JKCarrier

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That said, anyone who seriously believes the Hollows is problematic because new players are too stupid to see they don't have to do it has a patronizingly low opinion.

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I for one completely missed that "disclaimer" in Wincott's speech my first time through the game. I thought I was stuck with him, and after my umpteenth faceplant, I was close to giving up on the game completely. Luckily, after hearing me whine about it on another message board, a more experienced player took pity on me and explained my options.

I don't know how typical my experience is, but I'm guessing the devs wouldn't be bothering unless they viewed it as a significant problem. I dunno how specific their data tracking is... can they tell when someone signs up for a trial account, gets as far as the Hollows, and then quits?

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Nah, I think the NPCs should be dressed like scientists, or bar maids or Jeeves the butler

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I want a guy in a janitor's uniform who wanders around the base at random mopping the floor. And if you walk too close to him, you start sliding like you stepped on an ice patch.

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So they're impatient selfish greedy little twits who are making your life easier.

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Sometimes. But if you happen to stumble across leftover snow monsters before the present has re-spawned, they will still attack.

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Hey, JKevinCarrier, did you know you can completely opt out of the system before it goes live?

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Yup. And I've done so. Once the site goes live, and we can all see what it's actually doing, I may well decide to participate. Until then, better safe than sorry.

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So if the default setting is off then something like 80% - 90% of the characters won't ever show up on the site. What would be the point behind even having the site to begin with?

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If the only way for this theoretical site to work is to "trick" people into participating, then maybe it's not worth doing in the first place? If it turns out to be some super-awesome thing that adds value to the game, then people will want to take part. The various third-party sites that track badges and such don't seem to have any problem getting people to sign up.

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Stop worrying! They devs haven't even told us what will be on there or not, just a general sections!

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That's why I AM worried. If I knew exactly what the content and function of this site will be, then I could make an informed decision about whether to participate. Since they're being kind of vague about it, I'm going to err on the side of caution. Chances are, there will be no problems. But I'm not going to sign up for something before I know what it is I'm agreeing to.

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Take what you're given people and be happy such a service was made. This is one of the few MMORPGs where the devs care more about the players than the game.

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I know the devs aren't doing anything deliberately underhanded or malicious. But things can have unforseen consequences, exploits, and so on. So I'd rather wait and see before I dive in. After all, if everything the devs did was perfect, we wouldn't have beta testing and patches, would we?

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Who cares who's on your friend list, if you have something to hide on a video game, you need to find another pastime!

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If some doofus decides they have a grudge against me, I don't want them to be able to grab a list of my friends and start harrassing them too (and vice-versa). Simple as that.

I don't know if this will be part of the system or not, but I'd actually be more interested in seeing overall statistics, rather than individuals' information. What percentage of players have actually gotten a character to 50? How many people give up early on because they get stuck in the Hollows? How many people mis-slot their powers because they don't know about ED? What percentage of supergroup members are 1st level "blanks" who are just there to generate extra prestige? To me, that'd be a lot more interesting than finding out that "@MachoMan316" has an alt named "Sugar-Plum.Fairy"...

Well, I'm glad the Friends list option will be off by default, at least. I can't think of any good reason to share that with the world. The rest I'm less worried about, although I still don't see the compelling need to make all this data publicly available.

Thanks for linking my Felis Non Grata picture! That was a nice surprise.

I was a little confused by the "Saturday Night Fights" article, because it never really explains what SNF is. I gather that it's some kind of PvP event, but there's no explanation of how it works, or why it's "more fun" than regular PvP. Is it some kind of league?