A Well Thought-out F2P Rant
By
Agent White,
Posted on: 2012-08-04 01:07 in Comic and Hero-Villain Culture
Couldn't even read the whole thing. The writer just seemed like a snob, to me.
Wow, yeah. Dude is just pompous.
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I keep trying to explain that to my landlord, but he just won't listen. |
Originally Posted by Anti_Proton
Since we live in a F2P(free-to-play) world...
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"Now, I'm not saying this guy at Microsoft sees gamers as a bunch of rats in a Skinner box. I'm just saying that he illustrates his theory of game design using pictures of rats in a Skinner box."
Quote:
You have to pay extra for the shelter pack. Freebies can make due with the Cardboard Box shelter which drops freely (upgradeable with newspaper blanket).|
Originally Posted by Sparkly Soldier
I keep trying to explain that to my landlord, but he just won't listen.
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Wow, that bit got dark quick.
"You don't lose levels. You don't have equipment to wear out, repair, or lose, or that anyone can steal from you. About the only thing lighter than debt they could do is have an NPC walk by, point and laugh before you can go to the hospital or base." -Memphis_Bill
We will honor the past, and fight to the last, it will be a good way to die...
It really did catch me off guard when that recently released sci-fi MMO made that announcement. I figured it may happen one day, certainly, but having it happen within less than a year of launch was quite surprising. I know there's been a ton of griping, but when has there ever been an MMO launch that didn't have that?
I'm actually a bit worried. Not because of the usual reasons people get worried about an MMO going F2P, but because I know this was likely a move by a publisher who wasn't happy with 2nd place in subscriber numbers. And I fear, if said publisher doesn't get what it wants in going F2P they'll kill the project off completely (this wouldn't be the first time).
Personally, I was always against it as it meant "failure" to myself and many others. Now, pretty much every MMO I've played has a F2P option, or will in the future. A lot of them, don't have any real big perks for being a subscriber, so it's kind of nice to jump on at will to check some things out. I have to really like the game to continue subscribing, which is the case here with CoH (in fact, depending on what I may or may not lose when the aforementioned sci-fi MMO goes F2P, CoH may be the ONLY MMO I pay for).
Freedom
Blueside: Knight'Hawk, lvl 50, Scrapper
Yellowside: Dark'Falcon (Loyalist), lvl 20, Blaster
That Stinging Sensation #482183
In the end he admits it's a rant.
Good for him admitting that.
Bad for him for allowing others to see it.
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Quote:
You might want to ratchet up your qualifying bar for Well Thought Out a couple of notches.
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Originally Posted by Anti_Proton
Since we live in a F2P(free-to-play) world here, I found this repose to be a good expression of the feeling many have about the system.
http://kotaku.com/5931691/theres-not...to+play-switch |
The Nethergoat Archive: all my memories, all my characters, all my thoughts on CoH...eventually.
My City Was Gone
As soon as I saw 'Kotaku' in the URL, I knew it would be a complete waste of words.
@Demobot
Also on Steam
Quote:
Once they switched to that godawful new format design, I stopped reading anything on that site. Before that, it was decent for a laugh or two or some esoteric news, but now? Can't pay me to go back there.
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Originally Posted by Demobot
As soon as I saw 'Kotaku' in the URL, I knew it would be a complete waste of words.
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Originally Posted by the article
Why does everyone hate free-to-play?
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by the article paraphrased
Why do we have this problem I just made up?
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I mean, there really are people who hate F2P, but plenty of people despised pay-to-play games when that was the dominant model, too.
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I played that certain sci-fi MMO during its beta weekend last Thanksgiving, and this news doesn't surprise me in the least.| It really did catch me off guard when that recently released sci-fi MMO made that announcement. I figured it may happen one day, certainly, but having it happen within less than a year of launch was quite surprising. |
1) It is ridiculously easy. Basically every fight was like fighting greens when fully decked out in IOs.
2) The leveling pace makes a CoH bonus XP weekend look snail-slow.
3) Due to the above 2 reasons, the story is really the only reason to play.
a) Once you hit max level, you run out of story and have no reason to play.
b) The story is fine, but it's not $15/month fine. I can get a couple of paperbacks for that much and they'd probably be better written.
c) Because every line from every character is voice acted, there's simply no way that any developer could create content at even 1/50th the rate that the players consume it.
So, I never bought the game in the first place. It was a dead end from the start.
Great Wall of Prophecy, reveal to us God's will that we may blindly obey.
Free us from thought and responsibility
We shall read things off of you.
Then do them
Your words guide us.
We're dumb
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Originally Posted by Matuse
I played that certain sci-fi MMO during its beta weekend last Thanksgiving, and this news doesn't surprise me in the least.
1) It is ridiculously easy. Basically every fight was like fighting greens when fully decked out in IOs. 2) The leveling pace makes a CoH bonus XP weekend look snail-slow. 3) Due to the above 2 reasons, the story is really the only reason to play. a) Once you hit max level, you run out of story and have no reason to play. b) The story is fine, but it's not $15/month fine. I can get a couple of paperbacks for that much and they'd probably be better written. c) Because every line from every character is voice acted, there's simply no way that any developer could create content at even 1/50th the rate that the players consume it. So, I never bought the game in the first place. It was a dead end from the start. |
Other problems.
1. It was so easy to level when I played that game that I was able to go up 20 levels from simply travelling to different planets and exploring the maps to remove the "fog of war". No missions. No streetsweeping. Just walking around the zones.
2. The voice acting didn't match up with the written text. You'd get three written options of what you could say, then once selected the voice frequently said something completely different.
How frickin hard is it to have the written text match what the damn voice actor is saying?
3. The morality choices look like they were made by a demented 6 year old.
In one mission you were accused of being a tattletale for reporting soldiers that were running civilians thru an obstacle course in a minefield and taking bets on their survival.
Another you were the "bad guy" if you retrieved stolen medical supplies that wre needed to treat patients that were going to die without the medicine, because the person that stole the supplies was going to give them to people that were sick but in no immediate danger of dying.
4. The lack of a decent costume creator. In a game where you should have been able to make thousands of custome "alien" avatars, you were instead forced to choose between:
Human
Blind Human
Human with Cybernetic eyes
Red Human
Blue Human
Green Human
Albino Human
Human with horns
Twi'lek
5. After the starter zone, every single player was forced to run the exact same linear missions/story-arc. The only difference was faction. See Praetoria for example.
So once you made a character for each faction and hit the level cap you experienced all the content the game had to offer.
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This I didn't mind so much. You pick your option from some general attitudes of your response, and then the character goes into more detail with what they actually say. Makes it easier on the text people when the script is probably being constantly revised to put in generic text answers so they didn't have to constantly go back and modify them. Plus, some of the longer answers might run into UI issues.
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2. The voice acting didn't match up with the written text. You'd get three written options of what you could say, then once selected the voice frequently said something completely different. How frickin hard is it to have the written text match what the damn voice actor is saying? |
Great Wall of Prophecy, reveal to us God's will that we may blindly obey.
Free us from thought and responsibility
We shall read things off of you.
Then do them
Your words guide us.
We're dumb
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Anti_Proton
Since we live in a F2P(free-to-play) world here, I found this repose to be a good expression of the feeling many have about the system.
http://kotaku.com/5931691/theres-not...to+play-switch |
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| Theres Nothing to Steal: Why Everyone Hates the Free-to-Play Switch |
Obviously "everyone" doesn't "hate" the F2P switch.
Refuses to talk to F2Players.
Makes fun of players with avatar styles he doesn't like.
Makes fun of players asking "stupid" questions.
Ah! He's a PVPer!
Talks about "hardcore gamers".
Yep. The person is a stupid gamesnob.
I know this type of self-important, socially retarded ********* all too well.
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
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Doesn't seem pompous to me. I actually agree with everything in that rant, although his triggers differ from mine. (The free players don't bother me like they bother him, but the company's shift in attitude makes me see red.)
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Originally Posted by Anti_Proton
Since we live in a F2P(free-to-play) world here, I found this repose to be a good expression of the feeling many have about the system.
http://kotaku.com/5931691/theres-not...to+play-switch |
...
New Webcomic -- Genocide Man
Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass slaughter can be hilarious.
Well, it is the Anger Management post from that Friday.
And it's Owen Good.
So, two strikes before I'd even have to read it.
"I saw my advantage and took it. That's what heroes do." - Homer Simpson.
His rant basically comes down to:
"I like this game. Anyone who doesn't play it the same way I do doesn't like this game and are freebie-grubbing mouth-breathers or newbs with whom I don't want to associate"
He's completely ignored the social aspect of the game and is entrenched in his little "clubhouse" mentality. He's just choosing to blame F2P, rather than his clubhouse mentality. And he'll do the same thing when he, and others like him, actively chase away people with their craptastic attitude and rude behavior.
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
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That is so telling.
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Originally Posted by RemusShepherd
Doesn't seem pompous to me. I actually agree with everything in that rant, although his triggers differ from mine. (The free players don't bother me like they bother him, but the company's shift in attitude makes me see red.)
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Quote:
This and..|
Originally Posted by Hyperstrike
His rant basically comes down to:
"I like this game. Anyone who doesn't play it the same way I do doesn't like this game and are freebie-grubbing mouth-breathers or newbs with whom I don't want to associate" He's completely ignored the social aspect of the game and is entrenched in his little "clubhouse" mentality. He's just choosing to blame F2P, rather than his clubhouse mentality. And he'll do the same thing when he, and others like him, actively chase away people with their craptastic attitude and rude behavior. |
This..
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Hyperstrike
Makes fun of players with avatar styles he doesn't like.
Makes fun of players asking "stupid" questions. Ah! He's a PVPer! Talks about "hardcore gamers". |
One thing I noticed about CoH is when the WoW elitism comes out they get spanked and sent on there way. There might be one server in CoH that accepts that but I do not play on it.
Giant hugs to everyone free and pay alike, I loves my CoX!
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All too often the "general attitude" from the text didn't match up with what the voice acting said. Had I known what the voice acting was going to say I would have made a different choice.|
Originally Posted by Matuse
This I didn't mind so much. You pick your option from some general attitudes of your response, and then the character goes into more detail with what they actually say. Makes it easier on the text people when the script is probably being constantly revised to put in generic text answers so they didn't have to constantly go back and modify them. Plus, some of the longer answers might run into UI issues.
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After this much time I can't remember any specific examples but it happened often enough to be annoying to me.
But those were just irritations. What stopped me from subbing was their lousy customer service. The first time I had an issue it took me two weeks just to get thru. Their automated service kept hanging up on me. Then once thru I waited on hold for 4 freaking hours before a human being answered.
The second time I needed to call CS I said the hell with it and uninstalled the game.
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Yeah, experienced this a lot when I played too. I remember there being a *lot* of conversations where the text you were shown looked like it was meant to be heavily sarcastic but then turned out to be sincere when the character put it in their own words. Though it wasn't just the (lack of) sarcasm, plenty of other instances were still baffling even in hindsight.|
Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
All too often the "general attitude" from the text didn't match up with what the voice acting said. Had I known what the voice acting was going to say I would have made a different choice.
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Although personally I was still able to have fun with it - with a perma-duoed friend we could then delight in mocking each other as our hitherto cartoonishly evil and/or badass Sith suddenly decided to be all noble and benevolent against our wishes (to be honest though, much of our enjoyment overall came from playing it all with tongue firmly in cheek).
As to the article in the OP, I know nothing of the author or the site, but I didn't get beyond the first paragraph before giving up on it.
Another huge (to me) irritation was no travel powers until level 24 or 25, and then you could only use the power if you could afford to buy the vehicle. Not being a farmer or a marketeer I never had enough credits.
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I just remembered one that bugged the hell out of me. Two student were secretly in love and you were sent to spy on them. You had the choice of turning them in or keeping their secret, but if you chose to keep quiet the voice acting automatically turned you into a blackmailer demanding payment to keep silent.
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Originally Posted by Biowraith
Yeah, experienced this a lot when I played too. I remember there being a *lot* of conversations where the text you were shown looked like it was meant to be heavily sarcastic but then turned out to be sincere when the character put it in their own words. Though it wasn't just the (lack of) sarcasm, plenty of other instances were still baffling even in hindsight.
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oh god THIS. Couldn't they just *give* you the maguffin in thanks for your silence, rather than you having to prise it out of them?
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Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
I just remembered one that bugged the hell out of me. Two student were secretly in love and you were sent to spy on them. You had the choice of turning them in or keeping their secret, but if you chose to keep quiet the voice acting automatically turned you into a blackmailer demanding payment to keep silent.
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Currently playing:
The Domestic: Broom/WP
Shadowhex: Dark Control/Dark Affinity
Defenestration Lass: Grav/Kin
"See, this is what happens when you have to shove all this stuff into your pockets: it's easy to misplace a suborbital warhead." -Arcanaville, on how crowded our power trays are getting lately
Since we live in a F2P(free-to-play) world here, I found this repose to be a good expression of the feeling many have about the system.
http://kotaku.com/5931691/theres-not...to+play-switch
"Samual_Tow - Be disappointed all you want, people. You just don't appreciate the miracles that are taking place here."