TwoHeadedBoy

And your entire post seems to be alluding a very simple fact. People who play MMO's generally work very hard on their characters, and have a sense of personal satisfaction for accomplishing things with those characters. The game world is meant to provide challenges for players to overcome, which keeps the game fresh and exciting.

Some people become fond of certain characters and choose to invest in top end enhancements to optimize their performance, in an attempt to do new and more difficult things. This process takes time and effort. Getting the best loot in the game is the goal of end game players, and it motivates them to spend their time running certain content in order to achieve that goal.

In the case of COH, that is content that helps with A.) Builds and B.) Incarnate powers.

If you eliminate the need to earn performance enhancing powers or enhancements, you eliminate the satisfaction that comes from playing the game. Selling top end enhancements or incarnate powers for real-life money negates the sense of accomplishment that comes from earning them, and it also eliminates the need to play said content in the first place.

This will have a negative impact on the integrity of the game: There is always going to be a "Now what do I do?" factor in games like this. Say you just got your first character to level 50, and now you want to get an IO build. As it is now, people will tell you that you need to spend "x" time doing "y" things to earn that build- It's another challenge, and another reason to play the game.

As it stands right now, if it weren't for the Incarnate system, and all IO's were available in the market, there would be nothing left to accomplish by playing the game. A sense of accomplishment is a very important part of a game like this, because without it there is no point.

Now, selling IO's because they're "outdated accomplishments" and the Incarnate System is the "new" way to progress level 50 characters is a pretty silly stance to take in my opinion, because it will perpetuate the idea of the game continually "nullifying" itself, which will leave people detached from their characters and disenchanted with the game.

The way to avoid something like this is to keep goals in game which take time and patience to meet as things that require said time and patience. Otherwise, you undermine the integrity of progression which will ultimately lead to the death of the game as a whole. This is not something I want to see- I really enjoy this game.

Aww shucks. You really have just been having Septipheran withdrawals since I left Virtue.

*Sigh* It's sad that I have to do this, but this is the second post in this thread where I find myself needing to ask, "Do you not grasp the concept of analogy? Or are you being intentionally obtuse because you disagree with my overall point?"

There are many other things to consider also. You're speaking from your perspective, and that's certainly fine, but not everyone shares that perspective. You need to keep in mind that access to the alignment system and the market are sold in the store, which I think is totally fair. The game is looking to expand. People are told that the way to get x enhancement to increase character performance is to run tips and play the market, both of which help to sustain the in game economy. Now, what is a premium player's incentive to contribute to the in game economy if they can simply buy the enhancements and forgo the process of earning them?

Something else that doesn't sit well with me is this: My main characters are my Warshade and my Peacebringer. I spend a good amount of time on the Kheldian forum not only posting about things I've accomplished with my Kheldians, but helping players with their builds and playstyles also.

I've been worried for a while that purple and PVP IO's would become available for irl money which made me unwilling to post my personal builds- I've been sending them out on a per-request basis only because I don't want a bunch of random people who don't take the initiative to better their characters on their own to copy my builds. I work hard on my personal builds, and I don't want a bunch of clones running around.

If this trend continues, I will not be sending my builds out to anyone at all. It's a shame because I enjoy helping out the community when I can, but at this rate it will not be worth it to me anymore.

I really hope you're right about this.

I think many people will use things like the market and alignment system much less often. I also think Premium players will be more likely to just buy the enhancements instead of buying access to systems through which they can be earned. Once again, it's a testament to the integrity of the game. Actual content will be made irrelevant.

That doesn't take place in the game world. This will do more harm than good and it will perpetuate the sense of entitlement that is already prominent in the community. Have you thought about the extent to which this will trivialize game mechanics? I can almost guarantee that the alignment system and the in game market will take a hit from this. If purple/PVP IO's are included in the paragon market, I could even see trials getting run even less- Lots of people do them to save emp merits and work on builds. This will ultimately lead to people playing content less.

Are you really this incapable of simple concept comprehension, or are you just being intentionally obtuse and literal because you disagree with me?

Rare/Very Rare things are rare and very rare for a reason. They take time and effort to earn. Here's an analogy for you: We are playing a game, just like professional athletes. What if the NFL instituted a policy where players for any professional team could buy a Super Bowl ring, that counted just the same as those earned by players? Do you think the other players who actually earned their Super Bowl rings would be comfortable with that?

And so, because you don't have time, it means that those of us who made time because we wanted to have top enhancements for our characters now get to be told "Oh I know you worked to get that stuff in your build, but SURPRISE! Joe Lazy Guy with a 20 dollar bill can get 'em without any effort required!"

It's a slippery slope- Your argument can be applied to Incarnate content too. "I don't have time to get Incarnate salvage. Let me give you irl money for it!" And the same for badges, "I don't have time to collect badges, here lemme pay you for 'em."

Pretty much the trend this sets is that if irl money can be equated to things earned in game, the game loses all of its integrity. There is no point in actually playing the game if you can simply purchase everything. Now, I'm all for selling costumes, non combat pets, rocket slides, and all those other little trinkets that don't alter game performance. When it comes to this, though, I am not comfortable.

Wow, you guys are tools and I am incredibly annoyed at this. You're invalidating the playing time of a lot of players by selling LOTG and Kinetic Combats. This makes me angry. The minute you start selling purple and PVP IO's for irl money I swear to god I will cancel my subscription and never come back.

Pretty sure he was talkin' about you, Abe.

I think that asking him to come and speak with us directly was the best thing Redlynne could have done. Grilling the guy in real life wouldn't have helped at all.

From ParagonWiki:


Since Eclipse is the only accurate resist power in the game, the Nucleo 'exploit' doesn't even show in Mids.. It follows the same rule though: Damage enhances Damage Resistance, so this slotting lets you cap your resists with 5 targets.

This is the only thing I take issue with. Along with the form shift animations, the biggest issue (and it's a big one) that Warshades have is (lack of) TOGGLE SUPPRESSION. You can find more broad info on the issue in an earlier thread that I started (lurk away ) but in a nutshell, Nova AOE's are only slightly better than the AOE provided by Orbiting Death/Unchain Essence/Judgement at the high end (purple procs, FOTG -res) and Dwarf form is only good for the extra Mire (softcapped human form is much more survivable.)

If however, toggles all suppressed in Nova form and did not need to be reactivated after switching to human (on top of drastically shortened animations) using Nova form would be a No-Brainer. If Dwarf could run Defensive toggles (Shadow Cloak, pool toggles) it would have effective tanking abilities (as of now, human form is better at that- Dwarf once again is only good for the extra Mire.) A taunt aura would be nice, too.

Stalemate better not have an excuse for missing this one.

Please don't put words in my mouth. I said I felt it was cheap. That doesn't mean I think it's OP... It means I think it's cheap. You're being pretty presumptuous and putting words in my mouth at the same time.

I'm fully aware that no one with an optimized attack chain is going to use Judgement, but I wouldn't put it past people who don't. Stranger things have happened, and I just wanted to air on the side of caution because I didn't want to give anyone an opportunity to call BS.

Sorry if you don't agree with my thinking- No one is stopping you from hosting your own contest, I in fact would encourage it. This wasn't meant to be something to anger/upset/provoke anyone, it was meant to be a nice thing I wanted to do for the COH community that I thought people would have fun participating in.