Hi Matt!

Just made myself a member so that I can post here to let you know that I greatly enjoyed CoX while it lasted. The game made me an alt-holic and gave me hours of joy. 

Keep us updated on your future and we may be playing in another MMO that you are involved in soon.

Welcome aboard Matt,  a long time CoH player here missing you and the gang. Looking forward to your insight.

 The idea of player content has already been asked. Do you see a different format where player and designer can work more hand and hand, so that powers, items and content could be generated togther to drive th MMOs stories foward.

Within City of Heroes, was there ever any thought at looking at what was being done by the players in AE and tagging the better story arcs for possible full publication with in the game? Sure, some would say some sort of prize would need to be offered up at that point, but to me just the honor of having a story arc become part of the actual cannon of the game would have been a huge badge of honor.

Hi Matt! I miss CoX and look forward to reading your future articles.

CoX almost got it perfect, the only thing wrong with it was by level 35 all the mission maps seemed the same to me, wasn't quite enough game play, but I loved ya'lls take on the class system and pvp on my airborne stalker before ya'll nerfed us to death was freaking amazing. :)

I would love a fantasy game to do classes the way you guys did but with a bit more depth in the environment. I'd play the hell out of that game.

Good to see you here Posi! :)

Since you're obviously very familiar with it, could you at some point touch upon SWTOR and their business/system model? It seemed at first that they suffered a lot from first time MMO producer, or single player to MMO switch problems. Considering the fact that a year later they are still managing to irritate their player base at every turn,  I'm now beginning to wonder what's really going on. Any insights?

Welcome, Matt!  Good to see you here!

My question:

In modern MMO design, why do developers try to limit the impact players have on each other?

I'm not just talking about something like "free for all, full loot PvP".  I'm talking about all such possible interrelationships.  Most current games limit or eliminate players' reliance on each other, or meaningful interaction between players.  Even things as simple as crafters needing each other to make a finished product are anathema in today's MMOs.  Meaningful social, political, and economic meta-systems are all but extinct in the genre today.

So, why do developers sink so much time and money into creating these beautiful, persistent worlds, populated by potential persistent societies of players, without really taking advantage of either?

I'm very glad you'll be writing and posting articles here, Mr. Miler!  I love City of Heroes and hardly a day passes that I don't wish I could play it and/or I have some pleasant recollection.  I'd love any insight you might have as to why NCSoft would kill an MMO as popular and profitable as COH.  Initially, I'd assumed  money was the only factor, but ideas are floating that NCSoft simply killed CoH out of spite!  The idea the development team/Paragon Studios were "unsuitable" custodians for the MMO is patently ridiculous, as is the idea that fans and players would prefer no MMO to NCSoft selling the rights and IP to another company.

Looking forward to your MMORPG.COM articles and wishing  the best to all of the former CoH Dev team!  You and CoH ROCKED!!!  Rock on, Positron!

PS. I really appreciate you devs showing up and joining us on the final night.  It was hard to get thru but only because you'd collectively made a masterpiece and because the CoH community was a joy to game with!  Best wishes, John    /em holdtorch  (like forever or until CoH is back)

*Salutes* Hello Posi, Captain-Electric here. So here's what I really want to see you answer; actually (since you asked), I'm requesting that you write a big article about it, now that you've got access to a pretty big microphone here at MMORPG. I'd like you to let your fans, as well as the industry, know--with some detail--how you'd respond if some VC or publisher rolled up with a huge truckload of money and said, "So, Mr. Miller, what's your next super hero MMO going to be like? Give us a plan."

If you think that'd be a little self-serving, think again. You'd be serving thousands of fans, and anybody with a lot of resources who reads your column. Write it in the form of a pitch, treatise, rant, brainstorm, advertisement, all of the above, whatever. You have fans, Matt. Those fans don't want you to stop with City of Heroes. Yes, the funding is out of your hands. But... "What If?"

I'm wondering, Matt, with COH, was there any thought or ideas of making a world to put cities in? I would think that money and development costs were the reason for only the city locked away from the rest of a world. But what about a scortched earth with spaced valleys of lush terrain, any talk of doing that?

Was there technical reasons to not do so, aside from costs?

Glad to see you here, Matt!

My question concerns replayability.  Before I ask away, I will preface with a "I know I have a narrower view of the MMO landscape" and "my view is very subjective to certain types of gameplay."

Why don't companies release more selective content for each class/AT/role/etc?  

Let me explain. Starting with an example with CoH, why couldn't some missions cater specifically to a Katana scrapper and some missions cater directly to a Force Field player?  My reason for asking this is replayability.  I knew alt-itis was strong in CoH and then I coupled that knowledge with reading articles about games such as in GW2 or the Old Republic(to mention just a couple among many), where choosing an Order or choosing your class resulted in minimal, if any difference in gameplay than any other selection.  I've read comments such as "choose what you like, the story/progression will be the same."  I read these comments as complaints against the design and lack of variety, not as a positive outcome.  

I would guess this is because you feel you have to capture that person as quickly as possible so why take a chance on them choosing something that hasn't been fleshed out as much yet?  Is it because of 'running the numbers' and you may only get 3-6 months with that subscriber to impress them?  My feeling is that it hurts players such as myself that play longer term and wish they could have a much more significant difference in gameplay when I chose a Tank over a Controller.  It might be a horrible example, but why couldn't a Controller complete a mission 'taking over' a certain key minion or leader, whereas a Tank might sit at a chokepoint to absorb incoming damage while civilians escape a building.  This is in contrast to damage, damage, damage, as the only way to win each and every mission.  No variation.  I am fully aware this would be extra work. and I realize you cannot do this throughout the entire game but a small percentage would be appreciated in the name of true replayability.

Lastly, I also think it leads to a more generic game, which after that 6 months, someone may think there is nothing left to do once they realize they are playing the same content but just with different powers.  So, if the powers/class/etc fail to impress, you have nothing left to fall back on.

I would be likely more to stay knowing once I finished one class, I got to experience something unique in my next one.

Since all MMOs will eventually end is it really worth the emotional investment? You know how loyal the CoH fanbase is. Now some of us (including myself) have this "once bitten twice shy" attitude. I haven't picked up a new MMORPG (I tried going back to STO but it wasn't holding my intrest) because I don't want to find a group of friends only to have the rug pulled out from under me again.

Here's another question, even though most business decisions are made with money in mind (businesses aren't perfect, there are decisions made for personal reasons too) is there a difference between "we need to do this to save the company" kind of decisions and "we need to do this so I can get a bonus" decisions? Along those lines, do you think game companies actually enjoy playing games or is nothing more than a means to make money?

Yeah, I'm still bitter about NCSoft's decision.

It's been four days. Are we getting any feedback?

Maybe he didn't level up enough for a reply button yet.

POSITRON banned me cause do famous Superheroes.

Damn you