|
||
| Thema: Warum City of Heroes anders als andere MMOs ist (lang) | Antwort auf: City of Heroes von Infidel | |
| ADAM-7’s guide to the heart of CoH. This guide is geared toward players from other MMOs coming here and wondering why the things they are used to aren’t present. Why the style and feel of play from other games are not mirrored here. Why there is no traditional MMO end game content. Additionally, this will also touch on the oft controversial topic of power leveling (in a non inflammatory way). And if any of you follow my posts, you will see things i have said before here, just in a complied format. Anyway, lets start: Adam, what makes City of Heroes different, and what is this paradigm shift of which you speak? Unlike any other MMO out there, City of Heroes is NOT about the “end game.” It’s a paradigm shift that a lot of people have trouble swallowing, but it’s the way the game was made. In nearly every other MMO out there, the levels leading up to the max level “end game” are just gravy. They are meant to make you “put in the effort” or “grind” to reach the fun: max level raiding, equipment, crafting. Essentially, the meat of the game occurs after your level is maxed out and you are fine tuning your “stuff” (whether that be powers or equipment or rabid chipmunk pet of DOOOMZXORS). That is NOT CoH. (this is why many people who PL to reach the end become unsatisfied very quickly; they are missing the point of this game) PLers just don't "get" this game. There is no end game content that extends ones enjoyment. Unlike WoW or EQ or DAoC, you don't have high level raid content or PvP uber rewards. When you hit 50, the Devs expect you to roll an alt, and bring your 50 out for 50 content (when its made), PvP arena, PvP base raids (and crossover CoV content), and playing with your friends. They have expanded what your 50 can do with the exemplar and auto exemplar for TF features. Other than that though, your character has essentially retired. Sorry, no way for you to spend another 1000 man hours raiding the depressing elemental plane of sadness where Lord EMO god of whining and mediocre music reigns supreme, just to beat him and hope you are the one person out of your 50 player raid group to get the hat of Xanax (+35 save against confusion and fear) to further tweak your stats. That’s not this game. And when they DO make end game content, people will exhaust it and cry out for more within weeks. Why? Because no matter WHAT endgame content CoH adds, it will not be the kind of end game content these people want. But Adam, why NOT? I want my content! Most (gross generalization) people who are currently crying over lack of end game content are looking for the kind of content that EQ or DAoC or WoW has. When your character hits the highest level the can get, there are still uber items out there to increase their power. These items require hours and hours and hours of raiding to acquire, and you aren't even guaranteed the item at the end of that time. So what happens? In an obsessive race to optimize their character to the max, people who have already hit max level are still willing to spend 50+ hours to get all the min/max'ed equipment. And in many cases, they don’t even GET the equipment they need from the drop, but rather the raw materials they need in order to spend yet MORE hours crafting the equipment they need, with no guarantee of success! That kind of end game content allows a person to feel like their character (who can no longer get experience) is still advancing. Even if it takes them hundreds of hours to do so. They are still getting stronger as a result of all the time spent. They feel like their character doesn't need to be shelved because there is still room to grow. And ONCE they have optimized themselves to have only the best, there is still PvP raids to keep them busy, because PvP provides rewards in both PvP AND PvE. And those rewards are good! And though many people like this, there remains a problem with that in reference to CoH. Many of us came to CoH to break out of that grind. We got tired of having to spend hundreds of hours to get enough lvl 265 spectral wombat pelts to make the phasing wombat boots of doom which allow us to finally cross the phased rainbow bridge of despair into the shadowed castle of shadows, only to fight the twilight squirrel (with 400 other players) in hopes of being the one person to get the fabled nut of destruction. (Because, as you know, if you DON'T have the nut of destruction, you are teh noobxzors in PvP and no one will invite you to their l337 gank squad) End game content in CoH will most likely just be more missions. Perhaps requiring multiple teams (in the vein of hamidon, but in smaller scale). They may require whole supergroups. But regardless, the will not give loot, and the will not give continued and extended character advancement. (Key word is “extended”, they may provide some limited further advancement, but not to the end of 100+ hours to get your full set of death badger armor). Okay Adam, I’m starting to follow you, so are you implying I shouldn’t PL my first character? Well, most PLers in other game level themselves because to EQ or DAoC, the meat of the game is at the end. In other words, to EQ players, the fun isn’t in getting to max level, but rather, once you get there. They prize the destination, not the journey (if you don’t mind the cliché) *a funny aside, most new players in EQ get turned off immediately as its tremendously difficult to find lower level teams, as everyone is being PL’d to join the “fun” in the end game* This being the case, the solution to powerleveling should become kind of obvious, but lets sum up what we know now, first: 1. CoH has no ph4t l3wt. There are no items of power to increase your characters stats. 2. CoH has no extended play end game. You hit 50 and retire. Kthxbye. 3. CoH has no crafting. You cannot spend hours and hours refining your vampire bunny teeth to make your singing vorpral sword of slaying. 4. There will be no steep rewards for PvP victories. Our items of power that our SGs (will) hold do not open up a super dungeon where even uber-er items can be found, or give us +100,000,000 hp & unlimited endurance. These three things all tie in together and they also form the crux of end game content, and the goal of powerlevelers in the other games. People PL for these reasons (in other MMOs). People want to get to the meat of the game immediately (2) because that is where the most “fun” is had in the game. However, to get to this fun they must be outfitted with the best equipment (1). To get this equipment they must raid and get the raw materials and (3) craft ‘em or get ‘em from a drop. All in the hopes to even further optimize their characters (4). So what, then, is the “meat” of City of Heroes if its not extended advancement? As shown above, CoH has NONE of these things. CoH is unique in the fact that the focus of the game isn’t max level pvp raiding. Nor is it max level dragon (or hamidon) slaying. This game is about bringing your hero up from an outbreak stopping scrub at lvl 1, to a dimension saving portal jockey at 50. All the content they need to accomplish this isn’t there yet, but if the khelds are any indication they are certainly trying. They are attempting to put in so much content that each character can take a different path through the game with different experiences. They are succeeding somewhat when you consider you can now take a character though the hollows, then to striga, then to croatoa, then to the shadow shard. That’s a lot of contacts and content ( 5 – 35, 40-50) if I recall correctly) that is different from what you are used to. They have expanded missions to change the things you have done already. They have adjusted tile sets, enemy mob powers, and AVs to make things different from your first time through. They WILL eventually have level 50 only content, but it’s not going to be the crafting, stat tweaking, 500 hour obsessive compulsive ‘gotta catch it all tedium that other MMOs bill as “end game content.” The devs want you to enjoy each level, not rush through them to join all the fun raiding the dark shadowed fortress of darkness which can only be reached if you get the key of twilight content flag by killing Shad-or, the black dragon of inky night inside his den of eternal evening. Once you understand this kind of paradigm shift, you may find yourself not only looking at City of Heroes in a different light, but enjoying it more. I have never played a MMO before where it is a perfectly acceptable practice to take a few months off, and come back for the new issue to see what content was added. Nor have I ever played a MMO that is so accommodating for that (the fact that no characters have been forcefully deleted yet speaks volumes about Cryptic’s view of their fans. Once you understand the idea that the fun of this game is in the playing, not the end game stat tweak PvP castle elemental dragon raid II: super ultra mega champion edition, you will also understand why I don’t give suggestions on how to dissuade PLing from the populace at large: There is no reason to. Rampant PLers will play this game a bit, max out, get bored and move on. Those of us who enjoy the game for what is IS, rather than what we want it to be, will most likely still be here bringing another alt up from 1-50. |
||
| < Auf diese Nachricht antworten > | ||