Reduced XP for Freakshow now

This, children, is what we call a self-fulfilling prophecy.

"Hey, look at that guy! He's so mean! If I go call him every nasty word, he'll punch me in the face! See, I'll go prove it!"

You proved nothing, Tank. You make an empty point with the easiest of passive-aggressive baits and just sit and wait for someone to point that out, then you spring into action proclaiming an empty victory.

And you still fail to make an actual point. If you meant to say that I was one of your supposed Illuminati, then then you fail, because I my disagreement with your post is based in fact, not subject to mental conditioning. If you want to claim I got some of my facts wrong or misrepresented something, then make a case and I will listen. If you feel I am somehow at fault, accuse me of something a little more concrete and meaningful than being a fanboy by another name.

You trade reason for empty sentiment and then you are surprised when people who don't feel as scorned don't share your sentiment? What is your POINT, other than "woe is me?"

*edit*
I should point out that I welcome playing the bad guy. You want to demonise someone, demonise me. Go right ahead. I'll even play into your awkward vision of what your enemy should be like, if that's what it'll take to point out how ludicrous it is. Go ahead. Give me a list of faults and I'll try to see how many of them I can hit. Then you get to point at me and proclaim moral superiority. I'll go with that.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

I can see your point, but in my opinion CoH "did it right" by not rebalancing the content to make IO's required. They also made it so that any drop you get can freely be sold/traded to another player. This is not the case with the better drops in games like WoW. Someone who doesn't get a chance to run the high end TF's all the time can still get a completely IO'd out character by just buying what they need on the market. This empowers both the group and solo players.

That being said, given the extremely low drop rates on the purple recipes, someone who is interested in getting a full set of them (or more) pretty much HAS to farm or play the Market, either to get the Infamy/Influence to buy the sets or to get the drops themselves. Given that, why hate on someone for taking advantage of a means of improving their character that has been provided by the game's Developers?

This, to me, is the crux of the problem. How did it come to this point? Why did we get things that, in order for us to have them, we would have to grind and farm? Did players seriously ask for that? I mean, I know they did, but are there really that many people out there who actually like this stuff?

Either way, I agree with your general premise - whether we have farm bait or not, the point remains that if we are so inclined, we can just ignore the existence of these things and play as we always had. This, to me, is the single most compelling reason (in terms of pure gameplay) to pick City of Heroes over any other MMO, and indeed over most RPGs.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Agreed.

I know the devs wanted to introduce something that would give players something for their level 50's to work for over a long time, but the problem is that for MANY of the people interested in such a thing don't seem to think that way. Rather than see each new purple as another incremental improvement on the way to that "ultimate build" that's an achievement by itself, they're rabidly chasing after that final stage.

Perhaps that's the same way many "race to 50" while others just enjoy a steady leveling process that gets them there.

Oh for christ's sake, what kind of arrogant position is that to take? Let's see if I follow. I know what a purple is, have identified what steps I need to take to aquire them, and don't mind doing those steps when I want one. I am therefor some kind of twitching, number crunching spaz who's game play experience is totally irregular (read, inferior) to that of the mythical "average" player. That about sum it up Prof?

I never said that was a bad thing.

That is why I left a raiding guild and my extremely well-geared druid in WoW and came back home to CoH. I got tired of the whole thing because grinding the same bloody isntances over and over again was all there was to do after a certain point. In CoH, if I get the urge to farm for purples the option is there. But I don't have to do it. Having that choice is worth its weight in gold to me.

Wow. Professor, are you honestly trying to be insulting? If so, it's working beautifully. Rare recipes provide a means for people to continue to improve a character after they have hit the level cap. Some people like that extra incentive, some don't need it. It doesn't make those that do obsessive or elitist. Someone is certainly being elitist here though.

I was reading between the lines

Actually, Hover was broken, in that it wasn't functioning as it was supposed to. The Devs fixed it.

Define "reasonable time frame". I'll bet yours differs from Billy Jo Bob.

You're saying that you're a member of the equally tiny and vocal group that whines because they don't have an "I win" button?

Obviously, your idea of balance and that of the Devs differ. I can tell you that I don't always agree with the Devs ideas. But, I learn to adapt to the changes.

As for knowing people that have left the game. I don't know of anyone, personally, that has left because of nerfs. I know of one person who left because he got married.

That's pretty much it right there

"Sorry bucko, but CoH and CoV are the same game." -BackAlleyBrawler
"Silly villain, CoX is for Heroes!" -Saicho

I'm going to have to support this. Though, if you're real lucky, he'll tell you off via PM when he disagrees.

It's a valiant effort, Sam, but you're fighting a tide; He's not interest in debate, he's interested in his self-righteous agenda of the week.

That's more or less my reaction to the ED "debate"

What a moronic statement. Everyone knows and accepts that some people get upset over nerfs. The debate is over whether they're being childish little prats with over the top entitlement issues When they get upset about nerfs.

As Statesman said, it's an MMO. People come and people go. People leave because real life makes them or they've stopped having fun. If they can't have fun with the game because their favorite whipping boys lost some XP per kill, so be it. That's their choice.

But they shouldn't expect the rest of us to give a damn.

Being pro-balance isn't the same as being pro-nerf

I understand that you consider everyone who doesn't play exactly like you to be miserable, grind-obsessed exploiters who should be driven from the game, but the devs realize that maintaining a solid financial footing requires appealing to more than just one narrow demographic.

Purples were made to give performance-oriented gamers something to pursue, since their sub fee spends just the same as yours.

Way to piss off a whole lot of people there, Prof.

I get my ego boosts away from the computer, thanks.

I don't exactly sit there timing how long it takes me to eliminate a spawn. To me, "reasonable time frame" is before my Endurance bar runs out.

Also, "I win" button? You can't be serious. That's a little more hyperbole than even I can tolerate.

And taking another look at your chart, we see that subs have been on a steady, gradual decline since the "nerf campaign" began. Are the two related? Maybe, maybe not, but you cannot deny that changes to the game have a meaningful impact on subscriptions. The "wild fluctuations" you see in the first half of that chart are due to the "newness" factor - people try the game out, some stay, most don't. Subs go up and then go down. Subs went back up around the time CoV launched in late 2005 and stayed high for a while.

Your chart also does not include the year 2008, during which we saw some of the lowest subscriber numbers since launch. You can take just about any data and put a marketing or PR spin on it to make it seem like there are more subs, but there just aren't as many people playing the game as there used to be. Some of that is just due to age - this game is getting old and there's competition brewing. Some's due to changes in the game or how in-game issues are handled - the I13 PvP changes drove away most of the PvP playerbase, and the I14 MA bans/deletions caused many people to simply give up, not because their characters were deleted, but because the whole thing was just a giant cluster****. I'm willing to believe that the retail prominence of CoX and the Architect Edition box set helped boost sub numbers, but what's going to happen now? Time will tell, I'm sure.

@macskull, @Not Mac | XBL: macskull | Steam: macskull | Skype: macskull
"One day we all may see each other elsewhere. In Tyria, in Azeroth. We may pass each other and never know it. And that's sad. But if nothing else, we'll still have Rhode Island."

Agreed, Prof_Backfire appeared to be overgeneralizing. As you describe it, people could casually enjoy and pursue the purples while pursuing their own gameplay. Many- most- probably DO.

There IS, though, this vocal minority that object to these "nerfs" because they were "forced into" using such pursuits. Their insatiable demand for the loot drove them to the "only workable solution" of abandoning whatever gameplay they enjoyed to take advantage of the most extreme reward system to fuel their appetite.

Yes, those few are free to make themselves miserable in their pursuit of "fun."

We're free to point out the absurdity of their situation...

...and when the devs determine that such obsessive behavior starts affecting others' gameplay (gross inflation in market items), they're free to adjust gameplay accordingly.

All that's been done. Now what we have is the rather un-civil debate between parties on whether the devs' change really was necessary.

Actually, if you compare it to other games, you find that the "surge and decline" values are the industry norm.

Compared to most other games, CoH's decline is remarkably flat post-nerf.

If I had room in my sig...

Those are the kinds of folks who inspired the proverb the dogs bark, but the caravan rolls on.