Nethergoat

"high end content" as generally defined is nothing but a timesink itself.

If our timesinks are a bit different than those of most other MMOs, great. Variety being the spice of life and all that.

Look, being part of the cabal that controls the market is super hard work. I mean, we have to schedule at least 3 hours a day just for patting ourselves on the back, and another 2 for mocking the sheeple that march stupidly through the financial maze we've designed to fleece them. That doesn't leave much time for actually being EEEBIL. It's tough!

Since you say it's so impossible to make money in this game we're obviously very special people, and we deserve the delicious, juicy fruits of our labor. So a little respect, please!

this is the best idea ever.
they could post some guidelines, have an intern okay the ads and then go to town.

Heck, if they did that I'd enable in-game advertising again on all my characters.

Way too organized for me- I was usually woken from my trance by teammates howling for a re-buff.

=P

Huh.
Do you log out of CoH and into some other game to play it?
Cause I don't, I walk up to Wents or the BM and play the content, the same way I walk up to a mission door and play that content.

This is just laughable.
There is no "skill" involved in PvE combat in this game, unless we're talking extremes of performance like soloing AVs or pylons or SFs or something (and in those cases much of the skill is in putting the right build together, which using your definition isn't "playing the game").

You want to factor in aim and reaction time, play an FPS.
Here? A septugenarian with the palsy can 'aim' and 'react' well enough to spank the whole PvE game.

opinions can't be biased?

Same here.
Mission drop cures 99% of my in-game problems.

It is frustrating to wait for help when you need it, especially when game time is as limited as mine, but I try to keep in mind this is an MMO with a ton of other players who need help.

soooo much screaming.

also the new 'oh we don't want anyone to farm for badges!1' nonsense means they won't go for this elegantly simple inf destruction method.

or rather, their version would give you a badge for 1 inf, 100 inf and *gasp* ONE THOUSAND inf.

Absolutely.

But they always seem to go the other way.

Players whine about costume drops? Liberalize them!
Players whine about Icon fees? Free costume change tokens for everyone...plus day job discounts!
Players whine about pool C drops? Merits for all!
Players whine about set IO prices? Weighted drops that favor the good stuff!
Players whine about salvage prices? Tickets for all!

etc etc.

It seems to me whatever 'blame' exists for the current state of influence could be laid squarely in the middle of the dev's doorstep for constantly giving us FEWER reasons to spend.

I'm an inveterate costume fiddler and I'd burn up a ton of inf that way....oh, except that all of my established characters have these HUGE piles of Icon tokens that I never seem to make a dent in no matter how many hairstyles I try out.

I still like my idea of making it voluntary, being able to translate your inf into whatever form of advancement they come up with so you can Go Rogue.

I think being able to 'buy' some or all of your advancement to the 'other side' would appeal strongly to many of the uber-rich. I'd happily drop a billion to flip factions on day one, and I bet a lot of other folk would too.

In my book 'loyalty' implies a lasting fidelity that perseveres through adversity. With a game, people's loyalty can be pegged directly to how much fun they're having (or not having).

In this context it isn't a very useful term.

What system would you use to prevent someone from figuring out 'the best' options and those options spreading through the game like wildfire since they'd be the most efficient way to earn rewards?

The value of the junk they drop has risen wildly, so what's your point?

If defeats was the only way we could earn inf, maybe there's a problem.
But it isn't.

And as always, attempts to compare our completely optional and comically simple game economy to complex and manditory real world economies make me laugh really hard.

Buying food to stay alive couldn't be further removed from picking up some set enhancements to make your video game character slightly more powerful.

It warmed the blackened lump of interstellar rock I use for a heart to get 3.5 million for a Prophecy last night.

=D

A point to consider:

Unlike the last 2xp weekend this one is also a reactivation weekend.


I rarely do anything special for 2xp marketeering, I just move more junk for higher profits than I would have otherwise.

Although I do have quite a few "good" crafted IOs my ar/dev has been saving in base storage that will be busted out.

And anyone who crafts, now is the time to churn out as many generic IOs as you can store- common salvage is flatlined right now and the 2xp appetite for those things is bottomless.

This nicely summarizes the rather incoherent impression I've been attempting (poorly) to get across in this thread.


Skill systems need a check to prevent inevitable player gravitation to "the best" powers, whatever they may be. In a pen-and-paper system the GM (and to a lesser extent fellow players) is the check so they can allow great leeway, as with the Champions RPG.

In an impersonal environment like an MMO there is no social pressure counterbalancing the urge to make 'the best' character, and there is no immediate response possible from those in power as there is in a pen and paper game (where the GM can always trump or counter any player action they feel isn't in the spirit of the campaign). In fact, MMOs lavish rewards on those who 'work the system' and find 'the best' powers and reward paths.

If something isn't working there's a whole process that has to be engaged to deal with it. Witness the slow motion dev response to the MA fiasco, where obvious problems that were pointed out in beta hung around for nearly two full issues.

Balance on a game wide scale is a madly complicated thing, even with the simplification imposed by an AT system.

And the more I think about it, the better AT systems seem to serve a multiplayer game compared to an 'open' stytem. Not only are they easier to balance, they encourage teaming without explicitly requiring it and give structure to character creation & team roles.

This happened to me running a story arc.
Supposed to apprehend Nosferatu & Guards, instead ended up at the MA desk.

Dropped it and moved on....hopefully they'll fix it quick because I can see it getting REALLY annoying if you're running a lot of missions in FF.