Commander

I have the name "Death" on Exalted. For 17 trillion influence, it can be yours!

:P

Ok, I haven't logged into my second account in a while. I logged in today and all characters I created with Titan Weapons are locked out.

My second account is VIP, had purchased Titan Weapons and the Weapons pack the day Titan Weapons went live. The account never went F2P since I bought the AT.

When I try and click on the characters, I get the window saying that I do not have access to Titan Weapons and it asks if I want to go to the store to purchase it.

There is no way I'm going to purchase TW for the second time. Besides, how could the game see that I don't have access to TW if I've got the characters created? There was never a way to make these alts unless I bought the AT.

Anyone else experiencing this?

Yeah, still haven't gotten my 7 year badge and should have gotten that months ago. Haven't heard back from the petition I sent in last month.

Since State's is going to kick the bucket, does that mean we all "become" Statesman/woman and fill his shoes?

If so, I want his cape, belt and tights pattern to go along with the mask!

:P

During the first day of i21 I bought slot #6 on my main account. I have level 2 alts that have 3 costume slots: 1st, 2nd (from halloween salvage) and 3rd from the purchased slot.

Now, on new alts, I do not have access to the free slot. Even on older alts that have 6 slots filled (the 6th being the default copy of slot 1) the 6th slot is not showing up anymore.

Anyone else notice this?

I would rather say "gratz" once someone hits 50 because, in CoH, leveling is a given. You play to level (well, most do.) For me, while teaming, saying gratz every level doesn't mean much. Congratulating someone on an accomplishment should mean more than just leveling.

Running the sewer trial over and over from 1-30 isn't really much of an accomplishment as there is no other reason to run it over and over than to level with minimul risk.

I don't think that not saying gratz means that people are unfriendly. I think that people have begun to prioritize what "gratz" should be used for.

Ok, I'm paid up till Sept. 2012 already. I forget how this works with people that aren't close to renewal. If I add the 12 month plan, do I get billed for it now and have the time tacked on, or does the billing actually happen when my current plan is up for renewal in Sept. 2012?

**EDIT** reread the post >.>

Are you VIP or Premium right now? I believe that Premium's can't remove the button. If you're VIP, send in a /bug report.

Dog really needs the Mastermind controls so that they can be RENAMED and MUST be listed in the pets window. And selectable with maybe some sort of interaction commands with the pets. I understand this is a new item but future items like this NEED features like this to be worth the price.

I'd gladly pay 500 PP per pet if they could be renamed and interacted with.

Wow, the thread still lives.

Just to clarify why I started this thread, I do not hate the game nor wish failure upon it. I'll be here till the servers finally close.

I don't hate gimmicks. Almost everything that's purchased relied on a gimmick. KFC has Col. Sanders. McDonald's has Ronald as well as the McRib. I'm just wishing that the gimmicks would be used sparingly.

The WWF/WWE didn't fail. They just slowed down a bit because another company used a gimmick that was based around using "less" gimmicks. Since pro-wrestling, although the industry has hundreds of millions of followers worldwide, was referenced I think that people took the wrong meaning from my post.

Let me give another example: pinball.

Pinball was the MOST played form of arcade entertainment in the world in the 70's and 80's. When home consoles like Atari were introduced, less people frequented arcades. Pinball almost died out in the early 80's. But, because of oversaturation of home console games, people got bored with playing at home and started frequenting arcades again. In the mid 80's pinball was king again.

But the makers of the pinball games did something that eventually killed that industry: they pumped out too many pinball games with over-the-top gimmicks.

Pinball, pre-mid 80's, was a simple game. The simpleness is what made people play and pump more quarters into the machines. You had a relatively simple layout, a few flippers, a ramp or two and bumpers. You received points based on what you made the ball hit. No matter the pinball machine, you knew what you were getting into.

But, mid-80's game designers decided to add more to the game. Instead of the same simple design, they built more complex designs. They added more mini-games to the design. Some machines had an LED monitor that allowed you to play a monitor based game once you accomplished a set goal. Some machines had animatronic monsters and space ships that you had to hit specific bumpers to cause them to fly or die. They added layer upon layer of gimmicks in the hope that they could keep people in the arcades to play their product.

But the more complex they made the pinball games the less people wanted to play them. There were no simple rules anymore. Some games relied only on the gimmicks they added. People no longer had the game they loved.

Even though arcade video games were popular, pinball was what those arcades relied on. Since older machines were replaced by newer, gimmick filled machines the pinball player population quickly died out. The hit was so swift that pinball making companies collapsed. Players quickly went back to home consoles in the late 80's because there was no reason to spend their time and money at arcades. That and the fact that console games started producing a better product than before people decided to once again stay home.

When I reference this I mean that I DON'T want this to happen to CoH or the MMO industry. I don't want CoH to overburdon the player with so many gimmicks that it slowly drives people away.

Am I looking for CoH to stop the gimmicks? No. But, like pinball, players are looking for the same ole same ole. The more gimmicks that are added don't necessarily add to the replay value of the trial/tf/etc. What adds to the replay value is simplicity and not too much complication.

Pinball survived on just earning points with no "endgame." Pinball died when they started adding endgame type content and made earning points less valuable to the player than trying to beat the gimmick.

And yes, even 7 years later I still think that players stick with CoH for the cool, but simplistic features that were introduced when the game was first released.

Also, I do understand why some people would get tired out on the PVP aspect of the game. But I don't agree with changing it to PVP servers or PVP flags. The game was designed FOR full-world PVP. That was the selling point from day 1. The game was made for people that wanted more PVP than PVE.

That would be like coming to COH and telling them "Hey, I'm not going to play unless you make every zone full PVP."

Aion was, and still is, a good game. They addressed several issues and it started to pick up after they made some changes. But the game was built on the Korean "pay-per-hour" model and it didn't translate over to the NA/EU monthly subscription model.

The thing with Aion, though there is a lot of solo content, is that it was built for faction gameplay. In the NA/EU we're been brought up with "mine, mine, mine.. I don't care about others, I want to be uber awesome!" In Korea, the mindset is different.

Instead of focusing on player rewards, they play for faction dominance. Then, once the faction (Elyos or Asmodian) is on top, they all work to help each other to be powerful for the next time they battle the faction looking to take back what they lost.

I've played Aion since the first wave of NA closed beta back in '09. I've seen numerous friends leave because they weren't used to the playstyle. I don't blame them either. It's hard to get anywhere in that game unless you have a powerful clique behind you.

In the latest patch they added the much requested PVP arenas because it was hard to PVP in the PVPVE zones. You either didn't find any opponents, as many people were PVE'ing in "safe" areas, or you'd get slaughtered by a horde of players from the opposing faction that teleported into your home world.

At first, the idea of invading the enemy territory was cool. It was you and a limited amount of people porting in and trying to gain points by killing anyone ypou came across. But, most people you were attacking were PVE'ing and you kept them from completing their PVE tasks. So the developers added buffs and debuffs to certain PVPVE zones, thereby making it more difficult to attack and kill someone on their home soil.

Since the selling point of the game was being able to attack people in their homeworld, tons of people left because they weren't able to play as the game was originally designed. Since the people that left were mostly PvP'ers, the actual full PVP zones slowly died off since no one was around.

Last year it was rumored that Korea would have a more heavy hand when it came to Aion in the NA/EU regions. This looks to be the case now.

In Korea, there are daily GM events where players can earn actual prizes from the GM's. That was something that the NA/EU game lacked, mostly because NA/EU didn't have much staff. NA/EU was kept from having any of the cool new features that Korea got because there wasn't enough staff to supply it.

If Korea does take it over, fully, then I do see it improving. There will be more staff to take care of RMT, more staff to deliver events with rare prizes, and having the ability to play with others in the mindset of playing for faction, not for self, will vastly improve the game.

Don't get me wrong, I still play the game. I still love to play the game. Just that the focus on the game seems to be skewed. Even War Witch mentioned that the game was originally about "the player" and that they were going to take that concept and build more of the game around the player. But having abilities that you get that can only be used in very specific situations, it doesn't add much.

There have been tons of gimmicks added to CoH over the years. Mission Architect, Incarnates, Auction House, Invention System, Hami-O's, Arena, PVP, specific ways to accomplish missions/tf's/iTrials that can't be completed in any other way, Veteran Rewards, Paragon Rewards, Paragon Market, City Info Kiosks, EAT/VEAT's, Super/Villain groups, ED, MARTy, Bases, Invasions, Power/Weapon Customization, Flashbacks, Day Jobs, Multiple Builds, etc., etc., etc.

I'm not saying that all gimmicks are bad and quite a few improve the game experience. Just that as we go on, there are more and more new "gimmicks" while the older stuff is left on a backburner that's heating element has burned out.

Rabid_M, got what I was getting at. Everything about Incarnates is based on Praetoria. Will it be the same down the line? Things just seem to die off or left in the background with little use. Things that players want to use, but there is no time for them to revisit because there is too much new stuff to pile on.

Once again, I do not hate the game. I love most of it. I even love many of the gimmicks. But when gimmicks take the forefront then left to die in favor of a new, shiny gimmick with super awesome rewards, where can you really take your characters when there is no one that wants to use the older gimmicks?

(Please note that I wrote World Wrestling Federation and not World Wrestling Entertainment. This is also a little history lesson that, I believe, the folks at Paragon need to be wary of.)

From the early 80's till about 2004, I was a hardcore fan of the WWF. I don't know if it was because watching wrestling with my Uncle was the only form of bonding we had before he died or if I just got too wrapped up in their storytelling, but I felt obligated to devote all of my time to their product. (I slowly lost interest in wrestling when CoH came into my life )

Over the course of 10 years, the WWF destroyed the competition. Other wrestling companies crumbled and the talent at those companies slowly moved to the employment of the World Wrestling Federation. Sure, Vince McMahon poached the talent, but he got the job done and set his company up for global domination.

There was one reason, above all others, that the WWF succeeded where the other companies could not: they turned everything into a gimmick. Hulk Hogan was an unearthly popular gimmick (the character, not the person.) They began to have gimmick matches at almost every Pay Per View event. The brought in more gimmick wrestlers that would test the resolve of older gimmick wrestlers. By 1997, everyone in the company was a gimmick Superstar... including the owner of the company and his family.

When their gimmicks tired out, they brought in gimmicks from outside of the wrestling industry: Mike Tyson, James "Buster" Douglas, Pete Rose, Aretha Franklin, Lawrence Taylor, and so on.

Those outside gimmicks were usually used to drive in new viewers because little by little, the fans that they catered to slowly faded away. At this point in WWF history, their weekly shows consisted of 4 actual wrestling matches that took place within a 40 minute frame and the last hour and 20 minutes was gimmick interviews, destroying vehicles that "belonged" to other wrestlers, and even backstage tours while one gimmick wrestler would be searching for another gimmick wrestler that did him wrong.

But where did their fans go? On the horizon, a longtime established company and largest rival to the WWF, called World Championship Wrestling (WCW) decided they would fight fire with fire. The created the "mother" of all gimmicks that stole the fans away from the WWF. The created a gimmick organization called the nWo (New World Order) that was comprised of former WWF talent. They played this group off as a bunch of irritated wrestlers that were sick of all the gimmicks they were given and now they were staging a coup to take their industry back.

Guess what? It worked. Longtime fans of the WWF jumped at the opportunity to get away from the "gimmicks" but little did they know this was the biggest gimmick of all.

WCW began to beat the WWF in ratings week after week. After a year, WCW was the top company in the business. But, WCW made a huge mistake... they let the fans in on the gimmick. After a year of the nWo running rampant, most of the wrestlers from the WCW parent company were all part of the nWo. They ran out of opponents for themselves. So they broke up the nWo into two factions, red and black, and had them fight each other. This was about the point when the WWF decided, "Hey, the fans want less gimmicks? Well, let's give it to them" and the WWF Attitude era was born.

All of the WWF talent that had played the part of a gimmick almost immediately dropped those gimmicks and took on slightly altered versions of their real life persona. Well, that drew the fans back like a moth to a flame. Sure, the WWF still had gimmicks but they didn't rely on them anywhere as much. WCW tried to fight back but they couldn't win back the fans trust. In 2001, the WWF bought out the failed WCW and closed down the competitor while absorbing many of the WCW talent.

The WWF was forced to change it's name to WWE in 2002 due to a court ruling against them by the World Wildlife Fund. But the new WWE decided they were going to change things with the company since they closed down the competition. They started relying on gimmicks once again to draw the attention of new fans. Slowly gimmick wrestlers returned and week after week more gimmick matches were added.

Then in 2006/2007 a company began to spring up that was based with the motto "Less gimmick, more action." That company was called TNA (Total Non-Stop Action) and in short time they began to steal away the fans of the WWE. (See a pattern here?)

The WWE and TNA are still battling it out in 2011. Both companies have put more action and less gimmick into their products but there is a small bit of gimmick that occasionally gives one company the edge over another.

Now, this is where I ask you all (those of you that were brave enough to read this) if you see anything here that Paragon Studios could use in City of Heroes?

City of Heroes beat the competition? check
City of Heroes has been dominating other games of the same genre of MMO? check
City of Heroes opened their doors to new players with a new, free gimmick? check
City of Heroes is relying less on gimmicks to be sure that players don't get burnt out? ... ... ...

Sadly, the last part is no. Every new update to the game has a new gimmick. Some gimmicks pile on older gimmicks and tie them in with new gimmicks to create a hybrid gimmick. Then those hybrids are broken down, converted, upgraded, sidegraded, deslotted, and enhanced to the point of the game itself BEING the gimmick.

So I ask the Developers, what brought players into City of Heroes in 2004? A new gimmick or giving people the ability to become, in digital form, the hero or villain they wish they could be in real life? Was it a gimmick that kept people here or a story that made them feel like they WERE that hero/villain they wished they could be.

I believe it's time for an "Attitude Era" of City of Heroes. I believe it's time they stop focusing on gimmicks to pacify people and strip it all down to what people love about this game. I'd even to go out on a limb and say that I'm not the only one that feels this way.