Da_Frois_Man

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Given that any character I start comes with about four vet respecs, its not personally useful for me, and charging $10 seems a bit steep for something you can earn for free in the game three times per character, get awarded for free, or buy on the market.

Worst Case Scenario: No more free respecs when wide-sweeping game changes are made.

I kind of doubt they'd do something that lame, but I suppose its an issue that should be raised.

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This would be my concern as well. Sweeping game changes, a run on the market for respec recipes, having an old toon that already used the 3 free in-game respecs, and no more vet respecs left. That would force you to buy one if the changes made the toon difficult/unenjoyable to play. Not a common scenario, but a possible one. I would like to see the PFMEA on this process.

What you are failing to distinguish here is that City of Heroes is a business. You are actually defending the ownership as if they were a bunch of good guys doing something for our benefit, without any compensation. Your rhetoric is nothing shy of "fan-boi support". They are selling a product, and customer service is an important part of any successful business.

If I buy a burger at McDonald's, and it is incorrect, or lacking something that I expect to be there, I have a legitimate gripe with the company. I do not expect the person behind me to tell me that I just don't appreciate the effort that WAS put into it and I should just live with what I got, and I do not expect many others to feel differently. I am paying for something, and I should get what I pay for, within reason.

An economy was created by the developers. In-game at first, but is now being exploited by others with no affiliation to the CoH staff. Real money is being traded as part of an in-game mechanism. I cannot believe that there is not some sort of legal action that can be taken, because in essense, the spammers are making money off of selling intellectual property. It is akin to the music industries issues with digital downloading.

What's more, is that the non-action against in-game spamming is just another of the many issues the game has. There is outdated content that is not updated, nor eliminated, that is popular enough to warrant action, like the eden trial and the sewer trial. There are multiple bugs in the animations of certain powers that affects game play, like the radiation/storm debuffs and the like. What seems to be most important to the development team is creating new content, and not addressing long standing playability issues. A saying that is common in the circles I play within is "Costumes are the opiate of the masses". Distract us from current issues rather than address them.

Do not degrade this into a flame war. I have a valid opinion, and one that I am sure is shared by many. This is an open discussion about the issue, and my only forum for letting the staff know how I feel.

What I don't understand is why the burden of policing the spammers, both sending tells and emails, is the burden of the paying customer. If this was truly viewed as a burden by ownership, an action planned would have been formulated, implemented, and working presently. What I suspect is that the the financial aspect of creating that sort of plan is greater than the loss of membership due to the inconvenience. If the in game spammers actually affected the bottom line of CoH, then your head would spin at how fast this would happen. This "wait until it's convenient for us to fix it" approach is an all too common of a way that problems are approached. If the developers wanted to show the respect and appreciation for their customers, this would have been immediately addressed. The lip service it has recieved so far is a far cry from the answer, and nothing will be done until financial jeopardy is attributed toward it.