Marsquake

Excellent analysis air.

I've always thought of the rating system as a popularity marker, not a sign of quality. Even some of the dev choices don't match up to some quality arcs I've played. The devs picked some that specifically promoted the AE system, so they're more self-serving than genuine artistic approval.

I've stopped voting altogether unless I really love the arc.

None of the architects reviewed in the Zero Stars thread asked for a review. Yet they get picked apart in a hilarious way. Maybe the problem is that some reviewers are overly serious. An injection of humor would go well all around, and we might avoid these futile acrimonious debates.

Maybe we need a beer summit. Or would we all argue about which beer to drink? :P

As a further analogy, sometimes film studios do not make a movie they believe is a stinkbomb available for early screening to reviewers. They at least want that first week-end's box office before word of mouth rolls in. Then when a reviewer sees it in a theater, the critical opinion rolls in. Once it's publicly released it's fair game.

Big graphic sigs are just going to make the boards load slower for those w/ slow comps. Some can be jarring to the eye too. They're not as easy to skip over as overloaded text sigs. But maybe that's the point.

I usually have the channel in a separate tab. Sometimes I forget to open the tab. Other times its open to add to a session's entertainment.

That said it is sometimes not kid friendly, or even gf friendly. Normally, I couldn't care less what's said and how, unless its extreme. So she logs in to the game last afternoon after getting home from work, looking to unwind. LBx is open and right away one player is repeatedly using the f-word and someone else is overusing a word for sexual assault. (I won't even get into why it's wrong to reference such real world trauma so lightly.)

I'm not a witness to any of the drama described above, but I can see Steele's point. If you're a parent w/ young children, or have young relatives you want to introduce to the game, I'd probably remove LBx from the channel list. It's too easy to turn the profanity filter off.

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THERE IS NO FORGIVENESS!!! I must now vocally put you on /ignore and continue to argue with you anyway!

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Lol. I'm glad you have a sense of humor. And if you post that you weren't kidding, I hope i"m not drinking something while reading, cause I'll spew it out.

I was using Elseworlds in the DC Comics sense. They practically invented the term. Marvel uses "What if?" to identify similar stories.

One story had Kal-el's rocket landing in Soviet Russia. So instead of a loving Kansas farmer couple, he was raised by the state to become the Soviet Superman, Red Son.

So if Superman or Batman had a son or daughter and you told a story about them, it would be an elseworlds story. It's an extension of the current mythos, but not part of current continuity.

By that defintion, an Elseworlds tag fits Teen Phalanx perfectly.

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The strangest objection from reviews I've read is to stories that don't follow canon lore. Those reviewers seem to forget that AE is presented as a virtual world w/in a a virtual world. All the missions are supposedly training, which supplies Posi's (weak) in-game rationale for letting heroes run a villain created system.

I couldn't care less about any discrepencies from canon, esp. since canon stories are not uniformly high quality. The more a story veers away from dev canon, the more elseworlds it becomes. An imaginative alternate story can be more fun than slavish conformity to existing canon.

As an example, try running PW's Teen Phalanx arc. You will be entertained.

[/ QUOTE ]An "elseworlds" arc is something different entirely, I only consider an arc "elseworlds" if it has nothing to do with the CoH universe at all. Any arc that mentions anything from CoH canon, no matter how much the author deliberately mangles it, is a "canon" arc in my mind, and the author needs to do the research.

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Actually an elseworld is a divergence from the existing history of the given universe, an alternate world. As such, it should have a reference point w/in canon. Afterwards it can veer away a little or a lot.

That said, there seem to be too opposing views of AE. Those who take the stated purpose of the system as entertainment w/in a virtual world, or to stretch it further, as a training tool endorsed and approved by Posi in-game. The other side demands consistency w/ current canon, if any canon elements are referenced at all. Neither satisfies me. I prefer the looser middle. But then I'm not a RPer. I have no problem running a heroic mission w/ a villain. So stated intent, both from dev rationalizations or MA authors just make me shrug.

Please forgive me Eva. I don't mean to pick on you in any way. It's just that from other posts of yours, you seem to take things too literally sometimes.

The strangest objection from reviews I've read is to stories that don't follow canon lore. Those reviewers seem to forget that AE is presented as a virtual world w/in a a virtual world. All the missions are supposedly training, which supplies Posi's (weak) in-game rationale for letting heroes run a villain created system.

I couldn't care less about any discrepancies from canon, esp. since canon stories are not uniformly high quality. The more a story veers away from dev canon, the more elseworlds it becomes. An imaginative alternate story can be more fun than slavish conformity to existing canon.

As an example, try running PW's Teen Phalanx arc. You will be entertained.

That's the odd thing. Her Teen Phalanx arc is one of my favorites. Its enjoyable and entertaining. So she's written both one of my favorite MA arcs and one of my least favorite.

So I'll take those odds. Nudge... nudge...

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How about asking a Dev to just kill the Global channel and then we just start over from scratch as LBx.

AV

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To this point I have not been able to get any dev to respond to this. I have sent a PM to several red names and received no response at all. I opened a ticket with support and was simply told "At this time, this is not a current function of the game."

Unless I can get a response from the "powers that be", our only recourse will be to create a new channel.

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From experience, it can take literally a year or more, if ever, to get a response from a red name. The response may be favorable, but by then your problem either ceased to exist or you found your own solution.

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If you're a villain with world-domination tendencies, then disposing of Hitler and correcting his mistakes so that you rule the Nazis and, ultimately, the world makes perfect sense.

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Only if you strip all moral sense from that statement and treat it strictly as a military wargame. Otherwise no... just no.

I've tried to nudge Venture into reviewing the arc, but of course he only does requests. PW mostly likely would not want it reviewed by him.

Chaos could probably come up w/ a rationale for the worst Idiot Ball game of thow/catch I've encountered in the entire game, PW's arc "Axis and Allies."

Being forced to take over the Nazi party on just the word of your contact, become its Fuhrer, and take over the world is mind-bogglingly idiotic, esp. as there is no reason given (as far as I remember) why you the player should wish to do so.

Thx. Makes alotta sense.

How about Liberty Fallen and Redeemed - LFR. It would be inclusive of both heroes and villains, and look forward to Going Rogue. Plus, as far as I can tell , not easily mocked as an acronym.

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Helps to have em when you go up against the entire Freedom Phalanx at once...

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When anything in the game actually requires shiv's or nukes....

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K, how bout having to enter PvP zones for explore badges and plaques required for accolades. Yes accolades boosting your end or hps are not required (duh), but they're sure nice to have.

Strange to hear from a PvPer that you don't wanna bring all you can to a fight.

Helps to have em when you go up against the entire Freedom Phalanx at once...

Which is why there should be PvP only toons, auto-lvled to 50, or at least 40. Kinda like a certain other MMO does. The 2 sides would have best of both worlds. And then maybe devs would be freed up to create more new content, instead of spending so much time tweaking powers to "balance" both sides.

Ask and ye shall receive!
Now don't go abusing that power young lady.

Surprise!

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And I'll notice no one's brought back a definition for griefing :P


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We don't need a definition, we aren't the ones whining about getting attacked in a pvp zone.

But here you go

Definition: anything you think is griefing in pve is ok in pvp.


Off the top of my head here's what you can't do "legally" while pvp'ing:
-use map glitches.
-verbally assault anyone (ie racist comments).

Anything else you might think constitutes griefing does not and you are wrong.

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i agree with this completely. If ur in PvP then why the hell would u complain when another player kills u, and another thing...... Whats with all this "dual' [censored] in PvP.. u wanna duel then go to Pocket D, or the arena. I don't care what ur doing, if I see u Imma kill u, hell I might even tp u into some drones and just sit back and watch THEM kill u.. as long as u die I don't care how it happens. The ONLY RULES THAT MATTER in PvP are the ones setforth by the contract and the devs. Thats it. I don't care if u think inspirations are not legal in PvP... says who...?

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You're forgetting that those who have no interest in PvPing are forced to go to those zones to get goodies like nukes and Shivans.

I was gonna say that lately I've seen players cooperate in BB to take out turrets, but you know... I won't, cause you may get the irresistable impulse to go harrass them.

Hedge forgot to hit the sarcasm button, but I read it that way.

Sounds Kafkaesque. Your SO became a giant bug and ate you alive?

I think its 150.

A level 34 in under a week? Sounds alot like this game.