The_Prismist

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I promise to NEVER buy one of these unacceptable $10 packs. If they become frequent I promise to cancel my subscription.

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Don't let the door hitcha where the good lawd splitcha.

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That's a great way to respond to people who are upset. I mean why try and make people happy or talk rationally about the subject when we can tell ridicule them. If NCSoft upsets too much of its audience then it might suffer when the two new Superhero MMOs come out and then the population will drop. Again the reason I am fighting this is because I have played more than 15 MMOs and a lot of them have failed because the publisher pulled really stupid tricks. I would really not like to see CoH go the way of SWG or MxO. Yes those were extreme cases, but it could happen if NCSoft screws people.

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Last year did we get a V-Day event and new costume pieces for free? As far as I remember we did.

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Funnily enough, we do this year as well...

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My point was last year the deveolpers were allowed to program an entire new event and did not have to charge anything for anything. This year we do get an event, but it is the same one that we got last year (ie. no new code). However, from what it sounds like NCSoft did not want the developers "developing" anything unless they could make extra money off of it.

First of all, can we stop using EQ as the shining examples of what other MMOs do. EQ is based on an outdated MMO model that SoE used. However, most modern day western MMOs do not use that model and instead give free large scale updates like CoH does and some of them do it faster.

That being said let me post a qupte from Lighthouse that brings about my frustration.

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I don't know that any other new for pay packs will be tied to holidays. This one just worked out that way. To be clear, it's likely that we wouldn't have done this extra event and the corresponding Wedding Pack if we didn't charge for the pack.

Unfortunately, I'm not armed with more details on what we will offering in the future other than the fact that we intend to do more. We appreciate your feedback! .

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Basically what this says to me is that unlike many other MMO companies, NCSoft is not willing to have their developers program in an event and/or do a live event. Last year did we get a V-Day event and new costume pieces for free? As far as I remember we did. Please also note that I don't blame the Devs. I know that they are giving us content in the best way possible. However, I do blame the NCSoft regime because what I am hearing from this post is that they do not want to throw any of the >$1.5 Million they bring in monthly on a holiday event.

As I've said almost no modern MMO does this and I am afraid that the next time they want to put out something they will make us pay again. And the time after that. And then what happens if NCSoft decides that they will be a little lighter on the free updates so that they can fill in their $10 expansions. This is my concern and this is why, even though I would like the costume pieces and emotes, I will not be buying this pack.

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Charging $10 for costume pieces and emotes is outragous. That is about 1/3rd the oriuce of an EQ expansion which, even now, do more than three times what this does easily.

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That is a perfectly valid opinion, one I share, actually.

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This is NCSoft being greedy pure and simple. Instead of giving the playerbase, which helps pay them regulerly, a gift they decided to charge additional.

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Ok, ONE pack of very optional stuff, compared to how many costumes, zones, updates, powersets, etc given for free? You and I apparently have very differing definitions of the word 'greedy'.

I don't consider $10 for the offered costumes and emotes to be greedy. Over-priced, sure. But not greedy.

Greedy would have been demanding free stuff on top of all the free stuff the playerbase has been given.

Oh, wait...

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Ok I'm projecting forward a bit here because I've played so many of these games and I feel like I know where this is going which I admit is not fair of me. What I am seeing is that this is just the first. It's a test to see how many people will pay $10 for very little. Not only that, but to judge the reactions of the players. At the way it's looking now the test might work well for them. What would that mean? What I see is that the next time there's a new set of costume options to add they don't put it in for free. Instead they charge $10 for it. Instead of adding new emotes the charge $10 for it. This is what I feel would be wrong.

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Instead of giving the playerbase, which helps pay them regulerly, a gift they decided to charge additional.

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... Did they NOT just *give* us the Enforcer and Jester sets as a gift?! For free?!! SHEEEEESH!

Someone is being "greedy pure and simple"; not so sure its NCSoft.

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I agree they did just give us those for free. However, if this is succesful then what I am afraid of is that the next time they want to add a jester set or an enforcer set they will put it in a $10 box and sell it to us. There's no other MMO that would charge money for something so small except those that are based on that sort of economy (ex: Second Life).

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To say they have "lost" something presumes they have a fundamental right to it, that they're entitled to it simply because it exists.

That's a stance I cannot agree with.

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And yours is a stance I can not agree with. The reason MMOs charge $15 a month is two-fold. The first reason is to maintain the servers. The second is to hire a development team to program free upgrades. If this is $10 package thing becomes standard then we are missing out on upgrades which should have been free in the first place.

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Well...that's not precisely so.

Honestly, CoH spoils it's players thoroughly. Every other MMO I've played (and that's fairly long list) would have charged for expansions for things CoH gives it's players for free. RWZ would likely have been a "bigger" update, for example, and been boxed up as an expansion for sale. Same with some of the other additions.

In the multiple years I played EQ, we got exactly 2 zones for free. There were precisely 2 holiday events (one of which ended up getting re-used for hallowe'en every year). There wasn't anything at all like costume slots.

In fact, I don't know of a single game where anything other than a very minor addition/upgrade to the game is given away, except CoH.

In the MMO model, the money you pay for subscriptions goes toward keeping the lights on and maintenance on the game itself. Future development is done in anticipation of dollars received from people buying the expansions.

The players haven't "lost" anything in the scenario presented, because it was never theirs to lose.

Before the patch, the players didn't have access to those costume pieces or emotes. Some, I'm sure, have not purchased the pack because they either can't, or won't. They haven't "lost" anything, because they never had it.

What has happened is they haven't gotten an extra for free, as they were used to doing.

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I'm not going to list all of the MMOs I've played and where they stand on updating because the list is too long. However, I will bring up one MMO for this argument. LotRO so far has added 2 (and soon to be three) very large expansions. The have added new zones and huge dungeons. New rule systems and things to do and overhauled the classes that weren't working well. They also released these patches about half a month to a month quicker than CoH does on average. Charging $10 for costume pieces and emotes is outragous. That is about 1/3rd the oriuce of an EQ expansion which, even now, do more than three times what this does easily. This is NCSoft being greedy pure and simple. Instead of giving the playerbase, which helps pay them regulerly, a gift they decided to charge additional.

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To me.. it seems like a huge rip off.

$10 for some costumes that I doubt I'll ever use and four lowly emotes? No powers? No badge? $10 for something that I expect to see in most updates?

HUGE rip-off.

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Think of it this way:

You will never use it so you don't buy it. EVEN

Other people suppliment development costs by buying them: WIN

So overall you win!

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Unless it does so well that we get future packs with low VFM. How long until something people really want is in a $10 pack with little content? What if the Roman costume is released on it's own for $10? People will buy it, money goes into the NCsoft account. A lot of people lose then though.

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Wait, how do they "lose"? NCSoft offers a product. Some people pay for that product. Maybe enough people buy it to justify NCSoft trying such a thing in the future, maybe not.

Where do people lose again?

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Pack is a success. Future pack released. Item person wants included. High price for not a lot. Person doesn't buy it due to it costing too much. They lose.

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To say they have "lost" something presumes they have a fundamental right to it, that they're entitled to it simply because it exists.

That's a stance I cannot agree with.

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And yours is a stance I can not agree with. The reason MMOs charge $15 a month is two-fold. The first reason is to maintain the servers. The second is to hire a development team to program free upgrades. If this is $10 package thing becomes standard then we are missing out on upgrades which should have been free in the first place.

Hi I have been playing CoH for a little while and it just occured to me to post here with this question.

I play mostly with my gf in the game and sometimes with my roommate. What I want to know is what two sets would be good for me and my gf to play together. We want sets that we will be able to play exclusively a lot of the times. Obviously we will group up at times with other people and obviously we will be grouping up for TFs and the such, but we want sets that will work well when we do play by ourselves.