Aaahhhhh, A_A. I just wanted to let you know that I did not miss your overdramatic ranting founded on rumors and misunderstanding. I vaguely recognized the name but couldn't remember why I had you on ignore.
Seriously, are you still butthurt about ED? Seven years later? The bridge that you built... you were supposed to get over it, not live under it.
City had a peak of about 250k subs after City of Villains released. (Which was *after* ED and GDN, by the way!) It has slowly been sliding down since then, but is by no means hemorrhaging money - it is still profitable, more than eight years after its launch. Surprise!
Paragon Wiki: http://www.paragonwiki.com
City Info Terminal: http://cit.cohtitan.com
Mids Hero Designer: http://www.cohplanner.com
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Dispari
I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.
|
I didn't start playing until a few months before i9 went live (remember staring in the doors of those Wentworth buildings and thinking "wutzis?"). The game was awesome though, was meeting people, making friends online, looking forward to week-end game events. So nope, nerfing and ED and all that: not a game killer.
I agree that it did jump-the-shark. But the event occurred somewhere around 2009-2010. Adding Rikti Invasions was great stuff. Adding the Midnight Club and Cimerora though, was not. As a comic book enthusiast, I have always felt the magical origin a bit cheap. Don't get me wrong - Dr. Strange and Dr. Fate and Hellstrom and such are all interesting comic characters, just not what I'm attracted to. At first I was fine with the Midnighters, they looked like some alternate content. Much like the Vanguard and the Rikti War Zone - you don't have to play it if you don't want to.
But I immediately had trouble with them. Why? Does this sound familiar - "ITF?" "Ah, no thanks." "We'll be fast." "Look, I'm not a Midnighter, so I can't get to the zone." "Wow, it's been out for months now, why haven't you gotten your badge." "Because I'm a tech toon and I believe that magic is just science that we don't understand, and I want nothing to do with your hokum voodoo club and I'm not interested in your %#@!-ing ITF. Leave me alone!" And my horror only grew as the Devs continued to tie the Midnight Club into new content...
Praetoria had a huge build up. Looked to be the third major installation in the game. People were thinking up their Praetorian alter-egos and siding with the Loyalists and Resistance before we truely knew what they were. Then it came out and it was like getting half a game. It was hard to tell who were the good guys and who were the bad guys (both sides did a number of things that just made me say they were ALL wrong). I certainly had no clue the Devs had only meant it to be a alternative for low level play.
But I think I will point to Merits as the real culprit. To me, Merits caused the reverse problem that you all talk about with ED. Until Merits came out, the trials and task forces were the province of players and teams who wanted to level up and do the missions kill-all style and get immersed in the game lore. But Merits enticed The Gamers. Gamers are those players who figure out the rules and then push them to the cliffs. No role-playing, no stepping back to savor and make jokes. This task force generates that many merits, we do X, we do Y, and we get it down to 45 minutes.
My first experence with The Lady Grey TF was on a team like this. The whole TF took 22 minutes. I never had a clue what we were even doing, and I generally didn't even make it to the door before the rest of the team was on the final boss for each mission. So traumatic that I black listed the entire team as people I never ever wanted to play with or even see in the game again. There are many kinds of people in this game, and I applaude the Devs for trying to get us to mingle, but some groups clearly do not mix.
Just call me "The Pool Guy" - cause I believe that power pools are the ultimate in powerset proliferation. Fewer powers to develop and available to all.
"ADVERBS - we define action!"
"ADVERSE - we are action!"
Quote:
i think you are to something here. I dont think anyone thing did it but it was just cumalative. They seemed to tried everything to getrevenues ack up and steady but it only spiked then back down to previous slow slide. Looks like Freedom was the last gasp and looks like not much changed so they gave it up.
|
Originally Posted by Airman_America
I have not posted in quite a while, and though I kept playing quietly, I had long cooled down my playtime here. I suppose it might have been the fact that I toiled through 30+ level 50s (no "gimmies" I knew how to use and play every single one). Maybe it was that each, also, were carefully designed with the maximum toys and upgrades that I won or my influence/infamy could buy. Heck, my base still has a secret spot that holds billions in inventions. Maybe it was my SG(s), which I allowed to slowly die, once honestly earned a spot in the top 10 and is till in the top 100. Once upon a time, Airmen on Liberty were a strong group. When we showed up for a mission, we were held in esteem. We had strict rules of conduct. We had a true, written story.
Ahhh but when did CoH jump the shark? Was it the endless nerfs that resulted in one massive insulting nerf between issues 5 and 6? That really drove a coffin nail into the game that it never recovered from. Maybe it was the massive groups of villains on maps. Perhaps it would have been better if they upped the XP and removed 3/4 of them rather than nerfing herding or encourageing PL. But the nerfs of Issues 5 and 6? Were they really necessary? Not if they had done the upping of XP and removal of such large and close groups. Maybe it was listening to the whines from kids who would have quit anyway about some guy that kept beating them up in PvP that resulted in a balancing (nerf) that again drove a coffin nail. Maybe it was the mysterious dissaperance of the 5th Column? Long suspected was a politically correct decision to remove them just before the opening of a German Server. Perhaps it was the silly addition of Romans? What about Croatoa? Why were the Devs quiet about Apex for so long? Why was low level War Witch suddenly promoted to such an esteemed status associated with Croatoa? AND WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THUNDERCLAP? Dont get me started on Stringa, I never saw a true need for that zone. Why was the original cut through, via the OLD dance zone removed? Hmmm? I still miss it. What about the lonely lonely lonely Shadow Shard? A very under used and beautiful area that left people stranded if you did not have the right travel powers. Maybe it was the sudden appearance of a police force with super powers? Maybe it was the fact that Paragon City NEVER celebrated the 4th of July or was so politically correct about things that they never showed kids, houses, the city airport, or, heaven forbid, a religious reference like a church (well if they did they might show some others too). What about when they changed the Hami? He was fun to fight, thanks to a parting gift by Cryptic, we got a absolutely awful and no fun to play fight. Oh but the nerfs of Issue 5 and 6. Oh they were painful. I recall tanks logging into the game, falling out of the portal faceplanted. No herding (do you know how much fun that was?). What of the 7 issues of nerfs to Regen that resulted in a toon that now has to be micromanaged to such an annoying degree that I never play my primary toon anymore? No, it was the Issue 5 and 6 nerfs, followed by the competition, that killed the game. CoH lost so many people that it never became cool to play again. It never helped that the endless nerfs up till the time NCSoft took over left such a bad taste in peoples mouths that... well... it just took all these years to finally pull the plug. |
-Female Player-
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by mauk2
Evil_Legacy became one of my favorite posters with two words.
"Kick Rocks." I laffed so hard.  Never change, E_L! |
Quote:
I really dislike the speed run mentality of far too many of this game's players. Why are you playing this game when you seem to hate actually playing it? Noone really wants to take forever and a day to complete content, but abandoning half the team to death just because they don't have stealth seems really wrong for an MMO.
|
Originally Posted by Aitchuu
But I think I will point to Merits as the real culprit. To me, Merits caused the reverse problem that you all talk about with ED. Until Merits came out, the trials and task forces were the province of players and teams who wanted to level up and do the missions kill-all style and get immersed in the game lore. But Merits enticed The Gamers. Gamers are those players who figure out the rules and then push them to the cliffs. No role-playing, no stepping back to savor and make jokes. This task force generates that many merits, we do X, we do Y, and we get it down to 45 minutes.
My first experence with The Lady Grey TF was on a team like this. The whole TF took 22 minutes. I never had a clue what we were even doing, and I generally didn't even make it to the door before the rest of the team was on the final boss for each mission. So traumatic that I black listed the entire team as people I never ever wanted to play with or even see in the game again. There are many kinds of people in this game, and I applaude the Devs for trying to get us to mingle, but some groups clearly do not mix. |
I remember the "Airmen" running around Liberty. All in specific uniforms. All marching to the beat of a few Egomaniacs. You guys quit, but I dont think I noticed when, I think I was populating other servers with more toons.
Has anybody tried to cross the periodic drop of subscribers with the opening of other games? The kids in my house have jumped from one game to another over the past 7 years, while I continued to play CoH/CoV exclusively. That could be part of the problem.
I think the other part of the problem is that NCSoft is Korean, we are not. We do not think like them, and they do not think like us. They go for the grind and the gank.
I want interesting story lines, and lots of explosions.
They want the largest cash inflow for the least amount of cash outflow. And will bring out new games and content after dumping the ones that declined.
I wanted things to tinker with. Playing with Invention recipes was FUN. Mids was like a light beer when you are used to Porter. But it helped to explain what the cumulative effects of the recipes did. And then craft to that model and watch your blaster withstand AOE alpha strikes and keep blasting. YEAH that was fun.
CoH/CoV shuts down, I will go back to tinkering with my 86 Audi, and wait....
Damn went way off topic.
"It is not how many times you fall down that counts, it is how many times you get back up" -- Manticore
"Hold my beer, watch this" -- Pagan-Steel