New GR Info This Week?

A double xp weekend would be a better idea IMO....

The first one in the year has usually been in January......I guess not anymore?

... And... the point of this was...

To make us feel bad for you?

To guilt trip the development team into talking?

To... what?

Well, whatever the point was, you failed. Please do not let the door hit you on the way out. Trying to hold a development team hostage for not talking works better when you just cancel your subscription and never come back.

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Edit: Okay. Again, this is probably just better left at the snappy remark, but in the interest of new players browsing the forum who don't get the unspoken background, here it is:

My problem with the sentiment that the developers won't talk about Going Rogue is something that's worth quitting the game over stems from several different points.

The first point of data is that somehow future expansions will change the gameplay. Well, they will, but at the same time, they won't. If you like how City of Heroes plays, the underlying gameplay isn't supposed to be changing. You'll still click on, hit the number key, hit the key modifier with the number key, and so on just as you did before. Players will still buff, debuff, blast, tank, scrap, stalk, corrupt, dominate, control and so on, just as they did before. If you like that gameplay, if you like what the game does that makes it a game, then there's going to be no, to little difference, between City of Heroes Now and City of Heroes Post Going Rogue.

Yes, we do know that Going Rogue will let Villains play in Hero Zones and Heroes play in Villain zones, and allow players to change sides... and while this will increase the flexibility of what you can play and where you can play, it won't actually do a thing to change how you play.

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The second point of data is that Going Rogue is ready. Well, just as a lot of players willingly choose to gloss over the Split in Issues that lead to Architecture Entertainment arriving with Issue 14 instead of Issue 13, and the rapid switch around as the devs juggled resources at the end of 2008 and through 2009, several players willingly choose to gloss over that the player base was not supposed to know about Going Rogue until the Fall / Winter HeroCon. The only reason we knew about Going Rogue before hand is that one of the marketing partners involved screwed up and sent out an email with the announcement several months before any news was supposed to be announced.

The result is that a lot of players, and by specific example here found in Doughboy, are advancing the schedule of Going Rogue's development by weeks, if not months, over where that development actually is. Many players are presuming that Going Rogue's feature and content list was already finalized as of the original email. Given what we know of the timing of the plans, it's actually likely Going Rogue's feature list wasn't finalized until shortly before HeroCon, or shortly afterwords.

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The third point of data is that game development is static and predictable. We do know that some of what was shown off at HeroCon, specifically the UltraMode graphics, aren't actually tied to Going Rogue's release. Since the graphics engine is going out to all users, whether or not they bought Going Rogue, it's really more of a feature for an issue. If the Ultra-Mode engine fixes are good to go before the rest of Going Rogue is, the possibility has already been given for it to arrive separately.

Which is something that a lot of players willingly choose to overlook. Some coding tasks are more difficult than others, and some features that need to be implemented in code may only take a week or two to put together, while others could take months to bug-fix and implement in a working manner.

The case in point can be made just by looking at console games. Companies like Nintendo that set release dates after the product is in the bug-fixing / finalization stages, deliver higher quality games on a more regular basis. Companies like EA and Activision that set release dates before the product is finished deliver glitchy products, or stuff you just don't want to play.

A very good case in point for our own niche of the MMO market can be found in Champions Online. The release date for the game was set long before the game was even close to complete, and the resulting launch was a disaster. Infogrames is doing the same thing with Star Trek Online. The game is hardly complete, yet a launch is already set down and the development staff will be pushing out live code to retail on that date... whether or not the product is actually finished.

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Speaking for myself, I enjoy the City of Heroes game. I enjoy playing the City of Heroes game. I enjoy teaming, and I enjoy task forces. That is why I pay a subscription fee.

I'm not basing my subscription on whether or not the developers tell me about what they are doing or planning. I'm not basing my subscription on whether or not the developers will implement a feature set I really want or don't want. Now, if they implement a feature set that changes the gameplay experience and makes it worse, then I will speak with my wallet and cancel. I'm not going to throw my hands up and storm off if I don't get Ribbon Control and Confetti Blast though... which is what I'm seeing in a lot of the I'm Quitting Posts.

Reminds me a lot of... this... actually: http://www.overclocked.org/OCquit.htm and http://www.overclocked.org/OCscene.htm

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edit: and yes. I know this got hell-repped.

No. I'm not changing a word. When I'm right, hell-reppers can stuff it and deal with it.

The point? To share why I just canceled my account and what might have prevented me from doing that. I went into much greater detail in NCSoft's exit survey I filled out after canceling. I'm not "holding anyone hostage". I'm simply not paying a recurring subscription fee.

I didn't post here to argue about it.

Honestly, if the only reason you were staying subbed is to get more GR news, then you should have canceled a while back because whenever news is released it's publicly available to all, no subscription required. There's really no reason to subscribe to a game you don't particularly care for or enjoy playing. You can always renew your subscription when GR goes to open beta if that's your only interest.

Why? We can't change that.

So why did you post an "I quit!" post?

*shakes Magic Hate Ball*

Magic Hate Ball says, "Doughboy is a goober! Eat your pets!"

Magic Hate Ball is sort of a jerk, but at least it's less whiny than the Tragic Eight Ball.

Actually I think you have it backwards. He's not quiting because of a lack of info, he's quiting most likely because he's bored with the lack of new anything in general. All he's saying is that more information would have convinced him to stay longer.

No! It simply can't be as simple as that! It must mean something MOAR! Something NEFARIOUS! Something...

LIKE THIS!

um, yes...

i literally facepalmed after reading this. Then after about five seconds i just started laughing.

i'd give the Magic Hate Ball another shake, but i don't really have any questions at the moment, just a warm glow of amusement.

Because Marketing told them to, apparently. Positron, Castle, BaB and so on don't decide what info can be released; Marketing does.

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.

Or Issue 17 ( if they aren't the same ) or the Mutant Pack. Or pretty much any solid information about anything new in the game. Screenshots, hints, descriptions; something besides silence. For all we can tell, the new hires stole all the money for GR and fled to Uzbekistan.

I agree with the majority of your post and your sentiment but I think you are wrong here. My understanding of the whole Going Rogue announcement being sent "early" was a matter of hours, not months. The marketing team sent it out late on night when it wasn't supposed to be sent out until the next day. They had the press release and other things ready by then.

If you have contradicting info that states the announcement really wasn't supposed to be made until Hero Con, please share, I'd really like to see it.

Also I just can't believe they would wait until Hero con to make that announcement. After all they talked about going into Beta during Q1 of this year, waiting until Q4 of last year to announce something that close to Beta, doesn't seem to jive for the release of a Boxed Expansion. That sort of thing is a big deal and they are usually announced with more than just 3 or 4 before things start rolling into Beta.