Be aware of Valued Newbs.

Awesome story! I sometimes wonder how many new folks get turned off to this game because they get treated like illegal immigrants. Anyway, good show!

Also, Heavy Metal was the best! ("And there's BEER... in the fridge - so help yourself OK?")

Pretty darn poor indicators - you get a better indication in 2 minutes of play than from looking at vet's rewards.

The only thing that vet's badges are good for is providing a possible explanation or amusement if someone proves themselves to be clueless with no idea of team play.

In that case having no badges may point to a new account and it's worth asking and showing a little more patience/help (whatever the level - they may have been MA PLing, but let bygones be bygones).

And even the Kheldian with no vets means nothing - 3 years ago I got my first kheldian about 2 days shy of my 3 months in-game without grinding. After rounds of xp-smoothing I'd expect many players to get access to EATs (without grinding) before their first vet badge unless altitis sets in bigtime.

I do the same thing on occasion.

Just before I16 went live I was going to delete a character and happened to be in Atlas (I think he was there to pick up the cape mission, not sure)

I noticed I was sitting on a few million influence and decided to hop around looking for people with no vet badges. So I sent out a bunch of trade invites to new players and dropped maybe 5 mil in the course of 20 minutes or so.

Answered a few questions and all was well.

I still see a LOT of broadcasts for AE teams though, I was hoping it would die out a little with I16. It was amusing seeing the level 2 scrapper broadcasting for an AE team for the better part of an hour, he just stood next to Ms. Liberty broadcasting every 15 seconds or so. Several people told him he'd level faster just running missions or street hunting than standing there. He apparently ignored them all, when I logged out an hour later, he was still there.

Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately.

Good on you, Kryhavoc.

I rolled an Earth/Rad for i16 and sent out some tells the other night for the Outcast HQ mission in the Hollows, and got only one reply. It was a newbie with a Dual Blades Scrapper. I had already gotten my raptor pack (I was lvl 8) so once we finished in the Hollows, I had him follow me to Kings Row. I had a safeguard mission ready as it turned out, and got him his raptor pack.

I think being able to fly will seal the deal for a lot of trial account visitors. This fellow asked a lot of questions, and I showed him many of the ropes, and sent him the link to the Wiki for the more complex questions.

Now that I have a lot of high end heroes, it is always nice to be able to read a good bio on a low level guy and be able to, in addition to showing them the ropes, drop 10 million inf on them so that they can get good equipment from the start. They are always humbled and grateful, since they were not expecting it or begging for funds or the like.

Back in i3, I had someone drop 300,000 on me and that made all the difference. I like to pass it on.

Oh, and while we were heading to Kings Row, I showed him the entrance AND the exit to the train, and warned him about trying to board the train via the exit. Maybe there will now be ONE hero who did not wait in vain at the exit, trying to board...

I squirted espresso through my nose over that one LMAO!!!

And eh.. trust me.. you're not alone.. *cough*

Sound: Detected
Sample-Match: 'Whoosh'
Location: Somewhere overhead

However: Statement is: Also true
Addendum: Sadly

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

Ten seconds of chat will tell you more about a player than their vet badges ever will.

Exclamation: Stop!
Current Time: Hammer!

Learning: Always good
Willing learners: Always welcome
Willing teachers: Engaging 'salute' feature

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

PMSL!

you just won. I dunno what, but you did

Emphasis: Mine
Observations: Very true

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

Which brings me back to my OP. The problem here is not so much the new players as much as it is the vets that have become jaded or just plain turned off by recent events. I know the aggravation that comes with playing with people who just don't get it, whether online or in PnP games. But we are not talking about Winterlord or AE babies anymore, we are looking at people who may have recently jumped from our competitions ship, people who have gotten tired of swords and sorcery, or (as in my fiance's case) just upgraded their Aptiva running windows 95 to something a bit more modern. Remember how daunting this world seemed to you when you first came in mask-first, remember how excited you were when you first got hover and took to the skies, and most of all remember how you got left behind when your team was simply more advanced than you and ran off to leave you to your own devices. I know we are a great community, but I have seen a lot of elitism lately, and just wanted to remind those who have let it slip into their vernacular that we were all newbs once.

Cheers, and kudos to those who do the thing that helps others to do theirs!

Friends don't let friends run abacus aged rigs. Does she play games on an Intellivision too? (Yes, I'm kidding)



While I understand the sentiment, I think it might be a bit presumptuous to assume that everyone started CoH as their first game of this type. I only started because a guildmate from a game I had been playing for 5 years prior to CoH's release, raved about CoH beta and release, even though he was in danger of being booted from guild for raid skipping (and this wasn't a 'casual' type of player so this was very out of character for him). So I tried it and hoo boy! I outlasted him (he quit in the aftermath of the purple patch and smoke grenade nerf).

Harry (if I may call you that), this is a 5 year old game. Elitism among some of the more vocal veterans is to be expected. In fact, I'd be worried if that wasn't the case. If it's not people talking about 'hell levels' or 'hunters on the frontier' or 'raiding MC before Onyxia' or heck, I recently heard a 'man, I remember when we had to kill Kael'thas to get into Black Temple...and he was HARD. Not like this casual [expletive] now'.

Helping new players is awesome, but bringing in new players would be even better. The way I see several rather vocal vets here talk about the game on various other forums, you'd think this game gets destroyed with every issue. I14: The game is dieing[sic] due to MA farms. I15: The game is dieing[sic] due to MA exploits. I16: The game is dieing[sic] due to Aion/Champions/MA nerfs. Meanwhile coming here and posting as if the game is the picture of perfection. That's the main concern I have. Word of mouth can make a game (see EVE Online) and it can also break a game (off the top of my head: Shadowbane, Horizons/Istaria, SWG, arguably EQ1). Current players telling prospective newbies to stay away because 'the game is dieing[sic]' doesn't help IMO.

I remember how the Pwnz badge mission allowed CoH to steal a subscriber from...that game that wouldn't miss him. Was duoing with a guy who was playing the free month (says he got the Architect Edition for 20 bucks). Problem was, he didn't think he'd be able to keep playing because he couldn't afford to pay for two monthly fees and he didn't want to miss out on 'the new lewtz' (several months ago, before Ulduar's release). So I happened to get the Pwns badge mission. We zoned into the mission and, having never seen the Freakshow office map (or probably Freaks at all since he hadn't been anywhere but AP, the Hollows, KR, and Steel Canyon), he was blown away. During the mission, he's freakin' out (pun intended) on the map and Freaks rezzing ("WTF he got back up!") and at the end of the mission, the decision was made. Then we did the Faultline arc and Nocturne almost whooped our ***** (horseshoes & hand grenades...only times when that matters). Those experiences are awesome!