Excraft

And some people over-reacted because no one heaped glorious praise on a bad idea. Removing AE from starting zones will not do much if anything at all. New players still have very easy access to it in other zones through a short jaunt on the tram or through readily accessible base teleporters. You'd also have to get rid of DFB and DiB to "protect" those new players from skipping through the first 15 or 20 levels without ever leaving Atlas Park, in addition to preventing them from seeing or using LFG so they don't see or have the opportunity to join AE mission teams being advertised. You'd also have to remove P2W vendors from the tutorials and starter zones. New players don't need to be protected from anything. If powering to 50 right out of the gate is what they want to do, what makes them happy and keeps them around, let them do it. If that isn't your play style, more power to you. Do what you enjoy. People powering to 50 don't seem to be your crowd anyway, so it shouldn't make any difference to you what they do with their time here. Trying to arbitrarily force them into doing activities only you enjoy is just going to drive them away. Like others have said, options are the best thing.

Absolutely 100% spot on!

Right so you don't really have any facts to back up your statements. You're welcome to your opinions, but please don't try to pass them off as facts. So you're trying to call someone out on a strawman while admitting people are calling for AE nerfing and/or removal - and that somehow constitutes a strawman? I don't think you know what you're talking about here. Removing AE from the low level zones is a non-starter. It doesn't solve the problem of attracting new players in the first place and no one has any direct empirical evidence beyond pure opinion and conjecture that it'll help with retention or that it's the cause of the declining population. Nor is there any data to show it will help with player retention. It's fine to make the suggestion, but the idea doesn't work for a variety of reasons - all my opinion of course; There's no evidence AE being in the starter zones is what's causing the population decline, nor is there evidence that it isn't. Without hard data, it's a mistake to guess that's the problem invest the limited available time to removing it. It ignores the possibility that AE being in a convenient place can help with player retention. It ignores that having options for new players is a good thing. The idea only addresses catering to a certain type of new player and ignores the rest. Understandable since most people have difficulty seeing outside their own bubble. DFB and DiB runs will still be a thing which let a new player bypass early content very quickly. There may be new players who are into PvP and don't want to level up the old fashioned way or through story content and want to level up fast so they can enjoy the activities they like and avoid the activities they don't. No one is forced into joining fire farms. There would still be farms advertised on LFG for them to join in other zones and other zones are just a tram ride or base portal hop away. P2W vendors still exist starter zones (and in the tutorial) where new players have access to double XP boosters right from the start. They'll out level a lot of the early game just by using those doing normal content without ever setting foot in AE. The argument of "missing out on all the game has to offer" doesn't really work. By the time you hit 20, you've pretty much encountered every mission type the game has to offer. The NPCs and contacts change, the rinse and repeat activities remain the same. I know some don't want to admit it, but people do find that boring. The argument that using AE to power level breaks any kind of emotional investment in a character is a false assumption. See PvP players and anyone who doesn't want to level up umpteen alts through grinding story content. I could add a lot more if I sat here a few more hours lol. What I personally feel would help to bring in new players the most has already been brought up here in this thread; us - the community. Word of mouth can go a long way. I have to ask, what are the people out there who feel AE farms are driving off new players doing about it? Are you investing the time in game to create teams to introduce new players to the game? Are you making posts on social media to advertise and attract new players? I play fairly regularly and I never see anyone offering to help new players out by running them through story content. If it's really that important to you, then do something about it and do your best to make an impact.

Ok. Share some of these "facts" with us then. Can you post links to empirical data from Homecoming or any of the other CoH servers showing how many of these new players came in, got insta PLed to 50 then quit because of farming? Would love to see these "facts" of yours. You can already enjoy the aspects of the game you want to here. No ones forcing anyone into doing something they don't want to do here. Following your logic here, PvP, marketeering, RP, speed runs or whatever other play style you don't like should get removed because someone can find some negative aspect to them. Where exactly does that end?

For the people still whining about the AE and incarnates and P2W... correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't a lot of this what Rebirth tried to do to be closer to what the game was on live? Last I remember, that server didn't have anywhere near the population this server one does. That should tell you something very loud and very clear about what players are looking for. Cake introduced a whole bunch of new powersets, instant 50s etc. and that's a low population too. What's good in all of that is that there's now a variety and players can choose the style that best fits them. They can do that here too. No one forces anyone to jump into AE and farm or get double XP boosters. You can level any way you like here and that's a good thing IMO.

Right, so we can agree, nerfing AE would cause even more players to leave just as I said. Ok and? You're making it sound like this is some kind of deterrent to bringing people on board who can help. Nope, didn't miss it at all. I know thinly veiled AE nerfherding trying to hide behind virtuous intentions (aka BS) when I see it.

Sure. There's a great many people using AE to level up alts and as a primary means for inf generation. There are also a great many people who just enjoy farming. Are you suggesting that taking that away from them is going to miraculously keep them here?

This is nothing more than a totally transparent, very thinly veiled, very poor attempt to hide behind some false sense of virtuous nobility to force others into what you feel is the "right way" to play. Just be honest, you want to nerf AE because it offends your precious sense of how the game is meant to be played. Guess what? Being offended doesn't make you right. Stop bullshitting everyone and stop trying to hide behind some false nobility here. You don't know anything about what a new player may or may not want to do with their time. Your preferred methods of earning in game funds or what activities you enjoy are good for you. They aren't what everyone else will find enjoyable and new players aren't so stupid that they won't figure things out on their own and find the paths they want to take. This game just isn't that difficult to master. As for new players, this game launched 18 years ago. It's old. While the volunteer staff here is doing their best and are releasing new stuff, it isn't attracting new players. It doesn't have the development staff that newer games with more support, more funding, better graphics, more complex mechanics and far superior QoL options have. You aren't going to get droves of new players in here. It's wishful thinking to believe otherwise. Be happy with what you have. And what? People are stupid and can't learn how to work with them? This is a very bad idea and would drive away even more players.

I'm not outraged at all. I just find your insincere, totally transparent, hypocritical virtue signalling mildly entertaining at best, that's about it. I'm getting a decent laugh reading your posts, so thanks for that. I haven't suffered any trauma from Brie Larson. I don't care about her or anything about her at all. Her movies suck. She's a terrible actress, a terrible person with zero personality and another virtue singalling transparent hypocrite like yourself. Like I said earlier, it's totally fine for woke virtue signallers to say "it's not meant for you" only for stuff they like and care about. Anyone else who says it to try and preserve their favorite IP from vandalization by woke PC crap is some sort of evil misogamist racist. That's being a hypocrite and applying those double standards that you're whining about here. I don't need any therapy, thanks. Btw I'm not white, in a mixed race marriage and I'm definitely not a victim of white people. I absolutely don't need to see anyone who is the same gender as me or who looks like me in movies in order for me to enjoy the story and characters. I don't need or want characters recast to gender or race swap them just to appease the frail woke twitter mobs. I'm perfectly fine watching good movies with good stories and good characters that are 100% white as white can be. It doesn't bother me at all. Anyway, this topic has pretty much been played out. You go right on trying your best to virtue signal and I'll continue to be amused by your hypocrisy. I'll wait until the fall to read about how fans are to blame when this series fails spectacularly.

Nothing went over my head. You're still deflecting. Deflect deflect deflect. Again everything boils down to race and the questions never get addressed. Whataboutism at its finest in avoiding the discussion. That's the problem with virtue signallers ... their thinking only goes one way, anyone who disagrees is a racist misogynist and equality and equity only ever goes one way. And for the record, I'm not outraged at anything. Amazon can cast whomever they want in whatever role they want. I'm not going to watch this crap. The showrunners blaming the fans for not liking their garbage already tells me it's not something I'll be interested in. Ah I see. Anyone who genuinely might dislike something is an outrage peddler. Again, PC virtue signalling at it's finest. Don't worry, you did Brie Larson proud. Complete horseshit. There would be a global meltdown about whitewashing African culture and you know it. Disney would never risk it.

And he'd be over the moon about the changes Amazon is making? LOL! You're still deflecting. Oh come on. Where's Brie Larson to tell these people this stuff "isn't meant for them"? See, that's the problem with this PC garbage. It only ever goes one way and anyone who disagrees or questions it is some racist misogynist. If everything needs to be changed so people can feel they're seeing "people who look like them" on screen in the story or to give non-white actors out there a chance, where exactly does this end and who defines when it is or isn't appropriate to change the source material? What incentive does Hollywood have to make movies about predominantly non-white people in non-white settings if they can just arbitrarily inject diversity into existing properties when it's not supposed to be there? Can movies like The Last Emperor be redone to include more Arabic people? Can Black Panther be redone to include more Asians? Can Shang Chi be rewritten to include more Native American representation? My politics isn't the problem here. Your politics are. None of the people in the Tolkien books, movies or animated films look like me and I don't really care and I don't need any of it changed to cater to me. I like it because it's a great story and accept the setting its in. It doesn't at all detract from the story and from me liking it. I don't look like King T'Challa, but I enjoyed his movie. I don't look like Sarah Connor or Ellen Ripley or Wonder Woman yet I really enjoyed their movies (at least the first WW one lol). I've got zero problem with including all kinds of representation where it makes sense and fits the world and story. There's absolutely nothing wrong with elves and hobbits and dwarves being white in Tolkien's world because that's the setting it's in. It's no different than Wakanda being all African because that's the setting for it. I'd be saying the same things if Disney tried to push there being tons of non-African people in Wakanda. It doesn't fit the source material. Watch the video I posted above. I'm not the only one objecting to the blatant political agenda pandering. I can share a whole shitload more of them if you would like me to. There's certainly an abundance of them out there.

Peter Jackson's movies were successful without the need for any "non traditional casting" of characters in his films that also had a large ensemble cast. He respected the source material. The cast worked just fine and the films raked in billions worldwide. People of all ages, races and genders had no problem enjoying the story. If these characters in the Amazon version are so minor and no big deal, why is there a need to cast them "non tradtionally"? What's so difficult to understand people want the source material respected and kept as the author intended instead of "updatimg it for a modern audience" and caving to identity politics? All you need to do is read what the showrunners have said to address people questioning them to understand where they are coming from. Aside from you not understanding the source material, why is it necessary at all? What's the harm in keeping the world the way the original author intended it? "Dark" doesn't mean dark skin in the context of the dark elves. I'll ask again, would it be a bad thing to recast Wakandan characters in Black Panther to be Arab or Asian or white? Not everyone in Africa is black, so would it be ok to show people of all colors living in Wakanda? It's ok, I already know what your answer will be. For someone who says they aren't pushing equality and equity, you're sure trying your hardest to advocate for totally unnecessary changes to the source material that support "more diversity". Found this and thought there's a few good tidbits in here. I don't agree with all of it, but the fake "superfan" videos are a huge red flag.

This is absolutely true and absolutely proves you're totally wrong with what you're pushing about equality and equity here. The Peter Jackson LoTR movies were huge critical and box offices successes worldwide raking in billions. They did all of that without needing to inject racial diversity in the casting. The films were a smash success without it. If "God" or whatever his name is in Middle Earth wanted everyone to be white, he wouldn't have created the races of men which Tolkien wrote into the story as being diverse in color. You're still not getting the point about Wakanda. There can be regions/places in fiction that are predominantly one ethnic background and that isn't a bad thing at all. It's just what the creators imagined.

You going to continue to try and deflect or are you going to answer the question? I could give a hoot about you and your post history to be honest. I just find it mildly amusing someone who says they don't care about a topic comes to makes posts in a thread about the topic they say they don't care about.

LOL! Then why come here and post a long winded diatribe that no one cares about? Yeah no, fans of a property questioning changes that muck up their favorite show or book should defend themselves when they get called racists and misogynists for asking questions. Creating controversy to generate a buzz about it might be the motive, but if that's all it's got then it's a sign that the show is going to suck in my opinion. What's the problem here? It's the world the author created and the races are how he envisioned them. This isn't any different than Stan Lee and Jack Kirby creating Wakanda and setting it in Africa with all African people with thousands of years of history. It's the worlds as their creators intended. You really seem to be trying to push the race issue here. As others have pointed out, there are peoples like the Haradrim and Easterlings in LoTR. The story just doesn't focus on them as much, but they're in Middle Earth.

By looking at the difference in what was said with regard to the different writers intent on their story crafting and writing in adapting Tolkien's work. One is clearly intending to leave their personal politics and garbage out of it. The other isn't. One is being respectful of the author and his creation. The other isn't. Watch the video again and pay attention. Whether you like it or not or agree with him or not, the man has a point. No, it isn't my second language. You're no more a fan than the next person who likes Tolkien's work and you aren't entitled to anything. Your opinion holds no more weight than the next person on the topic.

You completely and totally missed the mark here. Like you didn't even pay attention to what was said at all. The discussion was about the writers intent behind their changes and he's 100% spot on. His point is about respecting the source material and not injecting any of your own political garbage into it. He's got a lot more credibility as a film reviewer than you ever will for sure. Neither do you. You're no more entitled to the fandom here than anyone else but you certainly sound like you should be entitled to it.

I don't think anyone is suggesting or expecting any of the Tolkien works to get adapted word for word identical to the books. Yeah differences are inevitable, but it's the clear intent here that's pissing people off. That guy in the video @ShardWarrior linked above spells that out very eloquently. I'm watching some of the other videos he's done and what he's saying there about alienating your fan base is spot on.

I think you're willfully ignoring what people are saying to be very honest because it disproves your narrative. What you're arguing against here isn't working the way I think you want it to. You're saying Jackson changed the story and made her using more magic instead of a weapon and it was a great success. Isn't that kind of the point for criticizing her now all of a sudden going from magic wielding ethereal elf queen to She-Ra? Yeah the elves liked to use bow and arrow and sword, but she's not an ordinary elf. If she didn't need to use weapons before and that was a raging success, what's the reason to change it up now other than woke agenda pushing? Which reading what the showrunners are posting, that's basically what it is. I don't think anyone is suggesting Jackson's films destroyed the property either so pointing that out is meaningless. Practicality as an argument doesn't work either. You're dealing with a fantasy novel with magic rings, spell casting, elves and dwarves and giant demons.

No need to get triggered. We all know badly designed game elements are the players fault and shouldn't be fixed. 😉

I'm surprised the usual forum white knight brigade hasn't been in here to crap all over this idea yet or to tell you this is your fault because you can't use your mouse right.

No. Please stop nerfherding with this very transparent posts.

Translation - "The way I play is the RIGHT way to play. Screw everyone else and what they find fun. They MUST play the way I say." Charging tons of inf for stuff is something the devs here have said they absolutely will not do as all it does is drive people to goldfarmer sites to buy inf. No thank you. I have a better solution for you - play the way you like and let others do what they like.

Same. Hiding him away in a base just doesn't seem right to me.

Correct.