Discussion: Valentine's Day
By
1_800_Spines,
Posted on: 2008-02-12 15:33 in News, Events and Announcement Discussion
Oh yes, and a great message it would be:
"Dear NCSoft, don't go out of your way for us. Don't spend extra time or money on developing or designing anything for us unless you are willing to accept no compensation for your efforts. Don't expect us to support you. We don't want anything more then what our subscription fees already cover."
No, it would be more like "don't try to charge us for stuff you used to give away as issue content or vet rewards".
The message I'm getting now is "we blew a big wad of dev time on this one-shot custom in-game event, so we're billing it all against a new revenue stream to sweeten the bottom line for the quarter." Kind of like those RL weddings where the in-laws picking up the tab let slip how much the reception cost per person when telling you where the lucky couple is registered.
P.S. for Mr. Scott: actually, I argued against ED. And if your "concept characters" need 100 million in IOs to function above Rugged, PEBCAK.
Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"
This is ridiculous.
When CoH stops charging a monthly subscription then they can add their paid items, like a lot of free to play Asian MMOs do.
Which is exactly what this sort of business model is based on.
Charging a subscription fee and for in game items, especially when the amount is 2/3 of the monthly subscription price is extortion.
It's tacky and greedy, and it definitely shuffles CoX down on the list of things I'll keep if I ever start canceling various MMO subscriptions.
Suggestion: The Bridal Top does not allow for color changes from rest of the top, it should. The matching skirt pieces do allow for this color adjustment.
SI Radio has many DJs and listeners whom hold City of Heroes close to their hearts. We will be supporting many efforts to keep CoH ALIVE!!
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It was the Heroes Gear Kit. It included all the extras from the City of Heroes DVD Edition (Statesman Heroclix, VIP Badge, Cape of the Four Winds, PVP mini-comic, and all that), and ran about $20 bucks I believe.
And for the comment in a previous post:
Everyone already had a fair shot at it. If they didn't get it then, then too bad.
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Wrong. Despite my best efforts and explanation that I only wanted the in-game items, they wouldn't ship the pack out of the US.
I'm aware that some non-US, non-Canadians got this pack sent to them, but it seems that it depended on who they managed to get in Support.
Also, given player churn, there are a whole new set of players who never had the chance to get these items. If NC^2 put up the VIP badge and Cape of the Four Winds up at the NCstore for $3.99, they'd get my money and likely the money of a number of other people.
Personally, I see an "In Game DVD Edition Goodies Pack" as being more valueable to the game than this new valentines ingame pack. I think the valentines pack is about double of what it should cost. I also think that the DVD edtion goodies should be $9.99.
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My 2 cents:
Like the sentiment from others, the Wedding Pack is weak. Just comparing it to the GvE pack makes the WP pale in comparison. Fine, I can understand no badge. Still, why the disparity between male and female costume pieces? Add more male costume parts and a prestige power or 2 (prestige emotes, while nice, are just not in the same league), then maybe you can justify that price.
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to be technical, the marriage was announced when the final comic was released
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But they hadn't set a date. 
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according to this
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To be clear, the Ushers won't be available until the scheduled event on the Training Room Test Server only. We will have more information about the event shortly.
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they still might not have a set date
Not to cross-post, but here are my thoughts from the other discussion thread:
I will admit, I love the Axle Rose tux (November Rain anyone? 
)
Regardless, my wife has a secret* V-Day gift from yours truly.
But listen up LH et al - next time, try to give us more. Use GvE as your measure. Costumes and emotes are cool, but hardly enough by themselves. Unless it's a crapload of costumes and/ or emotes 
*(Well, not really, since she got an email confirmation thanks to me forgetting to temp change the address on her account )
I would like to make an objection - I play an MMO that is one of the ones that the whole item mall concept comes from. However - the game itself is free, there is no monthly fee, and the item mall sells more for less money.
I realize that most everything in this game has been free, which is a sight better then some other MMOs *cough*soe*cough*, but most MMOS do mostly free updates now. The idea of an item mall is just groovy, _IF_ the monthly is less, and the mall prices are cheaper - or - if the monthly is gone completely - then 10 isn't so bad.
Also, as I've been led to believe, this is a limited time offer - which means those of us who might want it, but don't have the spare cash, might never get a chance at this.
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Btw, the veil seems to be having the same problem that trench coats had when they were first introduced: you can't change the inside color!
Haven't found a workaround like the trechcoats had, however... 
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Not only can you not change the inside color, the primary color is changing both the hair color and the color of the veil itself.
Edit: Saw Lighthouse quote me and realized my mistype. Will check out the fixed version when it hits test, thanks Lighthouse!
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Btw, the veil seems to be having the same problem that trench coats had when they were first introduced: you can't change the inside color!
Haven't found a workaround like the trechcoats had, however...
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Not only can you not change the inside color, the primary color is changing both the hair color and the color of the hair itself.
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We have a correction to the Wedding Veil that should be coming to the Training Room soon. Take a look at that version and let us know.
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.
Wasn't Manticore the bad guy that betrayed all, killed Sister Psyche and banded to Recluse's side?? ?? Or that's just in the comics?
I agree the Hair/Veil color sucks alot.
I do NOT want to have white hair! I am not an old maid!
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This is ridiculous.
When CoH stops charging a monthly subscription then they can add their paid items, like a lot of free to play Asian MMOs do.
Which is exactly what this sort of business model is based on.
Charging a subscription fee and for in game items, especially when the amount is 2/3 of the monthly subscription price is extortion.
It's tacky and greedy, and it definitely shuffles CoX down on the list of things I'll keep if I ever start canceling various MMO subscriptions.
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First off, $10 to go to a Wedding (even one that is dry and offers no food) is cheap. You don't even need to buy the pack if you don't want to. If you don't see value in it, don't buy it. It's an optional extra. It isn't an expansion piece you have to buy if you want to keep playing the game.
Secondly, the $10 goes towards covering the cost of developing content for a live lore event. Now, some people might like to think that live events in MMOs should be free, but they are very expensive things to run which is why few MMOs run them. If Manticore and Sister Psyche were going to tie the knot in the Pocket D, I'd be less interested, but it sounds like they've got a unique map for it. I won't be able to attend, but I sure hope their will be some official wedding videos made available.
Finally, this is a bit of a Catch-22. Paying for the Wedding Pack may see NCsoft try to charge for more items / packs, but not paying for it may see CoH/V get less 'extra' content in future as it is perceived that it's not worth developing. As such, I'm going to be buying the Wedding Pack. I want CoH/V to have more 'extra' content and evolve further. Besides which, paying $25 for this game this month will still see me get better value than paying $80 for a single player game in most cases.
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Wasn't Manticore the bad guy that betrayed all, killed Sister Psyche and banded to Recluse's side?? ?? Or that's just in the comics?
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You need to read ALL of the comics, not just one or two.
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No, it would be more like "don't try to charge us for stuff you used to give away as issue content or vet rewards".
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If I had a nickel for every post I'd read in the suggestion forum that said something along the lines of: "I want this feature so much, I'd be willing to pay for it," I'd be able to buy wedding packs for everyone in the game. So is it really surprising that they're finally taking us up on that?
Besides, if they gave us this stuff free, there would be just as many complaint threads, upset that they added something so narrow instead of another bug fix, or some more popular feature, or whatever.
Personally, I kind of like the idea of adding more narrow concept stuff, and letting the players who want it pay for it. That way, more mainstream stuff doesn't get pushed aside to make things that only a few players will use.
All that being said, I'll be waiting to pick this up when the price comes down. At $10, I'm not seeing a lot of value here.
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My opinion for what's it's worth:
I love the new costumes and emotes, and don't mind paying for them. However, $9.99 might be a bit high. I agree with others here that $4.99 would be more reasonable.
The new pieces are awesome, though. Good job.
bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonner-
ronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenth ur-
nuk!
aside from apparently being skewed towards female toons which I don't play, the wedding pack fails to properly advertise what exactly it is offering. The GVE code came with various screenshots of the items included, and I think ANY pack to be released thereafter should do the same
What part of phnglui mglw'nafl Cthulhu r'lyeh w'gah nagl fhtagn don't you understand?
G'day folks.
I read over this post doing a slow burn the entire time. Not about the event itself. I bear no ill-will towards Sean Fish and his wife, but having Manticore marry Psyche, in my admittedly extremely biased opinion, just royally ticks me off.
I collected all of the print 'City of Heroes' comics as they came out. I enjoyed the stories and the characters, right up until about the last 5 issues, when, IMO, the interior artwork and writing went downhill like a go-cart with no handbrake. The only reason I picked up the last few issues was because of David Nakayama's cover art for them.
There is NO way anyone will ever convince me that having Psyche and Manticore get married is plausible. In the early issues, while it's made clear that Manticore's interested, Psyche rebuffs him, consistently, every time. Then he nearly gets her killed by going 'undercover' in a very poorly considered plan to infiltrate Lord Recluse to find out his plans. (Don't get me wrong, I liked that story line...I really wanted to take one of my characters to Brickstown and point-blank blast Manticore for what he did to Psyche. =P )
Suddenly, the comic's going to come to an end, and whoops, bang, tadaa! Suddenly everything's just hunky dory and gee golly whiz, they're getting married.
Horsecrap. I don't buy it for an instant, and I despised the last story arc of the comics for forcing it down our throats that way. The entire pre-invasion story line was forced and poorly thought out, IMO. The whole last three issues felt contrived and forced, and ESPECIALLY because suddenly they just ignored all the previous character development just so they could have a happy ending. I will never forgive the writers for doing that - it still steams me up, and this post finally motivated me enough to post something about it.
So bravo for the special event. I hope everyone else has fun, but I won't be participating, and I will be pointedly ignoring any 'announcements' about Psyche and Manticore.
(Disclaimer: I admit, I have an axe to grind here. I really like the Sister Psyche character - so much so that I commissioned a picture from David Nakayama with her in it, and I was writing a short story involving her and one of my characters. I'm now not sure I'll finish it, for the previously mentioned reasons.)
Regards,
MechaDeuce
(aka B. Van Vliet)
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Personally, I hope very few people buy the Wedding Pack so NCSoft gets the message that this is not a viable income stream for them.
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Oh yes, and a great message it would be:
"Dear NCSoft, don't go out of your way for us. Don't spend extra time or money on developing or designing anything for us unless you are willing to accept no compensation for your efforts. Don't expect us to support you. We don't want anything more then what our subscription fees already cover."
Its one thing to charge for everything left and right, like some other companies have, its another to offer a little something extra here and there for a small price.
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I'd write a check to Jay and BaB for custom animations and costumes right now, if that's the way it worked. But I have a feeling that the art department didn't burn the midnight oil and get a bonus for these extras: they would have worked just as hard - but on something else everyone would have gotten access to - if they didn't work on these.
I wouldn't mind if these things were, say, veteran rewards that someone could buy to get early, and sufficiently long veterans would get unlocked eventually, so the purchase price was just for the impatient. And I don't mind supporting the dev team in general. And the completist in me is likely to buy the pack anyway, eventually, and the $10 means exactly nothing to me. But I'm still uncomfortable with a ten dollar costume and emote pack on principle.
This does not appear to be a case of "we can't justify the cost of making these items, but maybe we can make them retail items to help defray the cost." This appears to be a case of "hey, since you're making those things anyway, lets see if we can sell them rather than give them away, to gauge the interest of the player population in retail option packs."
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How come the females always get the 'slutty' looking suits, no love for the males? Plus, this package was just made for the female toons and I don't play female so I guess you can count me out of this purchase. Yet again the male toons usually always get screwed when it comes to all the costumes.
Sorry just felt like ranting. Don't hate me!! 
Edit: also 9.99 is a bit hefty for such a small package...
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First Of The Year
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Edgar Allan Poe
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This sounds awesome!
I think that it's adorable that Sean and his wife are going to be the ones controlling the characters!
Also, I'm really excited that we're going to get new missions and costumes!
Sounds awesome 
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shuddup flowery one.
this thing is worthless, thanks for spending resources on crap for rp-ers.
now fix mah pvp.
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Personally, I hope very few people buy the Wedding Pack so NCSoft gets the message that this is not a viable income stream for them.
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Oh yes, and a great message it would be:
"Dear NCSoft, don't go out of your way for us. Don't spend extra time or money on developing or designing anything for us unless you are willing to accept no compensation for your efforts. Don't expect us to support you. We don't want anything more then what our subscription fees already cover."
Its one thing to charge for everything left and right, like some other companies have, its another to offer a little something extra here and there for a small price.
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I'd write a check to Jay and BaB for custom animations and costumes right now, if that's the way it worked. But I have a feeling that the art department didn't burn the midnight oil and get a bonus for these extras: they would have worked just as hard - but on something else everyone would have gotten access to - if they didn't work on these.
I wouldn't mind if these things were, say, veteran rewards that someone could buy to get early, and sufficiently long veterans would get unlocked eventually, so the purchase price was just for the impatient. And I don't mind supporting the dev team in general. And the completist in me is likely to buy the pack anyway, eventually, and the $10 means exactly nothing to me. But I'm still uncomfortable with a ten dollar costume and emote pack on principle.
This does not appear to be a case of "we can't justify the cost of making these items, but maybe we can make them retail items to help defray the cost." This appears to be a case of "hey, since you're making those things anyway, lets see if we can sell them rather than give them away, to gauge the interest of the player population in retail option packs."
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To be fair, none of us know what hours the Devs are putting in or how much work. They could have been working overtime to get the Valentine's event done, they may not have. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and trusting that the money earned from these costumes is either covering the cost spent developing them or will be used to create even better content in the future.
Glass half-full/glass half-empty.
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How come the females always get the 'slutty' looking suits, no love for the males? Plus, this package was just made for the female toons and I don't play female so I guess you can count me out of this purchase. Yet again the male toons usually always get screwed when it comes to all the costumes.
Sorry just felt like ranting. Don't hate me!!
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... Honestly? Look at any formal gathering.
Guys - Suits and tuxes. Other than color, how much variety do you really see?
Ladies - Dresses and outfits in a variety of colors and styles.
Is it really surprising that a pack of costume options would be any different? Especially with a suit jacket, military jacket, and tux already in game for the guys?
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Extra Female Costume Items
"Excess Plus" for Chest and Hips
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There is 100% no doubt a man named a piece of female clothing the "Excess Plus". They should have just gone the whole hog and named it the "Super Fatty Fat Fat". ;-)