UnSub

This is true for most controversies though - a lot of comment arises from those who might not even be impacted by the change. Uncertainty can easily create outrage though.

Also, the AE changes was a great example of Posi getting things right and wrong at the same time: right, because things like the badges and AE farm-ability needed to be changed, and wrong because it shouldn't have made it to live as it did given the changes that followed. Bannings were only one part of the issue in those changes.

4) Emmert was lead dev over periods with the largest populations that CoH/V had and also saw the most additions / changes to the game.

With fewer changes and a smaller population (less than 194k or so, which was CoH/V's largest recorded player base), there were less materials with which to build a fire. Positron hasn't had to announce that many unpopular decisions, although there certainly have been some - hello, AE changes - while it's pretty unlikely that War Witch will announce, "Wholesale changes to all defensive powers incoming! Plus all mobs are getting buffed and CoH/V's new sub price is $30 a month!".

Of course, she may now do so just to spite me. ;-)

People like to disparage him, but it was during Emmert's time that CoH/V was its most successful in active account terms. Since Positron took over all these popular changes to CoH/V haven't seen players flooding back in large numbers. So those on these forums are those likely to agree with at least some of the current direction, while those who didn't have since gone.

So, see you all again in about 3 months when we run this thread topic again?

DDO's revenue is up 500% since it went F2P. So there may be a chance of more D&D titles after all (pending Atari and Hasbro sorting out their legal issues, of course).

Ultimately I think they are cheaper because when I've looked at various things between the markets, villain-side has been cheaper. It might have been just for the items I was looking at and each market does have some particular quirks due to different powerset requirements, but that's been my experience.

However, my perceptions might be wrong - I'll see if I can pull together more data.

The redside markets suffer from having less supply, less demand and lower inf liquidity (i.e. generally less currency travelling around the BM). The blueside markets are more attractive - more supply, a lot more demand and lots more inf around compared to redside - so I see the potential for smugglers to strip redside to sell blueside (depending on arbitrage opportunities) simply because there is more to do with your inf blueside.

I should say I'm in favour of merging the markets, but allowing smugglers seems like a weak way to do any kind of linkage.

And then there is the issue that Vigilantes (i.e. slightly turned Heroes) can go to the Rogue Isles and team up with villains there, but can only use WW. This sees all those people taking their hero characters - of which I believe there are more of than villain characters - over to RI and getting drops that would otherwise go into the BM. (Noted: yeah, if a mission isn't run at all it provides no drops, but my point is that there will be more characters in RI, but they won't be feeding into the local market, thus not helping BM's supply issues at all).

Another unknown factor in this is what Praetoria holds for the markets. In a recent interview War Witch said, "I had to ask the question, 'What does it mean to be Praetorian?' It sounds simple enough, but there are a lot of details: What kind of currency do they use?" which could just be a comment about flavour, or could be a literal comment about designing a different economic system for GoRo. Something more regulated in Praetoria, where everything can be bought for a fixed price, would definitely pull the other markets into line. Probably wouldn't be popular though.

For the pure marketeer, who exists for no reason other than generating inf, then they will likely take advantage of any opportunities be they red- or blueside. However, I don't think smugglers are going to cause prices to come down in the BM; rather, they'll see prices remain at similar levels because they are looking to take advantage of already well-defined arbitrage opportunities. The second that prices start to equalise for one item, the smuggler is off looking for the next place to make their money.

... pending further information about exactly what is going to be carried across from red- to blueside, of course. ;-)

It really doesn't matter how hard it is to switch over from side to side (and I don't think it will be that hard because PS doesn't want to put ordinary players off). If it is hard for one player to do, someone will team up with them to create a mule. Marketeers will look for the best arbitrage opportunities, which will usually mean stripping out the BM and selling things for a profit back at WW.

As for obtaining those items for arbitrage, assuming inf is stripped out in a transfer (or perhaps Castle is on the cusp of releasing the next round of PvP strongly focused around economics) then it will be a matter of taking over items to sell from WW to BM in your inventory, like Sardan indicated. Barring a massive influx of players redside to increase the supply to the market of items, this kind of behaviour is just going to drive BM's prices on particular IOs and recipes through the roof.

To some degree this is going to be an issue unless a character gets stripped of pretty much everything apart from Inspirations. If there isn't an inventory transfer when characters switch over, the truly dedicated marketeer could always have the desired IOs slotted, then retcon out of them for sale / arbitrage. However, that takes a lot of effort and probably would only be worth it for purples. But my point is that the 'smuggler' impact on the market really needs to be considered (if it is possible) and that this email system's ability to enhance smuggling appears to make the potential to have some pretty heavy consequences on BM and WW.

Some people oppose a market merge on the grounds that linking the markets would have a lot of negative consequences. Smuggling will link the markets and I can only see this kind of linkage being detrimental to the markets, BM especially.

It's the current low ebb on a consistent downward trend. Also, Aion grew fantastically in the US / EU over the same time period... and probably absorbed some CoH/V players doing it.

To me, it was more concerning that NCsoft's official revenue target for CoH/V fell 24% in 2009 vs 2010 despite a major launch for the game.

But, as I said, perhaps players will flood back to GoRo and the numbers PS got into the financials are easily achievable.

All this suggests to me that one of the penalties of side switching is losing all your influence, recipes and anything you might be carrying.

It also suggests that the markets will not be merging.

Perhaps there is a switch that GoRo is going to flip - suddenly you can email anything to anyone on any side, the markets merge, etc - but if that was the case it would make sense to merge markets now so that by the time of GoRo things might have settled down a bit and not introduce such functionality at all.

That it exists at all suggests that the last thing you do before switching sides is email all your good stuff to another character.

EDIT: I should say that I know the devs had indicated that the markets wouldn't be merging a while ago, but this cements that fact.

Forgot about that.

Blood of the Black Stream would certainly fit the shapeshifting thing, and the 'Dark Mirror' could be a clever link back to their 'oil' orientation.

Sorry, meant to say 'copies'.

I've seen too much screaming over players feeling their money for one title is being used to support another (ChampO to STO is a recent example, but it happened with DAOC and WAR as well as EQ to EQ2) to believe that players will see it a good deal to buy a lifetime sub to a title that isn't going to be the primary focus of the studio any longer.

I also disagree that CoH2 will be Windows 7 exclusive - doing so would shrink the potential player base incredibly. In order to attract players MMOs need to be able to cast their net as widely as possible - this is one of the reasons why WoW is so successful: low system specs means it can be played on pretty much any internet-capable PC.

Also, I believe that most AAA MMOs hit the shelf at full price; it's only after the box has been on the shelf for a while will discounting the box cost be considered. Plus they'll also launch with Collectors' Editions, which actually cost more than the standard box.

I get that Paragon Studios might offer a CoH/V lifetime sub to keep CoH/V with a player population, from the player perspective its a lousy deal.

Oh, as for starting CoH 2: first off, some key people off the CoH/V live team would step back from CoH/V in order to work on "other initiatives" and a lot of new faces would appear on the live team. Hmm, why does that seem familiar? ;-)

Knew I forgot one.

Would catgirls puking on people be an attack or some kind of fetish (or both)?

But is it really a heroic sacrifice if you force them into it?

Hero MM: Here, take this time bomb and get it close to the enemy. Run. Run!

Minion: Wha-?

Hero MM: I said run! It's ticking!

Minion (running away): AHHH! How long have I got?

Hero MM: 10 more seconds.

*BOOOOOOM!*

Hero MM: DAMMIT! I meant 5. 5 more seconds. I'll have to remember for after the power rechar- oooh, shiny!