Blade

So, as it turns out, you can now pay and we still don't know substantially more about what GR contains. Oh well. Hope it ends up being worthy of your expectations, those of you who spend your money.

(now the same people arguing they would reveal all before letting you pay for it will, I presume, turn around and say how it doesn't matter, everyone does it, etc.)

I agree. At this moment I have absolutely no intention of buying GR until and unless there is some actual clear information on what's in it.

Preordering at this point is like preordering a goody pack based on "It'll have cool ninja stuff and a power!" When they go up for purchase, they detail precisely what's in them. Why is GR not doing the same?

I've been very disappointed with the GR development cycle. The page for it was put up ages ago, with absolutely no further information posted on it until recently, which basically added a bio of a guy that's already in the game, and then nothing again. That's terrible marketing.

What do we know? We know it has new starting zones that allow you to pick your side as you go until you're set at level 20, which means very little. There could be two contacts there and it'll get boring as quickly as Mercy Island. Or it could be dozens and be an entirely new game. Or anywhere in between.

We know there's a mechanic for side-switching. Since it's a two-stage process you can assume there's more than one arc for each side. So is that it? Two arcs or trials for each side? Same process for everybody? Does it change you in any way?

We know there's two new power sets, one of which will only ever be used on one AT. That's nice, but limited.

There will be a Praetorian enemy faction, at least from 1-20 and in end game content, and maybe a Resistance faction despite them not seeming like an organised military force.

And finally, we can presume there will be new endgame content and probably a co-op task force, because that's the usual thing now. Ultra Mode was once a feature, but now isn't, which is nice and all, but further removes features from GR.

And for all we know, that's IT. A couple arcs from 1-20 which will quickly become as tedious as the rest of the early game content (and which, in any case, you'll be very quickly finished with), two power sets, one new enemy group, side-switching and a co-op task force.

I would like to compare this to City of Villains - which, yes, before people point this out, I know was released as a full game rather than just an expansion. But most people are going to see GR as basically the equivalent of CoV, it's being marketed similarly, and it is priced similarly. What did CoV have at launch?

- An entirely new game world with expansive content from 1-40 and 40-50 content promised later. This included not only new zones and dozens of contacts, but many entirely new enemy groups, from Arachnos and Longbow all the way to Gold Brickers, Scrapyarders and the Legacy Chain.

- The entire supergroup base system, along with, at the time, the promise of Items of Power to boost entire SG's prowess, and raids to capture them from your foes.

- Five entire new ATs with their own power sets, many of which were unique to COV.

- Repeatable content in the form of Newpaper missions that also allowed you to get new contacts.

As well, for all subscribers this included a massive graphical update to the game (sound familiar?), a massive overhaul of how the game worked with the ED system, the AI was changed to prevent unlimited amounts of aggro-grabbing, the debt cap was lowered, a PVP system with three zones and special rewards was initiated for everyone, stores were changed to sell all types of enhancements, the UI was improved, and there were other minor features like Arena gladiators.

Going Rogue is priced like City of Villains and has been marketed like City of Villains was - a whole new game experience. But in revealed content, it is about equivalent to any one goodie pack and a decent free issue combined. It is not even remotely similar in amount of new content to the release of COV, despite how long it was in development and how many people have been hired on to the team. I'm normally very supportive of the dev team, and not a frequent hater by any means, but GR's marketing has turned me from enthusiastic to the brink of totally disinterested. What's there that makes this so special? Side-switching's a neat idea, but taking a Mastermind to Steel Canyon or a Controller to Cap au Diable doesn't make the whole game fresh again.

Now, it could be that that's really all GR has for whatever reason, and they haven't revealed more because there's really nothing to reveal, and saying "New zones and 1-20 content where you determine your own alignment!" sounds a lot better than "Basically, you pick between an evil track and a good track for a couple storyarcs and then at the end you make a choice that makes you a hero or villain, then you're kicked out into the same old game". I'd love to be wrong on this. I would love for the early game to be as varied and interesting as the 35+ game is. But as long as this isn't said, I'm forced to assume that we are not getting anything better than what we've been vaguely promised, because why wouldn't they tell us so if we were?

It may be that GR has lots of content yet to be revealed. If so, why? They surely know what most of the content must be by now (and if they don't, that's probably worrisome). Hell, I doubt too many people would complain (some would, because it's the way of the world and especially these forums) if a list of features was given with a caveat that some things might only be added to Praetoria in the issue following GR (provided they actually are added and don't turn out like bases did).

If it doesn't, that's fine too, and I expect them to spin up what I personally find a rather lacklustre set of goodies as shiny as they can - but I still expect, by the time they are asking for my money, for them to be as clear as possible about what my money is going towards. GR might be so awesome I'd happily preorder it, but as is, I can't imagine paying for it when I have no idea what it actually contains beyond side-switching and two powersets.

Winter Lord and his entourage needs to be prevented from spawn-camping the hospital, amusing as it is to respawn, drop dead, and respawn exactly where you were.

He's also very tough by GM standards which is going to be an issue for low-pop servers. Maybe he can con at different strengths depending on how many people are in the zone? That's probably tricky, but really, trying to do him on, say, redside Protector will be near impossible.

The fact he keeps spawning those Northern Lights is a team-killer, but one you'll probably only fall to once, so that's okay.

Toxic_Shia for me. A lot of great art, but I liked the humour aspect of this the best.