Jail_Bird

My vote for Best Comedy Arc:

1) In Poor Taste #259920 @Wrong Number
2) Freakshow U #189073 @Lethal Guardian

Needed a break from the serious stuff.

My vote for the best SO level arc:

1) Teen Phalanx Forever! #67335 @PW
2) Astoria in D Minor # 41565 @The Cheshire Cat

Oops! I thought that thread was for Mekk considering the thread title. Well congrats to him and all the others too!

I just wanted to say congratulations to @Wrong Number (Known to many here as Sis Boom Ba). Her arc Death to Disco! was nominated for Best Original Story in the 1st Annual Architect Awards. Nice going!

My votes for best DO Range arc:

1) The Invasion of the Bikini-Clad Samurai Vampiresses from Outer Space! #61013 @Aliana Blue
2) Sibling Rivalry #118690 @Sister Flame

My vote for best TO range arc (1-15):

1) The Marconeville Horror #178278 @Footloose
2) Nuclear in 90: The Fusionette Task Force #58363 @Cavatina

Actually, The Marconeville Horror is easily one of the best arcs I have played to date.

I'll be voting for the other two categories once I finish those missions.

My nominations:

Best Mid Level Arc – In Poor Taste (259920) @Wrong Number

Best High Level Arc - Have a Blap, Blap, Blappy Day Kids! (2019) @Wrong Number

Best Comedy Arc – Freakshow U (189073) @Lethal Guardian

Best Serious Arc – Blight (140423) @Witch Engine

Best Short Arc - The "Easter Basket" (35335) @Simplifly

There are a number of things that I think are contributing to the failure of MA and Wrong covered the majority of them in her post but, I think there are a few other factors as well, not all dev related.

One of the dev related thing that WN didn't mention is the downright poor search tools for someone wanting to look through MA to find stories to play. They have made some strides but, how there is still not a tool that lets you sort arcs by number of plays (which I have been requesting since open test) is really beyond me. I have also always felt that ranking arcs by number of plays times star rating would be far more effective than the current, in my opinion, broken ranking system.

Another dev related thing was the effect of the devs deleting toons for abusing the MA farms. This, to my mind, is a perfect example of why having no clear rules for what constitutes a EULA violation can harm the game. I have to wonder how many players are deliberately avoiding MA now because they don't want their toons to get nailed. If you are very sensitive about your toons, and don't want to risk them being wacked the simple answer is to avoid MA entirely.

Some of the other problems with MA are related to how the player community reacted to it. I'm going to skip the whole farming thing, as I feel that was yet another example of the devs failing human psychology 101, and focus on the actual story content arcs. Writing a story arc is a lot of work and, I can speak from experience as someone who doesn't bother to put that much work into his own arcs. As I said before, you get precious little "in game" economic incentive for the time spent writing one of these so, most people are probably looking for the reward of sharing their output with CoH community members. Anything that takes away from this positive reinforcement is going to throw the brakes on future output. It's my feeling that a number of seriously overcritical reviewers on the forums helped contribute to the downturn in MA story output by disheartening authors. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this is a game. People play games for fun. If something isn't fun people are not going to do it. By limiting the number of players willing to spend the time to generate story arcs, output will, of course, go down.

I honestly don't think MA is recoverable without the devs throwing some sort strong "in game" economic incentives back into it. Until that happens I really don't see content going back up any time soon.

[ QUOTE ]
haven't played the Arc in question, but I have to say, I find all the controversy fascinating. I saw this, and wanted to respond because the gist of the comment is that he doesn't understand WHY anyone would find creating an Arc 'fun'; and in a smaller sense intinates that if it was for the 'in game' awards (aka MA tickets) its quicker to just run arc and not write them.


[/ QUOTE ]

First of all, I wanted to say excellent response sir. I agree with everything you said but, just wanted to clarify my stance with respect to your above comment.

I realized that I should have added a line about exactly what you say above but, couldn't quite figure out how to fit it in. I have written five arcs total myself for fun (i.e. just to see how that MA system works and what its limitations are). Only three of them are published as I decided one was crap and, the other can't be made to work within the current MA tool set. In my case, I wrote them purely for myself and have zero interest in promoting them. Two of them were specifically built for some of my characters, one being an origin story and the other a background story that will flesh out where a group of my other characters come from. I do have ideas for other non-character attached stories but, at this point of no interest in working on them for a number of reasons. So, I do appreciate the concept of writing MA content just for the fun of doing it.

Jail.Bird

And this is why, in my opinion, MA will ultimately be nothing more than a PLing tool. Some people really need to take a step back and think about what CoH is. It's a game first and foremost so, the focus for each individual player is what is fun for them and them alone. To be honest, given how much time it takes to write a non-farm MA I'm surprised that any players write them at all. From a purely "in game" economic perspective there is really no reason to do so because you can earn tickets much faster from an MA farm anyway. Given this, the only reason a player would write one is for their friends and, hopefully, other players to enjoy. So, since CoH is about having fun, I would hazard a guess that most players would find negative reviews to fall pretty strongly into the "not fun" category. As a result, getting such negative reinforcement will probably stop your average player from bothering to write another MA in the future. This is why I believe that harsh and unconstructive reviewers (and threads like this) ultimately aren't doing MA any favors and, will ultimately just reduce the number of MA attempts at storytelling, leaving it a farmer's paradise.

The bottom line for me is that if you are looking for the next great American story, joining a writer's group is the way to go about it. Searching for it in a video game is like looking for tickets to the bus at the train station.

Jail.Bird

[ QUOTE ]
It was very clever and really would have been a 5 stars, but we both felt like Manhandle was the funniest of the bunch, and you sort of "shoot your wad" so to speak, too early in the arc. Personally I would probably move Terrible Wind to the first boss, and save Manhandle for a bit later.

[/ QUOTE ]

While I like Manhandle as well, I personally find the two bosses FF and BS (don't want to say their names and spoil the mish for people who haven't played it yet) in the last mission to be funnier. I still lol at some of their lines and I've played the mish a bunch.


Jail.Bird

[ QUOTE ]

When I first read Eco's alleged review of Venture's arc, I'd fashioned a rather lengthy rebuttal that included most every point later made by others. Then I stopped and decided to assume he was being deliberately snarky - parodying Venture's reviews by being unbelievably critical of small points. In my opinion it was a poorly done parody, but a parody nevertheless.


[/ QUOTE ]

I thought it was a well done parody. I LOLed a number of times while reading the post.


Jail.Bird

[ QUOTE ]
Five missions is a short story.

[/ QUOTE ]

In your opinion, with which I obviously disagree.

So, from the rest of your response it seems pretty clear to me that it is a waste of everyone's time to have you review any MA less than 5 missions as there is no way you will give it any kind of good rating (regardless of the actual quality of the MA).


Jail.Bird

[ QUOTE ]
Ventures arcs are ok, but they strike me like episodes of Law and Order. Well enough written but so mundane as to be a bit dull, at least to me.

I don't care if a tofu on white bread sandwich is lovingly cut out into the shape of a duck and then the details of the duck are painted on with food coloring with such skill that it actually closely resembles a real duck. In the end it's still just tofu on white bread.

[/ QUOTE ]

This sums up my view on Venture's arcs as well. Venture's arcs are great if you want MA material that exactly parallels the in-game mission content. Personally, this is exactly the opposite of what I want out of the MA content so, Venture's arcs held zero interest for me to the point that I didn't bother to finish any of them. This leads into another point that Venture is clearly one of those MA people who feels that you can't tell a good story in less than four missions. I disagree with this stance as it is the equivalent of saying that only novels are worth reading as their is no such thing as a well written or entertaining short story.


Jail.Bird

[ QUOTE ]
Also, due disclosure: I know pretty much nothing about disco. Not how it started, not how it went, not "why it deserved to die". I liked classical music as a little boy, and while my palate has broadened, mostly it's to other forms of instrumental music.

I am pretty much 100% guaranteed to get no in-joke.

[/ QUOTE ]

Then why on earth would you pick this arc to review? It is a humor arc loosely based on historical events. If you have no chance of getting the humor and no chance of understanding the references it seems like there is no possible way you could have liked this arc from the word go. So, why bother to review it at all?


Jail.Bird

I have not spent as much time in MA as I would like, but have come across a few I would highly recommend.

<ul type="square">[*]Death to Disco! by @Wrong Number (#84420)
Saving Rock and Roll from Disco was very fun and satisfying. Creative story and characters.
[*]The Easter Basket by @Simplify (35355)
Really, fun and humorous one mission arc. The Playtime bunnies were great.
[*]The Monster Hop by @Big Daddy Vi (#27861)
Based on the Universal horror monsters (Frankenstein, Mummy, etc.). If you like the old time monsters you will like this arc.[/list]

I ran:

Death to Disco! (84420)

Great customs, funny concept that is well executed, attractive briefings (I like the use of color) and just a very fun little arc. I have actually ran this one through more than once and that is very, very rare for me to do.

Definitively a solid 5 star and I would agree it is DC worthy.

Title: The Spider and the Fox
Arc ID: 115,846
Creator’s Global Name: Jail.Bird
Difficulty Level: Medium
Synopsis: The Ominverse Alliance has set up a diplomatic mission on Earth. What do the Vulpans have that Arachnos wants?
Number of EB/AVS: 1
Story Type: Serious
Mission Count: 2
Estimated Time to Play: 30 to 45 minutes.

Note – This is for level 45 to 50 characters.


Jail.Bird

Title: Old Dog, New Trick
Arc ID: 81318
Creator’s Global Name: Wrong bird
Difficulty Level: Medium
Synopsis – Rex Magnus, the poster dog for the PPD's K9 program, has been seriously injured. Can you help?
Number of EB/AVS – 1
Story Type – Serious with some humor.
Mission Count: 3
Estimated Time to Play: 30 to 45 minutes.

Jail.Bird

Name: Junkyard Dog's brilliant plan
Arc ID: 38147
Creator Global Name: @Jail.Bird
Difficulty Level: Medium
Synopsis: Junkyard Dog is making inappropriate use of Ouroboros recources. The future of all cat girls hangs in the balance.
Number of EB/AVS – 1
Story Type - Humor.
Mission Count: 1
Estimated Time to Play: about 15 minutes


Jail.Bird

Name: : Zig break
Arc ID: 21872
Creator Global Name: @Jail.Bird
Difficulty Level: Medium
Synopsis: Arachnos is planning another attack on the Zig to release some more of his chosen ones but, is that all that's really going on?
Number of EB/AVS – 1
Story Type – Serious with a little humor
Mission Count: 2
Estimated Time to Play: about 20 to 30 minutes.


Jail.Bird

Name: We are Jail Bird
Arc ID: 4233
Creator Global Name: @Jail.Bird
Difficulty Level: Medium
Synopsis: The secretive villain Jail Bird has rematerialized with an unknown plan against Paragon City. It's up to the players to stop him before he gets started.
Number of EB/AVS – 1
Story Type - Serious, attempting to be creepy.
Mission Count: 1
Estimated Time to Play: about 15 minutes

I got some feedback on this mission which I unfortunately lost. Before I had a chance to read it I foolishly made the mistake of trying to enter our base. The base kick caused me to lose the feedback which I REALLY would have liked to read. So, if you sent me feedback and, it's not too much trouble, could you please resend to @Jail.Bird. Thanks.


Jail.Bird

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Probably get flamed for this but it really seems like HoF is just the poor mans DC. The off-beat cheap brand if you will.

The "store bought brand" to DC's "name brand". At the very least i'd prefer if HoF came before DC on the arc list search.

Just one players thought.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have to agree and wonder since so few arcs made Hall of Fame why were they not moved over.

[/ QUOTE ]


Because unless I'm mis-remembering rates don't transfer.

They also require 10x the rates on live as on test. (Test only required 100+ 5-star average rates)

[/ QUOTE ]

Well Dev's Choice was also way easier to get on test, especially during closed Beta and yet some of those are moving. I am just agreeing that Tooney has a point in saying DC is more valued even though it is one person's view over many for HoF.

[ QUOTE ]
Probably get flamed for this but it really seems like HoF is just the poor mans DC. The off-beat cheap brand if you will.

The "store bought brand" to DC's "name brand". At the very least i'd prefer if HoF came before DC on the arc list search.

Just one players thought.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have to agree and wonder since so few arcs made Hall of Fame why were they not moved over.

Name: The Injustice Legion

Currently Recruiting: Not actively but we don't turn interested people away either

RP Level: We don't do it but, if members want to that's ok with us.

PvP: We do some but, it's not a requirement.

Theme/Concept: None really but, the group has a fully operational base on every server. We also have a global chat channel that you probably have to remind us to invite you to.

Activity: Fairly active. Wrong Number and I are east coast so, when we are on, we are on.

Requirements for Membership: None really.

Leadership: @Wrong Number, @Jail.Bird

In-Game Contact(s): PM the above (we have lots of alts).

Out-of-Game Contact(s): See above.

URL: None.

Coalitions: MILFVG, Easy Radicals, Afraid of the Dark



Jail.Bird