Ironik

Looks like Canadian Op Art.

I forgot I had this screenshot. It doesn't really fall under the "cool" or "clever" categories, but whoever made this guy really committed to it, witnessed by the bio.

So placating buyer's remorse for crybabies over their impulse purchase outweighs those of us who asked for literal YEARS for just such a costume piece and decided NOT to buy the Mutant Pack because we didn't care for how it looked? Got it: acting like a petulant child *after* spending money trumps being annoyed over watching an obvious grab for a few more bucks.

Look, I'm sorry if it seems like I'm acting overly sensitive on this issue, but the facts of the tail debacle are these:

1) Mutant Pack revealed, to resounding cries of "Meh."
2) Noble Savage (David Nakayama) starts Art threads
3) I post photo after photo of bushy tails that I'd like to see added
4) Noble Savage posts that Jay made the bushy tail in a "few days"
5) They add the tail to the Mutant Pack where even a guy with a white cane and service dog can see it clearly doesn't match the other pieces
6) Resulting in numerous posts of, "I wasn't going to buy the Mutant pack, but now that you added the tail..."

Paragon Studios is run by very smart people, and they just had two badly-received Booster Pack releases in a row. They saved one by jamming a much-sought-after costume piece in it, effectively enticing people to pay $10 for a single costume item. So if auras are the next Booster Pack, why *wouldn't* they randomly stick in a Quiver or Scabbard in there to entice people to pay $10?

EDIT: Trumped by ensuing events. General point still stands.

It probably looks better animated. Even Willpower, my favorite secondary and the one that looks the best out of the box, looks better in motion than in stills.

I agree, but my overall point still stands. Levity is one thing, but some of the recent responses have been the equivalent of "you'll eat it and like it," which is less than conducive. Especially when, as you say, there seems to be a consensus on certain topics. The bottom line in any business *is* the bottom line, so keeping the customers happy is generally a good thing, within reason.

Besides, most of the posters here don't act like petulant children. One of the things that makes this forum better than every other gaming forum I've been to.

I always knew you secretly loved me.

Doing me a favor by sticking a much-desired costume part into a Booster pack that many people weren't otherwise going to buy? Shoehorning a non-thematic costume piece in the name of making a few bucks while thumbing their noses at the playerbase? See the OCR/Marketing thread about how the newest team is losing the hearts and minds of the most devoted fans.

I'll see your hand and raise another.

And just for fun, they'll stick a quiver in there for no other reason than to get more sales, just like they randomly stuck the tail into the Mutant Pack.

They sure would. Especially if they can spell or stuff.

The difficulty slider is a godsend. It allows you to customize your experience. Just experiment with it on various toons until you get the right mix. (Noting that you might have to change it for certain mobs. Spectral Demon Lords kill me because it's whiffle ball city with a blindfold.)

Me, I love soloing. And doing it with Brutes is like crazy fun. Build the FURY and smash, Smash, SMASH!

There is a certain unmentionable "similar game" by a studio which is... enigmatic... that used to be associated with this game who stole the idea and actually added it as a "visual sound effect" to their incredibly silly and stupidly subpar version of this game.

So, you know, go there if you want crap like that.

My stuffed shells are proprietary, as is the sauce, sorry.

But as the proverb goes, "Hunger is the best sauce."

How is it nebulous in any way?

The character arcs are badly handled: writers' fault.
The story arcs are badly handled: writers' fault.
The characters are inconsistent in both their attitudes and abilities: writers' fault.
Things just make no sense: writers' fault.
The only way to affect Clark is to use kryptonite stuffed into something: writers' fault.
As Rylas noted, they use the exact same cliched storyline every week: writers' fault.
Some years featured episode after episode patterned after whatever movie the writers' had watched that week, the nadir being the absurd Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon riff with the possessed Lana....

I actually liked the original premise of the show: that Clark's arrival on Earth amidst the meteor storm sets off the explosion of super-powered people because kryptonite adversely affects humans... but then it spiraled crazily out of control with Indian prophecies and talking rocks and let's-write-an-episode-based-on-this-week's-DVD.

And can someone tell me WHY, for the love of Pete (Pete? Pete who? Oh, the guy caught in a BUBBLEGUM FACTORY that's TAINTED with KRYPTONITE? Yeah, that episode wasn't ridiculous at all)... where was I? Oh yeah, why, after so many seasons of people just walking in to his house-slash-heart-of-his-empire did Lex never have locks put on his doors? His office had a revolving door on it; Clark would routinely just go in there and randomly search around, then act all huffy when Lex acted a little shady. Since when does a burglar in the middle of a B&E get to stand on the moral high ground? If the ends justify the means, which they clearly do for Clark, then where does he get off lecturing people about being good?

Sometimes it just doesn't make sense.

On the other hand, watch how Supernatural handles these sorts of things. Can you imagine how hilarious the bubblegum episode would've been in the hands of Sera Gamble and Ben Edlund? And then they always manage to make that sort of thing sinister... and at the very end the throw in something touching or ominous. See, for example, the Supernatural episode with the shapeshifter who pretended to be classic movie villains. The episode was silly, funny... and yet had a hint of melancholia to it.

Everyone hates Lana. The actress who plays her is actually pretty good at her craft. But the reason she's hated is because of the writing. The love story is clumsily handled, they made Lana just a schmaltzy, wishy-washy mess that no real man could stomach for long, nevermind *two* of them. Until suddenly she isn't wishy-washy. Usually it's when she's possessed.

One of the biggest examples of bad plotting is the Doomsday season. Just some clumsy episodes there, with Doomsday not getting caught by the hair of his chinny-chin-chin, and then the biggest fizzled finale ever. An entire season of build up followed by what was expected to be the biggest throwdown in TV history between the most powerful man in the universe going up against the guy who killed him in previous incarnations. Then nothing. Oh, except they killed Jimmy Olsen... who really wasn't Jimmy Olsen all this time but has his name... buh?

I think some of us have given some pretty specific examples of what we thought was poor quality. Most of it stems -- as it always has in Smallville -- from the writing.