Why the rush to 50?

[Winter]

We live in a world of instant gratification.  Order something online, you can usually get it within 48 hours.  Watching a show, you can watch the whole season in a few sittings rather than having to wait every week for a new episode.  Want to find a date?  Swipe right, bang, you're a stud.

 

The past sounds terrible.

 

The past always sounds terrible by the present standards.  To people listening to iPods in 2005, walking around with a big clunky Discman or Walkman seemed laughable.  Now we think about having to carry both a cell phone AND an MP3 player in 2005 and it sounds like a chore.  I am in no way suggesting that "the good ol' days" are behind us, simply that the current video game market (both what is being made and what a large part of the gamer population is playing) has moved away from the structure that CoH was designed and operating on at the end of 2012.

 

I did it for my main because I was recreating him from Live. I really just wanted my main back to where I had left off with him.

My others, I am taking my time with and playing with them.

 

I am doing the same thing, making an effort to find story lines that I never touched on Live, but I just want my one main toon back to where he was.

[PaxArcana]

When you rush to 50, you miss a ton of lore and fun things to see/hear.

Just about all of the 1-20 stuff, and a large chunk of the 21-30 stuff, I've already done multiple times.

 

I've only had one 50, on redside, and that was before Incarnate stuff (I left just as i14 was about to hit).

 

...

 

I'd really like to get back there, with a similar build, so I can experience what that character missed.  The only reason I'm not rushing/farming/PLing there, is because this time I'm playing him on Blueside.  (Where I've seen none of the 40+ content yet, also.)

[Jeneki]

I see lots of invites for farming and other power-leveling.

I just make my own teams.

 

"(blue 15+) Running story missions in Faultline, pst for invite"

 

Or whatever.  I've had no issues finding teammates, even during off hours.

 

As for what you're "missing", it's more of the same with different stories.  Mixing high and low level content keeps things interesting for me at least.  As the saying goes, everything in moderation.

[MunkiLord]

We live in a world of instant gratification.  Order something online, you can usually get it within 48 hours.  Watching a show, you can watch the whole season in a few sittings rather than having to wait every week for a new episode.  Want to find a date?  Swipe right, bang, you're a stud.

 

The past sounds terrible.

 

The past always sounds terrible by the present standards.  To people listening to iPods in 2005, walking around with a big clunky Discman or Walkman seemed laughable.  Now we think about having to carry both a cell phone AND an MP3 player in 2005 and it sounds like a chore.  I am in no way suggesting that "the good ol' days" are behind us, simply that the current video game market (both what is being made and what a large part of the gamer population is playing) has moved away from the structure that CoH was designed and operating on at the end of 2012.

 

In all fairness, as great as CDs were, walking around with a Discman was always pretty terrible. Couldn't listen to Boyz II Men II without it skipping all the damn time! I also remember when I first wanted a pager that my mom said only drug dealers used pagers. Then I got my driver's license and she changed her mind.

 

Those brain on drugs commercials were funny though.

[DSorrow]

I'm in no particular hurry to get to 50, but that doesn't mean I won't try to get there in an efficient manner. I have a couple of characters at varying levels and I'm mainly leveling them through TFs with DXP and this way it takes me roughly 2-3 weeks to get from 1 to 50. A rushed pace to some, slow to others but a pretty good middle ground between taking forever and not PLing to me.

 

That said, I'm probably not too far off from PLing my characters into the 20s rather than doing the whole 1 to 50 thing, and if I were to recreate more of my original 50s I'd probably be tempted to skip all the way.

[FenrisWolf44]

Well, I have no wish to remake my old 50's. I just imagine they retired, are running some organisation somewhere, or got married and settled down :) But that's the roleplayer in me.

 

Chalk me up as one of the, not in any rush. My highest is 43, and I probably won't hit a 50 anytime soon, I'll get there when I get there. I still like the slow levelling process, the joy of getting a new level. Even though I've done it dozens of times before.

 

But everyone wants to play how they want. If it isn't affecting your game, and it shouldn't. What does it matter what other people do? I'm just happy the game exists again, after being dead and buried so long. I'll enjoy it while it's still around, could vanish again tomorrow, and not worry how others play, none of my concern.

[Yomo Kimyata]

When I was a teenager, I went on a class trip to Trance.  One day in Paris, we were running behind schedule.  “Welcome to the Louvre,” our guide said.  “The world’s largest museum.  Over a million works of art.”

 

He checked his watch.  “Meet me back here in 15 minutes.  I ran and in 15 minutes saw the Mona Lisa, Winged Victory and Venus de Milo.  Then we have to leave.

 

A few years ago, we went back to Paris and spend six hours in the Louvre.

 

I can imagine going to the Louvre so many times that I would want to break my 15 minute speed run, but I’m pretty sure that by that point I’d probably just stop going to the museum.

 

Anyway, play how you want.  If it’s not adversely affecting others, have at it. 

[swordchucks]

I tried running all of the mission arcs as they came.  To accomplish that on Homecoming, you have to kind of know what level things happen at and then turn off experience repeatedly.  That was... a bit too much trouble for me.  I'd rather get to 50 and run everything as flashbacks.

[Jon]

There's nothing you can do 1-49 that you can't do on a level 50 character, but there is plenty of stuff you can only do on a level 50 character that characters with levels 1-49 cannot participate in.

[Robotech_Master]

There's nothing you can do 1-49 that you can't do on a level 50 character, but there is plenty of stuff you can only do on a level 50 character that characters with levels 1-49 cannot participate in.

Well, nearly nothing. You can't get lower-level Safeguard missions through Ouroboros. You have to find someone actually of that level and go along with them if you want to get the exploration badges from those.

[Herotu]

The big reason to get one character to 50 quickly is that you acquire a lot of inf at 50, also you can start working on an attuned build and ouroboros everything you missed anyway.

[Razia]

Back in the early days of CoH, my buddy hit level 50 for the first time. He grabbed the mission "Arrest the Airplane Attack Commander" from Crimson, and we never did it. There were always better things to do with our 50s than some random Malta mission for Crimson. Seven years later, CoH was shutting down, and we finally did that mission that'd been sitting in his mission list for almost the life of the game. But it turns out that Arrest the Airplane Attack Commander is one of those chain missions where you immediately get another mission after completing it; obviously I was uninterested in some random Malta mission with no particular significance to us, so I said, "Whatever, we'll do it seven years from now." The seven-year anniversary of the shutdown is coming fast, and we gotta get him back to 50 and keep that appointment!

 

This series of mission leads to some of the best things ever, at least it was in the early days of CoH.

[blayzemaster]

There's nothing you can do 1-49 that you can't do on a level 50 character, but there is plenty of stuff you can only do on a level 50 character that characters with levels 1-49 cannot participate in.

Well, nearly nothing. You can't get lower-level Safeguard missions through Ouroboros. You have to find someone actually of that level and go along with them if you want to get the exploration badges from those.

 

Actually you can now - if you get the Hero Slater or Villain Disrupter badge you can get a contact who will allow you to go and do them.

[Williwaw]

Because I've ALREADY leveled these characters to 50 the normal way, and I'm already leveling four more characters the normal way, and there's only so much stuff to do 1-20 before I want to do something else for a while.

 

Also, some of my favorite content is at 50.

 

This, basically.

 

But in addition, there's also that - especially with my villains - I often base them indirectly on some established character (not a copy, you understand, just inspiration), and, lemme tell you... I hate origin stories.  I want to play the character when they're at the height of their power and showing everyone what they're capable of, not when they're some half-trained yutz in danger of getting KO'd by a street thug with a stick.

[Tanzier]

I think for me the most enjoyable part of the game is playing different characters, powers, ATs etc.  On my main I spend a bit of time on incarnate and endgame stuff just so I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything there, but to me it's mostly a lot of work that isn't worth it.  If I want to get her fully cranked out I'm looking at hours more leveling for incarnate slots and salvage, hours planning out the right build, WAY MORE hours farming influence and buying the stuff I need to kit out those IOs.  All for what .. bigger numbers on the screen?  So I can farm +4/8 instead of -1/8?  To me none of this compares to the enjoyment of getting even 1 new power when leveling a toon, or having a menu of different 50s I can play depending on my mood.

 

So I rush some of those to 50 so I get to actually experience those sets/ATs fully.  If I'm being honest .. I also could really give a rats arse about story and content.  I just think the powers are cool and I like to kill stuff.. especially en masse.  I farmed my brute to 50 on the same AE mission over and over again, and as soon as I could handle /8s, I loved every second of it.  I also love running in full teams filled with tons of mobs and chaos.  As most here have said .. to each their own.  That's the beauty of this game - there are SO many different ways to enjoy it.

 

 

[Apogee]

Personally, I am in no rush to get to 50 (my highest is level 23). I enjoy the early game, and don't mind not being at full power. Currently I am running numerous alts through Praetoria, doing all of the undercover/double agent stories and having a blast. Heck, most of the time I have xp shut off so I wont out level contacts. Sure I could blow through it and come back through Oro later to complete everything but that's not how I want to play. I guess I prefer the journey more than the destination.

 

To quote Daniel Jackson, "Anyway I’m sorry, but that just happens to be how I feel about it. What do you think?"

[Scarlet Shocker]

My take on the game is perhaps not the same as most. I find the game solo is fundamentally less satisfying than many other games designed for the solo experience. I love this game, but it's much better in a team.

 

I also find that although there's a lot of "entry level" content, some of it's pretty difficult to access, again, doubly so, solo. And many players want to get to 50 as quick as they can, just because they can. I won't say I've never done that (mostly with concept characters I want to use in high level experiences) but I find it pretty frustrating.

 

I love the "normal speed" journey to 50, if I have a character I'm enjoying. If not I will PL through some levels just to see if it changes/improves. But my typical experience is to play it to 50, learn its quirks, foibles and interesting abilities, then IOs and Incarnate.

 

Sometimes it takes getting to 50 to realise it's a bucket of puke and then it'll get deleted. But I'll have given myself time to make an informed decision.

 

If I could get more prople interested in content runners, I'd be very happy but I tried doing a thing in Praetoria, and got a few people who said they'd join but nobody showed so, meh. Apathy is dull.

 

 

[Dissention]

I enjoy badging myself and I find it so much easier to do at 50.

Plus I enjoy messing around with builds another thing I find easier to do with access to all my powers, etc.

I think it comes down to different people like to play different ways.

Everyone should just enjoy the game the way they want to play.

[Blackbird71]

We live in a world of instant gratification.  Order something online, you can usually get it within 48 hours.  Watching a show, you can watch the whole season in a few sittings rather than having to wait every week for a new episode.  Want to find a date?  Swipe right, bang, you're a stud.

 

The past sounds terrible.

 

Have you ever heard the expression, "Good things come to those who wait?" 

 

It's true.

[GritIron]

Different strokes.

 

Some are regaining what they feel they 'lost'.

Others just like to make cool builds that need to be 50 to finish.

PvP players just power through the PvE to get to the part they like.

Some people have done the leveling content enough it's boring to them.

 

The list goes on and on, there is no one reason other than different people enjoy different things.

This.

 

Also, because you can as well.

[Zolgar]

We live in a world of instant gratification.  Order something online, you can usually get it within 48 hours.  Watching a show, you can watch the whole season in a few sittings rather than having to wait every week for a new episode.  Want to find a date?  Swipe right, bang, you're a stud.

 

The past sounds terrible.

 

Have you ever heard the expression, "Good things come to those who wait?" 

 

It's true.

 

Yes, because having to set your life around a TV show, to set aside a block of time, one day a week, every week is optimal.

Waiting 2 weeks to get an item ordered online is just great for .. uh...

 

... yeah, no. Patience and waiting has exactly nothing to do with "good things". Yes, some things require patience, some things require waiting, but not every aspect of life. I am not going to enjoy that book I ordered on Amazon any less because I got it in 1 day instead of 7. I'm not going to enjoy Stranger Things less because I can watch it at my pace, instead 1 hour a week for the next 3 months. I'm not going to have a better time on a date because I went to the bar and was shot down by 20 people before one finally said 'sure, I'll get dinner with you.'

 

Will my next painting turn out better if I take my time and am patient to allow the paint to dry between layers? Yes.

Will that pot of Chili turn out better because I let it simmer slowly for a couple hours? Of course!

Will I enjoy a character more in City of Heroes because I spend 6 months leveling them to 50 instead of 6 hours? ... not really, honestly. You might find more enjoyment out of that journey, and that's fine.

 

This whole nonsense of being an "instant gratification society" is, frankly, tripe. I am sure people said the same damn nonsense about cars becoming common place, about air travel becoming common place, about phones, about radio, etc. The speed of information, entertainment, travel and, production have all been a major focus in technological advancements for centuries.

 

 

[justicebeliever]

Yes, because having to set your life around a TV show, to set aside a block of time, one day a week, every week is optimal.

Waiting 2 weeks to get an item ordered online is just great for .. uh...

 

... yeah, no. Patience and waiting has exactly nothing to do with "good things". Yes, some things require patience, some things require waiting, but not every aspect of life. I am not going to enjoy that book I ordered on Amazon any less because I got it in 1 day instead of 7. I'm not going to enjoy Stranger Things less because I can watch it at my pace, instead 1 hour a week for the next 3 months. I'm not going to have a better time on a date because I went to the bar and was shot down by 20 people before one finally said 'sure, I'll get dinner with you.'

 

Will my next painting turn out better if I take my time and am patient to allow the paint to dry between layers? Yes.

Will that pot of Chili turn out better because I let it simmer slowly for a couple hours? Of course!

Will I enjoy a character more in City of Heroes because I spend 6 months leveling them to 50 instead of 6 hours? ... not really, honestly. You might find more enjoyment out of that journey, and that's fine.

 

This whole nonsense of being an "instant gratification society" is, frankly, tripe. I am sure people said the same damn nonsense about cars becoming common place, about air travel becoming common place, about phones, about radio, etc. The speed of information, entertainment, travel and, production have all been a major focus in technological advancements for centuries.

 

This is well said Zolgar (think that's the 2nd time in two days I've said this about you...am I going soft?).  Seriously +1 Inf.

 

The problem with little sayings like "good things come to those who wait" is that they aren't a life maxim.  Calling someone is faster and better than writing a letter in most cases.  Texting someone can be faster and better than email, in many cases.  Flying from NY to LA is better in most cases (unless you are doing a road trip - queue "Holiday Road").  Microwaving water is always faster and equal good as boiling a kettle.  Need to go 30 miles into town?  A car is faster and better than walking.  It goes on and on...

[retiarius]

I'm not getting to 50 very quickly, but it isn't so much that I'm waiting or that I have a  strong sense of patience as that I have severe alt-itis, and I don't think this is an uncommon problem.  :P

[Ultimate15]

I go back and forth with this a lot, and I think I see both sides to the coin here.

 

Obviously everyone is entitled to play the game how they want, and there is no 'one size fits all' to playing COH. On one hand, I think things like 'burnout' is definitely an issue with games like City of Heroes, and I think power leveling / farming helps with that a lot. People can only take sooooo much of that grind, and I do think that's understandable - getting those levels via a faster medium actually helps with player retention, and decreases people dropping off after the first few months. In that sense, it's a plus IMO. And I do suspect that especially now, with Homecoming, the MAJORITY of players are returning peeps whom have most likely played the game through and have experienced a majority of the content it has to offer.

 

On the other hand, I do think it's a shame that certain zones just aren't being utilized as they were back during the early years of the game. Like, back in the day? During the earlier levels? The Hollows and Perez Park would be PAAAAAACKED with people doing Frostfire, running street sweeps, etc. And now, those zones are literally more empty than the elephant graveyard in The Lion King. Which is particularly concerning b/c this was the very reason why they kinda did away w/ Galaxy - because no one was ever using it.

 

So, yeah. I'd say that's the most disappointing side of effect for me.

[Robotech_Master]

There's nothing you can do 1-49 that you can't do on a level 50 character, but there is plenty of stuff you can only do on a level 50 character that characters with levels 1-49 cannot participate in.

Well, nearly nothing. You can't get lower-level Safeguard missions through Ouroboros. You have to find someone actually of that level and go along with them if you want to get the exploration badges from those.

 

Actually you can now - if you get the Hero Slater or Villain Disrupter badge you can get a contact who will allow you to go and do them.

Yeah...If you grind out enough radio missions to have killed 25 villains. I got some help from lower level players to get the badges I was missing, and only ended up with that badge during the mission that got me my last badge. :P