What gives Freedom?

ahhh thanks, yeah i was hormonal which tends to cloud my judgement, i know that, which is why i said i couldn't decide. So Thanks.

Really? if the game is that dead, why are you posting here?

I dunno where you hang out, or what you are up to lately, but I was part of a 3 team MoITF event tonight, and it was really fun.

The game is not dead... and since the AE nerfs, I've actually seen MORE new faces on our TF runs lately.

WIN!

Agreed. Contrary to what I've heard from many of the die-hard farmers, the AE xp nerfs have actually benefited the game because now people are actually seeing more than one building in the one zone. Plus, as much as I've heard farmers talk down the importance and attractiveness of color customization, that's one of the primary draws of the game: cosmetics.

This is somewhat true, but adding color customization in the first place is likely (from a marketing/business standpoint) an effort to keep existing customers rather than an effort to attract new ones - I can't see it being more likely that Random MMO Player #1 sees that CoH is adding power customization and subbing then Random CoH Player #1 sees that they're adding power customization and deciding to resub for another month or three. After all, it's the existing playerbase that's been asking for power customization for years, not non-players. Unfortunately, power customization adds zero replayability factor - really, it's only there for show - and it's more like giving the house a new coat of paint than it is remodeling or building an addition. I'm not trying to downplay power customization, but in the grand scheme of things it's really not that big a deal.

I'm also not sure why you felt the need to single out farmers as the ones who pass off power customization as "just another stupid feature" - some people like that ability, some couldn't care less. I'm a farmer, and I'm in the latter camp regarding power customization (I haven't changed a single existing alt and only one of my new characters has had their power colors changed), but the two aren't related. I simply care more about what my powers do than how they look.

The people that complained about the MA farming had a point - to an extent. "Oh, all anyone wants to do is run MA farms!" some might say. However, there seemed to be enough anti-farm sentiments around the forums that I'm honestly shocked no one though of teaming up with other non-MA users and running normal missions. I never had problems forming task forces when the MA farming was in full swing, so I'm not really sure what the big deal was. Nevertheless, the changes have been made, the nerfbat swung too far once again and the honest-to-goodness story writers have been complaining more than the farmers, and now we're settling back into a supposed normalcy (at least until the next set of changes comes along, whatever they might be). You might be seeing more new faces on your teams or task forces but that's simply people trickling out of the MA. Once the first week of I16 launch passed and people saw all the shinies, they seem to have wandered off, and I've seen less people even on Freedom than I saw at any time since I14 launched.

@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."

Actually, when you're talking about a game that prides itself on the ability to customize virtually anything about a character, the ability to color one's powers is actually a pretty big deal. The ability to color your powers as you see fit is nearly as big a deal as the ability to pick your own face, if not more so, because you and others will actually see your powers a lot more often. It shouldn't be downplayed at all. Of course, if you don't really care much about the cosmetics of a character and only care about your effectiveness, then you're naturally going to downplay it because that's an entire portion of the game that you're downplaying anyway. It's exactly the same as diehard PvE players not giving a damn about whatever happens with PvP. Just because it's a change to a section of the game that you don't enjoy messing around with doesn't mean that it can't be a substantive change (especially when it's one that is substantially more visible).

As do I. However, there is a pretty strong correlation between people that farm and people that care more about optimization than cosmetic effects. That's the entire idea behind farming in general: optimization. You'll also notice that I never said it was just farmers. Farmers are simply the most vocal about it, generally because they're venting about the AE xp reductions and drop rate stealth nerf at the same time. Many of those I've heard dislike it simply because it accompanied other things that actually had an effect upon them.

First off, the problem that many anti-AE farmers had was not that it was difficult to find teams (I actually had no problems finding teams, many of which were comprised mainly of players that were thankful to find something other than AE to pass the time). The problem was the AE babies that accompanied such easily available and high reward farming. I didn't have much of a problem with the PI farmers at any point (except when you hit your 40s and it was virtually impossible to find anyone to team with because farmers would grab anyone and everyone possible to anchor/fill/etc), and I still don't (especially since they can't use anchors anymore and have no use for fillers) because they're not generating giant mobs of level 50 characters with players that have never left AP and have no idea what a Task Force is.

As to the question of the population, it's hard to figure out whether the drop in population (of which there is some) is due to players not being interested by the game or by the natural side effects of it being this time of year (re: school). I can honestly say that, if there seems to have been a decline in population, I'm not really noticing it, but that's quite possibly due exclusively to the ability to team with virtually anyone nowadays. It's much easier to make a team than it ever was before thanks to the SSK system.

As to whether the nerf bat was swung too far, I doubt that. Player generated content should, by necessity, be less rewarding than developer made content. Otherwise, there isn't really much of a point to running the developer made (and developer sanctioned) content. The fact that so many people became accustomed to the idea that the content they generated should be just as rewarding as developer content simply displays a highly skewed thought process that completely ignores the fact that, if it were otherwise, the system would be abused (which is already know from recent experience). Sure, some story designers are getting irked because their content is no longer just as good to level on as the developer made stuff, but that's perfectly appropriate. The people that want to run through the AE should be running through it because they want new content, not because they want an equivalent leveling path. If they want to level quickly, they've got all of the existing content that passed developer muster. If they want to level differently, they've got the option.

Seriously dude... what are you doing in my head?
Stop reading my mind please ^^

joking aside, I agree with what you just said and I certainly couldn't have said it in a better way, thank you!

Well.. he said they have a "fix" for it.. so while the "nerf" was not intentional, it certainly existed.

Well, as an "east coast" server, I would say that the majority of the people that play are either at work or school on an early Friday afternoon...at least, I know I am at work.

total exaggeration. i'd easily wager that 90%+ of your so-called "ae babies" were vets, of all sorts, being PL'd. for every real new player i ran across in MA, there were 30-40 vets getting a new alt PL'd.

and the stupid noob questions that everyone claims to have been asked is just crap. constant MA whiners always trying to best each other in the next noob question they were "supposedly" asked 2 minutes ago. thankfully, you have the SSK system.

Veteran players do not fall into that category. Like he said, he doesn't have a problem with Vets farming.. an AE-baby (by definition), is a new player who grew up only in AE and knows nothing about the rest of the game. Those are the people that ask ridiculous (or what "we" think are ridiculous) questions. They aren't ridiculous for newbs, but ridiculous for a lvl 50 to have to ask somebody.

I could share some of the questions I've been asked, but you apparently wouldn't believe me either. The point is, people expect lvl 50s to at least know some basic game mechanics.. like how to get to a different zone (for example).

You know as much as I do that new people don't always know how to use the train, or click on the guard to enter the Hollows... when a new player gets a lvl 50 without ever having to zone, they still aren't going to know, and they are still going to ask the same question. Same goes for any other aspect of the game.. respecs, TFs, whatever.

Yes, people have always leveled up with regular farms and still had to ask newb questions at lvl 50, but AE made this process much easier, and it was located right in an introductory zone.. which made the "AE-babies" multiply even more. The point is, we used to be able to count on a lvl 50 at least knowing a little bit about the game they are playing, but now we can't.

What's worse is the ones who think they know everything because they reached 50 so fast, and end up trying to correct Vets about simple things that we all know are clearly wrong. It's like somebody using a walkthrough to beat Super Mario Brothers for the first time, and then claiming to know everything about it... but not even realize there are water worlds, mushroom worlds, ice worlds, etc.. because they warped past all that the first time through.

And I'd take that wager and collect my money. The AE babies are specifically the ones that aren't the vets. They're the ones that have no clue how to play the game. They just started, found out that everyone was farming in the starting zone and, poof, in 8 hours of doorsitting they're now the proud owner of their first 50. The AE baby problem wasn't an issue you found in the AE simply because you couldn't tell which ones were which. The AE baby problem hit those of us that didn't spend all of our time in the AE and had to deal with the newbies with level 50s and no idea how to actually play.

It's not oneupsmanship in the least. They're actual experiences. They're not lies or fabrications in the least. When I was forming TFs during the Age of AE, I was constantly finding level 50s that had no clue how to leave the zone. I actually had a number that thought that they got to the other zones by going through the AE portal because they thought AE was the entire game. That fact that it was so prevalent and completely believable simply demonstrates how big of a problem it was.

Either way, had I been told last year that I would soon be kicking level 50s out of teams because they didn't know how to change zones, I would have laughed, as would pretty much everyone else I know. What's most disturbing is not that it happened. It's that it was simply so prevalent. It's not a single person telling the story. It's ranks and ranks of people. If it was a single person telling the story, then it might not have been true, but I can tell you that pretty much everyone that doesn't farm had to deal with it repeatedly.

Originally Posted by Infernus_Hades The way you play changes your IO slotting..