City of Heroes
I was supposed to try City of Heroes out years ago. I nearly traded my car for a copy, once. Carmax offered me $5 for the car as a trade-in, so I was going to take the better deal.
The costume designer, firstly, was one of the most enjoyable things I've played with in years. I spent the first hour trying to construct a costume that'd get me banned for copyright infringement, since I just had a ten-day trial.
I played through the tutorial. There seemed to be at least four different colored bars in the upper right. The tutorial didn't explain what any of them meant. It involved talking to a bunch of people who were all a quarter-mile from each other, which violates my rule of tutorial compactness.
The problem was that I didn't feel like a hero, much less a superhero. The city was full of these shabbily-dressed guys who stood around shouting at each other. It was my job to go beat up two or three of them. I felt like I was roughing up hobos because the cops told me to. If they had all attacked at once and I had beaten them up, it would've been something. I would've felt heroic. Instead, I had to jump a fence to get into the hobo corrall, punch some of them a few times to show them who's boss, ignore the other hundred or so, and get back out. If you tossed me into a room with twenty guys, they charged at me, and I had to beat them up, I'd feel like a hero.
After I finished the tutorial, there was some kind of quest to find a watch. I couldn't find the guy who'd give me the quest, though. Rounding up quests didn't feel heroic either. I want to be prowling the street and see a mugging in process. I want the mayor to call me on the red telephone. I want to see a searchlight shining on the full moon. I want to come across a freshly-robbed bank and see a bunch of riddles leading to the villain's hideout.
To me, that would be superheroic. I didn't get that. I understand the limitations of MMORPGs, but I just wasn't feeling the Hero.
The costume designer, firstly, was one of the most enjoyable things I've played with in years. I spent the first hour trying to construct a costume that'd get me banned for copyright infringement, since I just had a ten-day trial.
I played through the tutorial. There seemed to be at least four different colored bars in the upper right. The tutorial didn't explain what any of them meant. It involved talking to a bunch of people who were all a quarter-mile from each other, which violates my rule of tutorial compactness.
The problem was that I didn't feel like a hero, much less a superhero. The city was full of these shabbily-dressed guys who stood around shouting at each other. It was my job to go beat up two or three of them. I felt like I was roughing up hobos because the cops told me to. If they had all attacked at once and I had beaten them up, it would've been something. I would've felt heroic. Instead, I had to jump a fence to get into the hobo corrall, punch some of them a few times to show them who's boss, ignore the other hundred or so, and get back out. If you tossed me into a room with twenty guys, they charged at me, and I had to beat them up, I'd feel like a hero.
After I finished the tutorial, there was some kind of quest to find a watch. I couldn't find the guy who'd give me the quest, though. Rounding up quests didn't feel heroic either. I want to be prowling the street and see a mugging in process. I want the mayor to call me on the red telephone. I want to see a searchlight shining on the full moon. I want to come across a freshly-robbed bank and see a bunch of riddles leading to the villain's hideout.
To me, that would be superheroic. I didn't get that. I understand the limitations of MMORPGs, but I just wasn't feeling the Hero.