SuperOz
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Posts
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Joined
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Quote:I'm sorry, but you're talking about product placement, advertising, incentive and reward. All of these things are acceptable, legitimate, legal and accepted practices by any advertising firm, brand name product or service that wishes customers to invest financially in them.Originally Posted by RemusShepherd
No. Impulse buyers will not purchase anything unless they are invited to do so. That's why they put candy and trash magazines next to the cashier in the supermarket. Marketers use the psychology of impulse buying to position their product in a way that encourages the impulse.
Microtransactions, multiple currencies, and 'technical glitches' are all tools that can be used to pry a customer's impulses open.
Whether Paragon Studios is doing that intentionally or not, I don't know. I am only stating that they are building up a record of shady decisions.
This is not shady, it is certainly not misleading. I would directly challenge you to show me and anyone else reading this to unequivically show us examples of direct obfuscation of fact. The choice to buy, as always, is up to the customer. It sounds to me you are raging against the machine that is the staple of the western world's advertising system. Movies have product placement, as do television, radio, internet and podcasts. And online games.
If I wish to, I can partake in all or none of the things you mention, be they microtransactions, in-game currencies or whatever. Technical glitches however you cannot prove or disprove have been intentional, and yet in the face of a statement of intent by the service provider (in this case Paragon Studios) you protest that this is somehow fraudulent. The challenge therefore would still stand.
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Quote:So let me see if I understand this post and the subsequent ones: the game, its developers and marketing department, in a deliberate and intentional move to decieve their customers, are telling their customers that they made this deliberate and intentional move, that they intend to rectify it and that your billing date and delivery of your points will be restored and this will unbalance and keep unbalancing people and their purchase choices.Originally Posted by RemusShepherd
You're confused because you're looking at trivialities and not the big picture.
This month a technical problem gains them some extra impulse purchases.
Next month they'll have another excuse and another piece of content to lure in the impulse buyers.
By February they'll have cranked through the data and they'll know when to release things for maximum profit (hint: It'll be the first of the month, because that's just before most long-term player's start day of the 4th, which was release day) and they'll know how long to leave things on sale.
By next summer they'll introduce yet another currency, or another wait-for-points plan, or something else that ultimately will give them a marginal increase in profits. Three months after that, they'll do it again. And again. And again.
It's not about any specific event. It's all about keeping the players off-balance so that they are unable to budget their money and their time. This makes more money flow toward the game.
It started with the bait-and-switch they pulled when they went back on their promise of giving all the points for a subscription on the initial renewal date. From here it will only get worse, more devious, and more difficult to understand and plan for.
Maybe. Maybe Paragon Studios hasn't succumbed to the evils of gamification and microtransactions, and all the shady coincidences so far have just been accidents. But every time these coincidences happen it looks a little worse. It is making me lose confidence in a company I once trusted.
This is your point, is it not? Because the logic (such as it is) doesn't hold together upon examination. If it's a misleading tactic, then why inform people that it's happening and offer to fix it? Why not maintain the status quo and say that it's an unavoidable problem and say it can't be changed whatsoever? What does a promise of rectification gain the company if the intent is to be devious?
Where is the bait and switch that you mention? The frontloading of points into accounts wasn't the promised amount? The amount of said posts was less than indicated? Was there ever a mention of giving someone's a year's worth of points if you paid for a year's subscription? Was there an intent to ever switch from the rewards per month on a given date stated explicitly by the developers?
To say your argument is a straw man's is an insult to straw man arguments.
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Thankee, sir!
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Well, based on talking to my local comic shop people, this is not going at all well for DC. Yes, the #1's sold out (I kind of expected that) but the backlash against Red Hood is huge. I doubt it'll remotely make it to six issues, let alone three. Superman, whilst written by a man I hugely admire in George Perez, is unfortunately out of step with the 'new and fresh' vibe the line is going for.
In my local store, I didn't see very many if at all of the #2's moving off shelves. I browsed titles, thought Huntress whilst putting her where she should be as the daughter of Earth-2's Batman and Catwoman, was a pedestrian title. And unfortunately the better written titles feature characters that don't interest me to look at casually.
DC's pretty much lost me though Action Comics is faintly amusing. But I don't think it'll be long before we're back to the status quo...the only thing I could live with is updates to costumes (I don't actually mind Superman's new look) and some evolution of characters. Oh, and keeping Earth-2, which I always wanted back anyways.
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Hi there! I think this is a great idea....might I request a review and a trailer for my first serious arc 'Fear Incarnate' (ID: 522392, global handle @Solas)? I'd really like people to see what they think of this as I put a lot of work into it and I think it's kind of special (or at least it felt that way when I was writing it).
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Well, interestingly I have a positive update!
On a hunch, I decided I would try and buy some points (again) and when prompted to use the CC on file or 'Buy with CC', I took the latter and entered my details. It had one of those Captcha random word generators and I entered it....voila! It not only confirmed the purchase, but validated my card!
I recommend all of you who are having this problem to try it as it fixed me right up.
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I likey.
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There's also problems with authorising your card for purchases; I tried doing that a couple of hours ago (thinking I would like to buy a couple of things) only to be continually denied. Even going into my account and reentering everything just gave this error:
- Error processing transaction.
- Declined
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Fire Didio, seriously.
If the confusing mishmash of what's continuity and what's not isn't bad enough already, he has to go and try and sledgehammer it to death with no explanations.
I agree with Arcanaville; the DCAU continuity would be superb in this situation. How can we get Bruce Timm to take over?
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Quote:Unfortunately, that 90's representation of Starfire was due to Marv Wolfman going through a divorce and a midlife crisis at the same time. His usual quality of writing dipped significantly to the point I had to stop reading (he was trying to pair Dick and Donna up of all people), and had Starfire go through a hitherto unknown Tamaranean ritual making her become (and I'm not making this up) the 'Shaman of Tamaran'. /shudderOriginally Posted by Coin
Aye, that's fair, I should have stressed more that I didn't just mean on these forums I've seen it
Elsewhere on the web I read a blog about someone whose 8 yr old daughter didn't like the new Starfire as she wasn't like she was in the cartoon and my immediate thought was, well, she never was in the comics ever so it's a ridiculous thing to say. There's precious few versions of any characters anywhere that are the same in different mediums, including the likes of Batman and Superman.
But I can see how some people wouldn't like the new one, it is a bit of a departure from the version we're more used to, but then she went through numerous changes over the years as well, from the kissing of Dick Grayson to the more warrior based version in the mid to late 90's. I'll just reserve judgement for a few more issues first.
Well.......erm.......you know...........oh, never mind :P
He went out of his way to sabotage the relationship (it also didn't help that after nearly ten years of neglect, the Bat-editors wanted him back in the 'fold' as it were...which I still find a profound shame because he was the only former sidekick who'd developed an identity that wasn't all about Batman) and went so far as to come up with a lame Raven story and how she'd possessed Starfire to go through a fake ritual....
After that, they blew up Tamaran in the Parallax mess, and she was just cut loose. Once she was divorced from anything that actually gave her substance as a character, it was an uphill battle to recapture her, even though every time Perez and Wolfman were together (the last time was in New Titans with Joto and co), she came back.
I don't blame the female blog writer for her comments; all of our favorite heroes either come from reading them or seeing them in cartoons as kids, or (re)discovering them as an adult. These are the things you want your kids to get into. If I were a kid, and I heard they're remaking Superman, I'd want to see it. Is he anything to write home about? With a towel and a jeans/t-shirt costume? Not really. But even that's a step above a character that when the first time you see them the impression given is that they could care less about their life, and they want to have sex with the first person in front of them. And the first person says 'yes' and takes advantage of the very amnesia they know they have.
It doesn't deserve more issues because it's just flat out bad writing, period. If I want to see a sex object, there's real life people on the internet you can watch....
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That's very true. I met George at a convention last year and during his Q&A, he mentioned that he did things like JLA/Avengers because of the arthritis creeping into his hands, which is the worst thing ever for an artist like him. So he's knocked out as much as he can while he can still perform.
I also wouldn't be surprised if he left because the modern Superman disagrees with his very Silver Age mentality.
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Anything has to be better than the live action movie, right?
.....too soon?
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Quote:The problem is though that this Starfire is not even seeming to have a connection to any Starfire. Or more accurately, she has no personality, period. And that can be said for Catwoman also. Noone here is claiming that Starfire wasn't entirely good, but she was also a very moral character and didn't sleep around casually.Originally Posted by Coin
3 Words? How about these.
I'm enjoying them!
Srsly, they've been interesting reads and I've really enjoyed them so far, even the Red Hood book. I have to say, getting really sick of how many people are slagging off the new take on Starfire because she's not like she was in the ****** cartoon series!!
I remember a Starfire in the comics that Dick Grayson had to hold back from killing as she was from a warrior society! She was never a wanton killer, sure, but she we also never the sweet innocent little goody two shoes some people seem to think she is either!
It's fundamentally out of character to have her acting this way, and more importantly again, she's just a poorly written character. Unless you prefer your female characters going around and just offering themselves up as a sex object, that is.
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Misogyny rules comics.
That'd be my three word summary of DC comics right now, and Teen Titans sits on the top of the pile. I read a very good and concise summary of both Catwoman and Starfire's characters (along with the males in the story, who're either acting like teenage jocks or in Batman's case, apparently not thinking at all) and the women are being written as male fantasy figures.
I agree completely, that is not Starfire, Princess Koriand'r of Tamaran and founding member of the New Teen Titans. So what if there's some reason she can't remember people or throws herself at any male she sees? The point is that this is a first issue, and the very first impressions we have of her as a character is that of a nymphomaniac sex doll who essentially poses for the ogling of by male characters and is devoid of any kind of emotions.
And the male characters high-fiving each other over that fact is just as disgusting. I understand that DC was forced into this position because the higher ups wanted to be able to do movies and compete with Marvel, but they have completely missed the point in rebooting this universe.
I'm willing to predict the first month sales will be worse than they're expecting and there'll be casualties amongst the 52 books. And more than that, I think this will ultimately prove to be a failure for no other reason than it's polarising readers so heavily.
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Hi everyone. I'm a first-time poster as far as putting an 'anthology' of videos together, but I thought I'd show what I have to offer in roughly chronological order.
My first ever video was appropriately for my first ever character, a Stalker on Virtue. The lyrics to the music stood out to me, but I was an amateur with video editing with modern software. So we got....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW5lNGhMlNc
My second serious attempt at a video was based on the 1940's style of movie that I so love, and features my so themed character, Green Taipan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdqaQ7n6BNU (music courtesy of Immediate Music)
Then I was requested to do the same for an SG mate, so....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llDDNsg8Q2Y
I have a couple of shots there I really enjoyed using and again the music is Immediate Music.
Then I thought I'd be ambitious and try and make a 'newsreel' style of video to promote my SG, Gods of the Golden Age. I went so far as to audition voiceover folks, and it took forever to find the right music. I eventually had to steal from Starship Troopers. I really, really had a ball making this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPGiFSxi9F0
After this, my focus went back to my own characters and I decided I would try and tell an 'origin' story to my Superman homage character, replete with a bit of stolen footage (as this was pre-Afterburn and I can't film 'in orbit'). Music courtesy of Tron: Legacy.
http://www.wegame.com/watch/last-omegan/
And lastly my most recent video that I'd shelved but was convinced to finish. Inspired largely by the death of the Tenth Doctor in Doctor Who, I saw a way to try something very dramatic and hopefully a little moving. Music courtesy of Doctor Who, the track being 'Vale Decem' (farewell Ten).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JijOTJud1E
The last video I'll link here is for a guild on Lord of the Rings Online that no longer exists, but I was still happy to try and tell a story of how they began to form. Always sad I could never finish the two other videos I had in mind.
http://www.wegame.com/watch/Birth_of_a_Legion_reedit/
At this stage I have two more videos in the works, both featuring my SG here on Virtue, the former almost being done and being shot in full-strength Ultra Mode using the new Atlas mapset and anywhere else I could show off what we've gotten in the last couple of years.
I'd greatly appreciate any and all feedback on these videos, and to say I'm slightly nervous debuting my work like this is an understatement....
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Congratulations! If I had a partner currently, they and I would wish you happy anniversary. As it is, I'll speak on their behalf.
Happy anniversary.
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Quote:Originally Posted by je_saist
Just because "other"... well... "insert noun of your choice here" performs a "insert verb of your choice here" does not, I repeat, DOES NOT, mean that "inserted verb here" is okay and should also be done.
Thing is, I'd have a hard-time classifying the trailer as dramatic. The only storyline theme it tries to create is a theme that just is not present in "City of Heroes" which other players have already addressed.
I'd also have a hard-time classifying the trailer as entertaining. It's just a jumble of quick shots that... again... don't go anywhere. There is no unifying theme or point to the trailer other than a bunch of shiny keys being jangled in potential players faces.
So, in the style of Nash... let's do the math:
- Non-dramatic trailer
- Non-entertaining trailer
- Misleading elements of trailer
- Misspent marketing resources.
In all fairness most video game ads, even outright misleading and/or fraudulent ads, typically cover their rear-ends with boiler-plate statements about how game experience may differ online, or blanket statements about how sections of games shown may not be available in all countries. In most cases such boiler-plate clauses are a good enough legal shield.
To reiterate, just because a company can get a way with a misleading advertisement, doesn't mean they should. It also does not give carte-blanche to marketing companies to just do whatever they feel like doing to promote a product.
Thankfully for the ad-companies the results really come down to what the consumers think. If you think what was done was dramatic and entertaining in your opinion, and that misleading elements of an ad do not matter, then the ad-company has succeeded in reaching you.
je_saist....all I can say is:
Really?
REALLY?
It is your subjective opinion and yours alone to the conclusions you've reached. It's not entertaining. To you. That doesn't invalidate the video nor does it invalidate the purpose of the video, to get the viewer interested enough to try out the product and see what all the fuss is about. There are innumerable MMO videoes (should I point out the Turbine and Bioware ones as the vast glaring examples?) that show actions and events that cannot happen in the gaming environment. Do I have to?
No. And the reason I don't have to is because people accept that these are trailers for the purpose of enticing the audience. Further videos or reading will inform people of what the actual advertised product will give you.
Tell me where they're stating something that is not the case. The hoverboards exist and don't do anything that they cannot do in the real game. The only point of contention is the 'open world' fighting that takes place, but nowhere is it stated or advertised that this can happen. It's dramatic license. If you or I or anyone who watches that video can see that this is the case for the purpose of entertainment, then it is not misleading.
Your conclusions are entirely subjective, but then I understand that is your stock in trade, sir. As a result, I feel I've answered you comprehensively and have nothing further to say.
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None of it is misleading advertising, however. Not at any point do they claim that there is open world PvP. Not at any point do they state anything that the posters to this board, including the incredibly hyperbolic je saist, are saying that they have.
Not a one. Please tell me where in the dramatic license that they took where they not only showcased First Ward, several travel powers and powers generally, that they stated what could and could not be done.
It is a trailer, it is dramatic license. It is not advertising. Advertising is selling a product. Products must be disclosed as to what you are paying for. The primary message from the trailer is that you play free. Forever. That is true.
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A good pen and paper system is that of attribute and skill management. So if in your zombie game scenario, your Wrenchmonkey may be strong, but not necessarily that smart.
So you have a system of points spending that governs the dominant ability (in this case strength) and combine that with the skill (in this case a melee ability). This way you have a demonstrable and measured amount of both natural ability and learned skill. Any advancement in the character is then measured by an allocation of points per mission or mission arc that the player then can allocate to the areas of their choosing, creating a dynamic and organically growing character, all the while having upper limits on both governing attribute and learned skill.
Add to that then a higher point cost for specialized skills (so the Wrenchmonkey has a melee ability, but is really good at using a wrench to beat on zombies) will allow people who wish to min/max to do just that without unbalancing the system. Such specialized characters will of course not be as good in as many areas, but that is the consequence of the decision.
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This doesn't surprise me. Takei went from someone who distinctly didn't like being recognised as Sulu to someone who went out of his way to appear as a Trekkie so he could lobby for a movie or tv series with 'Captain Sulu'.
Shatner is really just Shatner. He's proved himself as a broader range actor thanks to his role particularly in Boston Legal. Does he have an ego? Absolutely. Does he openly mock himself and not take himself seriously at the same time? Definitely. This whole thing comes off to me as professional jealousy, really. Shatner became the star of the show and Takei on whatever level resents that or feels he was held down.
I'm not going to comment on what Shatner thinks about Takei's personal life because I've not read or seen anything one way or another. However, everything I have seen indicates that he's fairly broad-minded and accepting.
It's a showbusiness feud, but honestly one that only they seem to care about.
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Right, because being dramatic and entertaining should never be done to sell a product, yes?
Would someone like to point out where other game companies have done 'misleading' advertising for their games, or would that just be stating the bleeding obvious?
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Sorry, elvnsword, but the micros here are micros. Just have a look around at any other branded MMO that's gone to this hybrid model in the last two years and check out their store prices. Four hundred points equating to five dollars is probably one of the best value for money deals going around in these games, and I'm currently messing around on two such games other than CoH right now.
And these transactions are the staple of the very nature of the beast you are railing against. I haven't seen anyone complain about the actual cost values of the Rocket Board, the CoT costume pack, not even the Going Rogue or Alignment portions of the game.
Not one.
As for 'tons of new content locked behind new currencies', that's not entirely true. There is some new content there, but it's achievable content, and not something that free players even have to worry about if they choose not to become VIP's. Do I think there are too many currencies? Yes. Do I think it's an overwhelming and overly complex portion of the game? No. Many players can play the entire lifespan of their experience without even coming into any sort of serious interaction with these currencies, and more importantly, their management and expenditure is categorised and unintrusive to our gaming experience. I have never once complained about currency x cluttering my Salvage space.
Like any other game, the devs here will think of ways to allow access and progress in a particular game activity. Note that we don't have to pay for running repairs to our abilities, we do not have to farm to improve said abilities (they're in fact readily available in in-game stores) and we certainly don't have to pay anything just to level up. We have an enormous latitude and freedom here that is unhindered by game currencies, and to claim otherwise is a fallacy.
You may claim sir that a significant portion of players are leaving, but as Arcanaville has said, if we added up all the claims that people such as yourself have made about people leaving, we wouldn't even be posting here. If you don't like how the game functions, great. And you have the freedom of speech to say so. But please don't be disingenous and try and state it as some fact.
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Unfortunately, I didn't think it was well organised or well thought through. By the time I showed up, there was already a significant amount of dissatisfaction with the upwards of twenty minutes spread between any spawns, and when they did spawn, they spawned to the point of ridiculous lag.
I was able (barely) to fly from Founders' to Eden and saw literally dozens of Seedlings and Walkers, far more than needed to be there by any measure of the situation, and then the extremely poor decision was made to spawn seedlings in the zone in area of Eden itself (which in turn locked out anyone below level 40). One cannot promote a server event and then overlook such a simple factor and then compound it with spawn rates that were out of proportion to the number of people involved.
I had SG mates that specifically went to Pocket D afterwards to express their displeasure and I was led to believe that they were not alone. And frankly, nor should they be. I got no sense of coherency here; most of the time it appeared Duray was leading the seedlings into the area. If they were trying to aid the Primals, then why were the Walkers attacking them? Apparently the Walkers and seedlings were fighting each other before I logged in and this ceased, which rather defeats any sense of story being built up.
And then...they all pulled back to Atlas Park for a scrap. I was done by that point and moved to a seperate AP instance and waited for it to be over.
Honestly...I'd urge the Devs to seriously think about how they wanted to stage this, and I will single out Zwillinger here as he was the most visible and vocal about it on the Admin broadcasts. This wasn't the way to run the event. Turning off vehicles and civilians as in Rikti/Zombie raids would've helped everyone enormously, as would not just dumping a ridiculous amount of spawns.
This could've been a good point to help further the story on Virtue, but I'd just as soon forget it, thanks.
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Quote:Originally Posted by TroyHickman
You're welcome.
What'd I do?
You probably took your pants off on request this time, unlike all those other times...
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Quote:Don't tease. I had a very young person crush both Romana's regenerations.Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
I heard from a guy in a blue box that they were bringing back Romana.
But yeah, this season isn't over by a long stretch for two episodes to go. I thought there was no way he could pull off last season, and then he has the TARDIS go and reignite the universe and Amy Pond reimagine the Doctor back to life.
As for Amy, Karen Gillan is quoted in an interview as saying that we're going to see big, big cracks form in Amy this year, and I think it culminated in her letting go of the Doctor as being her savior and seeing him for who he was, even if she still deeply cared for him. And I think it made the Doctor feel better to have sort of helped 'heal' her. That line of River's back at Demon's Run about the Doctor being less and less like his title suggests has really stuck with me, and I wonder if he's not considering that more now that he has a firm 'death' date in mind.
But no...this Doctor is wickedly clever and guarded, and has planned so much ahead it's going to make our heads spin. Again. I frankly can't wait for the day when Ten meets Eleven and Ten finds himself horribly and devastatingly outsmarted...
...which I think will happen after this year's Christmas Special. Next season is spread over 2012-2013, and Moffat is very aware of the 50th anniversary. And there is no way that they can't do something humungously awesome for that....
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