Molehill
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Posts
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Joined
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All that customization with powers and costumes imparted more of a sense of ownership than any other MMO I've played. CO may have offered as much customization, but it fell short for other reasons.
That sense of ownership allowed me to get my head and heart wrapped around the toons that I created. Now that I'm "reminded" about the vulnerability of this gaming medium, I doubt I'll let myself get that wrapped around a MMO game like this one. There is a lost opportunity here. I sort of lament that this game wasn't in the hands of a private entity who can live with something modestly successful. I can only imagine what this game could have been in another decade. Maybe a revamped engine ... base code that doesn't resemble jenga on fire ... -
Quote:Seriously. Please make them stop.Originally Posted by Ironik
After DA2, ME3 and SW:TOR... honestly, I don't even want them to make another GAME.
After playing DA1 and ME2, it sort of struck me that they were rehashing the same formulas. The DLC and internet connection to check what was tied to your account was very unappealing. I waited on DA2 and ME3 and was lucky enough to avoid both.
SWTOR on the other hand I didn't get away from because it was given to me as a present. Yep ... had the same sort of story mechanics. Gather your allies and make them like you (and one more than the others) before heading out to the big finale.
It's sad. Bioware RPG's used to be practically instabuy for me. -
Quote:It's been a long time since I've seen tigers in space. I didn't know about this project. I'm gonna have to give this a try. Thanks for the suggestion.Originally Posted by LittleDavid
Also, for anyone who's a fan of Wing Commander like I am, I recommend the Wing Commander Saga. It's a fan game, a full-length campaign set during the time of Wing Commander III, developed with the Freespace 2 engine, and has taken about as much time to develop as City of Heroes has been around. For a game running on an engine that old, it looks pretty darned sweet.
Speaking of space combat, have you ever tried Vendetta Online? I haven't, though I bring it up only because it's billed as a space combat MMO. It has a development team of 4 people. It's the only example that's caught my eye and hasn't been a large development production. -
For large production video games, the industry definitely has take a turn for the worse. When investment dollars are involved it becomes less about the game and more about stock prices and dividends. It's an environment that stifles innovation because of the amount of money involved and the aversion to risk. Minimizing risk implies rehashing previously successful formulas.
I'm no game developer, but I'd guess that indie development and smaller productions are more nimble, and not subject to the pressure to meet the higher sales numbers just to break even. I think that segment of the gaming industry has the best chances to deliver fun and innovative games. Yes, there's some noise to cut through to find games worthy to play, but the process is no different than any other forms of entertainment. I'm sure we've all suffered through bad music, movies, books, etc.
Personally, I'm waiting not-so-patiently for Shadowrun Returns. -
Before being able to decline a teleport ...
As a stone tank, I team tp'd the whole team into the middle of a large group of enemies...
Hey at least I didn't tp back out... The results were about the same though. -
Quote:Because the devil is in the details. It sucks not having details. We can't get our heads around it, digest it, rationalize it. We can't acknowledge the rationality of it because we weren't given one. The best we can do is speculate, but we wake up the next morning knowing we got no closer to the truth. We probably have hundreds of posts trying to take a step forward, but so very, very few allow us to move forward. Paragon Studios employees are under a NDA (I read that somewhere in these forums) and NCSoft is playing their cards close to the vest. The only thing concrete that I've read so far was that there were "high level talks" with NCSoft.Originally Posted by Talionis
Business is usually rational and I just see so many other options as being more rational.
It's a crappy frame of mind to be in. -
Quote:Yes. I'm wrong there.Originally Posted by ArcticFahx
That's not how stocks work. If I own stock in ABC company, I don't sell it back to ABC when I decide to sell it, I sell it to random investor Joe.
If no one is buying, stock prices plummet in value. To raise stock prices, companies can opt to buy back their stock. Obviously the company has to have money on hand for that ... The motivations for this is about where my understanding stops. -
Quote:Say 25% is what you need to keep investors happy. You make 15%, fire your division leaders, and change your business model (F2P lets say). Now you're making 20%. Investors are starting to get antsy ... What are you going to do? If enough of them pull their money out and your stock prices tanks, things can get pretty ugly, no? And you're still making a profit ...Originally Posted by Talionis
If I say I'll make 25 percent profit, but only make 15 percent, the division leaders may get fired, but it makes no sense to kill a division that is still making money. Instead you change your business model.
I'll say it another way. Stock holders are partial owners in the company. When they buy shares in the company, they do so to make money, turn a profit on their investment. It has to be large enough for the investor, who considers the risk being taken and the amount of money being made over a given time horizon. If they decide that the company is not a good place to park their money, even through they're turning a profit (a small one), they'll sell their stock. Consider what happens when a large number of investors sell. You're making enough money to cover your operating costs (salaries, overhead, etc) with a little bit left over (small profit). But do you have enough to pay all the people who are selling their stock in the company?Quote:Originally Posted by Talionis
I've heard they just didn't make a big enough profit so many times, but it makes no sense to me. Maybe some better analogy will make sense to me, but I thought companies liked to make as much money as possible. I can't understand murdering a division that is making money. If you think it should be making more change the division leadership and business model. But some money should be something the corporation wants.
Probably not... So what options does the company have left? Bankruptcy?
And the whole time ... the company was "profitable."
Maybe you're right. Maybe I don't understand business. I thought that in order to grow quickly enough to implement a business plan to take advantage of a relatively new business venture (say MMO's circa 2004), you took in public money and operated on public money. As the company profited, those profits were given back to the investing public (dividends, capital gains, etc) or reinvested into the company for it to grow (say R&D or to handle cash flow to quickly grow a larger workforce). I'm not familiar with the mechanism (if any) for a publicly traded company to hoard money (that it made by using investor funds) so that it can buy itself back. I'm guessing that NCSoft doesn't have that kind of cash on hand. Profit is only part of the end goal as it goes hand in hand with keeping investors happy. -
I keep reading about how City of Heroes is profitable and from a basic money-in, money-out perspective, it makes sense to keep it going. City of Heroes may indeed be profitable. But it's most likely not profitable enough when it's considered against the backdrop of a publicly traded company, which NCSoft is.
Hypothetically, as a department manager for a publicly traded company, I need to report how profitable my department is going to be. That number gets relayed up through corporate and eventually out to Wall Street as part of a bigger report. Investors use that information to help make decisions on how they move their money. Say the average profit for my industry is 15% and I report that I can make 30% but make only 25%, I'm still in "trouble", even though I beat the average. People (investors) made decisions based on what I reported and I didn't deliver. That disappointment affects the company's ability to attract / keep investor dollars. It's about doing what you said you were going to do.
Also consider that if the company needs to make that hypothetical 15% profit to keep money in the company (prevent investors from selling off en masse for more profitable ventures at similar risk), and my department is consistently making 5% profit, then I should expect changes in my position or employment status soon. I'm still making a profit and bringing money into the company, but not enough to maintain the numbers that keep money in the company and the doors open.
That's the basic understanding I have of how profit is looked at in a publicly traded company. It could very well be that City of Heroes as a unit wasn't making enough profit for investors to keep money in NCSoft.
In my opinion, NCSoft's big failure is in managing their clients' (the player base) expectations. This isn't immediately suicidal, especially if the surprises are beneficial. But given bad news, it leaves bad feelings all around. Imagine a client being told at the very last moment that he's not going to get the deliverable he believed he was getting... for the past X months. Done repeatedly, it leads to a bad reputation and no one wanting to do business with you.
I don't know if anyone expected this game to be around forever. Personally I didn't. But after 8 years, you sort of wake up every day and expect it to be there just like the rising sun. I think a more thoughtful and considerate winding down would have alleviated some of the ill will. I have no idea how that would work, since going into wrap-up mode would likely lead to an early exodus of the staff you need to do the wrap-up, and also opens up the operation to possible sabotage by disgruntled soon-to-be former employees.
Maybe there's more to it than this, but I believe that's that basics of it. -
To add to the above:
wrestling and throwing your opponent. I know there was a rather large thread about it. That's the one mechanic that I've always seen in comic books, but not in the game.
Vehicles ... Yes we have the hoverboard. I mean something more "limited" for immersion, like say motorcycles. Animations for a touch of physics for turning around and catching air, damage if you land on an opponent, you lost it if you jump it into the water (and have to craft another one), giving another person a ride ... and the ability to use ranged damage.
When people talked about wanting a moon base zone, or outer space, I thought that a nice pvp mini game would be nice involving weightlessness, high knockback temp powers, and trying to shove an opposing team member into a goal ...
Sorry ... I'll stop now. -
Quote:Kind of like companies forgetting to renew their domain name ...Originally Posted by GadgetDon
this is the sort of date that everyone would have circled on their calendar for a long time, so it wouldn't go from "Hey see what we're gonna launch soon" to "shutting down bye"
Not that I disagree with your post. But silly things do happen. Or maybe negotiations on a new lease fell apart and this is the result. All speculation ... -
I haven't had much luck with masterminds either, but I still have a couple ideas in mind that I want to try out. I found that certain MM secondaries (defender primaries) have "more to do" than others.
Kinetics (which isn't a MM secondary but helps me make my case) is sort of my prime example of a demanding powerset for me. With hasten and siphon speed both in effect, and slotting for recharge rate, my non-incarnate kin corruptor barely has time to attack when in a group where I'm prioritizing the kin powerset. It's to the point where I'm kicking myself a little for not making a defender.
That said, I took my ice/storm controller and prioritized recharge rate in the build. Again, with hasten in effect, I'm dropping tornadoes (with the overwhelming force KB to KD IO) , lightning storms, freezing rain, and thunderclap often enough to keep me entertained. I needed the cardiac alpha slot because I was losing the fight against the blue bar. I'm also throwing down ice slick and (from the ice mastery set) ice storm.
For a mastermind, I'd throw in the heat mastery pool, get bonfire, move the KB to KD IO to it (you can only slot 1), and let the tornadoes play kickball. Pets don't complain about abusing KB powers, but your teammates might.
Essentially my suggestion is to take a close look at the secondary sets and see what could keep you busy and entertained given a hasten induced (or even a spiritual alpha slot induced) recharge rate. Toggles and buffs / debuffs that don't stack or take too long to recharge end up being sort of boring if you have nothing else to do.
My first MM was bots / pain dom. I found that the emp and pain healing sets weren't my cup of tea 50 levels later. My next attempt at MM is going to be a beast / storm MM, when I save enough points to get BM. I have yet to establish if nature affinity would be a suitable option for me.
Good Luck! -
Quote:In a healthy business relationship, one side provides a product or service and needs to feel adequately compensated for it. The other side needs to feel that he or she is getting good value for the money spent. And on both sides, it's a matter of perception. (Someone with a bad back may be more than willing to pay someone to do yard work while the next person may think it a waste of money and do it without help. One business might be used to 15% profit while another wants no less than 30%) If you don't feel that your current arrangement is providing you with good value, then you need to step away from the table. I think any form of financial advice will say the same thing.Originally Posted by RemusShepherd
I want this game to survive and do well, and I want to enjoy playing it. Those are two separate desires, but they are not incompatible. I'm not enjoying it much and do not feel valued as a VIP. They could change that by making VIP status better, and I feel that would also help the game survive.
It's commendable that you feel strongly about the well-being of the game. But if that's in direct conflict with other priorities (fiscal responsibility and all that), then you need to decide which is more important. This game is not a charity. It's a business. -
Quote:Then we'll definitely need a whip melee powerset...Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
I still want a new travel power that lets us click on a Freebie/Premium players and forces their characters to give VIP's piggy back rides to our mission entrances.
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I think the problem is all about perception and presentation. We should have more emphasis on maintaining a subscription...
like a reward for years subscribed. The veteran rewards were replaced by a system where people with deep pockets can buy their way to the top, taking away that unspoken reward of people being perpetually jealous of our subscription length. As a way to wave that epeen flag of honor again, I suggest that we get a 1% discount at the Paragon Market for every year subscribed. Yes, that's right, after 100 years of subscribing, we can get everything on the Market for free!
=P
Hopefully by then the mapserver error on Emperor Cole's personal story will be fixed... Maybe we'll even have character models with fingers and asymmetric costumes... -
Quote:Does it make sense to correlate the reaction to failure in significant real life events and efforts, to the reaction to failure in video games? Personally, developing my skills in an MMO, or any video game for that matter, has a pretty low priority. It has very little bearing on the quality of life in meat space. If the time investment for a game is significant, boring (grinding and farming), and met with a high probability of failure resulting in little to no benefit / progression, the logical conclusion is to "stop playing." Success at such high a cost holds little value when it comes to video games. On the other hand, failure / success at getting your high school diploma or say an engineering degree carries some far reaching consequences.Originally Posted by Gangrel_EU
I think that emphasizes more than anything else the difference in cultures. Americans (it appears) do not experience failure until their late teens (rejection letters from Universities/Colleges)... up until that point in time they are always given a success. When you then apply this to games, it means that you cannot let the player "fail" (especially when you are going for the US market) for solo stuff... because then the player will be more inclined to "stop playing".
I acknowledge that different people have different priorities when it comes to video games (e.g. people who compete for money). That threshold of leaving varies from person to person for a number of reasons. But in the world of MMO's where a company is trying to attract a large audience, dialing in the correct amount of entertaining challenge to retain the maximum number of players is ... complicated. Attributing an aversion to failure in general doesn't apply until you start weighing in the value that your target audience places on its time. Trying to design content to attract / retain multiple audiences makes the effort even more complicated. -
Quote:Take away the negatives that the colorful language implies, and you're describing non-mmo video games, books, movies... any other form of entertainment that has an ending. If someone spends 10 hours reading a book and moves on, I wouldn't say that they have an attention problem. If someone completes the main arc in a single player game in 10 hours but hasn't uncovered every last easter egg planted, same thing. But only spend 10 hours trying to cover what an mmo has to offer ... you can get the gist of the game but not its full depth and complexity (to whatever extent they exist).Originally Posted by Blue Rabbit
today's youth (and, regrettably, the 30 something crowd) have the attention span of a fruit fly gnat and are always on the lookout for the next big shiny thing which they then proceed to devour like a cloud of hungry locusts, leaving a wasteland of detritus behind while flocking to the next new horizon which will never quench their hunger.
If entertainment needs to fit in that framework of time for a lot of people (say 30 min to an hour per session a few days a week) and provide a good return on time and money, then I think providing a F2P model works well. I wouldn't be out to call the whole genre a failure because of the failed expectations of a mismanaged project with a ginormous budget. -
If you're looking for a native client, I seriously doubt that's in the cards. At least for the near future. Since running the game under wine is effective (which was my assessment a few years ago), there's even less incentive to develop one.
Steam's problem with Windows 8 is that MS's marketplace will directly compete with it, hence their desire to move onto other platforms. Nothing that's provided with Windows 8 will compete with CoH.
Also, CoH can run on relatively old hardware (for several values of old). People with higher end machines will probably be apathetic to the performance gain, if any.
That said ... I'd love having a native linux client... -
Quote:I think they're talking about the 2 AV's at the end of DIB. I've been on teams that broke against the two shivan(?) AV's.Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
That hasn't been my impression. The two Hydra Heads have always been a pushover. The underlings are easy enough to take out and the bulk of the heads' offence is avoidable "patch" attacks. I've never had trouble with them.
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Quote:And bravo to us all who would embrace the challenge of a random team. But I'm guessing that's the minority as randomly assembled TFs and iTrials are far and few between. The "product" the tool delivers isn't attractive to a large part of the population and falls under the "needs some work" banner.Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill
Yes, and I suspect it'd go better than you think.
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Quote:Maybe you or I wouldn't ... but one or two others might after a wipe or two. Then what?Originally Posted by RevolverMike
Maybe its just me, but I wouldnt just drop from a team just cause of what it was made up of. Seems kind of rude and lame.
I'll go out on a limb here and say that the random team did not work and furthermore it would be reasonable to say that the outcome was fairly predictable. -
Quote:Would you go forward with a LRSF if you randomly got a whole team full of non-incarnate squishies? It may be "working as intended" but it doesn't work very well, intended or not... even for single team endeavors.Originally Posted by Golden Girl
Well, it's been used the way it was intended quite a lot with the summer event, and also with the Halloween event last year, which kinda suggests that it's ideal for small team content rather than multi-team Incarnate Trials.
I also think that because we went so long without it, the idea of pre-formed teams is now too deep in the culture of the game to get enough people to use it as a random team creator. -
Quote:This. It's my biggest gripe about this game. This topic is probably the only lengthy discussion I've ever had in the CoH forums.Originally Posted by ChaosExMachina
The terrible queue system of redundancy that has no purpose because almost nobody uses it except with a premade team anyway.
My suggestion...:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...8&postcount=47 -
So what happens when you fire up the NCSoft Launcher?
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Besides ... you don't really "die" in the game. You're just ... "defeated."
"It is your destiny to give up and lie here like a lump, no matter how time is altered you ALWAYS CURL INTO A WHIMPERING BALL OF BLUBBERING PATHETICNESS HERE. NOW GO HOSP!"
>.<
Y'know, instead of hitting a few buttons to delete a character, they should give you a mini mission to run through where it results in perma death and character deletion. Maybe even incorporate your quote into NPC dialog...
Or maybe I should go back to my beer...