So… here’s a conspiracy theory:
1. Devs in CoH screw up and release info on the HUGELY UNPOPULAR “Enhancement Diversification” system. This has been a semi-known deal in CoV’s secret beta, but the first the CoH folks have heard of it.
2. There is a massive outcry. Hundreds (if not the reported thousands) of CoV Preorders are cancelled, as are CoH auto-renewing accounts.
3. CoH Devs say “oops, geez, we forgot to mention the endurance reduction across the board, and the halving of the debt-cap (which you’ll need because you’ll be eating pavement so often).
4. The outcry intensifies. A significant (And alarming, if you’re Cryptic) number of die-hard players ditch and diss both CoH and CoV.
5. The very next day (or actually about midnite the same day), pretty much everyone and their dog who hasn’t gotten one already, gets a CoV Beta invite.
6. The next (two) day(s), the CoH server are flakey as hell, down most of the time, and unstable, leaving people nothing to do but use the CoV Beta update email to download the beta… and then play the Beta… because there’s nothing else to do.
7. The CoH servers magically come back up at the same time that the 3-hour window for CoV beta closes and the Devs have hooked more of the less-rabid playerbase.
Paranoid?
Maybe. I’d be less annoyed by it if hadn’t totally worked.
“It is bitter to lose a friend to evil, before one loses him to death.” — Mary Renault
Yeah. Look for Kethos. Time to SMASH.