TonyV

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Come on people, it's rogue, not rouge.

(Yes, I know the OP did it deliberately. It seemed like that was the response he wanted, so I figured I'd oblige.)

--TonyV, Fun Police

Not that I'm aware of. I wish it were more myself.

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I see Devs and GMs cracking down on an element of game-play and hitting bystanders more than actual offenders.

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This is exactly what I take issue with.

- There's no way you can know this without access to the numbers, which only NCsoft has access to.

- My common sense tells me that this is highly unlikely. If a small number of people were mistakenly banned, like I said, mistakes happen. Yeah, it might be frustrating, but it's not that big a deal, and it's easily enough corrected. If large numbers of people were mistakenly banned, I can't imagine that they wouldn't reverse it immediately and try again after they sort out whatever mistake was made. It doesn't make sense to me that they would ban a bunch of people by mistake, and once discovered, keep right on going full steam ahead without restoring their accounts, yet that is exactly what is being asserted. When my common sense conflicts with what random Internet strangers tell me, I'm going to side with my common sense every time.

- My experience is that this just isn't true. Between my roommate and I, we play the game for at least 10 to 15 hours a week, sometimes probably 40 or more. We both have many friends that we keep in contact with, and regularly engage in pick-up groups. Neither of us has personal knowledge of anyone who has been banned from the game, let alone masses of innocent people. If there really were a lot, I simply cannot imagine that we wouldn't have run across someone. When what I personally experience conflicts with what random Internet strangers tell me, again, I'm going to side with my experience every time.

- The only accounts of people being banned so far that I have heard are at least second-hand accounts, and those have come from people who are pushing an agenda. Without naming names, I consider many of them outright disreputable. I wouldn't find these accounts credible even under normal circumstances, and under these particular circumstances, I find them extremely suspect.

If you don't find the game fun any more, then by all means, leave. It's your money, and I'm not going to try to stop you. But if this whole "masses of people are being banned" is a factor, then with all due respect, I think you're being incredibly naive.

If you're mad at Matt Miller, then fine. I disagree that he handled the situation poorly. I think he handled it exactly as it should have been, I wish he had done this a long time ago, and as I said, it has increased my loyalty to the game. Still, you're well within your rights to disagree.

However, I do ask that you stop repeating second-hand information and unproven allegations. Idle rumors normally don't present any kind of danger to the game, but in this specific case, it is hurting people. Assuming that some of the people staying are friends, then you really do owe it to them to hope that the game does well in your absence, not the opposite. Because when you hurt the game, those friends, they are innocent bystanders that will be hurt along with it. And isn't that kind of what you're railing against?

I honestly don't know why anyone would post to twitter as an individual. I mean, who really cares if I'm eating lunch?

The Titan Network twitter might be worth following, though. I might start posting some of the day-to-day things going on there, stuff like features we're working on or updates we're making. If you don't care, that's cool, it's really intended, once we get everyone on board, to be for the morbidly curious and so people can see that we're actually working on the sites.

Some of the Titan Network guys created an account to follow if you want:

http://twitter.com/thetitannetwork

Doc rocks, and he's right on the money.

Rock, the flaw in your analogy is that a restaurant asking customers to eat a burger with their hands in the 10-and-2 position is neither normal nor reasonable. On the other hand, every MMOG that I know of sets at least some basic rules to establish things that are not acceptable because it negatively impacts the gameplay of others. In that respect, City of Heroes is just like every other game, and it's entirely appropriate for it to do so.

If I go into Starbucks, I want a peaceful place where I can relax and drink a cup of premium coffee. If this is what I see on Starbucks commercials, but when I go in one, they're playing loud disco music and they're letting a bunch of homeless people wander around begging for money, I won't be going back.

On the other hand, if they have a sign up saying, "no soliciting," and then some guy comes up and starts begging me for money and they throw him out, that says to me that they are taking the experience they're selling seriously. I'm not going to let one bad experience tarnish my impression of Starbucks, and I'm pretty likely to return and probably even bring friends.

City of Heroes is selling a gaming experience. It's marketed as an online role-playing game in which you get to be a hero in Paragon City fighting crime. (Or if you prefer, a villain in the Rogue Isles causing mayhem.) When I signed up, and as I continue to play after five years, that is the experience that I am paying for, and it's what I expect.

If I get in Paragon City and all I see are constant streams of "LF farm" and people sending me tells asking me to pad or anchor, chances are pretty good that I'm going to get disgusted and leave. It's not what I expected, it's not what I want, and I have better things to do.

On the other hand, when I see the lead developer post a message saying that using a key new feature of the game for farming is unacceptable, and then the GMs follow up by actually taking action against those who do, it says to me that they actually care about the City of Heroes gaming experience that they marketed and sold and that I signed up for. It actually increases my loyalty.

If I see someone farming now and then, it's no big deal, any more than being panhandled at Starbucks isn't the end of the world. It's a matter of scale, though. The Mission Architect was overrun with farmers, and for weeks, all the chatter in Atlas Park was farmers very vocally soliciting people for their teams. When Matt put the "no soliciting" sign up, they just kept right on as if he weren't there. People were frustrated and disgusted, and just like Starbucks would do, they finally reached the point where a sign asking politely wasn't enough. The panhandlers were interfering with the experience they were selling. Even if one bought a cup of coffee now and then, they knew that they couldn't keep the store open for long in that environment.

Some have openly wondered what makes my $15 better than a farmer's $15, that I should be able to stay completely unbothered while their activities get punished. The answer is simple and two-fold: First, because my experience is the experience that is being sold, the experience that the developers promised. Second, because I am much more likely to be a long-term loyal subscriber and bring in others who will be loyal subscribers than people who play the game to "win" in a few weeks.

And as for the competition, I guarantee you that they will all have rules that are pretty much the same. If you go to that burger joint across the street, they're going to get on your case if you don't hold your burger in the four-and-eight position. Ultimately, what matters really is the quality of the food. Go ahead and try another restaurant or two. When you figure out that the food really is better over here, I'm sure you'll be welcomed back.

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As you might have noticed, there's a bit of ...discontent... at the moment.

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Pfff, discontent my [censored]! I'm having a ball! Mission Architect is great, lots of awesome stuff going on in CoH World. Jump back in, we'll welcome you back with open arms!

If only we had some, I dunno, song or something to celebrate. Any song. Nothing's coming to mind, though.

Oh well, happy birthday!

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There's too many damn EA buildings anyway. Do we really need one in every single city zone?

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Actually, there's a legitimate reason for wanting one in Pocket D: so that heroes and villains can run co-op arcs below level 35.

I was surprised that they put them all over the city like they did, and I'd agree that we could use a few less than they put out there. I'd say that three or so each side, plus one in Pocket D, would be enough.

Honestly, I wouldn't mind if they put one in Pocket D and took it out of the Rikti War Zone. It doesn't make sense to me that such a thing exists in basically a militarized area, and it's only there to allow for the mechanics of running co-op arcs. Such a thing would make more sense to me in Pocket D, which is kind of an entertainment-themed zone to begin with.

*shrug...* Oh well, they didn't call and ask my opinion on that, and it's not really that important to me. Still, if I were a betting man, I'd put money on there being an AE terminal in Pocket D within an issue or two. Oh, wait! I am a betting man! Who'll take me up on it?

For what it's worth, I like 'er.

As far as we know, it's been put on the proverbial backburner. I know, that sounds suspiciously like "shelved," but for what it's worth, switching sides was a backburner issue, and suddenly it's actually going to happen.

Hopefully they'll get there someday. I really do hate UBB.

Here, everything you want to know about screenshots. Enjoy! (The "Quick Primer" section at the top is the "I need something really simple and common right now" summary.)

Here's something that will save you much time and effort. Type the following:<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>/bind sysrq "screenshotui 0$$screenshot"
/bind shift+sysrq "screenshotui 1$$screenshot"</pre><hr />
Print screen saves a screenshot without the UI, shift and print screen saves one with the UI.

At the risk of sounding out of line here, I would highly recommend not only not trying to keep yourself as superleader, but actually deliberately promoting one of your friends who you trust to that position while you're gone.

If I'm in a supergroup whose leader knows they're leaving for who knows how long (possibly forever) and yet they want to keep the leadership to himself, I'd leave the group. Someone needs to be running the group while you're gone. Not just the stuff you set permissions for, but someone who can honestly say, "I'm in charge," and have the rank to back that up. Who knows? Maybe when you get back, they'll turn out to have been a really good leader and your group will be going even better than when you left it.

If not, then, well, such is the risk you run for not being around.

Be sure that you have a clear understanding with your friends what will happen when you return. Will you be repromoted to leader? Repromoted to superleader? Will they keep their leadership ranks? Make sure these things are discussed now, because after the fact, if there's a disagreement as to what will happen, it will get ugly.

If you leave the supergroup leaderless, though, I can almost guarantee that either 1) the people in it will get extremely discouraged and simply leave, or 2) the people in it will get mad at you for not providing some kind of succession plan.

My 2 cent's worth, take it or leave it.

As Bill said, anything anyone tells you will be speculation at this point.

My personal theory is that there will be completely separate zones, so your hero will go to Pretoria, and your villain will go to the Praetorian version of the Rogue Isles. I don't know, though; we'll probably get more details within a few months or so.

Yeah, it's there with the third City of Heroes novel. (Web of Arachnos and The Freedom Phalanx were actually published, but are now out of print.) Also, the CCG, which was published, but as far as I know, I think it's dead, too. Every once in a while, you might even hear about a City of Heroes movie/television show, because the rights were acquired a while back by the Transformers movie guy. As far as anyone can tell, though, it's pretty much dead, too.

It's a shame. I think City of Heroes might really be a good property to merchandise more.

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As to who won in COH vs Marvel who knows ? It looks like COH did.

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Nobody, although it looked to many CoH was winning.

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I actually have a speculation about that, something that if I were their lawyer, I'd have definitely used.

In the EULA, it specifically says that anything you create in the game becomes the sole property of NC Interactive, and that they have a non-revocable royalty-free license to use it however they want. It turns out that Marvel was caught creating their own characters in the game as "evidence" that there was infringing content. It was shortly after this that both parties suddenly came to a "settlement" in which City of Heroes didn't change at all.

Think about that a second. Marvel (or at least an authorized agent of Marvel) used their own IP in the game after agreeing to a EULA specifically granting NC Interactive a license to use anything they created. If I were their lawyer working on the case, I would have said something vaguely resembling the following to Marvel.

"Since you agreed to the terms of our license, we have every right to now use your characters, specifically[list characters Marvel created in the game]. If you drop this stupid lawsuit and pay our legal fees, we'll agree to release you from the license. We won't use your IP in the game, and both parties can go their merry way. We'll even bump up enforcement of EULA violations with the players. However, if you don't drop the lawsuit, then since you granted us a royalty-free license to use your IP by agreeing to the EULA and creating said IP in the game, then win or lose, we'd like to thank you for giving us the rights to adding major well-known characters to our game without having to pay you anything in return!"

*poof!*

Lawsuit gone. Since the "settlement" wasn't made public, I can't know for sure, but it sure makes sense to me.

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um, no, it actually did happen. In their datamining or whatever, they misinterpreted some level pacted toons as exploiting MA due to going from level 1 to 50 in a short time. Some toons were deleted and some temp bans handed out that should not have been. These were appealed, reviewed, fixed, etc.

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As I said, I have no firsthand knowledge of this. I have not, nor do I know anyone who has, received these temporary "by mistake" bans or deletions. So far, everyone I know who has received a ban has been targeted for a specific, valid reason. I asked Belle, who is around a lot more than I am, if she has heard of anyone getting banned, and she says she hasn't heard anything about it.

I'm not going to claim that there have been mathematically zero of them. However, if there have been any, I most certainly will assert that they have been a statistical anomaly, a very rare outlier, and that customer support has addressed the issue to the best of their ability.

People representing that this is a widespread issue are, at best, grossly misrepresenting the scope of a non-problem.

That's why I say to everyone to take these claims worth a grain of salt. Go out and ask a few people on the streets of Paragon City if they have met with these bans of epic proportions. I'm 100% convinced that in pretty short order, anyone who does so will see these claims for the sham that they are. There were no mass bannings without cause. This is not some kind of conspiracy or even a real controversy.

Claims of mass "by mistake" bannings are wild, baseless allegations by people who have an ax to grind with the developers. It's a bogeyman for the express purpose of scaring normal players into thinking that they'll be targeted next, thus adding to the drama and outrage. If someone sees a message saying that a bunch of people have been banned for no reason, their natural reaction is, "Wow, that's just not right!" Maybe they'll even feed the troll and post a reply saying that they don't think that's a good thing.

Yeah, except for the tiny little detail that it didn't happen. People are not being banned en masse. A very, very few statistical anomalies (if it even happened at all) do not a movement make. In theory, I suppose these people think it's an effective method of extorting the developers into changing a long-standing policy of punishing players who break the rules. In reality, it's not working, and that just makes them madder, thus all the troll posts and "I'm leaving!" threads.

Meanwhile, in Paragon City, life goes on as normal. Just last night, I was on a pick-up group for a while, and the subject never even came up. No one was concerned in the least about whether we would be punished or banned for anything, as far as I know, no one had been banned accidentally (at least, no one complained about it, which would have been kind of odd if they had been). It was just another fun evening of fighting crime.

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The scoop is, TonyV has no idea of what has happened and the mods have gone through looking for posts to edit or delete that discuss what happened.

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Okay, fair enough, here's how much of a hypocrite I am. I'm going to ask people who are reading this thread not to take my posts on blind faith. That's right, hold me to it.

Go actually take some time to find out yourself. Go play the game, have fun, and see if you get banned. Don't want to risk it? Then stop random people on the streets of Paragon City. Ask them something like, "Hey, I've heard that there are mass bannings going on. Have you been punished in any way? Any characters deleted or level-revoked? Any 72-hour timeouts? Log in to find any stuff missing from your inventory?" Keep track of how many respond that they have, indeed, personally been punished. Don't count "I know someone..." answers, because everyone here "knows someone" that something happened to.

You are the one who is making wild accusations here, not me. You should be the one who has to back them up. But you know, just because I'm absolutely certain of this, I'm not even going to ask you to. Undoubtedly, you'd tell us about how it would break forum rules (as if that's bothered you before), how you have a friend of a friend of a friend who got banned, or most likely of all, you'd just make [censored] up.

So to anyone who has any doubt about this, don't believe either of us. Check for yourself so that you can see first-hand just what kind of BS is being spewed here.

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To TonyV: just letting all of the people who aren't familiar with your posting history get some background "to clarify them", since you felt the need to do so earlier.

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My post history. Knock yourself out.

Oh, by the way, for people who aren't familiar with Slax, this is his second or third "I'm leaving!" troll post that I know of. He's not any more leaving than I am.

Let me say this again. This whole "people were wrongfully banned!" claim is total BS. Because you're just outright lying about what's going on, for the benefit of newcomers to this thread or the game, let me redirect the conversation. Here's the scoop.

These people, because they're mad that they weren't allowed to farm, exploit, and grief their way through the game unchecked and completely destroy the Mission Architect system, are trying to push this idea that you might be banned at any given moment just for playing the game. The objective, of course, is to get you to leave the game. In their demented mindset, if they can tear down the subscriber numbers, they figure that they can coerce the developers into turning off all controls and letting the game go to farming hell. Voting with their wallets isn't good enough; they're trying to vote with your wallet, too.

I have been playing this game for five years. I've never been banned, I've never had any character genericked, nuked, or nerfed. Not one single time, and it's not like I just stand around role-playing all the time. Like you, I do all the normal stuff. For over a month, I've used the Mission Architect system extensively. I've never gotten into any trouble, never had an arc pulled, never suffered any consequence for using the system as it was intended. The crowd I run with is pretty much like me. They play the game, they don't look to exploit the hell out of everything in the game, and some are Mission Architect fanatics. Like me, they have never had any problems with the developers, moderators, or GMs. Not one single time.

This whole "developers are bullies" claim is complete idiocy. If you're being stupid, yeah, there will be consequences, ranging from a wrist slap to a ban, depending on what you did. This is a good thing. Griefers suck, and any rational person will realize that dealing with them is in the best interest of everyone else playing the game.

If you're not doing anything wrong, and just to clarify, abusing the Mission Architect as a farming tool is wrong, then you won't have any problems.

Please keep in mind that the people who are claiming mass bans are pushing an agenda. If you think that you might be punished for playing the game, then you've been duped by people with ulterior motives. If by some weird chance you do get punished and you're completely innocent, the situation is easily resolved by escalating the issue to Niviene or customer support. This is no different than any time in the game's history.

However, and this is very important, this situation very highly unlikely. Again, mass bans of innocent bystanders is a lie, a feeble attempt by people who are mad that they thumbed their noses at the developers, tried to destroy a cool game features, and got busted for it.

Go. Hunt. Have funz.

Edit: Sorry, Vit, I used the quick reply box, so my message is showing as a response to you. It's not. And if the people in this thread advocating making other people's lives miserable are your friends, then I'm sorry, but they're trying to hurt the game, and that makes them pretty sucktastic in my book. I'm willing to discuss, and if necessary, argue, but only for just so long. They're trying to scare off players who have done nothing wrong and who are in no danger whatsoever of being punished, and that's really scummy. If they're your friends, then please try to get them to stop.

SPOILER ALERT

If you want to find them on your on, don't follow this link:
Midnighter Archivist Badge

Some of the clues are obscure, to say the least. It's not really like a puzzle you can figure out. As a simple example, one of the clues is, "Answers hidden within this box are the key to the tragedy of its necessity." You can't know what's in the box unless you click on it and read its description, so you're pretty much relegated to clicking on every box in the place until you run across the right one.

The Paragon Wiki article shows you the exact location of the clues. I'd suggest trying to find as many as you can on your own. If you're really click-happy, you might find them all. But the wiki is there in case you get stuck and can't find a clue.

Oh, and FYI, there are 13 in all, and each lobby is identical. The skull, for example, in the four different lobbies isn't different. The clues are spread out among the lobby (any lobby)/club area, not four lobbies/club.

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the way the dev's have dealt with the issue

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So GO. Which part of that do you not understand? Is it the G? Or the O? Don't let those spaces and letters around it confuse you.

Are you waiting for Matt to be fired or something? I can tell you that that ain't gonna happen. So like I said before, it's put up or shut up time. Either vote with your wallet and leave, or accept that sometimes things aren't going to go 100% your way, grow up, and learn to live with it. The debate is over, man, wake up and smell the coffee.

Since you're so miserable, why are we even still having this conversation? Are you seriously that intent on trying to destroy the game? 'Cause, ya know, they're not going to let you, and that can't be good from your perspective.

Well, I think you can have two accounts under the same PlayNC master account.

Go here and log in. Click on "Use serial code," and enter your code. (Or if you bought it through the NCsoft store logged into that account, it will show up there automatically.)

Keep in mind that your PlayNC master account name and game account name are not necessarily the same thing, although I think most people probably make them the same. If you have two City of Heroes accounts under one PlayNC master account, you'll have to have a different name for at least one of them.

*Post deleted by TonyV*

Damn, I just realized that this isn't the thread I thought it was. All of these troll posts are starting to run together.

Sorry, Rock_Crag, going back to not debating this here...

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On that note, I would like to thank all the haters out there that stuffed my e-mail box full of hate mail. Also the jerk that came in and wrote ugly comments on my virtueverse page. You must be feeling really empowered now. All items have been erased.

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Report them. Harassment is actionable. I think you were wrong, and the OP is way out of line for posting here, but I'm also of the "two wrongs don't make a right" philosophy. "They deserved it" is not a legitimate excuse for harassing someone.

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As for the "proof in pictures" of my being talked to there are none. I did not think to take any at the time due to the fact I was so angry. I am waiting to hear back in PRIVATE e-mail as to what was done with my character. I WILL NOT be posting anything since it is a PRIVATE matter and would get me kicked off the boards.

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...And again, good call, and I'm not being facetious. This is the best avenue for you to take. I do hope you get it resolved.