Captain-Electric

Well, in that case...



ALL BETS ARE OFF AND IT'S ABOUT TO GET STICKY UP IN THIS THREAD.

My very basic interpretation of this phenomenon has always been that people who haven't been exposed to comics in years or decades (or at all) are doing the best they can with the knowledge they have--they're basically playing "Freedom Force Online;" then there are the people whose knowledge of contemporary comics is just fine, and they're having fun with puns.

On the flip-side are people with a penchant for contemporary comics or at least a substantive fourth wall (in your case), who like to build characters around origins that delve much deeper than a power set. Characters for which only their bios or Virtueverse pages could begin to explain the gist of their names. There are a WHOLE LOT of these people in the game, but I think threads about "punny" names probably translate better into the General Discussion culture than serious names and the origins that give rise to them--especially when you consider the veritable minefield of armchair critics that creators might be reluctant to expose their hard work to. You're welcome to join me on Virtue sometime, I could introduce you to a ton of cool folks who have spent a lot of time creating contemporary characters.

I've always been genuinely relieved that the City of Heroes multiverse is a place where you can find everything above. From a comic book nerd's perspective, there's room for all of it and much more. I would love it if I stumbled upon a new zone some day in another dimension populated by truly cartoon-like characters, or a Fable-like dimension, or an alternate time stream similar to Freedom Force. I may lean toward the contemporary era, but City of Heroes, in places, is already an amalgamation of homages to various eras and memes. I know that that the fabric of the multiverse is partly woven with puns, even if my characters aren't aware of it.

I'm going to echo this suggestion. All of this sounds like a great idea, Tony, and I know you'll carry us over smoothly; but it would be nice if we only have to make one change that does the trick for all of the branch sites on the Titan Network.

I know you're kidding, but that's not why I typed my Spidey synopsis, and I can sincerely say that I've never posted something in order to pad my post count. The reason I bring this up is because it made me remember something ya'll might find equally silly. I used to take my low post count as a matter of pride. None of my in-game friends frequent the forums and they don't understand why I do (I got made fun of when I said I'd surpassed one hundred posts). I remember when I surpassed 500 posts, I started to feel like maybe I was posting too much on the forums. I knew that every post I had made seemed like a damn good idea at the time that I wrote it, but what the hell had I managed to write about in 500 posts? If I had that much to say about anything important, what do I have to show for it now? What a depressing question to have to answer for. So as I edge up toward 1,000 posts, I'm just not sure what to think of myself. I certainly don't think a lot of forum posts on the Internet makes me more awesome. And to this day, I've never had as much fun on the forums as I have in the game. Not one single time. So, lately, I've finally stopped trying to squeeze productive feedback into every single post I write. Take Spider-man, for instance. Spider-man, Spider-man. He does whatever a spider can. Spins a web, any size, catches thieves just like flies. Look out! Here comes the Spider-man. Is he strong? Listen bud--he's got radioactive blood. Can he swing from a thread? Take a look overhead. Hey there! There goes the Spider-man!

And then you have this morsel of wisdom. Everything I typed above needs to be tempered against this. I don't spend much time in newbie-centric channels like the Help channel, and I spend far less time in Atlas Park these days. But in the past year, I've tried out two other MMOs (each managed to keep me for a month or less ) and a handful of non-MMO multiplayer titles. Lurking in the newbie-centric areas for those titles, I discovered a completely new type of gamer. They pay for nothing, and their friends lists are not in-game, but programs like X-Fire and ICQ. They're nomadic and play several MMOs across the course of a day, teaming up for free missions in various games. The entire F2P market represents a single diverse game to them. They have no brand loyalty. They're a significant resource cost and part of the gaming experience for them is finding and sharing tips on where and how to find the most free content. The impression I received over the course of those two months was that this is a scarily large crowd of people, and we gain few benefits from their participation.

At the same time, that doesn't describe most MMO players, who are just looking for fun (no nefarious scheming there). But still, brand loyalty is often not simply bought into from a point of sale on the purchaser's end. Sometimes, it's the other way around. TV, radio, soft drink corporations, internet browsers can all attest to this reality. A free player today might be a paid player tomorrow. In this way, a significant portion of free players are worth investing in. They're exactly that: investments. Tomorrow often doesn't come immediately, but the goal is to keep them here until it does. I can't count the number of times I've met someone in City of Heroes who picked it up on a trial or F2P basis because they were penniless, unemployed and playing a free game. I also can't count the number of times I've used this as a way to cheer someone up about their job search, so that they could subscribe for the benefits.

TL;DR, there are layers of considerations here. This is not a black and white subject.

Glad to read that; when I read the title I realized, you know, in over two years of reading these forums, I've seen a lot of very informative posts by you. I'm always more likely to log into the game than I am to log into the forums, so when I'm here I appreciate a good signal to noise ratio where I can find it. I don't know if you're conscious of it, but you're one of the few forum posters who do well at the signal part.

Sorry, I'll stop if ya'll want.

Exactly, although quite a handful of his enemies would protest that last part about packing a punch.

Tenzhi, you keep saying that, but there are other factors closely tied to your claim that you are either unaware of, overlooking, or ignoring. Like, for instance, the fact that Steam's F2P program for MMOs had not even gotten under way when City of Heroes was pulled from Steam. Once it had gotten underway, the floodgates opened to all manner of MMOs (both F2P and various degrees of hybridized subscription models). Steam built it, and they came--a big pile of them in fact, including F2P MMOs utilizing microtransaction models almost mirroring CoH's (Fallen Earth, for instance).

Just to throw this out there, by the way, I'm not trying to beat you in an argument. I am way more interested in the truth of the matter than I am in winning an argument on the Internet. Obviously, there is a reason why City of Heroes decided to pass up on massive exposure, but I am not convinced that your argument strikes close to the truth of the matter. In fact, I'm not convinced that Paragon Studios is done with Steam at all.

Around the same time that Freedom launched, Paragon Studios stepped up its public relations channels all over the place in a big way. More social networking, and even more elbow-rubbing with the gaming press. Paragon Studios has often shown a willingness to experiment and those are very effective tools. Maybe they thought they could do it on their own. Well, they appear to be doing great, actually. So, depending on their goals, maybe they don't need Steam at all. But even long-time gaming press darlings like Eve Online are on the bandwagon these days. You don't have to NEED Steam to WANT all the extra exposure and profits it brings a studio.

In a way, I suppose our entire argument is off-topic. The OP was very specific. In short, "Would City of Heroes on Steam be cool or what?" The reactions to that have been mixed. What we're veering into is behind the scenes crap that has very little to do with good, clean fan feedback. Furthermore, out of all of my City of Heroes-playing Steam friends (for which I've posted links to this thread on their Steam profile pages), absolutely none of them have bothered to come post here--so I'm wondering if people with an axe to grind may simply be more motivated to post in this thread than people who are genuinely pleased with Steam. There are related studies about online community behavior that I'm sure you're familiar with, in passing at the very least.

Like I said before, if I had suspected the thread's outcome, I would not have posted at all. Not only because I loath watching my suggestions trampled upon. I do loath it, which is natural; but more importantly, I don't think this thread has been especially productive. A productive thread gives the development team useful feedback that they can use. And there aren't even that many people here, just a lot of posts. Unproductive threads drift into speculation about how the devs operate, which is information they already have.

As much as I sympathize with the OP in my post above, I just can't wrap my head around this. And I'm not trying to say your perspective is wrong and you should be flogged for it--there are all kinds of friends and family and co-workers who hold viewpoints that make me go wha? But what is wrong with spending money on something that is fun and entertaining? Especially when it helps improve the quality and life of the product? I hear people say things like, "well THIS game is MORE FREE," almost like they're tisk-tisking at City of Heroes. Why? Especially when many of those "free" games are still relatively new and likely don't have 8 years of content and features going for them?

I've heard and read that some news was coming, but I didn't realize it was that close around the corner.

I guess we'll all have something to talk about after tomorrow, then. I'm sure it will be good news, either way.

As much as I want it, I'm honestly not expecting Power Pool customization. My gut tells me that other things are on the table right now, and you know what? That would be fine with me. I wouldn't be surprised by a curve-ball or two. Flight at level one or something.

I think Paragon Studios wants customization as much as the rest of us. But they can't do everything at once, and it may be that they're working on it as we speak and it'll be done when it's done.

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