bobby

@7BitBrian And this makes you sound less like a Cryptic employee how? You seem to be ignoring the massive number of bugs involved with most of that added content, and you're still under the impression that a corporate-produced comic book is the same as in-game content when it certainly is not. To take a single example, you mention Attack of the Misfit Toys in only positive terms (as if you're cribbing from a Cryptic press release), whereas most of the player base were in an uproar about the poor planning, poor implementation, and all-round poor player experience involved with most of that content. The event was certainly not available to all players everywhere in the game world, as you state. In fact, at launch, all of the content was in MC, where all of the players (those who were high enough level to survive there) congregated causing servers to crash continuously for days until Cryptic patched the content ten days later. Characters under level 15 were not allowed to participate (event the least of the even content drops could not be used by characters under level 15). The core of the event, a cooperative battle with a giant monster, was geared to reward only endgame characters, and characters below endgame level not only were not rewarded at all but were generally killed multiple times while participating, receiving cumulative death penalties. Frame rates in MC throughout the event (which lasted a month) tanked, making the game to appear to be a slideshow even on hardware far in excess of recommendations. Instead of considering player criticism of the event, Cryptic decided that the event was perfect as-is, and announced that the mechanics behind AotMT would be used for all future events without modification.

The event introduced a large amount of vendor trash, and when one player publicly announced that he would make a donation to a worthwhile charity based on the amount of this trash that was sent to him, Cryptic turned around and added a patch making the trash a required element in several new quests, short-circuiting a worthwhile charitable effort.

This is nothing to do with "blind hate", it's everything to do with the fact that Cryptic likes to rush out new content -- and make you pay for it -- before it's been tested and without thinking anything through. Stop being a fanboi and exercise some critical thinking for once. I'm sure you're one of the jokers in the forums who insists that when Cryptic actually follows through with a promise -- no matter how broken the result -- that you've already paid for months previously, it is somehow a "gift" for which Cryptic should be worshipped on bended knee.

@JohnnyMann420 I think you've missed the point. Nobody hates f2p on general principle, they hate the way Funcom is implementing it. It's clear from the links in the article (try reading them) that unless you subscribe to AoC, you'll be playing less than half a game. Your dormant buddies won't be able to do much of anything with your subbed character because they won't advance as quickly as you and won't be able to access all the content you can. The class and character restrictions also mean that new players will not be able to explore beyond those limited options, may not find a good fit for their playstyle, won't be as flexible when it comes to teaming, and will likely leave in disappointment. In the long term, this won't improve retention. Just compare what Funcom is offering to any other f2p game out there, and Funcom looks embarrassingly restrictive.

Having never tried AoC, I was excited until I remembered this is Funcom. Their "free to play" model for Anarchy Online was little more than an extended free trial, with reduced cash and xp rewards for non-subs, and no useful customer service. The result was not worth playing. The links in the article make this seem like more of the same old Funcom. Other f2p models don't penalize their players for embracing f2p, they simply include more content under the subscription banner that f2p players will have to purchase modularly (like LOTRO) or offer cosmetics and time-saving options in a cash shop (like CO, PW, etc.). No thanks.

Players have been complaining about Might (and all of the melee frameworks) since CB. The game went live in September. And they're only *now* deciding that they need to listen to what the playerbase is saying? This is why Cryptic fails.

It's nice that they seem to be making an effort, but as others have said, I'll believe it when I see results.

The forums were plugged with complaints about mishandling of the winter event, and the players weren't shy about how to fix the core problem -- the GM "cooperative" battle forced the participants to be *in competition with each other* for rare reward drops, which shut-out characters below cap and support builds, as the competition was based on damage output. Cryptic's "solution" to the fiasco was to declare that they wouldn't use the same items for rewards next time.

During the same event, Cryptic bent over backwards to support a charity drive started by one of the players, in which he collected instances of event salvage that had no in-game value and made a donation to a children's charity based on the number of collected pieces. Three days later, Cryptic issued a mandatory patch that gave the item in-game value, guaranteeing that most players would not donate to the drive.

My experience is that Cryptic frequently doesn't "get it", and I strongly suspect that Roper is spinning empty feel-good marketing rhetoric. It's a bit late, and a bit thin. They lost my $15 a long time ago.

The however-many travel powers in Champions aren't really "all different": at least three are variations on super jumping, and at least six are variations on flight, with only minor tweaks and different sfx. But I'll agree that most of them are inefficient; hopefully SOE will do a better job balancing theirs. But three? That's a bit limited. Teleportation? Super jumping? Having only flight, "acrobatics" (we're still not clear what that is, sounds like a bit of a catch-all), and super speed sounds a bit limiting.

There is no "Pirates of the Caribbean" film releasing in April; what are YOU talking about? But you are right about DS, this would be the third time they've tried to resurrect it, and the first without the involvement of the original creator, Dan Curtis. Bad idea, and probably just another undistinguished Anne Rice inspired teen vampire soap clone.

The episode does not stand alone, it almost requires that you be aware of past events in the series. I get the feeling that the reviewer doesn't pay attention when watching, because at least two of his comments fail. The Master's hunger and powers ARE explained: they are the result of Lucy's interference in the resurrection process. As the Doctor said, he is "wrong" and "torn open". If you were expecting a detailed scientific explanation, you are watching the wrong programme. The delay in the return of the Time Lords is due to the Time Lock placed on the War; this has been mentioned several times since the concept was introduced way back in series one. EVERYONE associated with the War was trapped by the Lock, except the Doctor, the Master, the Lone Dalek, the Dalek Emperor and the Cult of Skaro, all who fled the "battlefield" before the end. That's why the Doctor was surprised to see Davros, who only escaped with the aid of Caan (who breached the lock). That only happened in the last two-parter of the last full series, which is actually only four episodes ago. And the Master's use of the Gate isn't any sillier than anything he's done since 2005. That's just typical Davies. The only real complaints anyone could have about this are that it's only an hour (instead of the expected 90 mins.), the real plot isn't introduced until the final scene, and the rumoured influx of guest stars isn't even indicated yet. They've left entirely too much to part two, unless part two is going to be more than 90 minutes. I do, however, agree with the readers who find the idea of a "cult of Saxon" a bit ridiculous. If the entire year never happened, why does anyone even remember Saxon, and how can Lucy have been imprisoned for his "murder"?

While I'm not quite so passionate about it, my stand is the same, if for different reasons. Although the audience of the original programme wouldn't have been ready for it, I think changing the gender or "ethnicity" (we don't know enough about Gallifrey to know if they had different ethnicities) of the Doctor would have flown better then than now. The original series was much weaker in its grasp of real science, world building and character development, so a change like that could just have been explained away with a feeble half-baked excuse. The new series is a bit stronger, more realistic and rational. If the Doctor can change gender, the show would be forced to explore what Gallifreyan society was like when its constituents could change gender "at will". We've had enough trouble getting them to explain the Doctor's throwaway lines about his family, are they REALLY going to expect us to believe that he could be a father AND a mother? Davies introduced Jack Harkness how many series ago, and it wasn't until Torchwood that we saw any real exploration of his pansexuality. In simpler terms, changing the gender will open a new can of something the producers won't want to look at. Not on this show anyway.