Open Letter To The Dev's (if it stays....)
By
Aett_Thorn,
Posted on: 2009-12-27 17:19 in Suggestions and Ideas
Quote:
While I have a tendency to agree with much of what you say,it seems that coming off offensive strikes a cord that in turn angers people too. Generally alot of people in turn share the same "rants", but are afraid to say them, as it'll cause situations like this where there is alot of backlash.|
Originally Posted by Skattershot
So,ya'll telling me...(give up the state tax,that's for ANY game) that while i'm payin a lil under 6 bucks more here than say WoW, which really i hate that system worse, that that's normal? I pay more fer here than i do elsewheres, and if that's the norm, then I'll stand corrected. So tell ya'll what,I'ma just gonna apologize fer anything i said,lord knows we wouldn't wanna speak our minds and sit in the back with the rest of the silent sheep, too scared to say anything les we get trashed back. so disregard my lil "rants",and i'll never post here again.
|
Sitting back with the rest of the sheep is the wrong thing to do. This is a country where you're allowed to voice your opinion,but remember,there are the lobbyists who will haunt it back to you if not phrased correctly, which in this case, I don't think there was.
You have to learn there are always more people that will voice against you rather than with you, not matter if you're right or wrong,IE The Medical Insurance Bill passing now. We can speak our minds all day long on soapboxes made of cardboard, but once it rains..
WoW's monthly fee is $14.99 same as ours.
Quote:
you're right. He did post again. Heismann's and Skatter's writing styles are extremely similar, way too similar. While I could be wrong, I'm fairly certain that sock-puppeting is against Terms of Service.|
Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
Promises, promises. I'll believe this when I see it.
|
also: earlier in the thread something was said about the Mac Client. Well, remember, the Mac Client runs the Windows Client atop Transgaming's Cedega / Cider technology. Cedega / Cider isn't 100% perfect at emulating a Windows OS environment, nor translating all API calls at 100% accuracy, and short of Microsoft opening up the WinNT 5, 6, and 7 Kernels under an Apache or GPL style license, it likely never will be 100% for all applications all the time. The good news, at least for CoH players, is that NCSoft seems willing to support a PC environment, rather than a Windows environment alone.
Quote:
You stated this was a multiple account, and most reasons for a multiple account is for 1 reason only...PLing. Your other reasons are valid and I can see why. Like I said, I don't believe in PLing, but how a person plays, that's their business,not mine, it's their (or mommy or daddy's) money,spend it as you will.|
Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
Powerlevel your toons? Where did anyone suggest that you powerlevel your characters? That's a strange conclusion to jump to out of the blue. I merely suggested that the OP started a second account so he could pretend that someone agrees with his ranting. Such a thing could easily be done by starting a free trial account.
And why the assumption that we would think that anyone with multiple accounts uses them to powerlevel their characters? There are other reasons for having multiple accounts. 1. A player may have already used all 36 slots on their main account and they want more slots on their favorite server. 2. Players might segregate their accounts, one for heroes and one for villains. We have a lot of obsessive compulsive players. 3. Players that like having solo SG's use second accounts for inviting their own characters to their SG's 4. Players use multiple accounts to make it easier to shift wealth amongst their characters. This eliminates the chance another player will rip them off. The fact that you automatically assume that I implied you powerlevel and your subsequent aggressive and hostile denial leads me to believe you are suffering from a guilty concience. |
Just because I seem to be the only defender you ASSUME it's a multiple account. I tell you wrong. Maybe I hear the call in the wild? Maybe I actually know the guy? Maybe I'm actually close friends? Maybe I never heard of him before today? You don't know, so jumping to conclusions about personal situations you know nothing about is off-based and wrong. That's like me assuming with 10k posts you have no life and live at home,with no job or carrer to speak of. But I could be totally wrong too. You could be making 200k a year working in a fancy high-rise building with your retirement plan already set in stone. To assume personal details or blast them for personal issues is wrong. This is a game,not RL...
If my memory serves me correctly, there was a limited time offer that allowed you to get a WoW account for about $10/month. or atlest equal to about $10/month. that might be what this guy managed to get, a limited time offer. Which, comparing a limited time offer with a consistant price is just wrong to begin with, but i think hes done many other wrong things.
Quote:
No I assume the OP has made a second account due to fact that posts on both accounts share similar sentence structure, writing style, grammar, spelling, and when reading the posts they sound like the same person has written them. |
Originally Posted by Heismann
You stated this was a multiple account, and most reasons for a multiple account is for 1 reason only...PLing. Your other reasons are valid and I can see why. Like I said, I don't believe in PLing, but how a person plays, that's their business,not mine, it's their (or mommy or daddy's) money,spend it as you will.
Just because I seem to be the only defender you ASSUME it's a multiple account. I tell you wrong. Maybe I hear the call in the wild? Maybe I actually know the guy? Maybe I'm actually close friends? Maybe I never heard of him before today? You don't know, so jumping to conclusions about personal situations you know nothing about is off-based and wrong. That's like me assuming with 10k posts you have no life and live at home,with no job or carrer to speak of. But I could be totally wrong too. You could be making 200k a year working in a fancy high-rise building with your retirement plan already set in stone. To assume personal details or blast them for personal issues is wrong. This is a game,not RL... |
Then there's the bizarre rant about being accussed of powerleveling which is similar to the OP's bizarre ranting style.
Nope the more you post the more I'm convinced you and the OP are the same person.
Quote:
To be fair it's not "Just because [you] seem to be the only defender".|
Originally Posted by Heismann
Just because I seem to be the only defender you ASSUME it's a multiple account.
|
There's also the similarity in writing style and the facts that you joined just today and that you have only posted in this thread.
Quote:
And this wouldn't be the first time someone has made extra accounts and pretended to be a different person.
|
Originally Posted by all_hell
To be fair it's not "Just because [you] seem to be the only defender".
There's also the similarity in writing style and the facts that you joined just today and that you have only posted in this thread. |
Quote:
I was a mod @ a political debate forum for a few years.|
Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
And this wouldn't be the first time someone has made extra accounts and pretended to be a different person.
|
If I read a thread like this I would have started investigating. Certainly smells like a duck.
I have been wrong before in my life. However...
Quote:
You're right. So I just joined today. That doesn't mean I haven't been around reading. To say "similar styles", that could be said about all of us. I've already stated that I don't agree 100% of what Skats said. I think he's a little off-based on some things, but I do agree with alot of what he did say. I don't know this "sock-puppet" theory, nor now do I want to. I just came here to play,and seeing a post here that alot of people are shredding, I did have something to say.|
Originally Posted by all_hell
To be fair it's not "Just because [you] seem to be the only defender".
There's also the similarity in writing style and the facts that you joined just today and that you have only posted in this thread. |
I'd be more open to listen to him if he wasn't so offensive, and I'd listen to the responses if they just weren't immediately bash him back. I think clearly there is a difference in opinion and unfortunately, we've come to bashing and smashing.
The JPG of the terms of WoW clearly speak to me,and I think he either got a good deal or something's not right there, as the picture says it all. That's proof in my pudding....lol!
Just for the sake of being complete, here are the prices for each game, taking the info from their *own* online store.
CoH - Architect Edition - $19.99 (Includes access to both CoH and CoV content)
CoH - Base Monthly fee - $14.95
Total for all game content and two months of playtime - about $35 before taxes. (One month is included with the game.) At this point, you have access to all areas, all ATs, and all powersets. The costume packs are extra, but are almost *entirely* cosmetic, and have little or no effect on actual gameplay.
WoW - Battle Chest Edition (includes base game and first expansion) - $39.99
WoW - Wrath of the Lich King Expansion - $39.99
WoW - Base Monthly Fee - $14.95
Total for all game content and two months of playtime - about $95 before taxes. As far as I know, WotLK requires that you have Burning Crusade installed, if for no other reason than that the base game does not include any content to level from 60 to 70. Wrath holds another ten levels, and you can't touch Death Knights if you don't own it. So the minimum to get access to all levels, powers and classes is the game and both expansions.
Now, for the extras. CoH has several costume packs. Excluding the temporary jetpack, there are seven booster packs. You get one free when you buy any current version of the game - Good vs Evil includes its own items, Architect allows you to choose Magic or Cyborg. That leaves six costume boosters, at $10 each. So to get the full game and every optional extra is $20 plus $60, or $80 before taxes. Add in one month paid time for a total of $95.
For WoW, the only cosmetic extras are the two mini-pets, at $10 each. (Everything else seems to be account services such as character transfers, renames, and a total rebuild that lets you reset everything but your class, including faction. None of which are any use whatsoever if you're just starting.) So for WoW, we get the needed game content for $80, plus two pets for $20, for a total of $100. Add in the month for a total of $115.
Unless I screwed up on the math (again) then the *only* way WoW is cheaper is if you get the game content and skip the pets, *and* are comparing it to CoH plus just about every available extra. If you're paying month-to-month, both games have exactly the same monthly fee. The only way I can see you paying a vastly different amount for either game is if you're doing one of them in single month payments, and the other at the six month rate.
Quote:
A point of clarification, Rian: Even if someone is completely new to the game (registers today) and uses an original, unused 1st generation CoH code they get access to CoV & 12 character slots per server.
|
Originally Posted by rian_frostdrake
4. ever since the gve pack both games have come together, all new packs contain both games, when ncsoft took over they gave all existing players access to both games, the only way you can possibly not have access to both games is to buy a 3 dollar cov or coh old box from big lots, and have joined after the ncsoft takeover. and you can get the packs for 20 bucks for both games, somethign you cannot get with wow, the game you chose to compare it to. what the hell are you on about here? you haven't been able to buy the single game for over a year.
|
Triumph: White Succubus: 50 Ill/Emp/PF Snow Globe: 50 Ice/FF/Ice Strobe: 50 PB Shi Otomi: 50 Ninja/Ninjistu/GW Stalker My other characters
Is this also for the DVD Collector's Edition of City Of Heroes?
Quote:
ya know, i wasn't positive, so figured that i'd hedge my bets. but that really make my point stronger, that he complaining about something that didnt exist and hasn't for some time. thanks though.
|
Originally Posted by Snow Globe
A point of clarification, Rian: Even if someone is completely new to the game (registers today) and uses an original, unused 1st generation CoH code they get access to CoV & 12 character slots per server.
|
Honestly, I was getting ready to say something about this post, but after typing the first sentence, I realized how immature it would have been. So instead, I'll respond to a few of your complaints. First off, I do apologize to any/all who see this and think TL;DR
1: Badge requirements being cut-
Yes, it was asked for by the players, so that farming for the badges wasn't so much of a requirement to get them. There were plenty of people that had gotten the badges before the requirement was lowered. Personally I didn't see anyone getting upset about this, until now obviously. Does that mean you're the only one? No, of course not. But a lot of people didn't seem to mind that much.
On the issue of the 'fairness' of it.. since you did spend your time farming the badges, and now someone else can come along and get the same reward for less work, I have a real life situation to compare this with.
One of my mothers friends, was a nurse for a long time. She'd been working as a nurse for over 13 years. 13 years of hard work, and annual raises to her monthly paycheck. But after 13 years of working as a nurse, there were new nurses hired on, who were making the same amount of money as she was. New nurses who didn't have the experience, or job reliability as she did. Was it fair? No. Is it fair that you had to farm for your badges and now people can get them through regular play? No. Was she being punished? No. It's just that the demand for nurses was large enough at that time to where they were paid really well, and it came out to the same as someone who'd been there for a long time. She wasn't being punished, the new nurses were being rewarded. That's life.
'But wait! This is a game, it's supposed to be fun!' Exactly! It's a game, get over it. Also, it's supposed to be fun, not work, to get those badges, which is why the requirements were lowered.
2: Mastermind Customization-
Hey, I want this just as badly as you do. But they have said this is something they are looking into. Unfortunately it's not as simple to customize MM pets as it is for something like Fire Imps. They have acknowledged that it's something the players want, but RIGHT NOW it's not possible. Like a year ago it wasn't possible for us to have power customization at all. Have some patience.
3: AE Nerfs-
When I first read your OP I thought "Was this guy in a coma for a few months?" because honestly, this is old news. But maybe you were away from the game for a while, or something in your OP was a straw that broke the camels back, and this was something you've been holding onto. I don't know.
As for the nerfs, would it be nice for custom critters to award XP properly? Yes... and while it's not perfect, it's more balanced now. Make a critter that has zero to little chance of hurting you, you get get zero to little XP for it. If it was simply that you had a cool idea for a story that you can put out there for yourself and others to play.. that should be reward enough for you. If it's not, then I'm sorry, but again, it's a game. Either have fun with it, or quit. If it causes you stress, then you shouldn't force yourself to deal with that.
4: Empathy for villains-
Yes, this was asked for, and no Pain Domination is not Empathy. But it was the answer for Villain Empathy. When Pain Dom was announced the devs stated this. It's the most appropriate analog for Empathy they could come up with. Sorry, but this one that has to go into the "You don't always get what you want" file.
Lastly, two things you said that weren't really questions, but I still wanted to comment on.
"mebbe it's a Rant, but since the forums got moved around so much, i had NO idea where to put it anymores...."
If it's a rant, it doesn't belong on the boards. If it's complaints about the way things are being handled, and you want it to be on an open forum where other people can see and respond to it, then it would be best to go under the CoH Life - CoH and CoV General Discussions thread.
"i just hate to see the amount of subscribers drop before it's an unsupportable system."
Where do you see the numbers for CoH/V subscribers? I don't ask this rhetorically either. Many people who have complaints such as yours, or just generally think CoH/V is going to end soon, keep saying we're loosing people. Where are you getting this information, and is it actually valid? Is there evidence to support this? Because I'd like to see this for myself.
Wow... just wow. This thread is making me laugh from the sheer ignorance of the OP. Your arguments are totally invalid as others have already pointed out, yet you still hold to your delusions.
Also, you can drop the act, since we pretty much know that Heismann is your second account. Same writing style, same random complaints, and the fact that you registered today just to post in this thread.
Arc ID: 348998 - Becoming a villain
Arc ID: 373341 - To Save a Hero
Got Inf?
Quote:
But that's the problem, a few of his points were opinions, and you noticed that those weren't instantly pounced on, its only when he made the absolutely factually inaccurate statements that he got stomped. Plus, while everyone makes grammar errors, including myself, there is a issue of how much you respect your reader if you post like that, its basically saying, you aren't important enough for me to try to be coherent, and that starts things off poorly. mistakes are bad, but that was barely the post of a native English speaker. In fact, we have several non-native speakers who express themselves more clearly than that. there are opinions and there are factually incorrect statements.|
Originally Posted by Heismann
You're right. So I just joined today. That doesn't mean I haven't been around reading. To say "similar styles", that could be said about all of us. I've already stated that I don't agree 100% of what Skats said. I think he's a little off-based on some things, but I do agree with alot of what he did say. I don't know this "sock-puppet" theory, nor now do I want to. I just came here to play,and seeing a post here that alot of people are shredding, I did have something to say.
I'd be more open to listen to him if he wasn't so offensive, and I'd listen to the responses if they just weren't immediately bash him back. I think clearly there is a difference in opinion and unfortunately, we've come to bashing and smashing. The JPG of the terms of WoW clearly speak to me,and I think he either got a good deal or something's not right there, as the picture says it all. That's proof in my pudding....lol! |
Case in point, I made 3 bad typos in this post, out of respect for the reader, they were fixed, ya get me? We are not teenagers texting.
Quote:
This is true. Posting a reference to WoW's TOC makes me believe otherwise about the cost effectiveness. His rants on MM customization has yet to be resolved, and since really those are rants,I give him kudos for at least still raving about why we don't have them. |
Originally Posted by rian_frostdrake
But that's the problem, a few of his points were opinions, and you noticed that those weren't instantly pounced on, its only when he made the absolutely factually inaccurate statements that he got stomped. Plus, while everyone makes grammar errors, including myself, there is a issue of how much you respect your reader if you post like that, its basically saying, you aren't important enough for me to try to be coherent, and that starts things off poorly. mistakes are bad, but that was barely the post of a native English speaker. In fact, we have several non-native speakers who express themselves more clearly than that. there are opinions and there are factually incorrect statements.
Case in point, I made 3 bad typos in this post, out of respect for the reader, they were fixed, ya get me? We are not teenagers texting. |
His errors regarding Empathy/Pain seem justified,but then Maniac brought up a good point about Pain sufficing for Empathy.
As for writing styles,after perusing this post which I still seem fascinated by,I would dare say that Rian and I share the same styles.Does this mean I'm Rian's second account? Far be it. I'm sorry if I "write like a duck,quack like a duck" to the OP and other people here, but even ducks have a limit on the amount of different species available.
Quote:
If you are asking if a person using that version of the game gets access to both CoH and CoV the answer is yes.
|
Originally Posted by Heismann
Is this also for the DVD Collector's Edition of City Of Heroes?
|
Quote:
no, but you have given me the idea to make a second account to argue with myself with, so something good has come of this.
|
Originally Posted by Heismann
This is true. Posting a reference to WoW's TOC makes me believe otherwise about the cost effectiveness. His rants on MM customization has yet to be resolved, and since really those are rants,I give him kudos for at least still raving about why we don't have them.
His errors regarding Empathy/Pain seem justified,but then Maniac brought up a good point about Pain sufficing for Empathy. As for writing styles,after perusing this post which I still seem fascinated by,I would dare say that Rian and I share the same styles.Does this mean I'm Rian's second account? Far be it. I'm sorry if I "write like a duck,quack like a duck" to the OP and other people here, but even ducks have a limit on the amount of different species available. |
Quote:
First, witch hunts aren't actually funny - it's like saying mass murder can be amusing. |
Originally Posted by Skattershot
"Witchhunt?" Hahahaha! funny stuff.
|
As for the rest of your points:
Quote:
| 1.)Up the badge-counts BACK to where they were in the 1st place. |
Quote:
| 2.)You gave us colors for powers and such,EXACTLY like Champions Online. Why not coloring the pets for Doms,Trollers,and MM's? |
Quote:
| 3.)Instead of nerfing powersets in PvP, why not put them back? Slows,Immobs,Heals should work,after all, they do in PvE instances. |
Quote:
| 4.)Lower the price back to a "normal" state. You charged people double for both gaems,minus a small discout. Now that the 2 are one, why not get competitive with all the other MMO'S financial wise? |
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
Quote:
Because they were disrupting the AE - badges like Golden Ticket for earning 25,000 tickets, Terminator for defeating 5,000 custom enemies, and Living Legend for earning 2,500 stars were causing the AE to be flooded with pointless farm missions that were designed just to get the badges - which is not what the AE is for.|
Originally Posted by Skattershot
So let me ask you this then:Why cut the badges then? Why "punish" someone who did the efforts of "farming" (like no one here have EVER EVER farmed or PLed) with a higher badge count and reward those who only get to farm half of a same thing and get the same reward?
|
That's why they made nothing in the AE count towards other badges - the Inf you earn in the AE doesn't count towards the Inf badges, the healing you do there doesn't count towards the healing badges, no defeats there count towards the defeat badges and so on.
The devs are really only 100% anti farming in the AE - they don't come down hard on it in other places, like PI - if they'd wanted to, they could have easily made PI a 40+ zone only, but they left it open to all levels - because it doesn't really mess the game up that much.
But farming in the AE badly damaged a new and exciting game feature, so that's why they removed the AE badges that encouraged farming, reduced the rewards from the AE, and deleted some avatars that had been PLed 1 through 50 in less than 24 hours.
Player created content is a great idea, but they made some mistakes with how they set it up, so they went back and fixed them.
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
I disagree with the anti-farming. I think it's more accurate to say the devs are anti-exploit.
What's unfortunate for farmers is that while most farms are not exploits, ALL exploits are farmed. This results in the exploiters trying to convince the farmers that the devs hate all farming.
Quote:
There is no explicit rule that I could find against sock puppeting. The forum rules are here.|
Originally Posted by je_saist
you're right. He did post again. Heismann's and Skatter's writing styles are extremely similar, way too similar. While I could be wrong, I'm fairly certain that sock-puppeting is against Terms of Service.
|
The only thing I can see where the original post runs afoul of the forum rules is that this is a rant, since there is no clear constructive objective to the post.
As to sock puppeting:
Both writing styles are so similar that they are very likely to be the same person. It doesn't matter whether they could 'know' each other or not, writing styles (stylometric analysis) are quite unique.
Whilst I have no direct proof that they are one and the same, here are some very interesting similarities in their posts:
Long, unbroken paragraphs. Common, but both are broken by a single return rather than a common double return used by forum posters.
Use of variable number of periods to denote ellipsis. Ellipses are noted by the typographic ellipsis (…), but usually typed as three periods without spaces. Both posters vary the number of periods from 2 to 4 to form an ellipsis.
Use of ALL CAPS to denote emphasis within a sentence.
Tight use of spacing. From what I can see, all sentences are separated by a single space. Capitalization of sentences are fairly consistent, but both posters share a comma addition fault with no space between words. This is extremely rare. Eg. This is a comma fault,without a space between the comma.
Lack of capitalization of the word "I" within a sentence. Very common between both posters. What is strange is that they both commonly capitalize the "I" correctly when at the start of a sentence.
I haven't gone through to see if there are any common misspellings of words but I think this is sufficient for me to believe that both the posters are the same person. The comma irregularities alone would make me suspicious but to be honest, the person typing behind both accounts really isn't trying that hard to obfuscate the fact that s/he is sock puppeting.
Promises, promises. I'll believe this when I see it.