Gangrel_EU
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Posts
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Quote:I ask because the Paragon Wiki doesn't list the cost for the IO sets that you could purchase.Originally Posted by that_darn_lurker
I'll look that up, but in the mean time check this out:
http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/about_...gon_market.php
Interesting that the most expensive item on that list is "5 character slots" worth the equivalent of $20, while a the second most expensive item, a server transfer, was $10. I think I did pay for a server transfer once, but I think it was a 50% discount at the time (or maybe I had one saved up as a subscriber reward, I can't remember, but there's no way I would have paid $10 for a server transfer).
at 1600 points though, there were 5 Character slots, Enhancement Increase (per *row*), 5 Mission Architect slots.
The Who Will Die complete collection was 2400 points ($30), and 90 Enhancement Boosters were 1800 points ($22.50), although if you bought the Boosters in smaller packs it *could* cost $45 for the same number... -
Quote:Just wondering but how expensive were the account bound IO's to purchase as a set in Coty of Heroes?Originally Posted by that_darn_lurker
Here's my theory on how all this relates to COH (in my best Matlock voice): Nexon/NCSoft realized COH itemization was too convoluted for the type of cash shop Nexon likes to operate. And besides, what are the most valuable items that ever go up for sale: Luck of the Gambler, new power sets, new story arcs? Are they worth $60 to $120? No way. The only thing worth that much in COH is a new expansion, like Going Rogue, but that is expensive content to make compared to some uber powerful gear that just requires a few art assets and data points.
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Quote:The former Nexon Guy was hired before the launch of Guild Wars 2 and before Nexon bought into Ncsoft.Originally Posted by that_darn_lurker
Is anyone paying attention to that? It seems they are trying to turn that game into a gear grinder, and setting the stage for a Nexon-style cash shop. Also, they hired a new cash shop manager that used to work for Nexon, and was somewhat famous for revamping Maple Story's cash shop.
Go check out things over on their forums if you get bored. Its another clue as to why COH was shut down, as to the "new direction" NCSoft is going into.
In terms of "Nexon style" cash shop? Are you meaning here that you will have to *buy* the weapons or something unrelated?
To be fair, I have yet to do any of the dungeons in GW2, and I have yet to complete exploring the map. I have however hit level 80, and gone beyond that quite a few times over (You don't actually stop levelling in Guild wars 2, you still get experiance, and when you "ding" again, you get another skill point).
I have yet to use any boosters or potions to "improve my game", nor have I bought anything from the Store. I have yet to feel "forced" into buying from the store.
- Dyes*
- Black Lion Chest keys*
- Character slots
- Upgrade your account to "digital collectors"
- (Fine) Transmutation Stones* (to change the look of a piece of armour or a weapon).
- Costume pieces (non combat)
- Forge Stone (used in crafting rare items)*
- Instant repair kits, Revive orbs, remote bank access, Black Lion Trader Express (to pick up your purchases remotely), Black Lion merchant Express (to sell your stuff without going to a vendor)
- XP, Crafting, Glory, Killstreak, Karma, Magic find boosters
- Mini pets
*These are earnable ingame, and most of the others can be found in Black Lion Chests, although the drop rate for the keys is fairly low, they can and do drop.
That is all there that you can *buy* off the Black Market Trader, I might have missed a few things, but if I have, it was only a minor thing. Right now, there are the consortium chests, which are for a limited time only, and apparently have some stuff in there that can *only* be found in there. -
Quote:Well in that case Apple did it wrong by releasing the iPad Mini, the iPhone 5, refreshing the Mac lines.....Originally Posted by Bad_Influence
If this company goes completely belly-up over the next year or so, I will not be one bit surprised, because they are Doing It Wrong. We know they are Doing It Wrong just by looking at what thier stock is doing. No company doing it right has stock that looks like that; and their stock problems were going on before the closure of CoX if I recall correctly.
Only saying this because Apple's stock has dropped since the release of the iPhone 5 and all of these things, so Apple have been doing it all wrong?
I don't want any sympathy when it happens... I mean, I got none from this community the previous times NCsoft closed down on my games. All I got in general was a big "well, you did play a crap game, so you should have expected it"...Quote:I will feel sorry for other gamers when it happens, but I will smile to myself when NCSoft finally bites the dust. It is far too rare an observation in the real world, but every now and then some group of utter and complete dolts sows the wind, then acts all surprised when they actually reap the whirlwind. A big ol' Nelson-from-the-Simpsons "HA-HA!" to NC when it does. -
Quote:Yep, and dont forget that you can have a forum account for every single account that you have under your control.Originally Posted by Ogi
There are probably a few other fans left out there.
Which brings me back to the thinking that most of the people that i knew had a VIP and a "premium" account, if not multiples out there.
*shrugs* Maybe the playerbase was fooling itself with how large it actually was, when most of them were playing with their friends without realising it. -
Quote:Although the EULA is essentially the same (it might even be identical) the fact that NCsoft have an office in the EU, and that it is the EU office that holds all of the subscriber information means that they have to follow EU laws and regulations for those accounts.Originally Posted by houtex
I'm curious, does the EULA differ from the NA to the EU? All I see in it is "NCSoft", not "NCSoft:ParticularRegion" or anything that would say it's with a particular division... So if you agreed to it and played the game, the same rules apply, excepting of course any 'except if local laws are violated'... in which case.. what law is violated if your account information, needed to go with the game so you can follow it, is transferred, possibly less the credit card information, maybe?
I imagine in that case, we'd all be asked to put in a new set of payment information if we wanted to continue.
Then again, IANA Interational Lawyer, so I really don't know how that'd work. I know it'd just be transferred here in the States, because we lost that right a while back in terms of businesses pr parts of buisnesses being bought/sold... that info goes with. I know my email account's company/info has been sold twice, and they never asked me about if I had an issue... it just kept working.
Which is all I asked of it, really. And so far, no regrets/concerns due to the two sales.
Same is true for mortgages, they just move to the new company, and all your info goes with.
I'm really curious how that would have worked in the EU...
Whilst in the US, as you said, the information is *willingly* traded between corporations, in the EU we have the nice tick boxes for "passing information onto Partners and 3rd parties".
Also we have the data protection act, which means that *by law* we are allowed to view all of the information that a company holds on us (there might be a small fee included in this one, but it generally gets waived from what I can tell), so that we can correct any wrong stuff that is held.
In terms of the "account information", even an email can be viewed as "personal information", along with payment details.
Now saying that, and this is where the greyness kicks in, is if the Game account name is "personal information"... in my mind it is.
Now, NCsoft already have an account transfer system setup for Aion EU, where you have to login to your master account page to then transfer your Aion game information over to Gameforge.
You cannot login to Aion (on gameforge) and expect your characters and stuff to be present without doing this, even though Ncsoft no longer have *nothing* to do with the day to day running of Aion in the EU region.
I would expect something similar to happen if City of heroes was passed onto a 3rd party (at least for EU account holders). -
Quote:Just like the CoX female walkOriginally Posted by TimTheEnchanter
Standard idle pose for all female characters features the "buy-me" ability from the 'street corner prostitute' powerset. This ability is always on.
"All the world's a fashion show catwalk."
Philosophy of all cultures in the B&S universe.
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Errr, TR was under active development when it got the announcement... Auto Assault I believe *had* been scaled back, it was so long ago I cannot for the life of me remember what was happening in the development cycle for that game so I might well have been wrong.
TR had introduced just in the run up to the closure: FPS mode, PAU's for PvP content (that was on the way for PvE play as well I believe).
It was actively developing new zones (cities on Earth, with recognisable landmarks I believe), armour sets, mobs, vehicles... I believe that they wanted to do some other planets as well, eventually leading to the combat against the Bane on their home world...
*shrugs* To be honest, unless a game has hit maintenance mode, there will always be active development on it, even if the developers are not shouting it from the rooftops.
So whilst the games were performing very badly from a *financial* stand point, they had yet to stop active development on the game. -
Quote:I believe that Amstrad themselves helped the emulation side of the game by releasing information to the BIOS/ROM to help the coders out.Originally Posted by Starsman
Not sure about the legality of this one, but there is also the Amstrad Abandonware page, hosts an emulator and even has flash versions of said emulators allowing you to play... Ikari Warriors!
In terms of the games, it is hard to say. A lot of the games themselves are more than likely abandoned completely. This is due to lack of developer interest, unable to find the developers, companies going bankrupt/sold on.]
Anyways, abandoware is its own grey murky legal mess
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Quote:Ah yes, you see local ad's for local people, but for the *national* ad slots, you will see the same ad at the same time. THAT is what the premium is for, and as the Superbowl is one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) US sporting event out there, it doesn't really surprise me that big money gets spent for ads on that day. You are pretty much guaranteed to catch more people than normal.Originally Posted by Ironik
By law the biggest players aren't allowed to dominate the ad market. Which is why you see ads for local businesses during the Super Bowl.
Having caught a few of the superbowls online in the past (shhh), I was suprised that I managed to get the *same* "big name" ad as a friend of mine, even though he was in Seattle, and I believe I was watching a stream from *somewhere*. There were different regional ads though. -
Quote:Strangely enough I have seen adverts on the Quest channel for World of Tanks and a couple of other online games.Originally Posted by Vyver
So what you're saying is, we needed more TV commercials with Chuck Norris and Mr. T.
These are not big budget adverts... nor do they have the largest viewing audience, but at least they are out there. -
Quote:Guild Wars 2 also allows you to reskin items...Originally Posted by BrandX
I've seen quite a few MMOs going this route now.
TERA allows you to reskin all items. You can grab the highest level gear and make it look like any outfit in game.
B&S's outfits have no stats and is based purely on what you prefere to wear. However, it does have a wierd PvE or PvP flagged costume thing going. Don't know why they went that route.
WoW I believe allows reskin on items now as well, but that's way to late for me to get back into the game. -
Quote:That would have been impressive as Carbine Studios have been a member of the NCsoft "family" for longer than you can imagineOriginally Posted by Snow Globe
I feel bad for Carbine, but they should have done their homework before joining with NCsoft.
Source: Carbine Studios websiteQuote:"This is a dev team made in heaven," said Robert Garriott, CEO for NCsoft's North American business. "This group is as experienced as they come in the area of computer role playing and multiplayer game design. Making successful games is second nature to them. They are a very welcome addition to the NCsoft family. The gaming community should be excited to see what great things come out of Carbine Studios in the coming years."
Robert Garriott moved on from the CEO position in December 2007, so if anything, the only game that NCsoft would have closed down would be Auto Assault... -
Quote:What other MMO's are closing down right now? The only one that I can think of is Glitch...Originally Posted by Cassandra
If NC Soft had announced "Though COH is currently profitable, it's revenue is steadily declining and it will start losing money soon. To avoid that, we are pulling the plug now." I (and I think most players) would have sadly accepted it. However, NC Soft has to my knowledge never claimed that. Every thing that I've read suggests that it was doing fine, especially when compared against competing MMOs which are shutting down because they are actively losing money.
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I find it surprising that they didn't make more of an effort to sell the game... did they really exhaust all options out there?
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Quote:Even so, an announcement of laying off *half* the studio can be viewed as a sign of that the game was only earning enough to *pay* for those staff members, and couldn't afford to pay for the others as it stood.Originally Posted by CannonballJack
Good point on the three dead months. I'm not convinced by the forecast-of-doom idea, though. I know us MMOers are the most panicky of sheep, but how many subscribers could NCSoft really expect to lose between "Paragon laid off half its staff" and "but none of them were working on CoH?" That could be literally the same announcement!
Now, I am not saying that is the case, but it isn't that much of a stretch for the normal player to come to, and do a knee jerk reaction to it. -
Quote:Please note that more than likely there will be a hiccup if this happens for those EU account holders, and more than likely also in breach of several EU laws.Originally Posted by houtex
If the game is sold, it will be sold lock, stock and barrel. The same as if the game was live and wasn't shutting down.
Therefore, all information would be transferred over to the new company, effective some date in the future from the signing date, and the new EULA would be in place, and DOUBLY ANNOYING TO GET PAST, and a special one time log in highlighting the specific changes from the old EULA would be mandatory to read (or at least scroll down through) to get past it.
And if you don't agree to that, well, tough. The bought your information that pertains to your using the game, information that is required for you to *continue* to use the game, which would be the intent of the sale in the first place.
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If it's sold. If they structure it that way. It's entirely possible, after the game is shut down, that the customer data could be a non-factor, and JUST the IP will get sold, along with the code and/or hardware to run it...
... but everyone would start over. The old data would NOT be coming along. This is possible number 2, and is only an option due to the shutting down. If it were rolling along, this isn't on the table.
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And that's pretty much it, I'd gather. But then, I'm no lawyer. Easiest analogy... AT&T buys another, smaller, telco. AT&T now owns all your stuff that you had with that telco. Everything works the same, no action needed by you.
Or that telco shuts down. You go to AT&T, get the same service, but have to start all over.
Think that about covers it...
This is why I feel that there will be a page on the NCSoft master account page to transfer the information across.
My information is held with Ncsoft Europe and *not* NCsoft Interactive. They can sell my information over my dead body... and I *will* sue them if they do it.
Sorry if this screws up any sales of the game, but its my private information, and will not let it get transferred without my permission. -
Quote:That would be the way to do it, and i *believe* the <edit>best</edit> way to do it, as it would be on a case by case basis. From what I can remember, they did this with the EU version of Aion.Originally Posted by TimTheEnchanter
If NCsoft is really that concerned about privacy issues, the solution is simple. When we log into our NC account, there's a form we can enter and digitally sign to transfer our data to the new owner, and possibly even customize what forms of information get transferred.
But then again, I believe there are laws in place for EU companies which prevent client information from being passed on without the clients consent. (T-Mobile fell foul of this due to some rogue staff selling information a couple of years ago.) -
Quote:Sound similar to what I heard about CCP and Blizzard.Originally Posted by Snow Globe
From employee comments, working for another company would be considered a benefit.
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Quote:Kinda like badge hunting then? :POriginally Posted by TimTheEnchanter
The "collectible" genre of toys has always been pretty sad. Unfortunately not as sad as the populous that repeatedly falls for it.
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Quote:Lets put it this way, even if the SaveCOH people *do* get their wish, one or two of them have said that they will never stop attacking NCsoft.Originally Posted by blackjak
Wow! Which one of the Titan people scewed you over? Are you GG's ex or something?
If this does happen, then in my mind, anything that the Titan Network and SaveCOH touches will forever be tainted with the touch of angry vindictive people, who even if they win will still spit on people who shared a different point of view in the past.
Just my own opinion, but hey, if some of their members are not willing to let things go even if they do win the end... then i would like nothing better for the whole titan network to be taken down and destroyed, and anything affiliated with it. -
Quote:Eve Online was designed to get groups of people working together to achieve a common goal (whatever that goal might be), so a solo player in Eve Online might have to use 2 or 3 or even 4 accounts to achieve it, however these are goals where just by being in a corp and playing with others helps it along.Originally Posted by that_darn_lurker
I agree with you there about Eve Online, but I can see why you thought I meant that since I didn't elaborate too much on that point. I think the common thread is that alts (more specifically, for Eve, having another account) greatly enhance ones enjoyment of the game, however that may be. In their own unique ways, this is how those games are designed.
The skill point learning limitation was also another factor that moved people towards multiple accounts. And then there are the other reasons.
Could I enjoy Eve Online as much as I do with just one account? More than likely... out of the 2 accounts I have, I only use 2 on any regular basis.
Alt accounts though in Eve are different (in my mind) to the "altitis" from the traditional MMO point of view. *shrugs* But that is just my 2p -
Quote:Good points here, although I would beg to differ on Eve Online. There are several reason why Alts were used, although being limited to just 3 characters per account (and only one character per account able to train at any one point in time), is bit of a limitation, which is why if people alt, they tend to use separate accounts.Originally Posted by that_darn_lurker
3 key things about COH that made the game immensely more accessible, replayable, and fun, and could be carried over into another game:
1) The inspiration system. Other games have consumables too, but COH was unique in that none of them had cool-down timers and they take up their own type of inventory that scales with level. This enhanced the versatility of your character unlike any other game I played*. If you wanted to play content that your build wasn't quite up to the challenge for, you could stock up on inspirations that could help you get through that challenge, and if your build was up for the challenge you could stock up on inspirations that enhanced what you already do well or shore up weak points.
Don't have a tank but need to take the alpha? Take a few purples and oranges. Health bar going down too fast? Start spamming greens. And because there was no cool down, your only limiting factor is quantity and quality. Plus, these inspirations were easy to come by and teammates frequently helped each other out if someone needed a particular type.
2) Class/Powerset Progression. I preferred this form of progression vs most other games. This is one of the reasons why the game never felt like a gear treadmill. Also, this game design feature allow you to combine different powersets, creating a huge number of power possibilities that really enhanced the replayability of the game, leading to what was known as "altitis". The only other games I can think of with rampant altitis like this are Eve Online and WOW. Funny how those games are wildly popular. Maybe the secret to a successful MMO is to have game design features that lead to altitis? Just a thought. (also, Champions Online seems to have its fair amount of altitis, but it has other weaknesses which I won't discuss here).
3) Enhancement System: Enhancements, IO or otherwise, were our equivalent of gear. The great thing about COH is they always balanced the game around the most easily attainable enhancements, so you never had to grind those IOs just to feel like you could compete with the content. And if you wanted to slot IOs it really made your character feel awesomely powerful.
Taken altogether, they really made COH special. From a software development point of view, they're probably more complicated to design/code and balance vs other more streamlined game designs. But so what, I say! There's this trend of games coming out trying to streamline their design (i.e. unified inventory, gear based progression, simplified class/role systems) and those games just aren't as fun to play. Granted, they're probably easier to design, code, and balance, but the end result feels like a soul-less, bland game.
Honorable game design feature mentions:
a) Loot dropping: it was random (I think), so you didn't have to worry about need or greed, which IMO drives a wedge between you and your teammates.
b) Controllers: was a cool class concept, and added versatility to team composition and play.
c) Tanks: felt real tanky, for lack of a better term, but at the same time you didn't always need one depending on the team composition.
I have 2 Eve Online accounts, and the characters do have their *specific* uses, and it isnt "just to try a different side of the game". Because on a single account, any older character can train a new skill at around the same rate as a *new* character.
Unless you are in the RP scene over there, but from my friends who do RP in eve, it tends to be just the one RP character who is also their *main* character, with other characters pulling the "filling" role for certain skill setups (or to use the advantage that manufacturing and research really benefits from with several characters at the same time).
There are other reasons as well (Due to how skill point loss works in the game, it can be beneficial to have a low SP character do some risky stuff... and this is where the alting is handy). -
Quote:Expand on number 2, by at least making it possible for characters to keep an clothing/weapon skin if they so desire (Guild Wars 2 for example does this with transmutation stones)Originally Posted by SteelRat
That's easy:
1 - Can be any genre, but not fantasy. Preferably a contemporary / "near future" setting, or full on sci-fi.
2 - Look of the character has no effect whatsoever on its abilities. I don't mind gear based per se, but would prefer a mechanism where the gear didn't govern the look of the character. -
Quote:Followed you btw, if you want to hit me up on steam or whatever, just send me a tweet for infoOriginally Posted by SteelRat
I stopped tweeting on #savecoh for the reasons I mentioned above, but I do still have it as a column on TweetDeck so I can keep tabs on any developments. (I'm @Volkanik70 on Twitter, in case anyone's interested :P )