Happy Friday All!

Originally Posted by Zwillinger

The following post is not intended to impart any message aside from contribution to the conversation:

There's a right way and a wrong way to introduce free to play aspects to a preexisting game. A lot of people are looking at recent offerings with a very critical eye these days. There's a lot of things that companies have done well with (personally I respect what LOTRO has accomplished) and some that are missteps that the entire industry will look for ways to improve upon.

It's a personal belief that companies seeking to change their current business model should always do so with their current Communities in mind. Any sort of change should be done so that it gives your veteran (existing) players a show of appreciation and recognition of their support over the years. Yes, the prospect of expanding a Community via F2P is attractive, but the reason they're able to consider such a thing is because of their existing Community.

Originally Posted by Zwillinger

My name is Andy Belford, aka Zwillinger, and I'm your new Community Manager here at Paragon.

As a gamer, and a Community Manager I have a significant amount of experience with PvP Communities. As a Community Team we recognize that the PvP community in CoH is challenged and has a desire to know where PvP stands on the priority list for the development team.

In reading the forums here, I understand that there are many concerns and wishes regarding PvP. When speaking to the development team as a representative of Community interests, we convey these concerns, we express the frustrations and we make sure that the devs understand what it is you want out of your PvP experience. When speaking to the Community as representatives of the Development team, we convey that we have an understanding of player sentiment and what direction the development of PvP is heading.

The current development status of PvP, as the Community knows, isn't very active. For an extended period of time, development resources have been focused on improving and expanding upon other aspects of gameplay within CoH. With the introduction of Issue 20 and our continued focus on the PVE endgame, this will likely remain the case for the immediate future.

It would be easy to become disillusioned at the above statement. It would be easy to believe that the developers don't care about PvP in CoH. This couldn't be further from the truth. The spirit of competition is alive and well within us all and we embrace the fact that it's an important part of the game

So where can we start?

I’m not here to rehash the existing bugs and problems; those are already well documented in the threads stickied here in the forums. Your grievances and issues with the current state of PvP in CoH are very clearly and concisely presented, and for that, the Community team thanks you. These tools make it much easier for us to present your case to the developers.

What I would instead like to talk to you about and get your feedback regarding it something that’s very important when it comes to Player vs. Player interaction: What are the best PvP experiences you’ve had, be it in CoH or any other game. We’re not talking about balance wise or delivery wise, but when you get down to it, what are the visceral and exciting PvP encounters that have left your heart pounding and your hands shaking? What is it about these experiences that made them so exhilarating and compel you to go out there looking for it again and again..?

You guys start, and after I’ve had some time to think about it, I’ll chime in and offer my two cents.

Talk with me; have an open, honest and constructive discourse with me. I'll continue dialog with all of you as long as you're willing . I can't promise to fix everything, but I can listen and convey, and hopefully help to focus us as a Community.

I'll check in on this thread periodically over the weekend as I can. Just so you know, I'm still mid relocating my family from the East Coast to the West, so weekends are difficult right now.

-Z