Do you want statesman to return?

[Zhym]

There are a lot of great story ideas in this thread.  Anyone want to write them up in AE?  @Darmian?  @cranebump?  @Ankylosaur?

 

("Are you crazy?  I'm way too busy!" messages incoming in 3...2...1...)

[PhotriusPyrelus]

I am not voting, but I'll give an opinion on the whole thing:

I want Stateman - and Sister Psyche - to have never been killed in the first place.
I think it'd dumb that IRL office/business-politics got tied up into the story.  I don't care how much of a DB the IRL Statesman may have been, anger towards him need not be taken out on the character (and the player base who liked the character).
I think killing super heroes is lame, and bringing them back is generally even lamer.

I am interested to eventually hear your idea to bring him back, though.

[Snarky]

7 hours ago, Glacier Peak said:

I see Statesman every time I login. 

[Snarky]

41 minutes ago, PhotriusPyrelus said:

I think it'd dumb that IRL office/business-politics got tied up into the story.  I don't care how much of a DB the IRL Statesman may have been, anger towards him need not be taken out on the character (and the player base who liked the character).

so satisfying though

[srmalloy]

7 hours ago, Yoru-hime said:

the "What about Superman?" question for every story that reaches a certain scale.

To really drag in cross-franchise aspects... "Stupefy! Petrificus Totalis!" Now Superman's not available to bail things out. Having that great gaping vulnerability to magic can be a bitch sometimes, like the original version of Moment of Glory, where you healed to full, dropped to 10% HP, and became 90% resistant to all damage but Psionic -- which essentially meant you were effectively the same as you were for most damage, but taking 10x damage from Psionic; I still don't understand why Cryptic thought that was a good power design.

[Maelwys]

22 minutes ago, srmalloy said:

I still don't understand why Cryptic thought that was a good power design.

The same reason they thought hiding the mechanics of what the powers actually do from the players was a good idea.

 

Never give the guy in the red pyjamas and tinfoil hat free reign over the leadership decisions.

 

 

[Jacke]

I think a punk like Darren Wade taking out Statesman is just wrong.

 

Be that as it may, I want Statesman to come back as a Ghost.  And have all the Ghostly Paragon City and Rogue Island NPCs start hanging out somewhere.

 

Maybe give Ghost Statesman give out a new Task Force.

 

EDIT: Same for Sister Psyche.  If anyone can come back as Ghosts, those two should.

 

 

Edited December 2 by Jacke

[cranebump]

17 hours ago, Zhym said:

There are a lot of great story ideas in this thread.  Anyone want to write them up in AE?  @Darmian?  @cranebump?  @Ankylosaur?

 

("Are you crazy?  I'm way too busy!" messages incoming in 3...2...1...)

I did my own particular spin on Statesman at the end of the Mobius epic, so…NOT IT!:-)

[Snarky]

13 hours ago, Maelwys said:

The same reason they thought hiding the mechanics of what the powers actually do from the players was a good idea.

 

Never give the guy in the red pyjamas and tinfoil hat free reign over the leadership decisions.

 

 

[Enchantica]

Well, I wished it were otherwise. Rest in peace

[cranebump]

20 minutes ago, Enchantica said:

Well, I wished it were otherwise. Rest in peace

I'd much rather have Statesman standing where Miss Liberty is, but I guess them's the breaks. That said, if I were to approach a way of returning him to the game, the depowered option would be the way I'd go. Make him a Longbow Coordinator or something. Maybe he's over there in the Isles, butting heads with Manticore and his Wyvern faction (and trying to redeem Recluse).

[Zhym]

41 minutes ago, cranebump said:

I'd much rather have Statesman standing where Miss Liberty is, but I guess them's the breaks.

I’d rather have Back Alley Brawler where Ms. Liberty is standing.  Doesn’t seem fair that he’s relegated to a far corner (a…back alley?) of AP while she’s in both AP and IP.

 

But Statesman should be in Echo:AP, at the least.

Edited December 1 by Zhym

[TheMoneyMaker]

Heroes never die.

 

Except when they do.

 

No one ever stays dead in comics.

 

True, but it's not Statesman's time to come back. He should wait until City of Heroes 2: City Harder.

[Snarky]

Hey maybe everyone can get what they want?

 

We bring stateman back.  Well sort of.  We pot up a Stateman dummy outside AP city hall and let everyone test their DPS powers on him!

Edited December 1 by Snarky

[Zhym]

4 hours ago, Snarky said:

Hey maybe everyone can get what they want?

 

We bring stateman back.  Well sort of.  We pot up a Stateman dummy outside AP city hall and let everyone test their DPS powers on him!

Come to think of it—there are a lot of statues around.  And they're all remarkably clean.

 

Are there no pigeons at all in Paragon City?

[twospirited]

if you're going to bring statesman back, swap out atlas for galaxy too please.

as to the npc in game, let him stay dead.

[BurtHutt]

I haven't read this thread. Leave him dead. It was a last ditch effort to generate interest in the game and I don't think it worked. Nor was it worth it. Sad but this is what happens when you're literally under the gun.

 

I believe there was an AMA Matt Miller thing where he was absolutely wanting to bring him back. Well, not the same guy but ....I won't ruin it if anyone wants to go look it up.

 

Anyway, I think it's really dumb to do anything linear in an MMO or game to that extent. Leave him be and forget about it. Make new heroes and missions and so on...

[Zhym]

26 minutes ago, BurtHutt said:

I haven't read this thread.

 

...

 

I believe there was an AMA Matt Miller thing where he was absolutely wanting to bring him back. Well, not the same guy but ....I won't ruin it if anyone wants to go look it up.

 

Had you read the thread, you might have seen that someone posted a link to that very AMA.

 

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/54934-do-you-want-statesman-to-return/#findComment-692180

[High_Beam]

I am in the camp of having Statesman remaining dead, nothing against him and certainly nothing against Jack.  My things is dead should be dead unless there is a really really super good reason.  The lame ass crap some comics pull to bring back characters that they capped then realized oops, the fans didn't like that just effs up legacies. Make new icons, elevate existing ones.  There are enough bad decisions out there in comics and in game with regards to story.

 

Psyche too, wearing those wretched platform boots, she deserved to die 🙂

Edited December 2 by High_Beam
Gratuitous Sister Psyche wardrobe attack.

[Britannic]

Marcus Cole (Tyrant included) shouldn't come back, no. That doesn't preclude someone else taking up the job, either as "Statesman" or their own hero identity. Ms Liberty would probably be the obvious choice for either case.

Edited December 2 by Britannic

[PhotriusPyrelus]

6 minutes ago, Britannic said:

Marcus Cole (Tyrant included) shouldn't come back, no. That doesn't preclude someone else taking up the job, either as "Statesman" or their own hero identity. Ms Liberty would probably be the obvious choice for either case.

"Mantle" shit is even worse than killing super heroes.

[megaericzero]

My two cents: I prefer having the red-white-and-blue boy scout (Superman, Captain America, Optimus Prime, All-Might, Statesman) and I think killing Statesman (and Sister Psyche) was a dumb stunt to drum-up interest from the shock factor which, sure, comics do all the time but that doesn't make it a good decision, but I wholly agree that death should mean something and the decision should be treated with finality in mind because flippant resurrections completely undermine the death and anything that stemmed from it in the first place.

 

Like Photrius, I would prefer he didn't die in the first place but that bridge has already been crossed. Given the mentions of the dev AMA, it would be nice to have him return via Tyrant getting a redemption. It would, however, need to be a carefully planned road with him starting depowered from the Well and working his way back up from rock-bottom both in physical strength and in his character so that he deserves it by the end, and metered out in a way that he doesn't steal the spotlight from the player during or after. A very tight squeeze.

Edited December 2 by megaericzero

[BasiliskXVIII]

The challenge for me is that even as someone who read the novels, and followed the comics, it's really hard to give a crap about Statesman. He was a golden-age inspired flying brick whose main point of interest when compared to similar characters like Superman or Captain Marvel/Shazam is that he seemed to occasionally be kind of a dick. The "Who Will Die" arc was a dumb stunt to drive interest, but Statesman never really had enough character development for me to "miss" having him around beyond perhaps a vague interest in the idea that maybe something interesting could happen to him.  Sister Psyche was slightly better developed, since she did have at least a more prominent role in the comics, but not by a lot.

 

Please, please spare me the "Tyrant takes over as Statesman" arc, though. There's enough psychotic fascists taking centre stage in real life, I really don't need them in my escapism.

[Techwright]

10 hours ago, Zhym said:

I’d rather have Back Alley Brawler where Ms. Liberty is standing.  Doesn’t seem fair that he’s relegated to a far corner (a…back alley?) of AP while she’s in both AP and IP.

 

But Statesman should be in Echo:AP, at the least.

 

Don't forget that both are also in Fort Trident.  Well, pretty much everyone has forgotten Fort Trident, despite it's potential usefulness.  😔

2 hours ago, BasiliskXVIII said:

The challenge for me is that even as someone who read the novels, and followed the comics, it's really hard to give a crap about Statesman. He was a golden-age inspired flying brick whose main point of interest when compared to similar characters like Superman or Captain Marvel/Shazam is that he seemed to occasionally be kind of a dick. The "Who Will Die" arc was a dumb stunt to drive interest, but Statesman never really had enough character development for me to "miss" having him around beyond perhaps a vague interest in the idea that maybe something interesting could happen to him.  Sister Psyche was slightly better developed, since she did have at least a more prominent role in the comics, but not by a lot.

 

Please, please spare me the "Tyrant takes over as Statesman" arc, though. There's enough psychotic fascists taking centre stage in real life, I really don't need them in my escapism.

 

Just for discussion's sake, taking the side of reviving Statesman:  it's exactly what could be improved in reviving him.  Give the guy a really interesting character development.  He's been dead. No need to stick 100% to his old nature, such as there was.  This is a chance for him to grow.  

[BasiliskXVIII]

2 hours ago, Techwright said:

Just for discussion's sake, taking the side of reviving Statesman:  it's exactly what could be improved in reviving him.  Give the guy a really interesting character development.  He's been dead. No need to stick 100% to his old nature, such as there was.  This is a chance for him to grow.  

 

Sure, there's room to improve his characterisation going forward, but they could also just as easily introduce a new character who is interesting on their own merits. As it stands, it just kinda feels like bringing him back is like going to some random statue, and bringing the person depicted back to life without any real justification for it other than the statue is kinda cool.

 

I think, if it came down to a question of "we need to reform Statesman's character" then we would be a lot better served by an arc where we're given a chances to see who Statesman was and why he was so beloved. Whether it's a time travel arc, or something like Portal Corp going "Oh, here's another parallel Earth, this one is exactly identical to ours, but time runs slightly slower so it's the 1950s here", it'd make a lot more sense to me to build up the payoff to Who Will Die than to stroke it out and pretend it didn't happen.