lol, or how about, engage people with an exciting and complex story. Drive the action with interesting and varied encounters. Allow them impactful and epic choices, and at the end give them something that is appropriate for the time spent and also enhances the player’s enjoyment of the experience.
This lies in stark contrast with, let’s give players the option to kill the same mob a thousand times to increase the time required to get an interesting item.
You don’t even get that with SWTOR and they spent half a billion. With a B.
Baby, lemme tell ya – I’d LOVE for new content every day. Love it. But that means either lowballing the hell out of the creative minds that come up with new worlds out of thin air or paying out the nose (and probably other orifices) to get it.
Maybe you don’t have a problem with that. You certainly wouldn’t be in the minority there, would you? But some people just have a better understanding of the economics behind a game.
Of course, all of this brings to mind a new question – have you REALLY gone through all of the content this game has to offer yet? Maybe it’s just time for a new game for ya, buddy.
We got 2 living chapter stories over 3 years. 500 million isn’t necessary to tell a good story. Nor is it necessary for decent balancing between grind and gameplay. It’s true, there are some peole who will never be happy no matter how much a game company gives. However that isn’t the majority of gamers. I and many of Anet’s customers I am sure would be happy if they gave an equivalent value for 50 dollars as we received for the core game. As there are no new races, a much smaller set of maps, a shorter campaign, and only one new profession, Anet should ackowledge this lak of comparable product by offering people more. Give them gems, enhanced benefits, etc… It costs them nothing as they are virtual goods, and would assuage those of us who know that they are being shortchanged.
So, because you didn’t get a whole new game, you feel you are due gems and unnamed “enhanced benefits”.
Do I have that correct? Because that’s what it looks like you’re saying, and if that’s the case I just can’t take such a viewpoint seriously. XD
Its not unreasonable to expect or at least to desire value for one’s money comparable to what one has received in the past.
Anet established the exchange rate in terms of what one gets when one spends $x on a GW2 release. If the new release does not measure up to that exchange rate it is reasonable for a discerning customer to ask for more.
Of course Anet has the option to decide that the new release represents a revision of the exchange rate. At that point it is up to the customer to decide if he is willing to buy into the new rate or perhaps wait until the passage of time leads to a lowered price for the new content. In theory, by waiting for multiple expansions to be released before purchasing a, a customer has the potential to actually exceed the original content to price exchange rate.
Okay, so the outrage then is over not getting a game the size of GW2 for the price of the expansion.
Of course, that begs the next question: If you bought this and weren’t happy with the amount of content, why did you buy it in the first place?
(Alternative: If you didn’t buy it, why the complaints?)
Pre-purchasing, particularly before details on the product to be purchased has been fully revealed is such a bad idea.
Then there are those who want more of GW2, want to buy an expansion, are potentially devoted to the IP, but who think that Anet is under-delivering for the price.
Then don’t buy it? I mean, really, if your problem here is that you’re too much of a fan of the company to avoid giving them money for something you don’t like, then I don’t know if ANYONE can help you.
My problem?
Care to point out where I said I had a problem?
I merely pointed out how I can imagine why some people have an issue with HoT.
Personally I am not buying it. No outrage just not much of anything of interest to me in this expansion. Perhaps the next will be more to my liking. My primary interest in these threads is the possibility that the reception and discussion of the elements of this expansion might shape the next.
Listening to some of the “complaints”, I can’t say I share your hope in that regard.
lol, or how about, engage people with an exciting and complex story. Drive the action with interesting and varied encounters. Allow them impactful and epic choices, and at the end give them something that is appropriate for the time spent and also enhances the player’s enjoyment of the experience.
This lies in stark contrast with, let’s give players the option to kill the same mob a thousand times to increase the time required to get an interesting item.
You don’t even get that with SWTOR and they spent half a billion. With a B.
Baby, lemme tell ya – I’d LOVE for new content every day. Love it. But that means either lowballing the hell out of the creative minds that come up with new worlds out of thin air or paying out the nose (and probably other orifices) to get it.
Maybe you don’t have a problem with that. You certainly wouldn’t be in the minority there, would you? But some people just have a better understanding of the economics behind a game.
Of course, all of this brings to mind a new question – have you REALLY gone through all of the content this game has to offer yet? Maybe it’s just time for a new game for ya, buddy.
We got 2 living chapter stories over 3 years. 500 million isn’t necessary to tell a good story. Nor is it necessary for decent balancing between grind and gameplay. It’s true, there are some peole who will never be happy no matter how much a game company gives. However that isn’t the majority of gamers. I and many of Anet’s customers I am sure would be happy if they gave an equivalent value for 50 dollars as we received for the core game. As there are no new races, a much smaller set of maps, a shorter campaign, and only one new profession, Anet should ackowledge this lak of comparable product by offering people more. Give them gems, enhanced benefits, etc… It costs them nothing as they are virtual goods, and would assuage those of us who know that they are being shortchanged.
So, because you didn’t get a whole new game, you feel you are due gems and unnamed “enhanced benefits”.
Do I have that correct? Because that’s what it looks like you’re saying, and if that’s the case I just can’t take such a viewpoint seriously. XD
Its not unreasonable to expect or at least to desire value for one’s money comparable to what one has received in the past.
Anet established the exchange rate in terms of what one gets when one spends $x on a GW2 release. If the new release does not measure up to that exchange rate it is reasonable for a discerning customer to ask for more.
Of course Anet has the option to decide that the new release represents a revision of the exchange rate. At that point it is up to the customer to decide if he is willing to buy into the new rate or perhaps wait until the passage of time leads to a lowered price for the new content. In theory, by waiting for multiple expansions to be released before purchasing a, a customer has the potential to actually exceed the original content to price exchange rate.
Okay, so the outrage then is over not getting a game the size of GW2 for the price of the expansion.
Of course, that begs the next question: If you bought this and weren’t happy with the amount of content, why did you buy it in the first place?
(Alternative: If you didn’t buy it, why the complaints?)
Pre-purchasing, particularly before details on the product to be purchased has been fully revealed is such a bad idea.
Then there are those who want more of GW2, want to buy an expansion, are potentially devoted to the IP, but who think that Anet is under-delivering for the price.
Then don’t buy it? I mean, really, if your problem here is that you’re too much of a fan of the company to avoid giving them money for something you don’t like, then I don’t know if ANYONE can help you.
…there isn’t really a question here to answer, though. It’s more of a complaint. -Sid
How many rpgs of any kind out there doesn’t have some kind of leveling?
I spent years playing on a Neverwinter Nights roleplay server where you literally just created your character on your own computer within limits (Level set to 30, no items above effective item level 20).
Leveling is the most unimaginative way of adding a sense of progression. For instance, progression in SPvP comes from actually getting better at the game, not because playing mind numbing tasks for longer but never learning anything entitles you to having higher stats or more traits.
In the server I played on, there were just so many areas that it would take ages to actually get through each of them, that, and the fact that hanging around the Red Lion Inn’s bar and chatting was so much fun, assuming we weren’t charting an expedition into the Orchards of the kitten ed in the infinite layers of the abyss, Reclaiming our souls from devils in the Hells after accidentally selling them, breaking out of the prison planes of Carcerei after being trapped in its deepest layer, joining up for a stint in the blood war, journeying deep into the hearts of outland in order to reach the library of thoth, and then reading through the tomes contained within in the search of a description depicting the scene described by an prophetic character viewed within their dreams in order to figure out where it was that they were seeing, staging a heist on the god of thieves in the depths of Gehenna, before reaching the treasury getting caught and trying to escape, dealing with players plotting to overthrow one of the factions and gathering support, etc, and that’s not even counting the portals, all tied to random easily obtainable junk that we’d discover from just hoarding everything as we explored in order to try and find each of them and determine just which item corresponded to each key.
Character progression is a crutch that’s only needed if your gameplay isn’t interesting enough to generate a sense of progression from developing your skill as a player/You don’t have enough content to keep people interested.
That was an individual home made server, and not the core game. I’ll ask the question again: how many games come from their company to our computer without a leveling system. Yes even NWN had leveling, I played that a lot. Perhaps that home brew didn’t, but thats not what came to us out of the box, that was a home made change.
What I can say is, I’ve been playing rpgs of one form or another for 33 years, and some form of experience-time-based character improvement has existed in every single rpg I’ve played, bar none that I can recall.
In other words, this complaint you and others are leveling against GW2 would be accurate to level against EVERY SINGLE COMPUTER RPG EVER MADE.
Also life itself.
I think what people forget about the leveling process is that it’s largely a tutorial. Endgame is THE game. 1-80 is just an opportunity to build up your character and learn how to use it.
Going straight to 80 deprives the player of that critical learning opportunity. Imagine, if you will, having the option to just buy a geared 80. I don’t know of many players who would welcome this sort of teammate into their WvW or PvP groups because, really, what kind of experience do they have? Anyone with half a brain cell knows a talented player in Exotics (or even Rares, if they’re good enough) can beat a talentless player of equal level in Ascendeds pretty much at will.
But this is no longer the day and age in which we live, my friend. These days, everyone coming out of college thinks they’re set for life. They don’t understand that college is just a gear grind to get an item that MIGHT improve their RNG in the job market. They think it’s a dead cert.
These people believe paying for something is enough to get everything. There is no sense of pride or accomplishment in conquering obstacles. There’s no point for these kind of people to do ANYTHING unless the reward is a) guaranteed and b) totally badkitten.
Fortunately, these kind of people can’t design games, so I don’t think it’ll be too much of an issue. We’ll still have the kind of RPG that works. And, with any luck, maybe we’ll be able to teach kids a thing or two about having a sense of pride in one’s creations instead of just treating them as another pile of pixels that isn’t shiny enough because (insert unrelated grievance here). -Sid
I am taking the view that a responsible company takes their paying customers seriously and treats them with respect and appreciation. It is the moral and right thing to do, but in addition in also ensures customer loyalty for many more years.
So. Considered entering politics?
Don’t worry, baby. I won’t be taking you seriously in the future. ;-)
lol, or how about, engage people with an exciting and complex story. Drive the action with interesting and varied encounters. Allow them impactful and epic choices, and at the end give them something that is appropriate for the time spent and also enhances the player’s enjoyment of the experience.
This lies in stark contrast with, let’s give players the option to kill the same mob a thousand times to increase the time required to get an interesting item.
You don’t even get that with SWTOR and they spent half a billion. With a B.
Baby, lemme tell ya – I’d LOVE for new content every day. Love it. But that means either lowballing the hell out of the creative minds that come up with new worlds out of thin air or paying out the nose (and probably other orifices) to get it.
Maybe you don’t have a problem with that. You certainly wouldn’t be in the minority there, would you? But some people just have a better understanding of the economics behind a game.
Of course, all of this brings to mind a new question – have you REALLY gone through all of the content this game has to offer yet? Maybe it’s just time for a new game for ya, buddy.
We got 2 living chapter stories over 3 years. 500 million isn’t necessary to tell a good story. Nor is it necessary for decent balancing between grind and gameplay. It’s true, there are some peole who will never be happy no matter how much a game company gives. However that isn’t the majority of gamers. I and many of Anet’s customers I am sure would be happy if they gave an equivalent value for 50 dollars as we received for the core game. As there are no new races, a much smaller set of maps, a shorter campaign, and only one new profession, Anet should ackowledge this lak of comparable product by offering people more. Give them gems, enhanced benefits, etc… It costs them nothing as they are virtual goods, and would assuage those of us who know that they are being shortchanged.
So, because you didn’t get a whole new game, you feel you are due gems and unnamed “enhanced benefits”.
Do I have that correct? Because that’s what it looks like you’re saying, and if that’s the case I just can’t take such a viewpoint seriously. XD
Its not unreasonable to expect or at least to desire value for one’s money comparable to what one has received in the past.
Anet established the exchange rate in terms of what one gets when one spends $x on a GW2 release. If the new release does not measure up to that exchange rate it is reasonable for a discerning customer to ask for more.
Of course Anet has the option to decide that the new release represents a revision of the exchange rate. At that point it is up to the customer to decide if he is willing to buy into the new rate or perhaps wait until the passage of time leads to a lowered price for the new content. In theory, by waiting for multiple expansions to be released before purchasing a, a customer has the potential to actually exceed the original content to price exchange rate.
Okay, so the outrage then is over not getting a game the size of GW2 for the price of the expansion.
Of course, that begs the next question: If you bought this and weren’t happy with the amount of content, why did you buy it in the first place?
(Alternative: If you didn’t buy it, why the complaints?)
It depends on the actual result. There are players selling a solo Arah run for gold. However, those players and others like them are not representative of a majority of the customers of Anet and GW2. If a majority of players can complete the event and experience a challenge with exotic gear, then it isn’t a requirement. If they can not, it is one.
One of two things is happening here:
- You REALLY like to argue with people over just about any topic one can imagine, or;
- You don’t understand the concept of endgame content.
Assuming the latter, this is standard operating procedure for endgame content. It typically helps to have the best gear, because it’s supposed to be the most challenging content.
You see, there are people who play this game – a lot of them, actually – who are here to be challenged. They want difficult content, and are willing to acquire the gear and skills necessary to meet those challenges. For those who don’t care to wait, there’s the option of buying kittenpiles of gold (I’m starting to rather like the employment of the term “kitten” as a minced oath) and speeding up that whole process.
Now, if the ONLY way to get that gear were to be the Gem Store, then yes, I’d agree with you that this game is “pay to win”. However, since all of that stuff can be acquired simply by playing the game, it’s more “pay to be impatient”.
Of course, if your only reason for voicing these concerns is the former – that you just like arguing – then it would be super fantastic if you would simply state so for the benefit of others. Your constant posting on these topics across multiple threads can be misconstrued as the actions of someone who actually gives a kitten about the topic. -Sid
Pretty much anything Cafepress sells. Merchandising really isn’t that hard – certainly not as difficult as game design.
Slap logos, catchphrases and characters on T-shirts, mugs, keychains and beer glasses. Put said merch on a website. Inform people about said merch through launcher. Profit. -Sid
(Stay away from books though. I picked up a copy of Ghosts on a whim and didn’t finish it. The writing was simply too dramatic. I felt like I was reading a soap opera. My advice would be to avoid releasing any more novels until/unless better writers are found. I realize this statement may cause some anger. There’s nothing I can do about that.)
lol, or how about, engage people with an exciting and complex story. Drive the action with interesting and varied encounters. Allow them impactful and epic choices, and at the end give them something that is appropriate for the time spent and also enhances the player’s enjoyment of the experience.
This lies in stark contrast with, let’s give players the option to kill the same mob a thousand times to increase the time required to get an interesting item.
You don’t even get that with SWTOR and they spent half a billion. With a B.
Baby, lemme tell ya – I’d LOVE for new content every day. Love it. But that means either lowballing the hell out of the creative minds that come up with new worlds out of thin air or paying out the nose (and probably other orifices) to get it.
Maybe you don’t have a problem with that. You certainly wouldn’t be in the minority there, would you? But some people just have a better understanding of the economics behind a game.
Of course, all of this brings to mind a new question – have you REALLY gone through all of the content this game has to offer yet? Maybe it’s just time for a new game for ya, buddy.
We got 2 living chapter stories over 3 years. 500 million isn’t necessary to tell a good story. Nor is it necessary for decent balancing between grind and gameplay. It’s true, there are some peole who will never be happy no matter how much a game company gives. However that isn’t the majority of gamers. I and many of Anet’s customers I am sure would be happy if they gave an equivalent value for 50 dollars as we received for the core game. As there are no new races, a much smaller set of maps, a shorter campaign, and only one new profession, Anet should ackowledge this lak of comparable product by offering people more. Give them gems, enhanced benefits, etc… It costs them nothing as they are virtual goods, and would assuage those of us who know that they are being shortchanged.
So, because you didn’t get a whole new game, you feel you are due gems and unnamed “enhanced benefits”.
Do I have that correct? Because that’s what it looks like you’re saying, and if that’s the case I just can’t take such a viewpoint seriously. XD
Wrong, I think the people at Anet are inherently good people and good game designers. I’ll continue buying their games, but also continue talking to appeal to their good natures and occasionally grant benefits to their paying customers.
…look, it’s become abundantly clear that sarcasm isn’t your thing so let’s try this your way.
What the hell, SPECIFICALLY, do you want to see here? Besides an argument with me, I mean. (That much has become obvious.)
lol, or how about, engage people with an exciting and complex story. Drive the action with interesting and varied encounters. Allow them impactful and epic choices, and at the end give them something that is appropriate for the time spent and also enhances the player’s enjoyment of the experience.
This lies in stark contrast with, let’s give players the option to kill the same mob a thousand times to increase the time required to get an interesting item.
You don’t even get that with SWTOR and they spent half a billion. With a B.
Baby, lemme tell ya – I’d LOVE for new content every day. Love it. But that means either lowballing the hell out of the creative minds that come up with new worlds out of thin air or paying out the nose (and probably other orifices) to get it.
Maybe you don’t have a problem with that. You certainly wouldn’t be in the minority there, would you? But some people just have a better understanding of the economics behind a game.
Of course, all of this brings to mind a new question – have you REALLY gone through all of the content this game has to offer yet? Maybe it’s just time for a new game for ya, buddy.
Yeah, I’m in the minority that thinks that the paying consumer should be getting the most from their money spent. Instead of the seller giving the least for the money charged.
Then by God, stop spending money! These corporate fatcats have been stealing your precious TIME, and you keep paying them for it!
There’s only one way for those rich jerks at ANet to learn their lesson here, man/woman. You’re going to have to stop playing. Why, I’m sure with the loss of your funds ANet will come to a screeching halt. That gold-plated caviar orgy cafeteria I mentioned? Will close. Those Bugattis? All returned, because of course they were leased because why do rich people need to buy?
The power is within YOU, my friend. Bring ANet to their knees. Show them what boneheads they are for not giving all of us power overwhelming straight off the bat. How DARE we have to play for it?! Where’s the fun in THAT, right?
Why, this is almost as bad as those old Nintendo games that didn’t have any cheat codes or anything. Remember what torture it was to play Donkey Kong Jr.? Oh. Em. Gee. I think we all just wanted to whip out the credit card and get to the end of that one, right?
maybe the virtual minimum wage should raised, and virtual prices artificially lowered.
Why bother with wages and prices at all? Screw capitalism! After all, it’s keeping those fatcats at ANet swaddled in silk that is, itself, swaddled in gold, gems and Apple stock!
…am I the only one, then, who runs content purely because I enjoy the content I run, and not so much for whatever pixelated nonsense I can potentially get at the end of said content?
Because if I am, then perhaps I’ve been going about enjoying content the wrong way. -Sid
I’ve played Goat Simulator.
Bring the bugs. None will compare to the stuff I’ve seen there. -Sid
lol, the op said they like grinding. I wonder why there are always posters that angrily exclaim “Grinding is necessary and good! Everyone who hates it is stupid!”
WhatEVER do you mean, good sir/ma’am? Surely no one is insinuating that here. Why, we all know we deserve everything handed to us right off the bat!
We have CREDIT CARDS, (insert mild epithet the naughty filter considers bad here)!
No, no, I like where we’re going with this “no-grind” concept. Let’s give everyone full access to everything right off the bat, make ’em max level, outfit all characters with complete sets of Legendary gear, and see what happens.
:-)
Oh, joy of joys. Yet another thread that complains about grinding. I thoroughly enjoy each and every one of these well-thought- well-spoken missives that don’t at all sound whiny or spoiled!
But no, the original poster is wrong. He and all of us should just be granted max level, full sets of Legendary, and have a skill mapped to the 1 button that says “Kill Everything On The Screen And Gain Infinite Life, Shinies and Black Lion Keys In The Process”. That would certainly make the game much, much more fun and not at all as boring as seven different versions of Sheboygan, Wisconsin.
You see, while grinding might be novel and new and fun because the concept surely doesn’t exist anywhere else in gaming or life in general, it’s just an economic way of adding challenge to a game. What we should have instead is brand-new content, every hour, that is in no way related to anything published in the previous hours. Oh, and this content should come completely free, with everyone getting full refunds for money spent both on the game AND in the Gem Store, because everyone knows there is absolutely no work that goes into maintaining a game, and that everyone at ANet drives Bugatti Veyrons and that communal caviar orgies take place every five minutes in the ANet cafeteria, which is larger than Rhode Island, plated entirely in 24k gold and floats on an ocean of perfumed crude oil.
Screw economics and screw all those rich ANet fatcats who do no creative work whatsoever! Time to make them work for it, right?! A new Tyria every day, or by God we riot!
And so on, and so forth, etc. etc. -Sid
Wasn’t somewhere a post that making different races sit on same object proved to be one of the most challenging thing to implement lol?
That’s why I think a bundle item would be most likely “easiest” (things are rarely easy in 3D modeling) to implement. I’ve noticed bundle items tend to scale in size, like the Rubble one picks up in the Silverwastes – asura pick up little tiny pieces, while Norn and Charr pick up Rubble that appears much larger.
But I think the biggest hurdle would be introducing the new animation. From what I’ve seen, it would be brand-new development. I’ve not seen a single chair occupied in all the realm, which likely means that such an animation doesn’t exist.
It is what the title says. I would like for my character to be able to /sit in a chair properly rather than plunk his butt in the dirt in an undignified manner. Since the devs read these forums, I thought I’d let ’em know.
I’m aware that one person isn’t an ideal target market. I’ve already been apprised of my incredibly slim chances of this happening. I also know that I have never seen even an NPC sitting in a chair on this game, so it would be a lot of work to get off the ground even if everyone on the planet wanted such an option.
Still, doesn’t change the facts in the first paragraph. :-) -Sid
I’ve had two drops and four from map completions in the same time span. Consider offerings to RNGesus – it is really fond of hot cocoa and Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. -Sid
After farming for a while you should have enough T5 stuff to craft a few of your own rares. I typically make 50-60 greatswords after a week of farming.
This deserved reiteration. We can craft our own ectos. All that mithril and elder wood turns quite nicely into rares for breakdown. -Sid
Or you could craft high value rares(GS, Staff, etc.), sell those on the TP and buy back way more ectos.
I did try that, and it could have been due to ineptitude on my part that I didn’t see a better rate of return than Silverwaste/minor rare crafting, but that’s what happened – I ended up getting more ectos doing the SW/crafting runs. I’m finding purchase prices for ecto globs seem to average 41s a unit, but I don’t think I’ve ever crafted anything short of Spiritwood Planks that helped me generate enough profit on the trading post to justify the expenditure.
Perhaps RNGesus has just been kind to me.
After farming for a while you should have enough T5 stuff to craft a few of your own rares. I typically make 50-60 greatswords after a week of farming.
This deserved reiteration. We can craft our own ectos. All that mithril and elder wood turns quite nicely into rares for breakdown. -Sid
We talking RL or in-game?
Obviously Meatspace, as there is no animation in-game to hold a mug – meaning implementation would be a developmental hassle.
A guy on DeviantArt made a 3D printout of the elementalist symbol for a keychain. I can’t imagine it’d be terribly difficult to take an image file over to Cafepress or something similar and make a mug for yourself.
If enough people did that, I imagine Anet would probably keep a few in stock. -Sid
I get what you’re going for here, Zach. Why it won’t happen is simple: Buying gems to sell for gold is easily the #1 reason people buy gems in the first place.
If Anet were to cut their own throat like that, they’d never recover financially because there’s not even a close #2 to grow as a profit leader in the absence of #1. (It would probably be lockbox keys but that’s a guess.) Even if there were, your replacement suggestions – more skins, more items – is extremely work-intensive. 3D modeling of new items is not a trivial task. It requires manpower.
Selling gold does not require that much manpower.
Finally, with a legal option to purchase gold, we don’t have to deal NEARLY as much with scammers and spammers as other games do. That alone is worth its weight in… well, you get the idea.
TL;DR: The concept of currency, while thoroughly antiquated, simply isn’t going anywhere for economic reasons. -Sid
Hi! Before posting on this topic I did a little homework to see if others have. Seems this has been an issue for multiple years now, and I’m not as dumb as I look (no, really!) – I know there’s a reason behind not dialing down the range at which players can broadcast emotes.
But I can’t figure out why.
There has to be SOME reason why what should be a simple value change hasn’t occurred. There must be some kind of explanation as to why my character can see every going-on in the Busted Flagon while I’m all the way over at Dwyana’s Waypoint, or why I can see everything transpiring on the first floor of Nok’s Tavern in Ebonhawke while four floors above the action.
But the only “reason” I can think of is “the walls and floors are all made of transparent materials that don’t appear transparent yet conduct sound better than any substance known to any universe anywhere ever”.
It can’t be communication, unless /emote is tied directly and irrevocably into the range for /say. I can understand giving /say a /shout range as it’s the primary form of communication for F2Pers. But F2Pers can’t use the /emote command, so logically that can’t be the reason unless it’s inseparable from /say.
So what’s the deal here? None of the other threads on the topic, it seems, ask “why”. So… why?
Thanks for your time, readers. Feel free to respond however you wish. I’m well aware of this forum’s reputation. ;-) -Sid