After reading through this thread http://forums.champions-online.com/s...d.php?t=142514 I believe that we actually have a need to spell out what content is and what it is the players are looking for from said content.

In my not so humble opinion, content is meat and potatoes.

Full and rich Adventure Packs like Resistance and full and detailed Zones like Vibora Bay minus the obvious grind factors.

Meaningful and challenging end game content for those that have reached level 40 including end game lairs that do not have lockouts.

More cosmic critters that have a spawn system that makes sense and are, perhaps placed in a story arc and their own instance, and have a roaming "live world" counterpart.

Random crisis situations that happen in the normal zones which will require some team work to quell... like a real comic book would have.

The ability to elect one of your nemesis creations to become your Arch Nemesis making them forever a complete and total pain in the "you know what" to face... which means, they get buffed and cannot be beaten easily... and nemesis minions that are actually meaningful as well because the dainty China dolls currently in game are jokes.

A Crafting system that is actually... well... useful and... well.... yeah... not a head-desk inducing ridiculous grind to craft things with.

New, unseen, (and not old areas with a new shiny coat of paint on them), leveling paths!

Fixes to bugs that have been around for what seems centuries! While not content exactly if the content we have is not working right, there is little to no reason to run said content, is there?

This is not a full and comprehensive list of things that I believe are content. Feel free to add to the list.

What is not content:

Anything that takes 20 minutes to complete minus elongated cut-scenes. The comic series is nice but as far as their frequency of release do very little to maintain the demand for things to occupy the players. If I am not mistaken, when first talked about the comic series was to be a monthly thing and not every 4-6 months.

Fluff items in the C-Store. Grab Bags, Costume Sets, Hideouts (not really fluff but have yet to serve a purpose other than being there), New Archetypes (yes, yes yes... I know... they give players something new to play around with but play within the same old zones...) and devices that while adding another look or feature to the character do nothing for the general in-game experience that character can have.

Promises of future content is not content. I am tired of... and I am sure others are tired as well of the phrase, "Be Patient because this, this and this is in the future." If no one has taken the time to say so... I will step up and be the first to say that my patience is running thin. I cannot play promises... they do nothing except remind me that my patience for true playable content is running out.

This is not intended to be an extensive list of what I feel is not content. Please feel free to add to it.

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Let me address something that is truly bothering the ever-loving blue-eyed (insert inappropriate word here) out of me.

The Foundry. All I am hearing at this point is that the Devs would love to do it but... (insert platitude and excuse here). If I am not mistaken, STO got the foundry either with launch or very soon thereafter. Neverwinter is building the Foundry right into the game right off the bat. I may be wrong about both those things so I am open to being corrected. Here sits Champions... and for everything that I can glean from Developer commentary about the Foundry they all would love it... BUT.... and that is all that ever is said. How is it that something that would more-or-less ease the demand for playable content not be a damn good thing for Champions? I would rather a partial featured Foundry than the full implementation the devs seem to think we would need/expect/want/demand. I would be more than willing to take what can be implemented right now than "BE PATIENT" for the FUTURE that never seems to come to fruition? I would rather work with what is possible NOW. I would be willing to be patient for the other features to be added down the road than be stymied with absolutely nothing to work with immediately. The foot dragging is difficult to swallow at this point and the community that would love the Foundry is beginning to ask the difficult questions as to why all the foot dragging is happening. Honesty is a beautiful thing... tell us that it isn't going to happen or tell us that it is. Just level with us. Being honest is never a bad thing and while there will be some that will gripe and complain about your reasons, a great deal of us would rather the truth.

I am done for the moment with my ranting.

Let's please try to keep this thread productive so that we can communicate clearly what our needs are.

Star Trek Online didn't get the Foundry until the Season Three: Genesis update. That was over a year after launch. I understand your desire to have it in Champions, because I do too, but please get your facts straight.

I also agree with your stance on missions over fluff. While fluff makes money, there's already plenty of it. As much as I hate to admit it, grab bags and their horrible drop rates are encouraging repeated purchases, which is very lucrative. Cryptic can afford to stop pumping out C-Store goodies for now.

I did not offer facts. I said Please read what I say carefully. There are little gems like my openness to being corrected if I am mistaken about something.

okay its been stated that the foundry would have to be implemented differently than on the other games. what was suggested by squrrelloid is at beast a pathetic attempt and wouldnt even be on par with CoH version the architect. ontop of that since issue 4 on STO they no longer run on the same version of the system as CO. that would cause even bigger issues. The core system has it implemented but just because CO is part of that it doesnt mean they can just flip a switch. Because CO runs on a earlier version of the engine they would need to do a core update. That requires new tech due to the uniqueness of CO. also as storm said to bring to par with the character creator they would need even more time to check and recheck and possibly rewrite alot of files. as he said "millions of files" all in all that and the core update not to mention bugs and alpha testing and than beta it could take up to maybe an entire year or year and a half. that would mean for that ammount of time there would possibly be no new content and bug fixes.

Well it's pretty clear Cryptic is trying to play it safe economically: Content like that requires more work and is lucratively a huge risk, given that its results aren't as instantaneous as selling a bunch of chance-based bags. But let me ask you this, Cryptic: Can you really drive an MMO without new playable content?

That's not even considering things like Adventure Packs. The 3 you've released have been great, and encourage people to try out gold, which is like the best way ever to play the game. That, or at least consider buying it from the cStore otherwise.

What I would like would be an expansion of Mill City some new areas to run about even if it doesnt have any mish to do :)

New areas, new missions. new super villains and story arcs.

New stuff that isn't an item that i can't even use...

i don't consider grab bags to be new content.. i consider them novelty items, cursed grab bag came out sold like a lot in the first 2 days.. then i already noticed it dwindling...


i know they were made to also help silvers get the pieces too but... i challenge any dev, to play CO, as a silver... and try to buy the complete set of both cursed/scourge and the chain jacket and belt costume pieces, ALL ten pieces. i doubt it can be done now. because it was a novelty , not content hardly anyone buys them now and then when they do, the odds of a costume peice to sell are low so it stops quickly. content lasts, novelties don't. i want something that will last more than a week, not just 2 days

I'm for this. And all they really have to do is stick some Help A Citizen/ exploration missions in there and it's done.

This. So much this.
I am tired of promises. Whiteout was a disappointment, let's not fool ourselves. Aftershock is sort of... there. And of the APs I only ever see myself replaying Resistance, maybe Demonflame. With that I make the point that it's not enough to release content, it needs to be something we want to play.

It's why we saw Rencen and SG chats devoid of most people when [major fantasy game here] released. There wasn't anything here to sustain their attention.

Please don't take away the wrong idea from this. We're upset because we care too much to see this fail. To quote the ArenaNet dev Jeff Strain:
Please, Cryptic. Don't go deaf on us.