Discussion: Freedom Fridays on Facebook!
By
Another_Fan,
Posted on: 2011-06-23 18:09 in News, Events and Announcement Discussion
Here's part 2 to today's (08-05-2011) Freedom Friday Q&A
Q. Will there ever be a way, Market or otherwise, where we can get MOB-specific costume pieces (CoT robes, Longbow, Council, Outcast, Freakshow, etc)?
A. There will be costume codes that will be sold in the Paragon Market that will allow players to look like certain NPCs, however for specific costume creator pieces, that's something that we would have to look into on an individual basis.
Q. Where will we be able to see our PP?
A. When you open the Paragon Market, you'll be able to see your Paragon Points in the right-hand corner of the screen: http://bit.ly/nkXGmc
Q. Will the new bundles mirror the super boosters of past. Will the market have those indivialual items for sale and the items a la carte
A. There will be bundles of costume pieces that appear in the Paragon Market that have specific themes to them, which are much like booster packs.
CoH - For those of you having issues with connecting to the game, please make sure that you are NOT using the City of Heroes Launcher. It has been deprecated and will no longer allow you to connect to the game. Please download the NCsoft Launcher here: http://bit.ly/9kYx9l
Q. From what I've seen you guys seem to be offering a good deal of items to be purchased on the Paragon Market. You have costume pieces, upcoming powersets, signature story arcs, server transfers, renames, costume slots, and a few more things. Is it possible for you guys to list what will be NOT sold or offered on the Paragon Market?
A. Certain specific VIP rewards, such as the "Summon a Signature Hero" ability, will not be purchasable via the Paragon Market.
Q. Someone asked in on some other post and I think it's a good question: Will it be possible to buy more characters for the character bios?
A. Extra characters for your bio might be something to suggest on the City of Heroes forums. 
Q. What about previews? The character creator will let us view costume parts, so that's taken care of, but what about emotes? And what kind of previews will there be for powersets? Will it be possible to construct characters with them, just not enter the game?
A. When you go through the character creation process, you'll be able to read the description of purchasable power sets, but you will not be able to view animations or customizations. You will also not be able to view emotes.
CoH - To touch on something that Oz Otero asked and Chad Gulzow mentioned, yes, there will be further weapon customizations. If you caught the Ustream chat yesterday, guns were mentioned as something that might see some upcoming weapons customization.
Q. Out of curiosity, will the weekly updates to the paragon market be rotating out old items and bringing in new ones, or just adding more items to the market?
A. They will add to the market
CoH - To players asking about base items, there are currently no plans to release new base items at launch. Existing Veteran's Rewards supergroup items will be available through the Paragon Rewards program.
Q. Are you saying that customizations will be purchasable items on the market? Or was that a general remark on coming content? Will VIP customers still get "free" stuff with upcoming Issues? Or are their 400 PPoints consider the free bonus?
A. VIP players will still receive things free with new issues IN ADDITION to the 400 Paragon Points bonus. However, if you drop from a VIP to a Premium player, you may have to purchase some of that content you previously got for free with your VIP subscription.
Q. What kind of story content will be on the market place?
A. One of the things that will be offered on the Paragon Market will be Signature Story Arcs. VIP players will get these for free, but Premium players will be able to purchase this story content with Paragon Points.
Q. If i drop from vip to premium..then later become vip again will i have lost anything i gained as a vip?
A. If you drop from VIP to Premium, there may be some content that becomes locked to you. However, anything you purchase from the Paragon Market YOU WILL KEEP
Q. A lot of speculation has gone around regarding the price of inherent costume codes via paragon points, is it safe to assume these won't be easy to obtain / will be an expensive perk? Some people believe "City of NPCs / Halloween" would be silly. Can you shed any light on this?
A. We currently are not announcing a target price for costume codes. Any prices given at this time for any item on the Paragon Market will be subject to change, as well.
Q. mission archetype, AE which ever will the marketplace have AE related stuff up for sell?
A. You'll be able to purchase unlimited story slots for AE in the Paragon Market
CoH - To reinforce what ZombieMan said, again, certain content may be locked to you, but you will never lose anything. And anything you purchase from the Paragon Market, you'll keep as a Premium player.
Q. Is there anything your super exsited to tell us about but no one has asked yet?
A. There's a bit of functionality that I really like that nobody's asked about, and that's when shopping for items in the character creator, you can select all the pieces you want, click the store button, and it'll load up all those locked pieces. It makes it really simple to design your character how you want, and then purchase all the requisite pieces in one go rather than having to remember, "Okay, I had this head detail..."
Q. When does open beta of the Paragon Market start?
A. We'll keep you all posted on open beta dates.
Q. There was mention of gaining something for the Tiers with the more purchases you make in the Market Place. Will we be credited those for Super Booster/Item Packs already purchsed before Freedom launch?
A. You will get a bonus 1 Paragon Reward Token for every 1200 Paragon Points you purchase. This will only take effect when you purchase said Paragon Points, not for items you purchased prior to the City of Heroes Freedom™ launch.
Q. Will there be a record of what we've bought? Right now our account pages list previously bought Packs as "Perk", will this change?
A. There will not be a purchase history record at launch, HOWEVER, if you purchase something from the Paragon Market at launch that isn't a repeatable purchase, let's say a one-time account-wide purchase, the store will lock that and prevent you from purchasing it again. We will be working on getting a purchase history for the store ASAP following the launch of City of Heroes Freedom.
CoH - Related to the purchase history question, the Paragon Market functions much like your standard e-commerce site, where you'll be able to edit your shopping cart, and before you purchase you'll be taken to a "lock in" page before you make your purchase. You can always go back and edit your shopping cart from this page as well.
CoH - That wraps up today's Freedom Friday! Thanks to everyone who posted questions. See you next week
Paragon Unleashed Forums
Twitter: @Alpha_Ryvius
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Related to this: What about costume pieces that are unlocked through the incarnate system? Will we be able to see them at character creation? And, when we have already bought them merits, will we be able to claim them inside the character creator aswell? Or do we have to create a character -> log in -> claim certificate -> find a tailor to make adjustments. Because that would be kinda clunky.
| A. There's a bit of functionality that I really like that nobody's asked about, and that's when shopping for items in the character creator, you can select all the pieces you want, click the store button, and it'll load up all those locked pieces. It makes it really simple to design your character how you want, and then purchase all the requisite pieces in one go rather than having to remember, "Okay, I had this head detail..." |
@True Metal
Co-leader of Callous Crew SG. Based on Union server.
To bad I had to work and couldn't ask if there would be more temp power in the market then there is now in the game
Wow. Again, saddened by the playerbase.
There are no words for what this community, and the friends I have made here mean to me. Please know that I care for all of you, yes, even you. If you Twitter, I'm MrThan. If you're Unleashed, I'm dumps. I'll try and get registered on the Titan Forums as well. Peace, and thanks for the best nine years anyone could ever ask for.
Did Zombieman get hired? I like his posts, there always informative, but I find it odd that he is being cited with such frequency.....
@Texarkana
@Thexder
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Zombieman was probably on to lend a hand and reduce the same questions being answered over and over again or answer questions that people could get from the CoH website.
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Originally Posted by Texarkana
Did Zombieman get hired? I like his posts, there always informative, but I find it odd that he is being cited with such frequency.....
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Paragon Unleashed Forums
Twitter: @Alpha_Ryvius
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what makes you sad?
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Originally Posted by DumpleBerry
Wow. Again, saddened by the playerbase.
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I'm guessing it's the mass quantities of players cluttering the session up by asking questions that have already been answered.
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Originally Posted by Thany144
what makes you sad?
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lower your expectations and you won't be sad.
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Originally Posted by DumpleBerry
Wow. Again, saddened by the playerbase.
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A very sad story about War Witch and the neglected kitty. http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=219670
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Originally Posted by Black_Barrier
Guess it's hard to click while actively trying to keep the drool away from the keyboard...
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Well, I managed to get a couple questions in.|
Originally Posted by DumpleBerry
Wow. Again, saddened by the playerbase.
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One to put a rumor to rest: most the tier 9 Paragon Reward consumables are able to be bought on the market (except the Summon Signature).
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Q. Will Enhancement Unslotters, Windfall, XP Boosters, and Enhancement Boosters be available on the Paragon Market? A. Those are available both as Repeatable Rewards through the Paragon Rewards Program or by purchase in the Paragon Market. You have options! |
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| A. Certain specific VIP rewards, such as the "Summon a Signature Hero" ability, will not be purchasable via the Paragon Market. |
They didn't fully answer one of my questions:
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Q. Will there be bundles and sales? If so, how many out of game emails should I be expecting from Paragon Studios each week or month? A. There will be bundles, such as costume pack bundles. As for sales, yes! Keep your eyes peeled when the Paragon Market is available later this year! |
The other is one they didn't seem prepared for: The market purchase history...
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Q. Will there be a record of what we've bought? Right now our account pages list previously bought Packs as "Perk", will this change? A. There will not be a purchase history record at launch, HOWEVER, if you purchase something from the Paragon Market at launch that isn't a repeatable purchase, let's say a one-time account-wide purchase, the store will lock that and prevent you from purchasing it again. We will be working on getting a purchase history for the store ASAP following the launch of City of Heroes Freedom. |
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| CoH - Related to the purchase history question, the Paragon Market functions much like your standard e-commerce site, where you'll be able to edit your shopping cart, and before you purchase you'll be taken to a "lock in" page before you make your purchase. You can always go back and edit your shopping cart from this page as well. |
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The players going on about the Paragon Rewards program and the one person asking repeated questions about when Paragon Studios was going to have a lifetime subscription (ie NEVER), yes those were low points in this.
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
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why didn't you just ask for a recipt?
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Originally Posted by Snow Globe
Well, I managed to get a couple questions in.
One to put a rumor to rest: most the tier 9 Paragon Reward consumables are able to be bought on the market (except the Summon Signature). In response to someone else's question: I asked that to give me something to point to where they actually said it, rather than implied it. They didn't fully answer one of my questions: I suspect that we'll be getting weekly emails (at least) once Issue 21 goes live. The other is one they didn't seem prepared for: The market purchase history... Seriously they should have realised that was going to be a potential problem with the market after years of complaints that players can't tell what "Perk" is which on our accounts. Additionally they should have thought about it because parents would like to see a record of where their money went when their kids went wild buying stuff. Most e-commerce sites, will keep track of a person's purchase history. It is something I, as a web developer, consider a mandatory requirement for an e-commerce site. =========== The players going on about the Paragon Rewards program and the one person asking repeated questions about when Paragon Studios was going to have a lifetime subscription (ie NEVER), yes those were low points in this. |
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Because most e-commerce sites provide you with a history in addition to a receipt. In addition, they are missing a golden opportunity to have specialized directed sales and notices based on your purchase history.|
Originally Posted by Thany144
why didn't you just ask for a recipt?
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Say a player mainly buys costume parts, but only rarely buy the boosts. They could get a special sale notice on a costume pack they don't have yet.
Additionally, like I said, this could be a really useful tool for players to find out what they (or their children) have spent in the last month. This would be a useful tool for budgeting.
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
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Sounds good but hardly needed.
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Originally Posted by Snow Globe
Because most e-commerce sites provide you with a history in addition to a receipt. In addition, they are missing a golden opportunity to have specialized directed sales and notices based on your purchase history.
Say a player mainly buys costume parts, but only rarely buy the boosts. They could get a special sale notice on a costume pack they don't have yet. Additionally, like I said, this could be a really useful tool for players to find out what they (or their children) have spent in the last month. This would be a useful tool for budgeting. |
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For those on a budget or limited income, yes, it is needed. I, like many others, have to be careful about what we spend money on. I go over my budget every month to make changes as to what I can afford to spend the next month.|
Originally Posted by Thany144
Sounds good but hardly needed.
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Then there is the "What did I buy already?" question that isn't answered, at least with the crud system we currently have.
Go ahead, tell me what the highlighted codes are... You can't. I can only because I've kept my receipts. I shouldn't have to keep the receipts or have to ask support which items I've bought and applied to my accounts.
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
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They said for account wide things the items would be grayed out. For the others I fail to see why it is their responsibility.
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Originally Posted by Snow Globe
For those on a budget or limited income, yes, it is needed. I, like many others, have to be careful about what we spend money on. I go over my budget every month to make changes as to what I can afford to spend the next month.
Then there is the "What did I buy already?" question that isn't answered, at least with the crud system we currently have. Go ahead, tell me what the highlighted codes are... You can't. I can only because I've kept my receipts. I shouldn't have to keep the receipts or have to ask support which items I've bought and applied to my accounts. |
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I hope it will still be possible to manage our accounts (and to buy Paragon Points) outside of the game. Reason being that in-game browsers sometimes have problems with opening the pop-up window needed for "Verified by Visa" cards. It's the case in another game I sometimes play, so I have to buy points and such externally there.
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Originally Posted by Unknown_User
Q. You confirmed yesterday that Paragon Points can be purchased from within the game. You were going to check on whether subscription time can also be purchased within the game? Any word... can sub time be purchased within the game?
A. You will be able to manage your VIP subscription from the In Game Browser. |
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Would be nice if they had cards to buy
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Originally Posted by Arctic Man
I hope it will still be possible to manage our accounts (and to buy Paragon Points) outside of the game. Reason being that in-game browsers sometimes have problems with opening the pop-up window needed for "Verified by Visa" cards. It's the case in another game I sometimes play, so I have to buy points and such externally there.
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I see it as giving us the tools to exercise OUR responsibility. Seeing that they ARE putting in the store, and to my knowledge they are NOT giving us a receipt, it is THEIR responsibility to help us keep track of our purchases.|
Originally Posted by Thany144
They said for account wide things the items would be grayed out. For the others I fail to see why it is their responsibility.
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Besides, being greyed out doesn't tell me WHEN it was purchased, only that it WAS purchased.
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
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Why would you think that?
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Originally Posted by Snow Globe
I see it as giving us the tools to exercise OUR responsibility. Seeing that they ARE putting in the store, and to my knowledge they are NOT giving us a receipt, it is THEIR responsibility to help us keep track of our purchases.
Besides, being greyed out doesn't tell me WHEN it was purchased, only that it WAS purchased. |
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I'd like to talk to you about your perk addiction...
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Originally Posted by Snow Globe
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Speeding Through New DA Repeatables || Spreadsheet o' Enhancements || Zombie Skins: better skins for these forums || Guide to Guides
A purchase history also comes in very handy when you go "I thought I had more points than that...where did they go?" and keeping it within the customer's control and purview to go LOOK at the history to say, "Oh, right, forgot I had to pay for that one...yup, points should be gone" vs "What? I didn't buy that? I bought this other thing for way less points." or even "My points have all vanished - I didn't even log in that week! *contact's support to see if it is a bug or if their account was hacked*"
This is a lot more than that though - if I buy something from an online retailer, I find VERY few cases where I don't have the ability to log back into their site to see my purchase history. Be it for warranty (not needed here, granted), customer satisfaction claims, budgeting, or just wondering when the heck I got that product because I want to know.
In this case in particular though, if I have 1000pts, impulse buys (especially with people who aren't used to budgeting in this fashion with "now-digital-non-tangible-funds") will happen a LOT and it is helpful to be able to tally up that yes, you really did spend that many points all on costumes this month/week when you are just SURE you should have more points left than you really do. To a lot of people, once they spend the "real money" the points they bought with that money may not seem like something you need to budget, but I can tell you for a fact that some of us WILL want to see where the heck all those points went due to impulse buying of lots of little things for a few points here and there.
In my experience, I remember when and where I spent 50 or 100 or more real dollars...but I would be very hard pressed to say how exactly I spent 400 points. Unless you want the customer support queue filled up with "where did my points go" questions blocking out more urgent in-game petitions, really, a purchase history is needed.
I hadn't even dreamed that there wouldn't be one at launch - I'm extremely wary of spending money on points if I can't look at a purchase history/log to see where those points went.
Global @Nomme & @Nomme Again
Protector server
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Originally Posted by Snow Globe
Seeing that they ARE putting in the store, and to my knowledge they are NOT giving us a receipt, it is THEIR responsibility to help us keep track of our purchases.
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Originally Posted by Thany144
Why would you think that?
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I can't access my history so the best way to make sure I'm being charged correctly is to not spend Paragon Points at all. If I don't use the market as a long time subscriber (78 months this week) because of this, the system will fail to meet the developer's expectations that subscribers will feel safe to use the market.
As to why it is their responsibility and not mine to keep a purchase history is because they are the sellers. As a seller, they need to be able to show a receipt that I did, in fact buy something. This is especially true for micro-transactions and on-line purchases. My responsibility, as a buyer, is to save my receipts until such time as I no longer need to dispute a charge. Both the seller and the buyer bear some responsibility for keeping track of purchases. Without a history, Paragon Studios can't meet their responsibility. Additionally, as has been pointed out several times, a transaction history is a fundamental part of any e-commerce site. If they can't get that right, how the heck am I supposed to trust that the billing is correct?
As to this:
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Originally Posted by Snow Globe
Besides, being greyed out doesn't tell me WHEN it was purchased, only that it WAS purchased.
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Even going beyond "who is responsible for tracking my purchases?" there is an accountability issue if a player has to deal with Customer Support over a purchase. Are you willing to put up with increased delays for support because of this issue? I know I'm not.
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Originally Posted by Zombie Man
I'd like to talk to you about your perk addiction...
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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
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Well, currently, you're sent an email whenever you add a Booster to your account. Did they specifically say that you would not get an email receipt upon purchasing items through the store?|
Originally Posted by Snow Globe
Besides, being greyed out doesn't tell me WHEN it was purchased, only that it WAS purchased.
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You have successfully applied the following serial code to NCsoft Master Account: (EDITED) Date : Jul 26 2011 Game : City of Heroes City of Villains Account: (EDITED) Serial : XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX (EDITED--full code was shown) Type : Perk Save this e-mail for your reference. You may need to provide the serial code to a customer service representative to obtain customer support. We look forward to seeing YOU in the game! The NCsoft Team |
I don't understand why you'd get an automated email for that, but not one saying "Thank you for purchasing 5x XP Boosters and 2x Enhancement Unslotters!" once CoH Freedom goes live...
Main Hero: Chad Gulzow-Man (Victory) 50, 1396 Badges
Main Villain: Evil Gulzow-Man (Victory) 50, 1193 Badges
Mission Architect arcs: Doctor Brainstorm's An Experiment Gone Awry, Arc ID 2093
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Originally Posted by Nethergoat
it's NEVER too late to pad your /ignore list!
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Do you get any confirmation mails when you buy anything from Astral Cristy or Empyrean Michael? No. Given the certificate/voucher system is being used for the market, it isn't hard to put 1 and 1 together.|
Originally Posted by Chad Gulzow-Man
Well, currently, you're sent an email whenever you add a Booster to your account. Did they specifically say that you would not get an email receipt upon purchasing items through the store?
That's what I got just for adding the Victoria costume code I picked up at Comic Con. I've got others just like it for every Booster Pack I've ever purchased. I don't understand why you'd get an automated email for that, but not one saying "Thank you for purchasing 5x XP Boosters and 2x Enhancement Unslotters!" once CoH Freedom goes live... |
The Incarnate "market" is likely the initial test bed for the tech behind the Pargon Market, just like the Cimeroreans were the test bed for shields.
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
Freedom Friday should be a reveal day where they reveal something small to medium regarding Freedom...
Just my two orange cents!
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