Marvel Universe Online: Comments from Comic-Con

[UnSub]

Jack Emmert vaguely answers some questions about MUO at Comic-Con.

The original film person has apologised elsewhere for the shoddy camera work - he was just trying to get MUO answers.

Key points:

 - MUO is apparently going to be more action orientated than CoH/V.

 - Jack sees the irony in being sued by Marvel, then being hired by Marvel.

 - Being able to go back in time and take part in some key Marvel moments isn't out of the question.

[Signe]

I'd like to play this.  Like now because I'm bored-ish.

[Tairnyn]

I'm saving up all my DKP for the Infinity Gauntlet.

[Signe]

This is too adorable! 

[Nonentity]

This is too adorable! 

Oh jesus.

SIGNE DO NOT EAT THE CAT IT IS NOT A REAL HELLO KITTY

[Furiously]

Everyone knows cat's don't have enough brains to interest Zombies.

[Jimbo]

http://www.twolumps.net/

No but the fat one is fun to watch  :-D

But on the MUO, I have heard it is still up in the air if you play your own character or one of the 5000 characters that marvel has created.  And maybe, they will see that not having a grind will make it a lot better.

[Amaron]

And maybe, they will see that not having a grind will make it a lot better.

I think Hell would freeze over if Jack Emmert revised his views on xp cock blocking.  We're talking about the guy who one upped Brad McQuaid running around as Aradune with a flaming sword and green armor by making himself the main character of an entire MMO.

[hal]

Where does Jack end and the rest of the Dev team begin? COX has no end game. How are they going to retain players? I do not know the answer, I just ask the question.

[schild]

I really want to say this will be good, but it'll be a reskin with more graphics fx and some licensed costumes. That is not appealing, unless they learn something about storytelling and leveling curves. Neither of which seem likely.

[eldaec]

I really want to say this will be good, but it'll be a reskin with more graphics fx and some licensed costumes. That is not appealing, unless they learn something about storytelling and leveling curves. Neither of which seem likely.

I'm not sure it'll be that good. Designed from the ground up for consoles etc.

And maybe, they will see that not having a grind will make it a lot better.

We've rehearsed this a lot on the CoH forum. But the issue with CoH does not appear to be the amount of time taken to get from level N to level N+1, the issue is that people get bored of the gameplay, not enough variety etc. If bored at level N (where N is greater than 32), it is hard to see why you wouldn't be bored at level N+1.

Besides CoH's grind runs at about 1 level per evening's play, wihch is about the same as every other recent dikumud.

If MUO takes the same approach as CoH to gameplay (and from the video it sounds like it is -  ie. All fightin' all the time) then I don't know that there is anything they can do to stop many people who have played the game for over a year getting bored with it.

Maybe the problem is that Jack designs these things more like a single player game - solidly taking a line that it only goes in if it really working and is really fun (witness how long IOs crafting took). CoH was a game with undoubtedly the best instanced pve combat of any MMORPG, but whose longevity was restricted by having a limited number of those instanced pve scenarios and literally nothing else.

COX has no end game. How are they going to retain players?

CoX has an end game. The end game is yet more alts.

People are entitled to sniff at that. But it does have the advantage that new players can at least get a group, and the developers can justify adding new content at all levels, not just adding more and more pseudo-levels onto the end of the grind (I'm looking at you Daoc and EQ). There is no 2 year+ Dikumud with a newbie zone as active and as new player friendly as CoH (not even WoW).

[schild]

Designing from the ground up for consoles for a super hero MMOG can only help it Eldaec. Superheroes should not be controlled by a mouse and keyboard and played at an office desk.

[UnSub]

And maybe, they will see that not having a grind will make it a lot better.

I think Hell would freeze over if Jack Emmert revised his views on xp cock blocking.  We're talking about the guy who one upped Brad McQuaid running around as Aradune with a flaming sword and green armor by making himself the main character of an entire MMO.

Your first sentence doesn't fit with your second sentence. XP cock blocking != dev ego.

Besides, if Jack had the ego you say he does, I think he'd want to make Statesman a more likeable character than the grumpy jerk he is.

However, should Jack ever build his own castle build his own superhero base and dress up in the costume, I'll concede this point to you.

[UnSub]

http://www.twolumps.net/
But on the MUO, I have heard it is still up in the air if you play your own character or one of the 5000 characters that marvel has created.  And maybe, they will see that not having a grind will make it a lot better.

One of the clips (at least) talks about allowing players to build their own characters, have them team up with existing Marvel characters and also potentially controlling existing Marvel characters.

Taking into account the 'time travel' option of MUO, I'm guessing you can take over (say) Wolverine during the Age of Apocalypse era for a mission or two, or some such.

[tkinnun0]

Designing from the ground up for consoles for a super hero MMOG can only help it Eldaec. Superheroes should not be controlled by a mouse and keyboard and played at an office desk.

[Falwell]

Trying to build an MMO within the super well defined confines of a heavy hitter IP like Marvel has to be a raging pain in the ass. The amount of basic MMO mechanics that are damned-if-ya-do-damned-if-ya-don't scenarios is insane.

Also on a minor derail, is SoE still the ones with DC MMO rights? Haven't heard jack nor shit about it in awhile.

[schild]

Trying to build an MMO within the super well defined confines of a heavy hitter IP like Marvel has to be a raging pain in the ass. The amount of basic MMO mechanics that are damned-if-ya-do-damned-if-ya-don't scenarios is insane.

Luckily they already made one. They just need to reskin it. I'm not knocking Cryptic for this, they did a great job. But it's been done. NEXT.

Also on a minor derail, is SoE still the ones with DC MMO rights? Haven't heard jack nor shit about it in awhile.

Yes.

[Velorath]

Trying to build an MMO within the super well defined confines of a heavy hitter IP like Marvel has to be a raging pain in the ass.

The IP is actually pretty flexible.  Decades old stories can be rewritten in the comics through retcons (Gwen Stacy had sex with the Green Goblin, Bucky and Captain Marvel aren't dead, just about any character could be a Skrull right now).  Movies and video games can use characters who are anywhere from slightly to drastically altered, like the X-men Legends game using a blend of Regular and Ultimate stuff (and even a lot of Age of Apocalypse stuff in XML2).

[Amaron]

I think Hell would freeze over if Jack Emmert revised his views on xp cock blocking.  We're talking about the guy who one upped Brad McQuaid running around as Aradune with a flaming sword and green armor by making himself the main character of an entire MMO.

Your first sentence doesn't fit with your second sentence. XP cock blocking != dev ego.

You misunderstood me.  Jack has made it clear he supports xp cock blocking.  He also has an ego.   Ergo his ego would prevent him from admitting he was wrong in any way about xp cock blocking.

[eldaec]

Taking into account the 'time travel' option of MUO, I'm guessing you can take over (say) Wolverine during the Age of Apocalypse era for a mission or two, or some such.

I still have my doubts that 'play as actual Marvel characters' will happen.

At a comparable point in development, CoH wasn't even a class and level based game. Anyone could pick any power.

[Azazel]

Taking into account the 'time travel' option of MUO, I'm guessing you can take over (say) Wolverine during the Age of Apocalypse era for a mission or two, or some such.

I still have my doubts that 'play as actual Marvel characters' will happen.

Actually, I wouldn't doubt it at all. They want to sell the game, after all. One of the EQ expansions after I stopped playing let you run instances where you controlled Nagafen and such during "historical" encounters. A game where you can (briefly) play as Wolverine and Spider-Man will sell far better than a game where you can only play as Joe Schlub, and occasionally chat or take a mission from Logan.

Marvel geeks aren't quite the renfaire geeks that want to have a true-life experience in Middle-Earth and explore the Barrow-Downs and Weathertop. Marvel geeks all just want to be Wolverine.


...and, of course, Girls just want to have fun.

[Alkiera]

One of the EQ expansions after I stopped playing let you run instances where you controlled Nagafen and such during "historical" encounters.

That is one of the most fun things in current EQ1.  Being Nagafen and a group of fire giants and killing the 'heroes' as they attempt to raid you was really a riot.  As was the one where you play a bunch of zombies trying to take over the halfling city...  You collect brains from them, which can be used to create pet zombies, or cast heal spells on the PCs.

They are also rather nice exp over time, if you can get the timing down so you don't have to wait a long time between runs... and you don't need to worry about group makeup as much, as you get to choose who you are each time through, so if your cleric doesn't log in, just have someone else play the healing class, or whatever.  Or if someone just gets tired of playing healer.

--
Alkiera

[Typhon]

And maybe, they will see that not having a grind will make it a lot better.

We've rehearsed this a lot on the CoH forum. But the issue with CoH does not appear to be the amount of time taken to get from level N to level N+1, the issue is that people get bored of the gameplay, not enough variety etc. If bored at level N (where N is greater than 32), it is hard to see why you wouldn't be bored at level N+1.

It's almost canon within MMO design that there are those magic N+1 levels that provide a carrot to make the N+1 level more enjoyable then the N level.  New powers, access to new areas, new enemies, etc.  Players are willing to endure a little boredom with the N-1 and N level, if the N+1 level provides something new.  Jack removes character advancement from the "bright and shiny diversions" list by having the character have the lions share of interesting powers by level 28 (a little over halfway to max).

[Note: I fully expect half of you to respond that "a little boredom" is exactly what you don't want.  I don't want that either.  But the game maker has to make a choice on how many levels to put into a leveling game based upon how much content can be added to the game, and how quickly the average person gets bored with doing the same thing agian and again.  f13 crowd seems to be made up of a decent number of people who get bored more quickly then the average]

"Restarting a new character" only restores half of the "bright and shiny diversions" list because the other half of that list, i.e. "new missions/villians" doesn't reset.  There is no other world-zone to start in with a new character (e.g. starting in a human town versus starting in a dwarf town), only new powers.

Jack can fix this by having character advancement be more significant throughout the level curve (how ever long they decide to make that), and have mission, maps and villain types change significantly throughout the leveling process.  THAT is a game with persistence and leveling - a character that I care enough to take from level 1 to the maximum level.

For me, another key component is for Jack to figure out a way to stay true to the Super Hero IP - all hero's should not have to group up with 4-8 strangers to gain a decent amount of experience every game session.  There are far too many lone wolf hero's within the Super Hero IP for the leveling mechanism to be so strongly slanted toward grouping.  Find some other mechanism to reward grouping (cash, for instance.  I don't think anyone expects the lone wolf to be rich).

I think Jack can make a fun game if he simply keeps the things that work; character creation, quick-mission style, engaging combat, and reworks those things that didn't work as well; character advancement, lack of significantly new content throughout the character leveling process.