Entitlement and City of Heroes(and Villains)

[mrtauntaun]

I know some on these boards play the City of... games as I do. For those that don't know, NCSoft bought the rights from their partner, Cryptic. To celebrate this 'new age', they are giving away a few things. The first and most tangible is that anyone who has one of the games will get the other added on free. So if you only played City of Heroes previously, you now have access to City of Villains and you don't have to pay anything.

This has brought out numerous entitlement whores. People have been posting all day long on the forums about 'I paid for both, so what do I get out of it?' and 'I don't want someone to get something I had to pay for'

Very childish. I got involved at one point (theAedile) and linked this site in regards to what they were saying boils down to SCness. Read and enjoy.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showf...0&fpart=1&vc=1

[BookstoreEscapee]

Hehe...go you!

[JustADude]

Well, you know, it does kind of feel like I got ripped for buying the two titles separately (before there was a Good vs Evil edition)... I'm not going to bitch about it, because thems the breaks, but it really does feel like those in my end of the situation got the short end of the stick. The most tangible (in terms of real-world value) gift from the company is pretty much useless to those that were actually devoted enough to pay for both titles.

On the other hand, I'm moving over to Tabula Rasa, so it doesn't really matter to me in the long run.

[Broomjockey]

Well, I'd like to point out that if you've had CoH for a while, you've likely gotten your value out of it, as well as all the loyalty rewards that other people won't be able to even start approaching. Also, look at it as a pure business decision. Everyone that had one or the other, then quit because they were bored is now tempted to come back and give them more money for the monthly fee.

Though I'd think the least they could do is give you people a free month or something.

[Dave0523]

They're still going on about it. I decided to drag religion into it with the parable of the workers in the vineyard. Can't wait to see how that pans out...

--Dave

[Geek King]

What these people "got" out of it was the ability to play both games all this time. Early adopters always pay more for the privilege.

[wolfie]

The people who bought both conveniently ignored the life cycle of computer games (I'll use the AOE/AOK/AOM cycle as an example).

- Game comes out, with a high price tag
- A while later, expansion pack comes out, original game usually has its price reduced
- Still later, the boxed set (game plus expansion) comes out at a lower price than the game alone had when it was first released
- More time passes, and the boxed set's price is reduced to less than what the expansion alone had been.

You want to play early, you pay. You want to save money, you wait. Anyone who bought the game on day 1 and complains to the game store that they should get a price break when the boxed set comes out gets a permanent invitation to shop at the competition. Why should it be any different online?

[Jetfire]

Hehe sounds like what's going on on the Everquest and Everquest 2 boards. Both games have expansions coming out next week, and for the first time ever, the ONLY way you can get either expansion is in all in one packs (as in you get the ENTIRE Everquest game with the EQ expansion, or the ENTIRE EQII game with the EQII expansion). Both boards were full of people whining about how they are getting ripped off and how an expansion only option should be offered and such. *sigh*

Oh well, it's fun taunting them every so often I must say. *G*

[JustADude]

The people who bought both conveniently ignored the life cycle of computer games (I'll use the AOE/AOK/AOM cycle as an example).

- Game comes out, with a high price tag
- A while later, expansion pack comes out, original game usually has its price reduced
- Still later, the boxed set (game plus expansion) comes out at a lower price than the game alone had when it was first released
- More time passes, and the boxed set's price is reduced to less than what the expansion alone had been.

You want to play early, you pay. You want to save money, you wait. Anyone who bought the game on day 1 and complains to the game store that they should get a price break when the boxed set comes out gets a permanent invitation to shop at the competition. Why should it be any different online?

This situation, though, is more like people who JUST bought the game (since CoH and CoV act like expansion packs for each other, as far as available content goes) get the expansion pack FREE, while those that bought them separate OR in the box set, get nothing.

The point of giving it away was as a reward/thank-you to their loyal fans, so it kinda makes me go when they leave out those that have been the most loyal.

As I said before, I've migrated over to Tabula Rasa so I don't really give a flying fish fuck, I'm just pointing out the logic behind the complaints.

[Bagga]

What has always annoyed me about this sort of complaining is the fact that IF your complaints work, which they probably won't, will it improve your situation? Probably not. What will happen is that someone else's situation will be made worse.

So where is the benefit in complaining?

Like when I worked in a company and started at 9 am, and another branch, who started at 8:30 to serve an entirely different customer base, complained about the 30 minute difference. Did they let the complainers start at 9 am? Are you kidding me? The only change was that we had to start at 8:30. Thanks for complaining, colleagues, you really got a win out of that, didn't you?

[Geek King]

Hehe sounds like what's going on on the Everquest and Everquest 2 boards. Both games have expansions coming out next week, and for the first time ever, the ONLY way you can get either expansion is in all in one packs (as in you get the ENTIRE Everquest game with the EQ expansion, or the ENTIRE EQII game with the EQII expansion). Both boards were full of people whining about how they are getting ripped off and how an expansion only option should be offered and such. *sigh*

Oh well, it's fun taunting them every so often I must say. *G*

I've never played EQ, but I happen to agree with them here. Making the expansion available only in all-in-one packs is a smack in the face of the gamers who have been loyal to EQ all this time. At the very least, it should be available to purchase via download for those who already have the games.

The only exception to this would be if the packs cost the same as the stand-alone expansion would, thereby not charging extra for core games. Otherwise, this looks like a money-grab by the EQ folks.

[Dragon_Dreamer]

Well, those who bought the games seperately ALREADY got a month of free play. (One month comes free with each copy of the game. So when they purchased CoV seperately, they got that month of play.) Plus, those who bought Good vs Evil got an entire goodie pack of freebies, both in and out of game.

Those who paid for both games got up to TWO YEARS of being able to access bases, and all the other combined game goodies, BEFORE the people who only have had one or the other.

Frankly, I like the change, and I *don't* think that the entitlement whores should get ANYTHING extra.

@Cygnata on Virtue, btw, if you want to say hi some time.

-Cyg, proud player of CoX since 9/8/2004

[Eric the Grey]

I know some on these boards play the City of... games as I do. For those that don't know, NCSoft bought the rights from their partner, Cryptic. To celebrate this 'new age', they are giving away a few things. The first and most tangible is that anyone who has one of the games will get the other added on free. So if you only played City of Heroes previously, you now have access to City of Villains and you don't have to pay anything.

SSDD as far as I'm concerned. Those who feel they've been slighted will always complain, and with MMO customers, they'll be even more vocally. Ever see the threads explode when a class/race/weapon/whatever gets "nerfed"? It's not pretty.

I'm not certain how I feel about NCSoft having bought the game, but since I have the original (from release...) and have briefly played COV (free month trial download) it might be worth re-upping my subscription and see if any of my toons still exist. I'm currently playing WoW again after the school term ended thought, and I don't really have time for more than one MMO...


Eric the Grey

[Jetfire]

I've never played EQ, but I happen to agree with them here. Making the expansion available only in all-in-one packs is a smack in the face of the gamers who have been loyal to EQ all this time. At the very least, it should be available to purchase via download for those who already have the games.

The only exception to this would be if the packs cost the same as the stand-alone expansion would, thereby not charging extra for core games. Otherwise, this looks like a money-grab by the EQ folks.

SOE has the precedent set for that. Last year, EQII went to annual expansions and charged 40$ for it. They sold it for 40$ for the retail pack (which included everything) and 40$ for the DD (which was expansion only).

Now EQ1 has gone to Annual expansions, like EQII, and to simplify things, they are making it so the ONLY way to get the expansions are a 40$ all - in -one pack (all in one wether by download or by retail pack)

[DarkProwler]

I'm not certain how I feel about NCSoft having bought the game, but since I have the original (from release...) and have briefly played COV (free month trial download) it might be worth re-upping my subscription and see if any of my toons still exist.

Your account should still be good, with all your characters in tact, but depending on how long you've been gone, you may find any sub-level 6 characters have been "genericized". There was a purge a while back of character names on characters below level six that were inactive for something like 9 months.

OT:
I eventually just stopped going into those threads, the amount of complaining was just too much. You bought CoH/CoV? Then you got a free month. Those that are getting it free don't get that free month.

@Delta Seeker on Freedom... and eight bars away from hitting my first 50