Samuel_Tow
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Posts
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Quote:This, to me, is the granddaddy of real money store concerns, and a very valid one. If I may delve into "other games" for a minute, I want to describe a couple of polarly opposite experiences.Originally Posted by Sermon
1) Intrusiveness of the in-game store:
I understand that an in-game store must be visible and that players must be aware of the opportunities it offers them. Personally, however, littering a game with store links and buttons and reminders can be very painful for me as a player. Personally, I think the store should be accessible but out of sight unless requested. If this is not palatable to marketing, at least make the store less intrusive for VIP players than for non-paying players.
On the "Horrible! Do not want!" scale is Global Agenda. Their main menu goes something like:
Resume
Options
STORE!!!
Quit
Ugh... This is advertising at its worst. A blind man could see that menu button from space because as soon as you face its general direction, it slaps you in the face, yelling: "Go here! Buy stuff! Give us your money now!" It feels like the company has me by the neck and is doing its best to make me pay for things. I got into a conversation with a player over there, and he very generously mailed me a large sum of in-game money. I tried to accept it, but the game told me I needed to be an "elite agent" to claim my mail attachments. So I returned the mail and the money, but I never returned to that game.
My "I kind of like that, actually!" example comes from Spiral Knights. The only thing you can buy in that game is Energy. Granted, it's used for almost everything, but still. The way to do so is over the Energy Store, which is located on menu button with the Energy symbol on it. Nowhere at all in the game am I reminded that there's anything for sale for real money. The ONLY place real money comes up is in that store, and that store is hidden away where I'll look for it if I want energy, but where I won't run into it under any other circumstances. OK, there's one other place where the store comes up - when you run out, the game offers you to either "Go back to Haven" or "Buy energy." However, at no point do I feel like I have a used car salesman sitting on my shoulder, talking me into buying things.
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I realise that Free players aren't contributing much to the game's economy. The player density may help subscribers find teams and subscribe a little longer, but ultimately, Free players are playing for free. Obviously, the goal is to inspire them to buy something. The trick is to make them feel inspired to purchase, rather than conned into getting ripped off. No-one likes commercials. No-one likes ads. No-one likes marketing intruding into their pretendy fun time like phone salesman ringing you up in the middle of family dinner. Players... ALL players, be they Free, Premium or VIP, should be treated as players there to have fun, not cash cows there to be milked.
I never paid a cent to Global Agenda, because everything about it struck me as a scam to part me and my money. The very first thing I saw when I logged in was that HUGE Market button. It made it clear that I, as a Free player, was inferior to everyone else and I really should spend more money for the game. By contrast, I dropped over $20 for Spiral Knights, because the game treated me with respect, at least as far as I can expect as a Free player. It let me play, it never rubbed my inferiority in my nose and it didn't feel like a tourist trap. Can't ask for much more than this.
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The City of Heroes in-game store needs to be flush with the environment and practically invisible for VIPs. This isn't a recommendation. This HAS to happen. I, as a subscriber and a VIP, need to be made aware of the stores existence, but I do not want to see ANY advertising of ANYTHING in it unless I specifically go to the store to check for it or hear via word of mouth. I want the Paragon Market for VIPs to be as low-profile as the Consignment House, and a MUCH lower profile than the insultingly ubiquitous Merit Vendors. If you have to, make it a UI function as opposed to a real place, but don't make it so I can't run ten feet without tripping into Market representatives and advertising.
For free and premium players, I'm not so sure. The game ought to be encouraging them - positively - to buy things, and I know how much of an impact just a random banner add or a chance offer can have when it introduces you to something you like but didn't know existed. But it still has to be done in such a way that it doesn't feel like it's twisting people's arms or trying to sell them use cars. Don't be obtrusive or obnoxious. This turns people off and makes them act contrary. "You want my money so bad? Well tough! You can't have it!" Make the game seem confident and proud in its own quality and let Free players feel as though they're not EXPECTED to buy anything, but simply have the option to do so and get even more cool stuff on top of the cool stuff they already have.
In essence, don't dangle cool stuff in front of people's faces and taunt them with how they can't have it until they drop $20. That's bad. Give people a large body of cool stuff, get them to like the game and then simply offer to expand an experience they already enjoy. -
Quote:Hopefully, it dies in a fire. Failing that, it becomes far less of a driving force behind our villain characters, a mere side plot in an island chain of side plots, where the main plot is what I write in the Bio box.Originally Posted by That_Ninja
So, what happens to the Destined Ones lore?
You don't make an entire large zone for a tutorial, because the tutorial lasts from level 1 to level 2. You only need a small instance from that zone where contacts can tell you things, give you things and you can defeat half a dozen minions before moving on into the rest of the game. The Champions Online tutorial spanning six levels and being essentially all most new players see before they wise up is a mistake. The ACTUAL Galaxy City could be a high-level zone, with just that one small instance where the tutorial takes place serving as a safer zone among the chaos where heroes and villains get a trial by fire.Quote:Originally Posted by Necrotech_Master
my understanding of this and what was mentioned in the ustream today was that galaxy city IS going to be the new tutorial, it will essentially be a co op and upon completion of the tutorial will allow the player to choose an alignment and go to atlas or mercy
I sincerely hope we don't get an entire "tutorial zone." -
A few points:
1. If they had indeed created all that content, but intentionally held it back so they can put it in the store, giving me "lite" issues for coming on an entire year, that will not reflect positively on my attitude going into Freedom. Negatively impacting the rate at which I, as a subscriber, get things so that they have more stuff to peddle in the store is not cool.
2. "A month's stipend" is far, far, FAR too expensive for what should be in a regular Issue and, as such, I as a subscriber should be entitled to for the price of my subscription. If we end up having to pay real money for things like zones, powersets or enhancements, I'm going to start asking what my $15 is going into.
3. To stick to the topic, a two-handed "weapon" set has been a long time coming. I kind of hope it has something to do with weapon customization rather than a brand new set, but at this point that's not very likely. An emphasis on repeated strikes sounds like something I've suggested in the past, where a polearm weapon would have an extra "wind up" and "wind down" animation every time you have to start attacking from a dead stop and every time you go to a dead stop, meaning you can attack faster if you queue up attacks one after the other, rather than if you leave gaps in your attack chain.
4. It's high time they finish BABs work and remove weapon draw when an attack is applicable to be used, leaving it in only if you attempt to activate an attack with nothing or a friendly targeted, while being out of range, out of line of sight, out of energy or otherwise unable to execute said attack. This would allow me to mix weapon and non-weapon attacks, such as Broadsword with Fighting powers, without feeling like a fool for doing so.
5. If this is part of I21 and the Freedom launch, then they're starting very strong. Between this, the First Ward, the revamps of Galaxy City, Atlas Park and Mercy Island and the costumes they've promised, things look a lot less grim than they might otherwise. It all comes down to how much of that stuff I, as a subscriber, am going to end up paying extra for, and which content in particular that will be. -
Stupid sense of self-entitlement written in bolded letters aside, I'm more than happy to have paid for Going Rogue when it came out (rather, about four months BEFORE it came out) and enjoyed its benefits since then, and for however long it takes before Freedom launches. I paid so I wouldn't have to wait a year plus, and it was money well spent.
A good lesson not just for games but for anything in life is that NOTHING you will ever buy comes with an unbreakable guarantee that other people will never get it for less money than you did down the line. -
Quote:Well, now that you mention it, I see itOriginally Posted by je_saist
Those buildings aren't, but that statue?
It blended into the background before. I have to say, though - it looks like any other statue anywhere else in the city. All the Launch statues do. I know Galaxy Girl has her unique outfit, but hers and that of almost every character the game launched with is completely generic, and she's rendered in cement with no colour to it. It looks like "a statue."
It does prove it's Paragon City, though, that much I should have noticed. Praetorian statues are bronze, I think.
I thought this was a separate, instanced tutorial and I read nothing about the destruction of the zone. I certainly didn't notice talk of revamping multiple zones. That would be pretty cool.Quote:Originally Posted by Arilou
The Producer's letter says we're getting a Galaxy City tutorial, a revampled Atlas Park and also revamped low-level missions for Mercy and Atlas.
I have, since making that post, read that they're looking to revamp Atlas and Mercy, as well, and I don't know if Galaxy will remain an open zone with an instanced tutorial like Breakout, or if the zone will be scrapped and used only for a tutoria (this seems unlikely with a full redesign).
My point remains, unfortunately - we'll see a revamp of the starter zones, but the rest will remain unchanged. I guess it gives us time to evaluate the changes, because I still prefer the old Faultline geography over the new one. But the old city vistas are kind of... Meh, I'll admit. Buildings are WAY too far apart for it to look like a real city. -
Personally, I worry more about the game reaching into my pocket and how that will impact my fun. Flat subscription games have no need to advertise their latest greatest to me in-game, because I'm already paying for it. F2P games, even ones I'm already paying for, want me to pay even more, and so constantly remind me of the "incentive" to spend more money. I have a severe dislike of TV commercials, and the commercials-equivalent in games doesn't make me any happier.
If Paragon Studios can make the transition such that I don't feel like the game constantly expects me to pay more than I am, there's a high chance that my fun won't be ruined. And if a game can keep me entertained, then I'm all the more willing to invest more money in it.
We'll see how that goes.
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As far as "other people" ruining the game go, that's a myth. We've had new players, we've had idiot players, we've had snob players and we've had them since the game came out. This isn't going to change, not by very much, anyway. -
Quote:Ironically, newer villain content seems to be the one place this has been the most rectified. We seem to have gotten through to the writers that "villain" is not the same thing as "lackey," "mercenary" or "thug." And this is a good thing.Originally Posted by IanTheM1
Have you done any of the recent villain content? Especially Mortimer Kal (or at least his special tip mission)?
The same doesn't seem to have filtered over to heroes, however, nor Praetorians, for that matter. Their entire gameplay revolves around finding someone stronger than you, serving him or her until you're strong enough to find someone even stronger to serve. If it's not the Praetorian Guard and the Midnight Club and Vanguard and Ourobors it's the Well and the Letter Writer and Prometheus and such.
I yearn for the day when our characters are allowed to be that guy/girl in the memory crystal, who broke the laws of time and space and altered history, presumably of his/her own accord. I'd REALLY hate for it to be revealed that we were sent there to do that by someone even more important.
Heroes very much CAN be the biggest thing in their own stories, answerable only to those they choose to be answerable to. The contact system - as Tips stand to evidence - does not require that we have people to serve. We can and should act on our own initiative without Ramiel or Prometheus or anyone else telling us to. -
I inferred that this wasn't Galaxy City because none of the buildings in any of those screenshots are actually IN Galaxy City and I didn't think the destruction of a zone could deposit new buildings in it. If we ARE getting a revamp of existing zones, though, that could be interesting. Something tells me we aren't, and this is just for that one zone.
Also, I apologise for not looking at the file name of an inline image. -
Because I want to team with Donald Trump on a Sewer Trial?
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Quote:I agree. "Pay to win" models are not something that's pleasant to play in. People shouldn't be allowed to buy their way to the top.Originally Posted by Airhammer
As much as I cannot stand the current reward system.. I dont think we should be able to buy them this way..
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Considering this is Praetoria, I think this is the Hamidon Seed they were talking about in the new magic Praetorian zone.
Now we just need to figure out what the Hamidon has to do with magic, or to quote one of the developers when this was previously suggested: "The Hamidon is a what what of what?" -
Quote:While "slippery slope" is usually a bad argument, I think it is relevant here, and in a big way. Whenever one talks about any F2P system, my primary concern is how much of a gameplay advantage do paid players have over free ones, and how much greater the advantage of a paid player who forks over a lot of money is over that of a paid player who only pays a little.Originally Posted by Airhammer
yeah not feeling this one.. there are lons of ways to get merits.. thats way too skippery of a slope.
Normally, this comes up in competitive environments, as no-one likes to apply superior skill, tactics and knowledge only to lose to the momma's boy who got a $500 gift card for his birthday and now has all the exclusive top-tier gear. It's just as bad when a player has spent several weeks of hard grinding to earn an item, only for his pride to be shattered when another scoffs at him and says he got it in an afternoon for an extra $15. Sure, we don't like to grind for no reason, but sometimes it feels like it's worth the effort. Not when there's a cash-drop option, I don't think.
I actually have something of a relevant example. I've been playing Spiral Knights for the last few days and I liked the game enough to drop money for some in-game energy - a resource that free players get almost none of. Since then, I've been having a blast, but I keep running into people begging for energy and being surprised by how quickly I've been able to amass so much awesome gear. In fact, a player asked how another player had gotten so much energy. My answer - and I was right - was "Paid for it, I assume. Like I did"
When you're a free player in an F2P game, you're a second-rate citizen by default. That's understandable. But when a game starts making its VIP customers feel like second-rate citizens because they don't want to cash-drop $750 for all the awesome stuff, you have some SERIOUS problems in your game design. You're supposed to court your paying, elite customers, not make them feel worthless because they aren't paying you enough. -
Sorry to resurrect this from three pages back, but I wanted to thank you guys for answering my question. I was told in Global channels and by multiple people that "anything which drops salvage will drop Shards." I didn't want to question people's knowledge (to their face), but I had to get a larger sample of answers. The consensus is anything that's +0 to my combat level will drop shards. That settles that.
What this means is that my difficulty structure will need to be revised. What I mean is the following:
Level 1 game start: default
Level 12 DOs: +0x2, no bosses
Level 22 SOs: +0x2, yes bosses; or
Level 32 final primary: +0x2, yes bosses
Level 50(+1): +0x3, effective -1x3
That answers all my questions and narrows down my options. Thank you. -
I sincerely hope that "pay to win" never happens. Dividing the community into haves and have nots based on who has the most disposable income is something that would seriously break the game for me. Games, to me, are a form of escapism. Making City of Heroes into a money syphon which constantly reminds me that most people are richer than me is NOT what I want out of "Freedom."
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Prometheus comes off somewhat like a dick, if you'll pardon my language. I don't know why whenever there has to be co-op content and ambiguous morality, City of Heroes always resorts to making everyone a jerkass. They're kind of good guys, since all co-op content is hero content in disguise, but they can't ACT like heroes, so they resort to making them Heroic Jerks.
The reason I bring this up is because I feel that more power should make us more independent and more the masters of our own fate. Ideally, I'd like to see Incarnates transcend Prometheus, transcend the well and actually fulfil Ramiel's prophecy of an Incarnate so powerful he/she can break the laws of time and space, push past any opposition and chart the destiny of an entire world.
I sincerely hope that the writers can break away from this "serving NPCs" rut that they've been in since CoV came out.
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All of that said, I'd run such missions if they existed. -
Quote:No.Originally Posted by Lazarillo
Don't you have any sense of schadenfreude?
Penny is a psychic, and a damn powerful one by the time the LGTF takes place. When rescued, simply have her teleport away. If Katie Douglas can do it, Penny - arguably the world's strongest psychic - should too. Have her teleport away, then trigger the Clockwork King on the way out, just a tad fashionably late.
As for the Dragon mission, have the rescuees give you their intel upon rescue, then make their defeats meaningless. If they fall, they get mediported out, just like we do. Mission goes on without them. It's a lot more exciting to have the NPCs join you in the fray than to fret their safety and wellbeing.
Then if impatient people find the missions too long, we can see about shortening them. -
There isn't a choice for me. As the "I will pay real money for that!" guy, I see no reason to not stay VIP. If for whatever reason I was physically and practically incapable of doing so, I'd find another game altogether.
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I guess my repeatedly saying "I would pay for this!" was not landing on deaf ears. That's not quite what I had in mind, however, not to this extent anyway.
But, yes, unlocking this with some of the FREE Paragon Points (we need a better name for this) that VIPs get would be a good compromise, provided I don't need all 400 and then some just to unlock I21 features. -
Is it possible to contribute a character from a server other than Justice? I don't think I have any there, I'm afraid.
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Quote:Mostly what stood out to me is that you used "more than a few people" in what is otherwise a pretty solid definitionOriginally Posted by LittleDavid
I'll admit, your definition is clearer than mine was, heh. I was vague about it because I've played a lot of different games I consider MMOs, each which handle that social aspect differently. My response is to ask "Well, how many is more than a few?" and the answer I came up with was "more than can play together." Because, really, that's the point at which your social interaction transcends the bare essentials necessary to run the game side of things. When social interaction transcends gameplay, you have the makings of an MMO.
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Now that I've had more time to think, this topic kind of reminds me of MovieBob's video on why PC gaming is dead. For the disinterested among you, the video's drive is that the PC as we know it is dying because we no longer need a centralised location for our computing needs and that all of those needs will be split down to networked devices all throughout the house. The "family computer" would have no place in the future.
Ignoring the fact that the drive of technology is for one machine to do everything, rather than for you to have to own ten of the things, his belief that we'll type documents on the notebook, surf the web on our iphones, play games on our consoles and so forth is... Wishful thinking. First of all, I lack a TV that's appropriate for video games, and I'm sure as hell not going to fork over for one when I have a PC to maintain. Secondly, notebook computers suck. I HATE HATE HATE laptop-like keyboards and the small screen jams interfaces buttons together and makes me squint to see text more clearly. As for the iPhone, well, there's a whole site about texting with that thing and it has given me countless hours of gut-busting laughter.
I don't know if that makes me a knuckle-dragging luddite, but I don't have a smart phone of any kind (I have a regular cell phone), I don't have a touch pad, a notebook, a video game console, a TV set that's wider than the stretch of my arms and while I own a laptop, that's a relic from a time when I actually needed one. And whenever someone tells me I should buy one, my question is "Why?" My PC does everything, why would I want a whole bunch of gadgets to do LESS than it can? Why, as MovieBob puts it, would I want a wireless server in my basement for a zillion different devices to connect to when I already have one device which does everything? Why are people so keen on predicting the death of the PC and the introduction of about a dozen different smaller, more limited PCs? I will never understand that. I want my computers to do more things, not less.
As far as speech recognition goes, that's funny in its own way. First of all, I always, always, ALWAYS feel like a giant dunce whenever I have to speak with my PC, and not only because it rarely understands me. I'm not a native speaker of English. I have an accent. A rather coarse one. Machines have difficulty getting what I'm saying. It's twice as funny because I don't live alone, and I have to yell at my computer in a foreign language where others in the house can hear me.
Additionally, what, really, can I tell my computer to do that I can't more easily make it do with a keyboard and mouse? Or even just a mouse? If I were telling a person to do something, then yes, it would be easier to explain to that person than to physically hold his hand and direct him. But you can't "explain" to a computer. Voice recognition is just as basic a control scheme as pressing a button, and a lot of it actually revolves around telling the computer to "press <button>" or to "show mouse grid." Dictating text is hilariously impractical for speech recognition, and everything else ends up taking longer as you have to say more things, speak slower and saying things several times as the computer doesn't understand you. And you hope and pray you're not trying to talk to your computer where it can hear other people speaking.
The reports of the demise of the PC are greatly exaggerated. Yes, new devices are useful and they can accomplish some of its functions, but they strike me as the same kind of optimistic estimates back in the 90s when we thought shops would close down, people would live in virtual worlds and we'd have sex over the phone. That, and we'd all have video phones by the end of the decade. Sure, some of that may come true - I know Steam has replaced all my game shopping these days and a lot of cell phones ARE wired for video chat - but that's hardly around the corner. -
Quote:I view it as a problem, in the sense that over the last seven years, it has become patently evident to me that I'm just not gonna' do that. Ever. To me, it's a hassle. To me, it's a chore. To me, it's work. To me, it's unnecessary. Lazy? Yes, I am. That's why I'm sitting on a swivel chair in front of a computer and not doing something more productive with my life. Because I'm lazy. Because I play games so that I can have the fun of an adventure without actually going on an adventure that I'm ill-equipped to face.Originally Posted by Jophiel
I guess the reason why I'm neutral on it because I don't view that as a "problem".
My point here isn't to decry the social side of MMOs, or to ask that no-one ever have to speak a word to anyone else. Far from it. As I said before, I have nothing against people who do prefer to go out into the field, ask people with words and lead real conversations with them. I would, if I weren't so lazy. But that's kind of the thing with technology - it does things for us. Instead of having a greeter at the door of your establishment, put in a ticket machine and a turnstile, that sort of thing.
There's no reason to tell people like me that we're playing the wrong game or that we're somehow inferior because we don't want to spend four minutes doing something largely unpleasant and quite draining (to some of us) when there is a technological solution that lets everyone eat his cake and have it, too.
I like to team, but I don't like to make or look for teams. If I can skip the making and looking portions of teaming, I would team a lot more, and I dare say make for a better team-mate when I do. When I see teaming not as something that comes with a cost, but rather something that comes with a convenience, I will do a lot more of it, I will put a lot more of my heart into it, and I will actually socialise with the people I'm teaming with rather a lot more.
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I bring this up for a reason and not as an idle contemplation. I bring this up because that's precisely what my experiences are in games with auto-teaming features. When an auto-teaming feature exists, I can't resist using it. Even if I have a terrible experience with a terrible team-mate, I'm still going to keep coming back and trying again. Because when it costs nothing to team... Why wouldn't I?
Let me put it this way - I've spent more time teaming with strangers in another game that I've played for a grand total of it can't have been more than 15 hours, than I have in the last several weeks of City of Heroes. Why? Because here every time I consider looking for a team... I realise I can't, because a feature to do that doesn't exist. When I consider building my own team, I give up at inception because there's no way I'm bothering with that nonsense, asking people, getting no response, constantly worrying about team size, looking for more people, etc. I won't do it, and that's not negotiable. But if the game could do it for me... Yeah, I'll take part. Of course I will. Why would I not when it costs me nothing to try?
Any game that institutes an auto-teaming feature can only gain from it, especially an MMO. Because while you guys may espouse the ease of team building, but I've seen the in-game reality of three people broadcasting for a team over each other for 15 minutes and no-one goes ahead to make one. Because people don't want to bother MAKING teams, but most do want to PLAY on teams. Handle the making process for them and you profit, while at the same time losing nothing in the addition. -
Quote:I agree with your definition and it is a very good one, but I want to modify your second rule somewhat, as the way you define it is kind of... Non-specific. Let's say that in order for a game to qualify as an MMO, it must provide people at least one area for social interaction which permits the interaction of more people than the game is designed to actually play together. If your game is designed around having a team of five, then there has to be an area which allows more than five people to socialise. If your game is designed for five teams of five people each, then the game needs to have an area where 25 or more people can socialise. In short, the game's social aspects need to be applicable on a broader scale than its gameplay aspects.Originally Posted by LittleDavid
2. The game needs to make it possible for players to meet and socialize with others on a scale bigger than just a few people, in at least one part of the game world. Even if you can only party with four people at a time, for me to consider a game to be an MMO you need a place where more people than that can come together, hang out, socialize, interact, etc.
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Quote:Because the Broadsword draw animation pulls a sword from the back, really. We're working with what we have on hand. For reference:Originally Posted by Sumpfkraut
I find it very strange that the OP wnats all the sword sheats on the back.
*Broadsword/Battle Axe/War Mace/Assault Rifle: Back, same animation
*Katana: Side, unique
*Dual Blades: Back, unique
*Dual Pistols: Underarm holsters
*Claws: Wolverine style claw extend (complete with "snikt" sound)
*Nemesist Staff/Black Wand: I can't quite describe it, but it's unique to "staff" type weapon props
That's all I can think of. -
Quote:That's precisely what I worry about. I checked the Game Updates section, but that doesn't list complete patch notes, and I'm not about to go dredging through what's probably 20 pages of patch notes in the News section to find those particular ones, especially since I don't know what Issue that change is supposed to have happened in.Originally Posted by Mr. DJ
I'm probably forgetting something, but I think the shard change only applies when exemplared.