Negasorceror

Wow...just...wow.

Okay, so some of you were on the right track. I certainly wouldn't call myself a "troll", but maybe "*****" is a better word for submitting you all to this social experiment. Allow me to explain.

In truth, I have been playing the game fairly regularly for a few years. I have what you might call a hacker mentality as well -- I like to achieve goals by any means necessary, whatever works best, and enjoy exploring multiple solutions (for reference, favorite games are the Thief series). I do have a 50 on both good 'n' evil sides, but I honestly ignore most of the story-content, I'm just there to kill enemies and get new powers and fight a variety of things and find the best ways to overcome them.

I have another friend who's been playing as long, and is absolutely maniacal about optimization. He often whined when patches "nerfed" his powers "for the sake of game balance." However, when it came to Mission Architect, he apparently sided with those who thought it would be a tool for powerleveling...creating missions filled with the easiest bosses or what have you, and zooming up the levels. "People like that miss the whole point of the game!" he complained. "They'll get to 50 and not be able to buy good inspirations!"

Needless to say, I did not agree with that philosophy. If I wanted to "powerlevel" my character and hit 50 in 6 hours, who was that hurting? How does that affect HIS game's experience in any way? I also pointed out to him that if he thought that way, that he should never complain when game designers "nerf" his powers to keep things balanced.

I also took the philosophy a further step, with the (quite frankly) ridiculous suggestion I made in this forum post. That if the goal of the game designers was to force people to play their content how they saw fit, why not auto-retire characters who have peaked? Therefore, I played devil's advocate and signed up for these forums (where he's on somewheres) and made my first post just that, to show him the folly of such ideas.

Call me crazy, but I was almost hoping, frankly, for someone to actually almost take his viewpoint, and make the logical connection between arguments about "powerleveling" and forcing people to "enjoy" content and other ridiculous suggestions that kind of thinking brings about. I think quite fortunately, within minutes of posting, in the wrong section even, there was like 6 "hell no's" in a row. There were a few eerie "Well, you know, if it was an option, might not be half bad" but they certainly weren't agreeing with the insane philosophy.

So, apologies to all for being part of this social experiment, just to be a ***** to a friend. I'd tell you all who it is, but I honestly don't know what forum handle he uses. However, I am going to shove the URL of this thread in his face so maybe he'll add to it.

Sorry for the mispost, I have found the "suggestions" forum and have reposted it there.

In a discussion with several other CoH/CoV players that I've been playing with over the years, we're looking for ways to keep the game fresh and keep interest going. We were having a conversation about the possible downfalls to the Mission Architect system that players could exploit to powerlevel and miss the enjoyment and whole point of the game, and then the discussion turned to what happens to players when they get characters to level 50. We propose that in order to avoid, frankly, the "let-down" when you hit 50, that characters that have achieved level 50 get a certain amount of playtime and then move off to "retirement" or become "figureheads" or "paradigms" of some sort and are automatically retired, inspiring players to create new characters again. Of course, there would be special bonuses when heroes or villains do retire to new characters that are created, and be badges for retiring X amount of heroes/villains or a complete suite of archetypes. This incentive to move on and keep the game fresh would greatly enhance the continued playability of the game in the same way that the frequent emphasis to prevent powerleveling keeps the game world vibrant and dynamic. I'd like to see one of the game developers comment on this suggestion. Thanks!

In a discussion with several other CoH/CoV players that I've been playing with over the years, we're looking for ways to keep the game fresh and keep interest going. We were having a conversation about the possible downfalls to the Mission Architect system that players could exploit to powerlevel and miss the enjoyment and whole point of the game, and then the discussion turned to what happens to players when they get characters to level 50. We propose that in order to avoid, frankly, the "let-down" when you hit 50, that characters that have achieved level 50 get a certain amount of playtime and then move off to "retirement" or become "figureheads" or "paradigms" of some sort and are automatically retired, inspiring players to create new characters again. Of course, there would be special bonuses when heroes or villains do retire to new characters that are created, and be badges for retiring X amount of heroes/villains or a complete suite of archetypes. This incentive to move on and keep the game fresh would greatly enhance the continued playability of the game in the same way that the frequent emphasis to prevent powerleveling keeps the game world vibrant and dynamic. I'd like to see one of the game developers comment on this suggestion. Thanks!