ShardWarrior

Star Trek Online is currently running their Delta Recruitment Event, which got me to thinking - why not hold a recruitment event here to generate some interest? Come up with some fun activities for new players to experience while diving into the game. Might be fun to hold a mass Giant Monster event where there are dozens of Kronos Titans and Babbages invading Atlas Park or Mercy Island. The story can be that the villains are banding together into a new Axis of Evil Doers and the current heroes are not enough to fight them. Some kind of event that can be advertised on social media and MMORPG sites to entice some new players. This can be combined with player run events. We used to hold regular Supergroup Faires on Triumph back in the day. SGs would run costume contests, sewer runs, badge tours etc.

I am not sure how feasible it is to use what other servers have done (if at all) since the code is going to be different. With that said, I totally agree and would love to see more costume additions here. The options and choices Rebirth has added to their costume editor is vastly superior to what we have here.

That is very true. With that said, "could be" are the keys words here. Trying to lay blame squarely on farming as the sole reason the game has a low population or is not attracting new players is problematically subjective. Again, people are different. New players may be interested in PvP and have no interest in grinding repetitive story content ad nauseam or they may want to experience the content with fully decked out characters. Or they may want to experience every bit of story content they can get their hands on and level up that way. As others have already pointed out, there is something for everyone here to enjoy. What specifically is preventing you from forming a team and running it? I have seen people advertising respec trials outside of them being the WST. Granted, they are rare to see in LFG, however people are running them. People run them for the badges and they can be a nice diversion from the usual TFs being run. The very same thing can be said about DFB, DiB, SBB or any other content that can be sped through for high rewards with little to no risk involved.

While I do not doubt your personal experience, it is definitely not universally true of everyone nor would I say it is even representative for a majority of people. I personally belong to several chat channels filled with players who farm alts exactly as you are describing and are still actively playing every day. They have been here since Homecoming opened up and most if not all would not be here if they could not farm alts as they can. None of us have any real idea why others outside our social circles come and go. Ascribing blame to activities we may not like is very easy. Anyone here can just as easily point the finger at the utterly toxic disdain some here have toward ostracizing people who might enjoy farming. Those trying to impose their attitudes and opinions of "how to play right" like @Krimson mentions above can be another reason people were driven away. Many may have left simply because this is an old game and does not have many of the modern QoL features newer games have. Several people I know have left because they are older and at a different point in their lives and do not have the time to devote to the game anymore. Bottom line is no one knows for sure. Trying to paint AE, farmers and farming as the sole reasons is very short sighted in my opinion, not to mention referring to the people who enjoy it as "addicts". Those kinds of toxic behavior and attitudes are doing more damage than AE ever will in my opinion.

I am, but do not tell anyone. It is a secret.

Cannot say I found this one to be all that entertaining. Definitely the weakest of the Disney+ MCU series. No fault of the directing and acting though. Cast was very solid. The writing suffered in my opinion. C+ for this D+ show from me.

The idea that the solutions to any of the "problems" put forth here in this and other similar threads are needed for player retention can demonstrably be proven wrong. Quite easily as a matter of fact. I cannot speak for everyone, however I am still here despite AE being in starter zones, free XP boosts from the P2W vendor, fire farming, DFB or whatever other "issues" others have with the game. There is no question a great many of us continue to be here and continue to be involved with the game and/or the community on one level or another. None of the suggested changes or "fixes" introduced in this thread were required to retain us and there is no reason to believe the game as it is now cannot and would not attract new players with some of them finding parts they enjoy enough to keep playing. It worked for us, it can work for others. As others have (correctly in my opinion) pointed out earlier in the thread, word of mouth will help advertise and a helpful community will go a long way toward player retention.

Well said! Could not agree more.

I cannot help it if you are wrong and are contradicting yourself with your own posts. But whatever, good day to you.

@ForeverLaxx I am not sure why you keep directing this at me or what you are on about, but I would kindly ask that you please do your research for clarity. There have been many posts made on these forums over the years by players who have expressed their opinions about power leveling and AE and have gone so far as to suggest its outright removal. You are even admitting there are a few here in this thread. There is a history there and if you frequent the forums enough, this would be clear. A few have made suggestions about removing the AE building from starting zones and removing XP from everything other that Developers Choice missions, which as you know would be a rather large nerf toward the farming and power leveling community. Again, it is perfectly fine for people to dislike farming, dislike power leveling, dislike AE and feeling that it hurts the game and offering suggestions. Those pointing out that power leveling and farming was around long before AE existed and removing AE from starter zones or even entirely would do nothing to stop those activities are making a legitimate point.

I disagree with this entirely.

Whether it be a trickle or a flood of players, I would still very much like to see this empirical evidence of yours that points to farming and DFB being the main reasons new players are either not trying or trying and then swiftly leaving the game. I am happy to wait for you to post that data here so we can all examine it. What has been posted here ranges from subjective opinions and edge cases to pure speculation and hyperbole.

Again @TheZag no reason to doubt you, however I have to admit I find this part of the story a bit suspicious. I can see someone brand new getting a few bars or even a whole level on farm before they realize what is going on, but 6 levels before it dawned on them? Just being honest here, but that is a bit of a stretch to me, especially since this was supposedly a returning player. No one other than that player accepted that team invite to the farm and they could have asked what a farm was before joining. From my experience, farms are advertised as such in LFG. A person brand new to gaming can ask what a farm is before joining a team. I know I have had people send me tells asking what things like SBB or DiB stood for, which I was happy to explain when asked. While I agree the community here can be a big help in supporting new players, I am not sure we want to start imposing hard rules on what language to use when advertising for farms or specific instructions when running and inviting "new" people to farm teams to make sure they really want to join or not.

@TheZag - not that I doubt your story here but how can you be certain this person actually quit the game? There can be any number of reasons a person has not logged in for a period of time. Also, unless that person told you farming and power leveling is what specifically drove them away, then it is as you admitted, just an assumption. Totally agree there are a lot of people advertising or looking for farms on Excel. It is entirely up to the individual though. No one is forced to join a team they do not want to be on. There are also a great many people advertising non-speed, defeat most runs of various TFs and SFs. As for getting the word out being up to us, I completely agree. There seems to be a lot of people with good ideas on what to do, but do not want to put forth any effort and look to someone else to implement them.

I am not sure this is correct to suggest this is a strawman and that you are confusing separate points in the thread. There are a few people here who are of the opinion farming is the reason the game is in population decline and that AE should get removed completely because it is driving new players away. I believe that is who the counter arguments are directed to.

I have to ask, where are all these masses of new players that were instantly AE farmed to 50, got bored and swiftly quit you are describing here? I would love to see some Reddit posts or something where they discuss their impressions en masse.

The only way to truly fix Regen is to nerf it even more.

I do not necessarily disagree with you. What I am suggesting is the manner in which people are expressing their opinions could use a little empathy. It is one thing to say you do not care for farming. It is entirely another thing to constantly lament about it ruining the game, endlessly calling for it to be nerfed or removed entirely and shunning anyone who might enjoy it as social outcasts who are unworthy to be here. The tone you are using puts off a very toxic vibe that potential new players will pick up on. Preferences are subjective to the individual. Again, just as you left the game because of farming, I personally know a great many people who came back to it because of it. They got tired of that 1 to 50 grind and the ability to skip that to create all new characters to enjoy was a big bonus for them. New players who might want to try PvP in the game who do not enjoy grinding out multiple characters may also value farming. There is nothing wrong with disliking something. Personally, I very much dislike PvP. With that said, I most certainly would never discourage anyone from it nor would I advocate that it be removed or force those who enjoy it into a playstyle they do not care for. Good point. As far as I know, these other servers did not have the streaming restrictions that Homecoming had. They are not attracting legions of new players either.

Something to consider here that @Neiska mentioned earlier in the thread. Potential new players reading these forums are going to see comments like these. Ascribing a negative connotation to farming and the sheer intolerance to those who might enjoy that as an activity is toxic. It does not help to foster a sense of community. Just my 2 inf.

Hard pass on that. No thank you.

I understood the discussion perfectly fine. I was adding my experience with Alienware products and Dell.

I have two older Alienware laptops. One which I purchased years ago and one which I inherited from a former co-worker. Both are running fine after many years. Never had a problem with either of them. YMMV I guess. With that said, I would agree there are better options out there and Alienware is overpriced. Not really a Dell fan myself. I have had some very bad service issues with them in the past and would not recommend them.

Probably posted this before, but I still love it so sharing again 😁 Flight Man of Steel OST Hans Zimmer

I like this idea! Very interesting.

I do not disagree with you in that removing AE would have varied reactions, however I think it naive to believe overall it would not have a negative impact overall on player population. It certainly would be more a negative change than a positive one in my opinion. AE is not the problem with player numbers. It is the age of the game in a very saturated market and that CoH does not now nor will it ever offer any of the modern bells and whistles newer games do. Those who keep pressing on story content seem to forget CoH does just does not have that wide of a variety of mission types. Your basic missions are defeat all, defeat boss and crew, click glowies, rescue or escort hostage, hunt X villains etc. It gets repetitive very, very quickly regardless of how good the story is. Personally, I do not see streaming being any help here. The streaming restriction here has been lifted for a while now and there is no new influx of players. I would think streamers with any sizable subscriber base are going to stick to reviewing more modern titles where there is a lot more interest to draw in viewers and there is also potential for advertising money or other perks for them. I know of quite a lot of people who stuck with and in many cases came back to the game because they could PL their characters in AE when it was introduced. They had gotten very bored with having to grind out new characters through story content. Everyone has a different experience and different perspective. What you are saying here is not a universal truth for everyone. There is no right or wrong here.