So we got Roman Pack this week and some new sets in the market

You don't think they feel the same way about some players and their sense of entitlement issues? They try to do something nice by making some gated content available for a small one time fee and inevitably some people start complaining that it isn't enough.

Hmmm... I am not sure I see the point you are making.

I, as a player and customer and fan, am continually annoyed that they play marketing games (exclusivity, limited-time offer, and pay-for-randomness) with things I would (otherwise) pay for happily without the gimmicks. I appreciate the attempt to offer convenience, but why limited time?

I apologize if I am a bit off topic, as I am not responding directly to the issue of inclusion of Roman weapons. My complaint focuses on the bow, and how it is bundled arbitrarily with the roman stuff, and its availability is limited-time (but maybe I should think of it as a limited-time valentines item instead ... as I am used to limited time holiday items, but they still annoy me).

The bow is available for purchase outside of the pack for 60 PP.

I'll add my support to the strategy. It makes sense to me and I've no issues with it. In fact, making the costumes available for sale benefits the most people. The weapons would affect only those characters with the requisite powersets.

I think it's a good compromise. Especially in light of the Vanguard Pack, now that was a boon for me since I find farming Vanguard merits to be much more tiresome than the ITF.

Indeed, that is true. Sorry if my post obscured that issue.

A small one time fee that will quickly add up with more small one time fees because they will not stop. This is city of microtransactions. It's also why I'm not paying them anything until they put out content of quality again.

I could NOT agree more! It's been a great idea, and enormously helpful (Also helpful is the lock in the costume creator which allows you to LOOK at the items, too). There have been several sets lately which weren't my cup of tea - like the Thorns set. But because I could play around with the different pieces in the costume creator, I purchased some individual items, and may purchase more.

Since I rarely use any Roman pieces anyway, I passed on the set, but was able to purchase the bow separately. And am actually quite grateful to be given this option.

I know it's hard to lighten up about costume pieces, heaven only knows. But in this case, since they are ALL available through other means (and for free), being able to purchase them should be regarded as simply a convenience for the people who have a character concept and want to be able to use the different costume pieces from the outset, nothing more.

I do disagree with the time limit, though. This seems counter-intuitive to productive and consistent sales numbers.

All costume pieces are one time purchases, they apply to all your characters.

Uhm you do realize that this game has gone to a hybrid F2P business model, right? We all knew that this was going to happen.

Don't want to spend more than $15 bucks per month then subscribe and only use your free stipend. Since you don't like most of what they are putting out you should easily be able to save up a nice nest egg of free points.

Prefer playing for free? Then you get what they choose to let you have and if you don't like it, well you get what you pay for.

I'm only making a guess at this but I'd have to say the same reason they only offer the holiday packs for limited times.

The Roman costumes go nicely hand in hand with the Spring Fling costumes. (the Toga, Hellenic Sandals, and Victory Laurel) so this pack will make something that players can buy annually every Spring Fling.

But again that's just a guess.

I'm not upset the weapons weren't included. I'm not upset that things I can (and have, and will continue to) earn in game are being made available for puchase. I prefer to reserve being upset for things that are actually worth the emotional investment.

/em wanders off, muttering about why he ever became a homeowner...

I feel the same.

Generally I've liked the unlocks. It's nice that I can make a brand new character with a halo, whatever aura I want, whatever cape I want, etc. But it's never bothered me that some things require you to earn them. That's kind of the very definition of most MMO's, and I don't think it hurts CoH to have a little of that in the game, especially for things like costumes that don't actually affect game play.

It's nice when you can mostly have both, and it' nice that there's still a few things you still need to earn.

You are exactly right. A message board is populated by certain percentage of the gaming population and thus does not even come close to representing the player base as a whole. You cannot even begin to gather empirical evidence to quantify the remark that Doctor Roswell made. It is not possible. Moreover, making up a message board poll is about as scientific as measuring the stinkage factor of a fart. It still stinks and fails to do anything but gauge the members of a message board’s opinion, nothing else.

To be perfectly honest I would have never had any problem with the fancy Roman stuff being gated behind the ITF if they had simply given us a plain basic set of armor that we could use at level 1.

Heh heh heh heh heh heh



He said fart.

If your just venting, I understand.

But the answer to your question is they do "limited time" offers because they think it will make them more money. Considering the number of companies, the wealth of these companies and the number of decades it has been used it probably is a good idea for certain types of products and/or customers.

As for why it makes more money, my own personal experience owning a comic/game store is that many people will shell out BIG bucks fast for something that is limited time/limited quantity. They shell out the dollars for many reasons, 3 of which I list below since they apply to CoH.

1) Collector. Must have them ALL and since it is limited time I MUST BY IT NOW!
2) Bragging rights. "I have something you don't have!"
3) Don't want to miss the fun. "It LOOKS good so I had better get it now before it disappears."

If the item was not limited time then you loose the sales made to the first 2 types of buyers. Likewise the third sort of buyer would wait to see weather it truly was good or needed before buying. When I owned my comic and game store I had dozens of customers pre-order CCGs, I had never heard of, sight unseen so they wouldn't miss out. Many of these would fail to reach critical mass and wind up sitting in their closet unplayed and sometimes even unopened. In this case some are buying these costume pieces even though they have no concept of a character for it just in CASE they may need it.

Lastly limited time doesn't mean that they won't offer these items again in the future, so they will get even more sales later. Just look at Disney's success with "limited time", back in the vault, rinse/repeat.

While I find it annoying that they use these "limited time offers", I fully understand why NC does it. It would be stupid for them not to.

I disagree that it would be stupid not to. Survival of an MMO is dependent on player satisfaction and the willingness of players to recruit friends etc. Hurting or eroding your image through bad marketing is a bad idea.

The playerbase represents the general population in an undetermined and unquantified way. I would love to see some studies to show just how much

Anyways, it is just as nonscientific to claim that the forumgoers don't represent the playerbase as to claim that they definitely do.

Yeah, about that; the gladius should really almost belong to a whole new powerset. The Roman gladius was a stabbing sword, not a hack/slash weapon. A Roman-styled "stabbing-sword" scrapper/tank set could be a lot of fun, and actually give the gladius a style to fit its purpose.

I used to fiddle with my back feet music for a black onyx. My entire room absorbed every echo. The music was . . . thud like. The music was . . . thud like. I usually played such things as rough-neck and thug. Opaque melodies that would bug most people. Music from the other side of the fence.

This is that same wacky logic that got you so wrapped up over Dillo being a roleplayer

Cupid is a Roman god.