(no subject)
The other day I got an email from NCsoft... I'd been watching City of Heroes, occasionally resubscribing every few months, and I figured that now that the new expansion is out, I'd resubscribe for a month.
There's some awesome new features, a completely new starting zone that goes to about level 20 (of 50), and the ability to switch your alignment from Hero to Villain and vice-versa. There's some graphical upgrades, as well as difficulty balancing, and an AWESOME feature called the Architect system (introduced a while back) that lets you actually create story arcs and missions, and let other players evaluate and play them. Some of these are MASSIVE five-mission story arcs balanced for 6 characters that span a wide level range... others are short single-shot missions designed for one person.
Other players can rate them, and the most popular become sponsored by NCsoft and enter the Hall of Fame.
Well, I was impressed enough that I decided to buy the expansion, Going Rogue. Whee! I discovered afterwards that NCSoft does something no other company does! Even if you're an active subscriber, buying the expansion ends up giving you a month of service, so I'm now paid to October 22.
Either way, I'm impressed, there's been some big changes!!! The game has become perhaps the most solo-friendly MMO I've ever played. Most of the missions are based in instances... that's the only real gripe. But that instancing allows for customization beyond anything I've ever seen. By visiting a special NPC, you can adjust a number of factors... you can decrease or increase the level of mobs relative to your own (from -1 to +3), choose to go through the mission as if you were fighting with more than 1 Hero/Villain (more people means more mobs)... you can choose to not fight 'boss' class enemies when soloing a mission, and fight heroes/villains in those missions as if they were actual hero level, or just 'elites'. For Archetypes (classes) that have big problems soloing, this is a godsend.
Either way, I'm totally enamored of the game at this point, moreso than I have with any other time I've played it. Though it won't supplant WoW, especially when Cataclysm drops, it'll be 'the other MMO', I think for a good long time.