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Champions Online At A Glance: First Impressions
Soon after a game's launch, we like to have the game's reviewer offer his first impressions to give players an idea of what they can expect early on. Today, Michael Bitton files his report on Champions Online.
By Michael Bitton on September 14, 2009
In late August we took a look at what Champions Online has to offer players, and now with the game's release behind it we're checking in for our first impressions of the game in order to give you a taste of how things are actually stacking up so far. The idea of a "first impressions" would have been a bit of a challenge, seeing as how we've spent a ton of time with the game prior to its launch, but something that occurred on launch day made a first impressions article much easier. You see, for those of you who previewed the game in beta, or were even part of the head start, Champions Online launched almost a completely different game.
Before we get into all of that, let's talk a bit about the basics of an MMOG launch. Champions Online faired pretty well in this regard, many of the launcher and account issues present in the beta were thankfully absent at launch, with things going fairly smoothly on the technical side of things. Now, where were we? Ah, that's right, Champions Online launching as a different game, whatever do you mean? Well, in a boneheaded move, Cryptic Studios thought it would be a good idea to dump major, far-reaching changes onto the game in a launch day patch with absolutely no feedback from players. In these first impressions, we're going to take a look at this 'new' Champions Online and some of the effect the recent changes have had on early gameplay.
Champions' launch day patch was not put out to 'screw' the player, but was put out in response to player feedback that the game was in fact, way too easy. This assessment definitely held true in beta, with many players wondering where the group content was. After all, there were players soloing five man lairs with ease. Of course grouping was non-existent. Outside of specifically designated group content, there wasn't much reason to need an extra body for well, anything, and this was a legitimate issue. In any other game, the sorts of changes to difficulty that followed would be a bit more acceptable. Where Champions is different is that we're playing a superhero game, and well, players want to feel super. In traditional fantasy MMOGs, it's pretty common place to expect to single pull mobs, maybe even two or three mobs, and maybe a few more if you are an AoE focused character.
In superhero games like City of Heroes or Champions Online, bottom tier enemies generally represent cannon fodder to warpath through and create a sense of feeling super. On launch day, this sense of feeling super was decidedly absent. Defensive passive abilities took major hits, reducing the sorts of things players could survive on their own by quite a bit. To illustrate this, let's take Invulnerability, which was capable of reducing something like 80%+ of damage, now, it reduces about 30-35%. This, on its own, may have been necessary, and there may have been some expected crying over it, but it would have subsided. It was these sorts of changes, combined with the changes to mobs that really made the game 24 hours earlier unrecognizable when compared to the new one.
Today, enemies that were once cannon fodder can now shred players up pretty easily. This change has seriously impacted my opinion on the level of fun Champions Online provides. In fact, playing another game recently really highlighted the impact these changes have made on the game's fun factor.
;)
Champions Online really gave players the sense of feeling super prior to the game's full launch, if a bit too super. Now, the game kind of feels like, well, everything else out there, at times. Depending on the type of character you choose to create, the impact of the launch day patch's changes will vary greatly. For some characters, mowing henchmen down is still a relatively easy to accomplish task. However, for many others, especially those that choose to focus on an offensive character concept dependent on killing before being killed, this task can be nigh impossible. Simply navigating Millenium City's West Side while using Acrobatics can result in death due to taking too many pot shots from random enemy henchmen. That is simply not fun.
The other game I played recently wasn't City of Heroes, though that would be a good example to refer to regarding the challenge and place of henchmen, but it was in fact Batman: Arkham Asylum. I've been balancing both games recently and switching from literally brutalizing hordes of enemies to hopping on Champions Online and feeling deflated at how easily one can be defeated really got under my skin.
So how does this affect the new player experience? Well, due to some recent changes , the difficulty at least at the lower levels isn't as pronounced, which is both a positive and a negative. Mob hitpoints at lower levels were adjusted downward in a recent patch, and generally speaking the enemies present in the tutorial, and both the Desert and Canadian Crisis zones won't pose much of a challenge. This is a good thing. The problem then is that this misleads players.
Yesterday, I ran into a player who was level 18 and had just purchased the game the day before. He was faced with the problem of being taken out too easily; an experience he let me know was not consistent with his experience up to this point. This change in survivability wasn't entirely the game's fault. The change in difficulty that becomes apparent in the later teens simply served to highlight the players' poor and uninformed power, talent, and gear choices thus far, which brings us to another problem new players will face: confusion.
Confusing would be the best description for the new player experience in Champions Online, and this is an extremely serious issue. There are no classes, so it is fairly easy to gimp your character by choosing the wrong powers, talents, statistical focuses, and gear. This problem is compounded further by the steep cost of the Retcon system. While players are now able to retcon (respec) all the way back to the beginning (changed from a ten step limit), the fact that the cost to respec even a single step back can really break the bank renders this improvement moot. The aforementioned player was left with no recourse but to simply reroll his character. Screwing up one's character and having no choice but to reroll isn't really an acceptable option. It's only fortunate that leveling in Champions Online doesn't take very long, which is certainly a plus.
;)
What really gets under my skin is the fact the developers admitted to erring on the side of caution with the current flow of resources available to the player as he progresses through the game. This was explained as being done in order to limit the effect of any possible dupes, exploits, or gold farming on the game's economy early on, but the respec costs weren't adjusted in order to reflect this. Instead, for the last two weeks, players have been faced with a largely dysfunctional respec system whose costs will apparently make more sense only once they readjust the flow of resources to be a bit more generous than what is currently the case.
The above problem has been alleviated slightly due to a recent free full respec issued to all characters. The respec was issued to address the problem head start players faced after the launch day patch when many players' characters were suddenly unplayable due to the massive changes to the game. Initially, this respec was to be issued only to characters created during the head start program, but was instead expanded to all characters created before September 10th, 2009. As a result of this, players have a second chance with characters they may have messed up either due to the affect of the massive launch day changes, or due to their own poor or misinformed choices, it's only unfortunate that it took a solid week to happen. A week doesn't sound like a lot of time, but when you're talking about MMOGs, where the first month is critical as players are deciding whether they want to actually subscribe, having one of the four weeks in the month essentially be unplayable for many characters is pretty significant.
All in all, while there are many issues to be addressed, Champions Online is still a pretty fun game; and we do get the sense that Cryptic Studios has been attentive and generally pretty quick to respond and solve a number of issues with the game thus far. Later this month, we'll spare you the controversies and break down both the good and bad of the game as a whole in our full review. Stay tuned!
OK, well, it might be a good idea to do some fact-checking before you turn these things in, reviewer. You can retcon from level 40 all the way back to genesis now, it's been this way for a while.
So much for "boneheaded mistakes."
I have a level 19 Darkness specced hero, and am just now feeling the effects of this increase in difficulty. My bigger issue though is lack of appropriate level content. Since level 16 I have been forced to take missions 1 or 2 levels above me, which begs the question, when will I run out of missions completely as I have already done the missions for the next level? And yes, I have checked the crime computer, I have them all and some are just undoable at my level. I think they need to add mission content FAST, or make grinding mobs worth more XP. This is my biggest problem with Champions atm.
Nice write up, pretty much agree with everything you said. Game is fun, but some features are just plain frustrating, like the travel powers, mobs difficulty, build confusion. You forgot to talk about the cluncky and slow UI, the very bad targeting system and the lag from time to time.
Very adept summary of the taste being left in everyone's mouth with Champions now that it has launched. Sadly, the state of the game is not surprising at all to someone (like me) who is a 5 year veteran player of City of Heroes. I was rather expecting the massive nerfs and "adjustments" that would be flung at players, I just didn't expect them to happen on release day!!!
I watched the development team (many of whom are responsible for Champions now) slowly drain all the "super" out of the superhero in City of Heroes. There were regular massive nerfs and huge adjustments, where the developers applied what they thought the players should have, then had to adjust to quell the massive outcries about how bad they had screwed up many long term player characters. But, at least in the case of CoH, they kept some semblance (usually) of player-to-enemy balance to at least make us feel above average. But, interestingly enough, the best changes in CoH have come only after some of the primary thorns in the players' buttocks left to pursue development of Marvel Online (which then became Champions).
Even knowing the past track record, I gave Champions a shot, hoping to see some improvement. I wasn't really disappointed in the game, it has some really fun aspects, but it failed to exceed my rather low expectations on most counts (so far). I really don't see myself going past the first month, there just isn't enough to hook me like City of Heroes did. Which is too bad, Champions had all the makings of a great game... It just didn't seem to have the right hands molding it.
Still not affordable though is it? Unless you've been using one of the gold sellers that have inevitably cropped up in the game.
QFT
For the first two week the devsmurdered their own PR, in Week 3 they only tourqued them, they need to get their act together if you want to survive the free month (where people are more flexible since their not paying monthy)
On that note i firmly belive freet-cons need to be given to every single character as a default, as said it is WAY to easy to gimp a build if your new, so a full freet-con for every character you create makes sense as a ballance issue because chances are you will fuck up your build, and bad.
Still not affordable though is it? Unless you've been using one of the gold sellers that have inevitably cropped up in the game.
I have not had a problem affording my retcons, but that might just be because I know where the auction counter is located. Having said that, the devs have admitted the costs are too high, their solution to the issue has been carefully outlined.
My irritation is at the reviewer. The tone of most of his post is that he thinks the CO devs are idiots, and he's saying it when he himself can't get the facts in his tiny initial impressions review straight.
Another strange line in this review is that the devs created the launch day patch with "no feedback", when in the next paragraph he outright says the patch was created using accurate feedback from the players that the game was too easy. So what's the gripe? That they didn't get feedback on their response to the feedback? That they didn't delay launch so they could get feeback on the feedback on the feedback?
Sorry, the whole review is a dog wearing a cape.
I know right? I mean anyone who errs on the side of CAUTION is crazy. It would hav been better if they said "No, we didn't err on the side of caution we just go willy nilly..."
Your article highlights that people may get confused and 'gimp' their characters by not understanding how to play the game. (Yet, if it had been so simple you couldn't screw up, would you then decry how simple it is and no choice you made would matter?)
You further highlight someone who bought the game and in one day became 18th level and were now mentioning it was difficult. First off, they only invested ONE DAY OF PLAYING. Thats still "Learning".
The early levels imho are intended to help give you a taste of how its going to play. Really, the business of being a super hero in earnest should begin at later levels, 15th or so..so I don't see the problem here.
Your article fails to deliver on really what the game offers and brings to the table, what kind of person would like and wouldn't like it. You mostly seem to just be using it as a platform to rant about your beef with devs.
This is one of the reasons why you cannot let non-professionals beta test video games. People tend to forget that beta test is there to test a game, and that the only game that matters is the one that releases. The game that released was harder than the one in Beta, so people complained. Well, if they didn't beta test the game, they wouldn't have know the difference and there'd be less complaining.
I for one don't beta test video games, because beta testing leaves bad impressions and spoils content. The bad impressions come when you see things in the game that suck, but people forget that those things that suck may not be there at release. Spoiled content comes by just playing the game.
I picked up Champions Online a couple days after release. The game is complex, in the sense that you can easily gimp your character, because you're free to choose any combination of powers, stats, super stats, talents, and travel powers. After the learning curb, you pretty much know what you're doing, but you also learn that you need to fit in a non-official mold if you are to not gimp yourself, especially if you PvP. Some powersets are superior than others, as are some travel powers. Some powersets get owned in PvE, while some do the owning, and others seem about equal.
The game will benefit from some balancing patches, but the complaints about the game changing should not be heard. This is because beta knowledge and post release knowledge should not coexist, because people are not professional enough or mature enough to not let their opinions become biased. Bias is something that is really hard to control, especially when it takes place in something you are passionate about, such as your hobbies. The biased opinions from beta testers are unfair and are unwarranted. People forget that it was their job to test the game out, and it is the developers job to fix the game into their intended desire. The job of listening to the players, and only implementing what they deem worthy is not the devs job, nor is it anyones. Players do not always know best, and in this case, the players are wrong. You cannot have a game so easy that you never need groups.
Um... I don't know if you're being ignorant on purpose or aren't reading it correctly. He's saying they patched on launch, and gave no feedback on the day of the launch. There was no warning. There were no patch notes. And hours and hours passed before an initial response was given by the devs.
That's a completely unaceptable approach towards your community in the opinion of most people paying money.
You do understand that this wasn't the review of the game, but rather, as the title indicates, a first impressions piece, right?
You shouldn't hit any small tiny gaps of content until almost lvl 30...so your doing something wrong Senadine. Try changing areas...at 16 you should be finding more than enough quest lines, citizen quests, and drop quests in Millenium city. Around 20 you'll start going back and forth between Desert, MC, and Canada...of course Reading your Crime Computer in your quest journal greatly helps as well.
I have not had a problem affording my retcons, but that might just be because I know where the auction counter is located. Having said that, the devs have admitted the costs are too high, their solution to the issue has been carefully outlined.
My irritation is at the reviewer. The tone of most of his post is that he thinks the CO devs are idiots, and he's saying it when he himself can't get the facts in his tiny initial impressions review straight.
Another strange line in this review is that the devs created the launch day patch with "no feedback", when in the next paragraph he outright says the patch was created using accurate feedback from the players that the game was too easy. So what's the gripe? That they didn't get feedback on their response to the feedback? That they didn't delay launch so they could get feeback on the feedback on the feedback?
Sorry, the whole review is a dog wearing a cape.
You must be getting magically lucky because I've never been able to sell a damn thing on the AH so its completely worthless as a way to make an income in the game. If you can go all the way back to level Zero and do a full retcon please post pictures beacuse right now going back more than 1 or 2, maybe 3 levels is about all anyone at any level can actually afford.
The retcon system is seriously flawed and so is the economy...thankfully the game doesn't heavily rely on the economy except for retcon needs.
Um... I don't know if you're being ignorant on purpose or aren't reading it correctly. He's saying they patched on launch, and gave no feedback on the day of the launch. There was no warning. There were no patch notes. And hours and hours passed before an initial response was given by the devs.
That's a completely unaceptable approach towards your community in the opinion of most people paying money.
. . . No?
The line in question says, "Well, in a boneheaded move, Cryptic Studios thought it would be a good idea to dump major, far-reaching changes into the game in a launch day patch with absolutely no feedback from players."
So, it would seem it is you who did not read correctly. The review says nothing about Cryptic's communication. Yes, it did suck, no, that's not what the reviewer was talking about, nor was it what *I* was talking about. He's griping about the fact that the patch went live without the testers getting the chance to provide feedback on it. He is, in other words, upset that Cryptic Studios lacks the power to fundamentally alter the space-time continuum.
Proper feedback on a patch that size and scope might have taken weeks. It was launch day. Time was up.
The impressions seemed a bit too whiney to me. CO brings a lot to the genre and plays well, but I never would have gotten that impression from reading this article.
This article contains a bit too much drama, too much about the developer, and too much about the whiney community uproar. I think people wanted to read about the game itself and how it plays, not this 'he said she said' crap about Cryptic.
You contradict yourself first by saying: "Cryptic Studios thought it would be a good idea to dump major, far-reaching changes onto the game in a launch day patch with absolutely no feedback from players."
But then in the very next paragraph you state: "Champions' launch day patch was not put out to 'screw' the player, but was put out in response to player feedback that the game was in fact, way too easy."
So first you say the changes have "...absolutely no feedback from players", then you state that they were "...in response to player feedback". I find this contradicting, particularly because the first part sets the premise for a negative article. But not two sentences after you set this alleged tone, you completely blow up your entire premise.
While your article raises a few good points, it strikes me as a lot of whining without fully checking facts. There have been a series of patches adjusting things slightly in different ways to alleviate many of the problems you mention. Not all are entirely fixed, but that may be because they require a bit more time to code properly.
I don't know about you, but this game is meant to have a long lifetime (as MMOs by definitely do). It would seem to me a more significant challenge would be a good thing. Comparing that with a single player limited story platformer such as Arkham Asylum is about like comparing Warcraft III with World of Warcraft.
I do normally enjoy reading articles on MMORPG, but this one just smacked of sensationalism.
Wedge
I wanted to make it known that I understood Cryptic Studios' motives with the patch, but found the fact they didn't allow their testers to put the changes through the paces during beta a boneheaded move. Make more sense?
I do apologize for this oversight, as I did know this, but it still bears no effect on the main point which is that the system is basically useless due to the extremely high costs. The cost is high enough the developers admit they may still be too high even after they crank up the money flow in the game. It doesn't really matter if you can go back all the way if a single step breaks the bank.
I'm sorry i was under the impress those of us who Pro ordered and got the 3 day head start were being threated to the Live game, not "last minute beta"
you FAIL
Regardeless of the advisability of the first day patch, it should not be the focus of a fist impressions article. Instead this should be covered elsewhere (and has been). Complaining about how a game has changed from Beta or headstart does no one any good.
If, as you say, you found it hard to give a first impression to a game you'd been playing through beta then you should have just refrained and found someone who could actually have a first impression.
To be fair there are a few lines in this article that could be construed as first impressions, i.e. about player confusion. But these are buried in a unproffesionally written rant.
I agree with your point about beta testing spoilong content.
I have beta tested a few games now and am by no means a professional game tester, but each game test spoiled the content at launch, and took away from the new feeling of the game.
"Screwing up one's character and having no choice but to reroll isn't really an acceptable option."
Since when? People certainly are getting spoiled....
There's that word again. "Boneheaded." Implies a lack of intelligence or unwillingness to learn.
You really think they didn't realize this thing was going to upset some players? I'm relatively certain that the people who made the game are experienced professionals, intelligent people with degrees and everything.
You're a writer for this website so I can only assume you know how this works: Patches take time to develop. They take time to test. They take time to get feedback on, and they take time to alter based on that feedback. Roll all that up into a sum and you get X, X being the amount of time it takes to properly create and implement a patch.
Since this isn't a live product, we must also factor for Y, Y being the launch date. Y is a fixed number, one mutually agreed on by Cryptic and Atari. Or maybe not, maybe Atari issued an ultimatum saying they had to launch on Y, regardless of the state of the product. It has happened before. In either case, Y is a date that, by the time it was realized the critical patch had to happen, couldn't be moved.
X was too big to fit into Y. They had to trim the process down. Since there was no time to even do so much as get patch notes up for it before it went live, I'm guessing they managed to get the thing into a workable state just under the wire by pulling triple shifts. They squeezed it onboard just in time, and the player feedback portion of the process became an unfortunate casualty. All done to make the patch content go live *before* the primary customer base could get their hands on the game and have the rug yanked out from under them days later.
The point I'm making is this: Hasty, it was. Boneheaded, it was not. There can be no "boneheaded" decision when your back is to the wall, the gun is to your head, and the man is in the process of squeezing the trigger, because the only truly stupid thing you can do in that situation is nothing.
And, before you ask, why am I making such a big deal out of this? Because this statement goes on to set the tone of the rest of your review. By writing in this fashion you make yourself more than you are, writing as though you know more than the devs. You come off sounding like--forgive me, fellow posters--an angry nerd on a video game forum, one of the ones who believes in his bones that he knows more about making and running an MMO than the people actually doing it for a living. The ones who arrogantly spout their ideas and scream things like, "They never listen to me!" when their pet cause goes ignored.
There's that word again. "Boneheaded." Implies a lack of intelligence or unwillingness to learn.
You really think they didn't realize this thing was going to upset some players? I'm relatively certain that the people who made the game are experienced professionals, intelligent people with degrees and everything.
You're a writer for this website so I can only assume you know how this works: Patches take time to develop. They take time to test. They take time to get feedback on, and they take time to alter based on that feedback. Roll all that up into a sum and you get X, X being the amount of time it takes to properly create and implement a patch.
Since this isn't a live product, we must also factor for Y, Y being the launch date. Y is a fixed number, one mutually agreed on by Cryptic and Atari. Or maybe not, maybe Atari issued an ultimatum saying they had to launch on Y, regardless of the state of the product. It has happened before. In either case, Y is a date that, by the time it was realized the critical patch had to happen, couldn't be moved.
X was too big to fit into Y. They had to trim the process down. Since there was no time to even do so much as get patch notes up for it before it went live, I'm guessing they managed to get the thing into a workable state just under the wire by pulling triple shifts. They squeezed it onboard just in time, and the player feedback portion of the process became an unfortunate casualty. All done to make the patch content go live *before* the primary customer base could get their hands on the game and have the rug yanked out from under them days later.
The point I'm making is this: Hasty, it was. Boneheaded, it was not. There can be no "boneheaded" decision when your back is to the wall, the gun is to your head, and the man is in the process of squeezing the trigger, because the only truly stupid thing you can do in that situation is nothing.
And, before you ask, why am I making such a big deal out of this? Because this statement goes on to set the tone of the rest of your review. By writing in this fashion you make yourself more than you are, writing as though you know more than the devs. You come off sounding like--forgive me, fellow posters--an angry nerd on a video game forum, one of the ones who believes in his bones that he knows more about making and running an MMO than the people actually doing it for a living. The ones who arrogantly spout their ideas and scream things like, "They never listen to me!" when their pet cause goes ignored.
For only your 4th post, that is brilliantly stated.
It feel like you raise three main problems with your "First Impressions" Michael B: game isn't like it was pre-launch, Economy discrepancies, and the game being too confusing. I'll admit the latter two are concerning problems (I know I eagerly used my free respec to fix myself up) but you spend practically half the article really (and I can't think of a better expression than this) QQ-ing over the difficulty since pre-launch. On a scale from all the other MMO's I've played: WOW, EVE, LOTRO, WAR, EQ etc. the dificulty is right on par if even easier than many games on the market. From a game standpoint (not being a hero) it makes sence that Cryptic would make the game harder so people, whom are now acclimated to playing MMO's, don't just blow through to endgame. Makes me think of AOC where people flew right to endgame to find - oops! - there was no endgame yet.
Also why aren't you bothering to describe any of the great features of this game? Travel power at level 5!? Uh, yeah I feel super with it, AOE spells can easily take out hordes of henchmen (unless you specc'd weird - lol L2play) and crafting (though convoluted with what stats do what) is really straight forward. Not to mention the graphics look clean and the servers have actually been able to stay up except for routine maintenance - yes I know you mentioned the technical side was solid, but I think it's important to emphasize that, unlike some games, this one is actually playable from day one.
Seriously your first impression really does not make Champions Online look good at all, and it feels like just a bash on the game. It seems to me that if you're going to give some Impressions on a game you should at least bother to note the pros along with the cons.
---edited to have correct author's name---
I don't agree with everything the OP put in but we all have to remember that Cryptic has done this in the past. They have gotten better and I expect CO to get better not worse, but I don't like their respec ( I don't want to say the other way respec is all I know being a 5+ year CoX vet) is a bit off. I have my problems with the game but those are mine and not really a problem for most who play and enjoy CO.
Also, since so much time was devoted to saying how hard the game is now since beta I think it's worth noting that some of us only started playing since launch. This fact renders almost half of Michaels argument moot.
I have a few things to comment on. You say that from beta to release there will be changes. That's completely inaccurate. A GOOD developer will not release their game until ALL beta content has been ironed out. To release a game as a beta is a rip off for the consumer. I say this for two reason: I AM a tester, and I'm also a consumer.
Now, I will go about explaining (as I believe a beta-tester should) my gripes on releasing a beta version. CoH did it. SWG did it (and if people must know, that's what really did it in for the game... I continued to play it, but many of my guild mates never touched the game after the first month---and we're die hard Star Wars fans). To release a game that lacks integrity is just bad business on the developers.
However, you ARE right when you say that testers forget to do their job during beta. Many people just run around or get to end-game just so they can release images of the game or video (which is usually illegal per devs standards), while the few of us who DO enjoy beta-testing because we WANT the game to succeed, because we TRULY care about the MMO franchise, are getting weeded out with them. Beta-testing should be done by those that care. Simple as that. I didn't test CO, but I didn't really show interest in the art style.
And you go on to say that the job of listening to players and only implementing what they deem worthy is not the devs job, yet you're not a dev. So, it is here I find you contradicting your opening statement. Players don't know best? While I agree, tell Blizz that. They've turned their community into a completely casual-friendly yawn fest. Ask yourself why.
I agree with some of what the writer is saying.
If you are going to host an open beta as a means of promotiong your game (Which is what Cryptic did) then you need to sell the consumers the product as advertised. Everyone is aware the product was a prerelease test, but it was still a promotional stunt how ever you want to look at it, and that's ok. They are in a niche market and needed to put out the word to tall the hero game fans out there that they had a product worth spending some time and money on. It also served the purpose of stress testing servers with greater populations prior to launch. This could likely have been achieved just as easily by announcing open beta earlier than they did to the fans in order to make changes and get feed back prior to launch, and then get feedback on the changes, and so on a few times.
I'm not sure what to say about the early bird deal on the lfie time subs, that was just plain handled poorly by both customers who were upset, and Cryptic. They fixed it in the end but things should have never escalated to the point they did. If you advertise a product's availability for a set length of time then you have to honor that commitment, and they did, but only after some threatened legal action. If they had advertised the lifetime subs as limited quantities available and only the first 5000 customers will receive a limited lifetime sub, then things may have gone differently for them.
The nerf to player powers and defenses and increase in difficulty at launch was unbelievable. I couldn't believe the difference. I would have never sigined up for a 6 mo. sub had I played the post launch game in the open beta. so I cancelled the 6 mo. sub and will pay monthly if the game is improved to a place where I want to continue paying for it by the end of my first free month. As it stands past couple of patches have made things alot more enjoyable. I had a large patch come in on Thursday, then a smaller one Friday , and a smaller one Saturday. All the patching is a little frustrating but the game is much better over all for me now.
I do have a problem with the Thursday patch in that there was some sort of unannounced graphical requirement change or something to that effect. Several people includung a close friend at work were unable to play the game any longer. My friend has a Radeon 4650 and it wasn't running well; numerous crashes even after he updated the drivers. The card is not brand new or a power house by any stretch but it's no slouch either. This was an unacceptable change, and the fact that there was no warning is an unacceptable way to treat a customer.
I read an article on here the other day with a title something to the effect of "The Customer is not Always Right" that's true, one customer doesn't make a difference, but 20,000 that are all angry do, and they show it with their wallets by doing things like I did and cancelling subscriptions. 1 customer can inform and influence up to 55 other people's opinions of any given product and the decision to purchase or not to purchase, so in effect the customer is only right when you want the customer's money.
I am in sales and the most important thing I learned was very simple and stuck weith me to this day.
"Don't treat other people how you want to be treated, treat them how they want to be treated." In other words find out what the customers wants and needs are, and then fill them. Percieved value is worth more than anything when selling goods and services. Trying to say that the in the MMO world the normal rules of customer service and supply and demand dont apply is ludicrous. Customer service is of paramount importance to this industry. CoH and WoW both in my experience prove that good customer service goes along way, where as poor customer service can ruin chances of any future business from a customer on new items.
Cryptic has put together an amazing MMO here with some nice innovations that could be putting them ahead of the pack. Instead they are instituting changes that they are deciding upon rather than truly focusing on customer feedback, and sort of piecnailing what they like from the feedback ino the patches that are coming out. This is sort of a shotgun approach to customer satisfaction and results in a handful of hits and a handful of misses.
Anyways these are just some of my opinions on things thus far. I may be totally wrong and am sure others will agree/ disagree which is fine. I just wanted to relate things as I see them from someone who has been playing the game since closed beta.
The game is still very fun and has the potential to be great.
The customer service experience has been less than exemplary, though Cryptic has tried to go back and fix their mistakes.
It's been a rocky start that's for sure, and I wish Cryptic the best of luck with Champions Online and do hope it succeeds.
Your certainly not playing the CO I'm playing.
Written with utter contempt for the Dev team and the hard work that has obviously been put into this game, all because they tried to add the challenge back into the game, how short sighted you are.
I've been playing since Open Beta, got into the head start program, and play about every other day. I currently maintain 5 toons, and did hear all the complaining in the zones about the nerfs.
My own experience with the game has taught me some things that most people need to understand, and that I don't get the impression that the reviewer necessarily understood:
In the end, I think the reviewer's emotions got the better of him due to the loss of what once was. Time to take a step back and do an honest comparison of the state of the game as it is (not as it was) compared to what else is available.
There's that word again. "Boneheaded." Implies a lack of intelligence or unwillingness to learn.
You really think they didn't realize this thing was going to upset some players? I'm relatively certain that the people who made the game are experienced professionals, intelligent people with degrees and everything.
You're a writer for this website so I can only assume you know how this works: Patches take time to develop. They take time to test. They take time to get feedback on, and they take time to alter based on that feedback. Roll all that up into a sum and you get X, X being the amount of time it takes to properly create and implement a patch.
Since this isn't a live product, we must also factor for Y, Y being the launch date. Y is a fixed number, one mutually agreed on by Cryptic and Atari. Or maybe not, maybe Atari issued an ultimatum saying they had to launch on Y, regardless of the state of the product. It has happened before. In either case, Y is a date that, by the time it was realized the critical patch had to happen, couldn't be moved.
X was too big to fit into Y. They had to trim the process down. Since there was no time to even do so much as get patch notes up for it before it went live, I'm guessing they managed to get the thing into a workable state just under the wire by pulling triple shifts. They squeezed it onboard just in time, and the player feedback portion of the process became an unfortunate casualty. All done to make the patch content go live *before* the primary customer base could get their hands on the game and have the rug yanked out from under them days later.
The point I'm making is this: Hasty, it was. Boneheaded, it was not. There can be no "boneheaded" decision when your back is to the wall, the gun is to your head, and the man is in the process of squeezing the trigger, because the only truly stupid thing you can do in that situation is nothing.
And, before you ask, why am I making such a big deal out of this? Because this statement goes on to set the tone of the rest of your review. By writing in this fashion you make yourself more than you are, writing as though you know more than the devs. You come off sounding like--forgive me, fellow posters--an angry nerd on a video game forum, one of the ones who believes in his bones that he knows more about making and running an MMO than the people actually doing it for a living. The ones who arrogantly spout their ideas and scream things like, "They never listen to me!" when their pet cause goes ignored.
Taking into consideration your theory on x,y (which is moreless accurate), and going along with your assumption that the game was only dumped out onto the floor because that bully Atari gave poor Cryptic no choice, I'd say thablame should be reflected onto Atari. Wouldn't you agree? I mean, I know that if I had a gun held to my head over a silly release date that could potentially make or break the longevity of the game and possibly ruin my chances of really having a customer base ever again, I'd do what the gunman said and release it all "willy nilly".
Actually, I take that back. Knowing me as well as I do, I'd have my own protection. A 300 lb Amazonian woman named... Amazonia... and uh, bullets would just bounce off her bouncing bossom while I escaped to my secret lair.
While your post was extremely candid and contained some brilliant rhetoric, I'm going to have to disagree with EITHER of those companies being the letters x or y. It's just not realistic. But then again, I've never heard of an x or a y developing a game before, so maybe that's just pure ignorance on my part.
Otherwise, I love you and I tend to humor the idea of us having babies together. Nothing more though. I couldn't see us moving in together. Your opinions are too smart for me. And I tend to digress from the point on a... well, I'm doing it now.
Good day to you all,
THE Rooster Nash
What I would like to know, what is going to happen when DC Comics comes out. There are not enough players to support 3 subscription MMO's in this niche. Something is going to have to give. If you want to condemn the developers, do it for a good reason like choosing to do another game in the hero niche instead of something different.
Firstly, you're not staying on topic at all. Secondly, some might say that "high Medieval fantasy" MMO's are a fairly niche market yet WAR, WOW, and LOTRO seem to all be doing fine.
. . . No?
The line in question says, "Well, in a boneheaded move, Cryptic Studios thought it would be a good idea to dump major, far-reaching changes into the game in a launch day patch with absolutely no feedback from players."
So, it would seem it is you who did not read correctly. The review says nothing about Cryptic's communication. Yes, it did suck, no, that's not what the reviewer was talking about, nor was it what *I* was talking about. He's griping about the fact that the patch went live without the testers getting the chance to provide feedback on it. He is, in other words, upset that Cryptic Studios lacks the power to fundamentally alter the space-time continuum.
Proper feedback on a patch that size and scope might have taken weeks. It was launch day. Time was up.
No... It is still you who is not reading correctly, or rather has no reading comprehension.
"Well, in a boneheaded move, Cryptic Studios thought it would be a good idea to dump major, far-reaching changes into the game in a launch day patch with absolutely no feedback from players."
I will explain it for you I guess.
What this actually means is that cryptic released a patch on launch day, without consulting players for feedback on how it might actually impact the game. They just did it. No warning, no "Hey everyone, we think we might drop this on your in a few days, how do you feel about it" nothing.
Just dumped the patch completely changing the style of game it was from beta to launch.
Beta's are used for 2 purposes.
1. To test out bugs and gather feedback from players, to stabilize the game and iron out any issues it might have, while listening to players and trying to adjust the game to give the players a better product.
2. To get word of mouth out there, because let's face it, no beta tester abides by the "shhhhhh philosophy" when it comes to betas. Devs know joe blow out there is gonna tell all his buddies about the game and how they should get it cause it is good.
That is where the problem lies.
Joe Blow told all his buddies to go grab CO cause it was awesome!!!!! and you REALLY had the feeling of being a super hero and could just plow down the enemies.
Launch Day comes and the devs make it so you aren't so super anymore and you are kinda a chump, just dieing to random thugs.
All joe blows buddies got CO and now are pissed cause everything Joe told them about the game turned out to be a lie.
Joe gets beat up after school.
It's not cool to change shit on launch day to this extreme level, without at least consulting the player base or at a minimum letting them know in advance the changes are coming.
It borders on bait and switch tactic.
I described many of the game's features in great detail in our preview of the game which I linked to in the opening of the first impressions, the full review will evaluate all of these areas. I decided to take the first impressions to specifically evaluate the impact of the launch day patch on the game as frankly the changes that were made were going to greatly color new players' first impressions and so I felt it was appropriate.
You are correct in that the difficulty is now on par with the games you cited. I mentioned in my article that were this any traditional fantasy MMOG, the changes would be received with likely a lot less uproar, but that this was a superhero game, and henchmen should serve the role of simply being cannon fodder to create a sense of being super. The changes made Champions Online feel much like the games you mentioned ,which I found to be a negative first impression since players who are playing Champions Online are likely looking to feel like a superhero, not to meet a spawn of 2-4 enemies with trepidation.
This issue is exacerbated by the fact the game is open and classless. Unintentionally poor character choices made due to the fact new players will likely be confused and misinformed highlight the game's new level of difficulty even further. While experienced players like myself can mostly adapt, the experience is that much worse for those who are still confused and learning. Made worse is the fact that once new players do learn more of the game as they progress, they are unable to course correct their characters, due to the largely prohibitive respec situation.
I made note of my beta experiences in order to contrast them to a game I actually found fun, and not because I abused the overpowered abilities (I honestly didn't , I played Claws with the offensive passive in beta, 'nuff said). As I said in the article, the changes to those abilities were quite warranted, it was only those changes combined with the changes to mobs that really messed things up. Also, there were many completely new players who learned their ropes with the game during the head start and actually got a different game on official launch day, while also being left with a potentially unplayable character due to the breadth of the changes made. The early start program was not beta.
I wrote the piece trying to best imagine myself in the shoes of a new player, and as such, I felt all the subtle nuance and beauty would be overshadowed by the largely cumbersome and confusing new player experience. It's important to note that this would have been the case pre-patch, but was made far worse by the difficulty being raised to unforgiving levels for new players, and to disappointing levels for experienced ones. Given the language and attentiveness Cryptic Studios has exhibited since the whole fiasco I can confidently say I expect them to dial it back some and meet somewhere in the middle, but this isn't the case right now, and so I felt the commentary was warranted.
I did also mention that the game was 'playable from day one' with respect to the technical aspects (billing, servers etc) in the opening of the article. ;)
I hope this clears up any confusion, back to work for me. :)
I'm sorry but do we have any editors on here to actually check over these articles and keep a rein on these writers?
"a boneheaded move" doesn't sound like professional writing to me at all. Then he goes on to contradict himself "...a launch day patch with absolutely no feedback from players" followed shortly by "...launch day patch... was put out in response to player feedback..." So they put out a patch with absolutely no feedback from players, but it was put out in response to player feedback. A "boneheaded move" indeed?
Personally I feel the article is poorly written, and mostly amounts to a bunch of complaining. Some of which seems more a personal opinion of where the author thinks the game should be compared to perhaps where the developers think the game should be. Not to mention the contradictions and other things in the article.
As far as the overall tone of the article, it feels to me more like just a forum complaint about the game's initial growing pains. I assure you, CO is not the first game in the genre to have them. Perhaps some people forget the state WoW was in it's first month+ of gameplay.
I like the game but i must say its not a easy game at least from lvl 14 to 16 for me as i am running out of quests and the ones i do have i cannot solo for the life of me. I will stay playing though. Getting groups together can be easy at peak times and a pain when not at peak.
This isn't a "First Impression" article. It's a rant about a patch that was released on the day the game launched. Your article wreaks of nerd rage against the devs. I think MMORPG needs to do a read through of some of these articles before posting. I used to enjoy reading the articles, but some of them lately have been nothing but biased nonsense. I think MMORPG should have chosen someone that has played the game from launch day, not someone that was in the beta, to do the first impression.
The game does have faults, but whining about a patch that went live on LAUNCH DAY, should not comprise 2/3 of the article. There are other faults with the game that should have been further expounded upon...teaming, cross-shard chat (when looking for a team), and content gaps at later levels. This article is just full of fail.
Since this is continuing to pop up, I'd like to address the people who are confused about the no feedback vs. response to player feedback part of my article: you're not reading in context here.
In the first instance, I am saying that the changes were dumped on players without taking into account player feedback on the specific changes implemented to rectify the situation that the game was too easy. Just making things harder isn't the answer, how you go about it, and to what extent is important and for that player feedback was necessary. Generally, when an MMO developer wants to make changes of such breadth and scope they will get player feedback on the specific changes before they release them to the general populace.
The second instance was to reassure the conspiracy theorists out there that Cryptic Studios' motive with the patch wasn't to "screw" the player -- but was intended as a response to player feedback that the game was in fact too easy, an assessment Cryptic Studios agreed with. That's all there is to it -- there is no contradiction.
If you go to your barber for a haircut and he's leaving things too long, you tell him to cut your hair shorter, but he immediately goes from leaving your hair too long to breaking out the razor and shaving your head bald, you'd probably be unhappy, no? You want him to gradually shorten it and ask you if its short enough, instead of a pendulum swing from one extreme to the next.
Players needed to see these changes during the beta test or on the Public Test Server which was implemented after launch so that they could evaluate them and give feedback to the developers on the changes themselves. Instead, they were dumped all of a sudden on the live population without any warning, and not even on day one of early start, so there were players playing the live game that were treated to an entirely experience than the game they woke up to only a few days later. That was the "boneheaded" move, and I certainly don't regret that assessment!
Yes, the game was too easy. Now, the game is too hard. A middle ground could have been achieved were some feedback taken into account before these changes were released to the live servers. Now, I imagine that middle ground will still be achieved, but only after the live environment serves as the test bed, that's generally not something you want to do.
This article seems to have a number of fanbois following it trying to give MMORPG.com and the author flaming responses. It was an impression article. Was not a review, was not a rating, was not to make people not play the game. The article talked about "boneheaded" moves (which to me is just accurate since letting people know what was coming would have been the correct move) and yet it seems to offend people because they think they can insult but that others in an official capacity should not. How many of you that are complaining about this article are doing the same about what Jordan did for his acceptance speech?
I might not be in total agreement with the article. Doesn't really matter as I was not trying to decide if I agreed. I played beta and headstart with intention of playing for a while. I felt like a super character. I thought that finally a game where I just get to have fun and not grind or take 10 deaths to try and accomplish a small part of a quest because of all the mobs around it. Then what happens is a patch that makes the adding of one henchman become impossible unless one runs. I know it is different for different powers but some powers make the 2 Villian plus henchman group possible but then a wandering henchman seems to hit the perfect distance to get attracted and runs in it becomes too much. I don't feel like a super character any more in the game. I feel like a character that can save himself and maybe one or two civilians but I am definitely not going to stop a hostage situation in a bank because I am not powerful enough to stop the bad guys quick enough.
A superhero game to me is a game that is suppose to be way easier for almost all parts than any other MMO. I expect to wipe the floor with most mobs and not think about it. I expect a company making such a game to think that way about it. The normal zone content and some instances related to the zone content should be possible with a few places presenting more of a challenge. I expect most instances and select areas in zones to be much more dangerous and require teaming up with 1 or more other heroes to have a good chances of surviving. I don't have that with this game.
I played a lot smarter in CoH but still did not feel superhero enough to want to continue as I knew I needed partners for some of it. That is not because it was bad but that I seemed to have trouble making friends because of my play schedule seemed so screwed up for most times. This game though is different as it seems to be very basic in a ton of ways. I did not realize that every henchman would need to be buffed rather than just buffing the ones in instances as an example. Seems like changes in this game is to the game as a whole and very little is done to select parts. Maybe I am use to what I would consider better made games where select parts were ramped up or down rather than broad across the board changes.
Doubt I will ever consider this a game to keep track of unless I see there is a true move toward what I would consider smarter moves. I don't care what others think of my opinion because it is mine but this game is too simplistic at the moment for me to accept the way the company is running it. I know that I have no desire to see STO after what they have done with this game. They might have the tools to make a game in months (this is something they have stated about their game programs adaptability) but it seems these tools need to be used better. I remember seeing tons of patch notes in different games where they talk about X zone has be redone to make parts harder or easier as well as Y mobs have been enhanced/reduced to come more in line with what we wanted. I also know instances seem to get the most tampering with. When will I feel this is the true direction Cryptic is moving in and not broad changes for everything.
You do understand that this wasn't the review of the game, but rather, as the title indicates, a first impressions piece, right?
What you don't understand is that a First Impression piece should reflect what the average buyer would know upon picking up the game. The average buyer isn't a beta tester, nor do they follow forums that deeply. So the point remains, that you gave first impressions that were heavily influenced by your knowledge of a game while it was in Beta. Things in Beta are subject to change; we all know this going into beta, and we know they can change at any time up until launch.
Judging from the reaction, I am sure Cryptic has learned an important lesson, which is to keep the community informed, even if changes should have been expected since the game was still in beta.
I agree. Sounds like whiner using his position to whine to the masses. He goes on to way the game is confusing. Well maybe he needs a game that takes less thinking. What do people want? Players were reaching half the level cap in 2 days. Either they make the game more challenging, or a mindless romp requiring a much higher total of points to level. If dumbing the game down and requiring the higher number of points to level is prefered then make sure the mobs killed at higher levels reflect some kind of bonus for those who prefer a challenge.
This article speaks the truth.
replying to the guy above my first post:
It seems like they need more content to me, which I think people could agree with. Not only do you level up quickly, but you generally run out of quests and end up grinding even if you do all the quests you can find. It just feels incomplete. I see your point of view though.
Well, honestly, what else can you expect from Jack Emmert and Company, the same idiots who introduced "Enhancement Diversification" and a whole host of idiotic game-changing power nerfs to CoH that affected just about every character (travel power suppression, anyone?) and changed the game mechanics drastically.
Thank goodness for the split that led them away to do CO and kept a strong development team in place on CoX under NCSoft. They've slowly been bringing CoX game play back up to its former levels, while continuing to deliver quality free content.
So yes, as someone who had firsthand experience from the beta days of CoH up to the nerf-go-round that Emmert was pretty much directly responsible for and beyond, it's not really a surprise that these idiots are sticking with their "mega nerf first, explain and adjust later" policy.
What a pity.... simultaneously, after beta-testing CO, I am so glad that I fought the desire to purchase this game.
Least balanced game in terms of mob difficulty. In open beta I could solo 4-6 mobs without getting hurt, but there are also some mobs that were so OP that I died twice before killing them. Besides the rare instance where a mob was hard, the game was so easy, and that's why I showed no interested besides it being a single-player game mentality.
The game didn't make me feel like a superhero, it made me feel like a god. I loved character creation, but when it came down to game-time this game doesn't cut it.
It would have been more appropriate to have a first impressions article written by someone, who either had not previously played the game, or a writer who could give an impartial impression of the launched game without referring to beta. Any prospective player that read this article would leave with the impression that something big changed between beta and launch, which is true, but no real idea of whiether the writer recommended the game.
The article is more of a rant than a first impression piece.
How is the MT store? I always figured they made resources scarce to fuel that thing. Have they scaled it back? I was always worried it would effect game play on a base level. Because like it or not, hell you don't even have to believe it, but game design is effected by adding a dedicated store. Greedy sods.
There's that word again. "Boneheaded." Implies a lack of intelligence or unwillingness to learn.
You really think they didn't realize this thing was going to upset some players? I'm relatively certain that the people who made the game are experienced professionals, intelligent people with degrees and everything.
Yes, they knew it would upset the players. They simply don't care. Get used to it, it's par for the course for this crew.
You're a writer for this website so I can only assume you know how this works: Patches take time to develop. They take time to test. They take time to get feedback on, and they take time to alter based on that feedback. Roll all that up into a sum and you get X, X being the amount of time it takes to properly create and implement a patch.
You strike me as a relatively inexperienced MMORPG player if the concept of a "test server" to allow your subscribers to test patch content BEFORE it goes live eludes you. You don't just dump it on the players, specifically at launch. Of course, this crew is well-known for exactly this type of idiocy.
Since this isn't a live product, we must also factor for Y, Y being the launch date. Y is a fixed number, one mutually agreed on by Cryptic and Atari. Or maybe not, maybe Atari issued an ultimatum saying they had to launch on Y, regardless of the state of the product. It has happened before. In either case, Y is a date that, by the time it was realized the critical patch had to happen, couldn't be moved.
Wrong. You release AS IS, continue to develop the changes you feel are necessary and test them on the test server, and then release a thoroughly tested update while also keeping your subscribers informed.
Again, something that hasn't been a strong suit for this crew in the past.
X was too big to fit into Y. They had to trim the process down. Since there was no time to even do so much as get patch notes up for it before it went live, I'm guessing they managed to get the thing into a workable state just under the wire by pulling triple shifts. They squeezed it onboard just in time, and the player feedback portion of the process became an unfortunate casualty. All done to make the patch content go live *before* the primary customer base could get their hands on the game and have the rug yanked out from under them days later.
The player feedback portion became an unfortunate casualty? Hmmm. So I guess they won't have any heartburn if the subscriber portion of the game becomes a casualty?
The point is; there was no need to pull the rug out from under anyone. They should have tested it thoroughly, got player feedback, explained the necessity, and balanced the patch out before releasing. With thorough testing and balancing, the patch probably wouldn't have been released for at least a month, giving the subscribers the opportunity to test it and provide input.
The point I'm making is this: Hasty, it was. Boneheaded, it was not. There can be no "boneheaded" decision when your back is to the wall, the gun is to your head, and the man is in the process of squeezing the trigger, because the only truly stupid thing you can do in that situation is nothing.
Boneheaded it was. Releasing may have been a foregone conclusion; injecting an untested and unexpected patch that changed game mechanics entirely was NOT. They had an extensive beta and multiple open-beta weekends wherein their potential market played the game and either liked the mechanics or did not.
Those that liked the game enough to purchase it as it was could not have been pleased by the changes, and in fact, it seems as though many were not.
So yes, that is what I would call boneheaded.
And, before you ask, why am I making such a big deal out of this? Because this statement goes on to set the tone of the rest of your review. By writing in this fashion you make yourself more than you are, writing as though you know more than the devs. You come off sounding like--forgive me, fellow posters--an angry nerd on a video game forum, one of the ones who believes in his bones that he knows more about making and running an MMO than the people actually doing it for a living. The ones who arrogantly spout their ideas and scream things like, "They never listen to me!" when their pet cause goes ignored.
Couldn't agree less. The reviewer was fair and even-handed in the review and simply stated the facts as s/he knew them and their opinion.
The only thing I would disagree with in the review is the "First Impressions" moniker. It should have been titled "Release Impressions". A true first impressions review would not have introduced any information from the state of the game at beta.
By writing in this fashion you make yourself more than you are, writing as though you know more than the devs. You come off sounding like--forgive me, fellow posters--an angry nerd on a video game forum, one of the ones who believes in his bones that he knows more about making and running an MMO than the people actually doing it for a living.
To be fair, Roper is mostly destroying games for a living now.
The author brought up some points that I agree with.
I think the tone though, as others have mentioned, is off for a first impression type piece. Or maybe even any kind of game review/article piece not that I haven’t read others like it though before. It just sounded more like a rant/whine/complain article more than something professional. To me it sounded like a post you would read on a forum rather than something submitted to a game news site. I know people will disagree and such and of course that’s fine too. I’m not saying I didn’t agree with some of things that were talked about or that I hated it or anything, I’m just talking about the tone in general isn’t what I expected after reading a lot of articles on this site. Just my take.
Anyway, my view on where I agree or don’t agree with the article:
I agree that the lack of documentation or some kind of smooth introduction is criminal. You just stumble around the character progression and development system and don’t realize that the process, for most, is somewhat of a crap shoot. It sells itself as a “classless” system, which I think it is, but what it doesn’t explain is that you can’t just pick the powers that make up your build because you think they sound cool. Some people say this means that it doesn’t let you build a “theme” character. I don’t believe that. What I am saying is until you begin to grasp that there are other perhaps non-theme considerations your character (any type of character) will have to take into account there is a higher chance that you will find yourself frustrated when playing the game and you won’t know why. And I’m not talking about blocking or something like that. I’m talking about things like selecting (or even knowing about) a passive defensive power, understanding super stats and basic stats, how you decide which ones you should focus on for the type of character you want to be, which ones rise when you level, why it helps to pick a third and fourth stat as more minor considerations that will help your character grow and survive and what powers build on these stats and why. The stats the game tells you to focus on when creating your character are not always the ones to focus on to become the character you think you will be. None of this is made any easier by the fact that some of the tool tips are pretty cryptic, heh.
I don’t know about how the game was vs. how it is now as I didn’t play beta or in the head start so the game just is for me. I do understand people’s frustration however the more I have read about the changes. I can see why people would think/feel that the game they were playing isn’t the game they are playing now. True most all MMOs (if not all) have day one patch changes but this seemed pretty extreme. I can understand the reasons for the changes (they make sense to me) but it does seem like the way they introduced them was the wrong way to go about it. They had to know the game needed toughening up a good deal before the game was launched so you would think they would have made the changes in beta first so people would know what was coming and defiantly should have introduced them before the head start.
I disagree about the not feeling super thing. I feel just as super hero-like as I did in CoX. More so actually in this game because the combat is faster, the effects seem more exaggerated, and watching the bad guy’s attacks, moves and such is pretty much required so it’s just not the static kinda thing you find in lot of MMOs. Just feels a bit more like a super hero over the top type thing.
This wasn’t specifically addressed in the article but it is something I always think and post about when I comment on this game and that is grouping. I think this game has some of the worst grouping mechanics of the MMOs I have played. For one you usually don’t need one. Second you can’t share all the missions, third grouping and side kick experience is off and fourth as the system is “classless” no one really brings something unique or specifically helpful to a group experience. I know the last point is the trade off in a straight up class vs. classless system but maybe that means this aspect of the game should have been a bit more of a restrictive system (just a small amount) so that grouping players isn’t all about increasing offensive output. There is just no need to group as most of the content doesn’t require one. You can solo almost anything. It helps to team for real hard villains and such but for all the times I have done that I have gotten an invite from a player already fighting such a villain and losing. After the villain is dead most say thanks and take off. Yes, soloing is nice too and I like that as well but throw some teaming in there too. This is so weird to me as this is the same company that made CoX, a game I had a blast grouping in. I have read some posts that state that as you get into your late 20s, early 30s there are more group oriented things to do, but dang that is half way or more to the end of the journey. I have read more posts talking about soling to 40 though and just grouping for the “major” instanced content which doesn’t sound like a lot. Just seems to off to me especially, like I said, it is the group that made CoX. While I am having a lot of fun this does make me think the game won’t be a long term MMO for me. If this doesn’t change I don’t really see the point. Yeah CoX’s instanced missions got repetitive as hell but fighting with others in that game was lots of fun regardless. To me at least.
Longer than I planned this to be. Sorry.
The store inventory currently consists only of vanity pets called Action Figures. All the doom and gloom was for naught.
The store inventory currently consists only of vanity pets called Action Figures. All the doom and gloom was for naught.
Or did the gloom and doom change it? Because I remember several interviews where it was more than just pets. Be dismissive if you wish, the backlash changed the outcome I believe.
I see, so your issue was that they didn't get feedback on the patch before they put it into the game, despite the fact that people had given feedback that the patch was needed in beta. Sorry but it's been my experience that rarely happens. Most games don't have a test server on launch day, some not even at all. You even acknowledge that there was no test server at launch. Should they have just held back on the adjustment that they knew was needed? They knew it had to be changed, so they took a strong step down that road. Whether or not we thought it was too strong is subjective, but you have to know that they would continue to adjust afterward based on the reaction it did get. Sometimes the developers will put out a patch that people won't all like (sometimes just the vocal minority), but it still goes out anyways. That's life in MMOs.
Another fact your article seems to miss is that the game is adjusted in line with what the developer's vision for the game is. Not your vision. Haircut analogies don't work because of this. I feel that comparing this game to Batman is silly because that's an entirely different game and gameplay style, aside from both having "superhero" flavouring. It's nice that you liked Batman, I hear it was a great game (didn't have a chance to play it myself), but if you wish CO was more like Batman, maybe you should have just stuck to Batman? I mean you actually say in the article that in other MMOs, this adjustment would have been fine. You dismiss that by saying this is a superhero game which makes it totally different. I'd have to disagree with that as well. I would argue that this game would have more in common with CoH (of course) or even WoW than it would with Batman.
I know you say you don't regret calling them bonehaded, but honestly I can't take you seriously as a professional writer after you throw around an insult like that. Despite the other errors and inconsistancies in the article, it's just not what I would expect from a serious journalist. I would be surprised to find out that an editor actually approved this article as-is. What's worse is that, from what I understand of the intro to this article, is that you'll be writing the review of the game too.
How can we expect a fair, balanced, impartial review of the game when you've already come out with what some see as a "forum-style complaint" in this article? Can we really get a proper review from someone griping about first day changes?
Well, you're welcome to your opinion. The fact of the matter is that many people who follow this game, even passively, will have heard "the state of the game in beta." It's quite valuable tot hem to hear what has changed between the launch product and the final product.
Here's the thing. In an ideal world, I agree with you. What a game is during testing phases should, by definition, be diffferent from the final launch product. But, and this is a huge but, that just isn't how the world works in games now. Companies (and I use the term broadly and generally) are more and more making use of beta not as a testing phase, but as a preview phase. Cryptic is no exception. The first set of patch notes that matter aren't the patch notes that come after launch, they're the patch notes that bridge the gap between beta / preview and launch title.
I wish this wasn't how things worked. I've written a number of articles on the matter and honestly feel as though if you're going to call it a testing phase, it should be used for testing and not marketing. Unfortunately, so long as the true nature of the phase is ambiguous both to companies and to the consumer, reports like this one are not only valuable, but necessary.
Now, with all of that said, I also want to point out that the author chose to focus on the beta to launch transition for his first impressions piece so that his review, which is due soon, can focus solely on the launch product. This way, the whole story, beta (preview), to transition (first impressions), to launch title (review) can be told in a logical order.
So, no. I'm not really so confused as to what a first impressions article should or shouldn't be. in fact, I've given it a great deal of thought. You don't have to agree with me, but please don't make assumptions about what I do or do not understand.
Thanks
To be fair though, those are some pretty big changes to throw out, pissing off your player base shouldn't be your major goal. Ask the SWG folks about that one. It's a bit switch and bait, and open BETAs are pretty much trials now days.
I don't understand. How can someone choose the 'wrong' powers? It's supposed to be your character, your hero. This game prides itself on character customization, so, why should I need to respec my hero in order to progress through the game? Shouldn't the hero I choose to play as feel like the hero I want to play?
Or did the gloom and doom change it? Because I remember several interviews where it was more than just pets. Be dismissive if you wish, the backlash changed the outcome I believe.
Or, perhaps you're both mistaken and the actual content going into the store simply isn't in there yet. My money's on the backlash changing nothing.
Or did the gloom and doom change it? Because I remember several interviews where it was more than just pets. Be dismissive if you wish, the backlash changed the outcome I believe.
Or, perhaps you're both mistaken and the actual content going into the store simply isn't in there yet. My money's on the backlash changing nothing.
Why do you continue on into hypocrisy? The more you say unto the OP, the more you seem the bias one.
Given, at FIRST IMPRESSION, his (Mike B.'s) post seems as though he's about to flame CO to dust, but his assessment is justified time and time again. It's as if they made the same mistake twice. Again, I say that it isn't their first time. This sounds worse than SWG's release issues, so he made a valid point in that they SHOULD have said something to the testers prior to launch.
I'm going to close with this: there wasn't any backlash. Only a NECESSARY statement (as I'm not going to go out and waste my money on this game. Cryptic will have to fix what SHOULD have been fixed during the middle of beta) was made that it went from to ok to WHOA in a day's time.
I'm honestly glad I neglected to test this game. It looks as though my thoughts would have gone unscene by the dev team (also something that's not good for the longevity of an MMO).
Again, guy, I love you and babies and stuff. Peace in the middle east aaaaaaaaand, get off your high horse. Mike B. was right to say what he posted.
Mike, thank you for the informative first look, and PLEASE keep us up-to-date on when the game will be good.
WOW....who does the OP work for???
I would like to request that you take this "Impression" down off your site. It's pretty much telling players that the devs are idiots and the game sucks.
Also, I saw that the OP later said that the game was way too easy prior to launch and that it's way too hard after launch. You're half right. The game is perfectly fine now but was too easy prior to launch. What's this junk about feeling "super"....want to feel "super" go play Dora the Explorer....anyone with an I.Q. over 50 will pwn that game. This is an MMORPG and with that comes challenge...WOW is failing hardcore because it's too easy....I should know...I recently left WOW because of that.
Just because a bunch of angry "easy button brigade" gamers don't want to use their brains doesnt mean a game is bad. The game is excellent...the combat is excellent.
Yes, there is a minor lack of content, but nothing half as bad as when WOW launched...I remember having to grind every 10 levels and then having to grind half of 50-60...Silithus didnt even have any content at all....just an empty desert. So many other games also lacked content....CO lacks content for what? 2-3 levels in total?
Im really sick and tired of people bitching about CO...if ya dont like it, go play Linearage 3 or E-Z-craft...All this negative press will only make those that might have liked it, never even try it.
So, I sincerely ask you, again, take the "impression" off the site....it's nothing more than an immature rant, rather than an objective view. I knew that media in politics were terrible biased (yeah Im talkin bout you MSNBC)...never thought it would infect the gaming community.
Finally, I have found one person who is looking at the bright side of this game. Yes, it is still fun, combat is exciting, and character creation is beyond any other MMO out right now. Yet people take one little patch that makes them normal (In MMO balance) and they freak out. The game is not easy nor is it hard. As of now, it is enjoyable and should be respected.
All of this non-sense will fade away in time and the devoted players can play without argument and controversy. 'Till then, everyone stop hating this game and move on.
Or did the gloom and doom change it? Because I remember several interviews where it was more than just pets. Be dismissive if you wish, the backlash changed the outcome I believe.
Or, perhaps you're both mistaken and the actual content going into the store simply isn't in there yet. My money's on the backlash changing nothing.
I'm trying to be positive here! But yeah, I suspect the same. There was a pretty large backlash against it though, one could hope even a corporation could learn. Either way, if they do add it, I hope they are punished in the pocketbook. I'm sick of people speaking as if they're just being inventive and cutting edge by combing ALL payment methods into one. Sure, if they combined them into options, like D&D did, I'd have no qualms, giving people a choice for one or the other is completely different.
Umm, if it fades away and leaves so few devoted players it's not worth it...what then?
The aloof marginalization aside, I think his point was you felt like MORE of a hero prior to the nerf, which umm, is the point of a hero game? Bringing it more into line with standard MMOs makes you an ork with laser eyes is all. Different measures could have been taken to increase the difficulty without resorting to the "standardization" of the game would be the point of contention. Now the only difference between this and other MMOs is you can play it with a console controller and you can make your cyber dolly look really cool.
Your argument would carry a lot more weight if you didn't come off attacking everyone like an angry teen. I want to paint you with sparkles and make a vampire movie. ANGST.
Or, perhaps you're both mistaken and the actual content going into the store simply isn't in there yet. My money's on the backlash changing nothing.
Why do you continue on into hypocrisy? The more you say unto the OP, the more you seem the bias one.
Given, at FIRST IMPRESSION, his (Mike B.'s) post seems as though he's about to flame CO to dust, but his assessment is justified time and time again. It's as if they made the same mistake twice. Again, I say that it isn't their first time. This sounds worse than SWG's release issues, so he made a valid point in that they SHOULD have said something to the testers prior to launch.
I'm going to close with this: there wasn't any backlash. Only a NECESSARY statement (as I'm not going to go out and waste my money on this game. Cryptic will have to fix what SHOULD have been fixed during the middle of beta) was made that it went from to ok to WHOA in a day's time.
I'm honestly glad I neglected to test this game. It looks as though my thoughts would have gone unscene by the dev team (also something that's not good for the longevity of an MMO).
Again, guy, I love you and babies and stuff. Peace in the middle east aaaaaaaaand, get off your high horse. Mike B. was right to say what he posted.
Mike, thank you for the informative first look, and PLEASE keep us up-to-date on when the game will be good.
No offense, but I think we're talking about something you're not. I mean, it's great you're spirited about the debate, but we're talking about the MT store...umm, we're not talking about the patch, per se.
So few....huh? My guild had to start a Secondary guild cuz we filled the max allowed players...don't think that's the case buddy.
Again, a video game will always need to be challenging to sell...
Im curious to know what your solution to the difficulty issue would have been? Im not sure how you can change things up without either: Reducing strength of powers, Increasing mob HP and dmg done.
It cracks me up that a tweak to balance a game now makes the game like every other of it's genre. NOTHING HAS CHANGED ABOUT THE GAME WORLD, IT'S CONTENTS, CHARACTER CREATION, QUEST LINES, LAIRS or TYPES OF POWERS....so how does difficulty instantly make this a new game? How does it make it identical to other games?
I still feel "super" playing my toon...I can fly, I do moves that I'll never see in another MMO and I can pick up things and throw them at enemies...Again, if you want easy, go play some pre-school learning game...ez as pie.
Ahh....I see Irishoak is the almighty...thanks for taking you time to come to the forums and talk down to everyone...you can go sit back on your throne again.
So few....huh? My guild had to start a Secondary guild cuz we filled the max allowed players...don't think that's the case buddy.
Again, a video game will always need to be challenging to sell...
Im curious to know what your solution to the difficulty issue would have been? Im not sure how you can change things up without either: Reducing strength of powers, Increasing mob HP and dmg done.
It cracks me up that a tweak to balance a game now makes the game like every other of it's genre. NOTHING HAS CHANGED ABOUT THE GAME WORLD, IT'S CONTENTS, CHARACTER CREATION, QUEST LINES, LAIRS or TYPES OF POWERS....so how does difficulty instantly make this a new game? How does it make it identical to other games?
I still feel "super" playing my toon...I can fly, I do moves that I'll never see in another MMO and I can pick up things and throw them at enemies...Again, if you want easy, go play some pre-school learning game...ez as pie.
Wow, the point just ran around you and hid in the bushes.
Ahh....I see Irishoak is the almighty...thanks for taking you time to come to the forums and talk down to everyone...you can go sit back on your throne again.
Umm, actually it's just you. I like it when feral children shake their fist at the sky and proclaim. I get a chuckle every time, seriously. *chuckle* See!
No, I think you just ran for the bushes...thanks for not having an answer to a different way in which difficulty could have been adjusted to the game....
No, I think you just ran for the bushes...thanks for not having an answer to a different way in which difficulty could have been adjusted to the game....
Sorry. You're not here for discourse, even I can see that. Would be a bit silly to engage you seriously on any level. I can already see the outcome of that. You should be thankful I saved us both some time. I can shred these old bills and you can log onto Halo and scream at people. Look how productive we are!
Dropping a quick reminder here to state that your posts stay on topic. Not following the ROC will be met with swift action by the staff.
(Cut out the personal attacks or dialogue towards one another)
~AZ
Finally a review not a preview, it is at this stage I actually think about buying a MMO. What I read so far says wait and see, it has promise but the RMT’s will probably kill it for me. It was obvious to me that a game that had power boosts as part of RMT transactions was not going to let you wade through mobs like a god. They need you to have a reason to buy those boosts.
So if you have had your fingers burnt, next time look before you leap.
Wut?! Power boosts in the RMT shop? The RMT shop has nothing but vanity pets.
How can someone actually use the intarweb and still be so misinformed?
I was in the closed and open beta and I think what escapes everyone here is that CO has a fairly lengthy beta period. Lenghy enough that the issues that were patched on launch day should of been handled during the beta phase. I think that's the point the OP is trying to get across. CO was in beta for the better part of 6 months. During that time these concerns were voiced over that time. Cryptic had plenty of time to gradually patch these issues during the beta but they decided to make this change once it was live, to actual paying customers. I'm actually surprised there are those that are defending a game changing patch on launch day. Patches have happened on launch days before but when it's one that greatly changes the game then I think that's a problem. As mentioned above, open beta's are being used more as preview events than actual beta events to test bugs. You know that there are players that base their buying decision off of the open beta period. Even if it's a small percentage, it's still a percentage you should account for. At the very least if you're going to make wide reaching changes like that you need to have a free respec in place on day one else you just screwed over your preview customers.
I didn't think CO has a disaster launch but it did leave a bad taste in people's mouths. That can have long reaching effects. Ask Anarchy Online how much a bad launch damages a game (that obviously is a worse case scenario).
Wow a first impression that convered umm the patch and little else?
Also the numbers are way off. Defenses were reduced from 75% to 66%, ohh ahh.
As for confusion, well duh. We didn't exactly have WoW talent trees figured out at launch either and thats a closed system.
Overall I am much happier with CO today than during CB or OB, not "damn I should have bought a Lifetime" happy but defintely liking CoX v2 more today ;)
I am thankful that I did not pre-order CO or play in the beta as I guess it's nice not to know how the game was before the launch day patch. I do find at times the mobs can be a bit difficult to handle but I also like that the game isn't easy mode. Seriously, not all MMO's need to be like Warcraft where the first 50 levels are just mind numbing easy mode. I know, it's a super hero game and we should be super but I also like a challenge. /shrug The game is getting better after launch, I don't think anyone can dispute that as Cryptic has been very good with patching in fixes on a very regular basis. They are also getting ready for their first content release in Octoberish sometime. All in all this is a very fun game so far but it has what many new MMO's have, things that need to be worked on. The falacy that an MMO is going to launch with no issues and totally feature complete needs to go bye bye. I've never played an MMO that launched that way and I don't expect to. Things change, build a bridge and get over it.
This sort of piece being pubished by an "internet publication" is just another example of why it's hard to take any writer seriously here at mmorpg.com. Maybe this is the sort of thing we should expect with non-compensated writers. However, it's still unacceptable.
The very fact that the writer giving his "first impressions" refers to the status of the game in beta and head start prior to launch is hillarious. Anyone in the gaming industry knows the reasoning for betas, and head start is no promise of how things will be, it's merely a way to start your character early while the retail version and it's changes are finalized!
Too many people are taking advantages of Betas as a way to preview the game. That's not the F***in' purpose for crying out loud. It's to catch bugs, balance issues, performance issues - report them, rinse and repeat. It's not for the purpose of what it has turned into....
This new breed of PC gamer makes me want to puke.
*rant off*
This is exactly right. I think I just realized what my biggest problem with the article was, it was not a first impression. This article stated (for the most part) as to how the game changed from beta to live. That's what's most infuriating. If the articles was called "Champions Online: Beta to live" then I would have been more receptive to it. The author isn't wrong, but, as you suggest, is abusing his privilege of being a beta tester.
Some of you need to get a clue. Condemning an author for writing his opinion is childish. If some of you can't figure out how the word "boneheaded" fits with Cryptics actions you indeed are challenged. No disputes that the changes were in fact necessary, it was the way Cryptic implemented them.
Some of you definitely need to chill out.
Or, perhaps you're both mistaken and the actual content going into the store simply isn't in there yet. My money's on the backlash changing nothing.
Why do you continue on into hypocrisy? The more you say unto the OP, the more you seem the bias one.
Given, at FIRST IMPRESSION, his (Mike B.'s) post seems as though he's about to flame CO to dust, but his assessment is justified time and time again. It's as if they made the same mistake twice. Again, I say that it isn't their first time. This sounds worse than SWG's release issues, so he made a valid point in that they SHOULD have said something to the testers prior to launch.
I'm going to close with this: there wasn't any backlash. Only a NECESSARY statement (as I'm not going to go out and waste my money on this game. Cryptic will have to fix what SHOULD have been fixed during the middle of beta) was made that it went from to ok to WHOA in a day's time.
I'm honestly glad I neglected to test this game. It looks as though my thoughts would have gone unscene by the dev team (also something that's not good for the longevity of an MMO).
Again, guy, I love you and babies and stuff. Peace in the middle east aaaaaaaaand, get off your high horse. Mike B. was right to say what he posted.
Mike, thank you for the informative first look, and PLEASE keep us up-to-date on when the game will be good.
No offense, but I think we're talking about something you're not. I mean, it's great you're spirited about the debate, but we're talking about the MT store...umm, we're not talking about the patch, per se.
None taken because I understood what was going on here. I just enjoy adding ridiculous sidebars. I'm also annoyed that yet another release has been follied by this developer. It was bad enough that I bought CoH and played it for only 6 months before throwing in the towel. At that time, CoH was ridiculously easy, even for my new-to-mmo friends, which says a lot if only to me.
Also, lord kept getting his panties in a wad, which in turn twisted mine up (we're siamese twins). But now we're back to normal! All's well that ends in a high five.
Sorry. You're not here for discourse, even I can see that. Would be a bit silly to engage you seriously on any level. I can already see the outcome of that. You should be thankful I saved us both some time. I can shred these old bills and you can log onto Halo and scream at people. Look how productive we are
---EDITTED FOR MORE SUITABLE CONJECTURE---
I love MMORPG.com
I've read pretty much all of this, and as someone who has NOT played the game, I'm still aware of the issues. Thus there are some things to conclude from this article. And some obvious corrections to the posters needs to be made
1st. Beta is around not only to test the game, but to also promote the game. Sure correcting things and fixing bugs is extremely important, but it is also naive to think that in present days of MMO's that it's also about promotion and advertising as well.
2nd. OP is correct about the patch, regardless of how people might disagree. Sure they changed the game in reponse to feedback, but something like that should be tested ahead of time, pre-launch. Something like that patch should've been changed about 2 weeks before and tested. It's also easy to conclude this because of the miriad patch contents after release to fix the issues cropped up from opening day patch.
3rd. It's also naive to think that MMO launches in present day climates will be perfect. Games are pretty much released in more of a final beta stage.
4th. Comparing CO to EQ, WoW, DaoC, etc... is also flawed. It has a different demographic, and a different fanbase. Sure some of it might overlap, but realistically people play it to be a superhero, not someone who struggles on a random nobody mobs. Add that to say that the shelf life of this game is limited (as one poster said) is ludicrous. MMO's cost millions of dollars, are planned and developed for years, expansion ideas are most likely already being looked at and in the pre-work stages. Games are developed for the long haul, not for 1 or 2 years.
5th. One of the more interseting posts was about how playable that the game was though. The servers are stable, everything for the most part works as it's supposed to. I do wish OP would've gone into a little more depth on this as an impression than "technically good".
6th. Consumers drive the market. Alienate the consumer, you kill your subscribers. How many will go back to AoC? War? Yet how many will go back to WoW when Cataclysm comes out? I'd definitely bet on WoW and that's not just about numbers, but I'd almost be willing to bet about percentages. Blizzard, for the most part, has done an extremely good job of listening to the players. It's really one of the main reasons it's as large as it is.
Lastly, as said, I've not as yet played CO. I wasn't in beta or really tried. What I mean by this, is that with MMO's today, players aren't coming in naive. It's likely not the first MMO they've ever played. Thus they understand about making characters, about classes, and for the most part how most of the games work. Customers, for the most part, are pre-educated to the games at launch. Thus, we'll do our research before we purchase the game. I was ready to go out and purchase it as of day 1. But upon reading 1st impression responses from posters on mmorpg.com, I realized it was a good idea to wait. And honestly, the patch was the biggest influence. It told me developers were, well, still developing, putting in huge changes at launch. Not that this wasn't unexpected, but it told me the game was more in a state of flux than I had previously thought. So I'll wait at least another month before I purchase.
I've made the mistake of purchasing MMO's at launch day, and honestly, it's not one I want to make again. Thus R.I.P. SWG, AoC, War, all those I played for one month and never looked back, well only to look and say that I seriously wasted $50.
Too much drama here, but my opinion is this. . .
The developers immediately changed the game within days from "launch"; yes "launch". And that change(s) inevitably made many players who felt "Super", feel "Ordinary". This is a superhero pve, static, linear, single-player-esque, lobby-type, multiplayer game.
So I agree with the summation that this game is "Pretty Fun". But then again, any game can be pretty fun, so nothing remarkably new with Champions Online, really.
I'd say that this game has a short shelf-life, but is still comparably less expensive than other forms of entertainment, and you can get your money's worth over the course of a couple of months and move-on.
To me, it seems that the game-play is actually very easy and very rudimentary and much more linearly repetitive than any other player-versus-predictable computer controlled environmental pixel game out there. The computer-controlled environment that one plays against is as easy a pve ecosystem there is. There's nothing difficult about making choices in character development that fit your play-style, and as with any character-development mmo, its a matter of tailoring your character to your play-style.
This game seems to be really geared towards a younger audience, like Free Realms, whereby players are handed a win/win game-play situation all the time, and there's nothing wrong with that.
A lot of Open BETAs are exactly what is shipped now days, the Open BETA thing has become a PR/preview gig, like it or not. This is being pushed by companies just as hard as anyone else, they include BETA time in pre-orders, special offers, as a bonus for subscribing to File Planet, etc...
A well written report to which I fully agree.
"There are no classes, so it is fairly easy to gimp your character by choosing the wrong powers, talents, statistical focuses, and gear."
I too have said that a thousand times in beta, like so many others. It fell on deaf ears. The beta system wasn't perfect but it was playable and enjoyable. Now Cryptics has managed to apply a NGE at the launch day, and I seriously think that even tops SWG's NGE. WTG Cryptic! *__*
Honestly, seeing them helplessly tinkering around I have pretty much given up hope about this game. The devs apparently have no clue. The point is: You cant enforce grouping just by making the game more difficult! Thats hilarious! The game was designed around basically soloing and the quick rushing through all those relatively hollow and simple-minded missions have does just not support grouping. Now people group out of the feeling of weakness and helplessness and I can't imagine a worse motivation for a MMO to group, let alone for a Superhero MMO!
And here I was thinking I had seen the worst in MMOs in the last 2 years already. Boy... what a scam.
NGE? Really? Oye.
Name me one archetype that was removed? A power? A power function? A stat function? A feature on the box?
Huh guess this was just a balance pass afterall. The funny part is in beta people cry that it sucks and other say its beta, its going to change. Then when it does just that... they cry.
mm you cant use nge here why?because the game wasnt released lol.
nge from soe was put way after they lunched the game
game get patched all the time in the first week of lunch
but swg got a missive patch way after everbody was settled that was uncalled for
soe as been desperate since year 1 of wow to catch some of the glory trough their game
they got good title but the thing is they let the game float by itsef
as all gsmae maker do prently yes even blizzard
but contrary to other ,blizzard is working on that
other are staring at guys like me and wonder what i talk about lol
if they think just the game its self will keep player coming they ll be surprised to see empty game
if the organise various stuff in the game then player will go lol
the game it self be it aion aoc war wow lotr
we can all play that solo in a console on our various console
and lot of player do ,if we go into mmo its to see people yes but also do what contest in the game
we ll have to do ,i m not talking about silly stuff yes it could be but if you dont win anything
player will get bored
i will give the best exemple:check in lot of casino some game are so old they were there in the 70s
why is it still in there arent they loosing money,shouldnt they upgrade
nope dont need too why,because people can win something in the game be it money prize
fame yes shown everywhere around the world fame can be a nice prize too
imagine you just won the constest of the ugliest toon created that did whatever it had to do
and they bring you in korea to be the star of the whatever you will be lol
its like that ,if casino didnt work they would be all closed down
the fact is people want to win something,that they can brg about but that is exclusive
etc
i dont know what form it would take in mmorpg ,i do know player want that tho and sadly its not asvail in any mmo in existance
some website do a service like that for mmo gamer but they re not very common
because you need ingame cam you need everything needed for an e-sport lool
From these comments it is obvious you have never played the game. It isn't anymore linear than any other game in regards to the AI. In fact, it may be a bit non-linear with the ability to block, which is definitely needed post-patch. I think ALL games are tailored to a younger audience (they are the major market-share in the genre, though that does seem to be changing). The game doesn't hand you a win/win. It has become more difficult post-patch (which I think is better).
Like I have stated before, the game does have some issues. It is obvious you have not played it and are just spouting nonsense. Next time do some research before posting.
Ive not played much the last week, i have a 6month sub and thought id let things settle down with the changes etc which i could say killed a lot of the fun for me, hopefully in a few weeks/ a month it will be hunky dori again :)
If not, i will then look forward to st beta.......
My roommate, tired of WoW and desiring a new MMO experience, bought Champions Online and began to play it. He found the game very disappointing.
He's now playing City of Heroes.
From these comments it is obvious you have never played the game. It isn't anymore linear than any other game in regards to the AI. In fact, it may be a bit non-linear with the ability to block, which is definitely needed post-patch. I think ALL games are tailored to a younger audience (they are the major market-share in the genre, though that does seem to be changing). The game doesn't hand you a win/win. It has become more difficult post-patch (which I think is better).
Like I have stated before, the game does have some issues. It is obvious you have not played it and are just spouting nonsense. Next time do some research before posting.
I was sincere in my comments and I still play the game. But lets call it like it is; its an easy game. Its linear. The story-line doesnt splinter for different archtypes or character types, and thats not bad; just saying it is what it is, linear -and- static. You will play every character against the same exact story and villains as you would with any previous character, so nothing new there.
I dont see how one can be even more ordinary with your superhero character feel than the devs have already made many feel, so the game-play with powers is what it is, but it is not difficult in the least. So, again, in short. . .this game is not difficult in the slightest and there is no risk for reward, there is no sense of loss or challenge to character development or consequences that means anything when you lose a battle. So it really should be very appealing to players that want to test-drive a super-hero game thats "pretty fun" and provides a winning environment feel all the time.
well of course this is an mmo and some of what he has described has already changed. the cost for retcon has already been reduced and you can retcon all the way back to character creation.
I just hope they make it so you don't take much damage when using "jump" type powers as well as mentioned in the article about acrobatics. Jump powers you end up taking a lot of damage from the high jumps... well, its necessary for the power, so we shouldn't take that much damage if any when using Jump travel powers.
And the description for the powers are fairly limited, which needs to be worked on...
The difficulty should be something close to COH, but it is a little bit harder overall. The reviewer is right, that is does feel a little "not so super" but honestly its ok early on, but later on in the game you should be more-so.
overall a fun game though with lots of good potential, hopefully this doesn't turn into another SWG fiasco.
Taking into consideration your theory on x,y (which is moreless accurate), and going along with your assumption that the game was only dumped out onto the floor because that bully Atari gave poor Cryptic no choice, I'd say thablame should be reflected onto Atari. Wouldn't you agree? I mean, I know that if I had a gun held to my head over a silly release date that could potentially make or break the longevity of the game and possibly ruin my chances of really having a customer base ever again, I'd do what the gunman said and release it all "willy nilly".
Actually, I take that back. Knowing me as well as I do, I'd have my own protection. A 300 lb Amazonian woman named... Amazonia... and uh, bullets would just bounce off her bouncing bossom while I escaped to my secret lair.
While your post was extremely candid and contained some brilliant rhetoric, I'm going to have to disagree with EITHER of those companies being the letters x or y. It's just not realistic. But then again, I've never heard of an x or a y developing a game before, so maybe that's just pure ignorance on my part.
Otherwise, I love you and I tend to humor the idea of us having babies together. Nothing more though. I couldn't see us moving in together. Your opinions are too smart for me. And I tend to digress from the point on a... well, I'm doing it now.
Good day to you all,
THE Rooster Nash
Speaking of X and Y, I'm pretty certain that while either the X or Y chromosome can be passed along from the male and thus determines the sex of the baby, it takes a female X chromosome to contribute in the making of said babies, among other things.
Therefore, considering that you are a male and the poster that you were quoting is indeed a male, I think this whole babies together thing is out of the question. Unless of course you were implying adoption?
As far as the article, and my 2c; Michael Bitton did mention numerous times, the words "first impressions" in the article's title as well as within the article itself, which by definition is:
im⋅pres⋅sion [im-presh-uhn]
–noun
1. a strong effect produced on the intellect, feelings, conscience, etc.
2. the first and immediate effect of an experience or perception upon the mind; sensation.
Not sure how some of you are misinterpreting this?
This game is incredibly fun, I agree with your post however. Having said that, I would not hesitate to recommend it to another gamer something I have done a couple times.
I hope they make us super again. =)
I've been playing champs online from release not been in the beta so i dont know how the game was before.
i will say this for the game playing through it slowly and carefully enjoying the content as it comes along and not just doing "grab the mission run to green circle" type game play.
The problem what this game has and i will say this for all new mmo's they are becoming watered down each and every new mmo they remove an element from the previous generation.
Unfortunatly the companies that make the games have ended up giving us games that have become less than the previous generation.
1. We lost down time in games like wow.
2. We lost forced grouping.
3. Grinding went out the window in favour of missions instead.
4.crafting became watered down click buttons instead of thinking about what you do.
The problem is that we the players have complained and moaned about these things and we have really forgotten what mmos are actually about.
Because there is no down time we no longer have time to sit and just chat with people.
i feel that the elements that we all really disliked is what made mmos fun.
Unfortunatly the fun elements of Champions online, the being a super hero bashing enemies and saving the day, its been lost along the way. In terms of fun it is a fun game but i think its lost somthing. They needed to really implement another rank of mob somthing weak that you can kill onmass to make it feel more super hero.
City of heroes always felt epic in terms of fighting you would be fighting a lot of mobs at the same time and you never really stopped while fighting.
Champs has lost this somewhere your lucky if you survive a fight with 3, i found that unless you have a rank 3 defensive ability as standard slotted in defensive mode you go over like a sack of crap. This to me sparks of superman going around in full body armour to survive a fight against normal humans.
The way they should have gotten around the whole soloing 5 man instances was with scaling they should have worked out how to make the game harder without making the game less super.
The devs are idiots and the game does suck,
Sorry to put it bluntly but all the issues your seing now where identifed by the beta players and discussed for months. Op says that devs have "been attentive" but.. they havnt.
Its kind of insulting to beta testers that they get ignored and only make changes once its released and the general population confirms what testers have said for months.
I'll check out DC universe, but tbh if you want a heroes game, CoX is still the best.
Its too late for CO, they cocked up much like AoC did and its down hill from here.
Okay heres my 2 cents. Have been playing the game sence beta alot of problems that were addressed in beta are still being taken care of yes seems beta testing was kind of pointless. Seems like every week sence launch now we have had another retcon because of them nerfing something. This game started out good but if I was to advise someone on buying the game I would tell them to wait a month or two in hopes that the devs would decide what they want the game to be. As for myself I dont belive I will be continuing on after the free month its sad really I very much enjoyed the games graphics and detail you could put into the characters but having to go back and respec your character after each patch sucks. Hope this gets read by someone because cant post it on there forum. Posting any negative comments on there forums like this post gets you an infraction point.
Wow...There is so many untruths in this post its unbelievable. There have been numerous patches since launch and we have only gotten 2 retcons (one was only gotten today). I have posted my feedback on the forums in a constructive way and have never gotten an infraction. The game has its problems, but the ones you listed are not them.