Its been a weird weekend. I did get a few levels in on ParamountGirl, pushing her to level 35, giving her access to Cimerora. Lord Infinitum got into another Costume Contest and took first for another 100 million influence.
Going through some of my other characters, the attendance has been very light over the past few days, in terms of their respective supergroups. Almost all of them I've been the sole member on, or one of 2 or 3. Most discouraging if you are looking for some team action. I can only expect this is due to the combination of things -- 1) the new issue and people trying new stuff possibly on old or new alts, 2) Trying something on the test systems on upcoming items yet to be released, or 3) holding back knowing of this weekend's impending Double XP event. It got so bad I even got in one night of Skyrim....
Virtue has been seeing high volumes of users, so I suspect there is a log of #1 going on. New players might also be chosing now to join in. I do find it a tad odd.
I did pick up the new costume set for the Imperial Dynasty. I do like it though it appears to be one of the most single minded of the costume sets. Most of the costume sets to date, pieces can be used outside of the set, but don't sing out any one theme. I see plenty of people doing power armor mixing Cyborg pieces with Praetorian Pieces and even the Celestial set. Some of those can be creative. I do see too many of these pieces out in the wild UNLESS they have gone the whole dynasty them with the character.
Although tempted to get the new Leprachan pet I'm 20 points shy of it's price and haven't made the leap for it. Ah well.
I've seen a few themed supergroups advertised of late. Not surprising as a new issue always causes brief surges in the game population and is prime time for promoting supergroups, both young and old. Many of the new ones are seizing the Darkness Control theme. I'm not to sure of an all controller/dominator supergroup. Maybe if they allowed dark defenders and blasters, or even some dark melee scrappers. If the past is any indication, single powerset supergroups are a flash in the pan. They will be popular for a while and then do the slow fade as people silently move on.
I've also been looking into several supergroup websites. It is both frustrating and annoying how each supergroup makes joining either super easy or super hard. Some groups the recruitment process may be a tell or two long , usually done as an OOC exchange. The flip side is the groups that want you to apply on their site, have a sponsor in the group, arrange for an interview, and await a final decision. I've seen far to many of the latter SO slow to respond that the average player would have given up on them before their process even STARTED, let alone wait through it. Since players can so easily level in the game, it seems to me annoying to no end to be kept waiting, sometimes through 20 levels or more, before being admitted -- THEN usually only as a probationary member. Ranking is equally chaotic. Some base it soley on prestige, while others make an elaborate process involving a whole checklist. Most supergroup websites are on Guildportal, or if not, Guildlaunch. But some are on very restricted websites that annoyingly have NOTHING in the way of a forum. Since they also don't have calendars, it makes me wonder -- WHY have a site at all?
Friday, March 16, 2012 at 9:12AM 
