Originally posted by AstralMystic

It is only the result of Ignorance. A massive multi player online role playing game.

This genre is like the seed of a great tree and the poison that does not allow It to grow is solo game design.

A gamer should be allowed to play the game and have experiences without grouping but the core component that is needed for this genre to grow is community and grouping.

Player interactivity, grouping and community is as important to keeping this genre alive as food is to our bodies.

Without It, It becomes a dead life form.

If you want to group, group.  I have yet to see any MMO where it's impossible to group if that's your thing. 

Oh, and one of the biggest turn offs to MMO grouping is finding someone who wants to tell me how I should play.  It makes me want to SOLO.

Are people honestly able to get themselves worked up into this kind of frenzy over a video game?  Seriously?

I like the armor and weapons in general. 

However, I am kind of disappointed by the way they re-use a lot of armor graphics and just change the colors -- at least in the lower game.  Not sure about the upper levels.  Also, I am not thrilled with the female skirts all being open in the front.  Seems kind of goofy, and reminds me of EQ2 and the ripped look, but whatever.  The metal armor rocks!

Overall, I like the game.  There are a couple things that I definitely don't like though:

-  I hate how they handled water (no swimming, running on the bottom and taking damage for being next to or in deep water).

- I really hate how limited flight is in terms of duration and location.

Originally posted by banthis

This whole argument over the lifetime subs remains ridiculous.  The lifetime sub is more for the people who've been in closed beta and those going into open.  Someone that signs up for a lifetiem sub without ever playing the game is utterly ... well lets just not go there shall we?   If your not getting into Open and you've not been in Closed then the Lifetime isn't for you so there's no reason to complain or make retarded accusations of omg PWN failure.  

 

This. 

Originally posted by sdkkbc

I wonder how mant others feel this way.

No one who is serious about having MMOs as a hobby.  And no one who can afford .50 cents or so a day to be entertained for hours.

Originally posted by Theutus

I couldn't get passed the static camera angle

Same here.

I think they look more realistic than CO.  I've heard that you can remove the black outline in CO but not sure.  I haven't seen any screenshots without it, so maybe I'm wrong. 

Originally posted by Zlayer77

You my dear SIR must be stupid, we have game X it charges me 14,99$ for me to play their game. If I pay this I get everything. Then we have company Y they charges me 14,99$ to play their game but then I have to fork up some extra money if I want to travel faster or get a new item??? 

...

Sorry that is just the way that I feel, so no champions online for me, Im gona play Aion instead...

Careful using big words like stupid.  You might hurt yourself.

You still get everything in CO for your $14.99.  You have the option of buying some fluff items if you don't want to earn them through gameplay, but you can get everything by playing the game.  The MT is just a second option for obtaining the item.

Originally posted by Abrahmm

Originally posted by Deathstrike2

 After that, I can spend up to $15 bucks a month in the store and the stuff is more or less free to me.

 

The logic is flawless.

I don't know about you, but If I were to buy a lifetime sub to a game, I would expect to drop $200 at the beginning and not have to pay another dime with the exceptions of expansion packs. Paying a lifetime sub SO THAT you can pay $15 a month for virtual items is absolutely retarded. Enjoy getting milked.

What are you?  Vulcan?  Logic... lol

First, I don't HAVE to buy anything.  What I said was that after a year or so, I get my money's worth on the lifetime sub.  Any play time after that is more or less gravy.  If I choose to spend money on MT after that, I'm not out anything at all.  It's not rocket science.

How that equates to getting milked is beyond me.  Rather, playing $15 a month for a game for 4+ years with no end to the payments in sight seems more like a milking than anything.  Regardless of who's doing the milking though, $15 a month comes out to about .50 cents a day.  Big money, I know... But I think I'll be okay either way. 

Speaking only for myself, I didn't resub after the trial because of the following:

1.  I hate that missions are either completely soloable or forced grouping.  Elites will kick your butt even if you are 10+ levels above them.  Instead of having a pulse pounding flight, I knew with absolute certainty that I could either beat the mob or had no chance at all -- this goes for almost every mob in game that I encountered. 

2.  Lack of good grouping means I had to skip way too much content, even after said content turned gray and I was way over it in level, I still couldn't go back and do it for the story.  That sucked.

3.  Where in the hell are the 1,000+ unique sets of armor that the devs talked about more than a year ago?  In a game as gorgeous as AoC, the lack of unique armor really sticks out like a sore thumb.  Did they fire all their artists or are they still trying to fix the gimped DX10 stuff?  Either way, this was a major turn off for me.

4.  The world still feels like I'm moving down paths from one area to the next.  It doesn't feel massive or open at all.  More or less, I felt like I was in a funnel no matter where I went.  Some places were wider than others, but still... bleh..

5.  Either finish the voice overs or get rid of the voiceless cut scenes.  They're just reminders that the game still isn't finished.

6.  Where are the combos for the spell casters?  We hear a lot about revolutionary combat system, but it's only half done and implemented.  Spell casters play pretty much the same in AoC as in WoW.  Click target, spam spell until target is dead.  Again, bleh...

7.  For the love of Pete, give us a way to skip Tortage.  It's cool the first time through.  No so much the 5th time through.  About 8 times through, I want to throw the computer into the volcano.  Either add new starter areas, or just allow players to bypass this part completely.

8.  Stop dicking with things that aren't broken.  You break them when you do.  Nerf, nerf, buff, buff, nerf, buff --- NERF!  WTH?  Stop it already and fix what needs fixing.

The more I am okay with them.  Here's why:

I plan on getting the lifetime subscription for $200.  The subscription will pay for itself in about a year.  After that, I can spend up to $15 bucks a month in the store and the stuff is more or less free to me.  If updates only come out once every 3-4 months like in COH, I can still get a little fluff to play around with between issues.  Seems like a good deal to me.

I have no crusade against MTs in games anyway, especially when the items are all fluff or services like server transfers.   Besides, I knew MMOs were an expensive hobby when I started.  No since turning into a cheap bastard now... 

Best - City of Heroes

Worst - Darkfall

Asheron's Call 1.  The world was freaking huge and ready to be explored.  I met a lot of great people in that game.  I remember testing different spell component combinations to try to learn new spells and the excitement of going red at the altars.  I'm sure the fact that it was my first MMO has a lot to do with it, but I've never experienced gameplay like that since.

Originally posted by demolishIX

 Champion online - dress in a tight latex suit and full-fill your dream to run around with little kids.

I get the latex suit comment, but where are you going with the little kids part?  Are you saying that only kids like comic book super heroes?  If so, you'd be very wrong.  Just look at the box office sales for nearly any Marvel movie.  Besides, I'd hate to believe that you think swords, magic, and monsters are any more adult than a super hero. 

Assuming CO is a good game (I'll find out on the 17th), I'm going to do the lifetime sub to it and a monthly sub to Aion.  After the inital $200 bucks, it'll be like subbing to 1 game again, but I'll have more options  for my spare time than ever before :]

My first was an Atari 800.  After that I had a C-64, and then moved on to an Amiga 500.  Good times :p

Originally posted by Markn12

Some of you baffle the crap out of me.

If you want a house turn your PC off get a dam job and buy one.

Yeah...  Play Mark's way or don't play at all.  That seems reasonable if you're 5.

Maybe you will be able to just buy the backpack in the item mall.

Seriously.

Honestly, when I posted this, I didn't think it would be a big deal either way.  It just seems silly that the devs didn't put swimming into the game, especially when everything else I've seen has looked pretty polished so far.  As for some of the comments regarding only deep water off of cliffs -- I didn't encounter this mechanic anywhere near a cliff.  I was still in the noobie area close to the strip mine when I saw a pond with a large glowing ball on the otherside.  I thought, "hmm, I wonder what that is?"  I tried to swim over to explore it, and instead of swimming I found myself running under water with no movement penalty at all and taking serious damage.  I still don't know what the glowing ball was, as I was forced to run back to shore.  So much for exploration and immersion IMO.

As for the guy that said if this was the only thing to complain about, the game must be okay.  I really wasn't complaining so much as I was questioning.  As good as Aion is, there are still plenty of things I could complain about (invisible walls, silly restrictions, etc.).  No game is perfect and there's always room for improvement, but that wasn't the point of my post.

Oh - and as for the argument about plate armor weighing me down for realism -- I play a sorcerer in cloth armor and a fair amount of skin.  If we were going for realism, wouldn't the mechanic operate differently for characters based on the weight they were carrying?  See, realism isn't the reason for no swimming.  In fact, it's not even a good excuse in a game based on complete fantasy.

Anywho, I am hopefully that swimming is in a later version of the game.  We can never have too much polish or too many options as far as I'm concerned.

P.s. - To the guy who said if I want to swim, go swimming in RL.  I'd like to respond with if you want to fly, jump off your roof in RL.  See how stupid that sounds?