Marcian Tobay

The misspelling would take its own patch.

You are The Developer: The Kobayashi Maru and You
In this series, I'm going to present "impossible" situations that you, the hypothetical lead developer, must solve. Note that there is no right answer, I just want to gain insight into various viewpoints as well as open people up to some perspective on their own concerns. Ready? Here we go.


Issue #1: Fix the Problem or the Perception?

You're the lead developer (Go, you!) on the hottest and latest MMO. Let's call it Council of Hotties, or CoH for short. This game, like most MMOs, allows players to highly customize their characters' abilities and potential in both combat and life skills in the game. As is developer policy, one of your devs routinely datamines to see which character builds perform well and which don't. Additionally, your Community team patrols the forums for player feedback.

After a weekend of wild parties, strippers, and Irish Carbombs (or, as it's called in the business, a Dev's Wednesday), you come in to see that you have three emails all marked urgent. (Note: Relevant information not actually in the email will be in Red.) The following situations are outlined:

• Shepard's Crook Overpowered! After checking out the stats on our latest patch, it appears that our intentional changes to the Shepard's Crook fighting style have backfired! The set is overly powerful and can readily perform two to three times more effectively than any other individual class. This is a major problem, as this makes Shepard's Crook the best melee fighting class hands-down. Edit: Fortunately, players seem to be oblivious to this. There has been no increase in use of Shepard's Crook, no upswing in success on missions due to its use, and players don't talk about it on the forums. Still, I'd like to stop the issue before it starts. We need to invest time into fixing this problem. Sincerely ~ Your main Powers-Development Lady
  
  
• Players Irate About Cannon of Justice! The entire forums are alight with players being upset the Cannon of Justice magical spell. The current player notion is that the Cannon is easily the strongest move in the game and readily overpowers any other class. Players are posting angry stories about how their builds are obsolete since everyone "knows" that Cannon of Justice is the only build to make. I know that Powers-Development Lady already datamined and proved, conclusively, that this power is perfectly balanced (This is true), but they are calling for its nerf anyway. When I tell them that we've verified this, they don't believe me and demand that Powers-Development Lady break down the exact numbers of how balanced it is. Their anger is palpable and has brought the community's productivity almost to a halt. We need to invest time into fixing this problem. Sincerely ~ Kang, Community Coordinator, First Rank
  
  
• The Meekling Power is underpowered! After talking with the small community that uses the Meekling Power, I've come to believe that this ability is genuinely underpowered. They've had one of their players, Arcanasberg, break down the exact numbers and has proven that this power is underperforming. As you know, the Meekling Power affects one's ability to crochet properly. Crochet is one of many abilities in the "Staying at home and doing nothing" sub-section of the game that includes, cooking, blogging, and posting hypothetical situations on random forums. Though we've spent a lot of time in this style of play, datamining has proven that only about 6% of players even finish the "Stay at Home" tutorial section, and even less actually play it. This means that even though the players know its broken and can prove it, very few voices actually complain about it. Nonetheless, they are right and know it. We need to invest time into fixing this problem. Sincerely ~ Tim, Community Bro
  

Your "Powers" team is comprised of four people. When all four work together, they can, with an 80% success rate, perfectly balance a power or power set once per patch. You patch once a month.

Given that all three issues would require interaction with your Powers team in some way, shape, or form, how would you assign your team for the next patch? What about the next three patches?

From the bottom in ludicrously small print:

I love this thing.

That's called Lampshading type humor. The NPC thugs do it all the time.

This looks amazing. I'm totally excited for this movie now. I hope the Green Lantern gets a richly deserved boost in lovin' from the general public.

And I would have laughed and given you one! You have undermined yourself. Good luck on your entry!

Dang, that is a sweet Freakshow you might saw. HUGE, and a hammer for a hand. Want to be just like him when you grow up? Well, now you can! 'Cuz for reasons Marcian doesn't entirely remember, he still has 2 Comic Con 2008 costume codes! I'm giving these away as prizes for the two people that win the First Ever Black Pebble Strike Force!

Your Task:

• Go to another site. Any other site.
• Post something Freakshow and City of Heroes/Villains/Going Rogue related (can be any of the three games).
• Include a way for people to try out the game. Could be an offer to show people a Free Trial. Could be a link to download it themselves. Really, I don't care.
• Link me to what you did, along with any notes you want. (Post the link here, so you can share with the class.)

That's it. The two attempts that most gather my favor will be sent these costume codes. And let's not mince words: This thing is entirely by my bias. Here are some tips on how I'll be judging:

Tips for Success!

• Originality: "hey try this game lulz freakshow" Doesn't cut it. I'm looking for images, videos, poetry, charisma... something that would make someone turn their head and say "Whoa".
• Success: Did people immediately respond to what you did? What was the reaction?
• Resonate: If your attempt was funny, did I laugh? If it was emotional, was I moved?
• Theme: This should represent both The Freakshow and the City of Heroes franchise. Stick to those, but dance in the otherwise open ended definition.

I will judge winners this time next week. (3/9/2011) Now get out there, you rapscallions, and make Marcian proud. There's a costume code at stake! And remember: Now that toggles stay indefinitely, you can keep this costume on during your entire campaign (Exception: When you are the dead).

Good luck!

Why do I never think of doing the smart thing first?

I'll send out a ticket.

I'm holding you to that.

An Inconvenient Recompense, as narrated by Al Gory.

All right, this is good to know.

Just so you understand where I was coming from when I added those: I knew they were unnecessary. They keep me from getting bored, though.

Traps are passive. Thugs, like all MM primaries, are passive. I can pretty much draw a lot of aggro, put my Thugs on "bodyguard" mode and check out. In fact, I do that a lot. Last night, I drew crowds of Yellows towards me and then put my Thugs on "Bodyguard". I Alt+Tabbed out to a separate forum, read some political debates, understood the issues, looked at my Facebook, and then came back in time to see that I had "won" this "fight".

Pistols give me something to do so I don't keep letting that happen. In this way, Masterminds are simultaneously the most interesting and most boring set.

Now, this is my min/max build, so by all means go for it. I'm totally for squeezing an extra 3% defense onto things, and that's what I asked you lot to help me with. I just wanted to explain my own design philosophy.

This is also why I originally took out Seeker Drones: They are boring. The enemy has no real visual reaction to them hitting, and beyond remembering to summon them in the first place, they have no depth of strategy.

This whole "caring" about my build thing is very new.