I need to apologise

Funny preface: For how many months now I've been complaining about the game? 12-16? And now that I decide to finally sing its praises... The forums log me out and refuse to let me back in for two days. Is that a sign?

---

I've said some pretty harsh things about City of Heroes, and been quite uncompromising with the people who made it. Accusations of treating players like cattle have not been uncommon, and for a time I really did question City of Heroe's very immediate future. I've said a lot of disparaging things, some or a lot of which were probably not warranted. I want to take this opportunity to say:

I'm sorry about the things I said.

See, here's the thing: Last year around this time, I was angry at the game. A lot of things pissed me off, and to my biassed eyes, it didn't look like we'd get anything nice ever again. And yet over these last few weeks, I'm constantly catching myself giddy about this thing or about that thing, or about this possibility that may not even come to pass. Reflexively, I criticise most new additions before I even know what they are in full, simply because I fear that what I'm not seeing will be worse.

I've been promising to post an apology when Freedom is finally Live and I've played with it, but despite not having played thanks to server issues and time restraints and we're not "really" Live yet, I decided to advance this. Why? The Barbarian pack. When I saw the announcement from PAX (was it?), I feared the worst. Seeing the pack Live now... It's awesome! A lot of the things I've worried about sucking have turned out awesome in recent times, to the point where I'm starting to wonder what there is to worry about any more. What's the point in assuming the worst when the team has consistently delivered AT LEAST above average every time, and great all too often?

In my defence, I still feel the Incarnate system is evil and horrible and treats its players like cattle, but in the year since I preached doom, I've grown the ability to ignore the parts of the game I don't like and not see them as a sign of things to come. I apologise for ever having felt that in the first place, but the team deserves praise performing well enough to turn even my grumpy self around.

This may seem like a petty reason to be happy vs. angry, but lately it just seems that we're getting a lot of things we've asked about that may not always be the most efficient ways to addict players to the game. I don't know if this is pure altruism or a sign of a game model which seeks to pamper players as opposed to bogging them down in time sinks, but I like it regardless. There hasn't been a month for probably five years now that I haven't whined about weapons for women being too small, and all of a sudden we're waiting for Titanic Weapons. I've been hounding David for muscular women for how long now? But have you checked out the metal bra for women from the Barbarian pack? Yup, that one's muscular, and it's AWESOME! I'd have like to see it with shoulder straps, but I can work with this. Oh, man, can I work with this! Street Justice is (will be) awesome, I love the IDF set... There really is too much to list.

My point here is I apologise for making a big stink. I wanted to post a gushing review of the Barbarian set as soon as my login returned, but someone's already done this, and I figured an apology was more prudent. For what it's worth, I promise to stop assuming the worst possible outcome of any change and to look for the positive things in the game's future. Heavens knows we're getting a metric ton of cool content that I don't have the hours in the day (especially with daily maintenance) to explore. I'm already working on, what... Four? Five new characters or revamps of old ones. I honestly have nothing to complain about right now (yet, I'll think of something), and I'm not sure how to handle that

Quote:

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.

It takes a big man to apologize.

EDIT: Everything Aura said.

Personally I don't think you had anything to apologize for.

You stated that you didn't like the content they were releasing.

Since you often state when YOU DO LIKE what's being released I don't have an issue.

I never believed in this idea that you can ONLY praise or criticize an mmos' development team.

There's room for both.

As I've said before, MMOs should START to worry when players like you have no reaction at all. Positive or negative.

I agree with Aura

When I noticed that female Barbarian piece was sporting a muscular midriff, the first thing I thought was "I bet Sam'll be happy to see that!".

I call every issue (and Issue) as I see it. I praise the good and condemn the bad.

As a result I am alternately cast as a suck-up and a hater. I believe CuppaJo offered the definitive statement on this many years ago.

I'm glad to hear you're enjoying the game again Sam.

My Minotaur is incredibly happy with the AWESOME shoulder plates and belt-chest details.

And oh-gods the sword. I. Love. That. Sword. I want to do a Vego Mortensen and walk around with it everwhere, it's that damn good.
And the best part?
The best part is it's damn big...and DOESN'T scale down to piddly size for Females. It still looks like something a fighter would pull out and makes their opponent promptly start checking their life insurance is up to date.

And they did add sensible female boots, too.
I love it. I love the Celestial pack (I regret NOTHING!) I love the IDF armour and all the other new stuff.

I agree with Sam and Aura pretty much

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

I'm happy with the Barbarian set because it offers a belt for female characters that doesn't clip horribly if the waist slider is above the median. :P

I personally think 80% of i21/Freedom is golden.

The costumes are great. The zones and zone changes are great. The new story arcs are great. Phasing has a lot of potential I hope they fully realize. I look forward to them continuing to revamp old enemy groups like they have the CoT. The Sewer trial is now a must for all lowbies. The new tutorial does its job and the interface and costume editor changes are welcome.

Buff/debuff sets do nothing for me personally, and I still don't see how Time Manip isn't conceptually just a rehash of Kinetics. I think the new travel powers could have been handled better, but I like that they've given City Traveler to everyone at last. Also, they need to get already bought items marked in the market and locked; NO ONE should be capable of buying something they already own under any circumstance.

But all the goodness doesn't excuse the Underground trial and Keyes before it.
Or how the devs continue to manage the melee AT situation and Tankers.



.

The only things I don't like are as follows:
-New tutorial is very short, and there doesn't seem to be an option for people who play with no sound. I didn't even realize there was a voiceover until I happened to play with the sound on last night.
-CoT wearing tights.
-New Atlas missions will get old quickly, they're pretty linear. That said, they ARE pretty cool.
-My computer sucks and I can't see how awesome Atlas Park looks now (not the game's fault, but it deserved a mention)
-The icons over the heads of contacts are kind of annoying. I can live with it, but I kind of wish there was an option to turn them off.

Pretty much everything else I'm anywhere from indifferent to elated about. I generally don't complain much, as I'm generally pretty happy with the game. I just figured I'd be fair and mention the things I see as flaws along with the unbridled awesome that is the stuff I like about it.

In my opinion, the devs pulled off a helluva feat this time around. They released something that the majority of players are happy with. I'm sure there are some sour grapes, but so far I haven't seen much doom on the boards.

Kudos, devs. You done good on this one!

<QR>

'sokay. We're cool.

I agree with people.

There are some things I'm still unhappy with the game with, but I'm happy with things as well. I've got more character slots on my favourite server, the Barbarian set is rather neat now that we've seen a bit more of the stuff (though I cry at some of the bits males get and females don't ><) and I look forwards to spending more points, in the hopes that my purchases will go 'I like this, more of this' and 'I will pay you for this.'

Also, did I mention character slots?

It does kinda feel like COX 1.5 doesn't it.