Discussion: Configuring Your In-Game Web Options
By
After_Shock,
Posted on: 2007-11-20 11:30 in News, Events and Announcement Discussion
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I'm liking the possibility of finally finding out if the player/s who took the names Backfire, Back Fire, and Back-Fire on that ONE server even play/s any more!
Then I could finally begin "negotiations" 
Craft your inventions in AE!!
Play "Crafter's Cafe" - Arc #487283. A 1 mission, NON-COMBAT AE arc with workable invention tables!
I have been wondering for the longest time what these were for.
Sure, freakishly stylized cartoon child! Never give up!
Strike Force
MArc #39397 - Welcome to Chapter Six
MArc #123195 - Ch6 1.1 - Under White Plains
MArc #202989 - Ch6 1.2 - The Summoning Dark
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Lets just say they leave it where everything is on by default and every toon in the game is put online. By just browsing the site by server name they got everyone they could possibly spam on that server on a list now, they just take those and spam email like no tomorrow. That would be a hell of alot more people to spam because even the people who do /hide would be seen as well, not only that they could get everyone who has been online for the past 90 days. You cant tell me that doesnt concern you even the slightest?
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No it doesn't, and I'll tell you why: the spammers already have all the information they need to spam us. The spammers have been around since the Inventions System went live making lists of people with /find and making note of toons as they take the ferries/trains. They already have your toons' names.
If I *was* worried, I'd just disable the options before this goes live for my active characters. That's why the Devs gave us a heads up on this well before the new stuff appears on the web site.
I'm looking forward to being able to show off my list of badges and (I hope) browse other players' character costumes and bios. That will be fun!
-Buxley
"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." -- Dr. Seuss
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Once a character is logged in, their information would become available, unless their settings prevent it.
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I would feel a lot better about this if that read:
"Once a character is logged in, their information would NOT become available, unless their settings allowed it."
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...your different costumes, ...
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OK this is NOT a good idea.
Why do I want other people to be able to see what I look like?
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If I don't get to choose the pose, I mean. Come on, I went to a great deal of trouble to get those wings and jet bots. They'd better be shown to their best advantage. And my pets! Can't have a decent web screenie with out the whole menagerie present.
I should be able to choose the display screenie. You know you want me to....
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Can I humbly suggest to the Devs that while you're contemplating these settings to get in touch with the existing, and extensive, tracking sites already out there like Titan Network (City Info Terminal, City Game Tracker, etc)?
It would be a very nice gesture and useful for a lot of people if when you go to make use of these settings you could also allow sites like that to read data that players have made available for the web.
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I hope there are plans for an API that can retrieve the data as an XML feed.
Yes, RSS would be a nice way to keep fan sites updated when a character changes (gets a new badge or power, etc.)
Will our character background descriptions and battle cry be available also? This could be cool, but also a bit of liability for NCSoft too.
Will our first character costume slot be treated specially? That's my level one costume and I usually don't change it. Just saying.
Also, could we pick a primary costume which may not be our level one? Maybe whatever our /cc # is set to. Doesn't have to update immediately. Log out or log in would be just fine.
Don't forget to show pets with their names too. Actually, could I give my pets bio's too? .... 
Interesting thing is that this feature was slated to be implemented when the game first launched in 2004. I remember reading several previews that mentioned it in some detail...
Gamespot Preview March 01, 2004
"The game will automatically create a Web page for every superhero character you create, and you can use this page to create a profile for your character that lists your own personal interests and those times of the day when you're available to play. This way you can actually seek out and find regular teammates."
I was dissapointed that the feature was never implemented when the game launched, but I guess better late than never 
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These Web options will soon be used. If you do not wish to have your characters information be displayed on the World Wide Web, you will want to configure them to be Enabled. If you enable Hide Statistics from Web Page, none of your information will display. If that option is disabled, then you can configure the next three options: Powers, Badges and Friends List. By default, your Statistics, Powers and Badges will be on, but Friends List will be off.
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These options need to be set, ALL of them, to "hide ____: enabled" and/or "display ____: disabled" (as appropriate) by default.
Some people have literally hundreds of characters, and asking them to - at this late date - relog to each one in turn, in order to conceal any information they wish to remain private? That's an unfair burden, IMO. Heck, even just with my 30-ish characters, I think it's an unfair burden; god help those who have two or more accounts to hold all their alts ... and someof us are sufficient altoholics that, yes, we "browse" our alts, playing one for an hour here, a different one for an hur there. So even that 90-day cutoff? Doesn't work, IMO
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Make the default "tell no-one, display nothing". It's just the right thing to do.
Mind you, I'll display most of my details ... but for those that want their privacy ...
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actually being able to simply forward spam email to the GM's would be a godsend. having to transcribe the contents of the email into a petition is a bit tedious.
oh.. as for the web stats settings... cool, thanks for pointing them out.
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Yes - the Email UI needs a "Report Spammer" button, that auto-petitions (and /ignores) the sender for spamming, attaching a copy of the email to said petition.
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So whats this thing going to be called I wonder. I think Cerebro is taken.
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The Uni-Mind.
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However, I will say this. If they're going to create a web interface where we can see each others characters (something which I seem to recall being discussed back when City of Heroes launched), they ought to be able to put into that interface an option for "Hide all characters from web page" so that people don't have to log in every single character they want to hide and fool with the option.
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This would also be a very good alternative.
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However, I will say this. If they're going to create a web interface where we can see each others characters (something which I seem to recall being discussed back when City of Heroes launched), they ought to be able to put into that interface an option for "Hide all characters from web page" so that people don't have to log in every single character they want to hide and fool with the option.
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This would also be a very good alternative.
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/signed
Hmmm, the feature sounds fine. I just have a question though. The friends list that will be shown, is it just our local server friends list or our global friends list?
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Once a character is logged in, their information would become available, unless their settings prevent it.
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I would feel a lot better about this if that read:
"Once a character is logged in, their information would NOT become available, unless their settings allowed it."
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Agreed.
Name changes, flashback, and web display!!!!
FINALLY!
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actually being able to simply forward spam email to the GM's would be a godsend. having to transcribe the contents of the email into a petition is a bit tedious.
oh.. as for the web stats settings... cool, thanks for pointing them out.
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Yes - the Email UI needs a "Report Spammer" button, that auto-petitions (and /ignores) the sender for spamming, attaching a copy of the email to said petition.
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And reaches through the servers to deliver a dozen taser shocks to the spammer!
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However, I will say this. If they're going to create a web interface where we can see each others characters (something which I seem to recall being discussed back when City of Heroes launched), they ought to be able to put into that interface an option for "Hide all characters from web page" so that people don't have to log in every single character they want to hide and fool with the option.
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Yes, please. I'm more than happy to let people see my character, costumes, and even build. Showing off my friends seems a bit too intrusive, though, and it's going to be a pain to go through 20-30 characters just to turn off display of my global friends and such.
Arc #41077 - The Men of State
Arc #48845 - Operation: Dirty Snowball
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I'm gonna go against the grain here and say I'd prefer this information to be made available by default. If the default is set to "hide," those who have themselves unhidden will be the exception, rather than the rule, as anyone who doesn't know about or just doesn't care enough to take the time to enable it (but wouldn't especially mind other people seeing their info out of game) would be excluded. In other words, the new feature would likely become very little-used.
I feel that the only ones to be excluded from the system should be those who explicitly decide to be excluded, and I suspect that will be a relatively small segment of the population. I don't see it as an invasion of privacy, even with PvP in the equation, to display a character's bio, power choices, or statistics.
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Exactly. Really if they made this option hidden by default for everything, they may as well not waste their time doing it for the 10% or so that'd bother turning it on.
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However, I will say this. If they're going to create a web interface where we can see each others characters (something which I seem to recall being discussed back when City of Heroes launched), they ought to be able to put into that interface an option for "Hide all characters from web page" so that people don't have to log in every single character they want to hide and fool with the option.
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Yes, please. I'm more than happy to let people see my character, costumes, and even build. Showing off my friends seems a bit too intrusive, though, and it's going to be a pain to go through 20-30 characters just to turn off display of my global friends and such.
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Look at the screenshot again. Friends list is hidden by default. The other options are not. Which I think is the good choice.
I mostly just skimmed my way down to here, so maybe I just missed the answer to this question, but what exactly is the point of this?
Is it just so that people can find new people and contact one another, or does this feature offer a more useful service that I haven't figured out yet?
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I mostly just skimmed my way down to here, so maybe I just missed the answer to this question, but what exactly is the point of this?
Is it just so that people can find new people and contact one another, or does this feature offer a more useful service that I haven't figured out yet?
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More details and the full feature announcement will be coming in the near future.
The purpose of this announcement is to let people know that we will be doing something and, if they don't envision they want to be involved, can configure their in-game options as needed to limit their character's information availability.
Lighthouse
Community Relations Manager
If you have a specific in game, account, tech or billing problem please contact our Customer Support team via The Knowledge Base "Ask A Question" page.
The thing I'll be using it for is to sync up my little 'accolade progress' spreadsheet with reality, then syncing my Mid's Hero Desiger builds with reality.
Ya know they have talked about this for some time. I remember back in year 1 I believe, that they would have this sort of feature. I think its a cool one, nice to view and see all the toons and levels and friends and such. I say Bravo, plus the Dev's took the time to think about it with being able to enable or disable the feature.
This is a good thing, and if web based will keep me busy at work while I cant play, but can look at peoples toons and badges, WOOT!
Good stuff.
Very interesting to see that.
Thanks for the links.
@Catwhoorg "Rule of Three - Finale" Arc# 1984
@Mr Falkland Islands"A Nation Goes Rogue" Arc# 2369 "Toasters and Pop Tarts" Arc#116617