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A word From Your Players!!
bloodx13
Posts: 217 Arc User
This is a multi stage review by multiple players. We hope you enjoy!!
Today I will be jumping into the universe of Champions Online and seeing where the game falls when put up against what one expects from a game of its type. I have played this game for over three years and am excited to look at it from this angle. When comes to a computer game I look for four main things: content, functionality, customization and how the gaming community is. This game focuses on a specific genre of game, the superhero genre.
Shaun Huston says it best when he says, ?Comic books, more particularly comic book characters, especially superheroes, are woven into the warp and weft of American popular culture.? (Huston, 2011.) The influence comic books have in today?s culture is one of the key reasons for Champions Online being as successful as it is. The superhero genre seems to have made a steady foot hold in today?s culture and has people wondering what it would be like to be one of these superheroes. Most people want to be Batman or superman but in Champions online they take it a bit farther and allow the player to be the superhero they want to be. This is something that may at first come across as negative to the gamer but as the player goes farther into the game they will see this is not the case.
The Champions Online world is a bit different from what one would expect considering the how much the genre seems to be covered in media. You see the game is based off of a lesser-known group of superheroes from a thirty plus year old pen and paper role-playing game (RPG) also named Champions. So when you jump in the game you really don?t know what to expect unless you have played the RPG it?s based off of.
Surprisingly this works to the advantage of the game because you are in a world totally new to the gamer. On top of all that that instead of being a side kick or a known superhero the player gets to be their very own creation that is on par with the superheroes the RPG is known for. To make sure that the gamer feels even more like one of the top heroes Champions Online allows the player to create their own nemesis at level 25 of 40 in the game. The player really doesn't feel fully part of the world or come to the realization that they are now the number one superhero until later in the game.
Initially Champions starts gamers off as an up and coming superhero in the middle of an invasion. The main superheroes of the universe are busy elsewhere and unable to help the city as much as they normally would which leaves it all up to you. This part of Champions is able to be skipped after your first character but is required of all new players. Champions Online uses this part of the game to introduce he gamer to the games functions and world.
Champions starts off walking the player through all the basic keys well you precede through missions in this beginner area. Everything from your travel power to your inventory is explained here. It is all pretty simple and easy to understand, for example if you want to enter a building or pick up an item you simply hit the z key when in range. So when it comes to controlling your hero the game gets an ?A? for functionality.
If the keyboard isn?t something you are comfortable playing games on Champions Online offers you another option. Champions Online is compatible with the Xbox 360 controllers. The game allows you to bind all the actions it has to whatever button on the controller you may like.
What really makes the game shine and is the very first thing you do in the game is its customization. Before the tutorial before anything you select rather you want to be a male or female and your first two powers. The options here can be a bit overwhelming at first but after some time playing with the powers the system is quite simple. When it comes to powers you can mix and match any of the many sets the game has to design your ideal hero. The power system is one of the main sellers of this game but when the system is combined with the tailor it becomes hard for any gamer to pass up. The tailor is the best I have seen in any massive multiplayer online game I have played.
The tailor allows the player to mix and match countless different looks the tailor in Champions also allows he gamer to change their characters body and even face. To a lot of people this customization may be overwhelming especially at first but once you get the hang of it its almost liberating. ?Champions Online is a game that thrives on variation and customization? (Giuseppe, 2011.) I think anyone who plays this game will agree its customization is where it shines. This allows you to not only make the hero you want to be but also be that hero in look and feel.
So we have talked about the positive aspects of Champions Online, the games functionality and it?s customization now its on to its weaker points. Champions Online is a game that seems to be getting constant Band-Aids instead of actual fixes when it comes to content. It has come to the point that when one goes to check out the games community ever post seems to mention lack of content. Don?t get me wrong, what the game has is great but its replay value isn?t really there.
The game has six main zones Millennium City, Monster Island, Vibora Bay, The Desert,Canada and Lemuria. All of the above listed zones appeal to the eye but most only really spend time in one, Millennium City. Lemuria is different from anywhere else in the game because it puts you under water and changes how the game mechanics act in all other parts in the game. Monster Island well fun at first becomes very dry very quickly due to the trend of its missions. Vibora bay is great for things like roleplaying but all of its missions have the same layout so it too is almost always empty. Canada and the desert are your other options for your lower leveling and mid leveling.
Millennium City stays active mainly because you can access majority of the games replay able alerts and adventures from this area. It?s also the starting area and the home of the all the main roleplaying areas. Sadly though even in this zone content is sorely needed mainly because of how easy the players versus everyone side of the game is.
One can level through the entire game to the max level of 40 in only a couple of days. This leaves players looking else where for content and a lot of the time it is player generated content. The only real challenging and enjoyable content in champions at this point in its game life is player versus player, role-play events and player-managed contests.
The community in Champions online is a double-edged sword. In game the community is great but if one was to judge it purely off the game forums I doubt they would try the game. The forums are extremely negative and all posts seem to have an angry tone to them when it comes to the developers and the lack of game content. In game though the community is very active with hosting events and helping old players as well as new.
Honestly I think the angry tone on the forums comes from the players that care most about the game 75% of the time. Normally when a player doesn't care about a game they won?t go to the extent of countless forum posts and testing just to state what needs fixed and why. In a lot of cases the players yelling and complaining on Champions forums are the same ones that will host events and help new players out in game. A lot of the outcry on forums comes from a lack of communication from the games developers. This lack of communication is probably the most negative thing about Champions Online.
Overall, I would give champions a ?C?. Its customization and functionality are an ?A? by themselves but the game content and outside appearance of the community brings the game down almost to a failing point at times. I have been a player of Champions Online for over 3 years and I have to say its potential is limitless. Champions is one of two games currently available for the PC from its genre so its chances of succeeding are great but only time will tell.
The game is intended for a teen audience, this is shown not only by the games rating but by Champions content as well. The setting is a bit to mature for young children due to the clothing options the computer generated and player created heroes have as well as some of the in game language. The player has a lot of skimpy clothing options from bare chest males to short skirts for females. The overall tone of the vice acting in champions is PG-13 but some of the situations can infer other notions. When in game there is minimal to no enforcement to the chat system. So I would advise people buying this game to keep that in mind because even though the developer created content is at the teen level the player generated may be way beyond. That statement goes for any online game now days thought and can be a positive for an older gamer but can be very negative for a younger one. I personally believe this game should be left to mature audiences only.
The above is a general review created by myself @DarkonX. Now we are going to get into several reviews by other players as well as myself. We will be covering the technical side, the development of player content, the roleplay side, the player versus everyone side, the player versus player side and organizations in the community.
Today I will be jumping into the universe of Champions Online and seeing where the game falls when put up against what one expects from a game of its type. I have played this game for over three years and am excited to look at it from this angle. When comes to a computer game I look for four main things: content, functionality, customization and how the gaming community is. This game focuses on a specific genre of game, the superhero genre.
Shaun Huston says it best when he says, ?Comic books, more particularly comic book characters, especially superheroes, are woven into the warp and weft of American popular culture.? (Huston, 2011.) The influence comic books have in today?s culture is one of the key reasons for Champions Online being as successful as it is. The superhero genre seems to have made a steady foot hold in today?s culture and has people wondering what it would be like to be one of these superheroes. Most people want to be Batman or superman but in Champions online they take it a bit farther and allow the player to be the superhero they want to be. This is something that may at first come across as negative to the gamer but as the player goes farther into the game they will see this is not the case.
The Champions Online world is a bit different from what one would expect considering the how much the genre seems to be covered in media. You see the game is based off of a lesser-known group of superheroes from a thirty plus year old pen and paper role-playing game (RPG) also named Champions. So when you jump in the game you really don?t know what to expect unless you have played the RPG it?s based off of.
Surprisingly this works to the advantage of the game because you are in a world totally new to the gamer. On top of all that that instead of being a side kick or a known superhero the player gets to be their very own creation that is on par with the superheroes the RPG is known for. To make sure that the gamer feels even more like one of the top heroes Champions Online allows the player to create their own nemesis at level 25 of 40 in the game. The player really doesn't feel fully part of the world or come to the realization that they are now the number one superhero until later in the game.
Initially Champions starts gamers off as an up and coming superhero in the middle of an invasion. The main superheroes of the universe are busy elsewhere and unable to help the city as much as they normally would which leaves it all up to you. This part of Champions is able to be skipped after your first character but is required of all new players. Champions Online uses this part of the game to introduce he gamer to the games functions and world.
Champions starts off walking the player through all the basic keys well you precede through missions in this beginner area. Everything from your travel power to your inventory is explained here. It is all pretty simple and easy to understand, for example if you want to enter a building or pick up an item you simply hit the z key when in range. So when it comes to controlling your hero the game gets an ?A? for functionality.
If the keyboard isn?t something you are comfortable playing games on Champions Online offers you another option. Champions Online is compatible with the Xbox 360 controllers. The game allows you to bind all the actions it has to whatever button on the controller you may like.
What really makes the game shine and is the very first thing you do in the game is its customization. Before the tutorial before anything you select rather you want to be a male or female and your first two powers. The options here can be a bit overwhelming at first but after some time playing with the powers the system is quite simple. When it comes to powers you can mix and match any of the many sets the game has to design your ideal hero. The power system is one of the main sellers of this game but when the system is combined with the tailor it becomes hard for any gamer to pass up. The tailor is the best I have seen in any massive multiplayer online game I have played.
The tailor allows the player to mix and match countless different looks the tailor in Champions also allows he gamer to change their characters body and even face. To a lot of people this customization may be overwhelming especially at first but once you get the hang of it its almost liberating. ?Champions Online is a game that thrives on variation and customization? (Giuseppe, 2011.) I think anyone who plays this game will agree its customization is where it shines. This allows you to not only make the hero you want to be but also be that hero in look and feel.
So we have talked about the positive aspects of Champions Online, the games functionality and it?s customization now its on to its weaker points. Champions Online is a game that seems to be getting constant Band-Aids instead of actual fixes when it comes to content. It has come to the point that when one goes to check out the games community ever post seems to mention lack of content. Don?t get me wrong, what the game has is great but its replay value isn?t really there.
The game has six main zones Millennium City, Monster Island, Vibora Bay, The Desert,Canada and Lemuria. All of the above listed zones appeal to the eye but most only really spend time in one, Millennium City. Lemuria is different from anywhere else in the game because it puts you under water and changes how the game mechanics act in all other parts in the game. Monster Island well fun at first becomes very dry very quickly due to the trend of its missions. Vibora bay is great for things like roleplaying but all of its missions have the same layout so it too is almost always empty. Canada and the desert are your other options for your lower leveling and mid leveling.
Millennium City stays active mainly because you can access majority of the games replay able alerts and adventures from this area. It?s also the starting area and the home of the all the main roleplaying areas. Sadly though even in this zone content is sorely needed mainly because of how easy the players versus everyone side of the game is.
One can level through the entire game to the max level of 40 in only a couple of days. This leaves players looking else where for content and a lot of the time it is player generated content. The only real challenging and enjoyable content in champions at this point in its game life is player versus player, role-play events and player-managed contests.
The community in Champions online is a double-edged sword. In game the community is great but if one was to judge it purely off the game forums I doubt they would try the game. The forums are extremely negative and all posts seem to have an angry tone to them when it comes to the developers and the lack of game content. In game though the community is very active with hosting events and helping old players as well as new.
Honestly I think the angry tone on the forums comes from the players that care most about the game 75% of the time. Normally when a player doesn't care about a game they won?t go to the extent of countless forum posts and testing just to state what needs fixed and why. In a lot of cases the players yelling and complaining on Champions forums are the same ones that will host events and help new players out in game. A lot of the outcry on forums comes from a lack of communication from the games developers. This lack of communication is probably the most negative thing about Champions Online.
Overall, I would give champions a ?C?. Its customization and functionality are an ?A? by themselves but the game content and outside appearance of the community brings the game down almost to a failing point at times. I have been a player of Champions Online for over 3 years and I have to say its potential is limitless. Champions is one of two games currently available for the PC from its genre so its chances of succeeding are great but only time will tell.
The game is intended for a teen audience, this is shown not only by the games rating but by Champions content as well. The setting is a bit to mature for young children due to the clothing options the computer generated and player created heroes have as well as some of the in game language. The player has a lot of skimpy clothing options from bare chest males to short skirts for females. The overall tone of the vice acting in champions is PG-13 but some of the situations can infer other notions. When in game there is minimal to no enforcement to the chat system. So I would advise people buying this game to keep that in mind because even though the developer created content is at the teen level the player generated may be way beyond. That statement goes for any online game now days thought and can be a positive for an older gamer but can be very negative for a younger one. I personally believe this game should be left to mature audiences only.
The above is a general review created by myself @DarkonX. Now we are going to get into several reviews by other players as well as myself. We will be covering the technical side, the development of player content, the roleplay side, the player versus everyone side, the player versus player side and organizations in the community.
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PVE Content over the time Champions Online has existed has never been consistent nor has ever made up its mind on what it truly wants to be, thus multiple ways to level up your character have been forged, and content has been added in many different styles. This includes hundreds of regular missions which guide you through a story and take you to all of the zones and instances in a grand adventure through the world of Champions Online, the only unfortunate part about this is that there is no way to repeat most of these instances and story missions unless you roll another character from the beginning. There are more than enough quests to see you to level 40, much before you have ran out of missions. Other PVE leveling methods include playing through several Adventure Packs like Serpent Lantern, Resistance and Whiteout, of which this content scales to your level and can be repeated. Most controversially is Alerts which are small, infinitely repeatable instances of which you are paired with random players, and battle it out against a familiar super-villain or your nemesis.
These Alerts are a common cause for complaint because they are the fastest way to level up your characters, and teach new-users very little about more complex game mechanics and situations, thus it is often frustrating as you are (lets say if you are experienced) continuously placed with people, very often at high level who are performing at very inexperienced levels and also perhaps, become unpleasant to be around verbally, as the super-villain must be defeated within a short time limit and very often is the case that without the experienced player doing most of the work, the teams of new players are not often capable of doing it themselves. Alerts are a gamemode of complications, frustrations and do not help players to better help themselves in terms of game knowledge and power combinations.
Multiple ways to play the games PVE is definitely good news for people who enjoy diversity and want to experience the different ways, however it has always been a hot topic on the forums as Alerts have always been seen as almost the only way to level up a character in good time.
Content. Content is the grounds of most MMO games in the world, without activity the grounds for the MMO?s long term survival are hard to predict. As for Champions, there is enough content within the game to keep a new user satisfied for up to a year and a half. Long term however, the game is coming up to 4 years old and to no surprise with such a lovely combat system in place, there are many loyal fans of the game who are generally the ones that are sticking around Millennium City center. The forums have seen HUNDREDS of topics asking for Content, and no matter how much the fans have stuck around content has always arrived in very small sizes of little additions that generally take less than 2 hours to complete. A lot of hope and faith remains in many remaining hardcore fans, that someone can regenerate the development of content for this game is what has driven the fans to stay around for such a long time, so very devoted to see this game grow, and grow deservedly. As time has grown in Champions, it was made clear to the players over watching the way Champions as a business moved, that funds going into Champions, were being spent on Cryptic?s other game Star Trek Online and not re-invested into the game.
Funds from Star Trek Online are again now, being put into Neverwinter, creating a cycle that people recognize, of which has caused much hope to be lost within the fans that have stayed to this very day. People still tangle on the forums, asking for only that things be added to the game, or fixed, a group of very well dedicated people who have stuck by since the launch of the game and before.
The lack of content is mostly apparent once your character has reached maximum level of 40. Many users, to find more activity to do have chosen to level up alternate characters, some so passionate to Champions have leveled as much as 46 level 40 characters (that?s incredible galantdramon!) and perhaps even more.
End-Game (or near end-level) PVE content is in very short supply, which is one of the most demanded type of addition which is needed for Champions Online.
Currently there is:
Andrithal, Mandragalore, Therakiels Temple, Nemesis Confrontation (Nemcon), Viper Base, [Alert: Gravitar]
And World-Spawning Cosmic battles:
Kigatilik, Qwijibo, Teleiosaurus
This amount of level 40 content over 4 years, has been played and played over and over into the ground, forcing players to find alternate player-created activity like Costume contests which are included in this review.
With large spawn timers (normally once per 12-ish hours) on the games Cosmic Battles, and the fact that these rare large encounters are locked down by the playerbase, it is unlikely you will be able to enjoy this content, not because of those who appear on time to repeat this 1-team-only experience, but simply because the developers did not listen or act upon the very heated debate from a large portion of its population that Cosmics should be in Instances, so that ALL players can enjoy them.
Loot is another aspect of Champions which has seen player power rise and rise over time, as much stronger gear and ways to upgrade your character are added and added. Champions used to be simply that you wore 9 pieces of gear, some with small effects, but today you wear 6 pieces of gear which you can insert Modifications into, to boost certain characteristics, and even beyond that you can continue to increase the power of your character through its new Specialization tree?s. Champions makes you feel very powerful, like your superhero is capable of doing absolutely anything which is one of Champions best bullet points. The only issue with this is that over time Champions Online has simply made people far TOO powerful! 5 Man Dungeons set at the hardest difficulty are able to be beaten in very short time by those who have become experienced, completely solo. Many Difficulty levels have been included in the game, but the difference between Normal all the way up to Elite, do not differ enough to give the most experienced gamers a run for their money.
At level 40, and once you have gotten your character reasonably geared in Champions Online, you begin to lose a sense of direction, of what further you could possibly achieve as the loot in the game does not offer much to earn end-game. Currently there are several costume pieces to be earned and sometimes there are rare Devices to be collected, but for 4 years this is not much to do for end-game and there is much room for more additions.
Champions Online lacks a collective direction to make it more successful. People should feel a sense of achievement for repeating the current end-game content, which is why I feel that adding plenty of more costume pieces to bosses would be a good idea to help players repeat content. A carrot on the stick will make this game move again. Like many other MMO?s in the world, you keep on defeating a boss, for a rare item and feel a great sense of achievement for it.
Teaming up to play content has always been something very miscalculated within Champions Online. Currently if you team up with a partner, experience is cut into half, with the argument that more enemies will be facing you to compensate. This is actually not the case, for when you are on your own and encounter a group of 3 enemies, in a team of 2 that increases to 4 enemies, which in simple mathematics is still losing you experience. A large reason people create powerful characters which can solo content, is that if you enter a dungeon in a team of 5, and a very very rare item drops, the 5 of you must argue and decide who gets it, whereas if you enter on your own you are always going to get what you are looking for up to 5 times faster than if you were in a full team. Your experience gained is also much faster on your own.
There are multiple ways that your profits are being massively sliced when you are in a team, which has created an environment where Teaming Up, is a very negative aspect. Cryptic seriously needs to recalculate this.
Overall, with the game?s ease of difficulty, laid back but very enjoyable combat and lack of content, I would recommend this to a casual gamer, preferably children who are big superhero/comic fans. I would not recommend this to a hardcore gamer or anyone seeking a serious MMO to stay on. This game like most of the veterans and long-term players say very often, is one of the best MMO?s?that should have been, but has been neglected and almost currently abandoned by its lack of development when Champions is a still being a profitable game.
Champions Online would, could, should be re-invested into. Those who have stuck around with great hope, are slowly fading away from this excellent bag of potential.
Review by @SnakeWildlife
Most people in the game currently have an issue with PvP because they do not know what it used to be. A lot of current player who don?t know any better want to blame everything on free forms without realizing that free form subscribers are what paid for the game they have before F2P. This lack of knowledge of the past has also lead some players to even think that some of the bugs in the PvP Q?s were meant to be there and always have been.
This current understanding of PvP by the newer playerbase is a sad thing when you think about it. So hopefully in this section of the review I can inform about as well as help with understanding of PvP to the newer players. Believe it or not PvP was not always like this, it was once a pretty big part of the game.
I leveled my first three 40?s 90% of the way by doing nothing but PvP. When I first came into this game there was a PvP tournament almost every week if not two or more a week. Another probably shocking thing to you newer players was the fact that there was a Dev PvP night.
The developers at cryptic would q all the tiers on every Thursday of the week and would PvP with the community for hours. They even communicated back and forth with us and mixed up in our teams. At one point they even had their own SG just for qing PvP.
This was a really exciting time in PvP because PvP was an alternate leveling path that was extremely active and diverse. The experience you got from one PvP match was equal to or greater than that you got from missions. There was rewards at this time but nothing like what we would get in the future. Also this was way before Archetypes existed so there were only freeform players and everyone was a subscriber or a lifetimer.
There was only three PvP maps at this time Bash, Stronghold, and UTC. UTC was the most popular at the time because it was a place for SG?s to compete. There was none of this ganging up on our numbers game like you have now in Q?s. The q pops had not been messed with at this time and they popped rather quickly with 5v5 matches.
Stronghold was much like UTC, SG?s would get in chat and throw out challenges and that would be it the q?s were popping and it was all about what sg team was the best. There was the normal **** talking that you have with any PvP but for the most part at the end of the match it was all GG and trading information about builds. We also did mix ups in Stronghold as well to keep it were everyone got a shot at being in a winning combo etc..
A big part of what made PvP so fun back then was that it was active in every tier. PvP SG?s didn?t just recruit in tier 4 we were down in tier 2 just as much playing with new players and leveling up alts with them to get them ready for tier 4 or tier 3. Now it was easy to tell that there were more active tiers then others back then such as T4 and T2 but all tiers popped.
Range started off being the power houses and that lasted for awhile until the melee patch. The melee patch was an interesting time in PvP it brought in the uppercut builds and many other mixtures but it also made a counter to range. In my opinion this was the best time to be a PvPer because it had the most variety in builds and most of them worked. You had the sigil bombers, the DW guys, the range guys always flying above your head and the list goes on.
PvP after a while did start to lose interest to some of the players but that interest was quickly revived with the introduction of pvp exclusive gear. This introduction brought more great time in PvP and all was going as it had before for some time until F2P came. The introduction of F2P brought in a lot of bugs and a lot of new players.
Now new players are great for any game and should never be discouraged but at the time the perception was that the loyal subscribers were being tossed aside so that the F2P group could get what they needed. This created a downhill curve in the game as a whole but especially in PvP. The PvP community was split in two with the introduction of F2P.
They came up with unrestricted PvP qs and Restricted PvP q?s thus causing a divide in the community as whole. This was not only reflected in game with the qs as well as the trash talk between players but also in the forums. It was almost like the game was put into a civil war, Freeforms against AT?s. Sadly this was is an issue that is still debated today.
This set everything going once again in a downhill motion and caused rage on both sides of the player base with blame being placed on one another by the other groups. A few months after this a lot of our forumites and testers on pts started hearing things from Developers about a new edition to the game coming. This edition would be known as On Alert and the way to this edition and its delivery would all but kill PvP.
One of the main developers for this edition would take it upon himself to make his own channel in which he would discuss what was going on with the edition with the playerbase. This was great and a lot of feedback was given at first but then the developers tone began switching especially where PvP was concerned. Anytime PvP was mentioned the developer would change the subject or insult PvP and the players. He made his dislike for PvP obvious and even refereed to PvPers as the 2% that didn?t matter.
During the development of this expansion many people tried to talk to this dev about PvP. People from all different playstyles and all different SG?s and regardless of how it was brought up the same actions were always taken in this chat channel. This Dev made it seem as if he had complete control of the PvP playstyle and wasn?t going to do anything with it.
After much uproar about this channel certain promises were made in a dev thread to the players. PvP was going to get new rewards, and have its currency changed to that of the rest of the game and a few other promise were made. This had the PvP community as a whole feeling great and for awhile we were subdued.
Sadly cryptic doesn?t always deliver with what it says its going to put into the game and when On Alert came it proved this yet again. All PvP rewards were taken out and only two added, the currency was not changed; bugs were introduced into two of the q types and a q requirement change that would cause Bash to be the only thing to pop 90% of the time. This caused a lot of uproar among the player base that would do nothing but hurt ourselves even more because now the Devs weren?t listening at all.
The Stronghold q?s turrets now became invulnerable randomly during the match. The cables in bash were skewed to where they now laid across sideways and all sorts of angles. The currency not being changed hurt but what was more of a slap in the face was that the PvP currency didn?t and still doesn?t show up in the currency tab, you have to go to the hero games vendor to see your acclaim amount. The two pieces of gear added were set at a ridiculous amount and they were thrown in with no organization, you can find these two primary pieces at the secondary vendor and all other vendors at hero games.
This caused the community to act out with angry forum posts that more then not broke the forums rules. This outlash by pvpers gave the newer devs and newer player a bad perception of this part of the playerbase. Now this reaction may not have been the best approach but it was justified at least in my opinion.
PvPers have like a lot of other endgames put a good chunk of money into this game for retcons and many other things a lot of us are lifers or were or still are subscribers. A customer getting upset about being insulted and not getting what they pay for is something that should be expected by any company. I think CO players as a whole deserve to see their money put back into the game they play. The current state of PvP is both the players fault and the developers fault.
The q restriction needs to be removed; the bugs that are a year old now need to be fixed and they can atleast add our currency to the currency tab. New rewards would be great but honestly all I think we need is for PvP to be made an alternate leveling path again and this can be done by increasing the experience from it. Honestly the company should just stick to the promises they make.
Having a game that is versatile only makes that games market better. This game was advertised with PvP being part of it when it first came out and they should hold to keeping PvP part of the game. This review was written by @DarkonX mainly written to inform not to go into great details.
There are other well-known players working on posts for the RP side of the game, the technical side and the player created content side. They will be posting in this thread in the near future with their reviews. Please reply to these reviews with thought out posts that do not break the forum rules so we can keep the thread going. Thank you all for reading what we have posted so far. I apologize for how the format looks, it looked so much better in word !!
Alerts are accessible from anywhere in the game except for inside of another alert.
Why do people not get this?
No need to hang out in Ren Center. Use your Crime Computer/Socrates, folks.
Also, what about Demonflame, Serpent Lantern, Aftershock, Resistance, and Whiteout?
What about high-level areas of Canada, and mid-level areas of Millenium City?
Achieved level 40 in a few days? How much do you play?
I appreciate the thorough, thought-out post, but you didn't spend enough time explaining your point-of-view, your player type. For a hardcore gamer, Champs isn't a challenge, that's true.
For a less-intense player, it takes weeks or months to get to level 40, and there will still be plenty of content untouched with that toon.
Whoever you are, be that person one hundred percent. Don't compromise on your identity.
These reviews are all coming from people who have played the game for three years or more. They all have several 40s most of which leveled to 40 way before alerts or adventure packs. The content as a whole in all zones gets quite repetitive after you first few 40's add doing this content for years and yes its played out.
Alot of people also don't consider alerts as actual content and see them more as a bandaid. Its sad when you have a level 40 who knows nothing about the game because all they ever did was alerts. Content and what content is can be debated for years but in my opinion the last time we got substantial content was Vibora Bay.
So for the older players from before F2P and even for some of the ones before On Alert the content is overdone. I would assume from your post that you are a newer player but I could always be wrong. Some people like doing the same thing over and over again for a year or more others do not. Adding 5 minute missions do not fix the content issues.
We understand that alerts can be taken from anywhere but if you read through everything you would see that this is a multi review that isnt fully completed as of yet. The reviews also are detailed overviews of specific areas. If something was not mentioned in the reviews you can bet it will be in future posts.
I encourage you to re-read or read fully before posting and alot of the questions you asked in your post would of been answered. Have a good one
Replies in green.
Okay, wait a minute.
Be specific about "knows nothing about the game", because you're painting with a pretty broad brush. Do you mean "know nothing" as in not being familiar with mission content and zones, or just being poor at gameplay skills?
If it's the latter, I call BS since alerts give new players plenty of opportunity to hone their skills and get accustomed to the basic mechanics and basic teamwork.
If it's the former, why would you care? Chances are if they're doing nothing but alerts all day and not bothering to explore the rest of the game's content then you won't be doing missions with them if you really want to be involved in a mission team.
As for APs and Comic series, those have relevant questionite and merit rewards so more likely than not level 40 players unfamiliar to the legacy content would be doing them at one point since they're all readily accessible from MC.
Explaining the play style and point of view of the reviewer is important. Many folks playing the game are not people that play all day every day, have not been playing for 3 years, and do not try to max out toons and gear in record time.
Context matters for your review, just how a reviewer on a game web site will say that they played a game for 20 or 30 hours. Without that context, someone new to the game might read your review and think that an average player will do all the content and reach max level in a week or less. That isn't the average player. Also, as discussed in other threads, one can't do all the content without either using 3 or 4 toons, or doing content much lower level than your active toon.
Whoever you are, be that person one hundred percent. Don't compromise on your identity.
If CO was ONLY Alerts, you might aswell just remove 'Champions Online' from the title and call this "Generic Mmo"
If i took a survey on how many people in the 'current' population know who "Diamondback" is, id not be surprised if over 98% said "Havent a clue!"
That was a broad statement on my part. I was meaning they know nothing besides what is required to be known in an alert. I mainly brought it up do to alot of questions from fellow 40's in the ren center concerning zones other then MC as well as other questions concerning multiple things that a 40 who leveled through the zones would know.
In the future I will try not to respawn so broadly because i do not wish for the thread to head into a flame war or be steered of course. If you have any comments on the reviews etc.. let me know. Have a good one Jenny, hope i answered what you were wondering there.
I do not believe you believe that...this game is extremely easy as well as there not being no where NEAR the content level of any other MMO on the market...let's not kid ourselves here...
I knew before I got to the end that this had to be Snakewild
I still wonder why you play this game is if it's 'too easy' for you, now I know ^^
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
It's not necessary to have an in-depth knowledge of the game's lore to be a valued player.
People need to stop worrying about what's fun-relevant for others.
Its not just snake but a combination of players that are adding in to these reviews.
Your right everyone has the right to play the game the way they want to regardless of anothers thoughts on it. I stated what i did as a way to show what alot of players have resorted to as a method of main play . Options are never a bad thing as long as they don't kill off other avenues.
Your right alot of player based content like Costume contests and rp events arent hosted by lore experts. what makes a valued player can be a combination of multiple things. Lets all try to keep the trolling to a min and try to keep from responding to others in a aggressive or argumentative tone. This way we can keep the thread up and hopefully get something substantial from it.
Doesnt take long for the anti-snake party to show up these days but ill blow you away by saying i love this game and i want it to improve.
If you want to stop me, you will fail before you began.
Iv been the one calling for difficulty increases for how long now? Thats not going to change, im not going to change and i believe my strive for action and development is beneficial. What have you done but come on and insult someone for trying?
I dont need to lock antlers with you.
I'm aware, but that quote was from the one that had Snake's name on it ^^
And lets face it that's his favorite whine. But he stiiiiillll plays it, I was always wondering why. He's one of these guys it seems
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
Going to address this part of the review:
Alerts being a "common cause for complaint" is a sweeping generalization and I doubt it's even close to accurate.
Suggesting that alerts do not help players in terms of power combinations is highly dishonest. As long as combat is involved, no matter the content that it's involved in, that is prerequisite enough for players to get familiar with power mechanics and to learn power combinations. "Game knowledge" as in combat mechanics can still be learned in alerts. If "game knowledge" refers to the lore aspect of it then that's not relevant to player skill.
"Complex" game mechanics if I assume correctly, are specialized combat scenarios found in certain parts of Lairs / APs / Comics. Any player who started playing pre or post-alert would not have had starting experience with these "complex" game mechanics until they've done them for the first time. Alerts might teach little about complex game mechanics to new players, but neither did legacy mission content that is nothing more than "go fetch" with a your standard mob spawns that are also found in alerts. Alerts do not prepare a player for such game mechanics, but neither do legacy mission content.
I understand how past impressions may change how you would react depending on the poster or posters. I guess all i can ask is keep an open mind. Snake does have a wealth of knowledge about the game. Also as i said in the first part of my review, the players that are on forums complaining and venting are more then likely the ones that love it the most otherwise why would they spend the time to post.
For that mater I know a lot about this game, and the PnP game it's based on. Depending on how you look at it I started around the early 90's with the PnP, for all that lore matters here. [And there I go showing my age]
As for loving the game? I'm not sure. Heck I have a love hate relationship with the game myself. But I had to poke fun at Snake, he can take it I know
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
Champions is a great game but so much lore has been left out of the game. It can be so much more than a generic mmo with Superheroes pasted over it.
Just my two cents
Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
PVP omg i miss the old days. Like he said pvp tourneys ever week. We has some ourselves. The Saikushuu Vs. Infamy. All the ques popped quick. UTC actually teaches players to work as a team too. Sure duels prove who is better than who. But us supergroups have no way to work really as a team anymore. Except the same old content over and over again.
Sure you can do alerts but hell they get old form a team aspect aswell wow kill 5 minions then the boss. Pvp teams prepares you for all kinds of outsomes. Other games the pvp gear is the best you can get. Pvp in this game would be similiar to raid gear in other games. I miss the old days seriously. PVP was fun. We help each other with builds, we would train. Teach newer players. Work as a team. No its mostly soloing things like said. Hell that gets boring. We need new zones, and missions yearly. Bring PVP back. If not from Cryptic, then through the community. Sorry i have blabbered enough but like the title says that's my 2 cents. Thank you for this post DarkonX. It needed to be out there.
@Modru31
No avenues are being killed. I know how the alarmists are always going with the "alerts are killing the game" schtick. Everything else other than alerts are still available and accessible. They're only being played much less but that has no effect on anyone's personal gameplay experience since the majority of it is soloable. Heck, so much of it works against teaming and there's no real beneficial incentive for doing them in teams, unless it's done with a group of friends doing it purely for the sake of playing with friends.
Lore doesn't affect actual gameplay. A "valued" player to me is someone who has a basic grasp of mechanics and can perform at a basic needed level of skill. If that player wants to explore the game's lore and be knowledgeable about it, more power to them, but it has no bearing on player skill which is really the most important thing to be able to excel in this game.
I shouldnt have to put up with 'it'. Take 'it' somewhere else please, this is a happy place.
Doesn't effect actual gameplay for YOU.
The ability to 'exel' takes many forms. For the PvP and/or PvE aspect of the game? Sure, but there is, believe it or not, a huge community of RP'r and social gamers here for whom lore and RP skill is far more important that 'leet skillz'.
Im not shocked that RP and support for it didn't really come up in the complaints above. Not to Drama Class Nerd out on you, but it's our game to and I'll take a good Rp'r over a PvP leet'r any day thank you very much.
So 'valuable' varies.
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
I'm not talking about "leet skillz", nor did I say that having pro skills is the one important thing in this game. Did you even read the part where I said "basic needed level of skill?"
I mentioned that player skill is the most important thing in MMORPGs because it's needed for progression and game mechanics are built around reward-for-effort gameplay. You need a certain level of skill to be victorious in combat, and maybe a little more for the more challenging parts of the game.
When I said "actual gameplay", that was what I was refering to. If you're suggesting that there are players out there who have never ever did any levelling and only did RP activities in the game during the whole duration that they've spent being logged into the game, I have a monster truck to sell to you.
That was the part I was talking about, don't sweat it.
I agree it's needed, but not 'most' important to be honest.
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
RP is actually on the list just still talking with people more known in the community to post on it. The fact that they took away one of each of the crafting spots which were used for rp is a shame. Also if your in the hideouts and play around a bit you can make yourself end up in some of the unfinished rooms. Those rooms being finished or the hideouts being added to would be great for rp.
Most people judge RP by caprice and I fear they get the wrong impression. Alot of my PvP buddies get a kick out of the fact that I am a PvP min/maxer as well as an Rper. I definitely agree with you that the RP player base needs attention as well. I think that all three playstyles should receive equal attention. Versatility has never been a bad thing and you would think that helping all three playstyles to the best of their ability would be great for helping cryptic in the gaming market.
Like I said, the gameplay involved in MMORPGs, even RPGs in general, are mainly about progression and rewarding the player when they've shown adequate skill to surpass the challenges involved. That's why I said that it's most important.
This ^ all this needs to happen.
Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
Call me when I can rp the ren center to level up. :rolleyes:
If there had never been a COH there would never have been a CO. :cool:
Don't be silly, you know Rp will never get the Dev time for that ^_-
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
Flare was kind enough to do the review involving player created contests. To some these contests are the main reason they log in. I hope you enjoy Flare perspective, he has been at this a very long time and is one of the best.
Flare:
Hosting a contest in CO is more difficult than it sounds and I can tell you that hosting all of them (Costume Contests, Hide and Seek, PvP Tournaments, etc.) is a psychology game just as much as it is an experience game.
Prizes are the #1 way to attract people to your contests. They may not be necessary for small group events, but if you want to get the public really having fun, dangle a carrot in front of their nose. This is probably the second toughest idea in hosting. Most of you are aware that it takes good majority of us some time to rack up Gs (if resources are our prize) or even longer if it is some item worth winning. Drop rates in the game are either ridiculously high--to the point of devaluing the item, or ridiculously low to the point of making the grind for them not worth the trouble. Why wouldn't it be worth the trouble? Well you're giving the item away. Prizes are simply given away to the winners. Say you spent 70 hours grinding for one costume piece; it's not something you'd use for a weekly contest--especially if that item is from an alert that hardly shows up. Nor would anyone in their right mind give away a Resistance Nightstick for 1st place in, say, a PvP tournament. I think those who give out items at contests that are in the Goldilocks zone of not being ridiculously rare, but not something you constantly trip over running through MC, are some of the most generous players in the game. Not to say of course that those who don't give away Gs aren't as generous as well. Some people give away 10 Gs, or 20 Gs a category in a CC. My multi-category CCs range from 100-150 Gs total. TBA, before they took a leave of absence, had group CCs where they gave away around 2000 Gs! It takes a lot to grind for that cash, or items to sell for that, and putting on this show weekly simply increases the amount of work.
Prizes are just part of the preliminary work! Hosting requires knowing what you're doing and how people are going to react, hence my psychology statement earlier. If you choose costumes that look like someone pressed the randomize button in the tailor for your CC, if you cheat the public in PvP tourneys by ignoring certain rules you laid out, or if you give prizes to someone else instead of the first person to find you in Hide and Seek, then you're going to lose credibility and turnout out pretty quickly. Not to mention you aren't going to be liked very much and the internet is a sad place when you're not liked. Now none of the above could be intentional either, maybe you didn't see that person find you first in Hide and Seek. That's where rules come into play. Now there's a ratio hosts need to be aware of; while we need rules to help keep our contests organized and fun, too few will cause chaos and too many will decrease the fun value of it. Typically you want the least amount of rules possible in order to successfully have a contest. I refer people here to my Guide to Hosting and Judging CCs so they can see an example of what is to be expected for those types of contests, Hide and seek, and PvP Tournaments have their own specific rules those should follow (I've yet to write a guide for either, due to time), but the core concept of the rule ratio is the same.
Advertising for your contest is necessary, but arbitrary. Announcing should be done every 10min or so in game for the hour beforehand. Others are willing to come on and post every day until the contest day. When the CC starts, I recommend having a skeletal outline for your entire contest laid out in front of you BEFORE you even start your contest including your introduction, your rules, your clues, your lineup, your announcement for winners, and of course, your thank you to the participants. This allows you to makes sure everything is covered, and allows you to interact and have fun with the participants as well as answer questions they might have.
As much as it takes to host a contest, I think it's important to have fun! Sure, everything you're doing is for the participants but trust me: if you're not having fun, that's going to resonate with everyone else and the whole thing could crumble. Contests aren't a job; they're an activity--so make it a fun one! Now I've probably scared a lot of you with just how much work/effort goes into these things, especially prospective hosts. I want to go on the record to say that if it weren't for hosting and participating in these contests, I would never have made so many awesome friends. Whatever happens to the game itself, it is worth it just to sign on and talk with them--that's the real prize.
~ Flare@Lectrohm
About 9 or so hours...can actually be done in a little over half this time currently...
That said. Solid reviews with very very valid points across the board.
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Let's call that 'RP Lite' because really... nah. I'm not gonna finish this statement.
@Kwagmyre
I'm not finding the reviews that helpful or informative beyond letting the readers understand the bias of the reviewers. As posted, I find the pieces too full of generalization and speculative to prove useful to me.
If you are serious about rping though, you should join us at the CORP channel.
There is alot of proof to back up things said in the reviews like recording of chat logs etc.. but we cant show all that on forums due to it involving some devs that may still be at Cryptic etc.. so if you want to see it just ask in game alot of people who havent even posted here can refer you to proof of the dev channel mentioned in the PvP review.
Thank you. I am available at @RexCelestis. I am certainly interested in whatever information can be shared. I would specifically be interested in evidence or factual statistics supporting these statements:
Thanks. This stuff fascinates me. I would be very interested in seeing the numbers behind these statements.
Some of those statements can not be proven because they are subjective. For example the reference to sufficient content to satisfy a new player for a year and a half. Perhaps such is the case for some new players, but it is not the case for some others.
Also subjective is the reference to alerts as a common cause of complaint. For every player who complains about alerts, there are others who are choosing to play those same alerts for the same reason that is a cause of complaint for others.
Others of the statements you quote are questionable in terms of accuracy. If funds generated by CO were not being spent on CO, does that mean that our devs work for free and that the game's servers are maintenance free, require no electricity, etc ?
Also questionable is the inference that a slowed rate of development equates to abandonment. Its rather amusing that such a statement would be made in the same week that new content is released.
Also questionable is the reference to funds from one project being put into another. This is questionable not because it is inaccurate, but rather because it is normal in pretty much every industry (and non industry situations) in existence. A company has revenue, perhaps from multiple sources, and spends portions of that revenue according to a business strategy. I wonder if the individual you are quoting only spends money he earns at his place of employment on improving his job performance.
'Caine, miss you bud. Fly high.
I would tend to agree. However, I would think there are some metrics that could be captured as evidence of the statements. if there are numbers or transcripts to back up these claims, I would be interested in seeing them.
Ah i will get with Snake so that he can get with you then. I didn't do the PvE specific review.
I can't disagree with anything you just said but I do however have a different opinion of content then you. The recent release of lemurian missions take less then 15 minutes to complete and that's giving them a little time. I personally see content as something Like Vibora Bay and the adventure packs.
I'm going to use this quote to illustrate what I see as the subjective nature of these reviews. "Content" is a relative term with different, correct meanings to different people. What I would find more helpful is an neutral listing of game additions, enhancements, etc. over time that allows me as a reader to determine the flow of development.
...ya pains in the asses.
As for the rest, being here for so long you get a firm mental understanding of exactly what is happening, you find all the changes in game (even with no patch notes, through in-game research and going on test server) and you feel the financial bearings of the game through its players and content being added.
A loooot of people are flying vehicles worth up to $80 or more (test server evidence on vehicle/drifter salvage costs). A lot of people have invested. If you think the addition of a few missions taking a few minutes to complete is acceptable evidence that our money is being put back into co then you just havent the experience of the financial scale yet. Tonnes of money is being invested here by the loyal fans, you can tell by how much people are spending on Questionite and Z-Store items and more and more tens of thousands of Z-points are still available for trade in the Questionite market.
We've been trading Questionite for Z-points and buying Cosmic keys and such for ages...but more and more 10's of thousand of Z-Points are STILL up there for grabs.
This is evidence that money is being pumped and is flowing very nicely into the pockets of this games collector.
Evidence that even a small portion of this cash going back into the game, is tiny. Comparing the cost of those Z-Points simply from the Questionite market, it is most likely that less than 5% is actually being returned.
All reviews no matter who from will always be subjective regardless of how hard one tries not to be. That is the nature of reviews, reviews are an opinion of one or more individuals about a subject. Most good reviews are based on fact as well as the reviewers opinion.
Most evidence or facts done by reviewers in games with years of experience in the game are proven by actions done over those years or actions not done over those years. If a large amount of people all have the same perception over time of the same actions or non actions then it is more than likely true. Such is the case in court where juries are concerned.
For something to be fact it doesnt always have to be stated in text or signed by an official. I wonder is this your opinion on all 4 reviews or a specific one?
Greetings.
Here are 2 links that may help.
Official CO web page listing major updates. (There is an additional tab on the page for Adventure Packs and Comic Series releases.)
http://co.perfectworld.com/about/gameupdates/updates
CO-wiki web page listing dates of release for the updates. (The wiki is a fan maintained site.)
http://www.champions-online-wiki.com/wiki/Updates
Of course there have been patches and minor updates done on an ad-hoc basis.
In addition Costume Packs were released on a semi-regular basis (Sometimes 1 or 2 a month), but that has slowed to a trickle (I know, a subjective term, but I don't have a list of costume packs and when they debuted.) About a year ago, many of us complained because we considered that fluff rather than 'content'. Now, I would kill for some new costume packs.
CellarRat33 :: formerly Bsquared
***
"The great thing about glory unending is that it's dirt cheap!" - Tateklys
From the Adventures of Thundrax (canadascott)
***
That's a good point. That there's lots of Zen to trade, constantly, means money for the developers. Even if it's stipend, that means subscription money.
I see the new missions as content, just not as much content as the examples you give. A nickle is money, just not much money compared to a hundred dollar bill. My point was that it is not that Cryptic isn't putting money into CO, they are just doing it in very small (relatively speaking) drabs producing content very slowly.
'Caine, miss you bud. Fly high.
Alerts...because the XP they give is too much too fast.
To do it in 4 hours you need the following:
Alert xp boost
Double xp weekend boost
XP device boost
Nemesis hierloom xp boost
A solo build that doesnt suck.
Total is approximately 300% XPboost....yeah, you can get from lv 5 to 25 in about 1 hour...no joke.
Comparing it to content, Alerts are quite clearly the only level method for those who have already played the content once. Heck...ppl barely do content on their first character anymore because Alert XP is too much to pass up at any time.
45 mins to 30 once :I
Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!