FoulVileTerror

The power of Alt+0160 compels you! Instead of using up 7 characters to do a space, it only consumes 2.

Interesting to see this thread come up again after nearly a year. I had to re-read portions of it to get the context of my own post that was recently quoted. The subject matter here is one which I've struggled to really get my words to meet my intended message. I can see the wording in some of my earlier posts here being rather poor, so I'll try to clarify and expand my view on the subject in point form. I suspect this won't be the last time that I try to refine my efforts to express myself on this topic. - In-game Rewards (digital "goods" and content) are not the same as a sense of being rewarded (which is deeply subjective and personal), but the two are pretty closely tied together for some people (potentially the majority of gamers, based on what I can observe, but I don't have hard numbers). - The sense of being rewarded has been more and more efficiently co-opted within the games industry as a means to incentivize players in to performing activities which ultimately lead to profit for the publisher (and rarely, on occasion, the developers). The use of In-game Rewards to that end, however, is not the only method they use. Social pressure tends to be leveraged far more often and far more effectively these days. Using In-game Rewards as a means to that end is usually the way of it. - The ever-maturing "gamer" demographic is becoming more and more savvy to this as game development becomes demystified (personally, I think that's a fantastic thing! The industry needs to be more transparent on the whole), and there appears to be a growing struggle between gamers as to where to draw the line on the matter of what's acceptable and what's flagrant manipulation. Since "fun" is secretly a four-letter word in game design philosophy due to its monstrously subjective nature, "compelling" and "retention" tend to be synonymous when you speak to certain people calling the shots behind the scenes in the for-profit games industry. - Years of this has primed no shortage of players to associate this Reward-chasing as the only meaningful way to interact with a game. In such a point of view, "the Grind -is- The game." I personally don't agree with that, especially not with City of Heroes. - City of Heroes has on many occasions flaunted trends and broke the mould. Not always (*glares meaningfully at Incarnate Content*), but for the most part the game's legacy and current development demonstrate the merits of its much more unique approach to the MMO genre (at least in terms of 2004, but there are still some things which set City of Heroes apart to this day). - A place which I feel City of Heroes failed, but probably couldn't have done things any differently at the time (again, bearing in mind the MMO landscape in 2004) was with gating content behind a single linear level system. I believe that we are in a position to meaningful address that failure now that the game is no longer for-profit, BUT the line of tread is a particularly precarious one. In part because it would require a deep re-examination of many of the preconceived notions people have about progress, content, rewards/Rewards, and gameplay . . . but also because as we've seen time and time again; the variety of people who play City of Heroes (and Villains, and Going Rogue) is significantly diverse in terms of -why- we play! - So, circling back to something I say quite frequently; I would like to know what the Homecoming Team sees as THE course for the future of this game. We've got players here with diametrically opposed ideas of where the fun is. Of what constitutes enjoyable, or what constitutes a waste of time. At the very least, I would have liked to see them post some polls and gather some marketing data in a more directed format. - And so, this is (give or take) the context I'm coming from when I made my earlier proposal that players be the architects of their own standards of rewarding themselves, with the game being as open as possible to facilitate that. The "Double Experience" option offered in the P2W Vendor is an excellent example of a microcosm of what I'd like to see for the entire game. - It's at this point, however, that we run in to one of the biggest barriers: Players holding other players to some kind of standard of "acceptable" In-game Rewards. I do not like to speak for other people, but to the best of my abilities to understand their point of view, it seems to me that certain players do not want to cater their own challenges and sense of reward unless everyone else is held to that same level. And given that this is a social game, and given the explicit training which the industry has put gamers through . . . I can't really blame them. I just hope that they closely examine the situation for what it is: A luxury. A privilege. Gaming (ESPECIALLY this game) isn't an inalienable right. It isn't a meter by which we can judge meaningful accomplishments. It's entertainment and (if you're willing to embrace it) educational materials. Yeah, sure . . . pro-gaming is a thing. Streaming games for profit is a thing. But neither of those currently apply to Homecoming: City of Heroes (tangent: Are we -sure- that's the way we want to brand ourselves? Just checking). - And in regard to the level 50 thing I said earlier: I mean to say that level 50 is arbitrary. The content which is gated behind it is arbitrary. The meaning it has to a player is arbitrary. The entire concept of levelling up is arbitrary. Yes, it's trivial to some. Yes, it's a big deal to others. That's entirely my point! It's so arbitrary that gating anything behind it is (in my point of view) no more valid than gating content behind Badges or hours spent logged in. I really think it's worth re-examining it, and re-evaluating it as the metric by which -game content- is blocked from players accessing. . . . and thusly . . . we'll see if I managed to really succeed this time in what I seem to consistently fail at. I hope this post as been informative and helpful, and encouraged some critical examination of preconceptions on what -is- versus what /could be./

It's not cheating if all parties know and accept. But still . . . dump Scrapper, @Aeroprism. Brute, Tanker, and Stalker are all much more amiable to the sharing lifestyle. . . . well, ok. Maybe not Brute. When they get going . . . HOO-BOY! It can be hard to stop 'em.

Don't apologize. Scrapper needs to know its place! (I do not endorse this sentiment with any real human beings, for the record. I just like to express my disdain for Scrappers in a comically over-the-top format. Especially when Bill's around. *flees to an underground bunker*)

Ok, I don't know what was going on, but I looked in BOTH those places, and didn't find those duckies. Maybe some kind of visscale or graphic setting? I wait with baited breath to see where the other five are hiding . . . and if I somehow was blind to them as well.

For what it may be worth to the overall discussion, I -do- appreciate the four week window. The current 1-2-1 format for the weeks of darkness is perhaps a little . . . odd? But for my play experience, the overall compromise is fairly solid.

Can't say that I do, @Greycat. When was that?

The other option is to make it a Club (the Invision Community Forum software feature, not the Everlasting nightclub scene), but those haven't been utilized anywhere near as much as their immense potential offers. They're kind of "invisible" to most users.

I'd rather tell everyone about my favourite woodland hike. Because it doesn't belong to me, and everyone deserves a chance to enjoy it.

I still contend that many community members use the Confused reaction for exactly what it is: A way to expression confusion to a post that was made. No one is under any kind of obligation to explain what they find confusing, and it is not inherently a hostile act. The Reactions are a passive means of expressing valid opinions, whether they add to a user's Reputation score or not. Really, the "calling out" or reaction-bombing of those users are significantly more negative. Of course, this is my personal opinion on the matter. I don't believe we ever received an official ruling from the Homecoming Team or GMs on what their views of the Reaction/Reputation systems are.

I think it could be a good addition as a sub-forum to the Roleplay board. Alternatively, sub-forums for each of the Shards' boards. If we do ever get some level of integration in the game itself to link directly to that board/those boards, that would be extra stellar!

Ok, I'm not sure if I found a ducky, but here's a screenshot of what I -think- is a ducky . . . ENHANCE! Ducky?

It's important to remember that Paragon City looks the way it does, in the context of the narrative, because the Rikti blew lots of it up and what we see is mostly rebuilt after the war. I mean, that was probably just a justification to help explain away the lack of diverse building material assets at the time, and seeing progress and repair since the war that took place roughly 20 years ago would be nice . . . just saying that the existing architecture isn't entirely unreasonable either. At least . . . the -exterior- architecture.

Ah, damn. Well done @Grouchybeast. I wouldn't have even thought to check that.

I don't think the Igneous ever speak English, broken or otherwise. That line sounds like something a Troll would spout instead.

I had to read and write these sorts of things professionally in my previous career, so I do generally read them. I'm just surprised that I didn't catch this sooner.

Installation directory: D:\Games\CoH CoV I had received but hit "Run anyway." All other protection software is being compliant.

It would be fantastic if they could implement an option for players to decide whether to use the default day/night cycle's skybox and lighting appearance, or to toggle for permanent nighttime or permanent daytime lighting. Spawns would still be tied to the internal citytime, naturally. What I propose would merely be a client-side visual option.

So . . . about hitting "Cancel" . . . Not working. Did drop Memory Usage to 16.6 MB though. Not seeing the periodic network usage any more either. I terminated through Task Manager after giving it a few more minutes. Copy of contents from launcher.log sent to @Number Six by way of private forum message.

It took approximately 3 minutes of: before popped up . . . However, it's been sitting there with an empty progress bar for roughly a half hour now. The application in Task Manager shows a consistent 22 MB memory usage, with rare periodic blips of 0.1 Mbps under network usage. Using Windows 10

So, installing the new client launcher, and re-reading the Privacy Policy and User Agreement, and I caught something. 5.B.v of the User Agreement ( https://forums.homecomingservers.com/user-agreement/ ) makes reference to Sections 9 and 13. The User Agreement document only goes up to Section 7, as far as I can see. Additionally, 6.A references 3.B, but there is only a Subsection A under Section 3

It terrifies me how talented @Dacy is. I do want to thank everyone who is participating or contributing to the https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/22626-community-project-homecoming-team-appreciation-trick-or-treating/ event too! We could still use a few more people getting involved; volunteers and folks to spread the word especially. But, yeah; special thanks to Dacy!

We've got the Yellow Pages: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/20730-url/ the Roleplay-a-Day: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/clubs/14-roleplay-a-day/ and the Club Listings: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/22726-current-club-list-for-everlasting-server/ If you would like to leverage any of those lists in to your own project, I think that would be alright, but there may be some redundancy overlap.

Sorry. I'm afraid that was a "practical joke" / trolling rumour. To my knowledge, there has never been a badge associated with the Atlas Park blimp. And before anyone posts a reply in here thinking it would be funny to continue propagating that rumour . . . please don't.

I know someone has the Fear Incarnate character on Everlasting. I originally had the name, and gave it up. Perhaps find out their Global and ask them?