TonyV

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I have a friend with almost 21 months. She has a learning disability...

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I find it interesting that no one has commented on this post. Is it out of everyone's comfort zone because it doesn't fit neatly into the PL or farmer categories?

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Not at all. It's simply because it's such a bizarre statistical anomaly that it's kind of meaningless to use as a basis for how to feel about such issues. It's a little like being afraid of flying because sometimes planes crash. Or being afraid to drive because fatal car crashes are so common. In all cases, the odds are so stacked against the negative outcome as to be almost zero.

The simplest explanation is almost always the right one; the person power-leveled up to 50, and now they don't know how to play the game.

For someone who has a learning disability, I'd chalk that up to one more of life's difficulties they face. Hopefully, someone will either 1) explain to them that sometimes people will be mean, not understanding why they're not doing things that others expect them to just know, or 2) actually monitor them while they're playing to catch stuff like this and help them out when needed.

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But I don't think we should always rush to judgment when someone doesn't seem to be playing "up to speed" the way we think they should.

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I actually tend to give people a lot of leeway. It's not like I tell someone, "That's a stupid question!" I tend to simply not reply, because to me, if they're not going to take a minute to poke around and figure out the basic mechanics of the game, then I'm not going to waste my time answering their questions. I love newbies, but there has to be an element of mutual respect present, and I view power-leveling as an action that is directly disrespectful to the developers and other players of the game.

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Have you ever had the experience of falling in love with one of your characters.

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I absolutely, positively, adore Taxibot Belle, on Infinity. I created the character waaay back when based on a really good friend of mine and tried to imagine what she'd say and do. Now, that friend is my roommate and Taxibot Belle got her interested in the game. For quite a while now, she's been playing Taxibot Belle herself, and I'm still head over heels for her; she does a much better job than I ever did.

I think that everyone loves Taxibot Belle. I kind of kid her about it sometimes, telling her that even though I created arguably the most popular fan site out there for City of Heroes, whenever we're together, everyone is like, "Wow, it's Taxibot Belle! And who's this Tony guy?"

It's really cool, though, because Taxibot Belle isn't just a character in a game, and I get the privilege of knowing her as a lot more than just someone who helps out heroes. She's a lot of fun to be around, whether she's teleporting you to an exploration badge or just doing something totally mundane like watching television. Even though I don't play Belle any more, the character is, in my opinion, the awesomest in the whole City of Heroes universe. She really is a hero in my book, and when I played her, watching people react to someone whose goal in life is to help out other people always kind of got to me in a way that playing any other character never did. I still spend a lot of time watching over Belle's shoulder as she does her thing.

I even wrote a story about her meeting one of the other Taxis a long time back, and I still get choked up every time I read it. She really likes it too, and if you know Belle and check next time you see her, you'll see that she still wears that badge all the time.

As far as I know, they contracted a third-party to write all of the music for the game. Some of it isn't even exclusively licensed to NCsoft, and you'll hear it sometimes in commercials and television shows. I do wish that they'd contract whoever did it to release a soundtrack, with full-length versions (i.e. not the short clips) of the music.

Also, I wish they would get them to do a whole bunch more music and periodically rotate it around. After a while, repeatedly entering common neighborhoods gets monotonous. I like the music, but unfortunately, I keep it muted because I've heard it so many times.

Take heart in that these are the exceptions, and that the devs are working to curb farming abuse. There will always be noopids (quite different from newbies, who I don't mind in the least) in the game, some worse than others.

He is looking at you. Just because his head is turned one way doesn't mean his eyes aren't turned another.

Or maybe the game crashed because of a file that was corrupted before you started playing. Either way, it's just the game's way of trying to help you get back up and running. If you really hate it that badly, look in the guides thread for the post about how to run the game without running the updater, but be aware that you'll need to run it with the updater whenever there's a patch.

You know, one more thing I'd like to see is for enhancements that don't need a level associated with them (e.g. +7.5% Recharge, Chance for Extra Damage, etc.) to, well, not have levels associated with them. Or if they do, make them all level 1 (level 50 for purple IOs to match up with the rest) and be done with it.

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like posting over thousands of hate comments over stupid things like ''you don't have a picture yet noob.'' im tryn to work on that and other stupid hate comments not that youre post was hateful just that i dont want those kind of comments on the forums. (Not you the one above.) have a wonderful day.

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The forums here tend to be a bit kinder than most. Rest assured that if anyone makes fun of you for not having a picture, they will be subject to the forum's wrath and derision, not you. If you want to stay on people's good side, please avoid making personal attacks or "this [whatever you don't like about the game] sucks!" threads.

There's no denying, though, that people can be jerks here sometimes, too. If it starts getting out of hand and someone starts breaking the Forum Rules and Guidelines, don't hesitate to notify the moderator.

Look at the bottom of any post (this one will do). Notice that there is a small section titled, "Post Extras." There are three icons: one of a printer, one of a finger with a ribbon around it, and one of a piece of paper with a line through it. The one on the far right (the paper with the line) is the "Notify Moderator" button. Click on it and let them know of any inappropriate posts. You will be prompted if you're sure if you want to moderate the post, so if you want to click it on this post and see what it says, feel free to do so. Any serious violations should be reported to Moderator 08 or Niviene.

Welcome to the forums (and the game, if you're new to it as well), and have fun!

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Edit: ANd what does this have to do with Anderson Cooper?

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It seems to be a little forum game that the OP is trying to push where people post something with a title that has nothing to do with the subject of the post, with the intention of getting people to say, "Why is there a thread in an onling gaming forum posted about a CNN reporter?" at which time they click on it, presumably out of curiosity, only to find that it is a thread exactly like the thousands of others with only its unusual title setting it apart.

This is the second time (that I know of) that the OP has done this, the first with a thread titled "Obama" that, in fact, had nothing to do with Obama. Apparently, he seems to think it is an acceptable practice, even after a moderator has edited the subject of his post once.

To the OP, you're still kind of new here, so I'll try to put this tactfully. I know you think this is cute, but 1) people here will answer your honest questions without resorting to such silliness, and 2) I don't appreciate you wasting our time like this. Post the real subject of your question and just ask it.

Also, just for your reference, when a moderator edits one of your posts and you do the exact same thing again, you're just asking to be smacked. Really, learning from your actionable mistakes is a much better plan.

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Curious again..
Wouldn't the fraud charge be issued by the government, not by a person?

And I'm not sure my buddy would be able to sue me because I put his car up for sale, but the person that I accepted money from would.

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Yes, if an RMTer were operating in the U.S., they could be brought up on criminal charges, which would be prosecuted by the government. Whether it's worth a DA's time and effort would be up to the DA. (Prosecuting rapes and murders might be a little higher on his list...) They'd likely face a civil lawsuit as well.

Your buddy could sue you if you actually tried to follow through on the sale and also report you to the police and testify against you to try to have you thrown in jail.

Whatever way--civil, criminal, or both--NCsoft went in this little analogy, the RMTer would be put out of business.

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Copyright, trademark, and other IP protection laws don't apply to RMT.

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Well, at the very least, the sites I've looked at (yes, I've looked at these sites, mainly to see who the enemy is) use City of Heroes logos, which is blatantly illegal.

Also, putting on my lawyer hat, I'm thinking that a case could be made that:

- "Influence" is an in-game property, and as such, is wholly owned by NCsoft. (Check the EULA; you might think that your influence is "yours," but it's not. NCsoft lays claim to everything on the servers, including your character and all of their possessions.)

- By selling "influence," RMTers are essentially offering to sell something that someone else--NCsoft--is the rightful owner of.

It would be kind of like putting an ad in the paper for your buddy's car without his consent. At the very least, it's fraud, even if he gave you a spare key a while back and you had it within your means to actually deliver the goods.

Also, if I had an opportunity to go after them, I'd pile on the fact that in the EULA it states, "Members whose Accounts have been terminated by NC Interactive may not access the Service in any manner or for any reason, including through any other Account, without the express written permission of NC Interactive." [Section 4(i)] I would argue that once an RMTer has been banned, if they access the service again, they are guilty of violating the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. It might be a bit of a stretch, but if the lawyer is good enough, I think it's doable.

Of course, all of this is moot, because it's all based on U.S. law. In the countries where RMTers operate out of, it's debatable whether there are any laws against this kind of stuff, and even if they are, whether they're enforced. I seriously doubt that China will be extraditing anyone anytime soon for breaking U.S. law from within their borders, especially over something as trivial as this, especially with IP violation is, to be blunt, a sizable portion of their economy.

But yeah, if they were in the U.S., there'd be several ways to go after them criminally as well as civilly.

Edit:

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They are using NC/PS's intellectual property without authorization...

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This is not true for two reasons.

First, they are using the service in a manner which is explicitly spelled out as being unauthorized. There was a CFAA case a few years back where an employee of one company e-mailed a client list to a competitor, then went to work for them later. He argued that he didn't violate the CFAA because as an employee, he was authorized to use the computer system. The courts smacked him down saying no, that as soon as he started using the computers for an activity that was disloyal to the company he worked for, he was no longer doing so in an authorized manner. In short, your subscription fee does not give you the right to do whatever you want until you get banned.

Second, the authorized uses of NCsoft's IP is spelled out in the EULA, and one of those conditions is that you will not use it for any commercial purpose without their written consent. As soon as you do, you are violating copyright and/or trademark law, depending on what you're doing with NCsoft's IP.

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The 30 second countdown will probably never go away. It was put in place to keep people from escaping without reprocussions mid fight.

I would like a /logout, or a /switch <charactername> (or both) though.

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I wouldn't mind keeping the character there (and helpless) for 30 seconds. Isn't that how it works now? If I quit to the desktop, I can exit immediately, but if I quit in the middle of a battle, my character stays there doing nothing, and when I log back in, he'll probably be defeated.

Likewise, if you have a quit-immediately-to-login-screen option, whatever character you're logging out of will still be standing there during the 30-second countdown. Heck, if you're fast enough, you might even catch a glimpse of your other character before they disappear.

<--- 2%

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So rough for you to continue to play a game, in which you just know the devs are on a COMPLETELY different page than you are, while they continue to work diligently to improve the game for the silly 2% who you clearly hold in such contempt.

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I'm glad you said this. It saves me the bother of having to word it like you did and typing it.

Funny how it works out, isn't it? Not only are they improving the game for the "2%," but they're simultaneously nerfing it for the 98%. Yet still, they manage to find a way to make money (and plenty of it) and stay on this allegedly counterproductive path.

I'm just a little skeptical that "boy are they stupid!" is the correct explanation of this phenomenon...

To the OP:
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Is Creativity more important to you with this system than overall rewards such as exp and tickets?

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Yes, it is. I'd play the Mission Architect even if there were no rewards whatsoever. I'm not suggesting that they should drop all rewards, but when they do nerf something, it doesn't affect me whatsoever.

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Are there are repercussions for purchasing infamy or influence from RMT (Real Money Traders) that advertise online and on ingame emails?

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Yes. Paying RMT services is just as much a violation of the EULA as being an RMT service.

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I do understand that they are not trustworthy people and steal accounts/credit cards/anything from people when given the chance to do so. Can you get suspended or warnings or anything at all from paying these people to help or play your accounts (play as in powerleveling for you?)

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I have to admit, this question is kind of amusing. It's little like saying, "If I fall off a cliff, I understand that the whole dying thing is pretty bad, but if I tried to hit feet first, do you think that it would knock any of my teeth out?"

Who cares? You're dead!

Likewise, even if buying RMT wares were completely okay with NCsoft (which, again just to be crystal clear, it's not!), the whole thing about giving your credit card number or other personal information to someone in another country that doesn't enforce laws against stuff like, oh, say, stealing things from foreigners should be plenty enough reason to know that this is a bad idea.

If I ever get to the point where my title is "Forum Cartel," I'm thinking of asking Niviene (or whoever is our community rep at the time) to change it. I really hate that title. There's already a perception that frequent posters here have formed a clique, and it's not entirely false. I really hate the "Cuppa Incarnate" title. I mean, egads, CuppaJo has been gone for how long now? Newcomers probably wonder what it means.

If I ever do have it changed (and actually get to pick what it will be), I'll probably ask for something like "Titan Network Admin" or "Wiki Wonk". I'd go with "Fun Police," but that probably sounds a little too close to something official.

Maybe it was a map of Eden on one side and Brickstown on the other. And maybe the X was just a clever ploy to try to throw you off, but instinctually, you knew it was in Talos Island all along.

...

Work with me here, dammit!

For the record, just type cmd in the Start/Run box, not cmd prompt.

Or if you're particularly keystroke-lazy and don't need the "Successfullly flushed the DNS Resolver Cache" feedback, you can also just type ipconfig /flushdns directly into the Start/Run box and hit enter. You may see a command prompt box pop open and then quickly close, that's normal.

Keep in mind that if you're changing your own domain name through a registrar, it can take up to 24 hours to propagate to whatever DNS server you happen to be using. Realistically, it's usually more like five or ten minutes. If you know how to add an entry into your hosts file, you can work around that, but be sure to remove the entry later to make sure your DNS record is configured correctly and to make sure you have the right address if you need to change it later.

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Wow..........over a video game!.........Some of you people seriously need to get out more often and find yourselves a life. To compare a developer of a video game to those people..........wow.

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My stock response would be, "So are Jesus Christ (if you believe he existed), Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr." You can argue putting whomever you want into that pantheon.

My guess is...

TODAY!!!

(At some point, this will be correct.)

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Top 20

It would seem that not everyone agrees he is the plague to end all plagues.

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I'm one of those people. He started City of Heroes, and I think that he was right about most of the vision he had for it. I think that people who hate him for whatever reason are either being completely unreasonable or having very selective memories of what he was really like.

When he was in charge, people here treated him pretty much like they treat Matt Miller now. He had a lot of followers, and he had a few vocal detractors screaming for his head on a platter. Of course, it makes zero difference who's in charge or what they do, there will always be such detractors. If you're in charge of a game like City of Heroes, you pretty much have to have a thick skin, do what you're going to do, and hope everything comes out okay in the end. In that respect, Jack and Matt are very similar, and as a result of both, the game is still going strong and getting better every with release.

The only huge difference is that Jack left. It's awful easy to bash someone when they're gone. Even worse, now he's the competition. There are a bunch of people here who assume that MMORPGs are a zero-sum game, that in order for CO to have subscribers, they must come from CoH. (Completely neglecting that CO will have plenty of subscribers that play both games, and probably some new subscribers who don't even know that CoH exists.)

I never agreed 100% with Jack's decisions, just as I don't agree 100% with Matt's. But he was hardly the destroyer of the game that people make him out to be. And like it or not, he was a key player in this game becoming what it is today, both bad and good.

Count me in the camp of "there's no such thing as kill-stealing."

For one thing, as mentioned, you really don't have to do that much to get credit for the defeat. One or two hits on an enemy, and you're good to go hunt-wise. If you're street-sweeping for experience, there are much better ways to get experience, but if you want to, fine. Just realize that everyone else has just as much right to defeat a villain as you do. It's not like Superman sees someone being robbed and says, "Meh, that's Batman's problem."

For another, it's not like there are only three Hellions and everyone is camping them for credit. There are an infinite supply of bad guys, and they're everywhere. The vast majority of them are trivially easy to find, just turn around in place and you'll likely see at least three or four more groups of what it is you're looking for. Move on, and get on with life.

If someone is following you around, chances are that either they don't understand the game yet or they're being a jerk. If it's the former, consider teaming up. There are rewards for this far beyond experience and credit for defeats. If it's the latter, go somewhere else. The more grief you feel over stuff like this, the more joy a griefer gets from making you miserable. Don't play their game. Work on an instanced mission, go to another zone, or do whatever to not give them the satisfaction.

I once petitioned someone who was following me around and defeating all of my enemies. They were Carnies in Peregrine Isle, an enemy that's actually not so easy to find, and I didn't really have much else to do. I repeatedly asked them to stop, and they kept following me around. I finally petitioned them, waited a few (they just stood there watching me), and nothing happened. Finally, I had an idea. I charged into a group that was way higher than me and ended up in the hospital. They didn't follow, so I had a little debt to work off, but was finally free of them.

Later, I saw a GM's response to my e-mail. It basically said that I should move to another zone, work on other missions, etc. So yeah, "kill-stealing" isn't really actionable, either, even if it is harassing. But really, I don't care that much. As far as irritating things go, this is way down towards the bottom of the list.

They already have a system where, leading up to a patch, it will download the bulk of what is required after you leave the game. That spreads it out pretty well. The only time I have to wait an hour to download everything is when I install on a new machine and screw up the copying process.

When a new issue goes live, the incremental patch that is downloaded and updated is actually normally not that big to me.

This is, incidentally, a very cool feature. When someone who has screwed me over on a task force, griefed a contest, or otherwise pissed me off walks up to me and asks me to join a team, I can instantly see that this is a person that I don't want to be around and decline.

Likewise, when I see five stars above someone's name, it's a pretty good clue that while I might not recognize the character, I probably know the player and they're someone to hang around.

My compliments to the devs for this system!

Wait a minute, Clark Kent is actually Superman!!?

Thanks for, you know, not warning me about the spoiler or anything.

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this forum software needs to die in a fire so they HAVE to migrate to the new platform.

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...Seconded.