Lothic

Players can already petition to have SG names changed but currently they only allow it if you can make the case that the name is rude and/or vulgar. A handful of SG names have been changed this way already.

What we really need is some method to allow for automatic name changes that don't involve an Admin having to manually do a database edit. This would let people change a SG name for -any- reason without having to waste a human's time with a manual petition.

I can't really see the justification for making this something we'd have to pay extra for. MMOs generally charge for things like character name changes partly to make a little extra money but mainly to serve as a deterrent to keep people from doing it every five minutes. It's mostly just a method of controlling/limiting behavior.

The key difference between character name changes and SG name changes is the total number of times it's ever likely going to happen. Any player might potentially want to change a character's name at any time, but realistically only a small handful of SG Super Leaders would ever want to change their SG names, and most of those would likely only ever do it once. It's basically not something the Devs could ever expect to make -that- much money on regardless. Ironically that's probably also the main reason the Devs haven't gotten around to doing it yet either. Why prioritize a feature that may only be used a few hundred times total?

If this SG rename thing ever happens it'll most probably be implemented as a new command line command that only SG Super Leaders can use, and as a method of control it'll likely have a timer on it so it can't be used repeatedly as a form of griefing. That would be the easiest, least intrusive way to do it for the few players who'd ever make use of it.

Let the games begin.

If you can rationalize how you can move the end of what's effectively a high-powered "flashlight" (according to Ironik) around and have the beam stay glued to a single point then your ability to suspend disbelief far surpasses mine.

Yeah that's my only real nitpick from what I saw. Beam weapons shouldn't have any noticeable recoil. In fact that's supposedly (theoretically?) one of their main advantages over standard gunpowder-type weapons. It seems like they just left in some recoil animation from previous gun models. Hope they end up cleaning it up a bit before launch.

Just for the record I don't consider myself "over-touchy" about spoilers. For example if I really didn't want to know anything about an upcoming movie I'd probably have to avoid the Internet altogether. That's just not going to happen. My main point about that is that despite this study's dubious findings I'm not going to go out of my way to spoil myself on some vague notion I'm going to automatically like it better because of it. If a movie's good enough the first time to watch it again with experienced eyes then that'll happen on its own - I don't need to rush anything.

For what it's worth there's a difference between being able to predict an outcome while you're watching/reading something and being outright spoiled. Clearly there are some books/movies where you can pretty much see where things are going whether that's on purpose or if the writing's so bad it's just obvious. But even if the story's clear-cut that's not the same as being "spoiled" because there's still a difference between "predicting" the end and "knowing" the end.

I don't see spoilers as outright evil because they can serve specific purposes like Marsquake described. I'm simply saying that under most normal circumstances a book/movie ought to be good enough that it doesn't -require- overt spoilage to be enjoyed. I think if you somehow rely too much on "full disclosure" spoilage all of the time as the first step to anything (like this study sort of implies we all should do) then I think that'd be overkill. Like most things it's best in moderation.

What? Quite the opposite actually.

I've been constantly saying that there are TWO types of experiences involved with enjoying stories. The first time when it's unknown to you and the second time when you can see what leads to the conclusion you already know. Those are two separate and distinct experiences.

All I'm saying is that if you are gung-ho with the idea of always wanting to spoil yourself you're depriving yourself of the "first time" experience just to skip on to the "knowledgeable" experience. I'm simply saying I tend to enjoy the opportunity of experiencing a good story BOTH ways over multiple viewings/readings and the only way you can get BOTH types of enjoyment is to avoid having a story spoiled first.

It still doesn't really matter if a story has been "engineered with a twist ending" or not. No matter the story there's always going to be a first time you experience it and a second time you experience it regardless of how well (or poorly) it's written. A person can devive a certain type of enjoyment from both instances, as long as they are not spoiled first. It's not really a matter of a writer trying to favor one experience over the other even if they could.

The OP is basically upset that in order to keep everything they have now they are going to have to keep paying for it as we have done for years. As long as you stay subscribed CoH:Freedom should not be removing ANYTHING we have access to now.

It basically doesn't matter how "short-lived" the first experience with a story is. Why spoil it? If you always want to rush on to the "experienced" phase of enjoyment that's fine. If a story is good enough I'd rather have BOTH over multiple viewings/readings.

I'll admit it was hard to respond to that post without too many sexual innuendos.

CoH:Freedom is giving us a F2P model that provides -something- for nothing, not -everything- for nothing.
It's an option we did not have before, and they didn't even NEED to give us that.

If you don't like the game giving us MORE ways to play that's your problem, not mine.

As I mentioned in the other "spoiler thread" I think this idea glosses over the point the people can get TWO kinds of enjoyment from a story.

They get the first unspoiled experience that enables a storyteller to have fun establishing the plot and allow for all sorts of misdirection that makes an audience have to engage in trying to "figure it out". And then once a person knows a story they can get a second kind of appreciation of it because they can see how the elements led up to the known conclusion.

Spoiling stories simply ruins the first kind of experience to rush to the second kind. *shrugs*

I think a key point that article glosses over is that while it may be fun to re-experience a good story once we know how it ends I think people ALSO like to experience a story at least the first time -without- knowing how it's going to end.

This is why people will watch movies like Empire Strikes Back over and over again. I've probably easily seen that movie 50 times so I know very well how it's going to end every time I watch it now. But I ALSO thought it was amazingly cool back when I saw the climactic scene with Vader and Luke the first time and was blown away by it (admittedly I was like 10 years old at the time but you get my point).

Let's just say based on this one article I'm not going to go out of my way to spoil movies for myself.

I guess it's sort of cool that different powersets cater to different playstyles.

A few years ago I created a Ele/Ele Blaster and for a concept I geared her for totally ranged oriented ST attacks. Her main tactic was Hovering while being Stealthed and sniping as far from enemies as possible. Not sure if I built her perfectly for that, but I always had fun with it anyway. With good tactics I never really needed much crowd control to stay safe/unkilled.

Sounds like Beam Rifle will be a set perfectly suited for that mode of play.

So they started it early but announced it late.
Seems par for the course to me.

Yeah but when has this game ever started and stopped events to the exact minute before?
Let's just say a few hours early is not an earth-shattering occurrence here.