Ping Pang Pow

[Xev]

Logged on for some actual play time tonite and after I finally logged in halfway under the world with 1/4 of my hps and a red flashing screen I was then greeted with a nice long surge of 11 second pings. No, not millisecond, these were 11 full second pings.

Someone in Zone was complaining about 11k pings like a week or two ago.

Was talking with someone in Friends who seems to have played for awhile and they told me I've just been lucky until now to have a consistently good connection. I hope they were just jiving me.

Ah well, whatever. When the game works, it's a fun game. I don't care that they screwed up crafting or have no support or new content and that there are a fair amount of bugs and I'm even over the fact that there's not much in the way of raiding or other big kids stuff and I don't care about what the people who think CO will shut down before long have to say. I like the mechanics and graphics and the potential of the game and always have fun playing it when it is playable.

Before this connection problem, the worst problem I had with the game was deciding who to level and what gear to get my main guy next. I was at that point I'd get to in CoH sometimes where I wished I had a brain and pair of hands to play every toon at once because I couldn't decide who to play next.

[Tenzhi]

For some reason, I was expecting "Ping Pang Pow" to be a character name.

[Xev]

Named after the sounds her attacks make... Ping Pang Pow, cousin to the famed Hong Kong Phoeey, fearlessly fights crime on the streets of Millennium city.

Usually early in the morning when there's the least lag.

[blackjak]

The possible racist- ness made me think about Hi-Pan. What is he apparently Chinese most of the time, but looks like Ben Kingsley in his alert pic? Makes me think of Iron Man3...

[dwturducken]

One of my best friends was in town to "say his good byes" before he heads to China as chaperone for a grad student summer trip, which just happens to be based in one of the "hot spots" for the current bird flu outbreak.

Anyway, we were playing the Purple Gang missions, last night, and the Hi Pan cutscene had us both laughing. I think it might be almost as racist as the Weng Chiang portrayal from classic Doctor Who.

[blackjak]

But why on earth did they let the artwork go so wrong with him? Really? Is he Chinese or Italian? This is a comic game. Comics are 90% artwork for cripes sake!! It's actually worse than the old Scooby-do meets Batman & Robin where batman sometimes had neck showing through his cowl. At least the artwork was consistent. He didn't suddenly look like Thelma or anything...

[JaguarX]

The possible racist- ness made me think about Hi-Pan. What is he apparently Chinese most of the time, but looks like Ben Kingsley in his alert pic? Makes me think of Iron Man3...

Even chinese people have varied looks believe it or not.

[blackjak]

Of course, but a large aquiline nose is not very common.

[Tenzhi]

In case it's not obvious, Hi-Pan is a parody of Lo Pan from Big Trouble in Little China.

[Nos482]

I hope they were just jiving me.

Nope, no luck there

[dwturducken]

It wasn't obvious until running into "Burt Jackson," later on.

[Xev]

Nope, no luck there

Well at least there's a good chance it's not just me. I keep running Trace Routes and coming up with virtually the same thing whether my connection to the game is solid or completely bonkers. I'm not having any other Internet weirdness that I can tell - maybe this will pass as quickly as it came.

Seriously guys, how can they expect people to sub with connections like those. I can put up with a lot - all that stuff from the OP - but, when the game becomes randomly unplayable.. That's over the line.

I've never been happier being Silver. I still like the game but this is making me rethink some things about it. Besides the problems, I've had zeeeero support, to add insult to injury. And yeah, I'm Silver but they just got 20 bucks from me so I'm a paying customer too.


PS
Not even 1 comment of the Hong Kong Phooey song?? I mean, come on... I couldn't get that thing out of my head for like half the day after posting the link : D

[blackjak]

I know of quite a few some of my SG mates getting DC's a lot lately as well and they are all gold for the most part. I have noticed that with every new patch there is increasing lag and connection problems. I have bad DC's when traffic is up as well as laggalishious lagditude and rubber banding. The forum event (which was too close to the gladiator movie event in COX, IMHO) was the last major patch that I remember and that is when things started getting screwy of late.

[Xev]

Now that I think about it.. This started for me right before or at that weekend that they ended the last sale in the C-store.. I remember the electricity going out Monday morning due to the first thunderstorm I've seen since I lived here as a kid and I missed getting a discount at the C-store. Was so frustrated the prior weekend when trying to play that I couldn't focus my lil pea brain on what hideout I wanted and decided to put off getting one until Monday.

The sale ended before FM ended I think?

So yeah, that's when it started for me. For some reason I was thinking it was a couple days after the last patch instead of before it.

Hope they get it fixed soon. Would rather talk about/experience the cool stuff going on in the game.

For what it's worth - I just logged on and my pings are already bad.

The pattern for me seems to be:
Good access from ~ 6 - 8:00 a.m. PST .... on weekdays
Good access from ~ 6 - 3:00 p.m. and then it might get good again ~ 9:00 pm ... on weekends

Trace routes to patchserver.crypticstudios.com all come up about the same no matter when I run them. I dunno what's going on but I know I've already spent plenty enough time on the problem and am ready to move on (from playing as my own technical support) and just hope they get stuff straightened out soon.

Well, scratch the weekdays thing. My CO connection just magically got good again as I was editing this. That's never happened. Usually when it goes bad it stays bad until night - if it gets better at all that day.

[blackjak]

I think they are starting to strain from the influx of new players (ahem...COXers). They are in the situation of single-server (wouldn't doubt shared server with other titles) with a small budget and a future to work towards that probably doesn't involve CO getting better. STO maybe. I could see them being worried about the Marvel game since it was going to be CO at first and I've heard players in chat talking about already playing it. Maybe it's the demographic (i.e. seemingly kids...I'm 40+ so I can say that with surety.) Don't see a lot of brand loyalty from under 20's.

[JaguarX]

I think they are starting to strain from the influx of new players (ahem...COXers). They are in the situation of single-server (wouldn't doubt shared server with other titles) with a small budget and a future to work towards that probably doesn't involve CO getting better. STO maybe. I could see them being worried about the Marvel game since it was going to be CO at first and I've heard players in chat talking about already playing it. Maybe it's the demographic (i.e. seemingly kids...I'm 40+ so I can say that with surety.) Don't see a lot of brand loyalty from under 20's.

Yeah.

I seen a survey where thye noticed that brand loyalty is dropping. Not because people becoming less loyal but because the people of the brand loyalty mindset is dying off. XD.

I know a bunch of the older types, usually 50 and up, stick with one brand seemingly forever although they could move up or sideways if they chose. Some in their 70s that owned nothing but Cadillacs for example, since the 70s at least and some earlier, and never drove anythign since even though they could buy a Mercedes or Rolls-Royce easily if they chose to. Others, Lincolns some Mustangs since the first model rolled off the line in 1964.5 and still either have that one and or have the 2012-2013 Mustang.  In the young demographics, they tend to bounce around to what ever is newer which in some peopel midset equals better. Neither view is wrong and each has ups and downs but I noticed brand loyalty seem to be a thing of the upper end of the age group. But of course there are exceptions. Some of the older group dont believe in brand loyalty while some young folk stick to one brand in a more vigorous manner than the smell of a month old dead body that been left in the trunk during Arizonia summer sticks to carpet. 

[dwturducken]

Trailturtle, the CO Community Manager, has said outright that all three games are running on the same physical box. I haven't seen anyone reveal specs on said box, but that puts a bit of a strain on the hardware, given what I can only imagine is tens of thousands of users, between the three games.

Maybe I'm overly optimistic with regards to the popularity of the other two games, but I routinely end up in the 4th or 5th instance of whatever zone of Millennium City I'm in, and the "common areas" are always downright bustling in the other two games, though I don't go into them often enough to think to look at which instance of the zone I'm in.

[Xev]

As for brand loyalty when it comes to games - I'm loyal to whatever is fun and playable and if becomes not so - it generally becomes back-burnered until a time when it becomes so again. This habit hasn't changed for me since the days when a gaming PC was obsolete well within 1 year.

I had CoH on my hard drive for years after it went live without playing it regularly and then the last year or so I couldn't get enough.

One prob I have with switching around in games right now is lack of bandwidth.

[JaguarX]

As for brand loyalty when it comes to games - I'm loyal to whatever is fun and playable and if becomes not so - it generally becomes back-burnered until a time when it becomes so again. This habit hasn't changed for me since the days when a gaming PC was obsolete well within 1 year.

I had CoH on my hard drive for years after it went live without playing it regularly and then the last year or so I couldn't get enough.

One prob I have with switching around in games right now is lack of bandwidth.

Sounds like what I do.

Been plenty of games  take breaks from sometimes for years.

In today gaming world, lack of bandwidth can be a drag. More and more games now require good internet connection even if it's a standalone for, as the industry say, "important updates". More like track the user's activities. "ooh look it here, a tint foil hat. It matches my shirt and completes my outfit."

[blackjak]

Sounds like what I do.

Been plenty of games  take breaks from sometimes for years.

In today gaming world, lack of bandwidth can be a drag. More and more games now require good internet connection even if it's a standalone for, as the industry say, "important updates". More like track the user's activities. "ooh look it here, a tint foil hat. It matches my shirt and completes my outfit."

Looks like the platform systems aren't immune now either **points at Xbone **

Funny note: I am not 70, but I just inherited a Caddy. FTW.

[JaguarX]

Funny note: I am not 70, but I just inherited a Caddy. FTW.

My first car in High school back in 2001 time period was a 95 Caddy Fleetwood Brougham. Big Blue!

[Xev]

I didn't mean to sound negative towards brand loyalty. I dunno how you can go through life and not acquire any of that - I mean look at all the movie sequels (for all ages) for just one miniscule example.

If a company comes out with something I like and then later they come out with something else and tell me I'm gonna like it I will probably try the thing they are pushing if it looks interesting to me because they already made me happy once and I want to especially support people that make me/the world happy. If you hug me and I like it and then tell me I will like a kiss even more, I'll probly try that too. All brand loyalty.

I saw the racist police earlier, where are the ageist police! You don't have to be old to have common sense  : p ... : D A certain amount of brand loyalty seems natural.

I totally understand how people can become a part of a gaming community to the point that that is as or even more important than the game itself.  That's a whole other thing. These days I personally game more for the game itself, to have something to unwind/escape with, and when I meet nice people, that's definitely a bonus. This attitude may very well change again over the years (should I not DIE OFF too soon... *ahem*) hehe. I personally think it's all in what you're looking for at the time.

And yeah, there has never been a good time to be a gamer with poor Internet access and this period does have it's uniqueness. I'll be glad to have real Internet again someday and I hope they fix this mega ping bs in CO soooon. Hopefully before I .. you know.. DIE OFF and all.. hehe