This one has a shiny box!

[Glazius]

City of Heroes review at EuroGamer.

In terms of pure atmosphere... well, take this entirely standard encounter. You're patrolling. You see a woman having her handbag being wrestled from her by two thugs. She's calling for help. You intervene. The thugs stop to fight you, cursing your name. You let them face stern vigilante action. The victim runs up, thanking you profusely... and you're away.

Of course, in game terms this is identical to just spawning monsters for you to hit. But compared to how it affects atmosphere, going from City of Heroes to the sort of game that deposits you in a field full of monsters which wander around, minding their own business, until you attack them... well, it's not fun and they're shown to be as ridiculous as they clearly are. That isn't adventuring. That's a genocide simulator. What did that orc ever do to you?

So, yes, shallow. But beautiful.

It occurs to me that a lot of what I _like_ about City of Heroes is this 'atmosphere'. That, in fact, 'go to this warehouse, defeat the Hellions, and get back a stolen artifact' is on some level absolutely identical to 'go to this house's basement, defeat the giant rats and spiders, and find my grandma's dented old lamp'.

But what gives you a greater sense of importance?

It might be that a lot of hatred of the MMORPG has to do with the diku-mud roots, where for your first few levels you were laying the smack down on sickly goblins and insects, and then graduated up to healthy goblins and harmless forest creatures.

It's just the look. But somehow it feels better. With graphics the only obstacle, why can't it be Hellions-and-artifact from the beginning?

--GF

[sidereal]

That isn't adventuring. That's a genocide simulator.

Critical hit!
Cookie for http://gillen.blogspot.com/">Kieron

[Xilren's Twin]

I'll take it one step further.  In terms of atmosphere, i really love the souviener story arcs in CoH.  These are basically a series of linked missions that tie together in an overall story. If you successfully complete the arc, you get a bonus exp reward, enhancement drop and that story stays permantly stored on your character's history.  The really add to the comic book atmosphere IMHO, as they play out much like you would expect.  You uncover early clues, your contact sends you out looking for more, there are suprises, red herrings and plot twists, and it all winds up to a serious plot/threat you have to deal with.

Now, intellectually, I know these stories are available to anyone to pursue, the mechanics of battling the villians isn't much different than street hunting, and failure to do one doesn't negatively affect the world, but vicerally they satisfy my desire to have some meaning to my ingame actions; they SEEM personal to me.  Not only that, but there's enough of them that I can level purely following these arcs rather than random mob bashing.  You get introduced to the various villian groups, learn backstory and lore, and get to do things which sound appropriately heroic (plus the exp rewards from each completed mission in the arc actually helps you level quicker, or at least it does me in my mainly solo play).   Plus, they have much more flavor than random outdoor hunting.  Take temporary powers and mission tilesets just as two examples.  I have had missions where I got 4 different temporary powers to play with which is just plain neat.  I even pretended to be a Tanker/Scrapper with my Axe of Undead slaying not too long ago as it was a can of beatdown at melee range.

As of this morning, I have 14 souvieners collected as level 28 (1/10 from 29 and meeting my new contacts :) ) and am working on #15, the Freakalympics.  

In generic terms I'm basically 3/5 of the way to max level from pure questing.  What's not to like?

Having not tried either the WoW or EQ beta's, how do those games "focus on questiong" playout?

Xilren

[Fargull]

Little bits of immersion that could be easily done... and for everyone on the bloody server.  Heck, some NPC's already do some of it.  I have clicked on one and it talked about another player's efforts to fight the bads...

What about adding a shirt skin to the NPC's that might have the same colors as some of the SG's, with the same emblem and maybe the SG title on the back (that point probably pretty hard).. or just the name of Fanboi for "yack SG".

Another option would be the bilboards, perhaps have them randomly change every hour or so and display one of the Heroes who recently stopped one of the major arcs with the sign saying "Thanks from the citizen's of Paragon City".

Talk about crap that would have people just flying, jumping, teleporting, running around to see if they had their names in lights.  Big peen waving kinda thing.  Would make a damn cool desktop background though....

As to why in the fantasy themed MMORPG's we have to bash bunnies to move up, it is because no fantasy based MMORPG treats the PC's as heroes, only cartoon actors inline at the pet food store.

[geldonyetich]

It comes down to what I'm saying many MMORPGs need, but lack:

Compelling purpose.

City of Heroes has a nice environment in that they took steps to present you as a hero fighting actual crime    The way the stories arc, the way they present the mobs as criminals, the way you (a hero) can engage more than one mob at once - this all helps to convey this illusion.

However, the illusion is not complete, and a large part of that is that there's still no overall lasting consiquences in City of Heroes.   When you defeat a mob in the city, you can be sure that there will be another repopping later - at no point does a part of the city really feel anything less than a crime infested mess.   Never will your hard years of crime fighting render a picturesque neighborhood of white picket fences and children playing in the streets.   Conversely, if nobody defeats the criminals and they go about shaking down people and commiting crimes, nothing bad comes of it.    It's a fairly typical exercise to just walk right past all the purse snatchers because you're looking for a challenge that actually grants some experience points for a change.

City of Heroes makes several steps forward, but it hasn't crossed the goal line of true compelling purpose.  No MMORPG has, even Star Wars Galaxies with their dyanamic content (because they do not allow the players to destroy).   Shadowbane comes pretty close, but then it's lacking of City of Heroes has - direct missions, quick travel, fun gameplay.

[BremXJones]

Critical hit!
Cookie for http://gillen.blogspot.com/">Kieron

Hurrah. Tasty cookie.

Followed from my referers to lead me here and - well - bookmarked the forums. Needed a place to follow smart MMO related chat, methinks.

KG