by a zero-star vote, but at least if anyone found you again, they could see for themselves what probably happened.

For those of you who buy computer parts online, Newegg uses a similar system (X eggs out of 5, with a breakdown of votes), and it is easy to determine whether a three-egg part is REALLY a three-egg part, or if it's a 5-egg part whose overall rating was dragged down by a one or two dissatisfied people.

Thoughts?

[/ QUOTE ]

How do you figure how many of which you got?

I currently have a bit over 2,000 MA tickets from people playing my MArc. I have a 4 star overall rating and it says that 118 people have now played. Less than 35-40% of my players have left comments, though.

The only other information I have is that the "Master Builder" badge tells me that over 100 people have played and that I have average of at least 4.0.

But this is the second time that I've heard that its easy to determine what the individual votes have been based on this information ... but I haven't heard specifics, and would appreciate the formula.

Thanks.

[ QUOTE ]
Wow.... Well I'd suggest taking this to a gm or nc support, because that's really odd and not supposed to happen.

I wonder if your account got hit with some other person's info somehow... or ... I dunno! Don't count on keeping the badges/wings, but hey, score one for honesty.

[/ QUOTE ]

Noooooooo!!!!!!

As my old pappy used to say, "If a restaurant accidentally serves you a porterhouse steak eat as much as you can before they discover their mistake."

Spread those wings, baby, and FLY!

I joined an SG a couple of years ago on a server I rarely played on so that the SG leader could get together a critical mass of players to get the inital bonus.

I NEVER logged in. I never played on the server. Etc.

Then when checking back in, in like October of last year, I found that no one else had logged in for years! So I kept checking in after that and still no one showed up. And after awhile, because of the auto-demote thingie, I inheritied this SG.

There was just the original room. Nothing in it. But there was a good amount of prestige still in the SG from when the place must have been thriving. So after more months as de facto leader, I decided to use the SG as another one-man SG for all my alts on that server -- which I then started to create and play because i now had a place to store my "treasures."

While this case is more extreme (by far) from what you're describing, even though I emphathize with you, I can see where being away 5 months (150 days) could seem like SG abandonment to many people.

Especially as the leader of the SG, one could have left a Message of the Day, basically saying that something came up and you had to leave for awhile but that you intended to return.

I was once kicked out of an SG of my friends because my toon wasn't active and they wanted an active SG. They're still my friends. (They even had another SG for me to join for toons that WEREN'T going to be active.)

I just think players need to let other players know their expectations, their "rules" or guidelines, or even their extended abscences.

For example, I have made it a point to let my SG mates - and members of this forum -- know that I've been logging on to see how my MArc is doing, count-wise, but that I haven't been playing because of back problems I've developed. To me this is just common courtesy because there are so many MArcs that I want to play (theirs and those who have played mine) that I can't get to yet. But it would really seem RUDE (imho) just not to let anyone know ... and have them think that I'm some kind of dick who feels entitled to their support but doesn't care about supporting their efforts, as well.

At this point, I would just get over it and move on. Create your own new SG (prestige really does build up quick). For one month add a second account through a time card and fill your new SG with alts ... and you'll max out the bonus immediately. Then just play and have fun.

Or cancel your subscription if you can't get over it. There are so many things in this game that can one can get frustrated over if you let them. So if you just can't let go of them, they will just ruin your fun.

Either way you go, you'll be making the right decision for you.

A lot of what I'm reading suggests that our current Heros can become Villians and vice versa, and there's all kinds of comments about infulence vs. infamy, etc.

But what if that's not it at all.

When they introduced CoV, they created a new world. And later on they created special zones where Villians and Heroes could meet and play together but not share anything gained by the other side.

What if Going Rogue is more like that; A new world, new dimension, whatever ... where you build a new toon and gain something other than influence or infamy ... and then choose your path. What if there is no red or blue door to go through to get to the other side? What if like in CoX, there are just new zones where you can use your new Rogue toons with Heroes and Villians?

Seems to me that might be a lot more reasonable to expect than overhauling the current market/black market system. Or trying to convert influence to infamy and back. Or having Villians running the current streets of Atlas.

I'm just saying.

Or was there a post that explained/announced that the new Rogues pack would allow existing toons to cross over?

[ QUOTE ]
MA missions are fun, for many reasons:<ul type="square">[*]The variety of endless content[*]Unpredictability of custom mobs[*]Contact/story is ungated and available to any character, just pick from the list[*]The synopsis tells you (with the exception of AV/EBs) what you're doing ahead of time: Defeats, patrols, hostage rescue, etc.[*]The ability to tell your own stories[*]Sidekicking/Exemplaring teams of disparate levels[*]Buy the rare/uncommon salvage you need[/list]
So whoopeedoo, the farmers are (mostly) gone and the population in the MA buildings is less; cry doom. This is what I'm seeing:
<ul type="square">[*]Normal players are still playing MA, and in many cases have returned after being turned off and away by all the farming and farm spam. [*]I'm seeing people actually play my arc because they can find it. And people like it. [*]Farming is still going on to a much lesser degree. It's quieter, moved to private channels and SGs, but it's still there. The farmers just use smaller maps or reset... like in the regular game.[/list]
[/ QUOTE ]

I'm finding the same thing. Just a few days ago I had under a hundred players and was wondering if I would EVER get the 100-player badge. Then the "nerf" happened - and suddenly my count jumped up to 118. (My arc isn't a farm, so I was never going to get that traffic.)

But somehow with less MArc players, more are finding me. And feels great!

Still positive for me, too. Even if they eliminated tickets altogether, I would still have a new way to level a new toon without doing the same old missions and fight the same old mobs that I've played a billion times before.

And those toons only got training enhancements anyway.

The only thing that would kill MA for me is if they nerfed experience and prestige.

Hmmmm. I wonder how the yet to be released Expansion Pack - Going Rogue -- will affect your computing experience.

I have an old Dell desktop, XP operating system, with an old AT video card with drivers that haven't been updated for years ... but did add memory so that it has 4megs of ram. It now runs everything fine - except for the animations that are supposed to show when creating MArcs. So I have no idea how Rogues will affect me. (Yet a low end HP laptop with shared video memory that works fine with 2megs of ram.)

Isn't it horrible to have to buy something today that has to work with the changes coming tomorrow?

[ QUOTE ]
I have several characters in City of Heroes and Villains that I enjoy playing because of their stories. When Mission Architect was announced, I was excited because I could then specify which types of stories I want to play for my variety of characters. So here is a thread to help me navigate which arcs might be fun for my characters. I'll give you descriptions for my characters, then you post your arcs and tell me a little bit about them. If they appeal to me, I'll try them out, rate them, and send you a tell with a review or post it here.
For the 'Looking for', please not that not all of the listings are required, just at least one of them.

You can use this form:
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>Arc offered to which character?:
Arc Name:
Arc ID:
Faction:
Creator Global/Forum Name:
Level Range:
Soloable?:
Length:
Difficulty Level:
Synopsis:
Estimated Time to Play:
</pre><hr />

Silent Spy
'Natural' Martial Arts/Regeneration Scrapper
Silent Spy, or Jessica Thine, has a natural ability to manipulate the particles of her body in various ways to render her invisible, intangible, and even heal herself from injuries. At an early age, she showed potential to be a great hero and was taken by the Tsoo and trained to become their weapon, picking up a talent in martial arts. Having a natural good will, as an adult she betrayed the Tsoo and began to work with the government to redeem herself.
Looking for: Heroic or Neutral arcs, Tsoo, Government contacts, Any large or global threat

Ana Cruz
Natural Thugs/Traps Mastermind
Ana Cruz is a celebrity who is just famous for being famous. While much of her life is kept public, she keeps some aspects of her life kept extremely private - such as operating the Venezuelan drug and weapons smuggling cartel and the hundreds of murders and crimes that she and her posse had committed in disguise.
Looking for: Villainous or Neutral arcs, Arcs related to fame in any way, theft, identities being exposed, or smuggling. Any large or global threat.

Extrasensory
Magic Psionic Blast/Mental Manipulation Blaster
The life and history of Extrasensory, or Divya Sumeet, is a great mystery, even to her. At twenty two, she has no memories of her life before the age of nineteen. She only knows of her name and her great ability to have supreme mastery of the mind, capable of doing virtually anything. Some say she is a goddess, others claim she is a genie. Extrasensory has been trying to find out just what she is.
Looking for: Heroic or Neutral arcs, Arcs related to spiritual entities/deities/mythology, or magic. Any large or global threat

Glasgow
Natural Dual Blades/Ninjitsu Stalker
Glasgow is a serial killer who leaves his victims with a trademark sign: a glasgow smile, or a cut with his knives through the cheeks, forming a smile from ear to ear. Glasgow loves to kill and is absolutely insane. He has no moral judgment.
Looking for: Villainous arcs, Arcs that are truly villainous and dark and twisted.

Phantoma Storm
Magic Illusion Control/Storm Control Controller
Phantoma Storm, also known as Tabitha Matthews, has been in existence for over 300 years. In the late 1600s, she was correctly accused of being a witch and was hung. However, just before her death, she found a way to spare her life by immortalizing her body and soul through a curse. The curse allows her to die, but after each death she will resurrect with a new personality, switching between heroic, villainous and neutral. In her current life, she is of a neutral alignment, doing whatever she feels best benefits her or the world as a whole.
Looking for: Arcs related to Croatoa, Cabal, magic, witches. Any large or global threat

Edwin Schmidt
Technology Gravity Control/Kinetics Controller
Edwin Schmidt was born in the 1800s and has the ability to have supreme knowledge of anything technological, or the capability to invent anything. He created a pocket watch that functions as a space-time manipulator and traveled to the present-day, where he now resides. He uses the pocket watch to manipulate the space-time continuum to fight off the crime and also travels through time to make sure order is maintained in the time stream.
Looking for: Heroic or Neutral arcs. Arcs related to time travel or machines, technology. Arcs in other times. Any large or global threat.

Dr. Amy Byrd
Science Empathy/Archery Defender
Dr. Amy Byrd is a medical doctor from another planet. She is a doctor of a crew that was traveling the galaxy when they were stopped and captured by Rikti forces and brought aboard their ship, which later crashed in Paragon City. Dr. Amy Byrd was able to escape and has since been working in Paragon City to fight against the Rikti and other criminal groups in hopes to eventually be able to rescue the rest of her crew.
Looking for: Heroic or Neutral arcs. Arcs related to Rikti, space travel, scifi arcs, intergalactic war, other planets. Any large or global threat.

Angela Starr
Mutation Sonic/Sonic Defender
Angela Starr is a disco diva who lives her life like it is still the 1970s. She is a singer with a fair amount of fame and a voice that kills - literally. She has absolute control of her voice, capable of using it for speech, singing or as a mechanism for defense and offense.
Looking for: Heroic or Neutral arcs, Arcs related to the 1970s, fame, or music, Any large or global threat.

Yeah. I have a lot of characters.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think only one of your characters would really appreciate "Wicked, Wicked Wonderland" Arc #1224" -- and that would be Ana Cruz.

If Ana likes to rub shoulders with the rich and famous, she would run into Alice, The White Rabbit, TweedleDee and Tweedledum, The Queen of Hearts - and find a few secrets to expose along the way.

To a lesser extent ExtraSensory, might enjoy the magic involved in this arc ... and to an even lesser extent some of your other magic-based characters. (It's Wonderland magic, not hocus-pocus magic!)

It was created by me, AncientSpirit, and its designed for characters level 1-50, good or evil (or with a strong streak of both inside them.) It's got 3 missions to it - is listed as Medium in length - and takes a good 30-40 minutes to play. All the characters are custom made, and everything is clickable and good for at least a snide comment or two.

The thought of your MM's gang of thugs taking on the gangs of Wonderland (The "Not Playing with a Full Deck" gang, and "The Broken Hearts), IS amusing, though.

So, if you decide to go for it. Have fun -- and let me know what happened when your gangs met my gangs.

is the new SG leader active? How many days has he been offline?

What level have you been demoted to? Are you next in line? Or way down the line?

Are there other SG members who also stand between you and the SG leadership role?

More important, have you found new employment? This job market is one of the worst we've had in decades, so I hope you've either had - or are having - luck on that front. That's what's really important here.

(If not, "little" things like this can take on more importance. So don't sweat it.)

Good luck on all accounts.

It's not ruined for me, either.

I haven't been able to play MArcs since my back went out a couple of weeks ago. But I have been checking in to see how my own MArc has been faring, comments, etc.

And I realized that I have yet to claim the nearly 2,000 tickets that await me for the players who were kind enough to journey into my "Wicked, Wicked Wonderland." And that all the other ticket's I had earned by playing arcs previous to my back problems went directly into UNLOCKing all the unlockable content.

What's interesting to me is that you will now be able to sort out some real quality arcs just by some of the maps that are chosen. My own, for example, begins with a really, really small map ... because that's what the story calls for! If I were to change that, it wouldn't be the same story ... it would just be another farm.

Like everything else in CoX, MA will be "misused" for farms and loot, etc., by some ... and enjoyed for the diversity of content, challenge and custom mobs by others.

As long as your story is good, I don't care how small the maps are ... I will play it ... (unless they also take away experience and prestige earned, which I believe every toon has the right to.)

[ QUOTE ]
I read everything, and I wrote my MA arc for the same type of player.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ditto. (And very well said.)

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I must admit that I felt tricked by this post. It sounded like "lets take a scalding look at reviewers who have nasty cracks about everyone else but who do crap work themselves."

I liked that idea.

But it soon appeared that this was really a "why are people playing more of the arc of us tireless, helpful community reviewers."

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, I'd love to find that certain reviewers "have nasty cracks about everyone else but do crap work themselves." I enjoy schadenfreude as much as the next person -- probably more! But honestly I'm probably not mean enough to write anything really nasty about people whose arcs suck. I generally prefer to offer constructive criticism.

But I thought it would be a fun use of my time to see what sort of material the "critics" are themselves publishing. Especially the ones who are too stuffy to outright ask people to run their story arcs. I figure either the story arcs will be pretty good because they can actually write; or else they'll be dreadful and I can be amused at the hypocrisy. Either way, I have fun.

If you don't like that, that's fine. It's MY time that I'm spending though.

[/ QUOTE ]

As I said in the part of my post that you didn't quote, I don't mind the scam at all - I'm actually quite fond of them.

And I applaud the way you spend your time. I guess the only reason I'm responding at all is because of the last line in your post where you stress if I don't like it, fine, because its YOUR time to waste.

This is true, but in fairness to me your last "rule" WAS #7:

[ QUOTE ]
7. Other people who want to join in the fun by reviewing the reviewers are welcome to do so!

[/ QUOTE ]

So a reasonable person could see this as a kind of "Joing my bandwagon" approach. Again, nothing wrong with that. Any scam that gets any arcs played more, rather than less, is A-OK in my book.

As for "Who Reviews The Reviewers?" -- you get

* 5 stars from me for a compelling thread headline;
*5 stars for expert "bait and switch" manipulation; and
*1 star for some of the names on your list, who have actually played my arc and left positive ratings and feedback for me.

I so wanted to hate all the reviewers you listed.

Instead of creating a threat of drive-by 1-star griefing, you've simply created another in a long line of here are some arcs that are worth trying for yourself.

Anyway, when I average the 5, 5, and 1 star that I award you on my own totally arbitrary judging system -- and since I am famously bad at math ... I hereby award your thread an overall rating of 5 stars.

[ QUOTE ]
It was suggested to me today that I actually change the description of stock mobs to add some explanation of what they're doing in that particular mission. I can see the logic behind adding a little extra flavor text, especially if that's that faction's only appearance in the arc and I have the space to spare, but it still feels strange to me.

Part of me thinks that all relevant information can and should be communicated via clues etc. And part of me still twitches a bit at any of the now-common touches that say "This Is An MA Arc" rather than the style I'm trying to emulate, which is an official Dev-written arc that just happens to be accessed through the AE building rather than a contact on the street. On the other other hand, I worry that some (most?) people coming to the MA because they're tired of those old missions won't like new content that looks the same, even if it actually isn't.

*sigh* Comments?

[/ QUOTE ]


When it comes to ratings, I think you extra points for taking the time to add these details - and they don't have to be much. In my arc, "Wicked, Wicked Wonderland" (#1224), for example, click on the Mad Hatter and all it says is, "This guy looks mad at everyone." Or click on Dweedledum and all it says is, "Dweededum, you see, looks just like Dweedledee." (or something like that.)

Give the amount of space we get, I don't think you can write up the entire history of your custom mobs, nor do I think in the heat of playing do people want a lot of copy to wade through. But I do think they enjoy being surprised or amused by finding the unexpected, imho.

[ QUOTE ]
WHO REVIEWS THE REVIEWERS?

It's becoming more and more prevalent. You pour your heart out and write your dream story arc in the Mission Architect. Then suddenly, and without warning (well except the fact that you asked them to), some high handed, judgemental critic runs through your story arc and skewers your innocent missions with incisive comments and critiques.

These so called reviewers have been running roughshod over the hapless authors of story arcs for too long. Nothing has been holding them accountable for their actions! NOTHING!

Well, NO MORE! ...


Motivated by these passive-aggressive comments, I now throw down the gauntlet: I will challenge the other reviewers on this forum by forcing my unsolicited reviews upon them!

[/ QUOTE ]


I must admit that I felt tricked by this post. It sounded like "lets take a scalding look at reviewers who have nasty cracks about everyone else but who do crap work themselves."

I liked that idea.

But it soon appeared that this was really a "why are people playing more of the arc of us tireless, helpful community reviewers."

Make no mistake. I don't fault ANYONE for trying to trick - I mean, convince - people to take a look at their work. After all, I named a toon of mine "Dev's Choice" just so I could announce that my arc "Wicked, Wicked Wonderland" (#1224) is now a Dev's Choice Favorite.

However, I must tell you that IMHO there is a flaw in your othewise approach: Why would people who leave feedback (and that's what I love, and expect others do to) want to leave their global to a bunch of reviewers who pride themselves on being "tough" critics.

I haven't been able to play for awhile due to a back back, but when I did -- and when I return to play arcs -- my own rules have been simple. If I enjoy your arc, I will give it the hightest possible rating. It doesn't have to be perfect. Just enjoyable. Because few things in life are perfect.

And if I think your arc sucks the big one, I won't low ball you either; I just won't leave a rating. And unless you tell me in advance that you're still in testing format, and want comments for that reason, the only comments I leave will be positive ... because half of the bad comments I see posted on these forums say more about the poster than the story's author.

(I especially liked the comment on mine that challenged my contact, one "Professor Caroll Lewis". That person thought that Caroll Lewis added nothign to the story of "Wicked, Wicked Wonderland.")

While I do keep a list of all players who contact me, and put them in a queque for playing later (and star those that specifically ask me to) ... I have never promised a "I'll play yours if you play mine" style deal ... especially since they're all predicated on, "Oh, and you have to play mine first."

If I have you wrong, I apologize in advance. But by the looks of those who have responded to your post so far, I'm not sure I do have you wrong.

It's funny. Because I've tried many many different ways to entire people to try my arc ... but never the "high-handed, judgemental" reviewers (your words, not mine) that you single out.

I actually don't want ANYONE to review my arc that expects more than 30 minutes of free fun for all the effort I put into my work. If I accomplish that, I'm happy.

But I don't think some reviewers think having fun is "enough". And for those reviewers, I say, "enough is enough." Go play and report on your own arcs - preferably to one another!

Not only do I click on all custom mobs to see if the author took the time, trouble and attention to detail to make the best possible arc ... I also have created a Tab for NPC dialogue that I use for MA missions so that I don't miss a beat the author wanted me to see.

This added tab makes the BEST arcs (imho) EVEN MORE enjoyable because I get to enjoy each nuance of the story ... helps add to the fun of just basic GOOD arcs, where the dialogue etc helps with the ambiance but doesn't actually advance the story ... and clues me into POOR arcs (again, imho) that don't use anything but the contact information to set the tone, background and thrust of their story.

[ QUOTE ]
Honestly, I'd like to see a single pistol blaster; I just see a character holding and properly bracing 1 pistol as a whole lot more dangerous and skilled than someone wildly firing 2 pistols.

I would treat that set a lot like the Malta Gunslingers; different ammo types that have different effects, and perhaps a silencer to give you a special attack that doesn't generate aggro.

[/ QUOTE ]

I must admit that I really like your suggestion. So much so, that for one of my toons who is a secret agent (Martial Artist), I always make sure he has a temp revolver power, which actually sucks -- but looks quite cool.