TonyV

Last I heard, she was either meditating in Croatoa or knocking back a few in Pocket D. It's hard to get reliable info these days.

The vibe I get is that most people will create characters there and haunt it once in a while, but most folks aren't really willing to make it their primary home. Some folks who have expressed that they don't want to hang with the unwashed masses will move there, but honestly, I think that will be a tiny minority (A tinority?) of players.

I'll be in the former group. I'll create a few folks there, starting at level 1 lowbies. I don't intend to transfer anyone there, although with the free transfers we'll be getting maybe I'll move one or two folks there eventually.

For what it's worth, I actually agree with Westley. The EULA is a joke. In fact, all modern EULAs are a joke. Unfortunately, in today's society which is ruled by lawyers, it's a joke we can't get away from.

I continue playing the game not because I think the EULA is a-okay, I don't. However, I do think that if NCsoft were to try to do something evil, I would pretty effectively be able to fight it. And if it's really evil, we could do more damage to their reputation by publicizing it than they could do to us through banning or other legal means.

So we live in this sort of mutually assured destruction scenario. I don't try to screw them over by cheating (can I? yes...), and they don't try to screw me over by taking over my machine (can they? yes...).

At the end of the day, though, I choose not to let my life to be ruined by the lawyers. I know that the management of Paragon Studios has zero interest in doing stuff the EULA claims they can. They just want to make a decent living by making a fun game. Likewise, I just want to play a fun game, so life goes on, ho hum.

I respect people for taking a stand for what they think is wrong in the world. But while I think these EULAs are wrong, I'm just not as passionate about it as others are. Trust me, though, I am passionate about other things that a lot of people are ho hum about, and I feel frustrated when people don't think it's as important as I do. But you know, that's what makes the world go 'round, different people having different priorities.

Heh, we'll never turn down money, but really, we're working as quickly as we can.

Actually, specifically, Diellan is working as fast as he can. I want to make sure the guy gets the credit he deserves, he's the lead Mids guru and does a damn good job at it.

Wait, you can do that in a EULA? Man, we need to work on our Titan Network utilities EULA. The current one of "we reserve the right to, you know, try to do useful and cool things and stuff" just seems so inadequate now. I wonder if I can put something in there that gets me free pizza?

To Clockwork O1: On behalf of the citizens of Atlanta, we're sorry. This was... unexpected.

So, dumb question, what happens if everyone bets on the long shot and he wins? Are you going to be paying out all of the winners from your personal funds?

If so, that's cool. Shoot, you could end up making a lot of influence off of it. With those odds, I'm going to be putting some influence on the guy who's going to be taking Alpha Wolf's money.

I wouldn't swear to it, but I think it was just a blank wall. There wasn't a room there.

I think that a few days before this happens, they'll post a message saying, "Hey everyone the VIP head start starts this Thursday!" On Thursday, the VIPs will be able to log into Exalted. In the meantime, they'll also be posting hot and heavy that CoH: Freedom will be live the following Monday. Then the following Monday, we'll have extended maintenance on all non-Exalted servers (possibly even Exalted, if there are any minor patches that need to be applied), and then the free and premium players will be able to log in.

Having been involved in some of these incidents and having put in some >24 hour days myself, I know you guys are pulling out all of the stops to get this done. I just want you to know that I really appreciate all of the effort you guys are putting into this, and a night off of City of Heroes is a small price to pay for the insanity you and the crew are going through right now.

Thanks a ton, also, for the frequent updates. And hey, look at the bright side, maybe you can milk working so long tonight for a few "I'll be there a little late today" mornings.

I'm hoping they do the 14- for 12-month subscription deal again around the holidays. That averages out to less than $11 per month that way. It's got a little bit of a sticker shock factor to it, but you can pry my City of Heroes from my cold, dead fingers.

Happy September Fool's Day, everyone! Oh man, they got you good!

Personal opinion o' Tony is that the Mission Architect system could be one of the coolest things this game has to offer, but the mods would have to suck it up, grow a pair, and take a stance that, to date, has been yelled and screamed at ad nauseum by farmers. If the MA is ever going to be successful in the way in which they envisioned it, they are going to have to 1) remove farms and punish the people who create them, and 2) remove the reward incentive from people who use them. They're going to have to face the fact that a lot less people would use the MA system, but the trade-off is that the quality of the arcs and of the game experience there as a whole would be a lot higher.

At one time, I was optimistic when Matt posted his vaguely threatening messages about how characters that use farms and exploits would be nuked. I was absolutely giddy when I saw the s***storm that broke out when I heard that people's characters were actually being impacted. And then after a while... Nothing. It all just stopped. I don't know what happened, I suspect that marketing came along and told them, "No, you must not do this." Also, does anyone else remember when if you created a farm arc, not only would it be taken down, but that MA slot would actually be locked, preventing you from simply creating another arc in its place?

The simple fact is that there is a sizable contingent of people out there who honestly feel that there is nothing wrong with using whatever means is at their disposal--farms, exploits, whatever--to avoid having to work to advance in the game. If someone gave them a "make me 50!" button, they'd be fine with that. They'd press it repeatedly to see all the neat stuff 50s get to see, then after a few weeks at most, leave the game and move on to something else. Those same people, when confronted with the notion that "farming is bad," will die defending it without acknowledging how destructive the practice is or why it's in a game's best long-term interest to nix it as much as possible.

I've always contended that it's hard to do, but marketing needs to let these people go. Generally speaking, they're going to go anyway--their short attention spans dictate that after a couple or three months maximum, they're going to be bored with the game anyway, and there is a strong potential that when they get bored, they might start griefing people. Every player isn't sacred, and every $15 isn't worth chasing. They really need to focus on getting more high-quality customers who are likely to stick with the game--and pay them money--on a long-term basis.

So that leaves us where we are. Because farms are allowed, farms are created. Furthermore, arcs that aren't farms are a threat to the farmers--a threat that the MA system will be usable as something besides just a farm factory, thus the one-star griefing.

I haven't lost all hope, though. These developers have been known to take unpopular actions in the past when the long-term health of the game is at stake. They just have to understand that this is affecting people and an important game component in a very tangible way, making it virtually unusable for its intended purpose. They've all been quite busy working on I21/CoH:F stuff lately and they have an aggressive plan for new stuff coming out, which is probably why it hasn't gotten the attention it deserves, but I am hopeful that they will eventually circle back around at some point and work on making the MA system something besides a farm factory again.