Pebblebrook

As for the costume "pieces" from CoV, those are negated because they gave access to them to everyone in a later issue (patch?) which was during the pre-pack period (i'm sure...can't recall the date at the moment - edit: hmm, might be mistaken about that date...doubts).

Although technically, you can say CoH brought a bunch of costume pieces as a paid extra...but that's a bit of a stretch in this context.

* Wishful thinking: Well, if they do a similar patch with the pack pieces, that'll definitely end the debate.

I can see that only with the qualifier that people would make life decisions based on that.

So far, a good portion sounds like a water cooler discussion born from a few facts. I'm not seeing a problem with positing possibilities under that scenario.

As long as no one jumps on people with differing views.

Also, i think the forums can do with a lot less references to people with subpar "reasoning skills" don't you think?

Heh, i guess another disconnect, i wasn't ignoring that. I actually sort of agreed with you about it upthread. But i think that's part of what i was saying that you two were talking about slightly different topics.

I've said this earlier but let me see if i can rephrase it...

Just to get you two using the same terms let's itemize "costume set" into its components and say its a "bunch of costume pieces".

I believe, when he mentions the good old times, what he's saying is that since the packs (let's say from wedding pack on), the "bulk" of costume pieces went into them and the free issues got only a trickle.

And the "old good times" was a time before the packs. I think he's generalizing on that bit.

So...given that, we go to the timeframe after i15 and check how many "costume pieces" went into issues and how many went into packs.

Edit: And also with that...listing all the "costume pieces" before packs, the "bulk" of those went into free issues and only a few went into packs like the GvE pack.

A reverse of what we have now.

* Edit some words for clarity.

Seems that way, though perhaps their viewpoint is a bit skewed when they compare revenue from all their games in relation to CoX.

Currently (1st half of 2010), CoX comprises about 25% of North America sales, though down from previous years is still a big chunk.

But if you included all NCSoft game revenues in the same period, CoX makes up about 2%

Maybe that has something to do with it?

I think it's more a case of arguing two different topics which is why i think you've come across a "agree to disagree" moment. Both are generically related to costume additions so its gotten muddled up a bit.

I can understand both points when it comes down to it.

/edit: Oh and may want to use a substitute word for "fanboy", that gets people into defense mode.

By all means you can review them. I cut for emphasis to show that i was not the one confining the OP to the i15+ timeline as you claimed.

edit:
For clarification, this part of the conversation is not about the OP. You got me on the defensive when you said this to me:

That i might agree with.

Though i try, i don't have a complete picture of what's in his head when he said that portion, just a suspicion that he's generalizing the time before boosters.

Hmm...

Heh, and this is where i came in saying something like you two might be talking about two different things. You're referrring to any addition to the costume editor (pieces) and he's pointing to the costumes in packs. You went for the entire history and he's confining to the last 1.5 years.

In that timeline (i15 ish) you are right that pieces (tails, pistols) were added for free, while he's looking at costume sets from booster 2, 3, 4, 5 and GR pack from the same span of time.

edit: I guess the OP is seeing the disparity between the quantity and frequency of free costume additions and paid costume additions (to be more generic)

And you don't think he was referring to the "old good times" as "pre-booster era"?

Not trying to judge the OP but it sounds like english is not his primary language so hard to say, but from looking at other parts of the OP it does look like he meant before boosters.

So it's sounds like his gripe is with the introduction of those packs more than anything else.

edit: Or attributes (blames?) the funneling of costumes into packs.


(cut for emphasis)

That's a good point actually. Though at the time, those are rare so it didn't garner as much bitterness as MTs are today just because of their frequency.

* I might have missed some boxes/packs from that list.

Edit: list for errors
* Added CoH DVD collector's edition (cape)
* Removed In-game ads (not MT)

Actually i'm seeing that one they're aiming at two different goal posts.

OP is mostly talking about microstransactions getting the costumes and free issues not so much.

See i think that's another disconnect between you two.
You're talking about a timeframe before the packs and he's talking about the time after the packs, which are both overlap NCSoft's buyout of CoX.

/edit: More specifically the time after i15.


/edit: Seems clear to me that he's apparently trying to say the bulk of new costume stuff came from packs and the free issues got a trickle since or because of boosters.

In essence, it looks like you two are talking about two different topics, though both are costume related.

I think i mentioned costume "sets" not piece and i17 did have pieces but not a full set, which i think was the OP's point.

/edit: A set as in something similar to what you find in the boosters. If i understood the OP correctly.

At the risk of putting words in people's mouths...

There might be some nitpicking going on from both sides, but the OP sounds to me that he's talking about costume sets like those found in the boosters and that he's trying to make a point that since packs showed up, most of the sets have shown up in packs.

For him to acknowledge that we did get some pieces seems to suggest he was talking about full costume sets.

So from that perspective, his position that new costume sets are in packs instead of issues seems more in the ballpark as opposed to exaggeration.

And your list from the quarter that i15 was released (which was around the time the 2nd booster and up showed) that spans a year, seems to corroborate that.

I'm sure any addition to the costume editor whether in pieces or full is welcome but that's not the point the OP is trying to make. At least that's how i read it.

Probably too early for us yes, since we won't see their 3Q sales for another month. But 3Q already closed so i would think NCSoft would have a good estimate if they will make their 2010 target of 19,000 mnKRW. Which also, is the lowest target they've set for CoX, so at some point they were already anticipating lower performance from CoX this year.

First half of the year, the sales have been half of the same period the year before. If 4Q with the reactivation promo doesn't show a large spike, that leaves 3Q with GR needing to maybe triple that quarter's sales to meet the goal.

But yes, there's a delay for us to have a better idea.

True, and currently i can't really extrapolate the other players anymore ever since NCSoft stopped posting their server access numbers.

But historically, hidden players tend to be heavily outnumbered by unhidden ones even back when spam was more of a problem before they added anti-spam features.

As for side preference, personally i would've wanted to stay in Praetoria since i took so many alts through blue/red side already.

The inherent inaccuracies of /search do apply and people do switch sides even in the same play session as Bill said. And as Grim said as well, it's been fairly consistent considering the method. Time of day doesn't seem to change much the ranking of H,V then P at third.

I only keep the highest concurrent sample since that's really what i'm tracking but if you take a random time, day and server...it's does follow the same pattern somewhat.

Edit: Added random servers.

Sorry, i put "unhidden" and thought that was enough. Yes, it's through /search.

And each side (H,V,P) are totals from all the servers

Edit: Oops, corrected errors in the Totals column.

*US Pacific timezone

Edit: *Peak: Highest concurrent user total of the day from all US servers, not necessarily highest per server or faction.

*Corrected Totals column numbers.

CoX sales constituted 1/3 of their north america sales in 2009. It's less than in 2008 but that's because of AION. Still, seems like a pretty big chunk of change to give up on.

I have no idea what their new marketing strategy is, but "thrown in the towel" seems unlikely at the moment. Silence can be harmful when prolonged, but the term plausible deniability comes to mind. Maybe there are things in flux and don't want to say anything concrete till it settles down internally.

It's not really hard to imagine how people would get a different idea since theOcho himself made a clear distinction between "issue" and "another initiative" in the very same sentence.

If he actually meant it was for a different issue, then he might want to edit that post.

But like any popularity contest, you know the "we have what you want if you vote for us thing", people have come to expect the usual politicking and back-peddling normally associated with such things, especially in light of recent events.