I am not appreciating the Trial Grind

Thats like asking me if I want Cake.... hell yes I want Cake !!!

I've been all over the spectrum with this issue for months now. My passion for the subject has been all but exhausted with only the added insult of locking basic costumes keeping it fueled this long. However, I have a new fear creeping in as I come back after 2 days to catch up.

I notice a significant lack of this issue still being debated. Now on the surface this appears to be a good sign. That the detractors have 'sucked it up' and moved on. Yet that's what scares me.
When the issue is swept under the rug and stops being debated here it won't be because the problem is solved it'll be because everyone else finally gave up/ lost the passion.

This isn't a good thing. It signals that a vocal minority of vets have 'lost their voice' in a manner of speaking. You can only scream so long without anyone listening before you go hoarse. This issue will vanish from the forefront, with only the non-forum goers coming to inquire why it's like this. This will signal to the Dev's that things are cool now and they will move on to the next shiny.

I don't want that to happen. I'd prefer if Matt came down from on high and announced in certain terms what the system will evolve into. Either quelch the fears and put them to rest or own them and hope for the best. Letting it fester will only serve to further alienate those feeling wronged.
(This isn't to say they are justified, simply that they should be acknowledged.)

Sadly, this is a bigger issue than most of us want to acknowledge. This is a seachange within the game and has the potential to be a
'game-changer' as far as the way we play from 1-50. At no point in the past 7 years has something so altering hit live. I can see a bigger picture, I recall how I felt ED was so horrible yet now I know how foolish I was. So I'm not shortsighted enough to think the Incarnate system can't be a good thing.

I just want to make sure the community doesn't continue down this divisive path of Classic MMO Vs Unique MMO, Solo Vs Teamed, Gated Vs ad naseum.

We all love this game. We all play for various reasons. Up til now everyone was cool with everyone else doing their own thing. So why so serious now? Why hang from the rafters screaming bloody murder because a few posters are vocal about a solo path? Why cry injustice because no solo path has been announced? More importantly, for both sides, why is it so important to slam the other side now? Just because they have a different view. What happened to letting everyone have fun the way they wanted?

Just because we want a Solo option/ non gated basics doesn't mean you have to come in every thread on the subject to call us fools, using tired ol cliches.

Just because they enjoy the Trials doesn't mean we have to come in every thread and rain on their parade because it's not what 'we' want.

Can we just get back to the actual debate and leave the histrionics to the high schoolers?

I will confess to having quite a degree of contempt for the iTrials and the Incarnate System in general outside of the Alpha slot (which was, quite frankly, brilliant). It feels to me as if someone looked at what other games use as endgame and then tried to adapt it to CoX while ignoring the casual, alt-encouraging, solo/small team friendly nature of our game.

So when in the latest interview it was stated that inspiration was gained from the forums, I had to, at least light heartedly, wonder what on earth we said and who they were listening to when they gained the ideas for it. I have, for a long time, held i10 as being a far better model for this kind of thing. Issue 10 gave us a new currency to collect for phat loot but it gave us a new zone to street sweep, four story arcs, a repeatable contact, a grand TF and a fun raid for those people who enjoy that kind of thing. It had content which catered to every crowd. In comparison, all we've been given to gain the new currency is two Trials which, IMHO, feel more like the boss fight from a TF.

Which in all is kind of frustrating. I do want to advance my 50s but I detest the endgame as it stands hence why I've been working on my lowbies instead. After seven years af waiting and expecting something amazing, I can't begin to express my disappointment at the engame as it stands, even if it is a work in progress. I can't help but feel like saying, "This? This is what we've been waiting for? Oh dear."


P.S. I'm not keen on having to pay a ton of inf for converting shards either. It feels like I'm being fined because I chose not to grind iTrials until my ears bleed. Hmph.

I personally have given up on anything past 49.

I do not wish to grind the trials and never will and the people who say well just play and convert shards to threads?

Idiots.

It has been proven that it will take YEARS to progress and BILLIONS of Influence. So you tell me I should just be willing to ignore future content, costumes, powers for YEARS as I slowly cash my 10 a day shards/threads into whatever new currency they create.

It is downright stupid.

The game is supposed to be fun. So now people say well a solo way should penalize you because they aren't trials? Really? If they make a way to do something that the PLAYERS say is more fun the Devs should penalize that fun? Again REALLY?

So for those who say solo/small teams content should be harder to get the reward - WHY? Because if they don't have to run the stupid grind there should be a penalty? So you are saying because I had to grind the trials you should have to suffer to get a reward?

Do you see how stupid that sounds?

If I see one more person say - well the trials are HARDER - No if something can be done in less time than you have to wait for a team to build in the Queue - its not Hard. How long is the average trial? 25 minutes? That's hard? Pfffffffttttttttt!

So what is hard about a trial? Oh, I know getting someone to actually use the temp powers at the right time. The one gentleman was right I have lost my passion for it and have given up. It is a far worse thing for the game than ED was and ED was terrible. To cut the powers without a secondary path ready - IO's - was ignorant. ED if it was done along with the introduction of the Invention system at the same time would have mitigated the disaster.

It was a disaster? Yes, in my SG at the time we went from 30ish regular players to 10 in a month. Then to finally 4 after 6 months. The thing was poorly thought out implementation of new systems without explanation of why and where it is going leaves people less than impressed.

If the devs do take ideas from the forums - which to me is complete hogwash - because I never saw a post saying:

Please make a farming style end game with gated content and repetitive trials that take longer to queue for than to run and also drop items that are required to progress on a completely arbitrary system. Yes, also please stop solo/small team folks from being able to get the same rewards within a period of less than 2 years. Also I don't want ALL of my characters to be able to get it. I mean make it painful enough to complete the content enough times that it discourages me from wanting to do it more than once or twice.


Did anyone ever see a post like that?


Well heck, lets just make it far harder to reach level 50 then! I mean each time you level a character to 50 it should double the XP required to get the next one up there. Then we could cut the number of 50's down and make the grind the entire game! Down with fun, bring on the Grind!