Nethergoat

I'm in the Crazy 88's and I have a number of legacy bases left over from back in the day. Not being able to pay base rent was one of the few genuine annoyances of being Premium.


If you're burned out, you're burned out.
but your logic doesn't necessarily apply to anyone else.

it is if you like re-enacting your Cat People fantasies in game!

neat- I'll probably end up getting it then.

Again, you CANNOT re-create Marvel IP with any specificity using this game engine (aside from our pal The Hulk).

I'm not getting into the legal weeds here because I'm not a lawyer, but making something that looks kinda-sorta like something else if you squint should not qualify as infringing.

I wish NC had had the resources to fight it out instead of making the tactical decision to settle. But they didn't, so they can enforce their own stupid rules- I'm not ratting out people who aren't harming anyone by playing around with the character creator.

I recently returned from a year away no worse for the wear....so, uh.


*shrug*

this gets trotted out every time, and it's still frivolous.

Marvel sued because they're litigious j-holes, not because they were afraid some guy with a generic red & blue costume named SPYDAR-MAAAAAN was going to jack their IP.


NC took adequate steps to prevent genuine infringement by simply not including costume options allowing direct copies (again, excepting the Hulk). I don't remember if the name filter was in place at launch or not, but it neatly resolves the problem of direct copy names.

Marvel was being a bully because they have a corporate owner with legal staff on salary and thought they were going to make their own MMO.

During my month as an unsubscribing leech, I spent thirty bucks on costume bundles and booster packs. =P


Also regarding this:

Assuming no huge gaps in subscribing, your veteran status should have unlocked inventions via the Paragon Rewards system- details here.


I also returned after a hiatus to check out freedom (full details can be found in the link in my sig) and was somewhat startled at how UNlimited my gamplay was. Aside from a lack of server slots (thanks, alt-itits!) and access to the Incarnate system (which I frankly didn't miss) it was pretty much just like the old days.

Check your Paragon Rewards- if you qualify for the higher tiers, the game is mostly the same as it ever was.

the structure of our economy not only encourages but DEMANDS short term thinking from publicly held companies.

As the old saying goes, "the map is not the territory".
A lot of player get hung up on numbers, and if the numbers say this or that set "sucks", that becomes "reality".

Whether or not those numbers make a meaningful difference in your gameplay.


I have an elec/devices corrupter who I really like.
She doesn't destroy stuff as efficiently as my fire/dark, but so what? She's still a ton of fun to play and delivers a totally different playstyle.

Play what you like, ignore the numbers.
If you're having fun, it's a great powerset.

Having left a bit before Freedom, this is absolutely true.
Discounting the releases of CoV & GR, the core game got more stuff while I was gone than any other point in its history.

I'm not motivated enough to run numbers on things, but considering power sets alone they've added Titan Weapons, Staff Fighting, Dark Assault, Street Justice, Beast Mastery, Beam Rifle...am I missing anything?

That's a TON of stuff in one year.

Costumes, ditto.

There was an avalanche of goodies while I was away. I'm genuinely befuddled by complaints about 'content', when Freedom has delivered the largest content dump in the history of the game.

historical note:

'blapping' substantially predates IO's.

I seem to remember they responded to long ago complaints about the uselessness of blaster melee attacks by giving them a substantial damage buff & that gave rise to Blappers...don't remember exactly when, but it was well prior to IOs.

Well, this detours into the realm of literary criticism & personal preference- there's no right or wrong to it.

I'll admit I've never felt much affection for or connection to Stateman- he wasn't visually compelling, he never distinguished himself to me in-game, he was just a brand name. So I don't have an investment in what happens to him, good or bad.

Also I'll note I still haven't finished the SSA, so I have no opinion on the nuts and bolts of his removal from the game world. I'll eventually get around to it, and it'll show up in my 'returning player' thread.

You could certainly be right here- I'll have a better idea if I agree or not after I get through the SSA.



This I don't get...it's like watching a terrible movie because you like the set design, or reading an awful book because the font captivates you.

Games are their gameplay.

The closest I've ever come to intentionally playing a game that stunk was Dragon's Lair way back in the day. Gameplay was just ridiculous- memorizing which way to jump- but the animation was a treat and I really wanted to see what the next set piece was.

But the ideal way to "play" was, of course, to watch over the shoulder of someone else. =P

All of which just adds to the inexplicable mystery that makes Sam Tow into Sam Tow.

It's an observation of reality.


All games need window dressing, it's an important selling point.

If you take two functionally identical cars and put a Ferrarri chassis on one and a Yugo chassis on the other, I know which I'd rather drive.

But window dressing alone doesn't mean anything absent compelling gameplay.

No, that's not what I'm saying.

I agree.

But again, absent compelling gameplay there's no "there" there.

This game has an expansive universe, certainly large enough and resilient enough to absorb a few personnel changes without suddenly falling apart and revealing the Matrix-style code underlying everything.

Oh, nonsense Sam- I love and appreciate RP.
But I realize RP is infinitely malleable, whereas a game world is massively more static.

In other words, RP can easily adapt to whatever the game world throws at it, while the opposite is flatly impossible.

I agree the 'window dressing' of a game is important- my dislike of one of those other superhero games that was supposed to kill CoH sprang largely from the bland, secondhand game universe it described. But if the gameplay had been compelling I might have stuck around.

Conversely, the other superhero game that was supposed to kill CoH had an amazing universe to draw from...but the mechanics were so offputting I deleted it shortly after clearing the tutorial.

When in doubt, side with good game design.
Pretty much every major structural addition to this game over the years has been met by a froth-mouthed contingent of opponents citing RP as the reason for their hatred of CoV/The Market/AE/Whatever.
And it's always a pointless debate because it's based on pure make believe- you can justify or pillory anything using RP logic.

Thus my mechanics first, RP last attitude.

Lore arguments boil down to matters of taste...which is like an argument between two RPers who see something differently. Each is absolute in the certainty of their argument, becuase they're both making up their own rules of engagement.

Likewise with this Statesman thing. You see it one way, other people see it another way- neither is necessarily 'right' because it's a personal perception issue. Zwill isn't going to change your mind about it being some big hit job on Jack, you're not going to be able to change his that killing Statesman was a good story decision.

I mean we'll all go round and round with it, because that's what we do on forums, but there is no absolute right or wrong involved.

Creators made a creative choice you don't like and never will, but logging in to bash heads is still as much fun as ever.

As the old proverb goes, the dogs bark but the caravan rolls on.

My arguments are founded on something besides endless pull quotes from TV Tropes, so I take exception to this baseless character assassination!!1

Oh great, now Sam's gonna be picketing the AE building demanding his resignation!

=P

Statesman was an arbitrary figurehead for the game and is replacable by the simple decision to make someone else the figurehead for the game.

Who the figurehead is has zero impact on my enjoyment of the game.
It's a variation on my comment that RP must necessarily take a back seat to good game design- as long as they're getting the mechanics right, lore is largely irrelevant. They can make Fusionette the 'face of the game', provided I keep enjoying my in-game time.


Well, any other character can also be used for 'so much more'- there's absolutely nothing about Stateman that makes him irreplaceable, even if we're all pretending he'll actually stay dead when all genre conventions say otherwise.

Frankly, Atlas has more relevance to my gameplay than States ever did- that statue in AP is IMHO more of an iconic embodiment of what it means to be a superhero in Paragon City than anything they ever did with Statesman.

OH WAIT, you're that guy.

Nevermind then.

Good luck with your persecution complex!

you've certainly brought the hilarity in this thread, no doubt.

what on earth are you talking about?

the game nearly received more impressive additions to the costume racks in the year I was away than in the previous six combined. During my first month of F2P I still spent $30 in the store, most of it on assorted costume bundles.

And other than the Carnival pack, I haven't noticed any gender bias in their selection of pieces.

This is true- law often takes a back seat to who has the deeper pockets in our court system.

It was absolutely frivolous.
Marvel filed it to screw a competitor, not because they thought there was any genuine risk to their IP.


In any case, the only costume I've reported in my CoH career was a dude in white robes & a hood named 'The Klansman'. Somebody wanting to be Wolverine or a Power Ranger or whatever isn't hurting anyone's fun or threatening anyone's IP.

If the GMs want to do something about it, that's their business but I'm not their informant.