Redbone

Unfortunately, since the second time this game was run (I believe it was the second and only the first went off without a hitch), it has run into problems with false positives and "game changes" (one used words that bent) without directly informing people of the changes. This is a software problem that is exacerbated by the desire to make this a game that lasts for a while (meaning: huge lists of possible words and not posting a list of the actual words). After a while, those sorts of problems make it frustrating and people get a bit peeved or simply stop trying (I freely admit I barely tried last week and didn't even bother this week). I don't think anyone has "won" in a while, though a winner has been named by getting "close enough."

People have offered to assist, including writing a Word Find Generator that guaranteed no false positives. Suggestions have been made for rules (and word selection) alterations that would lessen the false positives ("no words smaller than 5 letters, whole phrases only, and so on). I can understand people getting frustrated with this since it should be a bit of fun every week that's turned into a bit of angst. I was surprised someone tried so quickly this week, to be honest. It's sad that this is the most even-handed of the three weekly "contests" (it can be done by anyone with time and doesn't require game access nor Moderator subjectivity) and it's also become the most frustrating.

If they stick to a standard schedule for releases, expect it March 2nd, a Tuesday. I expect far more details about GR to be cut loose Monday or Tuesday to coincide with the release and drum up more excitement to draw in those last few buyers on the fence.

At a guess, it will be "unavaliable for both sides" for quite some time unless you "go rogue."

Yeah, I have that in a text file now so it's just click and paste for the next half a dozen times it gets asked.

More than 1,000 ratings and a 5 star average (which is actually around a 4.51 -5 star average). Needless to say, it's difficult to get.

THis one is closer in cosntruction to the booster packs we're accustomed to than the old box packs (you can actually see the evolution lookign at the old item packs as well). This one contains:

• Alpha- and Omega-themed auras
• Alpha and Omega themed costumed sets
• Four stance emotes
• The Shadowy Presence invisibility power

From what's snuck out on the power, it's a VERY good one but you can't move at all or it drops.

Edited to add: I wonder if the inclusion of this power means we'll eventually have foes where it woud be advantageous to stand, completely invisable and let them come to us for an ambush.

Even CoV didn't launch with 1-50 content and it was an entirely different game.

I highly doubt GR will have that. 1-20 is a stated given, and very likely some 45-50 for side swapping and whatever 50+ they're planning. Anything beyond that would surprise me. It will give the potential for an entirely new levelign experience 1-50 with a new 1-20 and then mixign and matchign CoH and CoV content all the way up to 50, but an entirely new set of 1-50 content is an unlikely dream. I may be wrong (I'll be happy to be wrong, in fact), but the odds are slim that I am wrong.

It's a fairly safe bet that the CIBs are gone for good thanks to the spammers. As for using them as a "Matchmaker" for teams, it would suffer the same problems having them on had originally. RMTSpammer just signs up, is added to your team, spams you a few times with their macroed ad quits and does it again to another team.

It's a "Complete Collection" in that it included every game and expansion released. It is CoH, CoV and GR all in one box. The Boosters and Item packs are box exclusives and thus not included under that definition of "Complete."

It's rather like having a complete collection of Captain America comic books. You have every comic released under the Captain America line, but not the Avengers with him, or the "one offs" and "short runs" where he guest starred in other comics.

Just as a "fun" trivia point. If we assume that every item pack and booster has a cost of $10 (and that's not entirely accurate because the CoH DVD pack was $20), and you had the games already but wanted to go from no packs to all of them, unless I've missed one, it would now cost $100 with the Complete Collection pack:

CoH DVD Edition pack
CoV CE pack
GvE pack
Wedding Pack
Super Booster I: Cyborg
Super Booster II: Magic
Super Booster III: Superscience
Super Booster IV: Martial Arts
Mac Edition Pack
Going Rogue Complete Pack

Plus $5 per month for the "Card Jetpack." And then you'd STILL not have the two Preorder packs until you had sufficent Vet time.

We currently have two teaming pools, The Reds and The Blues. The Reds do not interact with the Blues and the Blues do not interact with the Reds except in 8 places: Siren's Call, Bloody Bay, Warburg, Recluse's Victory, Pocket D, Chimora, The Midnighter's Club and The Rikti War Zone. The purpose of the first 4 is to PvP, so naturaly, the Red and Blues cannot team there. However in every other place they can team (the PvE areas) the two pools become one. This trend is logical to follow with Going Rogue.

As to your final bit about Pocket D and CoV; no, you did not have to own CoV to team with a villian in PD or own CoH to team with a hero. in fact, the first V-Day event had a promotional event attached where if you got someone to buy CoV and subscribe you both got two exclusive costume pieces (the next year you could get them from the mission, but if you did the buddy code event, you have them on every character from creation). They were used a great deal by people who already owned CoH to get CoV and many were given out to team members by team members during the Pocket D V-Day event.

I don't see why you wouldn't be able to, though, like having a team in the RWZ or Pocket D it will likely break team if the team heads to a "One Side Only" zone opposed to yours (and possibly even Pretoria). This could get interesting with people popping out the Oro portal and going to the opposed one thinking it will be a shortcut to where they're going.

If they did bar you from teaming with a GR user, that would also bar GR users from teaming with everyone who didn't have it, creating an two entirely different teaming pools on the same "side," which would be a bit of a disaster for the game. It would also open up the "So, wait, GR penalizes you for owing it since you can't team with these other people?" can of worms.

People are "hung up" on a free month of play costing $15 because that's the cash value of one free month.

I don't recall the deal from last summer, but unless you can, in July, buy ONE SINGLE month of gameplay under that deal for less than $15, then the cash value of the free month is $15 since that is the price for buying a single month. The cash value of an object is always what you can buy (or sell) that object for when you have it or acquire it, not what you paid for it in a pack of 12, not what you paid for it last year, not what you'll pay for it in 6 months.

It's the "Price Guide" problem. Just because the Price Guide says Object X is "worth" 20 bucks, however the only people you can find to buy it will only pay 10, then the object isn't worth $20, it's worth $10 and if you can't find anyone to buy it at all, it is worth nothing since its worth and value are determined by what you can trade it for at that moment.

Really, the only three questions one has to ask are:

Do I want Going Rogue?

Do I want the "De-lux Package" with all the goodies?

Do I mind paying for a temporary perk that will get me access to two powersets a few months early?

If you say yes to all three, Pre-purchase and upgrade later. You pay a premium for that temporary perk, but that's fine.

If you answer "no" to the first question, you don't give a flip about either edition.

If you answer "no" to the second question, pre-purchase. You can always upgrade later if you want so long as supplies last and you save the 10 bucks.

If you answer "no" to the last question, wait it out and buy it retail (or digital) in the complete form. You'll pay about the same and get a free month so you save money in the end (paying less than those who just bought the basic edition and didn't upgrade, in fact).

It's really that simple but I think that's where people are having trouble wrapping their heads around it. Buying just the expansion (and not upgrading) is actually more expensive than buying the complete edition which has the full game, the expansion and the extras and that background math is causing some head scratching.

In a way, they've created a "no win" for themselves and the players with this one, but it's a fairly mild one. If you make the sound money decision, you lose out on the "pre-play" bonus. If you make the "fun" decision, you miss out on the money. If they offered the "pre-play" bonus as a "pay this and you can play it early" booster, people would think it was a bit silly to pay 10 or 15 bucks for a temporary perk and some would call it a slap in the face or nickel and dimeing us (or compare it to CO). There is no "sound and fun" option since having one would end up with them making less money since offering the "pre-purchase" on the digital version of the complete edition would end up with it being $5 cheaper than the expansion only version in the end (although, that might be offset slightly by people not buying it retail, meaning they get the full retail purchase price without having to pay for packaging, distribution and only charging the wholesale price).

As I said earlier, this decision doesn't make much sense to us on the consumer side, but the bean counters crunched the numbers and made some estimations on sales. This is the system their figures showed would make the most cash and a moment's thought shows why the wanted the expansion prepurchase to be more appealing than the Complete Collection at this point in time: expansion + 1 Month's play time = $45 VS expansion + upgrade + 1 Months play time= $50-$55[and up] VS Complete Collection - Free Month = $25 minus whatever they "lost" having to sell it wholesale to retail outlets plus the cost of packaging and production of the disks. Therefore, it makes sense on the seller's side. I suspect that closer to the July release or shortly after, well after they have all us crazed fanbois and fangirls sewn up, they'll shift the focus from the Expansion Alone to the Complete Collection to bring in more buyers ("It's really only $25 since you get the first month FREE!") and mention the Expansion Alone far less frequently if at all (remember, it only makes good sense to buy it IF you want the preplay powersets perk, without that, it's the bad decision).

Definitionally, a "pre-purchase" is just that, you purchase it before you can have it. So, I fully expect the "pre-purchase" to be $29.99. They use the term a number of times, so it is not an error of communication, plus they use the term "preordering" when saying that doing so at retail will get you nothig extra.

CoV had a boxed Pre-ORDER, which was basically a hold slip for a copy of the game in a retail outlet.