City of Heroes , a Change of Pace
I find it strange to be playing a mainstream MMO other than World of Warcraft, after over 2 years of addiction. Granted, the reason i'm not playing WoW currently is due to cash flow issues, stemming from family problems. Beyond that, I never expected to find anything of serious worth in City of Heroes, given my past experiences with korean MMO companies (SEE: Guild Wars, Risk Your Life 2, Lineage 2...etc.)
The Upside to CoH: The gameplay is a change of pace from WoW, with the focus being more on fun and less on being in the same level range as your friends. Unlike WoW, City of Heroes is truly "party friendly", giving you the option of adjusting the levels of your party members up or down so that everyone can work on the same quests. Go Up, and you get to see the high end content of the game at almost any time, although you won't be doing much damage and hitting will probably be an issue (Due to a lack of Enhancements slotted to your Abilities). Go Down, and you can run lowbie comrades through a few quests and still earn Influence (AKA: Money).
I also must grudgingly admit that the classes in CoH feel more balanced then their o-so-distant counterparts in WoW. There are no "armor" or "weapon" drops from monsters in this game, so all you have to focus on are Enhancements to your junction to your abiltites (Loosely akin to Final Fantasy VII), and rare Badges which can bestow certain powers upon you.
(Note: I have no such badges yet, so I can't comment any more specifically on what powers they give.)
Whereas in WoW, if you spec your character right, and have the right gear and a good computer, chances are that you will outdo most everyone in a PvP environment, thus leading you to do better in a PvE-Raiding environment, thus giving you uber gear to repeat the same unbalanced ownage over and over again.
In WoW, as long as you have the money, you can Respec your character at any time. In CoH, respecing is limited to 3 specific levels. After that, what you have is what you have, so there's definitely an incentive to learn your class properly. Game designers trying to un-noobify their game?! For sooth!!
Now, the downside to CoH:
I think that my single greatest complaint at the moment is the generic feeling of the game overall. Repeatable quests are an excellent change from being quest-starved in certain parts of WoW. However, to achieve this, each.....i'll use the phrase "mission type", sends you to the same looking place each time, with only minor changes like an added room here and different enemy placements there. An excellent parallel example of this would be Neverwinter Nights 1 and it's myriad of fan made modules. Every module in NWN looked the same...thousands of them looked the same. Sure you had a number of nice fan made tilesets and such, but the overall "generic world" feeling always permeated each module.
*cough* - back on topic...
In Conclusion: I think it's a fair statement to make when I say that WoW and CoH will each appeal to different types of players. The more hardcore MMO players with infinite time and cash will stick with WoW since they know they basically have a captive market. Whereas CoH is definitely geared to the younger crowd of gamers, and also to those who have less time to give on a regular basis. The overall player base in CoH that i've seen thus far has been far more polite than many of the best people I encountered in 2 years of WoW guilds. In WoW, getting gear and winning in PvP is for the elite, and the elite want to keep it that way. In CoH, people work together because everyone benefits. There is NO EXP PENALTY for being in a party, in fact, there is a BONUS. Null-and-Void are the infamous Loot arguements that disband groups and shatter guilds. In CoH, you just party up and have a good time. No more and no less.
I confess that I miss the features, gameplay, and PvP of WoW, but I certainly don't miss the politics. I also still rail against the fact that PvE loot is for the dedicated...the "wait for a 40 man group and spend 5 hours in a single run" people. Oh well, i'm not going to beat that long-dead horse. Blizzard knows their current loot setup will keep people fighting each other and paying for the game for years on end, and thats their only goal. Fairness has nothing to do with big business. In CoH I find fairness, and in spite of it's different playstyle and features, it is every bit as good as WoW in it's own fashion. Heck, you get your "mount" in CoH at 14, and I made 14 in just 3 days. **Snoopy Dance**
Beat that you WoW-gold-asian-farmer scum!
An "Old School" Gamer,
DKnight2066
PS: One last comment of worth: My main character, "The Dark Reploid", is designed and dedicated to the immortal Megaman. Nothing is more rewarding than bringing the best of gaming's past into gaming's future!