Ten lessons that other MMO developers must learn from the death of City of Heroes

City of Heroes/Villains (CoX) was my first MMO love, and a game that I poured a ridiculous amount of hours into over the years. The news of its imminent shutdown on November 30 is deeply upsetting to me, not only because I — perhaps foolishly, in the world of superheroes — hoped that it would live forever, but because the good things that the game has brought to the MMO genre still seem criminally under-recognised by developers at large. So, here’s the lessons that we need to take away from CoX — for better and worse.

DO have a character creator that actually means something.

The first thing that anyone notices — and rightly so — about the CoX games is that character creation isn’t just some generic 30-second mindless clicking festival where you choose Face #4 with Hairstyle #8 and call it a day. The CoX character creator is a monstrous beast, a huge, sprawling jigsaw puzzle with literally millions of possible combinations. This is something we need to see more of in other MMO’s: a system that, right from the start, actually makes you feel special and important because you look exactly as awesome as you want to. There’s no waiting for gear or running around looking like every other level-zero scrub. You can be level 50 and still look like an angry, drunk homeless person. Trust me on this.

And you know what? That’s great. That’s great because it imbues your character with real meaning and personality. When you put that sense of character and meaning up against Tabard Wearing Warrior #5,789 from Generic Fantasy MMO, it’s easy to see that the CoX system creates genuine gw2 gold player investment. We need more of this.


DON’T have only one quest line and one tutorial.

And yet, right after its brilliant character creator, comes CoX‘s biggest mistake: for literally years and years, both Heroes and Villains only had one quest line. and a mandatory tutorial section you couldn’t skip. I’ve heard countless times about how many people got turned off from making City of Villains alts, for example, because they’re just sick to death of killing snake people over and over again. This sort of dull repetition kills the game, regardless of how awesome your newly-created character is.

Eventually, Cryptic/Paragon wised up and added some varied quest lines, and allowed you to skip the tutorial. But for many, it was too little, too late.

DO let us fly around the world and feel like a badass.

Despite this, CoX still boasts the best buy guild wars 2 gold player transports system in any MMO that I’ve ever played, hands-down. As soon as level three you get access to a jetpack which has literally hours and hours of flight time on it, more than enough to get you up to the level 14 when your first major travel power unlocks. Whether you choose super speed, teleporting, Hulk-style enormous leaps (my favourite) or good ol’ flight, CoX did a great job of making you feel like an enormous badass without having to grind and save and grind and save and grind some more just so you could move slightly faster.

None of that drudgery for me, thanks: I want to feel awesome as I soar across the city skyline, and I don’t want to have to wait forever to do it.

DON’T wait too long to go free-to-play.

It took seven years for Paragon to finally take CoX free-to-play, stubbornly holding out for the subscription model in the face of dwindling player numbers. But it’s arguable that this resistance to what is now rapidly becoming the industry standard was the Doomsday to their Superman: with the industry shifting around them and games with different models like Guild Wars moving from strength to strength, Paragon’s slow embrace of change was probably the key factor in their reduced player numbers.

The lesson here for other developers is clear: free to play works. Subscription models — with a few notable exceptions — do not. Even a halfway solution like Guild Wars 2 is going to be more successful than a full-price-game-and-ongoing-fee model.

DO have a physics engine. A real one. It’s worth it.

CoX is one of the few MMOs with a proper physics engine in it — and the difference is astounding. Combat in CoX feels heavy and meaty, like the blows have some proper weight behind them. Wind-up punches smash people into the air, blasts of force throw them off buildings. It makes the vague “scrape away at each other” combat model of many MMOs look boring and stupid.

More than that, the addition of a physics engine boosts the game in other, subtle ways. Exploring the environment becomes a real case of platforming and planning. Bullet casings are tossed around in the eddies as you zip down a corridor. Rubble, spraying from your ground-stomp, bounces off the walls and lands around you. Some of the fiddlier stuff is client-side only of course but it just looks good. We need more of this. It’s worth the cost.

DON’T screw over former paid members when you do go free-to-play.

As somebody who purchased the City of Villains Collectors Edition at full retail price back in the day, the transition to free-to-play left me less than impressed. My main character, a Mastermind class with a sweet personal army of ninja, was locked out to me… because I hadn’t purchased the ability to have Mastermind characters. Yet my (many) alts were available to ‘unlock’ simply because they were non-paid classes.

Without wishing to cause any offence, Paragon, this is really dumb. I’d be fine if you stopped me from making a new character from an archetype available only to Premium players, but locking me out from my already existing level 50, that I’ve poured hundreds of hours and dollars into just because I haven’t spent any money under the “new” system? This is just… no. No, it’s dumb. Don’t do that.

DO let us build and customise our own spaces in your game world.

CoX has a very clever guild system, where your group can build their own superhero or supervillain base. Everybody likes having their own space, but having your own space that you’ve extensively customised makes being part of your group even better and more meaningful. Between the fantastic character creator, and the ability to deck your supergroup base out with whatever you like, CoX really goes above and beyond to let you make it your own.

As for our group, we created a dank sewer and filled it with hundreds of photocopiers. This is how we roll.

DON’T slip a giant penis cannon into a level and think we won’t notice.

You can find this mounted on the roof in one of the early Arachnos bases. I think it speaks for itself.

DO allow user-created content.

Not only does the game let you make your own costume(s) and bases, but you can also design your own missions. And let people play in them. Why isn’t this more of a thing yet? Why are we still waiting on Neverwinter to come along, and having our minds blown at the very concept of an MMO toolset that allows you to create your own content? Why is this even a thing?

Heads-up, developers: people love user-generated content. That, among other reasons, is why Minecraft is so successful and still selling something like a thousand copies a day: because people like to see what other people have made. Especially if they can walk around in it and play with it, and fight against it or blow it up. I know you want to spend your publisher money on a huge world and scripted cut-scenes and a story that — let’s be honest, not many people will really pay attention to — but let’s try something different and give players the keys to the kingdom.

Hell, why do you think people still play the original Neverwinter Nights online? Hint: it’s not for the graphics.

DON’T give up on the superhero genre.

Alright, so DC Universe Online was a bit of a wet fart and Champions Online has dropped so far off most people’s radars that even Daredevil hasn’t heard it breathing in months, but just because CoX is shutting down doesn’t mean that it’s time to can the whole thing. We need more in our genre than swords and sorcery, and comic books are still a market begging to tapped.

It would be a crying shame if the death of CoX was enough to kill any future hope for MMOs, and while Marvel Heroes is yet to appear, its strict “play as your favourite Marvel hero!” mindset isn’t really what superhero MMO should be all about. CoX may have had some flaws, but it had so much heart and soul — if we can get back to what made the game special and trim it down for a modern day audience, I think there’s every reason to believe it can — in the finest tradition of superhero comics — retcon itself back to life.

GW 2: Peeling mode - useful or not?

Everyone who plays Guild Wars 2, has certainly seen it before: the so-called chipped mode. But the mode is at all meaningful? In this article I want to clarify this, what the advantages and disadvantages of the tool itself!

The Chipped mode

Does this sound familiar? As does one in PvE / PvP just to defeat the enemy and then ticking nor any DoT (damage over time effect) or the like. And before you know it, then it is already dead on the floor.

That's a bit annoying sometimes, should be clear. But ArenaNet would not let that happen and apparently integrated into the buy Guild Wars 2 gold Posted mode. The Chipped mode is the mode in which you land, if all your life points are exhausted and you'd be really dead. In this mode, you can then try again to pull up specific skills. This works, of course not always and that's perfectly okay.

The idea behind it, I really am impressed! Sometimes one has committed some stupid mistake that usually leads to death. ArenaNet is now one but still have a chance to straighten the error and the next time to be careful about what's great! But the system has two drawbacks in my eyes, which I would now like to clarify this.

Imbalance in the classes

The first disadvantage is the imbalance of classes with respect to the skills that you get in chipped mode. Let's take the Rangers in PvP: The first skill causing hemorrhage at the opponent. This is nice, but it helps a little to survive. The second skill stuns the opponent for a short time. Also nice, but the numbness is to short.

The third skill is not bad in itself! Man gets his pet, who helps with the Health-procurement by healing you. Now however, there is often two problems: either your pet is so far away that it takes forever until it is with you and therefore do not care. Or you're dead anyway, because you can not protect the second skill could.

The thief can again with his second skill invisible and teleport while he is with his third skill for a while completely invisible. To make a long story short, the classes have different chances of survival in chipped mode. Whether this is so good, I doubt it.

Mode stuck

The second problem is the time. If you are unlucky, you sit straight in PvP ever fixed mode: You can not heal up completely, because you always get a bit of damage, but is not killed by the enemy.

This means that until you even once dead, can ever pass 30 seconds, because it is precisely at the beginning of trying yes, gather to itself and not to die! Until then, however, you realize that this has no meaning, sometimes a lot of time has passed, in which one of his team was not exactly useful.

In PvE very positive

In the end I see the chipped mode in PvE very positive because it a really helps to hide small mistakes and mend. He should be so kept there for sure!

In PvP, I'm currently not so sure. Sure, there he met here and there the purpose for which it is intended. Often, however, it is because, as in the section "mode stuck" and can be performed either before or back. Perhaps we should think about ArenaNet, and give gw2 gold players the opportunity to end the PvP mode by itself can and then die.

What you think of chipped mode? Like you, he is as he or did you think he needs to be revised?

Guild Wars 2: Current Patch Notes for Game Update of 20 November

The Guild Wars developer ArenaNet released new patch notes for Guild Wars 2 A new game update of 20 November brings minor updates for the Lost Coast and for PvP tournaments.

The developers of ArenaNet published on 20 November 2nd again a new game update for Guild Wars Class or balance changes were not going posted on the server. Instead, there's a few minor adjustments to the area of ​​the Lost Coast and in PvP tournaments. So it should be no problem, for example, more with some of the dealers from Canachs folly.

Also fixed are problems with some of the waypoints in the southern lights Bay. The full patch notes for Game Update of 20 November for Guild Wars 2, you can read below. For more information and reports about the gw2 gold game, including the November update, you'll find collected on our topic page for Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars 2 - Update of 20 November

General
The dynamic level increase for low level players in Lion's Arch and the southern lights-bay has been removed.
Fixed a bug which caused that some dealers do not Canachs folly appeared.
A bug was fixed that caused the bridge between the glass-blowing sources and the Mottled coast lacked.
Fixed a bug that resulted in some of the waypoints in the southern light-bay occasionally could not be used.
Fixed a bug which caused that appear invulnerable Karka an event were on the beach.
A Karka Champion added that guards the rich Orchalkiumvorkommen in Karka-building.
The NPC of the investigation commission in Lowenstein were removed.

PvP
An error was fixed that could cause an incorrect amount was paid in gems in paid tournaments.
The respawn time is now static in tournaments counted down for each buy guild wars 2 gold player, instead of a group-wide Reswpawn wave.

GW2 "Lost Coast": New to Noll bug and the scavenger hunt from Phase 1

On Friday evening at Guild Wars 2 started Phase 1 of the weekend event, "Lost Coast", including the a small scavenger hunt offered. Bugs prevented, however, that this could be finished. How ArenaNet already this morning announced that individual events from Phase 1 will therefore also be available in a few minutes ago the started phase 2. Now there are more to go!

How ArenaNet Stephane Lo Presti now the official forum told, all gw2 gold players who have received the cards fragment by talking to blingg, perform the following steps of the scavenger hunt even after the end of phase 1. This includes both the fight against Noll and the ensuing against Canach and return to Kiel inspector to get the reward

Noll was unable, however, still buggy, a corresponding fixed is to be played later. In addition, Lo Presti emphasized in his speech that all players regardless of whether they participated in Phase 1 and these have finished or not, be able to participate in Phase 2 and to complete.

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Guild Wars 2: New blog post: Anguish and infusions

ArenaNet brings new features for the extension of objects in the world of royalty-free MMO Guild Wars 2

On the official website of the toll-free MMORPG Guild Wars 2, a new developer blog entry for the fan base has been provided. The current issue is devoted Linsey Murdock working on new features for the extension of objects. So on you waiting for, for example, the new gw2 gold game mechanics "torment", a very dangerous condition, you will experience at the monsters in the dungeon of fog fractals. This deprives you gradually percentages of Health. Resistance to pain can only be produced with the help of infusions, which act as a new upgrade version and in November as offensive, defensive, and Omni-infusions will be available.

You want more news, videos, articles and pictures about Guild Wars 2? Then take a look at our topic page.

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Guild Wars 2 official: the plug-in issues as well as our response

"Botting" is no stranger to online gamers, it is to use a number of plug-in role in the game automatically brush strange play money to upgrade other operations, like robots. The recent Guild Wars 2 is also facing the problem, ArenaNet staff Mike Lewis through this post to inform players how they will treat this behavior.

We have noticed that some of the the Botting problem, we want the players to know that what we have done so far, and our next plan.

Bot behavior monitoring, only last week, on a global scale 1600 accounts was closured. We have been actively monitoring the more common Botting, so that they will be removed from the gw2 gold game. As we continue to collect information about these Bot will also accelerate speed to remove the offending account. Please continue to give us feedback you suspect Bot the players, thank you for your support.

We continue to improve the method of automatic detection Bot, including the tools used by our customer service team, these appliances can help verify Bot's behavior and title processing. We also recently hired a group of data experts to help us more efficient tools to analyze these Bot.

On the other hand, this will also directly affect the operation of the third-party gold supplier. We have also taken very seriously with the Bot title processing cash transactions and daily active closured hundreds of illegal gold supplier.

In short, we will spare no efforts to ensure the community from using the Bot phenomenon intrusive and illegal gold suppliers, and we are very grateful for your help.

Thank you for your understanding and patience, we will continue to improve our ability to deal with this matter.

Recent Market Shifts and Precursor Changes Incoming

This week we had a few comments coming from John Smith, ArenaNet's in-house economist, explaining that the recent bot ban waves have had a large impact on the market, causing it to shift. He then went on and updated the community saying that they have been keeping an eye on precursors, the weapons required to create legendary weapons, and how they have been becoming "unreachable":

Quote
I apologize for the lack of current details. What I can currently say about this topic is that we’ve recently begun a renewed campaign against RMT and Bots. The change in these markets is a direct result of the success of that campaign.

You can expect to see more details coming out within the next couple of weeks.

Quote
The price spike doesn’t represent a shortage, it represents prices returning to where they should be without bots. This change creates more opportunity for gw2 gold players playing the game to earn money. The oversupply the bots created hurt the legitimate producers of items. As the prices go up, more real players will enter the market.

Quote

We’ve received a large amount of feedback about Legendaries becoming unreachable. This is actually a topic we’ve been tracking for quite some time. To ease your minds I am here to say that it’s something we’ve been watching and we’ve been listening to your feedback. You can expect to begin to see changes addressing the issue starting with our next build. [Source]

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GW2 Tutorial Video on Youtube

GW2 needs tutorials like this.There are some elements of the game that are just not intuitive esp. for players from other MMOs.

This is a helpful first step.  It's particularly good how they emphasize the need to use dodge (Don't laugh, there's NOTHING in the gw2 gold game that explains the dodge mechanic save in the Heart of the Mists PvP lobby. I've had friends play the game without ever knowing characters could dodge until I explained it to them).  

It's also useful how dynamic events as the main way to see content is emphasized.   They really should have mentioned big DEs can show up on the mini-map.

Unfortunately, this kind of thing still needs to be in the game not on websites outside of it.In-game information is worth more than all the Youtube vids, gamesite interviews, wiki articles, Twitter tweets, Facebook posts and every other form of out-of-game communication.

The Elder Scrolls Online - king moves to conquer RPG MMO market

The Elder Scrolls series is entering a new market with big ambitions and interesting innovations. ZeniMax studio in front of him, however, has an extremely difficult task in existence dominated by World of Warcraft MMO gaming world.
Prime Minister announced the game: 2013.

After an excellent Skyrimie players from around the world eagerly awaited the announcement of the next, sixth longer part of The Elder Scrolls series. In fan forums, not faded rumors about this, in which the province of Tamriel, the continent will be set shares - the most common suggestions was to return to the land of Morrowind or the island of Summerset - or what the expected amendment reads from the previous saga. In May of this year, Bethesda Softworks finally announced that it is working on another project set in the universe of TES, but to everyone's surprise, the title was not marked shapely Roman six, and marked "online". Today, anyone is not new, that one of the best, if not the best computer RPG series will see its own MMO. But it will not be a direct continuation of the events of Skyrim.

Action upcoming The Elder Scrolls is going on 1000 years before the events in the earlier scenes opowiedzianymi cycle. A mysterious explosion rocked the Imperial City of energy, and its consequences include the Nirn. This is the beginning of the plan Molag Bal, one of the Daedric princes, whose goal is to connect with each other the real world of the Abyss. It collects the souls of warriors, thus allowing them to return to life after death - that's what players will control them. Chaos caused by a powerful explosion rips in time with the then prevailing interregnum. Aspire to the throne of three fractions, which can join. The first is Aldmerskie Dominion, the alliance Khajiit and Forestry and the High Elves. This coalition, mentioned several times in Skyrimie, uncompromisingly seeks to embrace the rule over the continent of Tamriel, and eliminate practiced on it, even by the Nords, worship Talos. The second is the Daggerfall Alliance, which brings together under its banner Redguards, Orcs and Bretons, the race for the most liberal, democratic views. The last of the groups named Ebonheart Pact and its structures are Nords, Dark Elves and Argonians. It advocates of a strong central government, aided by the united army.

Selection coalition that decide to join, as a class, it is irreversible. Will determine not in any way the development of our character. For example, if we choose the path of healer, you still will be able to use all types of weapons and armor, mainly for warriors. The Elder Scrolls Online is in fact intended to offer the opportunity to play in such a way that he wants the player at any given time, which will also affect the content of the job - usually available to get a few variants of the order. The latter will be a lot: in addition to the main thread is waiting for us a number of side missions. Their availability will depend not only on the fraction and the skill of the player. Sometimes you just find yourself in the right place at the right time, and it turns out that passing near the NPC needs our help. Changes are also leveling system (these can kill up to 50). In contrast even to the ESO Skyrim will use classic experience points received for the performance of tasks and effective fight.

This last is a tracing system known from previous parts of the series. The production ZeniMaxu find all the options that were present before: after holding the left mouse button derive strong attack, right Pair upcoming hits. Anyway, we will not be forced to spend long hours in battles with more opponents - those who feel better in the shade, the branch will be able to get around enemies or force them out of hiding with ranged weapons or spells. Even our enemies slightly evolved and began to work. For example, attacking us magician duo and a thief can break us first into a pot with oil down to slow us down, and then burn the resulting puddle spell. These innovations have made the fight a lot more attractive than in other MMORPGs, however, translate into a lack of huge bosses at the end of PvE raids. This does not mean, however, that the latter will not be in The Elder Scrolls Online available - just instead of one, the great opponent at the end of the game will adjust the amount of enemies to the size of our group.

The intention of the creators of The Elder Scrolls Online will be maintained by one server with a very high power for each major geographical region (eg Europe, North America). This is to prevent situations in which players have to create a character from scratch, to be able to play with friends. Additionally, the ESO is to have the system automatically grouping us with other participants of similar style and preferences. On the one hand is a noble idea, the other - a project that involves a number of potential threats, like overpopulation. Fortunately, the developers still have year-round to come up with the best solution to this issue.

Course will also be made available to the area where the players battle it out with each other. So far, the only known territory PvP is Cyrodiil, the largest and most important province in Tamriel. Because it is located in the Imperial City, then it will be clashes between the factions for the throne. And they are to be truly spectacular: as the The Elder Scrolls Online uses a different engine than the earlier part, at one time on the screen you can see up to a hundred at a time. The creators promise a possibility of sieges, using catapults and take control of the individual sites.

Apart from fighting with other live players can also work with them: improve spells traps pledged by members of our alliance and increase the power of spells. Joint action is particularly useful in instances to be a very serious challenge to the lone wanderer. They will, however, be only a supplement to the rich world, which will offer The Elder Scrolls Online. First of all, for the first time since Daggerfall,gw2 gold players will be available to put more than one province. Of course, not all live up to Skyrimowi size, but does not change the fact that the territory in which we move, it looks really impressive in the plans. There are areas of known three-dimensional part of the series, and the Summerset Isle, Valenwood, and Khajiit homeland - Elsweyr. In particular areas of the city we find that we visited in previous versions - the creators have already shown screenshots showing Rift, Chorrol, Imperial City and Wichrowy Tron.......

ArenaNet Teases GW2 November Content

Just as ArenaNet has closed the doors on it’s Guild Wars 2 Halloween Celebration, titled “The Shadow of the Mad King“, they have opened the door of something new. Late last night, on the buy guild wars 2 gold game’s website, ArenaNet published a new page for ingame releases, including a teaser of this month’s big patch. We now know that the patch, which is planned for mid-November, is called “The Lost Shores“, and will take place in the Sea of Sorrows, presumably on some sort of tropical island.

There are a number of beautiful screen shots showing of some deadly looking reptiles, lovely steam springs, and a foreboding coastline, but these pale in comparison to another bit of information presented on the site

November 2012

Something stirs in the Sea of Sorrows…

Unravel a mystery of monstrous proportions in The Lost Shores, a massive one-time world event that will change Tyria forever!

What this one-time world event will be is anyone’s guess at this point, but other clues have started to appear in the game. Dead whales have started appearing on the beaches of Lion’s Arch, and a number of signs, quickly translated by followers of the gw2 gold game on Reddit, have hinted at dangerous creatures coming on the horizon. It seems that players of Guild Wars 2 will simply have to wait and see what happens…<source>

GW2: Win Dragon T-Shirt - Large drawing on 11/01/2012

This Thursday, the 01.11.2012 against 20 clock this year's Halloween event ends with Guild Wars 2 Sadly, soon einkehrt normality in Tyria? Then you sweeten the farewell but with an in-game Dragon T-shirt that you can win with a little luck in our virtual Lottery booth.

From tomorrow we are giving away codes for the "shirt with dragon emblem," which can be redeemed in the game. Open their doors to our virtual Lottery booth will end in time for the Halloween Event this Thursday, 01/11/2012 the clock by 20.

All you need to dust off a T-shirt is luck ... and a Gameplorer.de account! If you're not yet registered with us, it is best to get the same in order to be prepared for tomorrow: Register now for free! Run exactly like the whole thing is, you learn it tomorrow at 20 clock. Definitely time for us to stop by GuildWarsCore.de because the lots are limited!

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