Captain-Electric

/emote glares at Tenzhi.

Fixed that quote for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNg-dqkIHwU#t=1m33s

Ditto.

Don't count on it.

So which NPCs would you sleep with?

Black Pebble, is that statue a placeholder for what would have been a statue of Statesman?

Well said.

And NCSoft, on the small percentage chance that you're listening--don't think this ends here. Because if we can't protect our city, you can be damn well sure we'll avenge it.

As far as I'm concerned, NCSoft, your only claim to fame from here on out is that you are the worst giant monster that Paragon City, the Rogue Isles and Praetoria ever encountered. #AvengeCoH

Ha! Googling around just now, I discovered that he's the one who leaked the story bible content recently. It was a very old batch of files from when he was developing the pen-and-paper City of Heroes RPG. One forum poster in that link mentioned that those files are from before the existence of Galaxy City. Of course you probably already know this.

So, does anyone here know Jim Hague? The RPG writer. Not the sports writer.

Actually, the quote you're linking to is this, part of a post by some guy named Jim Hague on those forums:

Lars Butler is the CEO of Trion Worlds and Red Door is the name of their new publishing platform. "Had had" is probably a typo.

Of course, it's hardly worth debating a rumor held up by toothpicks in any case, and I do appreciate your link to that post. But the post does seem to imply that Trion was prepared to pay up to $80 million for the property. It may be misinformation by someone not in the know, and the poster doesn't tell us where the $80 million figure comes from (perhaps his own pancake). But again, the poster does seem to imply that Trion was prepared to plop $80 million on the table according to Trion's own CEO.

If you follow that thread along, only one person ever asks for clarification, and they got this response:

So the real question here is: who is this Jim Hague, and why should we be listening to him? There are lots of Jim Hagues on Google, by the way, and the most prominent one is a sports writer.

And if you Google around for talk of $80 million connected to Lars Butler, it doesn't seem to be easy to link that figure directly to anything he's said on the record.

If ya'll don't like solving mysteries, you'd best just go with Hit Streak on this. If you do like solving mysteries, well, good luck and report back.

Just want to assure RIFT fans that I didn't mean to say RIFT sucks--just that I'm making a grand assumption that it probably sucks compared to City of Heroes. Because, I mean, come on, we're talkin' about City of Heroes.

However, based on your recommendation, I went to RIFT's website and watched the trailer for their latest expansion and, well, watched it again. And again. And again. You know, I'm not into fantasy MMOs and it still blows my mind how cool and BIG that game looks. Or maybe it's because the last fantasy MMO I played was Ultima Online. Maybe I'll take a vacation in RIFT after November.

Also, I went to your website looking to see if you were making RIFT trailers and low and behold, found THE Earth Eternal trailer. Ha! You made the official trailer for that?! I was a beta tester and played the heck out of it. Was so sad when it didn't make the cut. It wasn't my type of game at all and was pretty simple for an MMO, but my goodness did it have charm and personality and a great upstart community and GREAT teaming. Was just refreshing to play. Man, I miss that game.

And no, I didn't consider it fantasy because, after all, it takes place in the future and my character was a robot.

Probably a good idea to follow the advice of the guy who knows.

Not totally unrelated: unless we hear some interesting leaks in the future, I'll always wonder if Gamers First made or thought about making an offer. Their F2P model for Fallen Earth is a lot like Paragon's and if you look at their stable, you'll see right off the bat that they are structured around smaller performing titles and underdogs. Fallen Earth was limping when they snagged it, and need I mention APB Reloaded? Gamer's First was the first publisher that snapped into my mind when I saw COH's closure announcement.

And pretty much totally unrelated: Petroglyph, the studio behind End of Nations, is the first studio I've boycotted without having a bone to pick with their publisher. Why, you ask? Because I was excited for Mytheon, a game they started working on for another publisher, and got almost to release in development. Be sure to click the "Full Review" tab at that link and weep for a game that deserves to be played (especially all you Guild Wars fans), and also scroll down and watch the gameplay. I followed Mytheon development for a year before being accepted into the closed beta test, and loved every moment of it, bugs and all. When Petroglyph got Trion's lucrative contract, they blew off development, missed every deadline, ignored their fans (even community representatives stopped posting), and had to be SUED by Mytheon's publisher to get all their assets from Petroglyph (who now had stars in their eyes and couldn't be bothered to cooperate willfully), who then had to try to scramble an in-house team together to finish the game in a half-way presentable state and maintain the community. An admirable task by the publisher who believed in the game--but one that failed without the time and talent needed.

The saddest part is that Petroglyph used to be Westwood Studios, the original developers of Earth and Beyond, my second-favorite MMO of all time, a solid studio whose fate under EA was just as heartbreaking to watch as Paragon's under NCSoft. But in Westwood's case, it's more heartbreaking to see what has become of them: successful, totally unethical, completely uncommitted to their fans.

Only if it was for the Greater Good, so justice could prevail.

Thanks Leandro, and Golden Girl for posting--heartbreaking, beautiful zone.

Leandro, I hope we can all visit this place one day, even if it takes a little help toward completion.

It's just a flesh wound!!!

Speak for yourself.

I've made two new characters since the announcement and I'm still having a blast playing the game.

Damn straight, they certainly aren't!

And a big nod on the sapping (Endurance drain).

"How can you possibly hope to defeat me, super villain, if you do not have any endurance left to draw from? Crime doesn't pay, evildoer. Shocked?"

That pretty much explains how I've beaten a TON of enemies twice my size (and worse), although in the worst cases it took some time, effort, and occasional retreating to rest a minute. I'm heavily enhanced for endurance draining, not on every power (gotta have damage in there somewhere), but I have some powers that are pretty much designed to do just that.

Once I hit that point where I've sapped the enemy though, I've usually got him in the bag if I just keep wailing on him--this is where I'm in his face, almost doing as much scrapping as blasting--only a tactic I use while solo usually. But it took a looooong time to get my namesake character to this level of proficiency.

The thing is, building a great electric character has been an investment. Even in my level 30s I was still feeling shortchanged by these powersets (electrical blast/electricity manipulation/--and now I have epic electrical mastery). And since he was my second-ever character in the game, made during my trial, there have been some lessons learned. But in the end, he is one of my most powerful characters, great for support and also more soloable than I would have ever imagined he could be. Also, procs are my friend, where I have been able to fit them in a way that makes sense for my character (which is perhaps the biggest challenge in building mechanically effective characters: when you're just as committed to conceptual concerns).

The following is a second-hand, first impression only, based on what I'm hearing from heroes who play both games (Champions Online isn't installed on my computer--also, no feedback from villains because they're locked out of Champions Online ). But the difference between us and the players over at CO seems to be that their community lays down and takes it. A lot. It really sounds like Cryptic has their community thoroughly whipped into submission.

I know that a lot of people from COH are going over to CO. Many already have, and many more are prepared to after November 30. Loyalty to City of Heroes stretches a long way, but even putting aside those who will boycott NCSoft, after City of Heroes is unavailable for play, it will be loyalty to the super hero genre that drives many of NCSoft's customers away to CO and even DCUO and Marvel Heroes Online. But it's worth pointing out, the community around City of Heroes would not be ignored, would not settle for less, and I guarantee you, we'd give any studio a public relations black eye who underestimated our expectations for quality. Paragon Studios could handle us because Paragon Studios WAS us, IS us; they were a tough team, they earned our respect, and they respected us for being a tough community. Massive outcries like the Hellions debacle never resulted in silence and locked threads from the dev team--to the contrary, we inspired our dev team, and in return, they inspired us.

To the contrary, Champions Online seems to be an afterthought for Cryptic. They're too busy spreading their precious resources over spaceships and dragons to care about the super hero genre, despite this being the best climate for it in the entertainment industry's entire history. I suspect that everyone on the old Cryptic team who loved the super hero genre is everyone who stayed behind to form Paragon Studios and work on City of Heroes. Maybe I'm wrong. I hope I am. If CO has the potential to grow and develop, then for the sake of its fans, I hope that it does.

Maybe the community and their development team is just uninspired. Well, if that's the case, then head's up, Cryptic: you might think an influx of refugees from City of Heroes will be a great thing for you, but think again. You're going to have to work harder than you've ever worked before to earn their respect. And you will work; because if you don't, these refugees will only do what's right--they'll drag your sorry butt over hot coals until you feel inspired to work, or until your game's reputation sinks even further.