Mirai

I stand corrected, although that doesn't really help.

My poor teaming skills aren't up to standards for TFs/SFs/trials/raids in any case, let alone the uber l33t incarnate stuff. In the past seven years I've only managed to complete two TFs and zero trials or raids, and it's been years since I did the two TFs.

Thank goodness for the black helicopter additions. If not for them, I'd have nothing in I20 to enjoy at all. Still, I think I preferred Issue 4... where all I got was some new costume pieces.

Well that's something we have in common.

Function. Lightning Rod is just all-around a very awkward and very inefficient power for me.

That's a good example. I don't like Lightning Rod, and I dropped it in a respec. Lot's of players think it's a great power, but it just doesn't work well for me.

I'm not under the belief that the game should cater solely to my tastes. If the game suits my tastes, then I'll play it. I'm all about the journey, not the destination. The better I can pull that off in a game (using a variety of characters), the longer I'll be playing the game.

I've seen a number of players who don't care at all about the journey. They get to the end as fast as possible and grind raids and other end game content. They'd be perfectly happy if they could start off at the maximum level so that they wouldn't waste time getting to their version of the "real" game. This game hasn't been suited to their tastes in the past, but it's expanding that way. And all the old things that appeals to those of us who enjoy the leveling process are still here.

I don't begrudge the game trying to appeal to a variety of tastes. It's an MMO, and can continue to grow and cater to more and more players over time.

I'm playing a new MMO now that is mostly about the destination, rather than the journey. The journey takes maybe a week for any given character. Then it's onto grinding for gear. Lots of people like that. I don't, but I enjoy what little journey there is. With very limited character variety and a short game, I won't be staying there much longer. CoH has far more for me to do even after all this time.

By that token, it's a game; I play it to have fun. If there's something that isn't fun, there's no point in doing it, unless I need to get past it to get to more fun stuff, and the gain exceeds the pain. There are things I'd be uncomfortable with doing in the game because it wouldn't be fun for me. It would be very non-fun. This includes raids and PvP. There are consequences for me, including boredom and discomfort.

If I buy a game, it's because I know I can get my money's worth of play time while staying in my comfort zone. I might stray out of my comfort zone now and then depending on my mood, but by far most of the time I'll be sticking to my comfort zone. Adding content with cool stuff that's gated by a lot of stuff beyond my comfort zone will pretty much guarantee that I don't do that content. Because it's a game. If I want to do unfun stuff, I have plenty of that available outside of games.

Well, yes, but keep in mind that I'm not being flippant because I'm not in Europe; I'm being flippant because I don't use global chat and wouldn't care if my global name got changed. Still, it is a matter of practicality. It would take far more work to negotiate individual name changes between two parties with the same name. I can't really think of a reasonable (in terms of time and effort) way to handle it besides what they're doing, so I can't call what they're doing unreasonable.

If they're loose, just tighten them up again.

Yes, EU servers are getting picked on because they're a clear minority. It's just a matter of convenience and practically. On the bright side, you're getting a lot more servers to play on. That might not be much of a consolation if you care more about non-tight global names than getting on other servers, but it's an important reason for the change.

Hopefully any end game costume items are appropriately bulky and garish pieces of armor, like they are in a certain new MMO. That way I won't feel like I'm missing out on anything.

Bulky and garish is definitely the way to go for end game!

Right. It's going to be extremely hard for an MMO to cater to everybody's comfort zones fully. They will inevitably include content that isn't going to suit certain play styles. I think the only problem would be if an MMO makes major changes to the existing game mechanics, shifting from some comfort zones to others. (Example: Star Wars Galaxies NGE.)

If CoH changed things so that a team was required for any mission in the game, it would change right out of my comfort zone, and I would quit. Similarly if the game switched to a first person shooter mode, with no third person perspective available. I don't expect things like that to happen. If the devs continue to add new content that I won't be comfortable playing, I'll be disappointed at the lack of new stuff that suits me, but the content I've been playing is still here and unchanged.

I'm impressed. I've never been able to solo well with a Fire/ blaster. My Ice/Ice blaster, on the other hand, has always been one of my best soloing characters thanks to all the control effects.

Scrappers of course are great at soloing. Claws/Regen was probably the best for me, although some people don't do well with /Regen. I'm very fond of soloing dominators, until I run into elite bosses with those purple-triangles-of-doom (but I just auto-complete or avoid those missions with dominators).

Probably my most powerful soloing character has always been my Ill/Rad controller. Even the early levels are quite manageable thanks to throwing some confusion around. I had to use Hasten regularly to keep things fun though, because of the long recharge times on powers. I still have more fun with some of my other characters, despite the Ill/Rad's ability to handle pretty much anything thrown at her.

I've been playing this game going on seven years now, so forcing me out of my comfort zone would simply cause me to move to a new game. In fact, I've been disappointed with the way CoH has been headed lately, so I've been caught up in a new MMO. That's not going to last for more than a couple months though, because that new MMO is very short on content (besides being a poor fit for my play style). Then I expect to ditch that game and get back to playing my CoH alts more.

The Incarnate system is definitely way out of my comfort zone, but I don't have to do that stuff. I've tried it out a bit, and found it to be beyond my casual soloist abilities. But the CoH I've been playing in the past is still there, so unless they go and retcon that I'll still enjoy the game.

As far as other MMOs go, if it doesn't fit in my comfort zone then I have other gaming options. I wouldn't expect other games to cater to my tastes. There are so many games, something is bound to suit my play style.

Ah. Big deal for European players, not so much for US players then. Carry on.

Uh huh. Well, if a casual PUG can handle those things with no problem, then as I said I'll be very interested to see that.