City of Heroes

It’s probably been 15 years since I last played City of Heroes… and now it’s come back. Should I?

I haven’t played the Ship of Heroes beta in awhile, and I entirely missed the previous housing beta. I wasn’t going to make that same mistake twice; when I got the offer to join the superhero MMOs second housing beta, I signed right up and dove right in. To recap a little, Ship of Heroes is a superhero MMO that invokes the classic superhero MMO, City of Heroes – except instead of being set in a city, it is set on a giant spaceship, within which is a city. ...

City of Heroes INNN SPAAAAAAACE MMO Ship of Heroes posted an update on this summer’s “MIssion Beta”, in which I and apparently many, many others participated… Just boppin’ along… One item that came up again and again in their post was the lack of difficult content. Now, I played through the showcase mission arc solo, and didn’t have a lot of trouble. I did pick up on the consumable boosters, which weren’t clearly explained, and that helped me get through some of the tougher fights. Carefully splitting groups using the terrain to block NPCs or just sending in a ranged attack from maximum range meant I never felt overwhelmed, when the superhero ethos is all about barreling in and making a big splash. ...

It’s Developer Appreciation week. Whenever these come up, I really don’t know what to say. The games I’ve played have changed my life. When things were darkest, they maybe even saved my life. MMOs, in particular, have made it easy for me to “find my people”. I’ve played with the same group of people now for more years than I care to count. My daughter married someone she met in EverQuest. I’m living with someone I met there. ...

I don’t play every MMO that comes out – not by a longshot. But, I follow a lot of gamers, streamers, and game developers, and between me and them, I see a lot of discussion about the new MMOs that come down the pike. Crowfall was released a couple of weeks ago. Suddenly, everyone was talking about it. And then, suddenly everyone was not. What did it all mean? I asked Google Trends to help me analyze searches for a dozen or so MMOs to help understand what all was going on with MMOs today. ...

I suck at predictions, but everyone else is doing them. Luckily, I have a Magic 8 Ball. I’m just gonna list some games, and ask the Magic 8 Ball what it thinks of them. Question to the 8 Ball for all of these games: Will this game have a good year in 2011? Age of Conan: “Outlook Not So Good”. AoC released its first expansion, “Ride of the Godslayer”, last summer, and that’s pretty much the last I’ve heard of the game. I don’t think the Magic 8 Ball is correct; I think Funcom is content to support their current player base without feeling the need to go F2P. Their massively hyped launch should have helped them recoup their development costs years ago. ...

I long ago pre-ordered SOE’s DC Universe Online, but this was my first opportunity to play it, in beta, on the PC. Though it’s on the PC, the little picture hints and controls clearly expect you to be using a PS3 controller to play the game. I don’t have a PS3 controller, but I do have a XBox controller, so I plugged it in and away I went. ...

The Imperial Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor 69 years ago today. Now we’re having a little payback at the expense of the whole world. I know a lot of people who plan to take days off to play their way through the entire expansion as quickly as they can. My cousin Tom even (jokingly, I hope), regretting that he had to work, thought he might let his son take the day off from school to play. ...

Saturday, I linked to a raid force taking down some old Kunark and Velious mobs. That got me into the game to try and see if I could find any of those same bosses - Cazic Thule, Faydedar, Trakanon and Velketor the Sorceror - up. As far as I know, CT and Faydedar, in their original forms, are no longer in the game. Trakanon had been killed just moments before I got to his lair. Velketor was up, though, and I’ve embedded a video of our meeting at the end. ...

Sean E asked me why I wasn’t playing Dungeons and Dragons Online. I hear DDO and I think “hey, another fantasy MMO with wizards and stuff”. Why add a twenty-first to the twenty I already play or have played? And who has that kind of time? I guess it depends on who you play with; in an MMO, it’s more about the company you keep than the merits of the game. ...