enrious2
-
Posts
746 -
Joined
-
Hello everyone,
As I've been working with a lot of new players of late (shameless plug for the Mentor Project, link in my sig) and talking to them has me questioning some of the trial restrictions currently in place.
Here's what I'd like to accomplish - I'd like to offer up some of my observations, along with some possible changes and get your feedback. In turn, I'd then make a thread in Suggestions with the finished project.
You can see a list of the restrictions here - http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Trial_Account
So in no order,
1) The Trial Account/Buy Full Version box. I honestly don't have a problem with this, but if you reposition the box, it will automatically reset to the center of the screen every time you zone or go in/out of a mission.
Personally, I'd prefer that it remembers where I moved the box for each session - in other words, if I logout and login, it should be back to the center of the screen, but if I move it and then zone, it stays where I moved it.
2) The 50k inf limit. To be perfectly honest here, I have no idea if that's appropriate for a lvl 14 toon to buy their enhs and so on. I think so, but maybe someone has some insight on if it should be higher (to say 1mil)?
3) Trial accounts can't walk up to a MA terminal, search for a mission, and then try out a MA mission - they have to ask someone to start a team and invite them.
No problem with them not being able to create a MA mission, but not being able to try one on their own?
On a related note, currently a trial player recieves a note saying "You're unable to acces Architect Entertainment from this location", in case someone asks you what's going on.
4) I'm guessing trial accounts are prevented from sending team invites because of a concern of spammers doing a /i then spamming a /g message, but I wonder how much of a concern that is compared to a couple of friends trying the game out and having to ask for someone to start a team for them.
Comments?
5) On a related note, global channels. As mentioned in my intro post, I run into a lot of new players these days and many are on trials. Until they get the full version, they can't join the Mentor global channel and part of me wonders if this restriction is still necessary.
As it stands, a lot of channels are silence on join or became so when trials could join global channels, to prevent the spamming.
Is this still a concern vs. trial players being able to get involved in what is arguably the most important social activity (as in widespread and everyday part of our in-game social lives) - that of participating in a global channel.
What about adding an option to global channels allowing them to prevent trial accounts from joining?
Any other thoughts?
tl;dr version - I like pie. -
Quote:I heard a challenge...Originally Posted by Stalemate
And that's the 2nd best server representation overall, so not too shabby at all.
-
Quote:Sorry, we'll try to do better next recruiting drive.Originally Posted by Stalemate
Justice now has 7 mentors who cite Justice as a primary server they play on.
-
Regardless of the server you end up playing on, I suggest you sign up for the Mentor Project (see the link in my signature).
We have mentors available on Protector, Justice, Virtue, Freedom, Triumph, and Pinnacle. In any event, take a look and see if it's something you could benefit from. -
Greenhouser plant/therm
-
I fell asleep during the 1am raid last Saturday.
-
hmmmm
-
We've had another mentor sign up tonight, which is great.
I'd like to offer an incentive for neophytes to join (max of only the 3 mo vet badge, no alt accounts, and any other disclaimers I need to make up on the fly).
10mil inf (either side) if they join channel N P C.
Yeah, they could technically quit right after they got the loot, but I'm doing this as a good-faith thing and would hope it would be taken as such. -
Hello everyone,
I'd like to make everyone aware of the opportunity available on Justice for neophyte players to recieve help and advice from mentors.
The basic idea is to pair a mentor with a neophyte, with the mentor providing whatever guidance they feel appropriate, but ideally covering the basics of global channels, teaming, enhancements, and so on.
So this is a recruiting pitch.
If you're new to the game and would like someone to help you learn the game, answer questions, and basically have someone in the game who can act as a guide, this is something you may be interested in joining.
If you're an experienced player (and by experienced, I mean simply that you know how to team, join global channels, and explain how to play the game), and would enjoy helping to guide a neophyte player, then I encourage and welcome you to join.
This is being done under the auspices of the Mentor Project and as a result, both neophytes and mentors have available to them a wealth of others available to assist in any way they can.
For more information, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yaepkxn
If you have any questions or would like to join, please reply to this post or contact me in game.
Thank you,
--enri -
Whirlwind
Flurry
Jump Kick
Handclap
Provoke -
Quote:Heh.Originally Posted by Princess_Lee
Where is the rule book, I seems to have lost it...
Seems to me only rule is be respectful of each other, unless you kidding each other.
Maybe I need more villains on justice...
*bites*
I gave my last employer grief for not having an Employee Handbook, even after 4 years of employment...
I'm someone who believes that expectations of membership should be clearly stated as well as knowing that firm rules can be exploited (Hi '08 - I think Niv saw my view of forum mod training).
For now, the above 2 rules are simple enough - don't grief people in the channel and if a mod tells you that you're exceeeding expectations - it isn't personal.
Beyond that, I think there should be further discussion and you shall have it in the next few days.
As an aside, the idea of big brother is so 1984... -
1. Don't be a jerk to someone else.
2. Obey the mods.
Fairly universal rules, I should think.
As it is, specific guidelines will be hammered out, but they all reinforce #1. -
I basically made an exaggerated "T" for mine - you run down a corridor for your ouro and med bay, then either a left or right for TP / storage. I also hid all the maintenance type rooms, such as control and energy.
Feel free to contact me and I'll show you if interested. I'm on Justice, so just make a temp toon.
-
Quote:Sure, although as has been pointed out the people who know what they're doing already know about this and those that question it, merely reinforce their ignorance. Hence my suggestion to those so immediately dismissive to refrain from expressing it, if only to protect their own reputations.Originally Posted by brophog02
but that doesn't absolve the fact that anyone making a claim they know is outrageous should expect such a claim to be challenged and/or questioned.
As it is, I check of posting histories shows that my efforts as such were woefully late and thus I apologize to all concerned. -
And yet, he's telling the truth.
Please refrain from spouting argument from personal incredulity, it only makes those who know better immediately ignore you. -
Quote:I think using Occam's Razor, the latter is more likely to be true.Originally Posted by Uruare
For my own casual observations, most of the people I know that've quite didn't quit 'cause they were going "O'man, I gots everything. Bored nao, time to quit."
Though, I know a few dozen in my assorted coalitions and SG alone that are playing other games out of sheer frustration with market prices. Maybe that's just my mileage; it could well just be that I happen to socialize with the unrelatedly mashed-up social circles that just /happen/ to all be people that do put quite a bit of effort into accruing wealth and /still/ can't afford to IO their toons how they'd like!
Or maybe we're all just dumb. Yeah, that must be it.
Three things.Quote:The problem, as I'm sure you'll disagree, has considerably more to do with what a socio-ecomonic scholar might call a participle of the contextual theory of demand. Specific to this is the pointed fact that demand is a perception.
What do people perceive as being in demand, and why? According to the market, a very specific variety of IO's.
Why? Why would they want those overpriced things? The set bonuses off them aren't -that- much superior to those found on rare or even uncommon IO's, so what is -really- pushing that market?
Prestige maybe, and not the base-building kind? Do people just want bragging rights? Well, maybe, but I think the answer to that is also the answer to the question "Why DO so many people work so hard for all those badges?"
Completionism? Because it's there, some people will want it just to have it and feel like they've 'finished' something. That's a pretty powerful motivation for some, as the plethora of people with 300, 400, 500, 600 or even tipping 700 badges will attest.
Could be part of the all-important why underscoring the matter, eh? Is it rational? Is it reasonable? Well, who knows; it clearly seems to be for some, while certain others disagree.
But unlike with most badges, IO's very directly impact the effectiveness and utility of your toon as well. Sure, there are accolades that do the same thing, but getting those in no particular way depends on anyone else's decisions.
For some reason, I just don't hear anybody complaining about accolades being too hard to get.
And yet, I hear people complaining all the time about purple and PVP sets being too stupidly expensive. Blow such complaining off as much as you like, marginalize it to your heart's content, but there it remains.
Think it'll just go away if you stick your fingers in your ears and go "Lalala, can't hear your whining, you're all crybabies and you're dumb, lalalala!"?
Tragically, that doesn't work. Unfortunately, the intelligent will ask "Now why are they complaining?" and examine their reasons to sift through them for answers as to the whatfors and whyfors.
Are some, in fact, just lazy? Sure. Some really do just want everything handed to them, and some, in fact, feel they deserve to have it all handed to them. But let's with-hold judgement on that for a tick.
Some others are perfectly happy to spend their time doing quite a bit of stuff to get what they want, and I think most of us fall into this category. We've all got different tolerances for the grind as well as preferences for what we will and will not do that might fall into grey areas, such as farming, AE farming or other 'quick and dirty but legal' ways of things, including flipping the markets.
Ok, so flipping is less 'quick' than it is 'dirty and legal', but I digress.
Certain others, for reasons ofte nas inscrutible as they occasionally are anything but, will do anything to and past the point of demonstrable reason, to get what they want.
Those sorts will lie, cheat, steal and connive in any way available to them to get their way, and that is frequently in attendance to a near-complete to complete lack of concern for what impact their activities have on anyone else.
Why?
If you don't know, then I suggest you find out to the best of your abilities.
If you don't care, then you're not qualified to speak so loftily as you do any more than a self-stated mathemetician that dismisses multiplication as irrelevant is qualified to speak on mathematics.
But let us focus even more on this all-important question of -why-. Why do people want what they want, and do what they do to get it?
Muddle on that for a while. Entire libraries exist on the topic, and funnily enough, a growing number of them are specific to the psychology and socio-economic phenomena fundamental to and, in some cases, -unique- to MMO's.
But don't take my word for it, not that I dare for one second imagine you would.
I do not come to this forum armed only with a pouting lip for not having been able to afford a Ragnarok set and an angryface urge to bop you or any other legitimate player on the head for why.
I do not come to this forum with the urge to make things easier for myself -alone- to do or achieve or indeed to accomplish anything.
Take a look at my post count. I clearly don't feel the need to come flouncing around here very often, and I really don't care to make a habit of it.
However (And this is a big however), after speaking at length with at least a hundred various people on one server -alone- about these matters, I'm aghast at several things.
Inf sellers do more business than most think they do being one of them. Oh, sure, most are too smart to ever admit it or talk about it, but just those that have admitted to having bought inf in the past without specifying anything more than that has made me go "WHOA!"
I'd sure love to see some full data on who has and hasn't as well as why. I would -LOVE- to see such data, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that. But, alas, the best I can do is ask people.
Lots of people. And depend on their veracity in the replies made for all of it, which seats it all firmly in the realm of probable possibility.
And that's scary enough for me. It's less scary than downright depressing, however, as it makes it fairly well indicatively -certain- that this /is/ a problem and it /is/ impacting the markets, and /if/ it is impacting the markets (which, really, what else is it going to impact? SO prices? O'wait, those are artificially regulated, it -can't- impact those!), it is /not/ impacting them in favor of anyone exceeeeept...?
The inf sellers, the inf buyers and those profiting on their transactions and facilitating the maintenance of monumentally high prices.
Who's it hurt?
Everybody else, except in such occasion as that someone gets a purple or PVP IO drop that they can haul to the market and cash in on, if they don't keep it themselves.
Now, you might ask, why don't we all just smile and nod and focus on finding more of those and cashing in on them? Would that not be THE ULTIMATE ANSWER to all our (read: my?) woes?
NO!
No, it will -not- answer my complaints, because my complaints do -not- hinge on personal profit nor gain. YOU BET YOUR SWEET A** I know very well how to capitalize on a market circus as that has been created here, and you can laugh at me for refusing to do so /all/ you very well please. G'head, laugh it up Chuckles.
I am refusing to contribute to a problem of proportions that do not have impact in the game only. I won't invest in Coca Cola, I won't invest in Nike, I won't invest in Microsoft, I won't invest in Apple, I won't invest in Wal-Mart, and I sure as all royal snot will not invest in the Gold Industry.
Call me an ethically hide-bound fool if it pleases you. I really, really don't care.
1) You do not want to get engaged in a lexicon measuring contest. You're not really that impressive.
2) Since your goal seems to be writing a manifesto that no one will read, you should perhaps create a Twitter account.
3) If you wanted people to take you seriously, you should take the amount of time you spent not learning anything about socio-anthropology and spent it on not learning economics. -
Quote:You mean like you do?Originally Posted by Black_Mute
Most people don't realize this, but I would say more than 25% of pvp drops are generated by AFK PvP IO farmers in Warburg.
-
Quote:ZOMG! You should totally report such people for not being role-players in this game and it clearly states in the EULA that everyone has to rp and "be in character of a super-hero or super-villain".Originally Posted by The_Alt_oholic
When all you do is run farms in the AE or even Farms in the rest of the game, you aren't playing a super hero game. Your are simply trying to work the system and the genre has nothing to do with it.
On a side note, aren't you farming your post count by pasting the same drivel time after time, then resetting? -
Quote:In another year, will I have played long enough for a sense of entitlement too?Originally Posted by Eldorado
Yeah, right here: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=208877
12 topics below this one as of this writing....
Ha! My words exactly from that other thread -- this is just more of the "dumbing down" of CoX for the squeaky wheels. "It's too HARD to get 10,000 Rikti Monkeys! It's not fair that some zones are too high for my toon! It's not fair that I have to unlock a zone/costume pieces/weapons!"
In the other thread I suggested that they'll start giving away all IO's at stores next -- for free, of course, including purples 'cause people whine about those! And of course, Cimerora is too much work for some people to get to, so the new way to unlock it will be just a mouse click to make a phone call to Montague Castanella or Mercedes Sheldon, 'cause actually TRAVELLING to see them is too much work, let alone doing an arc.
Agreed, but that's not the new improved CoX mentality! Nobody was SUPPOSED to get 10,000 Rikti Monkeys in an afternoon, just like they weren't SUPPOSED to get every Mission Architect badge in an hour. (And of course, we all remember how the devs handled the MA badge situation, right? They just removed them from every toon, regardless of how they got the badges, causing even more uproar.)
Paragon Studios seems to be going overboard in their quest to make things "new player friendly" at the cost of removing every single long-term goal in the game. It's an MMO -- we're SUPPOSED to have long-term goals to keep us playing and paying our monthly fee.
Right now THEIR idea of a long-term goal is "keep sending us money" and they're taking away our reasons to do so. -
Quote:Then feel free to discuss it with me in game. I'd be delighted to show you how logically off-base your argument is.Originally Posted by Mornediel
Whatever... well, at least you can all be thankful this is probably my last post, and most likely last look at the forums. I came here to voice a legitimate concern, not to be insulted because I don't worship the developers every choice. Its funny... every person on here seems to think I am 100% wrong here, but EVERY single person I have discussed it with in the actual game agrees with me completely, and is very upset about it. I talked with a number of people before even writing this post, and if I didn't think it was an important issue, I would not have brought it up. But if the statements made here line up with the general voice you make on the forums, at least I know who the devs are listening to... not people petitioning and making suggestions in the game, but forum lurkers. Maybe one day they'll just make every person a lv 50 after creation, and then everyone can sit around the forums and talk about how much easier that is. Hope you all enjoy that.
I'd be happy to introduce you to a bunch of vets who don't share a sense of entitlement. -
Quote:And yet, there are items even now being sold for more than 2billion.Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
Well, regardless how much influence you have stored anywhere, you can only have 2 billion on any one character at any time.
Thus, you cannot bid more than 2 billion on any one item.
EDIT: Only wanted to emphasize that one point, Claws - I agreed with your post, just wanted to say that for others in the audience. -
Quote:This. For all of you decrying AE as the first cause of the market getting wonky, you need to step back and start at the beginning.Originally Posted by Fury Flechette
Further, a number of additions have been put in by the devs to give players alternatives to the market. Reward merits was one such alternative. Unfortunately, reward merits didn't do what the devs intended and instead reduced the supply of many recipes and essentially gutted out the availability of many mid level recipes while increasing the supply of max level recipes. That was truly an example of the law of unintended consequences.
That said, unless you're looking for a very few items meant for power gamers, even counting salvage prices, you're better off now than before i13.
Again, this.Quote:Ideas get shot down not because pro-market players are trying to protect the status quo but because the ideas aren't well thought out. When the devs implement new additions to the market, everyone wants the changes to have mostly positive effects without accompanying negative ones. -
Quote:As someone who uses alt toons to store inf in excess of the cap (in addition to legit flipping), I fully endorse this as it means that I will only become richer at the expense of those who use such a method to store inf.Originally Posted by Steele_Magnolia
Additionally, cancelling these exploitative bids on nonexistent items would suck a lot of currency out of the game, doing something to balance the game economy. Given that any such change to the game would have to be tested, players would know about it ahead of time before it came live. Players with such bids would be able, by use of trade from character to character, to prevent the loss of their currency. That is, assuming that all of their characters aren't abusing the exploit and that they had any friends to do the trades for them.
And I'm all about screwing over other players.
Oh wait, this isn't a bizarro version of the game? Then I think people who don't understand economics should refrain from entering into economics. -
Quote:I agree. Next thing you know, they'll only want stone tanks for STFs.Originally Posted by Dispari
There are also people who won't run scanner missions without a Granite Tank and Kin. I don't think we should build around the bottom of the barrel.
I've learned not to expect quality.Quote:Originally Posted by PumBumbler
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...&postcount=137
Hasn't happened to me, but what do you expect to get when you invite someone named "The PumBumbler"? Quality? -
Quote:In all honesty, I could never say anything more accurate than this.Originally Posted by Prof_Backfire
Yeah, most negative nancies you see are people who are jerks anyway and the game's better off without them.
This game gets rid of so many tedious and terrible things that other MMOs consider 'content'. You get travel powers rather quickly, so there's no jogging slowly for hours to get to missions. PVP is completely optional (and not particularly popular) and the game warns you from miles away about it. Thanks to the Sidekick system you can team with literally anyone, anywhere (to an extent) and still contribute to the team, and there's many different paths to levelling- it's impossible to do all the content on one character without deliberately slowing your progress.
This is the only game where there's a button to turn off XP gain, and it's considered a good feature.