SuperOz
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Posts
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Joined
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Congratulations! May you come back to us as a player and raise the next generation of CoH players.
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I have to confess I have all the episodes stored....and haven't watched one of them yet.
Maybe I'm in a very small minority, but I still haven't felt an incentive to watch this show. I'm sure it's very well written and all, but every time someone describes the basic plot to me, I keep thinking 'well, haven't I seen that in The Tudors, which is real life history and probably just as brutal?'
Maybe I'm just over fantasy or have trouble finding positives in the story. I'm not after a 'happily ever after' PG-13 thing, but as I get older as a viewer it seems, the harder I find it to enjoy stories where people demonstrate just how shockingly bad humanity can be.
Not knocking the show; maybe someone can give me some reasons to check it out that aren't 'watch it for the scheming and politics'.
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Congratulations, Posi!
As someone who's going on to 44 this year, I can only say....
....aw heck, you just get older.
As a friend told me a long time ago, if you never forget what the seven-year old kid in you enjoys and reacts to in life, you'll be young for a long time after.
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I can relate to the 'this is not my Doctor' syndrome, but I grew up losing Three, Four (that was huge after seven years of Tom Baker), and Five, along with now Nine and Ten.
You learn to appreciate the actors that have gone before, and the Doctor as well.
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Quote:Something like that...but Hugh Jackman as one of the producers was kind of explicit in stating that he wanted cameos from other X-Men characters, and cast a young Australian actress in that role, wanting as he said at the time a young Emma Frost. The power shown by her was meant to be visually evocative of her.Originally Posted by Dark One
Well, wasn't she listed as "<forget the char name> Sister/Emma" in the credits?
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Quote:They will. Again, the cameoes, particularly from Jackman, kind of cemented that. There's way too much there not to.Originally Posted by That_Ninja
Maybe they won't count X3 and X-men Origins: Wolverine as part of the continuity. I hope so.
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.....I seriously give up on DC. I'll be over here in the DC Animated Universe, where things make sense.
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Awesome dad!
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What, no MacGuyver temp power? I want to be able to make a jetpack out of some string and bubblegum!
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Quote:Totally agreed. The cosmetics in the form of costume parts and emotes...even I as a casual player look at them and think that they're not worth doing many Trials for. The back and forth I've seen in this thread really come down to those who like doing them and those who don't. But that in turn threatens a 'haves' and 'haves not' grouping....and I can't imagine anyone, even those who do like Trialling, wants that. There's always traditionally been a space for everyone (even the PvPers, who I do concede are being backed up by Zwillinger and the community team participating in PvP player nights), and that shouldn't change.Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
I think you and I agree on a fundamental level, and this is perhaps the best, shortest explanation as to exactly WHERE we agree the most. When it comes to visuals, I've always felt that artistic creativity should be left as its own reward. Unlike the same "status symbol" that everybody else has, a creative, GOOD costume is a real achievement that deserves the kind of praise good costumes usually receive. But simply using a rare piece does not make a costume better unless the resulting costume is good in itself, and you don't need rare pieces to do that.
If we need "status symbols" of any kind, I want those to be practical, in the form of powers, abilities and privileges. City of Heroes made the right call by completely segregating the artistic process of playing with visuals from the meta-game process of gameplay, and I'd rather not mix the two after the fact.
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They didn't, but the diamond body powers, blonde hair, the whole bit were intended by the filmmakers and they stated as such.
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Sam,
I just wanted to reply back and expand what I said originally. My point was that I never felt that City of Heroes' costume system had no bearing of achievement on my abilities, very unlike a fantasy game where said costume piece may offer an in-game boost to a stat or somesuch. Our Enhancements are nicely tucked under the hood and we are free to tinker with them how we wish.
I definitely feel a sense of achievement with the costumes I make, and I take pride in coming up with concepts and combinations that help that come to life. I can even say some of the Ascension pieces would work very well in regular 'power armor' sets and would like to try them out. But I wouldn't feel any sense of achievement in just owning the pieces. I'm a grownup, I don't have the immature need to assuage my own ego by denigrating the efforts of others and playing up my own.
That is something I frankly feel fantasy games and any game that promotes status symbol items through in-game effort is wrong. Flat out. We're not in high school anymore. Stop treating us like we are.
I also have to say that I don't understand the Devs' reasoning in this case. I used the term carrot and stick for a reason, because if you put effort into making your carrot look like the most desirable thing you could want, you don't need a big stick. You don't make the Trials attractive by gating cosmetic items that the majority of players in this game don't consider as achievement rewards. You offer them some cool temp power or something that provides tangible benefit to the character, that makes them think 'oh yeah...that could be pretty useful to do that next TF' or something.
The activity and the reward are disconnective. You can't sell Trials on that basis, at least I believe so anyways. Any player can and should have access to emotes, costume parts and all of that stuff by whatever means best suits them.
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I saw it only a few hours ago and I thought it was a very thoughtful and fun movie, that knew when drama was drama and when there was time for a tension-relieving joke or two.
McAvoy and Fassbender are very able leads and Fassbender in particular was done a great service in being told by Vaughn not to reference Ian McKellan's performance. That was a very good choice and no offence to our Xavier/Magneto here, Patrick Stewart and MacKellan are veteran Shakespeare rep actors with a gravitas that really only comes from experience. Not tying either actor to be beholden to that was a very good move.
However.
This is apparently being pitched as a new trilogy (as I feared, not being a fan of prequels full of younger, prettier actors rather than...you know...actors) and there are continuity problems ahead, considering they made such an effort to reference the earlier films.
For one, we have a character from the Wolverine movie in this movie, and from the Wolverine movie we have a slightly older Xavier taking in Cyclops and co. So you would then have to explain how said character winds up being in the Wolverine movie.
And then Wolverine himself...without giving anything away, there's a connection made there that pretty much undoes Wolverine being an unknown factor in the original X-Men film.
Fox have clearly decided that rather and try to ignore or address X3, they're going to root themselves in the past and do the Young X-Men Adventures, because presumably the primary cast have been signed to at least one more picture. Otherwise why our cameos? Why clearly state in the script references to future events? And lastly, why have Bryan Singer on board as one of the producers if it's clean slate? He has a viable connection to this franchise as it started out and starting anew would to me imply a desire to start fresh, rather how Star Trek did.
It's still an excellent film however, but I do fear that the long term plans for this is a 'milk the franchise' move more than anything else.
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I already replied in this thread, but both Sam and Arcanaville (two posters I have a lot of time for to read and consider because they both clearly think about what they're posting, even if I may disagree with what they're talking about) raise excellent points.
I utterly, utterly UTTERLY fail to understand how a suit of cosmetic armor (no matter how glowy and cool it might be) falls into a category of 'rare unlockables' along with costume parts, emotes, and auras.
Auras. I mean...the things we not only got for free at level 30 and bought in the Steampunk pack amongst others?
To quote a particular professional wrestler that I enjoy: Really? REALLY?
People running around in suits of armor that designate some sort of e-peen (I believe that's the correct term) and bragging about how many Trials they've done (and I'm still somewhat aghast at Positron at suggesting this is what you could do if you had this; 'hey look at me and my cool leet armor, I can has hardcore raiderz skill in yur base') belong in games where this matters.
Those armors have game-affecting stats, they improve performance in-game and they take a significant amount of time to collect as a set. I have done this myself in fantasy games, and I can attest to the level of achievement I felt when I did so. What I did not feel any sense of pride in was the completely disproportionate amount of time spent in comparison to reward gained.
Why would I feel that sense of achievement here where what I wear has been synonymous with having no bearing on my character's ability? It strikes me as something akin to high school mentality, where some people show off their shiny new toy and effectively rub it in the face of those around them. I have no problem with friendly competition, but any perception of some kind of social elitism is not something I currently nor I hope in the future associate with this game.
I would really genuinely want to have any Dev at the moment sit in front of me and try and justify this kind of gating of cosmetic content, because I would laugh in their face. Seriously. There is way more stick than carrot in this situation, and it's a form of incentivisation that almost smacks of desperation. As if these new things were the only things on offer to provide as incentive.
They're not, and that is because as I've already said they don't have a proportionate value to them in common with the activity, and it sets up a 'haves and haves not' mentality that is insulting to those who do not have the time, inclination or ability to do the same activity, when the rewards have been something prior to this point everyone was able achieve equally.
I await what thin justifications there are for this or a reconsideration of the position, because I feel this subject is not going away, no matter how much Positron and his dream project may want it.
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That says a lot to me, really. I think if the Powers that Be are 'Ultimatising' stories, then they've lost the plot big time.
Rebooting the continuity is not just something you can do in a knee-jerk reaction way, which is precisely what it's seemed like for those last five years. I'd brand Marvel with that too. Not to paint the original Crisis as this model of rebooting continuity, but I generally felt there was a lot more care and thought put into that event and what followed initially (though it barely lasted ten years) than the lord-knows-how-many reboots/events/alternate reality stories that have happened in the last five to ten.
The feeling I honestly get is 'well, that didn't work, we didn't get an immediate jump in sales that looks spectacular, we'll do something else inside of a year that reinvents things again.'
Maybe they really are frightened of hemorraging yet more readers, but this stop-start approach is not helping at all. A commitment to quality storytelling and continuities that evolve rather than spontaneously occur would be a good first step.
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/signed. I had something to say about this in the forums already, but the short version is that gating content like this is wrong, and I've seen it go wrong before in other games. As others have said, this game was about the journey, not the destination.
And that applied to everything, including how you got to 50. Even the highest tier abilities in Epics and Patrons had choice behind them, and you weren't disadvantaged if you didn't take them.
I don't like being steered at something like Trials (which I can't get into in all honesty, I just can't...even when it's 'just for an hour') and told 'this is the only way you'll get this, this and this.' That's not incentivising, that's denying any choice other than not to do it.
Other options should be up on the table, really. And for what it's worth, I resented the comment that having the shiny armor is something you can wear and show off to other players that you've been doing the Trials. I've been through that syndrome on fantasy MMO's where people have hardcore grinded the latest gear with all the best stats on it and it frankly does not belong here, Positron.
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Dunno. Maybe there's some links that have some details? But they did make the joke that you could fill up like you would a car. It was a noisy beggar in the video.
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Quote:I doubt it as well. The current execs in charge are this odd mix of loving the Silver Age but having no concept of how to write to emulate or pay homage to it.Originally Posted by sleestack
I think that's the exact "problem", from DC's perspective. Much of their sales are to older customers. Now that's not a bad thing per se, but it does pose the question, "What happens when our older readers start dying?" That's why the focus on a younger audience: they're trying to build that new readership that is attached to the characters. Are they going about it the right way? I don't know. But complaints from older readers like us aren't likely to carry much weight here. We say we're going to stop buying DC comics if this happens/isn't done well. DC knows that we are all going to stop buying their comics someday, when the Big D puts us in the ground. No amount ot crossover events or reboots will get us back to buying after that, so they have to go after a younger audience for simple survival.
That said, I hope they do this right but I'm not holding my breath.
And sure, I'm all for bringing new readers on board, but you have to get them to stick around to become older readers. The older generation are there for a reason, and chopping and changing your comics, desperately hoping you'll hit on a formula is not the way to go. Quality is, and always will be.
Comics are also competing with more immediate forms of entertainment; I saw a post on here last week mentioning that Amazon.com was reporting e-books were outselling actual print books. You can easily see the parallel that can be drawn with comics here. If it went all online, it'd be the death of the comic book store (unless they went into specialising in comics-related collectables which are physical objects).
I really think this is a big mistake on their part, but I'm not the one who has to answer for the inevitable dip in sales post-event.
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Quote:'Muddled' was about 1984, after fifty years of continuity which spawned that many multiple Earths (including Earth-Prime with its Superboy, thankyouverymuch) and backstories so confused it needed to happen. Was I happy with it? Not particularly, as I have a large attachment to the Silver Age and a lot of its trappings. Do I concede that it had to happen? Definitely. It was overdue from that perspective.Originally Posted by Coin
Am I the only person who's actually looking froward to this?
The history of the DC Universe characters has got soooooooo muddled over the years, it will be nice to have a more clear, concise and consistent universe to read, let the writers get on with actually writing good storylines again rather than trying to readjust every time something doesn't fit.
Poor Hawkman, how many versions of him have we seen now?
This isn't a muddled continuity anymore, this is just desperation. Every tie-in/crossover/event that's happened over the last five to seven years promise some sort of lasting change only to wind up being undone or rewritten by the next event. I had some vague hope for the 'rebirth' of more heroic heroes from both DC and Marvel, but they've given that barely what...eighteen months?....before deciding they need to do something again to boost sales and get interest.
The problem here is if you don't build a continuity to be interested in from the get-go, and give it its proper time to be nutured and developed, then noone will care. And from what I can see, readers don't care because nothing sticks around long enough anymore to get attached to. Say what you want about the original Crisis, but around that period the writers and editors worked closely to evolve characters naturally (the Silver Age Robin-to-Nightwing transition being one of the best realised of this concept), so that costume changes and relationship changes didn't seem shocking or poorly thought out.
Now you have the biggest 'ideas' here being that all male character superhero costumes should have collars, that the underpants on the outside look should be dropped (well, isn't that daring), Superman and Wonder Woman should be percieved to be a couple (honestly, what is the point after six movies and two tv series that in the mainstream is going to scream that Lois and Clark are the obvious pairing?) and somehow making them younger is going to bring in an audience.
It's this same nonsensical thinking that permeates entertainment culture. Just look around; you have young-good looking vampires and werewolves that never get dirty or bloody; you have prequels to existing movie francises where, you guessed it, the characters are young and good-looking, and overall there's a fishbowl mentality that seems to suggest people are incapable of maintaining a long-term interest in characters and stories.
I'm sorry to disappoint DC, but the older fans is where your bread is buttered. We are the ones who buy trades, we are the ones who buy merchandise, and we are the ones who buy collectables because of the long-term connection we have to these characters and their stories. To ignore that fundamentally is to do just that; forget the fundamentals.
I buy a total of one comic currently, and it isn't DC. This will come and go, because this highly cyclic nature is the current trend. Someone can let me know when it's over.
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The major reason for why this jetpack can fly so much longer than others is that it runs on petrol, not any special fuel or propellent. That's a huge step forward in this technology, and like anything else, it'll be expensive and large to begin with and surely but steadily downscale in both departments.
Welcome to the future.
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I'm afraid so. They were specific about saying you had til Tuesday....sorry.
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Poor old Skeletor never did get the breaks, did he?
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Coolio. I know this hammers the servers, but I wouldn't mind seeing more world events tied to ongoing storylines. Diminishes the gap between what happens in Trials/TFs and the like from the game world, which often seems static and unchanging.
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Just to be clear, I'm changing the name of the file as it appears in the AE interface or in my saved folder for such things?
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Keep Null the Gull.
I mean, how serious are we going to be about this if the seagull left his mark on Cole's throne and for all intents and purposes it's canon?
It's a fun in-joke, very much what the Devs are into and it's no more ridiculous than Tarantulas who sound like Valley Girls, redside contacts that are fanboys and toboggan rides for superheroes.
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