Forced teaming makes me sad

Well, for what it's worth, the MA beam is supposed to be fake. The "contacts" outside it are explicitly presented as holograms that can look like anything (within reason), and everything inside is a fantasy within the fantasy. It's not much of a veneer, but it least it has one.

Previously, we got into Lord Winter's realm because he invited us there with big teleporter gifts. I don't know why he was doing that, but he was. This year, how exactly are our characters managing to invade Lord Winter's realm? Apparently we're just that good.

Right, but that's what I don't like about it. I actually think it's worse than the TuT because it's explicitly presented as being fake. At least I have the option to run to a gateway in Dark Astoria for Kane's Mansion, or stand next to the sewer entrance in Atlas for DFB if I want.

Anecdote: My first mmo was Everquest and there were many encounters where i could stumble upon or purposely engage but be (many times unknowingly) unprepared to succeed. But i could still try and if it looks like i'll fail, i try again when i'm more prepared (higher level) or bring more people to help. Yes, sometimes failing can be frustrating but can also serve to strengthen one's resolve and to later succeed with a higher sense of accomplishment.

I can understand the need for a maximum requirement, you don't want it to get too easy. But not so much on the minimum teammate requirement, as there are people who state they can succeed with less.

So maybe the devs should experiment with removing the minimum teammate requirement. Just have the contact clearly state that attempting with less than the "recommended" (not enforced by the game) minimum would be risky. If some teams still try with less and fail, well they can always try again with more people up to the maximum. The devs seem to be fine with people repeating existing content.

Saying that...if they do this, then the TuT needs to be altered to not be (effectively) like a blind invite unless you have a pre-formed team.

Arcana Luv, I found three teams in that name. Just sayin.

Sort of a cross between a false dichotomy and a strawman, you've presented a position that I'm pretty sure no one here has taken and then pointed out how unreasonable it is. Most folks here have either asked for the option to enter the WLR through the gift to remain with the TuT version, or for the league minimum size to be reduced.

Given that, I find your post trollish and ignorant. Way to spend previously earned respect.

Er, OK. I think that's a weird objection, but to each their own.

No, it won't. These "demands," as Sir Straw Man likes to describe them, are not in regard to our ability to ignore other people's pleas for help. We are fully capable of doing so now. It has more to do with team requirements, and for better or worse, those are written into the encounters themselves.

For what it's worth, I do hope they will release an offline version of the game when eventually it has run its course. I know it would be mostly unballanced as class balance is designed around team roles, but I'd play that. Up to a point, at least, that point being the end game where the encounters themselves require multiple people to complete.

I actually agree with this wholeheartedly. Once upon a time, I was a great proponent for travel time in this game, insisting that having to move from zone to zone and travel from place to place within those zones gave the game a sense of having a persistent world. Travelling actual distance, running across places where people congregated and generally having a reason to see more of the city is always a good thing. Being teleported from mission door to mission door makes the game feel like an arcade, taking us from level to level and never showing us the outside world.

For what it's worth, I'd love it if all LFG Queue tasks had a contact somewhere in the world that people like you and me could visit if we were so inclined. The LFG Queue itself is valuable for its convenience (when it even works), but it does take much of the suspension of disbelief away. I've always found it difficult to describe how much more immersive a game can be if when it actually asks you to do things personally, as opposed to editing away everything that's not punching people in the face like you're watching a YouTube music video. Sure, sometimes it's irritating, but it's one layer of interaction that I do actually miss when it isn't there.

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 am very comfortable with a lack of respect from you.

You're half right. You're off a few decades though.

Remember:

The 60's: The "Me" Generation
The 70's: The "Me Me" Generation
The 80's: The "Me Me Me" Generation (Incidentally Spider Ham is an 80's kinda guy)
The 90's: The "Me Me Me Me" Generation
The 00's: The "Me Me Me Me Me" Generation
The 10's: The "Me Me Me Me Me Me" Generation

Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.

No. It wouldn't. Simply because some people spend a majority of their time soloing, it isn't the same thing as spending all of their time soloing.

The fact that you actually suggested it though indicates a lack of understanding as to what the "solo" and "small team-friendly" crowds are actually asking for.

Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.

+1

Maybe some context will make my objection seem less weird: I think that Architect Entertainment is a terrible concept for player-made content--in fact, I think that player-made content shouldn't have a different in-game concept at all. I think that player-made content should have functioned in the same way developer made content functions (i.e. through doors out in the world), but been accessed through a different area of the UI (perhaps a tab like the Tips tab that was explicitly labeled as player made content).

My objection is basically over the idea that superheroes/supervillains would stand around and play/create VR games about stopping/perpetrating crime, when there is actual crime to be stopped/perpetrated. And it's doubly bad for Heroes because of the fact that it was made by Dr. Aeon and run by Crey.

Does that seem like a less weird objection now?

I can't agree with this more. Even developers of MMO's everywhere are finally getting the idea that a significant portion of their gaming populations enjoy soloing more than teaming much of the time.

Having real people behind characters around you rather than AI controlled random npc's makes for a far more dynamic world. That's to head off any 'then go play a console or single person game' comment. People in the game make the world alive around you, but that does not mean you're bound by rule or law to spend time doing things with them.

Kinda like... real life. Other than perhaps work environments, you're not required to spend your free time interacting with, or doing things with, anyone. Period. What you do with your time is your choice.

A game, Massively Multiple Player or not, should be the same.

There are plenty of people who want to group up to do the content, so there's no shortage of teams to be had. The main point is that the new content coming out in CoX is more and more designed to funnel all players into huge teams, leaving those players who prefer to solo behind.

Yeah, I got tired of that minimum-team-size-of-8 thing for First Ward and Atlas Park in the last Issue.

Add me to the list of people who lost respect for you, then. As long as we're making you comfortable, why not go all the way?

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.

They are asking for the game to be catered to themselves right?

Excellent! Thanks!

And you can now live in my ignore list. Take comfort that you're keeping such illustrious company with Another_Fan and Golden Girl.

It does. Well sort of. I think it's weird to object to the beam in the context it has been given, but I understand objecting to that context itself.

I kinda get why the devs would want to sandbox player-made content into a supposedly virtual world, though. Could they have achieved that in a different way? Probably.

Pretty sure the 10's should be the "Meme" Generation.

Yeah, the beam makes sense in context. I guess I just view it as a symbol of the whole thing, and how AE content is not connected to the real world. I'd rather be teleported into the mission from wherever I am than step into a digitizing column in a VR arcade run by villains.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that was their goal-- to separate player content from dev created content. I agree with that desire, but I think it should have been done via the UI, in a meta-game way, instead of in a canon way. The player needs to know it's not official content, but making the character know it is unnecessary, and the way it was done runs counter to the genre in my mind.

Anyway, in regards to using the TuT, it definitely makes doing things easier, but it's not as immersing as having to go to a specific location in the world.

Sorry for the AE tangent. I just saw it as comparable.

D&D is working on an online gaming table, I got an email from the Wizards community toady. I havent checked the beta out yet since I've got to renew my DDI sub. Hopefully its pretty handy.