Overheard during Reactivation/DXP
By
AmazingMOO,
Posted on: 2010-03-08 24:44 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
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Wellp, I'm someone who's just returned from exile, during which time I was playing a certain Similar But Different game... which I'm still running an account on, mind you. It's an interesting phenomenon.|
Originally Posted by AmazingMOO
I heard this repeated at least once an hour as the inevitable end to the conversation that began, "Well, I switched to [competing game]..." The only time that players were in any way positive about those other games was when they were describing features that were also strong CoH features, such as a certain other superhero game's character creator. Even then, it was usually in the context of "But it was ripped off from CoH."
This illustrates an important facet of the 'City of' franchise's customer loyalty. The game trades heavily on its quality and featureset maturity. This will be an important subject to keep in mind as the game continues to age, especially when integrating new features into it. If the quality of the game degrades significantly for any given reason, it could have a larger effect than you might initially think. |
What I love most about CoX, and what I found I missed when I was away from it, is the story focus. Unusually for many of the MMOs I've played, it feels like the lore, the world and the characters within it- both the NPC and the PCs- have weight. A real story seems like it's being told here. I can get angry at some of the things Longbow do, root around in the lore and the mission text to work out what's going to happen as the plot unfolds, and have my characters really feel like a part of that.
I'm a complete plot (bleep), so I love it, and I'm glad I have employment enough to re-up my sub. Are there other things I enjoy in other games? Of course! But none of them give me the story fix that I feel from CoX. ^_^
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This post is awesome! But in their defense, many people consider some things 'necessities' when actually they're not. Like many people consider 'broadband' part of the 'basic utilities' section. Hell, I know I do but I also know it's a luxury when it comes time to tighten the belt. Heck, I pay for DISH's top package and the only reason I even want HBO or Showtime is for Dexter, Inside the NFL, and Real Time and if someone does a comedy special or something. I have one former guildmate in EQ who decided to cancel his account because he couldn't afford it.....because his cell phone bill was always too high. Turns out he was using the basic, entry level plan which didn't fit his usage and hadn't upgraded because "I don't need all that extra stuff". Moron, you need the additional minutes and the data plan! Instead of paying $30 more a month for the higher plan, he is/was paying $150+ more because of his data usage.|
Originally Posted by je_saist
Okay, point. Badly phrased. It was supposed to be a point that there's not a whole lot of difference between $15 a month and $10 a month if you are paying each month as it comes. If $5 is the breaking point for somebody's income on a consistent per monthly basis... I'm not entirely sure they should be playing an MMO.
Granted, I'm saying this having spent years supporting Cable TV and Cable Internet where there was an endless parade of people with either or both service(s) that couldn't afford things like:
The point of these anecdotes is that they have generated an inherently low opinion of people buying, or thinking about luxuries, that duck behind the well if it was $5 cheaper or I can't afford that. If $5 buck item purchases are the make or break point on things like video games, well, there are larger issues at hand that need to be dealt with. Namely food, shelter, water, medical supplies, and basic utilities. |
A cheaper plan isn't going to help that many people. Honestly, if $15 a month is the difference between you eating and/or getting evicted/foreclosed on, that's not NCSoft's problem. Even wanting to play a game while in such dire financial straits is daft to me.
But je_saist, while your later points were correct, I kinda think you're preaching to an uninterested choir. If I remember right, Venture has quite a few characters (non-AE'd 50s as I recall) on Virtue, Freedom, etc. I do think he might sit on the 'more is better' side of the fence, though I'd disagree with that in this game. One of the reasons I consolidated my villains on Infinity was population (or lack thereof). Infinity + redside = a lot less people than blueside on Virtue. Low pop lovers and 'critical mass' types both have servers that fit their preferred environment. I'm not so sure that taking one away for the benefit of the other is such a good idea.
About the only notable thing I heard during the weekend from a returning player was from someone who quit in I6 due to ED and being "tired of Statesman lying to the players". For a delicious piece of irony, he also mentioned having played Champions from open beta through launch.
@Remianen / @Remianen Too
Sig by RPVisions
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Since there's burger signs all over Mercy, I guess that's how Lord Recluse funds Arachnos...
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Originally Posted by Ynaught
Good grief, where in the world do you live where a happy meal costs $15?
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I'd personally be interested in what NCSoft's US marketing budget looks like, but that is probably an eyes-only level trade secret.
From a chat I read, REALLY expensive advertising during primetime on the big networks appears to cost about 200-300k a slot. (I think. I could be misreading)And of course no one wants just one slot. They want to repeat an ad multiple times every day for a few weeks.
It seems like Going Rogue would be worth at least a week or so of ads on Cable on networks or during shows likely to share the demographic-- say Adult Swim shows on Cartoon Network.
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Heh, I have a friend pretty much the same situation. Infact, he should be re-subing any day no. . . HEY!, Wait a second!
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Originally Posted by Mister_Shade
Wellp, I'm someone who's just returned from exile, during which time I was playing a certain Similar But Different game... which I'm still running an account on, mind you. It's an interesting phenomenon.
... I'm a complete plot (bleep), so I love it, and I'm glad I have employment enough to re-up my sub. Are there other things I enjoy in other games? Of course! But none of them give me the story fix that I feel from CoX. ^_^ |
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Are you keeping up with the Commodore? Because the Commodore is keeping up with YOU.
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Originally Posted by Coyote_Seven
They must have hired people who used to work for Commodore's marketing department.
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This is exactly right, Siolfir. I bend over and fart and spend 50 cents a day on entertainment or excess food and beverage. Even the Red Box DvDs are $1, and you get two hours of entertainment. Buy in larger chunks of time packages and the savings are more.
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Originally Posted by Siolfir
I personally think that anyone that says they can't afford it is simply making an excuse. It's roughly 50 cents a day, at full price. Buy one less soda a day from the vending machine. And if you "only play 4 or 5 hours a month?" If you go to the movies twice in a month, you get roughly 4 hours of entertainment (usually less), and pay more.
It's an entertainment expense. |
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Forget server mergers, give us cross-server teams.
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Originally Posted by Venture
My take on DXP weekend, and this hasn't much to do with how the game overall is doing, is that I'm more convinced now that the devs must be at least considering server merges.
Sure, Virtue and Freedom were in the yellow the whole time, but I was playing on Champion, and it was dead. I hardly ever saw other players. I could walk into Wents' in Talos and find a whole one other player at prime time. When I made the new DP Blaster there was no one in Outbreak. I had the place to myself until I was halfway through Isolator. |
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These happy meals probably cost more than $15.
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Originally Posted by Ynaught
Good grief, where in the world do you live where a happy meal costs $15?
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The topic on server merges has been done to the death. Short version, it's not going to happen.
The first fact is, maintaining separate servers doesn't carry a large financial cost. The physical hardware has already been paid for.
The second fact is, each server has multiple slots. If one server isn't busy, GO PLAY ON ANOTHER SERVER. You have multiple character slots for a reason. USE THEM
The third fact is, not everybody wants to play on a crowded server. Sorry. But a large percentage of the game is quite content with their broadcast channels being free of conversations that make Power_NA and Vitality seem smart by comparison. Not everybody likes getting off of the train in Talos and getting lagged out.
The fourth fact is, what most of the people clamoring for a server merge want is for the developers to mandate where players can go to play. Most of the game doesn't want to be told where to play. If the developers told me that I had to login, and that I had no other choice but to play on the same server as you? I'd quit. I'd head right over to the PlayNC account and cancel.
The fifth fact is, we just had two months of completely free-of-charge server transfers. If you don't like your server? If you think it's dead? TRANSFER OFF! If you didn't take advantage of those free character transfers, don't come to these forums and bluster about merging the servers. All you are going to do is tick off every gamer who has been through a server merge before.
The sixth fact is, what you really want is more slots on the server you play on. Well, fine. Ask for more slots by asking for more slots. Don't ask for more slots by asking for the entire game to sit on a hot red spike of (this comment has been censored due to extreme vulgarity and comparisons of unnatural and barbaric acts involving intimate relations with Planetside)