MrCaptainMan

Originally Posted by Clave_Dark_5

Three things:

1) Nice to see you again

2) Before you slam the door on the way out, please send a petition and/or PM a couple of devs and tell them why you're slamming that door.

3) The AE arc club recently played Storming Citadel and it apparently worked fine..., not that that's enough to keep you, I know.

Originally Posted by Heraclea

Twitch reflexes are a problem, but the larger problem is attention span.

Gimmick fights tend to turn out to be fights, like the Battle Maiden fight, that require you to keep track of time and all sorts of features.

I know this veers into dangerous territory, but this is where my attention starts waning. I am a light roleplayer and character concept builder. This is one reason why this game has always been home to me. It encourages alts, trying on concepts, and building a variety of characters that have more personality than a chess piece does.

The typical gimmick fight, in my experience, is built out of giving the player things to monitor other than his own health and attacks, and requiring the player to act in response to those things. You must see the sign, break from what you are doing, and go stand elsewhere or do something else. The higher you "progress" the more of these gimmicks are added, and the worse the consequences become for failing to respond.

(This is also why gimmick fights seem almost inevitably to disfavor melee characters, and especially melee DPS. You can't contribute if you are constantly being forced to break
off and stand somewhere not next to the boss. Battle Maiden is not fun for tankers, but far worse for brutes.)

More importantly: my experience is that players do not play through these gimmicks by actually paying attention to the encounters themselves. Not as they are presented by the naked game software, at any rate. They delegate, and resort to technology. Add-ons, scripts, and timers are all used to automate the process of responding to the gimmicks and coordinating the correct action. Ventrilo and other voice chat programs are used to coordinate groups. One player with an otherwise undemanding role is assigned the task of monitoring a given gimmick and sounding alarms.

The gimmicks themselves may well be founded in interesting lore and beautifully animated. All of this is wasted effort in my eyes. The player base's response to the gimmicks will spoil any pleasure that might be taken from it.

For me, this breaks immersion, and turns the game into a series of dull rehearsals. You are no longer reacting to the hostile character with your own character's imagined voice. You aren't reading the NPC chatter for what it says. You're monitoring team chat for scripted instruction on what to use next. You're talking with other players in your telephone voice. And you can't see the content that lies beyond unless you endure these mechanics.

At this stage, my interest in the game will inevitably start to wane. I do not want that to happen here. Please keep that kind of gimmick encounter out of this game. City of Heroes absolutely does not need progression raiding.

Originally Posted by Mirai

I'm forced to agree with this. The critters are big and white and easy to spot, and they despawn before long. If you're opening presents in a zone appropriate for your level but you're well below the maximum level of the zone, you can spawn enemies several levels above you, so running away isn't a bad idea sometimes. Some people are in a hurry to collect a large number of candy canes, and taking time to clean up the spawns adds up, in addition to all that travel time. Minimizing the grind is perfectly understandable.

It doesn't bother me at all if people leave the snowmen behind. I think it adds flavor for the Winter Event.

Originally Posted by Guardian_Swift

"He who trims himself to suit everyone will soon whittle himself away."

Hard content is hard. All classes and powersets are not created equal. If one finds that they are unable handle a mission alone, find a friend.

Originally Posted by Infernus_Hades

This is the last email I got from them and yes, I had cut and pasted the reply EXACTLY as they said - here they have my email and yet they tell me they can't read it.

Originally Posted by Scythus

Cointext again: "Nearly" isn't all. Did you flunk English class or something?

Originally Posted by Ironik

A social soloer... well, now we've seen it all.