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As a quick summary to my position on this...
I consider myself an avid badge collector using a character that's been around since CoH Headstart. I favor the idea that any existing character should have a reasonable chance to earn all badges they are eligible to earn. Once established, badges (and the means to earn them) should remain as unmolested as possible to maintain their core 'value'. I consider the by-design impossibility of pre-I2 characters to have had the chance to earn Isolator to be a gross oversight. I believe that -something- should be done by the Devs to address this shortsighted design mistake of Isolator. I have proposed a workable retroactive compromise for Isolator several times in this and other threads...
Supporting as you say a 'double standard' for Isolator is in fact perfectly logical and reasonable because the circumstances surrounding it are completely unique in the history of CoH. Now whether or not you support a new means to get Isolator -and- other past event badges that your character was not around to get is immaterial. The fact that your character (or you as a player) may not have been around to get past event badges is not anyone's 'fault' per se and was not a problem with the design of the game system itself. This is how Isolator is unique. In its case players were effectively punished -for- being in the game before Issue 2 and badges existed at all. This is why a supposed double standard for it is practically called for, because addressing a correction or reparation for an obvious design flaw/oversight is the only justifiable action the Devs should take in the matter.
I feel for your point of view, I really do - I missed out on the 2004 Halloween badges because I was overseas on a business trip at the time. Of course I would jump at the opportunity to earn these badges if they were offered up again, but to be honest I really don't feel entitled to them and won't actively ask the Devs to provide them.
Why you ask? Because I firmly believe in maintaining the intrinsic value of badges. Right or wrong, agree or not, event badges have had short windows of opportunity to earn them. If you missed them you missed them. It's the only fair way to accept it - if the Devs start allowing currently ungettable badges to be earned again where would the backtracking and revisionism end? What would be the point to spending time earning badges when you could just wait a few months for the requirements to become simpler or the 'one time' badges to return? Thanks but no thanks...
That's why my compromise for Isolator doesn't in fact involve any change to it or the means to get it at all. Post-I2 people spent the time to earn it properly, and people who didn't know about it can't really complain. I kinda think it's stupid that the Devs basically force people to seek 3rd party info online to learn about badges, but these things are as they are. Introducing and applying a new, retroactive accolade to all pre-I2 characters as a replacement for isolator is really the cleanest, simplest solution the Devs have at their disposal. The Devs are already introducing 'seniority' event badges such as Celebrant and the announced 2nd year anniversary badge, even going as far as to be granting a gladiator to people who have both anniversary badges. One could easily consider my accolade idea to be a 'zeroth year anniversary' badge (like an Issue #0 of a comic book) to recognize those people who have been here since the beginning. If all pre and post Issue 2 characters could at least potentially have an equal number of badges, then I think most could accept the shortsighted mistake the Devs made with implementing Isolator and move on.
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Thank you for your reply, let me ask you this :
Why do you think it would damage the "intrinsic value" of the Halloween badges if the devs were to make it available in future Halloweens? Why would it lessen the meaning of Winter Lord if it is made available in Winters? Does it mean that the devs had defaced the value of Cold Warriors already?
Consider this analogy :
An olympic athelete trained all of his life and earned a medal in a supposed one-time world event. But ten years later the olympic committee decides to hold this event, which they said was going to be one-time, once again. As a result, a second athelete earned another medal.
Tell me, how does the fact that a second athelete earning a second medal lessen the meaning, value or significance of the work that the first has done? Does it make that first medal somehow less than it was?
If you get something that is TRULY devalued, like a pirated copy of a software, or taking something that doesn't belong to you, the only thing that is devalued is yourself, perhaps your view of oneself, or your soul if you believe in such a thing. For those of us who have EARNED a badge, we already know that its instrinsic value can never be changed by the someone else's action. But if the issue is that it makes those who already have the badges feel more special when others do not have them, then isn't it fair to say the problem lies in those people instead?
The inherent design flaw made by the devs is that they made rewards for a Halloween and Winter event applied to a specific Halloween and Winter. It is as short sighted as not allowing pre-i2 people to get Isolator. Both have the inherent problem that the said design precludes a group of players from getting the badges, regardless of how much they want to work to EARN it.
Finally, I got the Heart of Darkness badge a month ago. If they choose to make it available next Valentine's, it would not lessen the meaning of that badge for me. But if I feel that way, the problem is with me, not with someone else's.
