Re:Poor Design (Score 1)

They can fix all the issues they have with powerleveling and farming pretty easily, and they proved it with the Mission Architect. If they change the sidekicking system (a system that lets lower level players artificially act as higher level while teamed, for those who haven't played the game) to auto-SK everywhere instead of just inside MA, and change the auto level to one under or equal to the highest level team member, these problems all go away. They could have done that years ago, as well. But they didn't. The SK (sidekick) system is what allows powerleveling in this game, and that's what makes farm teams popular to the extent that was seen in the MA (Mission Architect) release. They haven't done that, because their position is one of opportunism. They don't want to lose the subs of the farmers and PLers. Both the decision to turn a blind eye to the practice, and the decision to nerf the MA farm missions are geared toward keeping their farming customer's dollars coming in. They're betting that farmers will stay if the practice hasn't been officially condemned, and they're also betting they would have left if the "exploits" were allowed to continue, allowing customers to level too quickly and become bored with the game. The biggest joke in this whole fiasco are the so called "regular players" of CoX, who gleefully point fingers at the farming/PLing part of the community with calls of "cheater", "exploiter" and "abuser". Their childlike understanding of ethics and morals seems to be that folks who level as fast as they can are bad, or should be punished, when the devs they are looking to for ethical direction are basing their decisions *solely* on financial considerations. If you ever need a good laugh over rabid fanboyism, go check out the forums at www.cityofheroes.com.