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Not so much a bug, just a bone head idea: MAJOR POWER CHANGES RELEASED WITHOUT THE PROMISED RESPEC ON TIME.
As mentioned before, that ALONE was reason to delay a week. No one would have noticed if you had delayed a week. Sure, people were chomping at the bit for i3, but when you said "sometime after Jan. 1st," you gave yourself a lot of leeway. Then you rushed it out without TWO major features you and your team had said would be in there... seriously, one week? Why NOT wait and have those features IN as well as some bug fixes?!?!
You guys said before the HOlidays "balance and bug issues make i3 not ready before jan 1." Then nothing. You guys come back, say nothing, change nothing... then BAM release it. SO if nothing changed, nothing was said... why didn't you release it BEFORE the holidays. You released the same version on the Live servers, that 10 days before "wasn't ready" on the Test server.
If you had released it then, we'd still be in the same situation now; save BY NOW many things would have been fixed.
The process for i3 boggles me almost as much as you guys' release of i2. Maybe by i7 we can expect smooth, disciplined, and thought out releases.
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When I read posts like this, I can't help but think about some of the articles I've read in Newsweek and such about the so-called "Age of Entitlement" kids are being raised in today ("The Power of No," Newsweek, Sept. 13, 2004, for example). Basically it seems that many parents, guilty because they neglected their children during the Tech Boom, or to make up for the neglect of their own narcissitic baby boomer parents, are spoiling their children rotten. Whether they can afford it or not, they lavish their kids with the latest cell phones, video game systems, computers, fashion accessories... anything the little darlings demand, scream for, or throw a fit over.
As I recall, the articles warn that these kids are being raised with a false sense of entitlement, and are going to be in for a big shock, and a lot of unhappiness, when they hit the real world and find that not everything is handed to them on a silver platter.
I have to wonder about the players throwing temper tantrums like this one on the boards: how old are they? My guess is pretty young, around 16 or so. Is this post, and the many others like it, the product of self-centered, spoiled children, overindulged by Dr. Phil generation parents who want to be their kids' "buddies" instead of authority figures? After all, anyone with a realistic perspective on life, or even just about commerce, would be happy to receive updates of this caliber for free, and wouldn't begrudge the developers the occasional bug or schedule change.
Interesting to think about. Legitimately irate consumers, or spoiled products of an ultra-privledged society, falsely being raised to believe the world "owes" them, and heading on a mach-10 collision course with years of adult disappointment, frustration and therapy bills?
Me, I'm 32, almost 33, and I remember the days before Pong. CoH, and it's free updates, seems pretty nifty to me. 
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For all of those complainng about the devs "not doing their jobs"...
How many of you are reading and posting here when you are at work and should be "doing your jobs?"
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If my boss or my paying customers want to complain about me "not doing my job", I'd better take it seriously.
So what's your point?
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Me, I'm 32, almost 33, and I remember the days before Pong. CoH, and it's free updates, seems pretty nifty to me.
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26 year old here: the "free updates" are anything but... not only are we paying customers, but they're usually bundled with a healthy dose of nerfs and changes.
The devs aren't offering "free" updates out of the kindness of their hearts. They're doing it to retain paying customers. Stop paying and see how many updates you get.
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When I read posts like this, I can't help but think about some of the articles I've read in Newsweek and such about the so-called "Age of Entitlement" kids are being raised in today ("The Power of No," Newsweek, Sept. 13, 2004, for example).
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Amen Twinlights! Instead of giving thanks for what they have, some people just zone in on whatever they don't, and complain. I can't speak for other countries, but we Americans, are spoiled bastards.
It's too bad, because when you look at all the things that we have right now, and the things that some other people DON'T have around the world right now, we should all be thanking our respective higher powers(where applicable) that we have all that we do. Lord knows if karma could spawn a natural disaster, the USA would have been drowned years ago.
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Me, I'm 32, almost 33, and I remember the days before Pong. CoH, and it's free updates, seems pretty nifty to me.
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26 year old here: the "free updates" are anything but... not only are we paying customers, but they're usually bundled with a healthy dose of nerfs and changes.
The devs aren't offering "free" updates out of the kindness of their hearts. They're doing it to retain paying customers. Stop paying and see how many updates you get.
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Why don't the people complaining like it's the end of the world put their money where their mouths are and just leave. Obviously if it is so horrible, then you don't want to play anymore, right?
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You guys said before the HOlidays "balance and bug issues make i3 not ready before jan 1." Then nothing. You guys come back, say nothing, change nothing... then BAM release it. SO if nothing changed, nothing was said... why didn't you release it BEFORE the holidays. You released the same version on the Live servers, that 10 days before "wasn't ready" on the Test server.
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Because the changes we made are not necessarily things you would notice. Stability. Networking. Databases. Just because a power wasn't changed didn't mean there weren't people working on the game.
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You did not just say "bugs" were the problem. You specifically cited BALANCE issues. If you already noted that things were unbalanced (Re: Kheldians) then why would you not change anything?
Here's the deal, States: just look around the boards. For every positive post about the update (Khelds, Epics, etc.), I bet you can find 5 or 10 showing vehement disapproval. How can that be considered a success? Something needs to change.
I try to give the devs the benefit of the doubt -- they all seem like nice people who care about the game.
But the ball was dropped here. Issue 3 was *not* ready for prime time.
And since I've been perusing the forums for a half an hour while I wait for game support -- I've got a massive map error in an Ubelmann story arc mission and can't complete the mish -- I've got time to list some of them. 
-- The inv changes should have gotten more evaulation and care, and players' opinions should have been part of the process.
-- Global chat and the respec should have been ready to go, or the issue should have been held until they were.
-- Blinkies not making noise is flippin' annoying, and should have been fixed. That's a huge quality of gameplay issue.
-- There should have been more communication with players, and not an overwhelming feeling that we were being blown off, especially those poor people on the test server who spent so much time doing testing and feedback that was ignored.
-- The boss changes are an insult to anyone not playing a scrapper, and States asking for controller issues now makes me fear for my two little controllers, who I was starting to enjoy playing.
And as far as always being told there's a boss in the mission -- bull. I did missions all day yesterday, carefully read all the mission text -- and I'm an editor in rl, so I *can read carefully* -- and still ran into several surprise bosses.
In a solo lv. 28 sky raider mission, I beat the named orange boss -- but the two lv. 29 bosses (nice and red) that were just hangin' out handed me my butt.
-- And my personal pet peeve, there should have been a mission slider -- a real mission slider. One that goes up and down. One that doesn't cost inf to use.
I asked Statesman about the mission slider in a pm, and part of what he said (and I'm paraphrasing) is that he doesn't play tic-tac-toe 'cause it's too easy -- he knows he's gonna win, so what's the point.
OK, I don't play tic-tac-toe either. I can respect wanting some challenge.
But I don't play chess with Bobby Fischer with an air raid siren going off behind my head either -- its too damn hard, and its annoying.
Why play if it's too easy? Valid question, States.
Why play if you've got no chance of having fun, either?
Back to waiting for a gm ... wow, Issue 3 is ... {insert sarcasm here} so much fun.
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26 year old here: the "free updates" are anything but... not only are we paying customers, but they're usually bundled with a healthy dose of nerfs and changes.
The devs aren't offering "free" updates out of the kindness of their hearts. They're doing it to retain paying customers. Stop paying and see how many updates you get.
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"Nerfs" are in the eye of the beholder, and changes are often for the better. I visited Striga Island yesterday; it's very cool. It's a also a change.
I also recall reading that many other MMOs charge the monthly fee, AND make you pay for upgrades of this size and caliber.
This one even throws in a comic book.
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Me, I'm 32, almost 33, and I remember the days before Pong. CoH, and it's free updates, seems pretty nifty to me.
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26 year old here: the "free updates" are anything but... not only are we paying customers, but they're usually bundled with a healthy dose of nerfs and changes.
The devs aren't offering "free" updates out of the kindness of their hearts. They're doing it to retain paying customers. Stop paying and see how many updates you get.
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Why don't the people complaining like it's the end of the world put their money where their mouths are and just leave. Obviously if it is so horrible, then you don't want to play anymore, right?
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"Like it or leave it" is a crappy argument to attack somebody's political beliefs, and it's a crappy rebuttal to any sort of criticism. There are ample reasons why people stay, despite not liking things about the game:
1) Subscriptions/Investment: I paid for a year long subscription before the scrapper/tanker/upcoming controller nerfs hit. I have almost 8 months left on that subscription. I'm not leaving until then. That's aside from the fact that jumping ship now abandons $100 in software (regular + dvd editions).
2) Just because you see something you like declining doesn't mean you should keep quiet about it. If anything, you should speak up while it's still salvageable.
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I also recall reading that many other MMOs charge the monthly fee, AND make you pay for upgrades of this size and caliber.
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I couldn't care less... I don't and won't play those other MMOs. I play this one, and I judge it on its own merits.
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This one even throws in a comic book.
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Which I've gotten 3 of 6 or 7 issues. Yippee.
Wow, I never thought so many people would be so mean about complaints logged or vice versa, the complaints being so extreme. I think the main thing here is that people want the devs to know that there's some un-fun gaming experiences going on and they're afraid they won't be addressed. Yes most everything is not a MAJOR problem that is going to kill our will to live, But I would like to make sure that the weirdness is acknowledged and that their not just gonna go "What problems? Nothings wrong" as there are huge threads of people discussing assorted glitchs. I will be totally patient and I hope that the problems, as small as they may be, are ironed out.
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For every positive post about the update (Khelds, Epics, etc.), I bet you can find 5 or 10 showing vehement disapproval. How can that be considered a success? Something needs to change.
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That's not really indicative of anything other than to further reinforce the known fact that unhappy people are more likelt voice their displeasure than happy people are to give praise.
Myself for example, I've posted several negative comments, but I'm still playing, because I'm still having fun. Yesterday when I was on yet another terrific respec team, I didn't say to myeslef "Wow, this game is so great, I should log off of the mission to praise Statesman and crew on the forums!" I was too busy having fun. When I run into a level 48 arch-villain in an otherwise level 45 mission and get one-shotted by him instantly, I have a few options. I can go right back in and get my [censored] handed to me all over again because there is no way I'm ever going to be able to defeat him one on one. I can look for a team to help me out (for the record, I did, it took several attempts and 4 days to find a team, when I did, we punished that *******) or I can log out, and come here to vent. More and more I'm really trying to stick with option 2 for a while before coming here, but I'm not perfect.
And, yeah, I3 is more challenging, not in a clever "I'm going to have to use my wits to figure out how to nullify those 3 sappers." But in a more "Man, bosses take longer to kill now, this is gettin gboring." kind of way. You're no longer testing my skill, you're testing my patience.
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I also recall reading that many other MMOs charge the monthly fee, AND make you pay for upgrades of this size and caliber.
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I couldn't care less... I don't and won't play those other MMOs. I play this one, and I judge it on its own merits.
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If you don't consider what else is in the market, then how could you know whether or not you are really getting a deal?
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This one even throws in a comic book.
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Which I've gotten 3 of 6 or 7 issues. Yippee.
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I've gotten them all. Guess my experience is generally just better than yours.
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Me, I'm 32, almost 33, and I remember the days before Pong. CoH, and it's free updates, seems pretty nifty to me.
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26 year old here: the "free updates" are anything but... not only are we paying customers, but they're usually bundled with a healthy dose of nerfs and changes.
The devs aren't offering "free" updates out of the kindness of their hearts. They're doing it to retain paying customers. Stop paying and see how many updates you get.
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Why don't the people complaining like it's the end of the world put their money where their mouths are and just leave. Obviously if it is so horrible, then you don't want to play anymore, right?
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I DID, then I came back to check it out again because of the lack of superhero games and it was fine. Then 2 days later, they took a dump on me again, hehe. I dont care, it's a game but it's kinda confusing as to what they are thinking. I can read what they say, and its not what they DO. If the game was the way Statesman and the gang seem to think it is, it'd be great. Sycophants don't help, them, other than the 15$/month, but have fun, I'll check back after e3.*
*though I am going to play out this month, of course. I might be able to clear up a debt bubble with the 3 weeks of play I have left!
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If you don't consider what else is in the market, then how could you know whether or not you are really getting a deal?
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By judging whether I feel like I'm getting my money's worth out of my play experience?
I still feel that way, but I feel much less so now than I did 3 or 4 months ago.
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These games are a business and absolutely _everything_ they do is calculated to maximize profit. And that includes the shift towards forced grouping and slower leveling. Forced grouping and a slow level grind are the standard way to make us feel more attached to our characters. If we've made friends within the game that we socialize with and if we've had to dedicate large amounts of time to developing our characters we're _far_ less likely to cancel our accounts and move on to the next shiny new game.
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the most dead-on thing I've read today.
stars for you.
The Nethergoat Archive: all my memories, all my characters, all my thoughts on CoH...eventually.
My City Was Gone
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You guys said before the HOlidays "balance and bug issues make i3 not ready before jan 1." Then nothing. You guys come back, say nothing, change nothing... then BAM release it. SO if nothing changed, nothing was said... why didn't you release it BEFORE the holidays. You released the same version on the Live servers, that 10 days before "wasn't ready" on the Test server.
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Because the changes we made are not necessarily things you would notice. Stability. Networking. Databases. Just because a power wasn't changed didn't mean there weren't people working on the game.
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Networking? is that why I'm getting lost connection to map server errors every 4 minutes? even when the server load is light?
Considering the update is free, I would say the only reason not to release it at their leasure would be if it effected game stability, i.e. crashed the servers. Baring that I say its fair game to release it in any state they choose.
I understand and agree to a point about going live without respecs. But this is also an advantage. Instead of blindly going and respecing as soon as changes went live, your forced to play it some as is and you will more than likely make a more informed decision come respec time later this week. I know I would have made one or more changes on my Fire Tank and Regen Scrapper that I won't be making now that I have played them both some, saving me having to do a respec again to correct the problem.
Also, since people want all this content, and want it as fast as possible, nothing will ferrit out all the bugs faster than throwing it live on all the servers to let people play the material rather than the select few who go to test. As long as its not crashing the servers I don't see what the beef is working out bugs this way.
What artwork problems are their in DA that won't allow it to stack, i mean i dont really care if it has an anim at all [im sure no DA's care] just as long as it stacks, hell the anim lowers my fps so much it might be a boost 
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These games are a business and absolutely _everything_ they do is calculated to maximize profit. And that includes the shift towards forced grouping and slower leveling. Forced grouping and a slow level grind are the standard way to make us feel more attached to our characters. If we've made friends within the game that we socialize with and if we've had to dedicate large amounts of time to developing our characters we're _far_ less likely to cancel our accounts and move on to the next shiny new game.
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the most dead-on thing I've read today.
stars for you.
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Totally agreed. Rule #1 of a good business - you're here to make a profit. You do this by creating a product or service, making it of what you perceive to be good quality, and marketing it to consumers.
If you find the changes to this game that upsetting, you should definitely play the other MMO's out there. Not because you're not wanted here - but because you'll see that this is something that exists in all of the games out there. Deny it if you want, look at other games you have never played with the rose-colored glasses, but it's there. I've played every major MMO out there (although I deeply repressed my EQ1 stint) since UO burst onto the scene, and I can tell you it happened, is happening, and will happen again. There are going to be problems, and there are going to be changes brought to the game that people are going to complain about, and not a few of them very loudly. If you can't accept this, or find a way to deal with it until things settle down after changes (which always happens as well), then you're playing the wrong type of game.
Personally, I like the changes I've seen first hand (and yes I do run an Invuln tank). None of the ones I've seen register to me as an 'extreme' or 'game-breaking' system change. I spent a few hours doing missions in a duo tonight, with the difficulty set to one step below maximum (Unyielding I believe), and me and my partner were both loving it. For the first time in a long time, we were challenged, had some close calls, and even one defeat each. Neither of us complained, and when we finished the mission, we both chatted up a storm about the fight and how each of us felt about the changes. I felt something I've only felt once before in this game, and that's when I hit 30 with my DM/DA mostly solo - I felt gratification. I had to adapt, develop techniques to make it through these fights, and honestly, the only time I failed to survive a fight was because I got cocky 
. So you have to change your playstyle, maybe manipulate your power setup a bit - big deal, it's not like either of those is hard to do, just pay attention to what you're doing instead of hitting 1 2 3 4 5-Rinse-Repeat. For me, this has breathed some new life into the game. It's fun again! I'm hoping that I'm not the only one out there that can see past the almost-standard problems with the new Issue and enjoy it.
===================
"Flamy on Wayne!"
"Flamy on Garth!"
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That's two bugs (both of which were fixed and are in the pipeline). Neither are crash bugs. When you go live, there are inevitably some bugs - nothing is perfect. We need to make our judgment whether an issue holds up release or not.
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The energy absorbtion bug is a game-stopping bug if you're ice armor and depend on it to keep you alive. The issues with dark armor that have been present for months now are game stopping issues for people with dark armor characters. Something doesn't have to kick you out to the desktop to be an issue worthy of prioritization.
Lets put it this way: If there were a bug which crashed the game and kicked you out to the desktop when you picked a character with dark armor, would this be enough to stop work on an issue? When critical powers are broken in a set it's just as severe to a player as if they were kicked out to the desktop. In both cases they don't play the character and either have to play alts or leave the game.
The thing is this:
If this were a paid expansion or a new game, I'd understand pushing it out the door. Budgets run dry, and sometimes you need cash flow to continue, to hire necessary people, etc. Fine, it's not a great thing but it's understandable.
But no one is making any money on this. It's a free update. The chrismas window was missed, so you can't even say it was an issue with the update affecting christmas sales. Releasing a free update with known bugs that breaks parts of the game that were previously working when there's no financial pressure just seems insane.
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What crash bugs have you found?
What bugs are there that are so critical?
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I was in the Find the Jewel Thief mission in Atlas tonight, with 3 other people, 1 was a new Kheldian. I Went into my enhancement management screen, fiddled with my enhancements a bit, then came back to the normal screen to find that all of the characters were now INVISIBLE! Fortunately, CoT have glowing eyes and I was able to continue on for a bit by just looking for floating green eyes. But then I got to the end 5-tiered cave, and most of the floors in each level were missing. I said enough was enough. I had read in the test forum that if you exited the mission and then reentered it everything would be back to normal. I managed to stumble all the way back to the entrance, find the door and click on it, just to have my computer give me the XP box saying that CoH has performed an illeagal action and will close down. (I can't recall the .dll file it mentioned; if I could SEE some of them on my computer, maybe I could pick out the name and tell you) Nice.
Up until this point, my CoH on my computer has been crash-free. Well, except when I2 first went live, and then I had crashes too. Coincidence?
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Mission objectives make no sound--in old-style cave missions or in orenbega, that can cause hours of searching time to find the last glowie
Touch of Fear buffs instead of debuffs--disasterous to use in a tight fight
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That's two bugs (both of which were fixed and are in the pipeline). Neither are crash bugs. When you go live, there are inevitably some bugs - nothing is perfect. We need to make our judgment whether an issue holds up release or not.
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I think it is not abad thing tolet people see the changes for a week before giving out the respec. After all, we are going to get enough borked respecs as it is. Once the free respec goes live, I am afraid there will be a hail of sob-stories on people who completely destroyed their builds - I know I have done so in the past.
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Not so much a bug, just a bone head idea: MAJOR POWER CHANGES RELEASED WITHOUT THE PROMISED RESPEC ON TIME.
As mentioned before, that ALONE was reason to delay a week. No one would have noticed if you had delayed a week. Sure, people were chomping at the bit for i3, but when you said "sometime after Jan. 1st," you gave yourself a lot of leeway. Then you rushed it out without TWO major features you and your team had said would be in there... seriously, one week? Why NOT wait and have those features IN as well as some bug fixes?!?!
You guys said before the HOlidays "balance and bug issues make i3 not ready before jan 1." Then nothing. You guys come back, say nothing, change nothing... then BAM release it. SO if nothing changed, nothing was said... why didn't you release it BEFORE the holidays. You released the same version on the Live servers, that 10 days before "wasn't ready" on the Test server.
If you had released it then, we'd still be in the same situation now; save BY NOW many things would have been fixed.
The process for i3 boggles me almost as much as you guys' release of i2. Maybe by i7 we can expect smooth, disciplined, and thought out releases.
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When I read posts like this, I can't help but think about some of the articles I've read in Newsweek and such about the so-called "Age of Entitlement" kids are being raised in today ("The Power of No," Newsweek, Sept. 13, 2004, for example). Basically it seems that many parents, guilty because they neglected their children during the Tech Boom, or to make up for the neglect of their own narcissitic baby boomer parents, are spoiling their children rotten. Whether they can afford it or not, they lavish their kids with the latest cell phones, video game systems, computers, fashion accessories... anything the little darlings demand, scream for, or throw a fit over.
As I recall, the articles warn that these kids are being raised with a false sense of entitlement, and are going to be in for a big shock, and a lot of unhappiness, when they hit the real world and find that not everything is handed to them on a silver platter.
I have to wonder about the players throwing temper tantrums like this one on the boards: how old are they? My guess is pretty young, around 16 or so. Is this post, and the many others like it, the product of self-centered, spoiled children, overindulged by Dr. Phil generation parents who want to be their kids' "buddies" instead of authority figures? After all, anyone with a realistic perspective on life, or even just about commerce, would be happy to receive updates of this caliber for free, and wouldn't begrudge the developers the occasional bug or schedule change.
Interesting to think about. Legitimately irate consumers, or spoiled products of an ultra-privledged society, falsely being raised to believe the world "owes" them, and heading on a mach-10 collision course with years of adult disappointment, frustration and therapy bills?
Me, I'm 32, almost 33, and I remember the days before Pong. CoH, and it's free updates, seems pretty nifty to me.
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Reading an 10 page article 60% covered in pictures doesn't make you a psychologist.
Do I feel "entitled"? Of course I do, the expantion may be free but the game sure isn't. I paid for the game, and I paid the monthly fee even when I was studying abroad. I am the consumer, I play an invunerable tanker, I am unhappy. You're not so old that you don't remember how capitalism works, are you?
Normally I just lurk on the boards and never post. But this issue 3 thing has really got my goat
and I couldn't help say something.......
Devs...Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. The new content is great, the new epic pools are cool and I can't wait to get to lvl 50 to get my Kheldian. I'm a tank, a scrapper (with invunerability) and a defender and I like the changes that were made... and I REALLY like being able to torque up the difficulty levels.
Let the whiners whine... but remember that in the end there are also alot of satisfied players as well....