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That depends - when is GR planned to launch? Q2 2010? Q3? We don't know. There might be another issue planned before GR or it might be I17.

2010 is going to be a hell of a year for games and there are a number of MMOs that are due out this year (STO, Jumpgate: Evolution, Huxley, APB, Global Agenda, The Agency, maybe DCUO and maybe SWOR... among others). Although Paragon Studios needs to get GR "right", going too long is going to be a big issue for retaining players who might think "I'll come back later". A long wait isn't a good thing for CoH/V in 2010.

I read it.

The first point was to raise awareness of the issue. The second was that, out of all the things you can do, changing your password is probably as good at it gets. If someone has gotten into your account through whatever way, changing your password provides just a bit more protection than leaving everything the same.

Trial accounts can't invite others to team and are severely handicapped in communication (/local, /team, /help). So if you and a friend start a trial at the same time, you can't team up with each other unless another active account invites you both to a team and if you get too far away from each other when not teamed you can't talk in-game. I know of several people who have started trial accounts, found they couldn't team with their also-trialling friends and quit on the spot.

Lift the ability to start a team at least.

That's the wrong way to view it. We pay the sub fee for access to servers and for the expectation, generated over years of CoH/V's existence, of free content expansions.

Booster packs are still new enough to be considered value-add and ultimately exist to raise extra revenue from the entrenched player base who often pay less than $15 a month to play (due to discount purchasing of extended play periods). These value-add boosters really need to be of good quality to keep these players consistently buying them, especially to avoid players feel that they are paying for what they used to get for free. Of course, the true draw to most Boosters are the powers, not the costume items. (This is a general observation, not a comment specific to any Booster pack released thus far.)

Interesting that no-one really picked up on the amount of work that went into Ninja Run. Ouch. No wonder new powersets are few and far between in the overall lifetime of CoH/V.

Then you'd have villain players with blue rep, which would cause their heads to explode.

... but then, the devs DO hate villains ... ;-)

Tyrant, Going Rogue and perhaps some insight into what characters will be fighting if they try to change Praetoria ("to the bitter end" isn't that reassuring).

The splitting of Rularuu into his separate aspects. At best it suggests a make-over for the Shadow Shard, or some kind of enhanced use ("it's creation is its tool" suggests the Shadow Shard could be used for something - an invasion? Something for lvl 50 characters to advance themselves?).

I think Kheldian's also - maybe "god's thunder" is the shapeshifting effect?

The Hamidon and Devouring Earth - suggests that Tyrant might actually be losing ground to the Devouring Earth and looking for somewhere to 'retreat' to.

Imperious TF - probably unlikely to change with future updates.

Ouroboros, further indications that Mendor Silos is the penultimate 'form' of Nemesis. The 'million suns' suggests a violent end to time. Hmm, perhaps the Coming Storm actually has a temporal component (as in it's coming back through time, not space? ).

A nicely snide review of the Mission Architect system.

This certainly does sound like the release of Reichsman, but the "pair of fives" reference interests me. Also the "mere prelude" part - perhaps Reichsman isn't defeated? Or that there is more coming up involving the Well of the Furies?

This does also sound like Nemesis' involvement in the Rikti Invasion. Looking further: yes, Nemesis killed his brother and has lived many "lifetimes of commotion".

The launch of City of Villains and the Destined One narrative.

Doctor Brainstorm's Invention Origin Enhancements... and the suggestion that Lord Recluse might have another act to try to depower all those characters who use them (perhaps new missions where IOs don't work?). Could also reference the events of the CoH comics, but IOs weren't included in that until after the first depowering story.

They took out everything you liked and replaced it with everything you hated. Those were some very big patches. ;-)

This is a very important point - the change didn't happen in isolation. Suddenly the former 'best' reward in-game was replaced and the raid went from "show up and hit a target for a reward" to "you have to be actively involved".

I remember lots of complaints about players who would start to flood the zone the closer the Hami got to defeat because they were just there for the Hami-O. It was very easy to be social from a place of complete safety, just waiting for the final few hit points to be taken off.

It is when you are just trying to name a character and repeatedly told "This name is not available" (hmm, I really should go and check out exactly what that message is as a point of interest).

It might not take 10 minutes in all reality, but the aim should be to get a new player as smoothly as possible into the game rather than potentially frustrate them during character creation.

The hardcore player is willing to sit on a character concept for an extended period of time until they get a name they find acceptable. Also, as a generalisation the hardcore long-term players know the naming system well and how best to use it to get what they want (e.g. checking multiple servers, they might have their own naming system of prefixes and / or suffixes or changes to names to get something they like, saving costumes, hunting down someone with the name and asking them to release it, etc).

I don't expect non-unique names to appear alongside GoRo. All indications point to a name purge prior to its release though (although name purges have advantages and disadvantages as well, but since the community has seem them before the disadvantages are considered acceptable for the advantages it provides).

"Atomised" is code for "transported to another dimension".

In comics, no-one stays dead except Bucky. And even Bucky got better.

I agree, but the following consequence - the 98 (or whatever) remaining mutants, or known remaining mutants, or main remaining mutants of the X-Men etc - has generally been retconned away. Lots of mutants who officially lost their powers got them back with little to no explanation.

Minorities love being repressed and discriminated against.

THEY LOVE IT.

This thread was the first I heard of this idea and I agree it is completely stupid. At least in Earth X et al it was used as an explanation for why Wolverine was so different from other mutants (and he wasn't descended from wolves; he was descended from original human stock that the Celestials (?) hadn't tampered with).

I'm sure this will be retconned too. Or hand waved away ("You aren't evolved from wolves - that Romulus used a psychic technique to trick you!").

I was thinking about other retcons - although "No More Mutants" probably wasn't a retcon (does Scarlet Witch really have that much power?), its impact has been hand waved away, as has the time when the Punisher became a supernatural ghost fighter for Heaven.