What AE Has Done for Me:
- 50th level characters and henceforth epic archetypes are no longer special. There is less resepect for making it to the top now than there was before. Getting my first 50 was a triumph. Getting my second 50 was a joke. The incentive to make it to 50th level and grab ahold of an epic character type that has no firmly distinct advantage over a well-built standard character type - nada.
- The markets have descended into the sewers, anotherwords, it's hard to make influence/infamy at market, because every yahoo that farms ends up flooding the market with rare salvage (now available for a song) or rare recipies (not much better).
- Influence/Infamy flows like water. So friggin' what, if you're holding a 10 million influence CC? A good farmer can make that and more in 15 minutes, no matter their level. It's not worth their time to come, be social, and show off their stuff to other folks - because they know that they can get everything they want from the AE farms.
- Finally, I'd have to say that 1 in 10 or less of the people whom inhabit AE regularly are actually interested in a storyline - which is what AE is for.
Now that I'm done venting, I need to re-adjust. I'm not the sort of person to criticize something (particularly something with so much potential) without offering some possible solutions, of course. Nobody likes to listen to someone just gripe and complain, and I pride myself on being both critical and constructive. Ergo:
- Take the top - level rewards **OUT** of AE. You want the good stuff? Get your butt out there and work for it, hero! Tickets are for cupie dolls and cheap plastic novelties, not invention enhancements and salvage materials of incredible value! On the other hand, what if tickets could be converted into brain storm ideas?
- Reasonably speaking, how much real-world experience can AE provide to a hero? Sure, you might have a good "Danger Room" experience to bring up, but the only thing that is going to push your limits is the real world. Cap all experience gained in AE to some level - maybe 30th or 25th. The rest, you have to earn doing the real stuff.
- Law of diminishing returns: It's true for every other TF - why not for AE missions? You run the same missions more than once every 24 hours, you get less for doing it. Once again, what does a character really learn from doing something over and over and over? Better yet - make the diminishing returns permanent; You run a mission 10 times, and you're not gonna get squat from it. No exp, no tickets, no influence... which brings me to another suggestion...
- No Influence! Radical, I know, but how is playing games going to increase a hero's influence? Really? You should be out busting crime, not constantly training, bub. The mayor isn't going to be impressed with your AE victories, nor is the Statesman, or Vanguard - these people are putting their lives into their work and making real connections. You're living in a different world.
- The rising dawn; Let the farmers farm. The real power lay in the bunch of NEW ACCOLADES that give the regular mission-toting hero or villain an extreme edge over the AE farmers. Perhaps some of these brilliant new accolades could even loosen some of the caps placed on their archetype? Imagine that -real- hero who can tank with her blaster, because she's been through truly unreal situations? I think Accolades are **HIGHLY** undervalued. They're a great system, hard to get, and have the potential to be extremely rewarding.
- Other TFs? How about a super-duper uber marathon TF, which requires you to run all of the current TF's to finish it, but, in return, it gives you an additional enhancement slot? A truly dedicated player might even get it done twice or three times in their gaming career. The value of being able to slot one more full set of (x) may be enough to encourage the ironmen and ironwomen to get out of AE and into the real stuff, once again.
- The Iron Fist; Every single AE arc needs to be approved by other players before it even moves out of test mode and into the published mode. Oh, everyone will be able to -test- play the arc, meaning they can collect badges, and whatnot, but nothing else, until players who have proven their worth and taste give it the thumb's up. Maybe a particular Accolade would be needed to become an official tester, and really - only the players interested in stories rather than farms are going to finish an Accolade for something like that. Then, the pressure is off the developers -and- off the casual players. You want your story published, it has to pass a player-publisher, just like a book in the real world. Then, there would be a little more respect for the players that took the time and went the extra mile, and good players would be rewarded, once again.
Some think that they're entitled to everything from the get-go. I say: Work for it, like I did - then all of the power and the prestige will be worth it.
NC: I've known you guys ever since you started showing up to Gen Con and Origins. Odds are you won't remember me - the convention volunteer that brought you water and sodas when you all were thirsty and couldn't leave your booth. That's cool. I just want you to take a look at this AE thing from a different angle. It's a game to the heroes and villains of your marvelous world. The rewards should be game-like. They should exist, but they should also be secondary, lest AE take over all of the hard work you've put into designing, testing, and publishing everything else. AE could be great, but it could also be (and has been) devestating.
