TrueGentleman

From Freitag's posted patch notes on behalf of Positron, and this is how the letter closed:
War Witch signed off on the New User Experience dev letter:
Someone's going to have to get new business cards.

Thank you, Zwillinger. That's good to hear. We look forward to further updates.

That's not so good to hear. We look forward to further updates on that too.

No personal apologies necessary. It's most noble of you to put yourself in the line of fire, but shooting the messenger is nothing more than wasted ammunition, especially when more deserving targets may be sighted in our crosshairs.

That's what I plan to do, mutatis mutandis, after downloading the Windows version via Boot Camp on my Mac and swapping that into the Cider wrapper "c_drive" folder. This used to work reliably, but the last time I tried this was with a version downloaded through the NC Launcher, which didn't work for some reason.

I'm definitely going to back up my prefs this time - thanks for that tip.

While I agree that poor access to the store isn't the worst thing in the Mac client, please note Cuppa's OP:

If v. 4462 goes live in two days' time and Paragon advocates a clean install without some workaround for Mac users to protect their various saved files, there are going to be a lot of very angry CoH customers, who are likely to become former customers.

With previous versions of CoH when I was dual-booting, I'd occasionally swap files between the Windows and Mac versions, i.e. the Cider "C" drive contents, just to spare the re-downloading, but I'd have to back up my saved files as above. This swapping hasn't worked so well since the NC Launcher was introduced, but I'm willing to try it again come Tuesday if there isn't a better Mac option in place.

To say nothing of Zerwillinger's hope that the font bug "may be resolvable through some CSS magic". Because the Paragon Store is actually running off WebKit? Seriously? What kind of poor code monkey has Paragon chained to their desks to work on this?

Are you getting your argument fresh from 1998? These days, if I want to play a Windows-only game on my Mac, I'll restart it in Windows via Apple's Boot Camp, assuming I don't want to use a virtualized OS environment.

The up-to-date fact is that if Paragon Studios can't produce a working Mac client even using Cider in time for the "VIP Head Start" launch, then that failure will not only speak volumes about their technical abilities and resources, but also relegate paying customers from VIPs to POSs.

I of course hope the devs are able to provide for their OS X customers. It would be a shame to add this to their ongoing list of unfixed bugs, e.g. the forum logout and the AE filter.

Literally? As in, you believe Macs are composed of gears in need of oiling?

Really, if you're going to take it upon yourself to speak on behalf of Zwillinger and the Devs - and please do cite your sources when you talk about Paragon's cost/benefit ratios - at least put your rhetoric in order.

Thank you for the follow-up, Zwillinger. I hope you will have an update for us soon now that VIP Head Start has a firm date.

For CoH Freedom to embark on the first phase of its launch without a functional Mac client would be extraordinarily disappointing and would not set an encouraging precedent.

Thanks - it should to go to a Youtube video of Monty Python's Galaxy Song.

Indeed, but one should not be under any illusions about where CoX stands in the NCSoft hierarchy. If there are any website problems for its big earners of any kind, they're going to get attention first. And then there are office politics to consider. Whatever the case, it's evident that there's more than just a technical barrier for NCSoft to take care of the problem.

I'm going to guess no, they don't.

Very probably, but if it's not something that affects them directly, it won't seem like much of a problem. ("Oh, there goes Zwillinger again about his forum's log-out stuff.")

At this point, I'm wondering if it wouldn't be more effective to use the NC Soft Support web page's "Ask a Question" feature, under the "Account Support-General" category.

The term "grind" may also be applicable.

"I'm Still Here" was an Andy Kaufman-level hoax, not a real documentary (it's not exactly great publicity for Phoenix to have been playing CoH while pretending to be a downward-spiralling celeb wasting his time and talent).

"We want City of Heroes to be a game of stories – where the players determine the result"

"In time villains can create their own organizations and erect secret bases. They'll always need to be on guard against the continual vigilance of player heroes. Consensual Player Versus Player combat will be introduced, as will team vs. team play."

"Villains set out to steal the holidays!: Thursday, December 15, 2005 – Silver Mantis helps Black Scorpion set Operation Scrooge in motion to steal the holidays."

"Marvel Lawsuit Information: Wednesday, December 14, 2005 – Marvel Entertainment, Inc., NCsoft Corporation, NC Interactive, Inc., Cryptic Studios, Inc. Settle All Litigation"

The Wayback machine, like Wikipedia and TV Tropes, is one of the web's big sand traps. I don't dare spend more time there, fascinating as it is. Thanks for the links!

So what the devs told us about CoH Freedom was true ... from a certain point of view?

In the cases of AE and Tips, the imbalanced risk/time-reward may well stem from the devs' desire to attract player participation in new features. Tweaking that after launch not only requires further development time, but also risks drawing criticism, so apparently any losses are being cut while the devs go on to create entirely new systems (e.g. Incarnate, Freedom).

Gaming post-Issue 13 PVP and playing the volatile Wentworth/Black Market are different cases...

Thank you - that's what I assumed the normal course of events was. I'd like to be able to make a second account prior to Freedom, but I'm a little wary about the timing (and the delayed VIP head start doesn't help).

Thanks - I believe this has changed ("One month of game time. Activation with a valid credit card or game time card is required," says the NCSoft store about the download version). I've asked for Red Name clarification.