Moderator 08

My worst idea for a game is an online forum simulator where you skirt as close as possible to breaking rules.

I think I'll shut development down now.

Stress is difficult, and causes irreparable damage to our bodies. I wonder how many years the forums owe me?

Sorry about your modem, all I can say is Going Rogue is worth it!

Discussion of theory is acceptable but very difficult. Please try and be careful, we'd rather not have to lock/remove this thread. That being said I think that the term MMO is an artificial distinction. It may be useful for communicating the broad scope of a game, but what does it really mean?

And given that Massively is contained within the definition of MMO, can you really have a Multiplayer online game that is massive and micro at the same time?

A good rule of thumb is that after a thread has been inactive for more than 3 months, it is "dead" and revival of such a thread would be necromancy.

So why is necro posting against the rules? Well I don't want to get into it too much, since I'd prefer to avoid writing a primer on trolling, but there are a lot of nasty little trolling techniques that can rely on necro posting.

I've seen a couple of forum add-ons to automatically lock older threads but there are occasions where there is a legitimate reason to post in an older thread rather than creating a new thread with a link to the old thread so we haven't gone down that road.

I know it can be a hassle, but it's better than the alternative of allowing some meaner sorts of forum behavior free reign.

Anyways discussion of moderator activity is always best kept to PM's, so I'll lock this one.

Please don't abuse the GM's, they might start asking for reasonable work hours and bathroom breaks.

And of course people who kill the GM's might have slower response time in the future.

I would be strongly against this change. We have not even considered it however.

Thanks,

I'd really like to have some control over drop rates, I've got to finish my current stalker project before I start on the next stalker. Stalkers can be expensive you know?

The character I've most played lately is a pvp build claws/nin. I still contribute just fine on teams. I may only have 1 AoE but that's ok it feels like 3. I don't do as much AoE as say my Archery/mm blaster but really not many builds can.

Unfortunately as so many people have mentioned it's perception that is largely the issue, and perception is much more difficult to change than fields in a database.

That wasn't the reason the posts were deleted. Please don't mention moderator action in the future, PM me if you have a question.

Duly Noted.

Please don't post links with naughty words, it makes me sad.

Drama in Roster threads make me a sad panda. Mostly cause I like being the nice guy and not just deleting your rosters.

Please, think of the pandas.

Thanks all!

Thanks all!

Thanks for the kind words!

Badly played characters with KB can make things more difficult. Next on the news at 11, we'll discuss how people who are afk are not contributing to the group.

Seriously though, I'm gonna go ahead and lock this post since this discussion will only get ugly and when I check the forums tomorrow I don't want to have to do as much work since it'll be my Birthday. I do have to say, that I'm a huge Storm fan and understand that using it appropriately is one of the more challenging activities in our game. Bad players will be bad it is true, but the best way to deal with people who detract from your fun is avoid those kind of people.

Sorry guys! Better luck next time. Only 10 codes though, otherwise our lawyer would kill us.

Thanks,

You can't make Thor or Iron Man or Robin or even Stilt Man in this game. It would be an IP violation and get generic'd.

Think of CoH as its own universe, with its own constraints and rules. It makes everything make more sense then.

Ok, I'll throw my opinion on what will happen as a market participant and not as an employee of NCsoft/Paragon Studios.

TL; DR version Player Behavior will affect prices more than the Market Merge. Also I like throwing sharks at people in PvP.

The markets being merged will create a larger pool of market participants for both sides, creating a market that is less vulnerable to supply swings and manipulation. At the same time player behavior will change based on a shift in player priorities, whatever those end up being.

The player behavioral changes will have a much greater impact on the market than anything. This is unfortunately non transparent so swings in market prices that occur from behavioral changes are often construed as having some other source, including manipulation or inflation.

Let me give an example that actually recently happened to illustrate.

After one of the recent issue releases, one player who goes by the name of XXXXXXy made a relatively large bet on respec recipes. XXXXXXy noticed that the price of respec recipes was affected by time since the last issue release. Most issue releases come with a respec, so demand for respec recipes would drop dramatically (and therefore the price would drop as well). As time went on from the issuing of a freespec, more players would have used up the granted respec and be in the market for purchased respecs causing an increase in the price of respec recipes.

XXXXXXy gathered up all his available cash and bought an extravagant number of respec recipes for a relatively low price. He was open about what he was doing, and discussed it on the forums. Some months later, after it had been quite some time since a free respec was given out, he then proceeded to sell the recipes he had bought for a lower price for a much higher price. He used all the inf he had gained through this maneuver to vacation in Aruba*.

A number of players accused XXXXXXy of manipulating the price on respec recipes as a result of this, and for the record he probably did affect the price in some small way. There were less respec recipes on the market than would have been otherwise so it probably drove the price up a small amount. However the number of respec recipes that dropped globally and were made available on the market between his decision to buy and his decision to sell was many times greater than the relatively small number of recipes he had gathered and so his purchase made a very small global blip of price increase.

His public discussion of the well observed cycle of respec recipe prices also potentially had a small effect on the price, but this was actually more dangerous to him financially as a greater number of participants in this activity increased the risk that he could take a bath on the whole gamble. If someone else had a significant number of recipes and dumped before he did, he would have had much less profit potential.

What XXXXXXy did wasn't market manipulation, it was an observation of player behavior and making an informed guess based on historical precedent in an attempt to reap some rewards in the form of inf. XXXXXXy didn't change the price, player behavior did. Whatever we think of the morality of his actions (and I can respect the opinion of those who maintain that super heroes do not engage in market speculation), the price swing was caused by the most significant determiner in the market, what players choose to do.

So instead of thinking about how the market merge will affect the market, think about how your behavior might change as a result of I18 and Going Rogue. Is your behavior typical of a significant group of a players and if so how might this effect prices?

Unfortunately for me, most of my playtime is spent playing a stalker and throwing sharks at people who PvP. This is probably because I moderate the PvP forums and it makes me feel better to throw sharks at the people who frequent those forums. I'm probably therefore an atypical player so I can't use my preferences as a guide. I can think about what you all want to do, but I do that for work so I won't spend my free time doing it.

Hope this provides some small amount of insight,
-Mod08

*the part about Aruba may not be strictly true.

Welcome back!

Darn lock and sticky buttons are right next to one another.

As to good standing, let me suggest that if you've ever been caught exploiting or seriously violated a NDA, your account might not be in good standing. I can't provide an exhaustive list, but the vast majority of people don't have to worry.

I prefer a thick cut of threadlock myself. Lightly toasted.

Invites will come to those eligible through the various programs at the appropriate times. Starting threads speculating on the reasons you have or have not made it in yet is non productive.

If we just invited everyone who will be eventually invited now, it would be disastrous for the beta program. There is a method folks, please be patient.

Also remember that in order to be eligible for beta, your account has to be in good standing.