Marsquake

So first Paragon is making piles of cash, then you say non-subs aren't spending any money. Presumably all that income is from a huge rise in VIPs. Between the migration to Exalted and the lessening presence of subbers on the regular servers, it doesn't seem like a tenable claim, even if you're purely speculating.

So your take on the current state of the game seems contradictory to me. Even though you haven't pointed to how you know income has increased, you deny that it comes from returning and free players. Very strange, given that it encapsulates the business model of converting to "free to play".

I'm willing to concede that there may have been an initial spike in spending for the first couple months after conversion. I suspect (since you're speculating, bear with me too) there was a huge drop after that. In my case I bought things like the street fighter set and let the toon languish since. Others may have lost their initial excitement.

So, since we're speculating, consider this. Aion should be safe to mention since it's an NCSoft game. It's future was predictable from the first month of release. The structre of opposing factions artificially balanced on each server, with PvP as endgame, guaranteed a collapsing server/domino effect as populations shrank. It was a near fatal flaw in the game's fundamental design.

CoH is heading down a similar path. Again, it's just speculation, but it may be predictive. If VIPs continue consolidating on a single server, because they don't want to associate with the unwashed masses, the regular servers will become ever more depopulated. Maybe that will be the ultimate state of the game, one restricted server and another for the supposed undesirables. Part of the migration may be a way to get people to get used to leaving their base behind, since there's no current way to migrate what you've built up, and not to rely on base storage functions.

So the new business model that's supposed to act as a backstop to the declining sub base ends up treating the influx of new players and their dollars as unwanted, unruly, undesirables. Meanwhile the hardcore subbing base gets to continue feeling special and coddled by the dev team.

Try to step back a bit and look at the bigger picture, although that may be impossible if you're snug inside the bubble. The way the game is structured at the moment is not a recipe for long term growth or success. Other games have managed to run for many years with a hardcore base of 10,000 to 30,000 players. I think that's where this game is headed, though that's not what NCSoft wants.

It seems you just don't read closely. I never claimed they would lose more money from other restrictions or from past misguided moves like the forum changes. Those are your words.

What I said and am saying is that it may benefit them to throw returning players a bone, even if it concerns a minor irritant. They are not obligated to do so, but it makes good sense if they want to reward more returning players for their past loyalty, as they claim they do.

This formula: Pay us real rent ($15/mo) so that you can pay your virtual rent, makes little sense from a marketing perspective. In other words it doesn't play well on any MMO sites and game discussion boards that care to mention this game.

You seem to think that populations of VIPs are rising, but if my home server is an indication of the others, they are declining significantly. Good luck recruiting a so-called VIP subber as they continue the exodus to Exalted. Some will always stay where they developed relationships, others will get discouraged as their friends leave for the exclusive server (you must have seen the threads and posts shivering in disgust and horror at the wave of freebie immigrants coming in).

But if you make a claim like "They are making money hand over fist," I want citation. Unless you back up such statements, it's pure speculation and reflexive, maybe blind, defense of their business strategy.

That's stating the very obvious. It's also missing the point. Going "free to play" does not seem to mean the same to this dev team that it does in more general usage. The sub base was shrinking before the conversion and the intent was to renew interest in those who had lapsed subs. They also touted how important it was for them to show their appreciation for those who had invested in the game in years past.

That's not what it looks like to me as someone interested in what's new in the game. The current model has the worst aspects of chopping up features of a game to sell piecemeal, while at the same time maintaining it's declining sub base's entitled status. That base wasn't enough to keep the game going, but they are vocal, so why not give them what they want?

It was interesting that even forum access wasn't available for returning players initially. In the age of massive social media, Paragon thought posting here was a high privilege. Big mistake and again not a big incentive to sub. Alternative forum and discussion sites are easily found, most way more entertaining than this one. The purging of the Comics Culture section was one of the factors that drove me away into the arms of other media sites covering popular culture. The powers that be here didn't seem to understand or care that it was the sense of community that made those discussions interesting. That sense was gutted.

Just from a customer service perspective, not allowing returning players to discuss and ask questions was a dumb move. How many took a look and went away again, shaking their heads at another tone deaf decision.

So again, obviously the devs are not obligated to give me and others who took a second look anything, but then they aren't the best business decision makers. Time and again they miss some issue that seems minor to the vocal fanbase, but it's enough to make someone say "I choose not to spend my money here."

P.S. You are in denial if you don't think that the servers are littered with hundreds of dead SGs. Most who came back to try the game as a "premium" (misnomer, I think) did not expect to have to broadcast for a "VIP" (some nice, some with the entitled complex I remember well) to come pay rent with virtual money you already have but are not allowed to use. This kinda awkwardness and clunkiness in how game systems are handled again points to the hamfisted way the game has been handled.

You stressed yourself that the devs wanted to avoid exploitation of solo SGs. We had our remaining VIP paying our fake rent, til he let his sub lapse. I've also bought items since returning, so I'm not playing for free. Instead of encouraging returning players to spend money and to supplement sagging subs, we get players like you sneering. Counterproductive it seems.

This worked contrary to their intent for me. It was a disincentive and source of annoyance when we found out we couldn't pay base rent with the millions we've earned in past years, unless we paid real money to sub to the game. So much for appreciating past customer loyalty.

We've existed as an Sg since CoV rolled out, with a smaller associated hero Sg prior to that. If the solo bases are such a concern, lift the restriction on those bases with multiple accounts.

Meanwhile, being shoved in the direction of paying a sub in order to pay pretend rent smacks of marketing extortion. Some of us who no longer wish to sub are going to resent any such efforts.

Good point. Maybe he should be called the Judge, instead of the Doctor. It's a legacy Moffat has to deal with in the newest incarnation, where apparently the Silence is a number of species bound together in the belief that the Doctor is a very dangerous being.

Didn't see that one, just read the review. The reviewer said the show glossed over how he got better. Just skips ahead and he's better. Doesn't even explain how he got out of the country, just "some people" helped. Sounds like more lazy writing.

The writing also takes too many things for granted, skipping over obvious questions raised. Another example, from an episode I did see, is when Gwen blows up the health care/internment camp. She spends most of the episode trying to get her dad out, berating staff for not caring how Category 1's will be exterminated in oven modules. She then sets some bombs and rides away watching the explosion in her rearview mirror. How many people, the sick and staff alike, were in that facility that she just exterminated? Are we even meant to be bothered by her actions? I don't think Davies cares. It makes for a big explosive American action movie cliche that directly contradicts her earlier concern for human life.

Really atrocious writing.

She was also by far the most conservative of captains. She enforced Starfleet protocol ostensibly to keep the crew united, but basically dictated conformity. Except when it suited her otherwise, of course. Guess that makes her the most contradictory of captains as well.

I agree with Samothrake that Captain Calhoun's crew could be the basis for a good TV series, but doubt we'll ever see that. (The good Capt. does make an appearance in a certain MMO by that company that used to own this game.)

That was another bit of sloppy writing. How do they even know he's mortal, since he had not sutained a mortal wound? Never mind, just take our word for it and move on.

Hm, from the new Muppets to the new Superman. I like her well enough. Not sure I see her as Lois Lane yet.

Didn't a future Superman look similar to this? The one from the 85th century, or something, featured in the Issue One Million event.

On a side note, anyone know who the new Lois Lane will be? Kate Bosworth didn't seem like a good choice in the last one.

If you only look at graphical elements, maybe. The underwear on the outside has been such an outdated relic of original superhero costume design, it's past time for an update. Anyone remember those Charles Atlas ads they used to run in comics? That's what they did with Superman's design, keeping the trunks and coloring in his legs and chest to cover up too much skin.

Otoh, Captain Marvel always wore pants, if tight, and kept his underwear where they belonged. maybe the history of graphic costume design woulda been different if DC hadn't sued the pants off Fawcett Comics back then.

Dunno anything about "Dave," but there were some very quick lines of dialogue that can be missed. Like River deciding she would age backward just to mess with people, which conveniently explains away the actress being younger when we first met her in Tennant's Library episode, even though she's supposed to be "older" when she first meets the younger Doctor.

In another almost throwaway line, River says she was a young girl before regenerating into Mels, confirming that was River in the spacesuit.

Yeah, the art style isn't appealing. The early concept art I saw seemed to suggest a more pulp sci-fi style, like old Flash Gordon strips. Not sure how that would have gone over, probably way too retro. On the other hand most kiddies would likely not even be aware that it was old, so it may have worked.

Zhann was sexy as hell, too. Her "sun-worshipping" scene was pretty amazing. But yeah, she left a void in the show.

That may be a smart thing to do. I don't normally trust upper management to implement good things, but Paragon has tripped a few times (like the Orwellian Ministry of Truth forum policies during the past year), so some better integration may yield benefits.

OTOH, Guild Wars 1 and 2 don't require a sub and I don't really want to play Pvp-as-endgame Aion. That leaves Wildstar, the current CoH, and whatever next-gen game Paragon seems to be hiring people for.

Maybe they finally got smart about the unreasonable restrictions, or some suit at NCSoft finally found out that it was undercutting their bottom line.

I used to assume I knew the facts of the McDonald's hot coffee case til I saw the photos of the actual burns caused by the scalding coffee. In a way, that lady was lucky it spilled on the outside and she didn't ingest it, likely resulting in excruciating pain and maybe life-threatening internal burns.

Check this out if you get a chance. It may open your eyes about your assumptions of so-called frivolous lawsuits:

http://hotcoffeethemovie.com/

As far as Kirby's legal rights to his creations, it's bothered me more and more over the years that Stan Lee has become a multi-millionaire by disingenuously claiming, sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly, sole credit for many of Marvel's mainstay characters (including Captain America, as someone pointed out earlier, which was co-created by Kirby and Simon). He almost never mentions his co-creators, while reaping the benefits.

Anyone receiving credit as a co-creator, such as a "character created by" by-line, should own it as intellectual property, especially when the visual concept owes so much to the artist and not the writer. We forget that Image comics was founded as a rebellion against Marvel Comics' treatment of artists. Without making a case either for or against Image's publications, at least they changed our perceptions of artists' powerlessness against corporate strangleholds on their creations.