SlickRiptide

I'll be interested in what your results are like.

I can say that while NProtect was not the sole reason I stopped playing Exteel, it was a contributing factor. I would end up doing a lot of weighing of things in the balance if they introduced a similar monitoring program into City of Heroes.

For that reason, I applaud the MARTy initiative. If they can keep the monitoring on the server, where it really makes the most sense, then I'll be happy as a clam about the whole monitoring issue.

Above and beyond the reasons that Aracanaville gives, there's the simple reality that a virtual currency generates revenue at the point of sale of the currency instead of at the point that the market shopping cart is filled up and checked out.

In essence, Paragon Studios isn't really selling power sets and enhancement unslotters. They're selling Paragon Points. Those things in the market are just the currency sink that drains the points back out of the economy. When you buy 400 points and expend 320 of them, they still have 400 points worth of revenue. I suspect that this is the real reason Impish_Kat wants to spend dollars rather than points - to spend exactly the purchase price in dollars and cents, and no more than that.

I'd advise the Kat to wait a bit for the first sale on Paragon Points, at which time spending points instead of dollars will be a more attractive proposition.

Guild Wars is the only game of those that I frequent that sells its market items using dollars. Even so, their cheapest item is on the order of $6.50 so you still don't get the opportunity to trigger those red flags that Arcanaville was talking about by making a lot of nickel and dime purchases.

No, the Collector's Editions were initially more expensive, even though the shelf price of the CoV collector's edition quickly dropped to clearance price levels. In any case, they were billed as limited editions and so far the rednames have kept it that way.

Well you can rest easy on that score. Since we're talking strictly about the right to access a game service, you're not giving up any rights because you don't have any to start with. You even admitted yourself that your civil liberties, yadda yadda was intentional hyperbole.

The User Agreement just spells out your lack of rights in detail and shows that you understand that you don't have any rights other than those granted by the service provider, which is still zero.

As for the whole monitoring thing, it's back to you giving them permission to do it - you're not giving up any rights, any more than you're giving up a right to privacy when you get frisked by a TSA employee. (Though if NCSoft got as invasive as TSA, I'd be sending a stern letter to the upper management.)

It looks like this MARTy business is some kind of sensible approach to the monitoring problem by having it done on the server instead of the client. I'd see that as evidence that you needn't be overly concerned about them sniffing through your private files.

In any case, there are steps you can take if you truly want to play without being snooped. (Dedicate a computer to games. Run in a virtual machine. Encrypt your sensitive materials. etc...)

I just hope you take your hazing like a man after all of the hullabaloo. Especially if you're willing to sell away your rights so cheaply...

As far as I'm concerned, Troy Hickman's "Smoke and Mirrors" Statesman is the real Statesman. I suppose some people will just never let go of associating him with Jack Emmert, even though there oughtta be some sort of statute of limitations...

Frankly, if they hired Troy to write 12-issue Freedom Phalanx comic and David to illustrate, I'd probably buy it sight unseen and it's been years since I bought a comic book.

As for who it would suck to be the most, I'd have to say it would be Keith Nance's girlfriend. That guy is just an A-number-one smeghead.

Now fix those Warrior-Freak spawns!

So it's your fault that that the Freaks and the Warriors on the Talos Island streets are still out of balance after all these years?

Well, yes, they do - If you explicitly give them permission to do that. By clicking the "Accept" button you do give them that permission.

*shrug* In the end, it's the price you pay for playing in their playground. If you don't like it, you can exercise Westley's choice and find a different playground.

Look at it this way - When you go to the ball park, they have a "no glass bottles" rule as well as a lot of other rules about things you can take in with you that are safe (purses, backpacks, sunglasses, big foam fingers) and things you can't because they're unsafe (glass bottles, pistols, Crocodile Dundee-size knives). They also have rules about bringing in outside refreshments. If you walk up with bottle of Bud, they're going to tell you to either toss it in the garbage, or wait outside and they aren't going to care that you spent $50 on skybox seats. Their stadium. Their rules. You can say "But I paid $10 for this beer!" and they're going to say "Please enjoy it outside of the stadium" (after they snicker at you for paying that much for a Bud).

If you attempt to carry a firearm into the stadium, they'll tell you to go away, even if you say "But I have a license to carry a concealed weapon and I don't trust you to protect me if a firefight breaks out. I'm not even sure that I trust that you won't mug me. I insist on carrying my own protection." They'll just tell you to protect yourself out on the sidewalk.

Their amusement park. Their rules.

If you don't like the rules, don't buy a ticket into NCSoft's amusement park. It's pretty much that simple in the end. How badly do you want to play?

In the end, it comes down to trust. From an intellectual standpoint, I'm not entirely satisfied with that answer, but since I DO trust NCSoft after nearly eight years of satisfactory service, I'm willing to let it slide. It would be nice if the world was all unicorns and teddy bears and they didn't feel the need to explicitly put language in their agreement that says "We have to defend against cheaters and thieves and so we have to insist that you allow us the freedom to do that and a lot more besides just to be sure we and our users are protected."

Unfortunately, it's an imperfect world. That said, I still do feel that people should read the EULA and understand what it says and just what they are agreeing to. The User Agreement on its face is a very unfriendly document and it's pretty easy to just complacently glance at it and say, "Oh, this is what everyone makes us agree to so why bother being concerned about it?" instead of making sure that you're actually comfortable with what it is that you're agreeing to.

That isn't really true.

City of Heroes User Agreement (official document at NCSoft.com, last amended March 2010).

CITY OF HEROES USER AGREEMENT SEPTEMBER 1, 2011 (as provided in the Freedom Beta client).

If you compare those side-by-side you'll find rather a lot that's new. That's why there's an issue here, even if some people prefer to ignore the issue or put blanket trust in the fact that Zwillinger is a nice guy and therefore the company that pays his salary must be just as nice and trustworthy.

Well, in yet another instance of hand-waving to explain both MMO-time passage and the use of as little world-builder time as absolutely necessary when creating a mission instance, Galaxy City is already being "taken back" by the time you hit level 10-12. I swear that Paragon City construction companies use some sort of Rikti replicator technology for putting buildings back together.

No it hasn't. I played that mission on the beta. It's identical to how it's always been.

The only thing that's re-written is that now the Menders all mention Galaxy City in one fashion or another and Mender Silos specifically blames some force that's meddling with time for causing the meteor strike in Galaxy City.

Well, will you accept first-hand experience as evidence?

Whether it was true or not in the old days (team-size and mission choices and etc...) it is true now that financing a character solely on enhancement drops is not very viable for values of "viable" that mean being well-slotted, never mind fully-slotted. (Though I'll grant you that a character that manages to always be on 8-man teams that always turn their difficulty up to generate a lot of bosses will see a lot more enhancements than one who plays solo or small-team.)

If you don't believe my experience then you can test it yourself by just making a new character and refusing to sell any of your salvage or recipes. Make a rule for yourself that you'll only sell enhancements and only slot loot-drop enhancements or enhancements you buy at the store.

Enhancement drops are far less frequent than they were in the old days, for good reason - salvage drops replaced them. You simply can't use the "old days" as a yardstick any more in regards to the "TO/DO/SO" economy.

Nitpicking here, but as it happens, store-bought enhancements are not actually "cheap" if your only source of income is selling dropped-loot enhancements. Enhancements don't drop as loot very frequently any more. Tip missions make up some of the difference but not as much as you'd think. The game's power may or may not still be balanced around them but the game's economy ceased to be balanced around them shortly after inventions hit the scene. Freems and Preems are going to have to get creative about working for their upgrades or else do a lot of tip missions and sewer trials.

According to the EULA, which is what we're talking about, it DOES magically become NCSoft's. They are always within their rights to choose to not exercise their rights. In fact, the new EULA says that very thing, multiple times.

In any case - the party line has always been "If you care about such things, then don't put it to the test. However, all we really care about is that we are able to use the character freely ourselves."

Using Mercedes Lackey as an example - If NCSoft chose to publish a novel or a comic book starring Vicky Vee, there's technically nothing that Ms. Lackey could do about it other than close her account. It's highly doubtful that they WOULD do something to piss off a high profile customer like that, but the EULA lets them do it if they wanted to.