I think you misunderstood what Jon said. Your character doesn't get deleted without your consent. What happens is you delete the character, and then the slot that character was in ( now empty ) goes away.
The question is, does the slot come back if you re-sub?
No, I did not misunderstand, I used the wrong word. What I was meaning was the slot was basically paid (by being gold) for and thus it shouldn't be deleted without a good reason. And going silver is not a good reason. So, it has to be a bug.
See, there's where your misapprehension sets in. When you have a monthly sub, you haven't "bought" anything - you're renting it. Outright purchase costs $300, $200 on sale.
You can also outright purchase slots, which will remain yours forever. They used to cost $14 for two, with a total possible of 59 purchased. Now they cost $1 each, with a possible total of 100, both purchased and "earned" in-game.
Thing is, I bought the game. Still have the box. So having that slot disappear, bug or not, just made that purchase feel more and more like I'd gotten nothing from it.
That's been CO's problem, and the problem with some other F2P games. Older purchases and long-term support mean nothing without either a current subscription or much larger purchase. It makes the game feel like it isn't worth paying for, since your purchase might be worth nothing (or at least substantially less) in the future. Probably sounds familiar to those upset about the LTS character changes, doesn't it.
Think is... your complaints are based on your "feelings" and not on reality.
Hm...so is the complaint now about the loss of the slot from gold to silver or about subs shouldn't go away. This thread has shifted a bit/I kinda got lost on what's being argued anymore
Buffing everything to stupid high levels and nerfing everything to piss poor levels yields the same results, but not the same community reactions.
When you purchased the box, that was at a time when what you were purchasing was access to the game. (That wast the dominant paradigm at the time.) You still needed to pay them $15 per month to access that game you'd "purchased" - it's just that back then, there was no Silver level to fall back on, you just plain couldn't play at all without paying. You were still just renting your entire account.
Now there's a way to actually own your account. You can either cheap out and do it all in Silver (I did that for a long time, buying Zen when I could so I could purchase stuff - it's a lot less expensive now), or you can go all-out and either start a sub while that's still an option, or purchase the game as a whole for $300, $200 on sale. If you sub, though, you're still just renting your account. It's kind of like the difference between buying and renting a house - rent is usually cheaper than mortgage payments, and generally requires less initial outlay, but in the end you still don't own your home, and if you live there long enough you could wind up shelling out more than the price of the house anyway.
"Science teaches us to expect -- demand -- more than just eerie mysteries. What use is a puzzle that can't be solved? Patience is fine, but I'm not going to stop asking the universe to make sense!"
When you purchased the box, that was at a time when what you were purchasing was access to the game. (That wast the dominant paradigm at the time.) You still needed to pay them $15 per month to access that game you'd "purchased" - it's just that back then, there was no Silver level to fall back on, you just plain couldn't play at all without paying. You were still just renting your entire account.
Now there's a way to actually own your account. You can either cheap out and do it all in Silver (I did that for a long time, buying Zen when I could so I could purchase stuff - it's a lot less expensive now), or you can go all-out and either start a sub while that's still an option, or purchase the game as a whole for $300, $200 on sale. If you sub, though, you're still just renting your account. It's kind of like the difference between buying and renting a house - rent is usually cheaper than mortgage payments, and generally requires less initial outlay, but in the end you still don't own your home, and if you live there long enough you could wind up shelling out more than the price of the house anyway.
True, but the good news is you don't have to pay $200 on sale to own the game with the recent price drops, plus the potential Premium pack. I think more than likely that'll be the way people go. $300(or $200) on one game doesn't really sit well with a lot of players as of late. Look to the fiasco surrounding Destiny 2/Forsaken DLC and passes. A total of $100 would be needed to spend right now if you're new to the series for the base game, and both of Year 1 DLC's(a, argumentatively, decent deal in it's own right), on top of a Annual Pass which is an additional $30. People are in an uproar(understandably) about that, and that's a AAA game made by a rather well known studio.
Buffing everything to stupid high levels and nerfing everything to piss poor levels yields the same results, but not the same community reactions.
When you purchased the box, that was at a time when what you were purchasing was access to the game. (That wast the dominant paradigm at the time.) You still needed to pay them $15 per month to access that game you'd "purchased" - it's just that back then, there was no Silver level to fall back on, you just plain couldn't play at all without paying. You were still just renting your entire account.
Now there's a way to actually own your account. You can either cheap out and do it all in Silver (I did that for a long time, buying Zen when I could so I could purchase stuff - it's a lot less expensive now), or you can go all-out and either start a sub while that's still an option, or purchase the game as a whole for $300, $200 on sale. If you sub, though, you're still just renting your account. It's kind of like the difference between buying and renting a house - rent is usually cheaper than mortgage payments, and generally requires less initial outlay, but in the end you still don't own your home, and if you live there long enough you could wind up shelling out more than the price of the house anyway.
Except, taken in that sense, an LTS is still not owning your account. You don't own anything, you're not purchasing anything. You're just as much a renter, entirely subject to Cryptic's decisions of what to provide you. Cryptic could decide to, say, stop offering free character slots, and what are you going to do? Sue them? You don't own the game.
The point is that customers need to perceive that what they are paying for is good value, or they stop being customers. Things like this don't exactly inspire that perception. I was absolutely furious when I lost that character slot and stopped playing for over a year, uninstalled and thought I'd never be back. It took the anniversary character slot gift to bring me back.Even when I did come back I held off on spending.
CO's monetization doesn't offer much value on the surface, but it just gets worse as you get into the details. Up til now, everything aside from the LTS has come with a question that's been a struggle to find an answer for: "What do I have to show for this money I've spent?" For subbing, it's always been "the ability to sub more." Barely passable as an answer on its own, considering how little you actually get to keep from a sub when you're unsubbed. For FF slots its always been "one ridiculously overpriced slot and nothing else." Then there are the per-character Vehicles, the ATs that still underperform against FFs (and are still not experiencing the game as-designed), costumes (probably the only actual value purchase) and keys ('cause everybody loves lockboxes).
The FF slot reduction doesn't change much. It saves those that would have already bought them a bit of money, assuming it's cheaper than the previous ones when on sale (which I think we can all agree is unlikely). Removing subs could be great, though the original plan would've been a disaster. Lowering the price of general slots doesn't really help silvers unless they really enjoy the few ATs they have access to, and cuts into LTS and Gold stipends--though I imagine they were making jack-all on character slots at all, including FF ones.
Honestly I hope this entire fiasco forces them to take a much harder look at the game's monetization as a whole and realize that it's been the biggest hindrance to the game's success since the conversion. I was talking to a friend about CO the other day, and one thing he said nailed it on the head. Playing as silver feels like a trial, which it of course is, but going back to silver after spending however much on subscriptions and the store still feels like a trial. You paid, but you're still playing a trial. It feels terrible and turns people off of playing at all if they're not subbed, which turns them off from returning to the game if they aren't already planning on resubbing, which means they're less likely to consider resubbing since they're not playing the game anyway.
Cryptic needs to find a way to get those players to come back and keep playing, and keep paying. Knowing them, they won't, but I can hope.
Except, taken in that sense, an LTS is still not owning your account. You don't own anything, you're not purchasing anything. You're just as much a renter, entirely subject to Cryptic's decisions of what to provide you. Cryptic could decide to, say, stop offering free character slots, and what are you going to do? Sue them? You don't own the game.
Of course we wouldn't sue them, because we knew the terms when we agreed to them. Subbers agreed to provide monthly payments in return to access for a specific number of services. Those are the terms that a subber agreed to, so it makes no sense that they would be suddenly surprised when not continuing to pay loses them access to the things that were attached to those continued payments. Same with LTS, we read the part where it says the service might change, so we have no excuse to be surprised or cry foul when it does.
Cryptic needs to find a way to get those players to come back and keep playing, and keep paying. Knowing them, they won't, but I can hope.
Everyone in the industry should be falling all over themselves trying to figure out how a game company kept a game alive for nearly a decade without ever figuring out a way to keep players playing and paying. I'm sure witchcraft must be involved.
Except, taken in that sense, an LTS is still not owning your account. You don't own anything, you're not purchasing anything. You're just as much a renter, entirely subject to Cryptic's decisions of what to provide you. Cryptic could decide to, say, stop offering free character slots, and what are you going to do? Sue them? You don't own the game.
Of course we wouldn't sue them, because we knew the terms when we agreed to them. Subbers agreed to provide monthly payments in return to access for a specific number of services. Those are the terms that a subber agreed to, so it makes no sense that they would be suddenly surprised when not continuing to pay loses them access to the things that were attached to those continued payments. Same with LTS, we read the part where it says the service might change, so we have no excuse to be surprised or cry foul when it does.
Cryptic needs to find a way to get those players to come back and keep playing, and keep paying. Knowing them, they won't, but I can hope.
Everyone in the industry should be falling all over themselves trying to figure out how a game company kept a game alive for nearly a decade without ever figuring out a way to keep players playing and paying. I'm sure witchcraft must be involved.
This game isn't very difficult to keep up, cost wise as has been stated many times. MMO wise I don't think anyone looks to CO for any type of inspiration when it comes to innovative ideas about player retention, though I'm sure that last tidbit was sarcasm(or I'd hope it was, if not...yeah no ) I suppose maybe they could look to how cheap the code is to maintain and maybe optimize their own code/server farms to be so cheap(if they even need to)?
Buffing everything to stupid high levels and nerfing everything to piss poor levels yields the same results, but not the same community reactions.
Except, taken in that sense, an LTS is still not owning your account. You don't own anything, you're not purchasing anything. You're just as much a renter, entirely subject to Cryptic's decisions of what to provide you. Cryptic could decide to, say, stop offering free character slots, and what are you going to do? Sue them? You don't own the game.
Of course we wouldn't sue them, because we knew the terms when we agreed to them. Subbers agreed to provide monthly payments in return to access for a specific number of services. Those are the terms that a subber agreed to, so it makes no sense that they would be suddenly surprised when not continuing to pay loses them access to the things that were attached to those continued payments. Same with LTS, we read the part where it says the service might change, so we have no excuse to be surprised or cry foul when it does.
Cryptic needs to find a way to get those players to come back and keep playing, and keep paying. Knowing them, they won't, but I can hope.
Everyone in the industry should be falling all over themselves trying to figure out how a game company kept a game alive for nearly a decade without ever figuring out a way to keep players playing and paying. I'm sure witchcraft must be involved.
It's very simple:
Cut the development team to a skeleton crew.
Halt content production; re-use and tweak existing content as necessary, and *maybe* create new content if it can be done on the cheap.
Exist for 10 years as technology improves and your platform becomes cheaper to maintain.
Use cheap servers and Cryptic's engine, which was designed to be cheap to maintain in the first place.
Survive on whales that will pay regardless of what you do.
Spend $0 on marketing, buy the IP in advance so you don't have to spend on licensing fees.
Be content with minimal profits.
Anarchy Online is celebrating its 17th anniversary this week. Clearly it's witchcraft, though, and not simply being so old and cheap to maintain that *any* paying players represent at the very least a tiny profit.
I don't know why you're content to have fewer players in the game. I don't understand why you insist on keeping the game as unattractive as possible for anyone that isn't already an LTS. Unless you think the game simply existing as-is is enough to entice people to pay for it, or that it's a privilege to even have the opportunity to pay for the game, in which case you're deluded.
I don't know why you're content to have fewer players in the game. I don't understand why you insist on keeping the game as unattractive as possible for anyone that isn't already an LTS. Unless you think the game simply existing as-is is enough to entice people to pay for it, or that it's a privilege to even have the opportunity to pay for the game, in which case you're deluded.
Realistically, I don't see anything this game can do to attract newer and younger players. Tastes in gaming have changed dramatically over the past decade. MMO's aren't as popular with younger players, multiplayer action-shooter games like Overwatch are. A lot of people in our community need to get out of fantasy land and accept reality. CO is an older game with limited appeal. It makes enough money to keep PWI from shutting it down. At most, we'll get occasional tweaks and a few goodies. If you're not content with that, it's time to move on. CO works for me because I'm an older player who likes supers. I put up with it's issues, because relatively speaking, they aren't that serious. You have to accept this game for what it is, not for you fantasize that it should be. Cuz, that ain't happening.
I don't know why you're content to have fewer players in the game. I don't understand why you insist on keeping the game as unattractive as possible for anyone that isn't already an LTS. Unless you think the game simply existing as-is is enough to entice people to pay for it, or that it's a privilege to even have the opportunity to pay for the game, in which case you're deluded.
Realistically, I don't see anything this game can do to attract newer and younger players. Tastes in gaming have changed dramatically over the past decade. MMO's aren't as popular with younger players, multiplayer action-shooter games like Overwatch are. A lot of people in our community need to get out of fantasy land and accept reality. CO is an older game with limited appeal. It makes enough money to keep PWI from shutting it down. At most, we'll get occasional tweaks and a few goodies. If you're not content with that, it's time to move on. CO works for me because I'm an older player who likes supers. I put up with it's issues, because relatively speaking, they aren't that serious. You have to accept this game for what it is, not for you fantasize that it should be. Cuz, that ain't happening.
Newer players are never going to come in droves, of course not. It's former players that are the ones that are more likely to come back to the game if enticed to. The ones that have played and supported the game in the past, and could be convinced to do so once again. The ones most impacted by the proposed sub changes, and would most benefit from a change to the system. It's not the people that've never heard of the game and would never spend a dime that I want to see pick up the game, though of course it'd be a plus. It's the players that used to play, and pay for, the game but didn't feel maintaining a sub was worth it, or didn't want to shell out for FF slots or LTS but still bought char slots and costumes and such, or switched back and forth between silver and sub but gave up after a while, or any number of reasons that made them stop playing. Getting those players back is not impossible, it just takes some enticement.
That enticement comes in the form of new content, and updated old content. Just like they've been doing. Will it get back all of them? No, that's just another fantasy, many people have moved on from the game permanently and it doesn't matter what you do; free LTS wouldn't get them to come back because they're playing other, newer games now. On the bright side, those two things also keep new players interested because it ensures they have stuff to do, and ensures the game is actually fun and interesting.
I'm content with the number of players we have because it works. I personally don't care if we get more players. Content is playable, servers are running. The game doesn't have a great need to bring in more players, just keep the ones here happy - and no, not all of them, just the ones that are actually willing to be happy. The good news there is that that does appear to be the majority of the crowd, there's just a few crab apples who live to be unhappy about everything and they'll leave anyway.
That enticement comes in the form of new content, and updated old content. Just like they've been doing. Will it get back all of them? No, that's just another fantasy, many people have moved on from the game permanently and it doesn't matter what you do; free LTS wouldn't get them to come back because they're playing other, newer games now. On the bright side, those two things also keep new players interested because it ensures they have stuff to do, and ensures the game is actually fun and interesting.
I'm content with the number of players we have because it works. I personally don't care if we get more players. Content is playable, servers are running. The game doesn't have a great need to bring in more players, just keep the ones here happy - and no, not all of them, just the ones that are actually willing to be happy. The good news there is that that does appear to be the majority of the crowd, there's just a few crab apples who live to be unhappy about everything and they'll leave anyway.
Hopefully none of the CoX successors' communities adopt the same mindset. Absolutely depressing to see a person so content with player numbers dropping that the mere mention of trying to bring anyone back, let alone bring in anyone new, causes such backlash.
Players are content, y'know. It's the entire basis of MMORPGs, the Massively Multiplayer part. Though I suppose you'd enjoy the game just as much if it was a single player RPG with no community at all.
Remembering why I avoided the forums the last several years.
The CoX "successors" seem to have adopted the idea that if they keep promising digital heaven, they'll never have to actually deliver it (is it CoT or the spaceship one that's three years past when they promised to be in beta testing? I can never remember).
The problem with CO, really, seems to be that it exists, which means it can be disappointing. Dreams never disappoint - only their realization does.
"Science teaches us to expect -- demand -- more than just eerie mysteries. What use is a puzzle that can't be solved? Patience is fine, but I'm not going to stop asking the universe to make sense!"
That enticement comes in the form of new content, and updated old content. Just like they've been doing. Will it get back all of them? No, that's just another fantasy, many people have moved on from the game permanently and it doesn't matter what you do; free LTS wouldn't get them to come back because they're playing other, newer games now. On the bright side, those two things also keep new players interested because it ensures they have stuff to do, and ensures the game is actually fun and interesting.
I'm content with the number of players we have because it works. I personally don't care if we get more players. Content is playable, servers are running. The game doesn't have a great need to bring in more players, just keep the ones here happy - and no, not all of them, just the ones that are actually willing to be happy. The good news there is that that does appear to be the majority of the crowd, there's just a few crab apples who live to be unhappy about everything and they'll leave anyway.
Well at least you're honest. I actually appreciate that.
Buffing everything to stupid high levels and nerfing everything to piss poor levels yields the same results, but not the same community reactions.
Thinking on these changes, they can draw in maybe a few old players/the few new ones, but what really needs to be discussed is keeping them. Old players will have the issue I also have of "same old same old" wheras new players will probably see, "Okay but what do they have to keep me hooked over [insert MMO here/or, hopefully not, console game]".
Buffing everything to stupid high levels and nerfing everything to piss poor levels yields the same results, but not the same community reactions.
"Okay but what do they have to keep me hooked over [insert MMO here/or, hopefully not, console game]".
Tailor, freeform system, knocks, solo-friendly content, casual-friendly content and fast in-combat movement. Those are the answers to that question that people have given over the many years in every "why do you keep playing" thread that someone has posted. If someone doesn't fall into some combination of those things, then they're not going to like this game.
"Okay but what do they have to keep me hooked over [insert MMO here/or, hopefully not, console game]".
Tailor, freeform system, knocks, solo-friendly content, casual-friendly content and fast in-combat movement. Those are the answers to that question that people have given over the many years in every "why do you keep playing" thread that someone has posted. If someone doesn't fall into some combination of those things, then they're not going to like this game.
Knocks actually gotta disagree on that one. Knocks are PITA in alerts . As far as MMOs go, you have a point
Buffing everything to stupid high levels and nerfing everything to piss poor levels yields the same results, but not the same community reactions.
Customer service is now trying to tell me that, since I previously subbed, any character slots I purchase will not show up until I've purchased enough to "match the original amount," ie the ones I had while subbed.
Still going to defend Cryptic taking away that slot if you delete a Gold character as a Silver player? They want me to buy character slots that WILL NOT SHOW UP before I can buy one that's actually usable.
And they're even trying to push a fucking lifetime sub in the same response. I've never been more insulted by a CS rep in my life.
At this point I would respond to that CS rep with "Can you double check that information with your manager? Or Kaiserin? Or somebody other than you? I wanna make sure you're not super super wrong before I act on any information you give me". And yes that would make them feel bad, and they should feel bad.
Comments
Thing is, I bought the game. Still have the box. So having that slot disappear, bug or not, just made that purchase feel more and more like I'd gotten nothing from it.
That's been CO's problem, and the problem with some other F2P games. Older purchases and long-term support mean nothing without either a current subscription or much larger purchase. It makes the game feel like it isn't worth paying for, since your purchase might be worth nothing (or at least substantially less) in the future. Probably sounds familiar to those upset about the LTS character changes, doesn't it.
No, and at this point, would be pointless to explain it to you. Would go in one ear and out the other.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
My characters
Hm...so is the complaint now about the loss of the slot from gold to silver or about subs shouldn't go away. This thread has shifted a bit/I kinda got lost on what's being argued anymore
42 40s, LTSer.
Now there's a way to actually own your account. You can either cheap out and do it all in Silver (I did that for a long time, buying Zen when I could so I could purchase stuff - it's a lot less expensive now), or you can go all-out and either start a sub while that's still an option, or purchase the game as a whole for $300, $200 on sale. If you sub, though, you're still just renting your account. It's kind of like the difference between buying and renting a house - rent is usually cheaper than mortgage payments, and generally requires less initial outlay, but in the end you still don't own your home, and if you live there long enough you could wind up shelling out more than the price of the house anyway.
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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True, but the good news is you don't have to pay $200 on sale to own the game with the recent price drops, plus the potential Premium pack. I think more than likely that'll be the way people go. $300(or $200) on one game doesn't really sit well with a lot of players as of late. Look to the fiasco surrounding Destiny 2/Forsaken DLC and passes. A total of $100 would be needed to spend right now if you're new to the series for the base game, and both of Year 1 DLC's(a, argumentatively, decent deal in it's own right), on top of a Annual Pass which is an additional $30. People are in an uproar(understandably) about that, and that's a AAA game made by a rather well known studio.
42 40s, LTSer.
Not even close to true.
Except, taken in that sense, an LTS is still not owning your account. You don't own anything, you're not purchasing anything. You're just as much a renter, entirely subject to Cryptic's decisions of what to provide you. Cryptic could decide to, say, stop offering free character slots, and what are you going to do? Sue them? You don't own the game.
The point is that customers need to perceive that what they are paying for is good value, or they stop being customers. Things like this don't exactly inspire that perception. I was absolutely furious when I lost that character slot and stopped playing for over a year, uninstalled and thought I'd never be back. It took the anniversary character slot gift to bring me back.Even when I did come back I held off on spending.
CO's monetization doesn't offer much value on the surface, but it just gets worse as you get into the details. Up til now, everything aside from the LTS has come with a question that's been a struggle to find an answer for: "What do I have to show for this money I've spent?" For subbing, it's always been "the ability to sub more." Barely passable as an answer on its own, considering how little you actually get to keep from a sub when you're unsubbed. For FF slots its always been "one ridiculously overpriced slot and nothing else." Then there are the per-character Vehicles, the ATs that still underperform against FFs (and are still not experiencing the game as-designed), costumes (probably the only actual value purchase) and keys ('cause everybody loves lockboxes).
The FF slot reduction doesn't change much. It saves those that would have already bought them a bit of money, assuming it's cheaper than the previous ones when on sale (which I think we can all agree is unlikely). Removing subs could be great, though the original plan would've been a disaster. Lowering the price of general slots doesn't really help silvers unless they really enjoy the few ATs they have access to, and cuts into LTS and Gold stipends--though I imagine they were making jack-all on character slots at all, including FF ones.
Honestly I hope this entire fiasco forces them to take a much harder look at the game's monetization as a whole and realize that it's been the biggest hindrance to the game's success since the conversion. I was talking to a friend about CO the other day, and one thing he said nailed it on the head. Playing as silver feels like a trial, which it of course is, but going back to silver after spending however much on subscriptions and the store still feels like a trial. You paid, but you're still playing a trial. It feels terrible and turns people off of playing at all if they're not subbed, which turns them off from returning to the game if they aren't already planning on resubbing, which means they're less likely to consider resubbing since they're not playing the game anyway.
Cryptic needs to find a way to get those players to come back and keep playing, and keep paying. Knowing them, they won't, but I can hope.
Of course we wouldn't sue them, because we knew the terms when we agreed to them. Subbers agreed to provide monthly payments in return to access for a specific number of services. Those are the terms that a subber agreed to, so it makes no sense that they would be suddenly surprised when not continuing to pay loses them access to the things that were attached to those continued payments. Same with LTS, we read the part where it says the service might change, so we have no excuse to be surprised or cry foul when it does.
Everyone in the industry should be falling all over themselves trying to figure out how a game company kept a game alive for nearly a decade without ever figuring out a way to keep players playing and paying. I'm sure witchcraft must be involved.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
This game isn't very difficult to keep up, cost wise as has been stated many times. MMO wise I don't think anyone looks to CO for any type of inspiration when it comes to innovative ideas about player retention, though I'm sure that last tidbit was sarcasm(or I'd hope it was, if not...yeah no
42 40s, LTSer.
It's very simple:
Cut the development team to a skeleton crew.
Halt content production; re-use and tweak existing content as necessary, and *maybe* create new content if it can be done on the cheap.
Exist for 10 years as technology improves and your platform becomes cheaper to maintain.
Use cheap servers and Cryptic's engine, which was designed to be cheap to maintain in the first place.
Survive on whales that will pay regardless of what you do.
Spend $0 on marketing, buy the IP in advance so you don't have to spend on licensing fees.
Be content with minimal profits.
Anarchy Online is celebrating its 17th anniversary this week. Clearly it's witchcraft, though, and not simply being so old and cheap to maintain that *any* paying players represent at the very least a tiny profit.
I don't know why you're content to have fewer players in the game. I don't understand why you insist on keeping the game as unattractive as possible for anyone that isn't already an LTS. Unless you think the game simply existing as-is is enough to entice people to pay for it, or that it's a privilege to even have the opportunity to pay for the game, in which case you're deluded.
Realistically, I don't see anything this game can do to attract newer and younger players. Tastes in gaming have changed dramatically over the past decade. MMO's aren't as popular with younger players, multiplayer action-shooter games like Overwatch are. A lot of people in our community need to get out of fantasy land and accept reality. CO is an older game with limited appeal. It makes enough money to keep PWI from shutting it down. At most, we'll get occasional tweaks and a few goodies. If you're not content with that, it's time to move on. CO works for me because I'm an older player who likes supers. I put up with it's issues, because relatively speaking, they aren't that serious. You have to accept this game for what it is, not for you fantasize that it should be. Cuz, that ain't happening.
Newer players are never going to come in droves, of course not. It's former players that are the ones that are more likely to come back to the game if enticed to. The ones that have played and supported the game in the past, and could be convinced to do so once again. The ones most impacted by the proposed sub changes, and would most benefit from a change to the system. It's not the people that've never heard of the game and would never spend a dime that I want to see pick up the game, though of course it'd be a plus. It's the players that used to play, and pay for, the game but didn't feel maintaining a sub was worth it, or didn't want to shell out for FF slots or LTS but still bought char slots and costumes and such, or switched back and forth between silver and sub but gave up after a while, or any number of reasons that made them stop playing. Getting those players back is not impossible, it just takes some enticement.
I'm content with the number of players we have because it works. I personally don't care if we get more players. Content is playable, servers are running. The game doesn't have a great need to bring in more players, just keep the ones here happy - and no, not all of them, just the ones that are actually willing to be happy. The good news there is that that does appear to be the majority of the crowd, there's just a few crab apples who live to be unhappy about everything and they'll leave anyway.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Hopefully none of the CoX successors' communities adopt the same mindset. Absolutely depressing to see a person so content with player numbers dropping that the mere mention of trying to bring anyone back, let alone bring in anyone new, causes such backlash.
Players are content, y'know. It's the entire basis of MMORPGs, the Massively Multiplayer part. Though I suppose you'd enjoy the game just as much if it was a single player RPG with no community at all.
Remembering why I avoided the forums the last several years.
The problem with CO, really, seems to be that it exists, which means it can be disappointing. Dreams never disappoint - only their realization does.
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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Well at least you're honest. I actually appreciate that.
42 40s, LTSer.
So now I have people accusing me of wanting everything to be team content, and people accusing me of being fine with a fully single player game.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
42 40s, LTSer.
Tailor, freeform system, knocks, solo-friendly content, casual-friendly content and fast in-combat movement. Those are the answers to that question that people have given over the many years in every "why do you keep playing" thread that someone has posted. If someone doesn't fall into some combination of those things, then they're not going to like this game.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Knocks actually gotta disagree on that one. Knocks are PITA in alerts
42 40s, LTSer.
I was listing off common responses that people have given over the years. A lot of people think knocks have a very big "Weeee!" factor.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
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My characters
I'd say knocks on players end is kinda bad because mob scatter/misuse, on enemies: Eh, as long as it's blockable completely it's fine.
42 40s, LTSer.
Still going to defend Cryptic taking away that slot if you delete a Gold character as a Silver player? They want me to buy character slots that WILL NOT SHOW UP before I can buy one that's actually usable.
And they're even trying to push a fucking lifetime sub in the same response. I've never been more insulted by a CS rep in my life.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.