Shrowd

Thank you. And, yeah, sorry about the rip. It was just one of those weeks at work and when I saw that beta access was available, I just felt like something finally went right. Then, I felt like I got it thrown back in my face.

I'm cool now, though. Croatoa gives me something to do till the email arrives.

Thus far I have not been given a proper link to the information. Not even from NCSoft support. This is sad.

For those of you keeping score at home, the link is here.

And, yeah, it tells me everything I needed to know. I'm not arguing whether or not the information is out there. But when I asked support about it, I never once got told this.

On the other hand, though, Best Buy had the box in-store, so anybody could have picked it up and bought it. Maybe some people do, but I'm not one who looks at a game at a store and then rushes home, logs on to the Internet and researches the game to see if I'm going to like it. If the story/graphics/etc. appeal to me and I can afford it and have the minimum specs, I buy it. I'm sorry if this is beyond someone's comprehension, but I don't take my gaming that seriously to research it vigorously.

I'll take the hand I'm dealt. Fine. I just wish support was better able to handle issues.

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Some of us who have been here since the CoH beta haven't gotten in yet.

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I know. That's why I said...

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In fact, if I were one of those who had an account for 12 months or longer and some newbie won a drawing because his friend joined for one month and then quit, I'd be a little irate then as well.

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Actually, Clintonian, I was not able to access the Internet for quite some time, so I had no idea CoV even existed until about a month ago.

And I understand that I'm still "getting a premium." It's just not the premium I expected, nor the premium they implied.

Either way, my complaint still stands that those who make the commitment to pre-order the game should get preference for beta access before any random drawing. That's the same logic for allowing those who have been with CoH so long to have closed beta access, so why doesn't it apply here?

In fact, if I were one of those who had an account for 12 months or longer and some newbie won a drawing because his friend joined for one month and then quit, I'd be a little irate then as well.

I've given up trying to convince anyone of anything about this. This is just me venting about something I have no control over.

I'm sorry, but CoH is just not that in-demand. Heck, Wal-Mart has had to cut the price on the DVD edition a few times, and STILL can't get it to leave the shelf. No one knows about this game, so there would be no risk of not finding one.

When I saw that pre-ordering was available, I clicked the link to find out more about it. What I read made me very excited.

Beta access? Oh yeah...I want that. See, I work a 4-on 4-off shift, and I was on the last day of my 4-on rotation and figured this could be a very nice "weekend" for me if I got access to the beta. I've never beta-tested a game before, so I had no idea what to expect. And the page didn't expound on it, so I assumed that, since it didn't say "open beta," that I would be getting access to the beta immediately...especially since the pre-order comes with a disc. What's the disc for then, if not the beta version of the game?

So, I called up my local EB Games store and asked them if they had "the beta disc" in stock (since EB Games' site did warn to do this). The clerk told me they did. "Great," I said and told him I would pre-order on the 'net.

However, my wife noticed the Best Buy logo - and since it was cloer and we were going shopping anyway - we went. I had to ask a few different employees about it (because no one knew what the game was...one woman kept saying "City of Village"), but finally was brought the box.

I specifically asked the employee who presented the box to me if it contained "the disc that has access to the beta version." He shrugged and looked at the box. On the back, he pointed to where it stated "beta access to City of Villains" and affirmed that it did indeed contain what I asked for. I also read it and assumed he knew what he was talking about. After all, that's how it looked to me as well.

So that made two of us who thought the same thing...not counting the clerk at EB Games who told me the same thing.

I was expecting to pay the full $50 for it and was happily surprised when it rang up to only $10. I asked the check-out cashier how I would be receiving the full game. She told me that I would come in and pay the balance at the time of release, but didn't know how I was going to be informed. No big deal, I thought. So long as I have beta access, I will be content for the time being.

I got home and registered the code immediately. Unfortunately, I read and performed the steps one at a time and didn't notice until the end that I would be getting some sort of confirmation by e-mail (which, consequently, has been changed now). Crud, I thought. Wonder if my e-mail is current. It wasn't. I changed it immediately and e-mailed support about the problem. I asked them if I could get the access information at my new e-mail address and offered to confirm any information they wanted.

What happened afterwards was a night in hell for me. I kept getting canned responses ("to change your e-mail..." "But I already changed my e-mail. I just need the beta access info." "Thank you for your interest in the closed beta program. Preference will be given..." "I pre-ordered the game. It says I get beta access."), I finally found out through lurking in here that *gasp* I DON'T get beta access until sometime in the future. And that time has not been decided yet.

[censored]??

And now...ohhhhh...now they are offering a chance to get closed beta access TO ALL OF US!!! That's just a rip! I paid for the pre-order so that I could GET access to the beta. But now, people who didn't even pre-order have a chance to win access.

That's a load of dung. Plain and simple. And I don't care what sort of marketing mumbo-jumbo anyone wants to spew at me.

My take is, they knew exactly what they were doing. They knew people like me would pre-order thinking we were getting access to the beta. They just wanted to drum up sales.

But, guess what? It hasn't worked as much as they hoped. So now they're offering beta access to all of us to try to drum up more sales.

Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with drumming up sales. That's what a sales department is supposed to do. Without money, the game would not exist. I understand that.

But if you have to resort to shady promises to get sales, then you've crossed the line. I'm not the only person who thought pre-ordering the game would grant us access to the beta. But NCSoft has chosen to ignore our complaints.

They're just lucky they have such a cool game. Otherwise, I'd already have canceled (I still have a free trial to Everquest available if I ever decided to use it).

Very bad business ethics. Very bad.

As the rain fell on Paragon City, a lone figure sat in a dark alley. He was holding a gun and was prepared to end it all.

Only a few months before, he was a hero of Paragon - one of many who had answered the call since the Rikti invasion. It seemed like eons ago.

He had been captured by Dr. Vahzilok and was on his way to becoming an eidolon when a group of rescuers busted in just in the nick of time. As usual.

Only this time, they were about a half second too late. The process had already begun. The man was about to become a monster, just as the heroes pulled the plug.

The man went into a coma almost immediately. He was rushed to the hospital where he was placed on the most up-to-date life support available. Little did anyone know that the shell was all that remained of the once valiant hero. His mind was all but gone, replaced by something...else. Something sinister.

He awoke weeks later, feeling well, but with no memory of the events that had gotten him to that point. He was told he had been married, but he found no love for the woman to which he was supposed to be married.

The ragtag group of heroes who had saved him were his team at one time. However, he had no recollection of them, nor did he feel any emotional attachment.

In fact, he realized, he felt no emotion...at all. He soon realized that it would have been better if he had been allowed to die. At least then, the monster would die too.

And so he found himself in this alley, with this final thought. His eyes glowed a ghostly white as he took the pistol and cocked back the hammer.

It was then that he heard the scream. It was a scream that would change his life forever. He turned his head suddenly toward the noise and stood up, dropping the pistol to the ground.

He walked slowly toward the screaming. It was a woman, he decided. As he got closer, he heard the gutteral mutterings of creatures he had become all too familiar with. As the zombies closed in on the woman, the man's eyes glowed more severly. Something was happening.

The man watched one of the doc's henchmen retrieve a meat cleaver. "It will all be over soon," the creature spat.

"Indeed, it will," a voice replied from the darkness. The creatures suddenly forgot about the woman and began searching the darkness frantically. They were not alone.

A dark fist came flying from the shadows and removed the head of one of the embalmed. The others grunted angrily into the empty void.

It was only a few moments, but it felt like an eternity to the butcher who was quickly discovering it was a mistake to have chosen this night to be "recruiting." One by one, his servants disappeared, until only he was left.

Cleaver in hand, he began to back away, looking this way and that. His heart pounded in his undead chest as he waited for the end.

"Where are you?!" He screamed into the dark.

"Behind you," a voice said. And, indeed, it did seem to come frmo behind. But that was impossible. There was only a wall behind him. His hand reach back and felt the familiar brick. He sighed in relief, but it was quickly transformed into a gasp as a hand grabbed his wrist. He turned to his right and saw the most ghastly apparition coming from the cloud of negative energy that had filled the alley.

The cleaver dropped to the ground and the creature snarled in fear and fell trembling to the ground.

"Are you afraid of the dark?" The form of a man stepped out of the shadows. "You should be."

"Tell Doctor Vahzilok his time in Paragon City is over."

The frightened being, thinking he had suddenly gained good fortune, nodded and scrambled to his feet. He started to run away.

"On second thought," the dark figure spoke again. "I'll tell him myself."

With that a dark cloud descended on the butcher. Within seconds, his screaming had stopped.

The woman had watched it all happen, but couldn't belive any of it. She gathered her things and ran scared from the alley and back home. Within hours, the neighbors were abuzz about Paragon City's newest hero.

Then, one night, a man walking his dog saw what appeared to be an animated shadow making quick work of a ruffian who was attempting to steal his car. Though frightened, the man approached him.

"Thank you," he said graciously. The figure didn't respond. The man noticed a pair of ghostly white eyes peering from beneath a cowl. "Who are you?"

"I...I don't know," the figure spoke slowly. "All that I was is gone. All that I have left is this...the darkness."

The man nodded slowly in understanding as the dark figure vanished in a puff of black smoke.

As he walked away, the man looked down at his dog. "I think this neighborhood just got a whole lot safer, Barney."

The dog barked in agreement and the two went back into the house.

And somehwere in the distance, atop a rooftop stood a dark figure of justice. The hero was not dead. He had been reborn. His name?

Shrowd.