Nettik

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Well, what did people expect?
The moment an award was made available, a significant portion of the subscriber population was - of course - determined to abuse the system and accumulate as much as possible of that award.
No doubt Gold Miners were part iof the problem; you can;t sell tickets, but you can sell the recipes and salvage they can buy.
So as abusive practices began to undermine the system, the rules were altered to try and protect it.
We subscribe to a community with all kinds of players, and like any community, abusive personalities will have an impact on subscribers who just want to enjoy what the neighborhood has to offer.
How would I solve the problem of farmers and other exploiters?
Believe me, you wouldn't care to know.
Dashere

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The problem, which has been discussed to death already, is that the community's amalgamated definition of "abuse" contradicts itself repeatedly.

But to answer your question: I expected the developers to maintain a modicum of common sense when publishing something like this. If they had been conservative with the rewards that AE gave from the beginning then a great deal of drama would have been avoided.

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Another FYI...supposedly people have been "farming tickets" in order to get recipes...and this is wrong why? Some claim it messes with the economy...wrong. I certainly haven't felt it.

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Well, just because you haven't "felt it" doesn't mean that it's not happening. And your implication that it has zero effect on the economy betrays a rather weak understanding of economics and possibly a great lapse in common sense.

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As far as I can tell, the only ones screaming are the farmers. Anyone who is whining about this change and says "I'm not a farmer" is lying as far as I'm concerned.

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I was going to edit the post with some witty (alright, not particularly witty) content or even claim Godwin's law -- but I figure (read: hope) just having you read what you said again might make you realize how silly and close-minded it was.

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I can understand why they'd want to avoid the hassle that such social/political/religious themes would create. You could (for instance) substitute "Christian" for "Lesbian" and open up an entirely different can of worms. Not to mention what happens when you start combining social/political/religious buzz words into "Chistian Lesbian Nazis" or some such. So then it takes hardly any effort to create something (even a title) that's offensive to most anyone.

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Agreed, the only way to avoid the political headache that comes with these sort of things is to ban them universally.

If they fail to ban ones that offend players then they've offended a part of their player base unnecessarily.

If they ban only certain ones then they run the risk of being perceived as making political or moral statements which could also offend parts of the player base.

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think 'CCA'

comics code authority.

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* Crimes shall never be presented in such a way as to create sympathy for the criminal, to promote distrust of the forces of law and justice, or to inspire others with a desire to imitate criminals.
* If crime is depicted it shall be as a sordid and unpleasant activity.
* Criminals shall not be presented so as to be rendered glamorous or to occupy a position which creates a desire for emulation.
* In every instance good shall triumph over evil and the criminal punished for his misdeeds.
* Scenes of excessive violence shall be prohibited. Scenes of brutal torture, excessive and unnecessary knife and gunplay, physical agony, gory and gruesome crime shall be eliminated.
* No comic magazine shall use the word horror or terror in its title.
* All scenes of horror, excessive bloodshed, gory or gruesome crimes, depravity, lust, sadism, masochism shall not be permitted.
* All lurid, unsavory, gruesome illustrations shall be eliminated.
* Inclusion of stories dealing with evil shall be used or shall be published only where the intent is to illustrate a moral issue and in no case shall evil be presented alluringly, nor so as to injure the sensibilities of the reader.
* Scenes dealing with, or instruments associated with walking dead, torture, vampires and vampirism, ghouls, cannibalism, and werewolfism are prohibited.
* Profanity, obscenity, smut, vulgarity, or words or symbols which have acquired undesirable meanings are forbidden.
* Nudity in any form is prohibited, as is indecent or undue exposure.
* Suggestive and salacious illustration or suggestive posture is unacceptable.
* Females shall be drawn realistically without exaggeration of any physical qualities.
* Illicit sex relations are neither to be hinted at nor portrayed. Violent love scenes as well as sexual abnormalities are unacceptable.
* Seduction and [censored] shall never be shown or suggested.
* Sex perversion or any inference to same is strictly forbidden.
* Nudity with meretricious purpose and salacious postures shall not be permitted in the advertising of any product; clothed figures shall never be presented in such a way as to be offensive or contrary to good taste or morals.

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Ah, the good old days. When homosexuality was considered a mental disorder.

So was not wanting to bear children.

Is the cynicism too thick?

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World of World of Warcraft

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That put a smile on my face; thank you for that, sir.

It just occurred to me that the AE has given us the opportunity to sit in front of computer screens for extended periods of time whilst pretending to sit in front of computer screens for extended periods of time.

I just felt like I needed to share that.

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So I ask you, fellow player: What do you think?

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This is not a matter for the Mission Architect forum.

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My apologies, I felt this fell under the blanket of discussion related to the Mission Architect system, but if there is a better place for me to pose this question could you kindly direct me towards it?

Something has been bothering me since this morning’s patch and subsequent post by Positron.

The patching of a feature (or exploit, depending on whom you question) that allows for quick leveling implies very heavily that those related to the creation and publishing of the game wholeheartedly believe that such behavior is detrimental to their game. I believe that this is directly related to a fear of dropping sales (this is an assumption, it could simply be that they want you to see the content they’ve worked on or something else I am unable to imagine), but I’m not thoroughly convinced that “power leveling” is necessarily bad for the sales of a Massively Multiplayer Role-playing game such as this. It is my position that allowing players access to ways by which they may rapidly increase their character’s level is in no way, shape or form detrimental to the City of Heroes.

I would like to offer, if I may, an anecdote of my experience with this game. I have played this game on three, separate occasions with varying lengths of both time spent subscribed and hiatus in-between. I have never had a character above 32 until this most recent subscription. This is because, to me, the game very quickly devolves into a massive grind towards milestones in your archetype that are too slow to be reached with far too few supplementary things to keep me interested as I move towards them. Throughout my time in this game I have only ever taken note of three substantial content updates: the Invention Origin system, the Mission Architect system and the various power sets that have been added. In retrospect, I suppose, this game has just never had enough content to keep a power gamer like me interested for very long.

This got me thinking. Clearly the sorts of things that lead me to invest so much time and money into the World of Warcraft are not the main draw of City of Heroes. In fact, I have found that many people say that the lack of those things (specifically gear) is what draws them to this game. And then it occurred to me, the draw that this game possesses is so much richer, more diverse and (arguably) intellectual than those things: Storytelling. This game’s player base thrives on vast, far-reaching stories; player-to-player interaction and heavily encouraged player creativity.

I don’t believe that power leveling in the mission architect system was negative, instead I see it as an unexpected (or rather, expected but misunderstood) effect that was entirely in keeping with the theme. The mission architect system gave me the ability to engage in both content created by the developers and fellow players; power leveling gave me the ability to engage them on my own terms. That is why I believe that power leveling should not only be reinstated, but also explored. I believe you, the developer, have a chance here to create something truly unique and beautiful. An MMO not built around petty progression towards a player’s next metaphorical food pellet, but built around human creativity. A game designed to be open to ideas and change, a game where we decide our own goals and rewards, a game where there is open discussion between developer and player.

I can’t help but know that this message will fall upon deaf ears. I do not post this in the hopes that the developers will respond to it or even take note of it; rather I post it for my own edification. I am, quite honestly, interested in what my fellow players have to say about both the ideas I have presented here and their subject matter (i.e. whether or not power leveling is detrimental to this game).

So I ask you, fellow player: What do you think?

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Is there a lower brow then genitalia?

Erotica is low brow, if Shakespeare had written a scene involving a pizza guy, a pool man and all of King Lear's daughters in King Lear, it probably would not be considered quite as good as it is. But low brow isn't a bad thing, I've read a lot of high brow stuff, it used to be all I read until I found comic books, film noir, detective stories and all that fantastic low brow stuff that isn't even aiming for your eye brow, but your gut. One of my arc's, it's name is a reference to a Coleridge poem, but it's actually referencing a reference, and a distillation of that portion of the poem from what would be considered a low-brow Science Fiction movie.

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This is funny -- someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that Shakespeare was rather successful because he was "low brow" and spoke the common man's language.

Also, I take exception to your assertion that comic books are universally "low brow".

You and your weird obsession with cheese and pie.

This was a great guide and now I understand why you suggested the combination when I was asking for tanker ideas. Thinking up a concept to try this build as I type.

Thank you ^_^.