psilody wrote:

I dont think we are losing peoples interest because the storyline is confusing. I think we lose people because the leveling process is BORING, and who wants to play a boring game?

 

I have not played a single MMO that has made the leveling process fun. Tolerable for a short time, yes, but not fun.

K, so as noted by others, we will now have one big meeting per server, per org, say every3rd month. As someone whos work schedule is completely random, this means i will never get to attend any of them. As they will be complete lag and spam fests, I could care less. I already hate the stand around and bandy theories about the story atmosphere of Zion meetings ive been to on Syntax. So this is a huge whatever.

Also a big whatever about parties. Prolly wont be able to attend, really dont care. I ,umm, used to have a life, and i find watching my toon stand in a fake club, fake dancing, well, uninteresting. I rather the prefer to go out and shake it in the Real World. I attend some of the parties my friends throw, becasue they are my friends, and the little parties are often fun.

RSI masks- Umm.. again gonna buck the trend here but... I've spent a decent amount of time wortking on my characters RSI. Guess i dont get masking it as that interesting.. cept maybe for RPing or something.

And, RP wise, I think that doing away with Cyph and EPN is bunkus. I don't even like either org, so maybe thats why i liked them being seperate.

Personally, I like the current direction of the storyline. I disliked the cartoony sideshow junk like Anome and the cheat codes, but people who dont think the current storyline is exploring "Matrixy" stuff are missing a few braincells. There have always been big questions behind the Matrix concept, and i feel like we were finally getting towards some answers (albeit at a soap-opera slow pace).

Personally, I liked the regular LE's, it meant i might occasionally make some of them. Sad to say, but unless Rare happens to log in during my hour an evening and hunt me down, I guess yesterdays EPN event will be my last. Too bad, it was actually rather fun.

However, my main thing here is to say

RAREBIT-

I dont think we are losing peoples interest because the storyline is confusing. I think we lose people because the leveling process is BORING, and who wants to play a boring game?

I like your post and especially the parts I put in red.

These splinter orgs have identities. The Prophet dusters vs the Bandana rags . EPN, loyal followers of Neo looking to free the human race at all cost. They are looked on by Zion as reglious fanatics of a dead savior. Zion is too militant and don't rely on fate, prophecies, and messiahs to see them through.

Cypherites, loyalist of the late Cypher. Their hate for zion is too extreme to keep in line with the poised and methodical approach of the Machine organization. They want to put EVERYONE to sleep and kill all who oppose their goal. They're not by the book.

All these orgs lack is a little help from the devs to make them self-sufficient.

Opinionated solutions:

Cyphs are summoned to handle the covert operations. The dirty work that would give Machines a bad name. (PVP/RP).

EPNs... their fate in saviors, honoring the memory of Neo and what he has accomplished is a motivation in it's own. Hell Zion doesn't care about what Neo has done for them anymore. The truce is over the war is back on. Neo was just a moment in time that gave them one shiny hope (The Truce) but even that wasn't good enough.

Yes, yes, and yes.  I couldn't agree with you more, Ingus.  For those that say EPN and CYPHs have no purpose and they are basically the same as Zion and Machines have obviously never been in a hardcore RP EPN or CYPH faction, or aren't interested in those specific aspects that Ingus mentioned.  I thought that EPN going to the no-fly zone was brilliant and much fresher than anything else that has been going on lately.  Kid has always done way more interesting and exciting things compared to Niobe, besides getting herself shot.  So, keep EPN and get rid of Zion. They are soo boring anyway    

I just feel like with EPN/Cyph you have more artistic freedom and its a waste to not tap into that.

The original plan was that EPN/Cyph was just going to be around for a little while and then go away.  But the orgs were a bigger hit than they had anticipated and they couldnt get rid of them in fear of the backlash they would get.  My point is, why is it okay now to get rid of them?  Why take something away that was obviously good for the game?

Phrack wrote:

I see it as a "if you can't do it right, don't do it at all" situation, personally. 

I agree with with this in regard to what rarebit is doing with Cyph/EPN but I wish he wouldn't because of all that EPN and Cyph has done to enhance the experience of MxO for myself and I know a lot of other players as well. I am glad our tags are not being stripped from us.  That would have been a game-ender for me.  I know it isn't the end of EPN and Cyphs but I think dropping their stories altogether is going to hurt the game, seriously.  The side stories of EPN and Cyphs make the slow pace of the main story bearable.  I don't foresee the main story picking up much pace; maybe I'm wrong.

Maybe I'm just cynical but it sounds like they are cutting back but trying to dress it up so it doesn't seem that way.

Yes, it does seem that way.  We will just have to wait and see what content we do end up getting and see if it feels equal to what we had.  If the changes don't feel equivalent or that they are just dressed up, it will be hard to justify spending $192 a year on it.

I am trying to be open-minded about this but it is difficult when one of the main reasons I play is being taken away. ie live events.  If there are random live events like the monolith days, then running into one might be a more rewarding experience than what we have now, but with RL schedules, it is nice to know when things are.

When you miss all the live events, you feel like you are missing out on what the primary part of the game is and that you are wasting your money, which is why my brother quit.  And he quit when there were cinematics still around.   So I hope that when there are the occasional live events that there might be clues or hints to when they are, sorta like the poetry reading info that was listed in the Sentinel and when we went, we found morpheus.

Like I said, I will be open-minded and wait to see what happens.  I am actually suprised to see so many in favor of these changes.

Well this all sounds good to me.

I mean, no crits, ok, but with the new quest lines.  A new quest with new items to get hold off opens up alot more playing time then one crit a week.

No daily live events, well the current format for them was getting a bit stale anyway.  Hopefully this means that those events we do have are 1) not just filler and 2) better as a whole.

I'm not so worried about org meeting and parties but if you don't like them, don't go to them.

The Gang boss masks are cool and I'm sure will show up alot in screens/videos, particularly for RP purposes and especially those kind of gangs that can't be recreated with player clothes.

Oh ya, just thought of this, does that mean that the Sentinel newspaper is gone too since it is run by LESIG or what is the deal with that? Sorry if it was brought up before...

Anyone else speculating those organization rewards for the new crit mission system will be the long-awaited organization abilities? I might start grinding Morraeon's Merv rep just for that, even though I was planning to make her an experimental character and see if I couldn't level her by just running Archive Missions and killing gang spawn, and not touching the regular missions...

MatrixRefugee wrote:

Anyone else speculating those organization rewards for the new crit mission system will be the long-awaited organization abilities? I might start grinding Morraeon's Merv rep just for that, even though I was planning to make her an experimental character and see if I couldn't level her by just running Archive Missions and killing gang spawn, and not touching the regular missions...

VERY VERY VERY VERY, infentsimally, small chance that they are org abilities since rarebit has said this countless times. "There will be no org abilities they give too much reason for a player to be a specific org for a specific load out." not a direct quote just summing it up.

Those RSI disguises will have a special benefit for vista users.  The face and hand lighting problem shouldn't occur on those models.