They say I'm going soft

The way I look at it, there's not a point to posting a lot about the things that are fine. That would be like Homer Simpson's 'Everything's OK Alarm' that goes off every three seconds unless there's an emergency. You don't call your cable company just to tell them they're great and things are working; you call them when the cable goes out.

If you hadn't noticed, there are really only 3 areas I ever consistently complain about.

-Supporting the soloist portion of the player base.
-How the story lore and design treats our player characters and how they fit in the world.
-Melee AT roles, conceptualization and balance issues.

Those are three fairly small areas in one very big game. I don't think anyone deserves to be dismissed if they're discontent with a tiny slice of the game, no matter how vehement they are about it.


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The forums aren't a problem hotline, though, they're a place to discuss the game in general. It's more like you're being that one guy who, whenever the gang gets together to watch a movie, only ever points out the parts that are implausible or badly acted or terribly CG'd.

No, that would be equivalent to complaining in game about problems. Something I've seen everyone do at times.

The forums are a place for discussion, but not all discussion has to be endless praise. The forums are also our primary means of getting feedback to the devs. No negative feedback is good feedback; they don't need to be told when people are happy about something as much as when people are upset because the former doesn't require action to be taken but the latter might. As the adage goes, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. And if someone doesn't like seeing complaints, simply don't read them.


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Kitty cats still not working on my end: the image wont show unless it's in your cache first. I don't think the site allows for image linking from it.


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Well, if you did call my cable company to tell them everything is okay, you would soon have something to complain about because their phone support is awful

And the stuff worth discussing most is the stuff that's a problem, so that we can come up with solutions or workarounds, or possibly explain the problem away and see it as a positive. There are few things more boring than a "discussion" where everyone pats each other on the back, going "That's good." "Ayup, that's good!" "Did I tell you guys that this is good?" Making an evolving game is a never-ending process.

That's as opposed to being the person who constantly shushes the guy and tells him to stop complaining? One-sided much?

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.

I sit here, my mouth agape, with a tremendous stupid grin, just rereading that line. Thank you, Johnny, you've made my morning.

One thing more boring than that is seeing someone incessantly posting about the same tired old complaints in every thread they can. These posters invariably claim they are trying to create discussion or give feedback, but it's just a personal axe they are grinding.

That is feedback, whatever the quality. And this is the Dev-Provided-Place for it.

I don't quite agree with this sentiment. I think you do need to let the devs know when you find something they introduce to be a really good (or more) addition to the game. That lets them know the kinds of things that are appreciated by the players. Keeping quiet about what they do well & only speaking up when there's a problem can lead to more "don't do this" development which I don't think is as enjoyable as "OMG MORE PLEASE!!!" development!

That said, given your OP, I think you're aware of this. (Or at least coming to realize this! )

No, it is NOT using the LOTRO model, at least not completely.

It is less restrictive than the COmetition, yes, but the game is not any grindier than it is now.

You DON'T get the IO system automatically, it is now tied in to the Paragon Rewards system (IIRC), and also purchasable for free players. If you've been playing since I9, I don't think you have anything to worry about though.

Hey, talking during the movie is annoying. But that's not what I meant - I was talking of the situation where you're all sitting in the diner having a snack after the movie and everyone's sharing their favourite parts (you know, when the the guy was all WOOSH! on the bike and the other guy was like GRR and seal was all BARK BARK BARK) and there's one guy just pointing out the flaws. And eventually someone turns to the guy and asks, "so you didn't like it?" and the guy shrugs and goes "well, everything else was okay, so I won't mention it".

The forums may be a feedback tool, but the forums are also a community. You don't use your phone only to call the cable company when your cable breaks, you use it to call friends for a chat too. Or, well, maybe you don't. Maybe your phone is, to you, strictly a means of placing complaints when something doesn't work. And ordering pizza.

Maybe you guys don't see the point of talking about something you like with other people who like the same thing... that's okay, there's nothing wrong with that, but you do come across as somewhat grumpy, just like that guy who never talks about the parts of movies he likes.

Well luckily enough that does not include me. I have posted on what I love but I've been yelled at for not just accepting eveything .

I direct you to visit ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com and look up anything by the Nostalgia Critic, Linkara or the Spoony One. Even if you don't agree with the content these guys provide or appreciate its entertainment value, it may as at least give you a bit of context as to why bringing up the negative aspects of something and riffing on them can often be more entertaining than just singing its praise. It's just a fun thing to do, and it doesn't mean I "hate everything."

And it IS a one-sided argument, because no-one ever remembers the time I've praised the game, or indeed the time Johnny has, because apparently that just doesn't stick with people, much in the same way people don't notice when they're content. They only ever remember when I complain, because that's when it bugs them.

Yes. And there are threads that focus on the community, as well as threads that focus on the game. You'll note I'm curiously absent from community-minded threads, not just because that's not why I come to the forums, but also because there's nothing to be gained by ruining other people's community fun. I'm not interested in "banter" and "tangents" and such, so I stay away from those.

We very much do speak about things we like. All the time, in fact. Go ahead and review my posts in the All Things Art thread, for instance (at least those not in response to Golden Girl... Ugh!) just as a random example. It's just that there is never any need to discuss what we like. We state what we like, everyone's happy, everyone moves on and no-one remembers the thread by the end of the week. But I make a thread complaining about something and that lasts for a month. Everyone remembers that.

People's memory is very, very spotty, and I've learned that very well from experience by now. Good things said get quickly buried and forgotten, but bad things said always come back through people always reminding you of them.

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.

I watch Zero Punctuation and I've seen most of MST3K. I know the entertainment value in ripping into bad stuff. But as noted, that doesn't apply here - neither you nor Johnny find this game to be so laughably bad the only possible entertainment value it has is in taking apart its every mistake.

Your first response to "but you complain all the time!" wasn't "no I don't, I'm positive plenty of times." It was "well positive things are not really worth talking about, are they".

Not "the game," but I do find some of the bad parts to indeed be so horrible that the only recourse is to take them apart and make fun of them. Though I love a great many things about City of Heroes, there are a great many that boggle my mind even today. The Well of the Furies/Origin of Powers nonsense is almost breath-taking in its wrongness, the horrible, hideous mischaracterisation of both Crey and Malta as gun-toting gangsters is bewildering, the lack of support for the Shadow Shard - famously taking a full year and a half to fix the invisible Mole Point graphics - is just... Good god! And that's just the major stuff I can think of off the top of my head, without even getting into the more minor details such as the narrative crime that is Roy Cooling, the constant bugs which make things not show up on my map or my team-mates to show as perpetually zoning, the tragic state of PvP and more.

Trust me, there's plenty here that's bad enough to riff. There's plenty more to praise, too. The costume creator is still the best I've seen - and I've seen a few. The conceptual freedom the game offers, despite some setbacks, is still unparalleled, the lack of a singular, overpowering visual thematic is a great boon and our development team - when they actually communicate - are always awesome. I honestly cannot get enough of reading posts from David Nakayama and Tunnel Rat. Even the Ustreams are cool, when they don't take place at 2 AM my time on a work day, and I generally don't go for that stuff. I've had my disagreements with BABs sense of aesthetics, but City of Heroes still has some of the best weapons combat of any game not specifically built after a certain weapon, as well as the best animations and effects for... Practically everything (except Sniper Blast and Hurl).

And all told, am I not still here, staring at a 72 month veteran bade and my PlayNC CoH account displaying a list of perks a mile long? I wouldn't be here if I didn't like the game. I support the development team all the time with what, ultimately, matters most in the end - my subscription and my purchases. But beyond that, if something is bad, then that means I've run into it hundreds of times in the past seven years, so you better believe I have a thing or two to say about it.

Erm... My first response was:

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.

I... err... nevermind.


Perhaps you need a more comfortable gloat.

I think most people think you're always happy and optimistic, and complain too much.


Don't feel bad. Years ago I wrote an entire multi-thousand word post deriding the trend towards spreadsheet analysis in the game (remember when I used to complain too many people were trying to build characters in Excel) and within six replies someone said my opinion on game balance was irrelevant because it was (presumed to be) based on spreadsheet analysis.

Fortunately, there's now an emote for that.

My view on what things actually "cost" specifically for VIP players.

(Excuse the formatting: these forums absolutely suck at that)

You could make it an image.


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You know, I should have thought of that, but I come from a time where if you said you were going to make a high resolution image of a spreadsheet of a bunch of numbers and post that on the internet for people to fetch, you would have been flamed to death with actual flames.

RIP old [code] flag.