Redbone

The two best fan hypotheses I've seen on that is:

1) Their Hamidon's mutation was akin to a gigantic, Godzilla style devowered (with modifications) and he was never a jello mold. That mobility made it possible for him to spread the DE like a plague with it springing up everywhere he went (and, naturally, his immoble form on Earth Prime is why the DE are somewhat concentrated in Paragon and the Rogue Isles).

2) OUR Hamidon is "stage one" of the Hami's mutation, but thanks to the concentration of heroes in Paragon he's never been able to get to cell division and develop into the godzilla style devowered because we keep beating him down and he has to regenerate into the first cell again. Pretoria didn't have the concentration of heroes constantly hammering on him, so the first cell replicated and developed into the creature Pretorian Cole beat up.

I like the second one, personally.

You forgot: If you're an old fart (like me) with slowly fading vision (like me) and no ability to type without hunting and pecking (like me), take up with as may gods as you can think of and start praying.

The End Game Content is going to help the high-end price situation a lot, but it definately won't produce fast enough to handle the initial "Day One Bump" in high end stuff and likely won't produce fast enough to instutute enough price control to bring down that initial inflation (again, thanks to the trend heading upwards, the momentum will remain for a while). Without knowing when I19 will hit, I am fairly confident in saying that it will come along once prices have already started their slide back to the new normal and will accelerate that process nicely.

Well the "worst case scenario" really is not that bad if you play both sides (and is awesome if you're just a Redsider).

If you pushed me to make an iron clad prediction, I would say that there will be a massive jump in the high end stuff (the current "end game" with purples and level 50 IOs and level 50 salvage) because there are so many villains that have had to go without for so long thanks to production problems, which will drain a lot of cash off the Redside (yeah, that's a disadvantage to the Reds, really, since it murders the Red-only's buying power).

That will be followed by a slow (likely VERY slow, measured in months) decline in prices (thanks to the "the last 5 sold at X so I want X" effect, even if demand no longer supports prices that high) to a stability price about 10% higher for Bluesiders, and 20% OR MORE lower for Redsiders.

The big exception will be low and midrange arcane salvage, which is notoriously difficult to find on the blue side, but is far more common on the red. Those will see the same initial boom-and-bust and stabalize lower for Blues and higher for Reds.

Now I may be wrong, but that's my guess based on the current prices and supplies and the typical market activities when there are preturbations in the supply and demand cycle. The secodn assumption I'm making is that the Redsiders will maintain their production rate (which, from the market complaints) is anemic enough to assume a minimum 10% disparity in supply and demand, if not much more. If the disparity is much higher, the pricing changes will be much more dramatic.

Except that the reason many are so happy about the merger is the Red market wasn't producing enough stuff that people wanted. Therefore, combining the market means more people wanting stuff, but a smaller percentage of stuff being produced.

What we will likely see is a sudden, sharp rise in prices, followed by a slow decline to a stable (well, as stable as can be expected) price that is higher than the Blue Side's current prices and lower than those currently on the Red Side.

So, basically, a little bad for the Blues a lot of happy for the Reds (meaning characters, since most players play both sides). All in all, this is likely a push for me (and most people who regularly play both sides), my Reds can get stuff they want for less, my blues are fairly well established and can buy what they need (within reason) for the most part.

Yeah, but what's going to really sell it is the Rated M, Adults Only "Wonder Woman's Whipping Boy" expansion.....

Reading the promo info again, I'm not sure that it will be possible to place all of them in a single power. It's stated "(t)hey cannot be sold, stacked, or traded", which would appear to indicate that they are a "set of one" so to speak in that you can't place more than one in a power.

While I think you may be right, with the information we have, you'd have to make a slight change:

Automatic beta access does NOT apply to Pre-orders as, unlike with CoV, there is no advanced code sent out by the retailers to apply to the account. NC has no way of know who pre-ordered. It's also obvious that the loyalty program stuff was written up way before any pre-anything plans were finalized, and at the time they probably assumed things would work like they did for CoV. Because of this we cannot make a definate statement on prepurchases getting access, but it is reasonable to assume they do under the original tier statements.

Well, to be honest, it's supposition, but founded on statements to myself and others made by in-store employees and their "home office" customer service. My guess is (and this is a WAG) that the targeted date for release was July 20th, but they've run into trouble somewhere (either in Beta or production or distribution) or they're targeting the release of another game to have a box to compete with it and have delayed the release to an as of yet unknown target date. This is backed by the official FAQ changing from July to "Summer" and the wildly varying unofficial release dates given (some outlets say July 20, some say Spetember 1, 2 or 18, some say "late fall" some say "winter").

At a guess, I'd say the prepurchase folks will be playing with their two new powersets a BIT longer than expected before the rest of us get them.

When you received your preorder receipt, was it printed with a code and instructions on how to redeem the code? That seems to be the "tell" for if that date is an "official one" or a WAG by GameStop. If there is an officiual release date, GameStop can start the preorder promotion and there will be a code. If there's no code on the receipt, then the promotion hasn't started and the release date is a placeholder or WAG.

Since you cancelled the account, it will take some time for the systems to all get synched up and all the info to filter through (usually a very short time on weekdays, but it can get up to a day or two on weekends).

Exactly, better safe than out $40.

Well, doubling up on Preorder codes for CoV didn't play nice, you used the second code and wasted it for no gain. Applying multiple codes for an existing edition also doesn't work (you can't apply 2 CoV Collector's Editions and get the free months or two GvE Codes and get the free month, for instance). So, it is possible that the Prepurchase codes will not be compatable with the CE code or the preorder code.

Again, better to ask and get an answer from Customer Service than to spend the money and find out it will not work.

No one will know until someone tries it, which no one can until Going Rogue comes out or until NCSoft says so.

It is possible to have the codes "locked" into a specific set of game codes (IE won't work with the prepurchase codes, and won't work unless a box code is applied and it's even possible, though doubtful in this case, that it could be tied to a specific subset of box codes that only GameStop will receive). While that can be done, they may not do it, and it's not extremely common to do it.

Basically, it's a bit of a gamble unless someone at NCSoft verifies it can be used alone or with the prepurchase codes or someone tries to apply it after the perk goes live.

That seems to go against what GameStop's CS department is saying since they cannot start the promotion without a release date and they do not have one yet (they also do not have 9/1 listed on their website for the product even though they have some with release dates into December). Additionally 9/1 is a Wednesday, and not a standard release date for retailers to receive products especially new products.

The "official" answer seems to be "no, it will not work towards this promotion." The reason is without a set release date GameStop can't (or won't) officially start the promotion. Once that date is set, they will officially start the promotion and you'll be able to get the proper receipt (printed with the code and instructions). So, both answers you received are likely correct. The company as a whole has not started the promotion, therefore there is no way for your current preorder to count towards it, but the individual store can make it count towards it when the promotion does officially start.

Individual stores tend to be nice about these things and will switch the existing preorder for the product with the "proper" preorder for it, but you will very likely have to return to the store and tell them, in person, to make the change and receive the right receipt. However, not every store is that nice. As I said earlier, two of the three GameStops closest to me that I visited the day of the announcement warned me off preordering until the promotion starts to make absolutely sure I get the proper preorder.

To play with the wording a bit, what you have now is more accurately a "reserve." You've told them to reserve you a copy and the individual store is tracking that reserve. What you want is the "Preorder" which is the same as the reserve with the exception that the main corporation is aware of your wanting it.