Oh anguish of indecision!

[sinanju]

Loyal readers* may recall me opining that I would not be buying City of Heroes, the MMORPG of Superheroic Action. I've been content with Battlefield: 1942. And COH has characters with levels, who have to gain experience, and then can buy additional powers, or enhance existing ones, and fight progressively more difficult foes as they gain in power. Sounds like too much of a time sink for the return, given my on again, off again playing style (I'll obsess for a while, then drift away, lather, rinse, repeat).

One of the things I like about BF1942 is that it lacks experience points and levels and all the characters are functionally identical, aside from equipment. Sure, Villy Vonka (to name one online buddy I play with/against) will kick my ass all day everyday without breaking a sweat. He's got countless more hours of time logged in the game than I'll ever have, and he's hell on wheels playing--the Engineer class (single-shot rifle, grenades, mines and explosive packs for blowing things up and setting traps) in particular, as that's his favorite. But he pwns me right, left and center because he's just better at the game than I am. But he doesn't have a higher-level character. He doesn't have better stats, or more powers, or more or better weapons. He just kicks ass 'cause he's that good.

And I like that. Mostly. It means that a victory is due to real skill and luck, not to having better stuff or a better character. It also means that a novice player can hop onto a server and play on an equal footing with everyone else. On the other hand, it means that if I'm getting trounced over and over and over again, it's because I suck. That's not so much fun. But it's the cold, hard truth.

But. But, but, but. There's a long thread on COH on the Hero Games forum. aikon is posting about his adventures with the game. And now, dammit, I'm tempted. It sounds like it's very BF1942-like in that you can get on the server and play hard for a couple of hours, then sign off again. And apparently they've got a "sidekick" system that lets newbies or otherwise low-level characters hang around with higher-level characters and fight on a par with them, so if Larry has a 20th level superhero, Moe's 3rd level superhero can fight alongside him as effectively an 18th level superhero, so they both have fun. No deathmatch for Moe, no boring cakewalk villains for Larry.

Dammit. I don't need another timesink. To say nothing of monthly online charges.

But...it sounds like it could be fun.


*well, reader anyhow (hi, snippy, my love!)

Comments

[aquamarcia.livejournal.com]

All I can really tell you is that CoH is just a damn good game, and I've avoided MMORPGs up until now (in part because the only MMORPG I knew anything about until recently was Everquest, and I thought it looked stupid). And though it is, like any other game, something of a timesink, I like that there's less overall commitment to a particular style of play that is itself time-consumptive. You can run solo, temporarily team-up, join a supergroup, do all three, and generally play as much or as little as you like for time periods as long or short as you like. I mean, while I might feel glued to the game out of enjoyment, I've not yet felt glued to the game because of some kind of commitment, which is something I like a lot.

Another friend of mine is trying to get me into America's Army, but he tells me the game requires 15 hours of basic training in solo mode before you go online to play. Ouch. Maybe I'll do it, maybe not. With CoH on my PC, I think maybe not.

Get thee behind me, Aikon!

[sinanju.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've heard some good things about America's Army, but going thru the "basic training" isn't one of them. On the other hand, the game apparently stresses teamwork (Rambo wannabes get killed quick), and you get one--count 'em, ONE--life per map/mission, just like in real life. If you go cowboying off and get killed quick, you're out of the game for a while.

I like BF1942 for the reasons I mentioned. Quick to play, no training session, everyone has the same abilities and weapons (well, for your speciality--regular grunt, medic, scout/sniper, engineer, etc.). I'm strongly tempted by COH, but it would be an investment of time and money I'm not sure I can justify right now.

[amand-r.livejournal.com]

Dude, man, this is exactly like some of my husband's lj entries. I see all the words, but what I hear in my head when he's talking is "blah blah blah blah."

Oh well. It's all okay.