Megajoule

Thanks, it's appreciated.

May I ask that you consolidate your replies a bit? You seem to tend to make several in a row, and it takes up a fair amount of space, especially with the repetition of your signature image.

While I can't begin to address all of your FUD, nor would I want to, I do have replies on two particular points: one factual (to the best of my knowledge and belief) and one opinion.

First, the facts as I know them: the removal of the Fifth Column turned out to be part of early plans for CoV, since abandoned, in which PC villains would start out as flunkies for various factions - Arachnos was only one of these. The Fifth Column was another. But of course we can't let players be Nazis (in Germany or anywhere else), and not just because a certain segment of them would blaze new ground in finding ways to offend. So... the Council. Fascism lite. Lame. Implemented in the clumsiest search-and-replace way possible.

Then, of course, the CoV design got changed (for the better, IMO, but it still needed some work with the whole "flunky" thing) and the reason for ditching the Fifth became moot, but it was already in place, and took years to undo. Unfortunate. On the other hand, it did give us that awesome reveal in the middle of the ITF, at the end of that canyon.

Now, the opinion. Yeah, ED sucked at the time, but it was necessary, utterly so, to prepare the ground for Inventions. So which would you rather have, a screen full of 1-Acc 5-Dam SOs, or the full panoply of IOs, including purples, which can equal or even exceed the performance we used to have?

Oop, one more opinion, sorry. (I just went back and read your post again.) Herding was fun for ONE person, the tank. The tank got to be awesome. Everyone else got to stand around for minutes and, I suppose, marvel at how awesome the tank was. This is not good, IMO. The way we have it now, everyone gets to have fun. My friends and I go through spawns like a steamroller, with no standing around waiting for the tank to herd up the map for us.

If you used to play a tank and miss being The Star, the most (only!) important person on the team, the center of attention for both enemies and allies... well, I could say I'm sorry for you, but it would be a lie. How about "get over yourself"?

Only thing I can think of is that "refocusing" = "getting out of the NA/EU market (except for GW2) (for now)". So who cares what a few thousand soon-to-be-ex-customers think? They weren't going to be trying to sell anything to us again anyway.

I agree, and have put aside my previous quarrel(s).

Just clarifying one bit, not touching the rest:
"Insulting the title" = "insulting this game that we are talking about, GW2".
Note Jay's usage in that context in his OP.

The links in my sig lead to my character profiles on Virtueverse, and directly to my biggest project, "Faces of the City."

If anyone's interested, I also have a page for my characters from Bethsoft rpgs (Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim (not yet, but coming soon) and Fallout 3). Some of them have short stories linked from their pages as well.

This is a great thread, and a great personal story. Thank you for sharing it.

I'm still doing my research on GW2, but I'll toss this in:

GW2, and any other game coming out now, gets no points for having things that it took CoH years to get. I would be shocked if it didn't. Wasn't that one of the things that people complained about (and still do) with Champions Online - that Cryptic had apparently forgotten all of the lessons that they'd learned from making their first game?

The state of the art moves on and a new baseline is established. The presence of certain features is not a "plus", it is expected. You'll have to do more than that to impress me.

Yes, especially if it was possible to download other peoples' heroes (and villains), story arcs, etc.

Happy birthday, to both of you.

or as Penny Arcade said during the height of the WW2 game-fad a decade ago, "Goddamit Now Can We Please Have Another Genre?"

As I just explained to someone elsewhere:

I have nothing against ArenaNet (or Paragon, or Carbine). Rather, I no longer trust the company that holds their purse strings, and which may arbitrarily decide at any time to shut down their game(s) because it does not fit their plans, in which doing business outside Asia appears to be at best an afterthought and at worst a nuisance.

You may say that nothing lasts forever, and that I should enjoy it while it lasts. This is true; but with so much loss and uncertainty in my life right now, I'm looking for stability. I need to at least be able to pretend, before I invest time and money in something, that it's not going to vanish out from under my feet a few months or a year later and leave me gasping and treading water. Again.

William_Valence, Slaunyeh: Yeah, same here. I've really been looking forward to WildStar, especially since I saw that great trailer. Everything seemed to be pointing to a fun game I'd enjoy playing. Now the main question on my mind is whether NCsoft will cancel it before or after it launches.


Oh, and Joe? Accusing Sam, of all people, of not caring about the game or the community tells me that you have no damn clue what you're talking about, or to whom.

Note that the Dual Archery set is only available to elven or half-elven Rangers who dual-class into Ranger.

Whether I end up playing CO or not, I want to say that I appreciate the sympathy and support shown in this thread and others (and other forums, even) by those who already do. Thank you.

Will download this later, when I get home.

I was already grateful to you for the regular Titan Sentinel and all its awesome features, including the ability to export a MIDS build (which I took full advantage of on Friday night, during my own archiving efforts)... but this is really above and beyond. Thanks to the coders and everyone else at Titan Network.

I know that my own enthusiasm for WildStar, a game I was looking forward to a lot, has taken a sharp downturn. Not because of any fault of it or Carbine, but because of the possibility that it might be just as abruptly canceled, before or after its launch.

Not a boycott. Just a loss of trust, and a fear that wasn't there before.

I'd miss things - characters, badges, vet perks - but yeah, I'd do it.

A reprieve would be wonderful, but at this point, all I dare hope for is a more graceful shutdown. :/

From the now-modified OP:

Wise words. (They made me cry again, but it was worth it.)
Thank you, Kelp, and please pass along my thanks to Colette as well.

There's no way of saving everything what we had, and/or were about to get with issue 24. This past weekend, whenever I've been able, I've been focused on preserving as much as I can for myself, to look back on later. I've also been reaching out to others to try to stay in touch, whatever happens.

But I'm also not going to speak against anyone trying to do more than I can. I know what the odds are, but I admire the effort, the commitment, the spirit. And if they do succeed in some measure, I'll be pleasantly surprised.