No more replay badges...?

That happened a little later, when they introduced the Checkmate suits. And it was miserable.

I think the theory at the time was that, since it only lootlocked when you won a match, that gradually throughout the week players would win on each map and the better players would step out, so that by Wednesday it was intended to be a losers' bracket of people with similar struggling skill levels.

In practice, organized players got their win and got out, but then there was always one group that Replay Badge farmed the struggling random-queue players so that they could literally never get their progression gear.

Those were dark days indeed.

Zoe speaks better English than I speak (insert her native language, or any other language). That was why I pointed out English was her 2nd language. It was a caveat to me saying her post made no sense, not an additional insult.

Membership is devalued for me every time they add a new pay to advance faster feature. Yes you could technically argue that 150 RB's, 6 stabilizer fragments p/d vs 3 or 4, & being able to run the Vault every day for artifact xp add value to membership. However there was a time when the only thing stopping me having the best gear, SP, stats, etc was effort. DBG add monetary progression, they then give a miniscule amount back by way of a legendary benefit, & we're somehow supposed to think membership is enhanced.

I remember when FOS2 could take six hours (ALSO Inner Batcave). THOSE were the days

On a serious note I think that a raid designed to be several hours long might be something to consider if that raid could be left by the group and rejoined at the same point at a later time (since many players have limited session time). The details would have to be worked out. Perhaps making the requirement be that only a MAJORITY of the original group is necessary to reload at the point of exit. The devil IS in the details ( and it MAY ultimately be unworkable) but it is certainly worth discussing

Full disclosure: I'm a lifetime Daybreak (not just DCUO) account holder so this move would definitely benefit me.

With that said, I don't buy replays that often. I could probably count on one hand the number of times I have bought replays over the previous 12 months and still have a couple of fingers left over.

BUT... My routine in the game is probably similar to most: I log in, do my dailies then log out to play other games. On Thursdays and Fridays I do my weeklies and on Saturday nights I raid with my league. About the only time I use Replays is when there is a bonus currency weekend for the latest content (and even then it's mainly the weekly solos).

Were this to happen, I would probably play a bit longer each night and I imagine others would as well... up to a point. The problem is managing burnout. DCUO has decided to go with small DLC's instead of large expansions. New content is what keeps the majority of players coming back day after day. You'll have some hardcore players that would play regardless of new content but they are a small minority. With the DLC's being so small the only way they can make the content last long enough to keep players coming back until the next DLC is to limit the access to it. People still wanting to play after having done their dailies/weeklies will either use Replays or play older content (which is why you still see people on Titans Tower). Removing Replays would allow players to focus exclusively on their intended content (which is usually going to be the latest content).

A leading reason for player burnout is lack of variety in content. The natural inclination for most players is to play the latest content over and over until they've gotten everything from it. Removing Replays would allow that natural inclination while feeding the burnout potential -due to DLC's having such a low amount of content -whereas Replays help lessen the burnout potential by pushing the player to choose playing more than just the same 2 raids ad nauseum each night.

TL;DR - If Replays were removed they would need to double (or even triple) the amount of content in each DLC and put in many time-extending devices (like more gear tiers but with higher gear costs) in order to keep the player base actively playing until the next DLC drops.

PS: The content issue is why I've also been a long-time proponent of other-Seasonal events to bridge the gaps between Seasonals as well as adding a new mission or content to a Seasonal each year (or even every other year).

Ok, but what about the pay to win aspect of Skill Points? would you have to work your butt off on every new toon to get all the feat points including all the content you don't like to play?

Maybe do away with the crappy durability... or the PvP currency ... or flying

Replaying an instance also has a tendency to increase your luck at getting a rare drop... if you reset the loot lock.

the one raid replay a month is not why people sub. people sub primarily to have access to their money because its locked behind a paywall
the other main reason is they don't buy the dlcs as they are released so they want access to the content.

im sure people will say bla bla bla i pay for this but
it's really just to actually play the game because you can't buy anything or repair your gear with that pay wall restriction.
or throwing away money on some fake escrow system designed to give the illusion of choice

They don't have to argue those things add value to membership, because there's no counter argument to the contrary, they factually do add value.

The way you should be looking at the game is from a starting point of having nothing, from that point if nothingness you then add things.

DLC access, money access, extra progression etc..

You then decide whether or not you want to pay the asking price.

The pay to progress on top of your membership isn't actually a fundamentally bad thing, what makes it frustrating is when it purports to be something other than what it really is.

It is quite simply pay2win, people often get hung up on the semantics of that term, deflecting from the sentiment the end user is really trying to express by saying nonsensical things like "what are you winning, if you aren't winning anything it can't be pay2win".

Of course that's nonsensical because what the player is winning is their progress and even if you want to be pedantic about the term and call it something like pay2progress the sentiment being expressed by the end user isn't actually changed.

What this does however and where i agree with you is "how much should a player ever be expected to pay to progress or win and what remains a healthy level" that can then be extrapolated into how much progress or winning should there be sitting within the membership.

I agree that the more winning or payments sit outside of membership the more diluted the membership appears to be, this isn't actually because the membership is no longer worth the money or has somehow changed in its original value its more about the perception that too much additional payment now sits outside that membership that previously.

People don't want to pay that much over and above a subscription because they see a subscription as the ultimate payment.

This is why it is perfectly fine to discuss membership benefits, what's in them, what could be added to increase value, while at the same time you're probably also going to have to discuss price

Anecdotally this is true but there is no data to back this up. I would suspect that replaying instances increase your chances of the drop simply because you take more spins at the wheel . In any event, replays are not the only path to progression

Let me see if I can fathom what you see as a horrible destructive thing we need to remove from the game?

So a player buys or uses the free replay badges they get for subscribing to run the same mission 2 or more time s in the same day or week? Now all those replays did was allow ONE player to reset the rewards handed out on that one mission that ONE time.

In the mean time let us look at what else is available to any player through the Market place...

Level/ CR skips... shell out enough real money and you can skip straight to level 25 from the character creator OR skip all the way to a combat rating of CR 210. That player arrives in a safe house and doesn't even know how to warp to the Watch Tower much less how any of the games mechanics work.

Holiday Cash ... The exact same player shell out more real money and runs to the Holiday Vendor and just starts buying furniture and styles and pet and anything else for sale without even, in the case of the current Halloween event, stepping outside and defeating a single Ghoul.

TIME CAPSULES ... Shell out REAL MONEY and buy enough stabilizers or even capsules that are already opened for you and grab a complete set of high CR armor not to mention the collections only found inside the capsules and everything else they offer.

Now let's review shall we? The guy that reset that raid still had to join a TEAM and battle mobs, sub bosses and the final boss to complete that raid and EARN those rewards. The only advantage he gained was not having to wait a week to do it.

The guy that shelled out REAL MONEY arrived in game at CR 210 and has never battled a single mob let alone a sub boss or boss.

Guy that bought Holiday cash? never fought a single mob or a boss and wound up with feats helping to make him stronger.

The guy that shelled out REAL CASH to but stabilizers and or capsules? Never ran a single stabilizer duo (not that those things are difficult to begin with) or did anything else to get an unopened capsule to drop.

But in YOUR mind its more important to do away with the thing that still makes a player PLAY the game than it is to do away with things that offer rewards for doing NOTHING but typing in your credit card number? I haven't even bothered to LOOK at all three pages of comments but I can just imagine the number of negative response you are getting.

No, I don't like this idea either. I'd rather keep things as they are to use the separate replays for unlocking feats and styles. I don't want to waste valuable source marks that go towards gear to also go for those other two things. No thanks.

But in YOUR mind its more important to do away with the thing that still makes a player PLAY the game than it is to do away with things that offer rewards for doing NOTHING but typing in your credit card number? I haven't even bothered to LOOK at all three pages of comments but I can just imagine the number of negative response you are getting.[/quote]
Well Said

Well at the very least I was glad to generate a discussion that me and a few other friends of mines have bounced around. Negative or otherwise. Still think this is something they can look into. Maybe even give it a trail run during the anniversary event instead of open episode and another cr jump toon.some people actually had some very good input on this subject and in my opinion that’s a win for us. Keep up the good work devs thank you for your time

If a person wants to go all out and spend that much money to keep up by all means let him lol I’m not loosing any sleep over it. This game has been out for almost 9 years . If a new player wants to come in and spend all that money to level up I don’t think that will hurt anyone. The problem with new and old player is this large gap of relevant players to play with. This game doesn’t even play like it did when it first came out. There’s so much to do and to be honest even some of the mechanics in the early episodes don’t play the same as today. If that same player linked up with like minded players he’ll be find if he ends up with people that can show him the ropes a lil more than he’ll be fine. At the end of the day we’ll have more quality player to play with and honestly isn’t that what we’re shooting for.?

I do agree. There are games that you don't have to pay to replay the content.
It would be much better if they did get rid of the replays.

Keep the replays and make 8 player raids daily content with everything else. You still get the replay spammers who want their stuff right now. But like others have said I think the way content is released in this game makes anything like this unlikely

I gotta say 2 for $15 is better because you are far less likely to run your car into a pole on two drinks than on "s many drinks as you like" . Just sayin'

Horrible idea won't entertain the idea any further.

You shouldn't really be driving your car after 2 drinks. Just sayin'

If they made 8-player content into dailies, they would drastically increase the price of gear. This would essentially force people to play raids daily to gear up between episodes.