As I look back some 33 months now (holy crap I've played this game sooo damned long)I remember when you could login and play and feel like a damned Hero.
When I say that I mean that I felt like I could duplicate the feats of the spandex clad folks in a variety of Comic Books. I could play a Colossus type and take a huge amount of abuse from a swarm of thugs and punks while having a harder time against real Villains. I could lay down a patch of Ice and know that it was going to keep the bad guys busy a while.
Now.....33 months later, its changed and not for the better. Can I still "Tank"? Sure but in no way as before. I can't be a Spiderman or a Batman because the power sets have all been "nerfed" in the name of "balance". Super Reflexes is terrible ... its asking to throw away a power set until you hit the 30s. Why? Because Defenders and Controllers couldn't hit them in PvP. Guess what? They weren't supposed to. Take a look a a Spidey or a Bats fight ...... They are dodging and/or blocking and AVOIDING that one good hard shot that would take them out of the fight. When the JLA started fighting guys outside Batman's weight class, what did he do? Piss and moan that it was too tough or did he use the thing that really makes him dangerous to any bad guy...his brain? All Powers are not created equal...sorry but its a sad truth.
MMOs are, by their very nature an exercise in futility when it comes to trying to maintain a balance across the board. It cannot be done without gutting the genre that the game is based on. "City Of" is in the process for gutting itself now....focusing more and more resources on PvP (a segemnt of the game that has rabid followers to be sure but a very small % of the overall player base) and introducing things like an Auction House that really has no business in a Super Hero game. It does appeal to people who play WoW though and that's the real aim. The same thing applies to the crafting segment of the game that is coming soon (tm).
I've watched a couple of games I loved to play slowly die from what amounts to poor choices by the guy who makes the final calls. SOE destroyed Star Wars by trying to reinvent the wheel and then time and again nerfing in the name of "balance" until a Master Marksman was getting his ass kicked by a bunny rabbit and a butterfly. Entire Character Classes were broken for YEARS. The fact that Jack is starting to follow the "model" of the jackass that killed Star Wars shows in the avenues they are chosing to develope and in the things they aren't doing .... like fixing things that are broken. "City Of" has great graphics but they have steadily placed a greater and greater burden on the Client PC. One guy spent 6K on a new PC that HE himself built and still couldn't get close to the performance we had a year ago. Guild Wars is stunning....just login and look out over a plain.....watch grass move in the wind, see that water ripple..... Lord of the Rings Online has the most stunning views I have ever seen in a game.....they rival real world vistas I've looked out over. In both cases the performance is great......several times as good as you regularly get in "City Of". Why? And why is it that there isn't a fix in sight? Have they made some changes? Yup...they changed the appearance of powers that were never an issue from day one but they have yet to address the real cause. Too much time....it would shift resources away from making new stuff to pile on the old broken stuff but hey....that's the SOE way and now its seems to be the "City Of" way too.
Is City of DOOOOoooooOOOOOOMED? Yes...I think so....its going to be a slow, lingering death not unlike cancer but its going to die. My main account is paid thru July but barring some miracle that convinces me otherwise I'm moving on to greener pastures. I can get my Hero fix with a bunch of people on the XBox 360 with Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Maybe the MUO game will be good.....though Jack is in on that so I'm betting against it.
I can still dream though, right?
Rants on things going on in the world today as well as some personal crap that bugs me here and there.
Rants from the Madman
And I will execute great vengeance upon them, rebuking them in fury: and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall lay my righteous vengeance upon them.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007, posted by Timothy at 3:25 AM
6 Comments:
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Post a CommentIm honestly feeling your pain, and likely its because we've been through this with SOE. The only other one in our group that has is Jesse.
Really? You'd think that the COX crew would've learned by now that PvP will kill a game. Its killed many others. At the same time? Look at Guild Wars. They have a strong PvP element that doesn't touch the PvE side really... its remained solid. Why is that?
It comes down to keeping a separation. You want to PvP? Have a server for it, or a way to find it sure... but keep it away from the PvE side of things. Most ppl dont want to PvP, so why waste all this time and energy on it?
I think CoX has taken its first steps on its path to oblivion as well. Rather than make a legendary game they are serving the minority.
Now, I still have my account and I'll still play for now but only because my wife and I like to play together, and we enjoy playing with our friends that play too. Otherwise? Id have already moved on. LotR is a decent game. I still play Final Fantasy 11, and Guild Wars, and im looking forward to Conan. Really though, im hopeful that the Marvel MMO is worth it... because thats what I want to play most of all.
MUA 4 LIFE
I agree.... Keeping PvP seperated is what makes it work well in Guild Wars and I'll assume in LoTRO.
There have been people clamoring about PvP servers and adding PvP to the game and Turbine has said in no uncertain terms, "NO"! They have Monster Play and sparring and that's as far as they want to go.
I still have my account and I plan to pop in from time to time and see what's going on and I have 3 toons I'd like at 50 before I do call it a day (if that's what does happen)but the passion I used to have for it is gone and I don't see it coming back.
Ah well.....
Which three bro? Ill help you when you do.
If LotR can stick to their guns on PvP it should take them far. The game is decent and as content is added and such im sure it will flourish. There are enough Tolkien fans out there to keep the game going, either way. Hell... Galaxies still exists somehow. People like Star Wars so much they refuse to let it die.
I'd like to get Babe to 50 as well as Donner and Donar.
That's 2 Heroes and a "bad guy".
I'm not sure how Galaxies is still going other than Sony has deep packets and isn't afraid to throw away money to keep something from failing.
As for LoTRO...I think it will do fine. I've been watching what they plan to do down the road and ultimately the whole of Middle Earth will open up for players. With all of the quests to do i don't know how they'll keep the level cap at 50. I'm at 15 on 5 toons and have 40 quests on tap for them when they can level again.
At 12:42 PM, 
Cloaked One
I heard from name from across the interweb, lol. Anyway I agree with you guys PvP can kill a game if not implimented in the "right" way. For example when drawing to a LoTR fan base the focus is more on story and character development, not ooo I totally just pwed your ass, you damn noob. Despite my hatred for WoW they have done it right as well, having seperate servers for PvP and PvE, now even on PvE you can still do PvP but in a less imtidating way and not worrying about having to be uber. They have instances for PvP on both kinds of servers but on PvP servers there are also active zones that you could be killed by some high level who happened to be crossing your path. I am sure you guys have noticed but I haven't been on CoX at all lately, I had to reinstall windows again, Norton seems to be corupting the hell out of my system32/config files, I have not installed CoX this time around mainly because as Nate put it MUA 4 life I simply love the game, and it is filling my super hero kick quite well. I am still paying for CoX just not sure how much time it will see from me, since I am still playing FFXI which I don't think I will ever quit unless well SE shuts the game down entirely which I don't see happening but hey you never know. Anyway that is my 1 and a half cents since I am not qualified to have 2 yet. rofl
-Jesse