I've read comics as long as I've been able to read, and as much as I love my favorite heroes and heroines I have very little interest in playing those characters.
I much prefer seeing my own concepts come to life.
I'm claiming membership in the "superhero fans who also like to play games/RPG/MMORPGs" society. I was reading and enjoying comic books long before I was introduced to video games and PnP games. City of- and now Champions have been giving me the creative outlet I've needed for nearly ten years straight. I don't think there's a rehab program out there that will give me the help I'll need if this cycle ever comes to an end.
Erm, not to rain on the positivity parade, but it's worth remembering that superhero-first players are the ones most likely to be on the forums and be community-centric. Hardcore gamers are more likely to play overall, but they're playing in different ways.
Erm, not to rain on the positivity parade, but it's worth remembering that superhero-first players are the ones most likely to be on the forums and be community-centric. Hardcore gamers are more likely to play overall, but they're playing in different ways.
Hmm, some of the most vocal, active forum goers Ive encountered on various games have been the, "hardcore," or PvP crowd. "Discussing" game balance and how bad of a job a given company is doing at managing the game.
Having worked in the convention business I can tell you that just the graphic design for a booth costs more than all the monthly subs Cryptic got this month (from CO), then the actual booth costs a few thousand more, and having people build and take it down costs a grand or two more. Then there's paying people to man it while no real work gets accomplished.
Then you hand out a few hundred dollars worth of swag.
All for a free to play game that's four years old with a bare bones population in a genre dominated by Disney and Warner brothers?
Good thing you people are not in charge, this game would be bankrupt and deader than Elvis.
They could do what my company does.
Count it as part of their advertising budget. And work on a booth design that's both portable and reusable. This way you ammortize the cost over multiple years.
Granted, this is an MMO. And owned by a company in the far east.
That means that they consider advertising a necessary evil for the first year and flatly REFUSE to spend ANYTHING after that year.
Seriously and even if that so I don't think Cryptic is trying or ever really did try that hard.
No. Actually it's QUITE believable.
Simply because someone's a Trekkie doesn't mean they're automatically going to pick up an ST MMO. Granted, even a SMALL fraction of the ST fanbase is still damn fine numbers for an MMO, but...
The thing is, the fanbase for the Champions IP is several orders of magnitude smaller than the ST fanbase. And there isn't always a direct translation between "It's a superhero movie" and "It's a superhero game." Plus, there aren't any movies based on the Champions properties.
Also, with the F2P model, there's no guarantee that anyone's going to actually spend enough money on a given amount of gimcracks to make it worthwhile to run the game.
Again, there's a statistical chance that enough cash comes through. But that's not a guarantee.
The basic problem is, Cryptic and PWE still treat MMOs like a product. They have their time, and they die. So they invest a lot of money up front, and then coast along till it's no longer worth their while.
The thing is, in a lot of cases, with some slightly more active development (and interaction with the community), there's NO reason why some of these virtual worlds can't go on indefinitely.
The problem, there, is that these companies expect to see a certain level of return. Once returns on the game drop below that magic mark, they pull them. It's all about what someone defines as "acceptable" profit margins.
CO's problems is that it's a victim of a LOT of bad decisions made within Cryptic and Atari early on. And, as the problems mounted, they've pull further and further back from anything connected to CO. And, at this point, the property is so neglected that nobody REALLY wants to pick it back up, due to the sheer amount of work and money it'd require to get it back on track. And I'm talking just BUG FIXES!
Adding new content is a whole 'nother ball of wax.
With no guarantee that the game (and more importantly, revenues) would revive if they did.
Not in some zones, at least not for me or did I miss something in the settings? VB is perpetually night/dusk of course.
You didn't miss anything, they just decided to move the earth about 5,000,000 miles closer to the sun in an update somewhere, as well as halve the distance between the earth and moon.
So now both the moon and sun over CO earth take up about 25% of the visible sky at all times and bathe the earth in everlasting bright light.
You didn't miss anything, they just decided to move the earth about 5,000,000 miles closer to the sun in an update somewhere, as well as halve the distance between the earth and moon.
So now both the moon and sun over CO earth take up about 25% of the visible sky at all times and bathe the earth in everlasting bright light.
I blame it on Caliga stomping around Ren Cen.
CellarRat33 :: formerly Bsquared
***
"The great thing about glory unending is that it's dirt cheap!" - Tateklys From the Adventures of Thundrax (canadascott)
***
they just decided to move the earth about 5,000,000 miles closer to the sun in an update somewhere
They did that so they could record the promotional video of the hawkwing flying in front of the moon. It just slipped to the PTS since it was updated on a test server along with the costume and tech, then got on Live from there.
Comic book Superhero fan here. I hadn't ever played or cared for the RPG/MMORPGs until I tried CoH, and later CO. It's doubtful I will play another unless it's roughly equal to or better than those two. It'd need a costume creator at LEAST equal to CO, and the free form style of power selection of CO too. Hopefully it'd have at least half the zones of CoH (which would be about twice what CO has now :eek: )
Neither title was/is perfect, but both have given me hundreds to thousands of hours of good clean Superheroic immersion to varying degrees.
I will stick around until there's nothing left to do, something better comes along, or the lights go out. I'm hoping for choice B, although choice A looms over me like a dark cloud closer, ever closer!
Erm, not to rain on the positivity parade, but it's worth remembering that superhero-first players are the ones most likely to be on the forums and be community-centric. Hardcore gamers are more likely to play overall, but they're playing in different ways.
So, is this the kind of attitude that leads all of our forum ranting and community centric-ness to be for naught?
You and the Dev don't think we're representative so.. '**** those forum guys, they don't represent anyone really.'
Explains a lot...
Here we are now going to the West Side
Weapons in hand as we go for a ride
Some may come and some may stay
Watching out for a sunny day
Where there's love and darkness and my sidearm
In game as @forgemccain
Erm, not to rain on the positivity parade, but it's worth remembering that superhero-first players are the ones most likely to be on the forums and be community-centric. Hardcore gamers are more likely to play overall, but they're playing in different ways.
So you're saying that we are the majority? Where's the Foundry at? And the vehicle color options? And actual non-become device vehicles?
Comments
Me two!
I've read comics as long as I've been able to read, and as much as I love my favorite heroes and heroines I have very little interest in playing those characters.
I much prefer seeing my own concepts come to life.
We may be the exception, but we are out there.
You're a lunatic with a mad man's dream of a milk proof robot!
___________________________________________________
Huge comic fan here. Not sure if I am a diehard CO guy or not, have been sticking around since Alpha:redface:
It doesn't?
My Amazon author page
How to build a freeform character...the Kenpo way
Demon Keypo's Building Guide
Freeform Builds Directory (Last updated: 04/23/2016)
Serving since September, 2009 / 65 Characters, 63 Level 40's
Hmm, some of the most vocal, active forum goers Ive encountered on various games have been the, "hardcore," or PvP crowd. "Discussing" game balance and how bad of a job a given company is doing at managing the game.
'Caine, miss you bud. Fly high.
Not in some zones, at least not for me or did I miss something in the settings? VB is perpetually night/dusk of course.
They could do what my company does.
Count it as part of their advertising budget. And work on a booth design that's both portable and reusable. This way you ammortize the cost over multiple years.
Granted, this is an MMO. And owned by a company in the far east.
That means that they consider advertising a necessary evil for the first year and flatly REFUSE to spend ANYTHING after that year.
"Champions-Online and Star Trek Online contained hundreds of hours of mediocre content!"
and "nothing was polished".
--Jack Emmert
No. Actually it's QUITE believable.
Simply because someone's a Trekkie doesn't mean they're automatically going to pick up an ST MMO. Granted, even a SMALL fraction of the ST fanbase is still damn fine numbers for an MMO, but...
The thing is, the fanbase for the Champions IP is several orders of magnitude smaller than the ST fanbase. And there isn't always a direct translation between "It's a superhero movie" and "It's a superhero game." Plus, there aren't any movies based on the Champions properties.
Also, with the F2P model, there's no guarantee that anyone's going to actually spend enough money on a given amount of gimcracks to make it worthwhile to run the game.
Again, there's a statistical chance that enough cash comes through. But that's not a guarantee.
The basic problem is, Cryptic and PWE still treat MMOs like a product. They have their time, and they die. So they invest a lot of money up front, and then coast along till it's no longer worth their while.
The thing is, in a lot of cases, with some slightly more active development (and interaction with the community), there's NO reason why some of these virtual worlds can't go on indefinitely.
The problem, there, is that these companies expect to see a certain level of return. Once returns on the game drop below that magic mark, they pull them. It's all about what someone defines as "acceptable" profit margins.
CO's problems is that it's a victim of a LOT of bad decisions made within Cryptic and Atari early on. And, as the problems mounted, they've pull further and further back from anything connected to CO. And, at this point, the property is so neglected that nobody REALLY wants to pick it back up, due to the sheer amount of work and money it'd require to get it back on track. And I'm talking just BUG FIXES!
Adding new content is a whole 'nother ball of wax.
With no guarantee that the game (and more importantly, revenues) would revive if they did.
"Champions-Online and Star Trek Online contained hundreds of hours of mediocre content!"
and "nothing was polished".
--Jack Emmert
Actually, I'm primarily a superhero RPG player, and a superhero fan/MMO player second.
Which is why I keep hoping that the Champions MMO could be more, well, Champions-like.
Formerly @Seschat pre PWEmerger. @Seschat on the Titan boards.
Supporter of the Titan Project.
You didn't miss anything, they just decided to move the earth about 5,000,000 miles closer to the sun in an update somewhere, as well as halve the distance between the earth and moon.
So now both the moon and sun over CO earth take up about 25% of the visible sky at all times and bathe the earth in everlasting bright light.
Snark never dies.
I blame it on Caliga stomping around Ren Cen.
CellarRat33 :: formerly Bsquared
***
"The great thing about glory unending is that it's dirt cheap!" - Tateklys
From the Adventures of Thundrax (canadascott)
***
They did that so they could record the promotional video of the hawkwing flying in front of the moon. It just slipped to the PTS since it was updated on a test server along with the costume and tech, then got on Live from there.
There is literally no other explanation.
Neither title was/is perfect, but both have given me hundreds to thousands of hours of good clean Superheroic immersion to varying degrees.
I will stick around until there's nothing left to do, something better comes along, or the lights go out. I'm hoping for choice B, although choice A looms over me like a dark cloud closer, ever closer!
So, is this the kind of attitude that leads all of our forum ranting and community centric-ness to be for naught?
You and the Dev don't think we're representative so.. '**** those forum guys, they don't represent anyone really.'
Explains a lot...
Here we are now going to the West Side
Weapons in hand as we go for a ride
Some may come and some may stay
Watching out for a sunny day
Where there's love and darkness and my sidearm
In game as @forgemccain
So you're saying that we are the majority? Where's the Foundry at? And the vehicle color options? And actual non-become device vehicles?