rian_frostdrake

absolutly, the storylines were very good and added a darker, more nuanced flavor to the writing of the game, the content was more challenging, it came boxed with the morality system which has some of the better writing in the game, had several badges and featured several outdoor events, a new thing people had been asking for since WAR. and it was required for incarnates, so yeah, while they allowed us the choice to enjoy things like the new powersets and tips with our primals if we wanted to, GR did add significantly more than just side switching of new at's.

batman has had some really horrible writers.

anyhow, longish post will be for after work, but the nutshell answer is, I say that the nature of progression is what you have in your toolbox. My ma/sr/dm/incarnate scrapper has a significant number more options for dealing with challenges than he did when he was just kicking skulls, more aoes, more crowd control, much more damage and better defenses, to say nothing of some ranged powers and team buffs. Its up to the narrative to establish why some threats are more powerful than others, and i feel if you commit enough to reading the stories, they do establish why rularuu and malta are more dangerous than hellions or warriors. Even the trials do, with the use of level shifts, establish growth of your character against a cosmically powered enemy.

ditto, didnt ant to bring that into the thread, but it can be noted that polite people usually get treated politely, hostile people...well. something about reaping and sowing.

honestly things have been a bit rougher lately, but that can be somewhat understood. you have a major change in the game, change always will get some degree of response, and frankly some people seem to want to complain about anything, so long as they can complain. things will die down again and flare up again, its the circle of life. just try(and it can be hard) to not get drawn in. people rarely change their mind based on a internet fight, and you can waste hours on it.

you have to be subbed to post feedback on the forums, you seem to like providing a specific form of feedback.

(prefaceing this by saying that im assuming vips are generally veteran players, well aware thats not always the case, but its close enough)vips are also usually the people with the most vested interest in the game. a new costume may generally be interesting to a new player, but to an existing player with a huge stall of alts, it may (and in my case has) fill out a concept that you have wanted for an existing character for years, and you have the stable of alts to make this more likely.
plus you have the invested time to feel like you are staying here, rather than having a transient stay in one of a number of faceless freemos you are trying, checking the hook and moving on. essentially you don't buy jewelry for a one night stand. if you have a vested interest in the game and are interested in staying, you will want more stuff for your continued experience. For example, i bought the barbarian pack, i dont generally have any human fantasy themed characters, but since im going to likely be here till the lights go off, I probably will, so the trigger gets pulled. I am the choir here, preaching to me is easier.
Now as for your central point as to why have to pay more? well, for one, its debatable whether we did or not, but its already been debated into the earths core, but we paid for expansions and boosters, and we did then as we do now, making things costs money, and the 15 dollar a month thing(which was established over a decade ago) no longer covers the costs needed to develop the additional content, costs go up, and the value of the dollar has gone down, and inflation does that thing it does. the simple fact is that costs go up,relative to when i started i paid 18 dollars more per month for my karate training, 12 more for my gym membership, even 6 packs of pepsi run an average of 1.50 more than they used to 10 years ago , and thats if you follow sales. Stuff goes up, and we still only pay 15 a month(max, if you get in on deals, it can be as low as 10 bucks).

Ultimately you can still have the vip experience without buying points if you are disciplined, if you want a power, wait 2 months of stipend and maybe even wait for a sale. But if you want the niceties NOW, have a budget with flexibility for entertainment, and like the stuff, then you can pay the "want it now" tax. I have paid that tax and will continue to do so, so long as my budget has that opening and i find the offerings worth the investment. Since freedom we have gotten a good amount of content, going just by what i want (costumes and powers) we have gotten more than we have in the same proportionate amount of time in the games history, the trade off is that if you want it now, you pay the "win" tax. my friend has purchased less because some of the sets just didnt fit the themes that he enjoys playing. thats all good, I similarly wont be buying the consumables, not my vibe, but the options are there, and if you want to pay the win-tax, then they are available for your choice. without the market, we would very likely have to wait for boosters and expansions for the additional stuff like we used to, and we sure as heck wouldnt be getting around 4 new power-sets this year.

tldr, you get what you pay for. you want more, then you pay more.

"i will note that at present, i have spent 25 bucks on the market. post issue 21 i have street justice, the Halloween set, the cot set, the barbarian set, beam rifle, 4 Global costume slots, idf and defense costume sets, time manipulation, beam rifle, all the ssa's, first ward, all the celestial stuff, 150 more points per month and, since i used the 14 month deal, i pay around 10 bucks a month. i feel that I currently am coming out ahead. I have thus far put more money into "skylanders" thanks to my dragon addiction clip coupons accordingly

If i recall, thats a pretty good characterization.

oh , and jay/dave, look at ramna's outfits. me want here.

Were i a betting man, rather than a cheapskate, I would lose money on a bet if that went live. the feedback is too direct, this is the kind of thing that lowered the cost of costumes and changed the cot, I have faith that that feature will die a seedling.

or better martial arts alternate anims. or dinosaurs..and i want a pony dammit.

also, as much as I like the ssa's as little snacks. remember that stuff like first ward are also pay gated, that is the meat of the deal, any new zones you have to pay for as well, relative to a vip which, if you get in on the 14 month deals and use the market for costumes and such, right now is about 5 bucks a month, factoring in the stipend. ultimately giant is going beyond reasonable and there is not point trying to be rational, grrrr, angry, RAGE!!!!.

I dont like a number of things currently as stated and have provided feedback to that effect but i'm rational enough to remember that other bad ideas were floated and most have been modified(the cost for the ascended armor for instance) based on feedback. posting angry is like dating while drunk, you generally dont like what you wake up with the next day

one is a misdemeanor one is a felony,and the penny you are likely to get laughed at for reporting, magnitude IS important when assessing harm. again, do you have any actual facts suggesting that this was done for a specific reason.

analogy so excessive it breaks any real relevance to the situation. we have no stated reason why this happened, no proof it was because of over rewarding, that is simply a wild guess, Lets try something and actually wait till we have some facts on the topic before assigning blame to any particular motivation.

10 levels? Its bad but thats just reching waaay too far. its 10 short missions that apparently everyone but me stealths and gets done with in 10 minutes.and an 11th longer one. Still, the resetting is not a nice aspect and hopefully whatever reason this was done was ont that only could be remedied in this manner.

you can drop the smileys, its not helping. we accept all sorts of styles here, anime/manga is an amalgam that exists within those styles(only the most absolutely ignorant classify anime or manga as one monolithic concept), their absence would be felt a great deal more than those small minded individuals we would lose over its inclusion. thats about all i can say in regards to your post that would remotely be within board guidelines.

I was going to go there had you not.(its chinese though)

heroicne good spider. going deep into enemy territory to save an enemy combatant who experienced a change of heart, and beating down much of recluses b team as well as his "untouchable" arbiters while turning a crowd of rogue islands residents to cheering your name. that was good

villianous. cant think of a specific current one, but pretty much all that weston phipps does.

i'll run it again tonight, but i think there are two long red back spikes on the pic too, look at the red spike running right up behind his head.. anyway, ill be right back. it only takes 30 mins and then i'll be sure :P

EDIT ok, took a little longer, joined some teams. anyhow, he does have back spikes, so does the one enemy holding percy winkly, here is a shot of him close up, with a hold applied sadly since he was camera shy, but you can make it out pretty well in the pic.