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[CoX] In Bizarro World, Defenders Get Buffs

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Posts

  • SwaggerSwagger Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Swagger wrote: »
    What is it about the new SF thats actually terrible? Just the story or the mechanics/missions of it as well?

    It's been gone over a lot on previous pages. The story isn't terrible so much as meh, and the mechanics are fine until the last mission which is balls out the least fun I have ever had playing the game.

    Did you do it with a pug? I guess what I'm basically asking here is, if you did it with a good team who knew what they were doing, could you conceivably see it being fun?

    Swagger on
  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    edited July 2009
    No to both.

    Tube on
  • SwaggerSwagger Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Unfortunate. i16 can't come out soon enough it seems.

    Swagger on
  • RobzielRobziel Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    I decided to try out the new SF Saturday night because I hadn't self-harmed in awhile. After wiping on Reichsman we regrouped outside the mission, entered the mission and than spent the next 35 minutes fighting non-stop back to the room Reichsman was in.

    It was both retarded and strangely fun, but once we'd gotten back to Reichsman it all went to pot again. The MM power is still broken and even better I couldn't regain the buffs from the magic buff machine until after Reichsman died.

    So, so bad.

    Robziel on
    Do I look like the sort of man who'd go and find unsuspecting Japanese schoolgirls in short skirts and white panties and ask them if they want to see my "Cthulu Special"?
  • Jesus McChristJesus McChrist Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    The last mission in the Barracuda Strike Force is probably the greatest farm ever, though. Which tickles me, considering warble garble farm bad.

    Jesus McChrist on
    if you can read this i hope you have a good day partner
  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    edited July 2009
    Well yeah except you can't really farm it because it's the last mission of a 4 man strike force

    so

    Tube on
  • RobzielRobziel Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    I think they changed it to 6, not that that changes your point any.

    Robziel on
    Do I look like the sort of man who'd go and find unsuspecting Japanese schoolgirls in short skirts and white panties and ask them if they want to see my "Cthulu Special"?
  • NarbusNarbus Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    A PhD in Trolling
    Loyola University media professor David Myers palmed his computer mouse and zeroed in on his prey.

    A roleplayer in an online game, he aimed the pointer at his opponent, the virtual comic book villain "Syphris." Myers, 55, flicked the buttons on his mouse and magically transported his opponent to the front of a cartoon robot execution squad. In an instant, the squad pulverized the player.

    Syphris fired an instant message at Myers moments later.

    "If you kill me one more time I will come and kill you for real and I am not kidding."

    The chilling text shook Myers two years ago. It served as a telling detail for his ongoing study of social customs in Internet gaming communities.

    At the time of his clash with Syphris, Myers was just three months into an in-depth behavioral study of the "City of Heroes/Villains"" online community. Already, someone had threatened to unearth his real identity and take his life.
    Screenshot courtesy of DavId MyersDavid Myers' "Twixt" floats on his rocket boots in the online roleplaying computer game "City of Heroes." Twixt became a hated figure in the game.

    As part of his experiment, Myers decided to play the game by the designers' rules -- disregarding any customs set by the players. His character soon became very unpopular.

    At first, players tried to beat him in the game to make him quit. Myers was too skilled to be run off, however.

    They then made him an outcast, a World Wide Web pariah that the creator of Syphris -- along with hundreds of other faceless gamers -- detested.

    The Slidell resident plans to soon publish a book drawn from his experiences with the game. The study's results dismayed Myers, who in 1984 became one of the first university-level professors to study video games. He believes it proved that, even in a 21st century digital fantasyland, an ugly side of real-world human nature pervades, a side that oppresses strangers whose behavior strays from that of the mainstream.

    In the online realms of "City of Heroes" and "City of Villains," 150,000 or so players from around the world try to defeat computer-controlled comic-book characters, in order to boost their skill ratings and popularity.

    Eventually, according to the game's design, the players -- who can choose to play as either heroes or villains -- gain access into an area where they should battle each other. The battles are designed to distinguish the most skilled players.

    Myers, who bought "City of Heroes" when it hit store shelves in 2004, quickly learned that players ignored the area's stated purpose. Heroes chatted peacefully with villains in the combat zone. Instead of fighting each other, members of the two factions sparred with computer-controlled enemies..

    Myers sensed a research opening. He created "Twixt," a scrappy, high-leaping hero decked out in different-colored spandex suits and rocket boots. He took his character to the virtual war zone and set out to simply battle villains.

    Twixt proved difficult to beat. From a distance, he could transport villains anywhere he wished. He always took them to a cartoon robot firing line that instantly defeated whomever he zoomed before it.

    During the first few sessions, other players gently informed Twixt that his method of play was unwelcome. But Twixt kept on vanquishing villains.

    Mobs of villains then ambushed Twixt, hoping to defeat him so often that he would quit. Meanwhile, Twixt's fellow heroes watched without joining the fray.

    One by one, Twixt coolly picked his opponents off. As play sessions passed, popular villains and heroes stepped up their attempts to change him.

    "I know (how Twixt plays) is considered 'legal' but this person is getting really out of hand," a user at the game's public message board soon posted. "This guy has got to go."

    But no one could stay alive long enough to defeat Twixt or drive him to quit.

    Players turned to verbal abuse, hoping an offended Myers would log off and cancel his subscription.

    When Twixt celebrated his victories, lobbing messages like "Yay, heroes. Go good team. Vills lose again," in the game's chat box, users like Hunter-Killed responded, "U are a major sh--bird."

    Another player added, "I hope your mother gets cancer." Yet another wrote, "EVERYONE HATES YOU."

    Myers was stunned by the reaction, since he obeyed the game's rules.

    Contrary to some stereotypes, people that play online computer games like "City of Heroes" aren't adolescent misfits. They tend to be what most would consider mainstream adults.

    Research shows the average gamer is 24 years old. Three out of 10 are women. Most are college students or work in information technology departments. Only 2 percent are unemployed.

    One study even indicated that developing skill in a "highly distributed, global, hypercompetitive" online gaming community can translate into a successful run as a business CEO.

    But Myers stirred a different kind of response.

    Jon Martin, a longtime "City of Heroes" gamer who befriended Twixt off and on, explained, "They didn't like him or how he played, so they figured if there was enough of them, they could stop him and his evil."

    Twixt eventually asked his fellow heroes why they never came to his aid. A hero named "Cryo Burn" answered with another question:

    "Who would disrespect them(selves) and their family enough to do that?"

    "It started to not be fun," said Myers, a video game aficionado. "I became the most hated, most reviled player."

    Game community leaders only intensified their efforts as Twixt became more entrenched. They turned to out-of-game venues such as message boards to punish him.

    When Myers took a break from the virtual world and went on vacation for a couple of weeks with his wife and daughters, players noticed his absence. One player started a discussion thread that claimed Myers had been banned from the game because he had called a fellow player a "n----r."

    Another posting claimed Twixt was a convicted pedophile.

    Then members of those boards, in another threatening tactic, launched campaigns to discover and publish Myers' real identity and address.

    Myers reported the abuse to officials at NCSoft, the game's publisher and moderating entity. They acted appropriately, he felt. Players delivering extreme messages tended to do so just once, and Myers assumed it was because the company punished them. Company officials didn't respond to a request for comment.

    "But the abuse was so widespread they couldn't completely stop it," Myers said. The company, he noted, had no right to police out-of-game forums.

    Though he worried that someone would show up at his Loyola office or home in Slidell and harass him or his family, no player ever succeeded in discovering Twixt was Myers.

    Myers revealed his identity and his character's purpose in "Play and Punishment: The Sad and Curious Case of Twixt," an academic paper on his experiment. He published it in 2008 and presented the paper at a video-game conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

    Gamer Martin said that while many gamers treated Myers like a pariah, he doubted anyone wanted to hurt him in real life. And he insisted that Internet games like "City of Heroes" actually do "encourage originality," allowing participants to design original costumes and script complex missions.

    But Myers likened his journey as Twixt to a "bad high school experience," especially the verbal abuse and rumor-mongering.

    The professor was disturbed that game rules encouraging competition and varied tactics hardly mattered to gaming community members who wanted to preserve a deeply-rooted culture.

    He said his experience demonstrated that modern-day social groups making use of modern-day technology can revert to "medieval and crude" methods in trying to manipulate and control others.

    "If you aren't a member of the tribe, you get whacked with a stick," he said. "I look at social groups with dismay."

    It's like my grandma just discovered the internet.

    Narbus on
  • RobzielRobziel Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Wait, you mean high school never ends are people are always dicks to each other? No wai!

    Robziel on
    Do I look like the sort of man who'd go and find unsuspecting Japanese schoolgirls in short skirts and white panties and ask them if they want to see my "Cthulu Special"?
  • Gear GirlGear Girl More class than a state university Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Did the guy actually play any PvE?

    Gear Girl on
  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    edited July 2009
    wait how did he have robots if he was a hero

    Tube on
  • ArcasArcas Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    From this description it sounds like he was a scrapper that used TP foe on villains into drones. I'm pretty sure that isn't PVP.

    Arcas on
  • LepLep Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    He's in yo base dronin' yo mans.

    Lep on
  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    edited July 2009
    Into drones? Oh well that really is griefing then.

    Tube on
  • RialeRiale I'm a little slow Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Seriously? An entire research project on how people get pissed off when you drone them instead of fighting?

    Riale on
    33c9nxz.gif
    Steam | XBL: Elazual | Last.fm
  • NarbusNarbus Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Also when you AirSup them into NPC spawns like a bitch.

    Narbus on
  • see317see317 Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Shocking, social groups like to stick to the rules they set for themselves and dislike people who step outside these artificially set limits.

    Ok guys, I've seen and stated the blatantly obvious, where's my fucking phd? I'll even except an honorary one, just so I can hang it on the wall.

    see317 on
  • Kay2Kay2 Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    But AirSupping dudes into groups of NPCs is funny.

    Kay2 on
  • Eat it You Nasty Pig.Eat it You Nasty Pig. tell homeland security 'we are the bomb'Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    I love the classic "because I'm allowed to do it, I can't be an asshole!" subtext.

    how are people getting paid to produce this gibberish

    Eat it You Nasty Pig. on
    NREqxl5.jpg
    it was the smallest on the list but
    Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
  • GlalGlal AiredaleRegistered User regular
    edited July 2009
    The professor was disturbed that game rules encouraging competition and varied tactics hardly mattered to gaming community members who wanted to preserve a deeply-rooted culture.
    It is rather amazing how "people preferred to socialize, rather than compete" is somehow portrayed as a bad thing.

    Glal on
  • FalloutFallout GIRL'S DAY WAS PRETTY GOOD WHILE THEY LASTEDRegistered User regular
    edited July 2009
    that's hilarious

    Fallout on
    xcomsig.png
  • RenzoRenzo Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    People get pissed if you waste their time, term paper at eleven.

    Renzo on
  • hippofanthippofant ティンク Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    He should write a paper about how AE farming is by the rules of the game.

    hippofant on
  • SwaggerSwagger Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    If he was doing a whole experiment on it he could have at least branched out into other forms of dickery. I mean, droning, really. How very 2006.

    Swagger on
  • poshnialloposhniallo Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Wow that guy is not just a dickhead, but he's a professional dickhead who is a dickhead for a living and then publishes research on how awesome and interesting being a dickhead is.

    Wow.

    poshniallo on
    I figure I could take a bear.
  • IAmTheRadIAmTheRad Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Drone griefing is a bannable offense. He didn't PvP. He just teleganked.

    IAmTheRad on
  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    edited July 2009
    How did no one petition him?

    Tube on
  • MimasMimas Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    I love the way he mentions more than once that no one could beat him because he was just so good, not because they were being one-shotted by the drones.

    Mimas on
  • FalloutFallout GIRL'S DAY WAS PRETTY GOOD WHILE THEY LASTEDRegistered User regular
    edited July 2009
    how can he have played since 2004 and still not understand that? i can't believe how hard it seems for some people to understand things that seem so obvious to people like us.

    also his costume fucking sucks.

    and now for something completely different:

    heh: http://mysite.verizon.net/vze43593/Temp/screenshot_090703-13-31-16.jpg

    http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat.php?Number=13718058&bodyprev=#Post13718058

    Fallout on
    xcomsig.png
  • Just_Bri_ThanksJust_Bri_Thanks Seething with rage from a handbasket.Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited July 2009
    base_building.jpg

    Base building. This can get a bit costly for all the re-purposed furnishings, but it is pretty cool.

    Just_Bri_Thanks on
    ...and when you are done with that; take a folding
    chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
  • RingoRingo He/Him a distinct lack of substanceRegistered User regular
    edited July 2009
    I had a coupon and nothing better to buy, so I now own the Architect edition with the free booster packs. Any recommendations between the two? I'm really digging the costume change emotes vs doing the robot.

    Oh and you win this round, see317. Though would it kill you to add my name back into the quote box? My precious wisdom may one day be lost otherwise!

    Ringo on
    Sterica wrote: »
    I know my last visit to my grandpa on his deathbed was to find out how the whole Nazi werewolf thing turned out.
    Edcrab's Exigency RPG
  • NocrenNocren Lt Futz, Back in Action North CarolinaRegistered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Welp, my account just lapsed. See you all in a few months when a) I get my desktop back (laptop SUCKS for gaming) and 2) I get a more stable Internet connection and /\ ) I get my own place.

    (btw that's suppose to be a delta symbol)

    Nocren on
    newSig.jpg
  • Gear GirlGear Girl More class than a state university Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Ringo wrote: »
    I had a coupon and nothing better to buy, so I now own the Architect edition with the free booster packs. Any recommendations between the two? I'm really digging the costume change emotes vs doing the robot.

    Oh and you win this round, see317. Though would it kill you to add my name back into the quote box? My precious wisdom may one day be lost otherwise!

    He actually didn't do that. I can not for the life of me think who did though. *cough*

    Gear Girl on
  • see317see317 Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Gear Girl wrote: »
    Ringo wrote: »
    I had a coupon and nothing better to buy, so I now own the Architect edition with the free booster packs. Any recommendations between the two? I'm really digging the costume change emotes vs doing the robot.

    Oh and you win this round, see317. Though would it kill you to add my name back into the quote box? My precious wisdom may one day be lost otherwise!

    He actually didn't do that. I can not for the life of me think who did though. *cough*
    Wait, what'd I do now?

    Also, I prefer the Magic booster pack. It's not just the costume change emotes, the bonus power is also pretty nifty. Cyborg pack bonus power lets you blow yourself up and deal some damage to nearby enemies (though you wind up dead yourself), Magic pack lets you give a random buff to a team mate.

    see317 on
  • SwaggerSwagger Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Yeah, I prefer the Magic pack too. The cyborg costume stuff is cool, but the magic costume stuff works better for more of my characters. Plus while blowing yourself up is neat I guess, I don't think I've used it more than 3 or 4 times since getting it, whereas the Magic random buffs are all pretty awesome.

    Swagger on
  • ArchArch Neat-o, mosquito! Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Wait what?

    That dude KNOWINGLY goes out of his way to act like a dickbag in the game, and then gets "dismayed" and "chilled" at the hate he receives?


    "I HATE SOCIAL GROUPS"

    (Actual quote from him)

    I like how he missed the point that people here have common decency and realize that even if you CAN do it doesn't mean you SHOULD.

    Wowwwww. Makes my PhD aspirations a little sad if he is considered to have the same level of education as I will have....

    Arch on
  • SwaggerSwagger Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    I don't think we should take the PhD status of someone has a degree in Mass Communication and works at a university with 5,000 students all too seriously.

    Swagger on
  • see317see317 Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    I do have to admit to a certain morbid curiosity as to what he would write up if he had spent some time in Pocket D. That's a whole different level of social interaction going on there.

    see317 on
  • SwaggerSwagger Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    He certainly has a bright future ahead of him. I can see it now, Appendix Section 3a: My super kawaii catgirl costumes ^.^

    Swagger on
  • FedoraFedora Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Narbus wrote: »
    A PhD in Trolling

    It's like my grandma just discovered the internet.

    I used to play city of heroes on and off for years, and I actually had a few run-in's with twixt. And I can say without a doubt he was a sociopath. Never have I seen more deliberate disregard for any and all social protocols than in that one player.

    I'd heard he had written a paper detailing his "adventures" but I never actually sat down and read it until today. You can imagine my surprise when I came across him quoting one of my characters in his paper. I'm overjoyed to find out that I was the unwilling participant in an old sociopath's social experiment. A paper that is just, astoundingly deluded and reeks of the type of arrogance that only the truly mentally deranged can conjure up. So good job professor, your goal was to become an asshole.

    Mission accomplished.

    Fedora on
This discussion has been closed.