If this was made a feature of the game itself, rather than left as a social concept, then I think we could avoid any of the potential flame wars, etc.. that would arise from this.
A freelancer could be linked to a SG within the game and would automatically earn extra influence for any prestige he/she earns for the SG. The influence would have to be deducted from the SG itself, which could have some kind of pool of influence for this (as well as base rent and other costs). If the SG doesn't have enough influence then the freelancer would automatically stop earning prestige (same as coming out of SG mode) and both parties would be notified. Either party could end the pairing at any time, just like Sidekicks / Examplars.
If the functionallity is added to the code of the game, and the game controls the partnership between the freelancer and the client SG, then there'd be no room on either side for witheld payments.
Of course this won't stop the previously mentioned spy / sabatouer moves, but then maybe that just adds more fun to the game. Additionally, I don't see any reason why a freelancer couldn't form a long term relationship with a SG (that sounds too much like a speed dating line... 
) if both sides wanted to.
Something like this will allow Robotank to keep the social benefits of SuperGrouping, but without the disadvantages that present players who don't own CoV...
(Stops typing again due to needle being stuck...)
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i agree that if implimented via code and allowed within the game then yeah, things like what i mentioned wouldnt happen.
thing is MMO's are meant to be about social interaction, thats what the dev's of all of them want, thousands of gamers from all over coming together and building a strong community based on friendship etc etc (gah, warm fuzzy feeling making me ill) but in games where items or currency can be traded easily you end up with griefers and people selling currency and items for real life cash (real money transfer or RMT)
CoH is one game where this is hard. inf needs to be traded in person and from what i can tell this isnt a massive problem on CoH, there are no items as such so thats also a non-issue. bring in this merc system however and i can see sites starting to offer services such as "$100 for 10k prestige earnt" and then we'll get people who have the money to do that buying the services from these sites and getting amazing bases.
RMT is against the user agreement, the more things they code that could be exploited for such things the more it will be. RMT normally isnt allowed because its basically unfair, just because you have money in RL shouldnt allow you to have all the best things in-game without earning them the way everyone else has to.
i just see this being a source of trouble, in a perfect world where we all are as honourable as the heroes we play this would be a good idea, sadly not all of us are.
But people allready are "mercing", when I first started in the summer there were people who would only help if given XXXXXXXX amount of influence.
But like many things it would only work well if you could be sure that it would not attract idiots,and thatpeople would not act outside of the spirit of the game.
But then that would require people to treat each other with respect and tolerance...
Respect and tolerance, ah how our gaming experience would be improved if we all had those 2 traits.
Interesting post with some excellent points. Plenty to think about there, but surely since Freelancing isn't catered for wihtin the game it's fairly easy to ignore. If you don't like them you don't hire them. If a flame war starts on the forums then you don't read that thread.
Personally I would demand stage payments and would suggest anyone wanting to explore this route to do likewise - and sign on ONLY for a reasonable amount of prestige. 10k minimum for example and to demand payment every 2k. That way if some shafting goes on at the end of the contract, it's not a serious shafting.
There will be some folks out there who'll give mercenaries a bad name, similar there'll be those who'll give SGs a bad name, but it could still work.
My point is I don't ever see it ruinding the game for anyone.
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