Rokayas

[ QUOTE ]
States hates having powerlevelers in his game. It's that simple.[ QUOTE ]
do u think that if some one gets powerleveled to 50 that they
will just quit playing?

[/ QUOTE ]Yes, he does. He think's they'll get bored because there is no end-game yet and they'll leave. That's why he hates having powerlevelers in his game.

[/ QUOTE ]

Looking at the consumer/producer relationship in this. Yes, by default it is his game. He developed the game. He presented it to a company that marketed the game to consumers - you and me. They make the profit off of us purchasing and playing it. However, imop, once I buy something, it is no longer THEIRS. It becomes MINE. The consumer. You don't go out and buy a sofa and say "this is Rooms-To-Go's sofa," you say. "this is my sofa." Period. If you call them and say that the cushion are ripped, you don't call them and say "your cushions are ripped, you should replace them," you say, "my cushions are ripped and I'd like to replace them." Point being, even though someone else made the game, you are paying for it. With everything good and bad, you as the cosumer have the ultimate power. Ask any company why they are in business, and they'll tell you because of the customer. They buy the products. They pay the salaries. If you don't like how something is being done, find another product. I'm not trying to start a flame. I for one am VERY upset about my Dark Defender now. I won't say that he's dead, but running a solo mission IS impossible for me now. I don't have 2 hours to run a mission by myself. Maybe that's why it took me nearly 9 months to hit 50 with him. But I feel like my hero has been betrayed. (Comic book reference: It's kinda like Professor X spending 30+ years teaching the X-Men about being heroic, saving lives, blah blah blah...and then becoming Onslaught and trying to destroy the world. It's a total slap in the face).

I guess my point in this is that there are always going to be upsides and downside to everything, including this game. Are we always going to be happy with it? No. Is it still fun? Mostly. Personally, I feel as though there has been enough deception with Issue releases. My roommate was telling me last night that Blizzard is raising the level cap on WoW to 70. When will that happen? We don't know yet. But at least they're talking about it. Nice to know those devs value their customers. At this point, I don't feel like a valued customer, and I'm sure I'm not alone.

Also, even though I should know better than to do this, I'm putting a link in my sig to a copy of all my powers and their slotted enhancements up. Please, before any negative comments about it, I am aware of how Stamina, Health, Shadow Fall, and Tactics are slotted. I'm not changing them. I'm playing City of Heroes, not City of Respecs.

http://home.comcast.net/~themavericks/Rokpowerset.html

I wanted to post this in hopes that one of the devs might think about it. Before I do, I want to explain that there are THREE CoH accounts active in my household at this moment. Me and my partner share one. My roommate has one, and his girlfriend has one. Everyone pretty much has heroes on the otheres accounts. This was done so that all of us could play with any of the others, at any time, and always know that if for some reason they couldn't find a group, they'd still have someone to play with. Two of us would be considered "power gamers." We invest several hours per day on our characters. Two of us are "casual games." We may spend just a few hours a week playing them when we have time. And this is a happy household. So, that means that we are spending $538.00 per year for happiness and quality time with one another. (For you number crunchers: $14.95 fee per month x 3 accounts x 12 months in the year.) Please don't get into the semantics of "quality time" with me. This is our thing. We enjoy it. Don't knock it.

Now, having that understanding is this. Two of us were VERY EXCITED about Issue 4. We tried to explain the concept of PvP to the other two. Finally, we had to present this to them: "Look, the X-Men had the Danger Room. This could kinda be like that, but instead of fighting Shi'ar holograms, you get to fight other live players." At that moment, you could tell they understood. And things were great again. But alas, no one in the arenas. EVER. So it became just this: A Danger Room in every city zone that no one was using unless it was someone playing against a random friend. And that was "expaned content."

A couple of months pass by, and we find out about Issue 5. We tell them. "It's gonna be awesome! Look at the new zone! See these new powers! You're gonna love it!" Then it comes around to test, and we find out that our characters are going to be 1/2 as effective and cool as they once were. I explained it to my partner this way: "Ok. Your controller for example. Power X used to last for 60 seconds and take 60 seconds to come back up. With Issue 5, it's only going to last for 30 seconds, but take 120 to come back up for you to use, but you'll do double the damage." To which his response was: "But I'm an ICE CONTROLLER! I don't *DO* damage." I know, I know. But you get new powers and a new zone and new events. His response was "that doesn't sound very much like a superhero to me." I know. *sigh*

Now, CoV is announced. He's actually excited because he's always playing the anti-hero anyways, and can now play a full fledged villain. But now, now he can become a SUPER VILLAIN!!!! So we go out and get our preorder. The sales clerk says "and by preordering, you get a guaranteed beta slot!" He's SOOOOOOOOOO excited. I'm happy because he's excited. So we get home, tear open the package, load the disc, register, etc. Then he finds out! Ooops. The guy at the store wasn't completely right. Bad on him. We have to wait for a beta spot invite. *sigh* You can tell he's disappointed. Santa came and basically delived an empty box with wrapping paper on it. His puppy was kicked. His ice cream cone melted before he could eat it. You get the picture.

Now, we find out the "Enhancement Diversitification" and "Endurance Discount." Again we have to explain this. "Remember the free respect they gave you at I5. Remember the 4 hours I spent helping you with your character. And all the influence we spent to get you balanced out after the nerf? Well, it was a waste of our time. (Argument starts. Argument finishes.) I explain to him how he's going to have to reshuffle all his enhancements AGAIN. Sorry, I know you're a squishy controller, but Statesman says that your endurance comes back too fast because of stamina. Oh, you didn't care! You were talking about your health regeneration!!! Sorry. Statesman thinks you're just not squishy enough, so now instead of getting 2 health points back every second, you're gonna get back about 1.25." I know you die all the time because the tankers got nerfed (and are getting nerfed again) but you're just gonna have to deal with it." Individuality is a joke. Prepare for cookie cutter heroes.

To which he replied: "Screw Statesman. I pay for the damn game! Not him! And why is he doing this? I'm tired of hearing about how the game isn't what he wants it to be! It's not what I want it to be anymore! Cancel the account!"

Insert a few days now of trying to convince him that everything will be ok (and myself as well.)

Someone made a post in the "ED" thread about the emotional effect this game has on it's players. I love my defender. According to some random NPC in PI, I've spent 488 hours on him. I feel like it's all a wash. My partner is mad and doesn't want to play anymore. All that quality time has been turned into a joke. Feeling are hurt across the game. Not just mine. Not just his. Hundreds of thousands of players have lost faith in the developers and the "Creative Director." (So much for any sense of creativity. Ask the devs at Asheron's Call 2 how that's going and what they're going to do for work.)

And to think...this all started because one friend told my roommate about the game and we ended up with 3 accounts here. Ironic I think.

PS. sorry about the long post.