Long time player, not a poster. Usually I read the boards for information only. But, I'm breaking that habbit because the game I have enjoyed off and on since about 6 months after CoH appeared on the shelves in stores. About 33 months total, not continious.
But, I've been playing games since I plugged in my TRS-80 CoCo at age 12 (it had 64K of memory TOTAL). Played online games since AOL's Neverwinter Nights (which didn't look much better than Wolfenstein 3D). But, I am in no way what you would term a POWER GAMER.
GETTING TO THE POINT...
The game has changed and NOT for the better. Before I talk about Issue 12 specifically, let me talk about the game in general, at the moment.
1. Farming, Bridging, and the rest of the people that aren't actually playing the game:
To me, the point was never to BE 50, but to GET TO 50. There's MORE than enough content now, especially with the police band/newspaper miss (and repeatable miss a few zones). There was enough content before too, if you turned up your difficulty. It's not the worst thing in the world to have to play through a miss more than once because you got beat down by the boss soloing thru a tough miss (or on a team). Sure, debt can be frustrating but that's where intelligence and tactics come into play.
But some would rather use their 50's to PL their alt's. I will kick you from my team, or leave the team that does that. PL a LIVE FRIEND IS DIFFERENT! I've PL'd friend's toons often. That's the great thing about the sidekick/lackey system. You can always play with your friends if you want too.
The WORST tho, has to be BRIDGING. Let me get this straight... you want me to just stand here and wait, not playing the game, so your alt-bot can gain xp. You want me to take the money I spent on the PC, the game itself, and the monthly fee, and basically set fire to it, wasting it completely. Sure, some of it may be the PLing 'sweatshops' that have cropped up where you PAY someone else to PL your toon, but it can't all be that simple. If you have multiple accounts on multiple computers that you try to run at the same time, you might need to get a life, or maybe just get another game to play every once and awhile. Or maybe find a job that uses those multi-tasking skills. I did. Don't ask me to bridge. On a good day I will just /ignore you. On a bad day you will wish you never sent the tell in the first place.
So, play the game! And no more BS about "I can't find a team!" MAKE ONE. Take some initiative. Can only find three near you level? Guess what, that means you can have a team of 6 in no time! Lot's of people are willing to LK/SK up at a moments notice! I've taken lots of players to zones they hadn't seen yet because they weren't high enough level to go there. Can't find a healer? Total BS... find a lower level one and SK/LK them. Still can't? then stock up on dominators or controllers of whatever type. It can't take you down if it's mezz'd, held, blind, or whatever.
Last thing before I get to issue 12... SPAM. When did this happen? When did it become ok for the INF peddlers to send IM's and EMAILS? I've been sick of this for far too long. YES, NCSoft tried to address it recently. YES, they created a way report this type of crap... AFTER it became such a HUGE issue. Too little too late, because the engine is turning now and they can't seem to stop it. IN GAME ADVERTISING IS ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE. Just wait till Pepsi or General Mills wants to put real money in it... then this pathetic annoying spam will be the LEAST of it. Ad Agencies are already seeing the decline in effectiveness of traditional forms of advertising, like TV, Radio and Magazines. NCSoft can't stop the little annoying stuff now, and when someone throws real money down ( like PepsiCo or General Mills or Ford ) it's all going to ruin our little escapism in our little games. Then we will be searching for the INDIE games not flooded with ads.
ISSUE 12
Powerset Proliferation: Really? mostly one Primary and One Secondary (brute the exception) and that's proliferation? Not even close. I was expecting alot more choices across the board. Widening the choices would have completely changed the balance of the game, but it also would have REINVENTED THE GAME. My third generation AoE blaster I love so much would no longer be the powerhouse he once was, compared to other possibilities of powerset combinations! I have a better idea... let us pick more than one Primary and more than one Secondary, mixing powers! (UNBALANCED the room cries! No! Unfair!) Oh please... It would be like having to learn the game all over again. REINVENTING IT, which is what you have to do to stay fresh and ahead of the curve and the competition. That's a rule of business in a capitalist market economy. It applies to entertainment, just as much as it applies to restaurants (how many new restaurants have you seen in the last year?) or Ad Agencies or Car Dealers (seen any fail recently?). Besides that, some 'superheros' are just more powerful than others... how about finding creative ways to play instead of "WAHH WAHH you NERFED ME!" I made and lost level 30 in Evercrack 1 with my Wizard more than a dozen times in the first year EQ was online. It was a broken class, that took creative ways to play, but it was still fun. It wasn't until later that SonyOnlineEntertainment ruined the game.
Character Creation Numbers: I like it, but it defeats the purpose of a learning curve. Good and bad points here. For the experienced player, yeah I can see it. I might make it a vet reward. There's more than enough guides out there for every type of toon. Go read a few. This almost feels like cheating, if I know at lvl 1 what my base damage modifier will be at lvl 30, 40, or more.
Zone Rebuild: THANK YOU! (I hate the Hollows. I've avoided it as much as possible for a long time. I might try playing through it again now.) That's all I have to say about that.
Mission Changes: THANK YOU! I can drop missions that are old easily and without much penalty, if any at all. Great for after a night with an awesome team that got me more than a level!
That's it. I'm done with this post. I hope I offended the spammers, bridgers, and farmers. I hope I made you think about what will change in gaming over the next 5 years. And, I hope I made a developer think about the casual/average gamer instead of the power gamers that spend as much time playing as some people do working at their full time jobs. Creative content, original ideas, and reinventing the game to revitalize your current base as well as draw new players in... very tough goals. But, worth attempting to achieve, even if sometimes you fall on your face.
To all the haters out there... NOW GO AHEAD AND FLAME ME!
There's a big chance I will never read your post anyway.
