jubakumbi

Just wanted to add a thanks, I used them years ago, I use them now. It's one of those things you didn't think you needed until you use it, IMO. Thanks for sharing your kung-fu!

IMO, the intangible here is what you have pointed out - CoH was made with passion for the end product, not the rewards for creating it. When you have that great meal, play that great game, etc., the ones you remember are the ones 'made with love'. Humans can make magic.

So about that apartment building all your characters live in...are you _sure_ all the Paragon Municipality Commission certificates are up to date? My sources in the Isles tell me that could change... ;)

My experience is similar to yours, differing only in that I still find time for a couple other games. This game has always been able to scratch an itch that no other game has been able to touch for me. Being able to create such diverse characters and play with them is just heaven for an old PnP gamer like me. Like no other, one can create really interesting and diverse builds and powers to augment the incredible avatar customization. This game pioneered the idea of the avatar not being tied to the equipment and skills, I think, at least in the MMO world. When I run PnP games, the first thing I ask players to play are the characters no one else would 'let' them play in other games. The wilder the better. (Somehow, on the Internet, this _Immediately_ gets intepreted as power-gaming, min-maxing, totally a desire to 'break things' when nothing could be further from the truth. It's as if the only thing that matters to some is the DPS meter, they are blind to all else.) In this game, almost all of those wild ideas can come to life. I go to sleep thinking about new characters. I wake up thinking about new characters. I daydream in meetings thinking about new characters. But most of all, I just enjoy _playing_ the game, just playing, just like I did with Galaga and Gaunlet with friends in arcades. All this rush to 'complete goals', 'get to the real endgame', 'finish characters', etc. is just noise to me. All of that just happens from playing, IME. My heart just does not beat that fast anymore, I just like relaxing as a SuperHero and some of them become gods while others remain sidekicks.

So multiple people disagreeing with a persons post is 'ganging up on the person' now? What is this, High School Debate 101? Disagreeing with an outlook or opinion is not in any way 'ganging up' on the person that expressed the opinion, it's called healthy debate. I am not here to coddle misinformation and fact-less opinions as fact.

Nope.

So, just because Cryptic employees had emotional attachments to their toys and thought players had to comform to that 'morality', we should be forced to do that now? That makes no sense. Why go backwards? Those same game runners destroyed the 'original' 3v1 crap holding back the game, and now we can move beyond what they thought, but that is now somehow 'too far'? What is with people that think they need to restrict others from having fun in thier own way? Man, there sure are some real control freaks in this community, overburdened with nostalgia.

Huh. Unlike the 'sick twisted self centered types' that cannot allow other people to enjoy what they enjoy, but instead think they can force thier own narrow view of the world on everyone else, like the Busy Bodies and Hall Monitors of CoH just love to do? You can take your ideas to oppress creativity and expression to your own private server, IMO, and then judge everyone from there, where none of the nasty sickness will harm you. You have the power to have your own little tower of power no one can harm, so go use it and leave the rest of of 'sick' people have fun.

So you are all just focused on the fact that if there is one true build, everyone will just flock to that, so we have to prevent people from doing that? Really? You are that worried about what others play, or that the herd mentality will somehow override the hundreds of subtle combinations this game has into 2 builds, really? Seriously, you are trying to compare this to pizza and beer in a blender? So this is just another attempt to make sure the min maxers don't feel bad about each others builds or something? Not all poeple that play this game do it as a DPS/MinMax Meter. All of the arguments I see here either based on the fear of picking the wrong build as a MinMaxer, or just don't like the overall power-fantasy at end-game where we are all gods. That's what this game _is_, a power fantasy, so where is the problem other than not enjoying the power fantasy?

Chasing that DPS meter....

Why is the AT being less important a bad thing? This seems like a totally personal, subjective thing to me. The whole idea is to create a character, IME, not 'restrict' things because 'this AT' or 'that AT' is supposed to fit neatly in a box. Why? Why so people think restrictions _add_ value is just beyond me. In the end we are Heros and Villains, _not_ ATs. ATs are simply a rules construct to allow for character building in my mind. Why should they be used as restrictions? Makes no sense.

HA! Don't even get me started, I will rant on that endlessly. You don't like the KB? Leave the team. Anti-KB players have options, yet they think it's OK to force others to change, rather than just leaving the team. Been fighting this one for years and years and years. Some people even have the audacity to claim there is a 'right' way and only the 'right' way to use KB! Just like any other player mechanic, if you don't like KB, then leave the team and stop with the silly KB guilt on players having fun.

While I do think a portion is based around habits from previous games combined with erroneous assumptions, I think most of them realize exactly what they are doing - preventing other players from joining thier 'club' so they can feel better about themsleves... That might just be the cranky geek talking, but from my PoV, plenty of these players really are just elitsist jerks whose personal brain chemistry does not allow them to have the empathy and compassion it takes to play with other humans. IME they just want well trained bots, because while they will waste time looking for the pefect group, 'scrubs' 'waste' thier precious time by being 'newbs' and slowing down the rewards per minute. I am well aware of how harsh my language is around this topic, but it's not like I have not been playing games with these players for more than a decade onlilne and many decades offline. Some players just cannot abide anything on the screen not doing exactly what they think it should do, much less a player that does not conform to thier outlook. Control freaks exist in all walks of life. IME, CoH has always had this contingent, but if you avoid them, you find all sorts of actual fun people to play with, just get out of Atlas Park. :)

Hm. Silly Saturdays might have to be a thing. "What is the worst way we could do this? Soes everyone have something on that list? Only six blasters and a 10th level PB? Eh, close enough, let's roll!" That would increase the Funs Per Second!

Exactly. If a record-breaking run is the goal and plainly advertised or something, that's fine, that can be fun, the 'all same AT' teams, that can be fun, etc. But saying you must be this tall to ride the ride on anything can be done with any group (virtually all content) - if it fails miserably, the whole group gets to learn and laugh, IMO, as it finds it's footing. But the Taskmasters would rage and rage, kick players, quit the team and /gignore the Tank and the 'Healer'. So sad. It is a game, not a job, not an obligation to others, just a fun way to spend time. Some people go out of thier way to suck the fun out of anything.

*blushes*

Virtual Worlds! :)

Well, TBH, on Live, Atlas on Freedom was not a much different hive of scum and villiany Many have returned to this game with only the 'good' memories from Live, IMO. I avoid Atlas entirely ASAP. I turn off virtually all chat. Relaxing silience. I grew tired of the "Look At Me!" chatter in multiplayer games before I started playing CoH back in the day. Running teams, however, I will do when in the mood. In all my team building messages I say ALL are welcome, ALL the time, unless a badge/level restriction is involved, obviously. I also love to stand _beside_ these players and get groups, do whatever it is they are going to do, then come back, because sometimes, they are still building a team, while we already ran the content. Tasty.

They did have a boost at the start, I thought that was removed on the move to Canada.

The answer from my PoV is - "Jerks". Nothing more, nothing less. Jerks will arrive in droves to any new game, especially a free one, and then try to tell everyone how to play. /gignore and move on, is my opinion, while letting others know in chat that the requirements are silly and jerkish. They have a right to be jerks with making teams, I have a right to never play with them and let others know that outlook is mean from my PoV. Modern MMO players have become DPS meters that seem to expect all other players to be bots working for them, IMO.

A month to 30 solo sounds just like Live to me. So do 1-day 50s. The base XP rates were not changed, AFAIK, from what has been posted by GMs.

Inside. Street sweeping like we did back in the very beginning was not a thing on Live for some time. Rikti Warzone and places like Dark Astoria, Hazard Zones, are not always terrible for drops and things, but XP is generally better from instances, unless I am mistaken.

Lots of reasons for lower level travel powers like Combat Jumping. Street sweeping is not good XP as you noticed, bad guys inside mission instances have the better XP. Kill stealing does not exist, XP is shared, a few players a 'touchy' on the subject, but code-wise, KSing is not a thing. Welcome back.

As of Issue 11, you are 'where you should be'. You have the option to turn off XP just like on Live if you want to do the arcs at-level. Why do so many people want to change things _for everyone_ when they have tools at thier disposal? Like others, I don't have an issue with more options, but don't force pre-i11 on the rest of us just because you want to go slow.

Putting aside the serious ageist bent this post has, how is an America where everyone can express thier view on something not a good thing? That is America, not a few people dictating to others what is OK to say and do, what is or is not 'proper' to debate. As others have said, Paragon City is in America, so there is in-game support for American holidays to be in-game. So? This is not some obligation to put these things into the game. Putting Real World events into video games ruins immersion for many people. Having or not having, wanting or not wanting an event in a video game does not mean someone has some 'warped world political view'. The America I was raised in is built on healthy debate and the xploration of ideas, not the oppression of those that are not 'patriotic enough' to debate options in a video game, regardless of 'current politics'.