Garielle

One of the QoL features I wanted for a long time we actually have now--the ability to send inf/objects between characters. The fact that it is cross server and can be sent to our global (and therefore accessible from ANY character) makes it even more awesome. When I18 hits and we can send stuff to literally any of our characters on any server without regards to them being a hero or villain, it will be the cherry on top.

I know some people think we should be able to send more than one item at a time, but I get why we can't. Storage is something that has always been at a premium in CoH. Allowing us to send entire stacks at once would just encourage people to use their mailbox as a huge storage system. Sure, it can still be done, but it's a lot harder to do it, and keep it organized, when you can only send one at a time.

There are still two things I would like to see, but I don't really expect to any time in the near future...

1 - Offline SuperGroup Invites

While the usefulness of this is obvious, if not done properly it could also become quite spam-o-rific. Maybe link it to the email system so that only friends can send you offline SG invites?

I know that with side switching coming in a few short days, this feature may be even more useful as people drop their SG in order to shift from one side or the other.

2 - Offline SuperGroup Promotions/Demotions

This one SHOULD be easier to implement than the invites and is also quite useful. Well, I SAY it should be easier to implement, but there again, I am not privy to how the SG rank data is stored. There may be a very good logistical reason WHY a person has to be online in order to be promoted/demoted.

In any event, there have been many times when someone has been due for a promotion in an SG and it was delayed because I wasn't able to catch them while they were online. Would have been nice to be able to promote them while I was there so they would have it waiting for them when they returned.

I was double-checking the date when my subscription would be expiring the other day, and happened to notice the date the account was first created... Aug-10-2004. So in just about 6 more days (exactly one week before the scheduled release of Going Rogue) it will be my 6 year anniversary.

This got me reminiscing about all that I have seen over the past 6 years. I have seen many people come and go. Some whom I considered friends, some whom I considered acquaintances, but none I ever really considered to be a bitter enemy. I mean, sure there have been people I didn't agree with on everything. There have been people I rarely agreed with. There have been those that I don't know if we ever saw eye to eye on a single thing. Still, they weren't enemies. They just had different viewpoints than I.

There were the listeners and my fellow DJs from the now all but forgotten Woot Radio. The interviews we did with CuppaJo, Poisitron and other members of the NC Soft family. The hours of music and laughter at the "Encounters with Statesman" bits that Buzz and Jester put together. The parties during special events. The weekly arena tournaments. All fond memories.

Then there are the changes to the game. Some greatly anticipated--such as the release of City of Villains. Some deeply dreaded--such as the still-griped about Enhancement Diversification. I remember when the 5th Column was one of the groups you faced as a starting hero before being replaced by The Council. I remember how excited everyone was when The Hollows was first added. It was nearly impossible to find a team between level 7 and 16 that wasn't in the Hollows. I remember thinking my head would pop if one more person asked me if I wanted to get in on a Frostfire with my Empathy Defender. All fond memories. Yes, even ED is a fond memory. It taught us to be more creative in our slotting.

I was around to see Positron move more to the forefront on the development team, and the impact the change made on the direction the game headed. In my own opinion, as well as many others, I think Positron's vision is much more player friendly than the previous one. I know that there are those who have issues with some of the changes that have been made. There are some things that I personally may have done a little differently, but you must admit that overall the game has been taken in a very positive direction.

Now another era begins, as we sit and we wait the final 13 days for the release of Going Rogue. Positron is now focusing mainly on the End Game content, and War Witch has now taken the helm as the overall Lead. I will be anxious to see what new direction she will take us in. Some of what I have been hearing about Going Rogue really piques my interest. I like the idea of "shades of grey" and hope they will expand this concept further in coming issues.

I'm glad to have been a small part of this community over the past six years, and look forward to the next six. What was the point of all of this? Just to sit back for a moment and remember the past six years. To step away from those who seem to only be able to find pleasure in expressing the negative aspects in anything and everything that the staff at Paragon Studios puts out. To stop for a brief second to think about all the good things these guys and gals have done for us. And most of all, to say Thank You!

1. Space: Above and Beyond
2. Dollhouse
3. Threshold
4. The Dresden Files
5. Firefly
6. Warehouse 13
7. Kolchak
8. Nowhere Man

As a side note... Dollhouse and Twin Peaks both had multiple seasons. Harpers Island was a mini-series (albeit a full-season one). It had a story with a beginning and an end. It told the story. Should there be a sequel? Perhaps, but the original story has already been told now.

The Prisoner sort of falls into both categories. It was a series (with two seasons) and then a modernized mini-series. I liked both, but wish the mini-series had adhered more to the original story instead of doing a kinda-sorta-related storyline.

It's just my belief that when you wear an SG tag, you represent that SG. Your actions reflect on everyone else in the SG. I have actually, in the past, booted people from an SG (back when I cared about running one) for this very reason. Not before speaking to them about it and giving them fair warning ahead of time, mind you.

It's this same reason that some companies expressly forbid their employees to engage in certain activities while wearing a company uniform or driving a company vehicle. The US military is a classic example. People see the uniform first and the individual second. Even if it is not intentional, there is a subconscious association.

Before I say anything else, let me make one thing clear. I am not a farmer. I have run a couple of farms in the past, but I find that I bore of it very quickly because, well... I just don't like running through the same map killing the same enemies over and over and over again. I know some people like it, and that's cool. Not gonna say you shouldn't be able to do it, just saying that I don't want to do it myself.

When I heard about the Mission Architect system coming out, I was very excited. I had some ideas for some stories I would love to see other players' reactions to, and now I had a way I could share them without having to find some way to blackmail Paragon Studios into hiring me. Besides, the idea of getting arrested trying to sneak into their end of year seasonal office party to take pictures was hardly appealing.

The reality is though that many people chose to use the MA system (and yes, it is the MA system, and NOT the AE system) to find the fastest path from 1 to 50. As I said, i appreciate the fact that different players prefer different play-styles and I admire the devs of CoX for managing to find a way to accommodate as many of these as feasible. In a game like CoX though, with no content (yet) that actually requires the player to be level 50, I don't see the point in racing and prefer to just enjoy the ride.

The vast number of farming and speed-leveling arcs though vastly overshadowed those with a story behind them. Because of this, people who would enjoy the types of stuff I was thinking of don't really look to MA much as it's too much trouble to wade through the garbage trying to find an arc that is worth playing.

I did publish a couple of arcs which are still out there and which do see some traffic, but for the most part, they sit unappreciated, collecting dust. Again, I can accept this. If what I put out there doesn't appeal to people, that's fine. Can't force people to like something they don't and wouldn't want to even if I could. It has, however, rather discouraged me from trying to create new stories in the future.

All of this said, I see no reason why the reward system (either XP or tickets) should be changed in any way, shape, or form. Yes, it's true that it isn't currently used the way I, personally, would have liked to have seen, but obviously there are players who enjoy it. There's no reason to force my views and opinions on them.

In short, if you don't like a particular play style, go do something else. Play the way you want to play the game and don't worry about anyone telling you that you are being stupid or playing the game wrong. If you don't like teaming with people who play a particular way, don't team with them. Go find people who enjoy the same things you do and team with them. Stop trying to get the devs to change the way things work just so everyone will be forced to play the way that you like to play.

The fact that they are dumping the people who have built XFire seems to indicate they care little about the platform, as it stands now. They are pretty much just buying the XFire name and have their own concepts for what they will implement as a platform.

Like one of the comments on the news story, I don't find the statement by Titan about "[utilizing] the Xfire platform to help gaming companies better engage and monetize their games", very promising. "Monetize" could mean just about anything. It could, indeed, mean they will add the ability to purchase games, but could also means something like...ohhhh... i dunno...running ads for Evony in pop ops or banners on your IMs.

I just wish companies that create things like the XFire client would remember the words of Antoine de Saint-Exuper, "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."

Tacking on unnecessary bells and whistles to otherwise stable systems will, more often than not, turn it into an unreliable, buggy, laggy, unstable piece of drek that isn't worth the cost of the drive space it occupies.

Meh, like others I will echo the sentiment that the meaning of "optimal" is more about what is fun for you, as a player, and not what's gonna get you the best numbers. There are way too many variables in what is or is not optimal. A lot of it depends on your play style--not only as a player, but how you intend to use that character.

For example, I am really bad at knockback management. For that reason, if I am creating a character that I intend to use primarily in teams, I will avoid powers which do knockback (take Blackwand instead of Nemesis Staff, avoid energy blasters and bot MMs, etc). For any of the various melee ATs, me playing ANY Energy Blaster is definitely sub-optimal when they team with me. Other folks are great at making sure their knockback helps rather than hinders the team by carefully positioning themselves in relation to their target to ensure they don't knock them into another group of foes or knock the Tank's target away from him/her.

On the other hand, if I am creating a character to solo with, gimme that Bots MM with a secondary that includes some sort of AoE heal so I can keep both my pets and myself alive. In that case, as long as the bots' knockback is keeping stuff away from my squishy self, then I am happy and it is an optimal experience.

After a bad PUG this morning, I got into an interesting discussion with someone. Two of the members of the team were from the same SG, which I will keep nameless at this point. This being the case, I made the comment that there was one more SG that I would avoid teaming with in the future.

The other player seemed to think this was a bit harsh, but I don't think so. When you go out there as an SG member, everyone sees what SG you are from. Your actions reflect not only on you, but on your entire SG.

In this case, the player was low level and likely a new recruit to the SG. Maybe their actions were not indicative of the SG members as a whole, but first impressions are everything. The leadership of an SG has full control over who and how they recruit. If their preferred method is spamming broadcast in various zones and accepting anyone who knows how to turn on SG mode and get them prestige, they probably shouldn't expect much in the way of "quality" players.

And yes, I know the above method is the most common method for recruitment. I understand why the prestige system more or less encourages people to just focus on member quantity rather than member quality.

I know that personally I have left SGs because I don't want to be associated with some of the people in them. I see how they act, and I think to myself, "Wow! I don't want people to see this SG name and associate me with that guy or think I may be one of his alts. I think I should go now."

So my question is, how many people think along the same lines? When you see a particularly good or bad player, do you pay attention to what SG they are from? Does it influence your willingness to possibly join that SG at some point or take part in teams with members of that SG in the future?

Just want to get some thoughts on this.

There are actually a few problems Blizzard will have with implementing this. First, there is their own privacy policy. Yes, of course they can change the privacy policy, but if they go this route, they have to do one of two things. They can allow existing customers to opt-out of the new features (in which case they would have some people posting under their "Real ID" and some people posting under character names like it is now). Alternatively, the can allow customers who do not wish to have their information put out there to cancel their account and remove information which is currently stored. This means no future "come back and see us" emails for these former customers. Hardly a good business move.

Second, whether you think the number is large or small, you have to agree that some portion of the WoW community is below the age of 18. Releasing information on minors (even if it is just a name) can get them into some seriously hot water.

Now, if you do not see either of the above as an issue, perhaps we should look at the more technical/logistical reasons this is simply not feasible.

Real names are not unique. My own real name, in fact, is quite common. So common, that in a small community, I grew up with someone who had the exact same first and last name as me who lived on the same street. In fact, we were born almost exactly one year apart.

If their intent is to use the "Real ID" as a cross-server communication tool (as indicated in the article), then it has to be unique. It not only has to be unique on the server, it needs to be unique among all of their 1,000,0000+ users.

The solution, of course, is to do what NC Soft did years ago and go with a Global Name which is not based on the person's real name. Doing this accomplishes the goal without creating any of the problems. Of course, as CoH/V players we already knew the guys at Paragon Studios are smarter than the guys at Blizzard.

While we are on the topic of illusion control....

During the meet and greet last week, Positron mentioned that the ORIGINAL intent for Illusion Control pets was to have them be mirror images of the character. Apparently, they were unable to implement that from a technical standpoint, so they went with the current "ghost image" appearance, and they are wary of changing it because there will be some players who will prefer the current appearance.

What MAY be cool is to possibly implement it as a power customization option at some point. Those who prefer the current appearance can stick with it, those who prefer to have mirror images of themselves could select that, and possibly even have a few other options.

I have to agree with this one. I tend to dismiss mine as soon as I exit a mission unless I know I am going directly into the another mission specifically because I find them to be a bit loud and annoying. Even dropping the volume of sound effects is not a great solution because the demons seem to be a bit louder than other sound effects, so by the time the demons level is even halfway calm, everything else is completely inaudible.

If nothing else, consider dropping the volume level so that is more in line with other sound effects.

I read through a good part of the thread, and didn't see any mention of a very obvious factor here which I can guarantee is impacting the figures, at least to some extent.

The reports are in WON. The value of the dollar has been going down. This means, even if sales volume is constant, once those dollars are converted to WON, it will show a drop equal to the drop in the dollar.

Do I think this is the only factor? I wouldn't hazard a guess, but it definitely has some impact, and quite likely a noticeable one. In order to do a fair analysis, you would need to look at more than just the sales figures. You need to look at the number of new units sold, the number of new subscribers, the number or returning subscribers, the net change in total subscribers, and other factors where changes to currency value have no impact.