What's Sucked the Life from this Thread?

Actually, I probably should have titled it, "What's Sucked the Life from this Forum?" but it's been a rough day.

Anyway, since the forum was changed to the new format, it seems as if it's gone almost dead - at least when compared to before the switch. Most of the people that were really active reviewers have gone all but silent, and most of the people that seemed to be participating in the threads have done the same.

Is it just me that thinks this is the case? If not, is it because of the forum change (I certainly had a hard time figuring it out, and I'm still having trouble getting e-mail notifications), is it because everyone's playing in the open beta for I16, is it something else, or is it some combination of the above?

I ask both because I'm simply curious and because I have two arcs that were within biting range of reviews by a couple of the big guns that I was really looking forward, and now both thhose threads to that seem to have gone mostly silent.

So, yeah, it's partially selfishness that's causing me to ask, but what the heck.

I have been playing the Champions Online beta, and now the headstart. I will probably alternate between the two games once the headstart period ends, and will return to reviewing the rest of the arcs in my queue then.

After that I haven't decided if I'm going to accept more requests.

Well, if that's the case, you could always play my MA arc. Go, it'll be fun, I promise, I've worked on every little thing to make it an enjoyable arc for anyone. Oh, and leave feedback on the thread so I may improve the arc.

Getting most of the AE badges on my main through legitimate play before they were removed, getting characters from 17-50, 35-43, and 1-20 all through AE means I've already played a ton of the arcs promoted through this forum. I haven't written anything publishable in months.

It's not just this forum though, the forums in general have been less active since the move. Probably a combination of all the stuff Geek Boy said.

You are not this entire forum.

Who even implied that I was?

I had already settled into a mindset that the Architect would end up catering chiefly to farmers or to niche markets. So most of my arcs were targeted at specific niches, and probably some of those include only myself. The old rule used to be that radios/newspapers were for team, contact arcs were for solo. In MA it's single mission is for team, multiple mission for solo.

The apparent plan to make MA playing even less rewarding, making rewarding material boring and creative material unrewarding, has pretty much killed my remaining interest. My only MA goal now is getting close to the ticket cap on my existing characters, since any i16 characters will not be earning them. I obviously won't be writing any more.

<《 New Colchis / Guides / Mission Architect 》>
"At what point do we say, 'You're mucking with our myths'?" - Harlan Ellison

I took only a couple of days' break to update an arc to cope with new constraints of I16. Otherwise, I'm still here. It's also been weekdays. But there does seem to be a tailing-off of interest in story discussion.

It is impossible to find half-decent stories in-game, buried under the ubiquitous Dev Chosen Few From I14 Beta, and star searches that find so many farms. There is also no way to see player reviews in-game. Perhaps they could find a way to make "Comments" visible to other players for an arc, but first you'd need to remove the basic concealment built into the system:

Give some players (or a support person) the power to flag Farm and Story arcs, and revoke that privilege if they act in error. Put the "Story", "Farm", "Dev Chosen Few" search options at the top level of Search. And have that option default from login to login! I never get to see anything new the way it is set up now. So of course it looks old and tired.

I like the I16 requirement to have complete (minion + lt + boss) factions, and I'm hoping common sense will prevail to allow "Standard" enemies (at least up to boss level) award normal experience. Few farms I've seen ever use custom critters. Perhaps there's some data-mined explanation for punishing custom factions, if so, someone please let me know where to look!

Arc: 379017: Outbroken See all your old friends in the Outbreak Tutorial sequel!
Arc: Coming Soon: The Incarnate Shadow Shard of Fire and Ice Mender Rednem needs you!
Massively.com opinion poll: Please Help Save CoH!

Hm... I hate it when people start talking about new constraints to the MA. It gets old having to make changes to your arcs with each new issue. Based on what you've said, I think I'm safe - since I just use standard Rikti in my arcs. Are there any other changes I should worry about?

As for finding good stories... I don't bother with the MA search tools any more. You're absolutely right about everything you said. I've just printed out the list of arcs from the COH Rotten Tomatoes thread and am running them. At least I know they've been reviewed by competent reviewers - yourself included.

It might sound silly, but I did see a big drop in posts, plays of my arcs and review requests after the new forums came out. I do know I use the forums less since the change myself.

Personally, I started a new arc well over a month ago, but can't motivate myself knowing that it will get so few plays. Currently my four arcs have from around 100-450 plays all sitting at 4 stars. As others have noted new arcs have little chance of being noticed, but I will add that older arcs even with a decent number of plays rarely get noticed when in the giant "4 star basement". I can go days to over a week without a single play and that is with my visibility here and in MA Arc Finder.

People that don't use the forums or ask for reviews or put themselves on lists or use MA Arc Finder can quickly get disenchanted with AE. My husband for example has a couple of arcs he made. The one has been sitting at 27 plays 4 stars for months without a play since it dropped from 5 stars.

Ok, I have gotten a bit off subject here, but I guess my point is that AE and by association this forum section, is getting close to the "last straw. Those of you my age might recall the game The Last Straw "You Broke the Camel's Back!" (I kid you not) was the catch phrase for the game. In the game each player took turns placing varying sized straws in sacks on a camels back until he broke under the weight.

That game is kind of how I see AE and the devs continue to add straws and players continue to hit the breaking point where they "break" and just give up on AE. Honestly, the more the devs try to fix the farms, the more people that use AE for content stop using it. This reminds me of bases in a lot of ways and I can see a time in the not so far future where AE is reduced to a small core group, like base builders and most of the players don't bother with it. This sucks because the idea of AE is truely great and still easily saved if the devs cared about saving it.


WN

Most of the threads are arc review threads or arc announcement threads - neither of which are very conducive to discussion beyond the authors of the relevant threads.

That said, what is there to talk about really?

You make good points, Wrong Number. If you look at the history of CoH back to May/June of '04 when I started and the game first came out, it's apparent than many of the changes they've made to the game, both small (power and XP tweaks) and large (ED) have been in reaction to farming and other types of abuse, rather than to improve the game as a whole. This "negative adjustment" is inherent in most all MMOs. I've seen it in every one I've played, both text-based and graphic. Eventually it causes the game to slip into "Simple existence" mode - which would be sad for CoH.

I hope they find better solutions to the problems that have plagued the MA. I've put a lot of heart into my arcs. Until then, I guess we just keep voicing our opinions and keeping our fingers crossed... unless, of course, you think Heculea has something with her strike idea. In either case, I wish us all good luck.

I had a bit of personal strife which slowed my review rate down.

The new forums are awful on the iphone, hence my lessening posts

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

Check your PMs, Venture... not everyone thinks that reviewers that tend to be strict are "teh suxxors."

In fact, for every person that's written a poisonous reply to a strict critique, there are three to five others that show what amounts to basically appropriate response. It's the nature of the beast that people are going to defend their work. A person would have written their material differently if they had thought of some of the points expressed in a critique, That's the purpose of a well-conceived review - to spur creative thought. You, Airhead, PW, LJ, MCM, Lazarus, Bubbawheat and others do that, and there are many arcs out there - mine included - that are far better for your efforts. I bet you can say the same for your arcs. Don't lose sight of that.

As far as the topic of my thread is concerned, it appears that the new boards may have been the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. People were starting to become disillusioned or distracted, but they were sticking with it. The board migration forced them to stay away from the boards for a time and redirect their focus. Coming back to find a completely different communications venue, with several inherent problems, just gave people the impetus to basically call it quits - or at least not give up the things they'd been re-directed to.

It's a shame, because I personally thought we had a good thing going in the old boards. But what is life, or entertainment, without change?

I'd agree with Venture: many people (perhaps including myself) are taking a COX break to check out Champions. The recent lack of posting seems to match with the dates for CO's Open Beta.

I think more review styles may also be needed. For all the heat Stomphoof took from his mistake during his review, he was the one person to attempt to do it video style and it's a shame it didn't continue. Zero Star's humorous takes and the newly accompanying "Let's Play" style screenshots also add an entirely different style of review than most. Let's see how things progress since hopefully this slump will subside.

Personally, I think people should be more willing to post feedback in the threads for arcs they'd played. This increases a good thread's visibility for the devs (they specifically said they get a lot of hints as to what arcs should be looked at for Devs' Choice from the boards). Also, it allows for anyone, even non-reviewers, to express ideas on how to improve the arc. Also, if an arc is interesting enough, fans could even ask the creator questions about the arc's development process.

Call it hubris if you want, but if I didn't care about what people thought of my work, I wouldn't be calling for feedback on it. I want people to care about how I thought up the stuff I used in my MA arc, that's why I made it to begin with. I enjoy it when people tell me how great my work is and want to know how it was made, and when someone doesn't think it's so great, I change whatever needs to be changed until either they like it, or enough of a majority likes it that I can safely assume they're part of that "everyone" that I can't please all the time.