Wheelchair as costume option?
By
Arctic_Princess,
Posted on: 2009-03-11 14:16 in Suggestions and Ideas
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Not everyone realises it, but your paying alot of money for a game, that is trashy in quality compared to other games out there.
Prototype - £40
City of Heroes - £6.99
In 6 months of paid time, you have more a less paid more than what you would for Prototype, and the game quality is no where near as good.
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Lol that had to be one of the dumbest arguments i've yet to see.
You're comparing a singleplayer game to an MMO. You'll play prototype for 6 months? no. you'll play it for a week maybe, then a couple months later another week.
Lets expand the comparison.
say we get 15 days worth of gameplay out of protype to be generous. Dunno what it'll cost, but i guess 50 like all other new games.
CoH i've played for 4 years and 5 months now, paid around 750 total in it.
So lesse. 15 days for 50, is 3.33 per day.
4 years + 5 months ~1600 days for 750 ~ 0.47 per day.
Prototype is approx 7 times as expensive for the amount of gameplay i get.
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this argument only really holds water if the've decreased somthing to save money if anything so far the've put money in NC soft spent a lot of cash to get all the rights to CoH and probably spent another chunk of cash getting the developers to move with the IP they then spent even more cash setting up NCWest so theyre sertinly splashing the cash they have a lot invested in CoH and its in there best intrests to inprove and keep it going.
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Clearly reading ability suffers in this community.
Someones post at the top of the page that I quoted
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Or it could be that they didn't have anyone to do the work, couldn't afford to hire additional personel, and so they focused the minimal resources they had available on core gameplay
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If this is indeed the reason why they have not fixed the seriously bad quality of city environment and civilians, then that would make it a company ethics issue. Eg - Cost Cutting, Refusing to do the work because of difficulty, or costs.
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I apologise if this has been said, but Paragon City is teeming with Empaths and Technical Genius', they can revive the dead and have an extensive medical system, i imagine they could repair the spinal cord and an injured nervous system with little trouble.
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Appology accepted, however the empath and technical genius concept did not save Atlas who infact did die. Death is a part of life, illness too would be a part of life.
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Bonuses? Merit increases?? You think anyone at NCSoft gets anything like that!!! I would put some LOLs if it wheren't so sad.
The devs work long hours for peanuts, and the only bonus they get is not being sacked by the end of the month.
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I will have to take your word on that one, cause I havent seen any of their working benefits published anywhere, I would imagine they would be company confidential, in which case you are either guessing, or someone in the company told you.
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You want unethical? Look at WoW. they have something like 1000 times as many subscribers, and make a 1000 times as much profit, but they only have about 5-10 times as many developers, and you have to pay for the expansion packs!
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Where is the ethics issue there?
They have 5-10 times more developers, so they fork out 5-10 times more money, its only fair that they get more subscribers. Thats an example of them putting money and effort in, and getting more money out. Clearly paying for the expansions is worth it, if the numbers are allowed to speak for themselves.
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Your post went from "Request for niche feature" all the way to "Weird rant about unethical games developers ripping us off" in 3 posts. That's pretty impressive.
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It went to ethics debate when people started saying that the reason they are not providing good features is because of economic or financial restraints.
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If this is seriously your only reason to play the game I've gotta ask why! If you're only logging in once a month (why would you even need to? Vet Rewards don't require you to be on once a month) then how do you actually use the Vet Rewards you've been diligently subscribing for so much?
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From what I remember, you have to log in once a month to be entitled to that month of played time. It does not go by paid time, it goes by played time, thats why they are distinguished between in your account. Plus, the good rewards are at the end spectrum of the veteran reward scheme. Which always comes in handy when players inevitably come back to investigate the latest issue/patch.
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If you find a game trashy then why on earth bother with it at all? Are you some form of masocist who enjoys inflicting suffering on himself? If and when I find a game dull it gets unsubscribed (as WoW did once more during the week) and wiped from the HD to make room for another shiney.
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I used to enjoy city of heroes, but as everyone knows, playing the same game can become tedious, and I just frankly havent seen enough improvement with general gameplay or graphics/technology to warrent any positive remarks towards it. Sure, they do power set proliferation, thats nice, for a while. I will no doubt play the game again for a while after Architect comes out, and that might even give me a renewed sense of 'fun'. But then again, that is the POINT of the patches, to improve the game, and try to keep players interested. I do find the game trashy and low quality, another member posted to say that he believes it is to accomodate lower end machines of players. Which in my own opinion is city of heroes sticking in the past and not moving forward with competition. You cannot fault me on any of these posts, because they are all constructive criticism's that can improve the game. The general concensus is that the citys npc's are dull, lifeless, and just programmed is a tacky manner. Clicking on one of them results in a talking clock effect... come on. They also have the same strength as a truck or car, which is a bit weird considering I am the one meant to have super powers, not the civilians. They are also quite oblivious to Giant Monster attacks, as another member pointed out.
(Has anyone heared if mayhem type missions will be available in architect?)
Azmodan - 50 - Storm/Energy Blast Defender
Baaleos - 50 - Gravity/Power Blast Dominator
Orici - 50 - Fortunata
Psi'on - 44 - Kinetics/Psionic Defender
Azazeel - 40 - Warshade
Bloody-Ice - 31 - Ice/Cold Domination Corruptor
I've read some of the opinions (pro and con) and i can find stuff on both sides which is worth reading. that said though, as a creative option, i like the idea, though i can think of other content which i would like to see first.
i wouldn't enable that costume piece with anything which threatens my "suspension of disbelief" however. so probably no wheelchair bound scrappers. Blasters, controllers (and villain equivalents) and maybe even certain PB and WS configurations (maybe they only get the use of their legs when shape shifted?) could all realistically use their powers from a wheelchair, and would also serve to highlight the brains over brawn stereotype of non melee types.
although CoH is very much an idealised world, i think it would add to immersion for all if there were a few "less idealistic" body types around in the game world, whether pc or npc.
i acknowledge that it may be a lot of work for maybe not the greatest benefit, but i like the idea.
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Lol that had to be one of the dumbest arguments i've yet to see.
You're comparing a singleplayer game to an MMO. You'll play prototype for 6 months? no. you'll play it for a week maybe, then a couple months later another week.
Lets expand the comparison.
say we get 15 days worth of gameplay out of protype to be generous. Dunno what it'll cost, but i guess 50 like all other new games.
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That has to be one of the dumbest counter-arguments ever.
You don't play Prototype for 6 months granted.
But playing city of heroes for 6 months does not make the game any more fun, its either fun, or not fun.
Playing a tacky game for 6 months does not increase the quality of the game, or reduce its tacky-ness.
The arguement between Prototype and City of heroes is that for 6 months of paid time on Heroes, you can get Prototype, which appears to have better quality in it, and the fact that it has been said to be an open city, and possibly open ended story, might indicate that game play could last longer than 1 week. Also - being a PC game, X-Box360 and PS3 game, there is always the possibility of additional content. Eg - Via X-Box Live, or PS Store. Yes - They often require small amounts of money for these content packs, but I would rather pay for something that is fun, and good quality, than something that is not.
Azmodan - 50 - Storm/Energy Blast Defender
Baaleos - 50 - Gravity/Power Blast Dominator
Orici - 50 - Fortunata
Psi'on - 44 - Kinetics/Psionic Defender
Azazeel - 40 - Warshade
Bloody-Ice - 31 - Ice/Cold Domination Corruptor
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Eg - Cost Cutting, Refusing to do the work because of difficulty, or costs.
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They are not refusing to do the work. It is only you who thinks it needs doing.
Anyway, there are no ethical issues involved, since you are not forced to subscribe: don't like the way resources are allocated? Go play a different game.
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Where is the ethics issue there?
They have 5-10 times more developers, so they fork out 5-10 times more money, its only fair that they get more subscribers.
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The ethical issue is they have far more money coming in, but pump a far smaller fraction of that money back into improving the game.
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It went to ethics debate when people started saying that the reason they are not providing good features is because of economic or financial restraints.
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As said, ther is nothing "ethical" because you see exactly what you are getting, and if you don't think it is worth the money, you don't have to subscribe.
the feature is only "good" by your definition.
I have no objection to wheelchairs, but it comes a very very long way down the list of features I would like to see added.
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From what I remember, you have to log in once a month to be entitled to that month of played time.
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No, you don't.
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I just frankly havent seen enough improvement with general gameplay or graphics/technology to warrent any positive remarks towards it.
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Fair enough. Go play something else then.
I really should do something about this signature.
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It went to ethics debate when people started saying that the reason they are not providing good features is because of economic or financial restraints.
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Still not an ethical debate. They cannot afford to squander resources on "good features" such as adding wheelchairs into the game. They are adding other good features such as (in i13) new Storylines, new Sets for ATs and the Mission Architect. They are providing good features, ones that they feel are more useful and appealing to more players than ingame wheelchairs or more realistic crowd movement in city zones.
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From what I remember, you have to log in once a month to be entitled to that month of played time. It does not go by paid time, it goes by played time, thats why they are distinguished between in your account. Plus, the good rewards are at the end spectrum of the veteran reward scheme. Which always comes in handy when players inevitably come back to investigate the latest issue/patch.
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Nope, 100% wrong on this. And I haven't had a good reward since the Nemises Staff and there's none of interest ahead of me.
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Which in my own opinion is city of heroes sticking in the past and not moving forward with competition.
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Erm Mission Architect?
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You cannot fault me on any of these posts, because they are all constructive criticism's that can improve the game.
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I don't see requests for ingame wheelchairs particularly improving the game.
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although CoH is very much an idealised world, i think it would add to immersion for all if there were a few "less idealistic" body types around in the game world, whether pc or npc.
i acknowledge that it may be a lot of work for maybe not the greatest benefit, but i like the idea.
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I love you -
You made my point. City of Heroes and Rogue Isles looks too idealistic.
It takes me back to the plastic superhero figurine arguement.
I could understand Paragon City having healthy, shiny, clean people. But Rogue Isles?
Make the characters more realistic, less plastic looking, and increase the citys immersiveness.
This post should be renamed to be about the civilian population, opposed to wheelchairs, since I have conceeded that wheelchairs wont be a good idea for players, but it could be good for mission giving contacts/npcs.
Azmodan - 50 - Storm/Energy Blast Defender
Baaleos - 50 - Gravity/Power Blast Dominator
Orici - 50 - Fortunata
Psi'on - 44 - Kinetics/Psionic Defender
Azazeel - 40 - Warshade
Bloody-Ice - 31 - Ice/Cold Domination Corruptor
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I could understand Paragon City having healthy, shiny, clean people. But Rogue Isles?
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It would be entierly consistent with Lord Recluse's ideology for him to have any "weak" citizens recycled into quornburgers.
I really should do something about this signature.
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Still not an ethical debate. They cannot afford to squander resources on "good features" such as adding wheelchairs into the game. They are adding other good features such as (in i13) new Storylines, new Sets for ATs and the Mission Architect. They are providing good features, ones that they feel are more useful and appealing to more players than ingame wheelchairs or more realistic crowd movement in city zones.
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Note - I never said there was an ethical issue, I merely pointed out that if they are not increasing quality, merely cause of financial contraints, then that would be a company ethical issue.
Eg
Jean and Paul are talking,
Paul: Have you finished testing this product?
Jean: Diane my supervisor said we dont have enough man power to cover it, so we should just ignore it.
Jean's supervisor Diane, made a company ethical decision, a bad one, her team are being paid to test a product, but she decides that they cannot do it, because of man power, and time restraints. The 'right' choice would have to hire more people, which brings me back to my post about getting outside contractors to fill the knowledge gap, and to get more things done.
Also - I think the post that first mentioned the potential for an ethically unsound decision from nc-soft, would have been around the civilian population, not around 'wheelchairs for players' idea. So please everyone drop that topic, because that was not the "good feature" i was refering to.
The fact that we all acknowledge that the npc civilians are [censored], have been [censored] for 3+ years shows that they arent working on them.
In the mean time, they are working on "good features" as you called, like shaving 0.30 seconds of a power activation time. I mean come on. 0.30 Seconds opposed to improving the general appearance of the city and its population. That was a s**t decision.
Azmodan - 50 - Storm/Energy Blast Defender
Baaleos - 50 - Gravity/Power Blast Dominator
Orici - 50 - Fortunata
Psi'on - 44 - Kinetics/Psionic Defender
Azazeel - 40 - Warshade
Bloody-Ice - 31 - Ice/Cold Domination Corruptor
Note - When I say shiny and idealistic and plastic.
I am referencing the models used for pretty much every character.
Even hair shines like its made out of plastic. Its City of Plastic not Heroes or Villains.
Azmodan - 50 - Storm/Energy Blast Defender
Baaleos - 50 - Gravity/Power Blast Dominator
Orici - 50 - Fortunata
Psi'on - 44 - Kinetics/Psionic Defender
Azazeel - 40 - Warshade
Bloody-Ice - 31 - Ice/Cold Domination Corruptor
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Still not an ethical debate. They cannot afford to squander resources on "good features" such as adding wheelchairs into the game. They are adding other good features such as (in i13) new Storylines, new Sets for ATs and the Mission Architect. They are providing good features, ones that they feel are more useful and appealing to more players than ingame wheelchairs or more realistic crowd movement in city zones.
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Note - I never said there was an ethical issue, I merely pointed out that if they are not increasing quality, merely cause of financial contraints, then that would be a company ethical issue.
Eg
Jean and Paul are talking,
Paul: Have you finished testing this product?
Jean: Diane my supervisor said we dont have enough man power to cover it, so we should just ignore it.
Jean's supervisor Diane, made a company ethical decision, a bad one, her team are being paid to test a product, but she decides that they cannot do it, because of man power, and time restraints. The 'right' choice would have to hire more people, which brings me back to my post about getting outside contractors to fill the knowledge gap, and to get more things done.
Also - I think the post that first mentioned the potential for an ethically unsound decision from nc-soft, would have been around the civilian population, not around 'wheelchairs for players' idea. So please everyone drop that topic, because that was not the "good feature" i was refering to.
The fact that we all acknowledge that the npc civilians are [censored], have been [censored] for 3+ years shows that they arent working on them.
In the mean time, they are working on "good features" as you called, like shaving 0.30 seconds of a power activation time. I mean come on. 0.30 Seconds opposed to improving the general appearance of the city and its population. That was a s**t decision.
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As a Trick Arrow Controller I 100% disagree with you here.
The animation time tweaks they made to the set were excellent. I prefer playing my toons properly over cosmetic changes personally. Hell I play the game with Particles at 100 & Bloom off because I don't like them.
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Jean and Paul are talking,
Paul: Have you finished testing this product?
Jean: Diane my supervisor said we dont have enough man power to cover it, so we should just ignore it.
[/ QUOTE ]
That is NOT AN ETHICAL ISSUE. It is a purely business decision. Choosing to ignore an issue may loose a company business, but the company is perfectly entitled to decide where to allocate it's resources.
I really should do something about this signature.
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Its City of Plastic not Heroes or Villains.
[/ QUOTE ]You're going to hate CO so very much if you ever decide to try it out.
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Note - When I say shiny and idealistic and plastic.
I am referencing the models used for pretty much every character.
Even hair shines like its made out of plastic. Its City of Plastic not Heroes or Villains.
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Sure. It's a design decision. One which Cryptic likes, since they are going even more in that direction in CO. It's a silver age comic books look, not gritty realism.
You don't have to like it. there are lots of games around which go for gritty realism.
I really should do something about this signature.
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As a Trick Arrow Controller I 100% disagree with you here.
The animation time tweaks they made to the set were excellent. I prefer playing my toons properly over cosmetic changes personally.
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Not everyone is a trick arrow controller.
Improving the quality of the citys appearance, and the civilian population benefits everyone.
I remember when they did improve texture quality, that was a really sound decision, as I saw a before and after shot.
You cannot fault them on that decision, as you have to admit, buildings texture quality was hideous.
They only have to improve civilians and the city once, then thats it done.
Once the civilians and city inhabitants are improved, thats it done, they can go back to shaving 0.34 seconds here and there of powers.
Note - You have to admit, the models of monsters and civilians alike just seem to be empty, its like they are hollow, and have no consistency, and dont make any impact on their environment. Their AI sucks too, improving their models and general method of model drawing, would also prevent some monsters getting stuck in walls too, which serves in a practical sense, to prevent you having to call a GM to complete the mission, cause MR Stupid Mob fell through the map.
Azmodan - 50 - Storm/Energy Blast Defender
Baaleos - 50 - Gravity/Power Blast Dominator
Orici - 50 - Fortunata
Psi'on - 44 - Kinetics/Psionic Defender
Azazeel - 40 - Warshade
Bloody-Ice - 31 - Ice/Cold Domination Corruptor
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As a Trick Arrow Controller I 100% disagree with you here.
The animation time tweaks they made to the set were excellent. I prefer playing my toons properly over cosmetic changes personally.
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Not everyone is a trick arrow controller.
Improving the quality of the citys appearance, and the civilian population benefits everyone.
I remember when they did improve texture quality, that was a really sound decision, as I saw a before and after shot.
You cannot fault them on that decision, as you have to admit, buildings texture quality was hideous.
They only have to improve civilians and the city once, then thats it done.
Once the civilians and city inhabitants are improved, thats it done, they can go back to shaving 0.34 seconds here and there of powers.
Note - You have to admit, the models of monsters and civilians alike just seem to be empty, its like they are hollow, and have no consistency, and dont make any impact on their environment. Their AI sucks too, improving their models and general method of model drawing, would also prevent some monsters getting stuck in walls too, which serves in a practical sense, to prevent you having to call a GM to complete the mission, cause MR Stupid Mob fell through the map.
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(a) They have been doing this, see the Hollows Revamp, The RWZ and Cimmoriaiaiaia as examples.
(b) [ QUOTE ]
would also prevent some monsters getting stuck in walls too,
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Erm how exactly? If anything all it does is increase the likelyhood of new, fresh bugs being introduced with the changes.
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That is NOT AN ETHICAL ISSUE. It is a purely business decision. Choosing to ignore an issue may loose a company business, but the company is perfectly entitled to decide where to allocate it's resources.
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Ok, I will be sure to pass on you views to the people who make 10's of thousands of £££ from creating these company ethics courses.
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The Story
Jeanne decides to create false recordsand asks Samir to cover up.
A few weeks later, Jeanne found a problem during her weekly check of the cooling circuit. She brought it to Aliceand, in response, Alice asked her to create a record that made it look like she'd been doing daily checks all along. Jeanne wasn't sure what to do, so she talked to a colleague, Samir.
Samir: So Alice told you to create false records that made it look like we'd been doing daily checks all along? Are you sure you understood her correctly?
Jeanne: Oh, I know I understood her correctly. We talked about this not long ago, and she told me that GlobeCo had made a decision to stop the daily checks because it took too much time. Now that there's a problem, she wants to make it look as if we were doing the right thing all along.
Samir: What are you going to do?
Jeanne: I'm not sure. I know it's not right to create all of these records. But if I don't, it will make GlobeCo look bad. We could even be penalized by the authorities, which would be terrible for business.
Samir: Right. They might even close the plant.
Jeanne: I think I'm just going to do itafter all, I took those weekly readings. It won't be hard to put something together that's probably very close to the truth. Samir, let's keep this conversation just between us, okay? It's probably best if no one else knows this is going on.
Jeanne has made the wrong choice here. She should not have agreed to go along with Alice's plan to create fraudulent records. And Samir has an obligation to tell Jeanne that she is not doing the right thing and not keep quiet about the conversation.
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Azmodan - 50 - Storm/Energy Blast Defender
Baaleos - 50 - Gravity/Power Blast Dominator
Orici - 50 - Fortunata
Psi'on - 44 - Kinetics/Psionic Defender
Azazeel - 40 - Warshade
Bloody-Ice - 31 - Ice/Cold Domination Corruptor
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(b)
Quote:
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would also prevent some monsters getting stuck in walls too,
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Erm how exactly? If anything all it does is increase the likelyhood of new, fresh bugs being introduced with the changes.
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If they recreate the models, and make them nicer looking, they can fix the reason they got stuck in walls in the first place. Its clearly some sort of geometry issue with model clipping, and the fact that I have seen Civilians getting stuck in the middle of the road only proves that the issue exists in all models, from monster mobs to civilians, heck, players have even got stuck outside of the map before - I once logged in and found myself underneath brickstown.
Re-creating models, might not be easy, but if it increases quality of the game, its the right choice.
As far as defects go. Being a software tester in an R&D department, I know that the amount of defects in the game are proportional to the amount of errors that developers make.
ERRORS - > FAULTS IN THE CODE - > FAILURES THAT TESTERS FIND. (guess who passed their ISEB exam)
Errors are human mistakes by developers, faults are the defects in the code, and the failures are what we the players, or testers see on screen.
If developers and inhouse developers test properly, the amount of defects should be reduced. Refusing to do something because it might cause defects is not a valid reason not to do it. Testing and improvement is all about reducing RISK in the final product.
Azmodan - 50 - Storm/Energy Blast Defender
Baaleos - 50 - Gravity/Power Blast Dominator
Orici - 50 - Fortunata
Psi'on - 44 - Kinetics/Psionic Defender
Azazeel - 40 - Warshade
Bloody-Ice - 31 - Ice/Cold Domination Corruptor
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
That is NOT AN ETHICAL ISSUE. It is a purely business decision. Choosing to ignore an issue may loose a company business, but the company is perfectly entitled to decide where to allocate it's resources.
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Ok, I will be sure to pass on you views to the people who make 10's of thousands of £££ from creating these company ethics courses.
[ QUOTE ]
The Story
Jeanne decides to create false records—and asks Samir to cover up.
A few weeks later, Jeanne found a problem during her weekly check of the cooling circuit. She brought it to Alice—and, in response, Alice asked her to create a record that made it look like she'd been doing daily checks all along. Jeanne wasn't sure what to do, so she talked to a colleague, Samir.
Samir: So Alice told you to create false records that made it look like we'd been doing daily checks all along? Are you sure you understood her correctly?
Jeanne: Oh, I know I understood her correctly. We talked about this not long ago, and she told me that GlobeCo had made a decision to stop the daily checks because it took too much time. Now that there's a problem, she wants to make it look as if we were doing the right thing all along.
Samir: What are you going to do?
Jeanne: I'm not sure. I know it's not right to create all of these records. But if I don't, it will make GlobeCo look bad. We could even be penalized by the authorities, which would be terrible for business.
Samir: Right. They might even close the plant.
Jeanne: I think I'm just going to do it—after all, I took those weekly readings. It won't be hard to put something together that's probably very close to the truth. Samir, let's keep this conversation just between us, okay? It's probably best if no one else knows this is going on.
Jeanne has made the wrong choice here. She should not have agreed to go along with Alice's plan to create fraudulent records. And Samir has an obligation to tell Jeanne that she is not doing the right thing and not keep quiet about the conversation.
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Erm, what has this got to do with allocating resources into the various areas of game development? Or development in general. Random example is random.
If I tell my clients they can have Feature A in a week or Feature B in a week, but not both due to time contraints it doesn't mean I'm being unethical in the slightest.
A week later if I discover a minor issue with Feature A (say the interface for it looks bad on a certain browser) but we go ahead with it anyway again I'm not being unethical about anything, I should have designed it better but nothing more.
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Note - I never said there was an ethical issue, I merely pointed out that if they are not increasing quality, merely cause of financial contraints, then that would be a company ethical issue.
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I really do not understand your logic in this thread.
The company has x amount of subscribers and y income, they need to make z profit or they may as well go get different jobs so that leaves w amount left for development.
Its fairly obvious that w is only enough to improve the core of the game, so by your logic they should cut into their profits to make the game better?
If they end up cutting into their profits there will be no motivation for them to even keep the game open as they could earn more money elsewhere. Thats not ethics it's sense.
If they suddenly got WoW levels of subscribers and then didn't increase the development resources then yes you could have a point.
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Aggelakis
PrincessDarkstar: "RAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHH SOMEONE IS *WRONG* ON THE INTERNET!"
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GlobeCo had made a decision to stop the daily checks because it took too much time
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Im equating this - to NCSoft not improving the little things in life, like the general nicness of the city and inhabitants, yet still being paid by the customers.
The Civilian Models have been the same way they have been from day 1 as someone else said. No improvements have been made to them, at least not that I've seen, and its been agreed that improvements on them would be welcome. Maybe not a high priority, but certainly welcomed.
Azmodan - 50 - Storm/Energy Blast Defender
Baaleos - 50 - Gravity/Power Blast Dominator
Orici - 50 - Fortunata
Psi'on - 44 - Kinetics/Psionic Defender
Azazeel - 40 - Warshade
Bloody-Ice - 31 - Ice/Cold Domination Corruptor
[ QUOTE ]
That has to be one of the dumbest counter-arguments ever.
You don't play Prototype for 6 months granted.
But playing city of heroes for 6 months does not make the game any more fun, its either fun, or not fun.
Playing a tacky game for 6 months does not increase the quality of the game, or reduce its tacky-ness.
The arguement between Prototype and City of heroes is that for 6 months of paid time on Heroes, you can get Prototype, which appears to have better quality in it, and the fact that it has been said to be an open city, and possibly open ended story, might indicate that game play could last longer than 1 week. Also - being a PC game, X-Box360 and PS3 game, there is always the possibility of additional content. Eg - Via X-Box Live, or PS Store. Yes - They often require small amounts of money for these content packs, but I would rather pay for something that is fun, and good quality, than something that is not.
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After 4 years anf 5 months, City of Heroes is still fun to me. I do not find it to be tacky, thats entirely your opinion. If i found CoH to be boring and tacky, i wouldn't be playing it anymore. But as i still have fun when i log in, i still play it.
And if you so find the quality of a game to be the reason to get it. Why don't you go look at Biowares game lineup, better quality for money you won't find anywhere.
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GlobeCo had made a decision to stop the daily checks because it took too much time
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Im equating this - to NCSoft not improving the little things in life, like the general nicness of the city and inhabitants, yet still being paid by the customers.
The Civilian Models have been the same way they have been from day 1 as someone else said. No improvements have been made to them, at least not that I've seen, and its been agreed that improvements on them would be welcome. Maybe not a high priority, but certainly welcomed.
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They would be welcomed. But as you now say (finally in agreement with everyone else) they certainly aren't a high priority. And in no way does a lack of them forthcoming mean NCNC are being unethical in not providing them for us. Even if NCSoft announced no future updates for City of Heroes it wouldn't really be unethical, just a stupid business decision which would probably kill off the game.
To be honest the only time I'd consider something in computer gaming unethical is if an advertised feature wasn't actually in the game (like Age of Conan did with their DX10 support).
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Its fairly obvious that w is only enough to improve the core of the game, so by your logic they should cut into their profits to make the game better?
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In terms of improving city inhabitents (models, AI, pathfinding, and textures) would this be greatly more expensive than creating Architect?
Its clearly not one of their priorities, since the models have been the same way, for years, and no announcements have been made to change them in anyway.
In fact, releasing more things that depend on the current model types and AI only increases their reliance on them, and in the end, increases RISK.
imagine a big V
Developement on the left and testing on the right.
As you go down the left side of the V, you are getting further into a project life cycle, and getting closer to testing stage, but at the same time, the further you go down the v, or up the right hand side of the V, you are it gets more expensive to fix or improve features.
Fixing/improving their models and civilian population and models in general, would have been cheaper and easier to do, early on in the project life cycle.
Another model you might like to invision the City of Heroes project as, is a spiral.
The longer the project/game goes, the larger the spiral becomes, going from analysis, to development, testing, and improvement and such. The distance from the outside spiral, to the inside of the spiral, (the center) is then equivilant to the COST.
Azmodan - 50 - Storm/Energy Blast Defender
Baaleos - 50 - Gravity/Power Blast Dominator
Orici - 50 - Fortunata
Psi'on - 44 - Kinetics/Psionic Defender
Azazeel - 40 - Warshade
Bloody-Ice - 31 - Ice/Cold Domination Corruptor
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The Ethics issue does not exist because of what they do,
it only exists if they do what they do, to save money or trouble, at expense to their customers.
In context, I am not saying that there is an ethical issue with them providing bad civilian behavior.
I am saying that there could be an ethical issue, if they are providing bad quality for civilians and bad city quality, as a cost cutting measure, or not improving it, because of cost cutting.
They should not be compromising their end product to their customers in any way while still charging them the same price.
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You seem to think that NC/Cryptic have removed a feature while still charging the same price. The feature was never there, the price you pay/paid is for the same civilian AI it's alway been. You aren't getting a worse deal.
Ethics doesn't even begin to come into this. Cost cutting is a fact of life and something I deal with every day. It's only ethicly bad if it is dangerous (such as removing reinforcing on a building project).