Danger_Frog1471 wrote:
i need somewhere to vent my stress at Sony's blatant disregard for this section of their company.
It's difficult for me to take your proclaimed point of view seriously when you use the forum for that kind of thing.
Its an opinion i've gathered over the years, or more an impression. You cannot fault me for having that, expressing it once or twice which i have over the years does not in *any* way represent how i use this forum. So don't assume i do, I guess it wasn't the post appropriate time nor person to express it too eh? :p >.<
Danger_Frog1471 wrote:
Great, its good to see you've noticed and taken it into account previously. But be quick on that note, the longer your waiting the more your putting at risk
I'm not sure we're on the same page here, and I can't tell if you're having a bit of joke with me. The things I mentioned (crit location pointed out in cinematic, pop-up text for low levels talking about archives) are already in the game.
Oh no i was actually being serious not sardonic. i wasn't aware the popups where included and i knew the cinematics already had the locations.
Danger_Frog1471 wrote:
NO your missing the point (or atleast my point) here! forget that i have a 50. I am a new player i want to play the story! ... DENIED. *that* is my point rarebit. I have a character on all servers. One of which is denied access to the stuff its because of this i realised hey if i didn't have another character to play i cannot get play the story myself or collect the items. I never used my alts for getting the other side of the story other than live events. Mission wise i didnt care. *now* however we are forced to play the crits to gain any sort of narrative information. But unless your 50 we cant. *Thats* the problem rare.
I understand the point and I realized it was a trade-off when I made the decision. However, I have yet to see new players distinctly turned off by the change. You aren't a new player, and it's dangerous to assume that you are correctly interpreting another person's or group's point of view.
I proved this by asking players that where new and could access the content... i quoted one and if you really want the proof i'll get screenshots. It's not just an assumption but a thought which lead to an investigation on my part.
A few reasons I felt able to make the change were because a) we have so much previous story now that a new player just catching up by way of the archives will already be pretty high level by the time they've played through all that b) the cinematics are available to everyone and can readily convey the essential "this is where we are" part of the story.
Ok first good stable reason to why this change was made. Agreed that its a better way to be able to catch up.
Also, it isn't accurate to say that you have to be 50 to play the new story missions. You only have to be 50 for the last one. They begin at 30. I realize that's still a barrier to entry, but there's no need to confuse the issue by exaggerating the number.
We can play the first mission of every set, that i concur but we cant personally attain the full story without being 50. That is a fact which you've admitted before.
Back to the new player thing, another motivation behind the change as a whole was that in my interactions with new players--sneaking up on people in Uriah, mostly--the vast majority I tested on this point had little to no awareness of the current state of the story, which tells me that a driving need to jump on top of the very latest story segment is not--for most of them--the driving force that's been bringing people into the game. I would have liked it to have been, but I haven't seen that happening by and large.
How can you gather that just because they're unaware of the current affairs (being new and all remember too) reflects how much they do or will enjoy the content as currently is laid out. Thats like walking into a new large chain store and being asked do you know where the frozen isle is, then assuming because they do not know they don't like frozen food. Am i wrong? If i enter a new store/game i look around i walk see what i like don't like and proceed from that. Sure it's "vets" that point them in the direction of the live events etc but i've never in all my years of helping newbs out herd someone say after i introduced them to live events... So i don't care wheres the cool new items!
Lets briefly return to your theory of high level content should always have a restriction... THe live events didnt. Sure they where in downtown and nearly always involved a level 50+ character and probably PVP. I also remember taking two new players to an event in centre park if i remember it correctly and letting them interact/experience the events. Both of which enjoyed it thoroughly. My point being.. should this do too?
Expectations will be different for new players who've been brought into the game by vets who've been telling them about the story, events, etc, but those same vets also usually help the new players get established by teaming with them, factioning with them, running them through the lower level content (which for us is relatively plentiful, even aside from the archived story missions), providing them with items, and so forth, all of which will tend to negate or shorten the drive to level 30.
Wouldn't go as so far as to say negate but i'll agree vets help shorted the distance. Although i don't see it as an excuse/justification to initiate the restriction.
Danger_Frog1471 wrote:
Understandable... but when in over three years has anyone said to you on the forums or in games... Rarebit these overpowering numbers are too much i want simplicity? Not that i've seen? My point being as that of mastermind, why change something that was if at minimum "satisfactory". I've seen one person so far that has apparently genuinely enjoyed the change... Not sure why yet but i'm sure there is reasons.
They haven't, but there'd be no reason to bring it up, because I haven't resorted to overpowering mission NPC spawns very often.
Forum feedback is a tricky beast. When people are happy with what's going on they seem to have better things to do than to spend their time on the forum, whereas when they're unhappy with something, they spend a great deal of their time here talking about it--so the feedback in this medium tends to reflect the negative opinions more than the positive or ambivalent.
Ok point taken, i don't disagree but i havent just been reading the forums and making these opinions (although the one i expressed there wasn't the most accurate. The forums rarely see good points but add one or two numbers onto that and you have in game numbers as well. But lets face it the majority that are still here and haven't spoken about it are mainly in three groups: Undecided, prefer it and don't know about or care about them in the first place. as far as i can tell from speaking to many people the majority are either undecided/holding out or dont care. That in itself isn't a good thing.. And i'm personally in that group. That said considering your firm stance on this reflected in the initial quote i guess after christmas i'll be canceling just like the others that are waiting.
Danger_Frog1471 wrote:
It saddens me that you tried to mix the updating gameplay and critical missions. I don't care that my "alts" cant access the content, but new players cannot either. The first thing i used to say to a new or potential player was we have live event interactions with real characters from the matrix... Now? We have what you can get everywhere else... and we charge more!
There are still Live Events, although the new format is not very much appreciated by most veteran events-catching players right now, which isn't hard to understand, since their frequency has been reduced quite a bit.
Rarebit i said before, i don't care if i dont get to them... I've only attented about 12 or 13 personally in three or so years. Still thought it stood as a concrete and enjoyable experience for those that did and even to read later. It give people a sense of real life (mxo that is) continuation. This is repetitive... Static... and less interactive. Even if it was an illusion it give the effect of continuing narrative. These don't and as i said i think therein lies the problems people find.. They're unsatisfied.
In the end, the old scheme of daily events failed to reach new players. It was extremely rare for me to be able to interact with actual new players in those events, and I was very disappointed that I wasn't able to make that part of it work. There are many reasons why it didn't work out as I'd hoped, but that's a whole separate topic's worth of discussion, some of which has been touched on elsewhere.
But thats not a reason to remove it! you can hep guide players to live events and improve the availability to them, all without having to remove them and change the method of deliverance.
Although fairly often in those rare times I did come upon new players, on their own, they tended to assume I was a regular player, or perhaps some freakish sort of NPC.
Lol well i've seen that before in event recaps >.< But that said it comes to to not knowing... i still dont see this as a basis to change everything else because they're unaware :s
Danger_Frog1471 wrote:
And therein lies the problem, atleast we have written confirmation that you acknowledge it. Anyone below 50 is excluded from receiving the full story. Yes there *ARE* work arounds, but as a paying customer not only should it not have to be tolerated but hell i'm getting tired of half-arsedness(tm by kind) from this company it shouldn't be our job to deal with the problems.
You aren't excluded; you have to put in some work to get to the point where you can access/beat that content. Yes, it takes more time and even more skill, but flatly calling it exclusion is a misrepresentation.
We certainly never promised that we'd make the entire story easy for a single person to access, and I don't feel obligated to do so. Enough to interest them, yes, and enough for them to get at if they make the effort for the rewards--and whether or not it is currently enough is under debate here on the forum--but not dishing up the whole thing on a silver platter from the get-go. I do understand that you preferred it that way, and I'm not going to try to argue you into liking the new way better.
One last question then while we're here.. Is that a personal choice? Because (and as you've stated before) It sounds to me like that was an opinion. One which i wouldn't expect to hear from the likes of the large scale company that you belong too (i refer to i shouldn't have to cater to everyone). Don't take this as a personal attack, and its not up for discussion... its things like this that made and still make me give up on the owners of this game taking notice. Yea, sure, i don't know the way it goes... and i can't but my gawd someone's not doing the right things to promote the best idea of what is.
Edit: not a necessary comment so i'll remove it... I'd like to see my subscription to the end thanks 
I guess then rarebit you can officially ignore me, i've got all i need to hear. You wont change it, your only here to correct what we don't see but apparently i'm missing the whole book never mind chapter. I still incredibly respect you as a person, for all the work you've put into this game. Blood sweat and tears. No doubt i'll be back to see how things are going till the end but no, i don't think i can hold out much longer. It's lost all its uniqueness in my opinion and i can find cheaper more satisfying content elsewhere.
