Aug 26, a classic mmorpg releases. How will

[Leogunner]

6 hours ago, jubakumbi said:

I still boggle at the fact so many people have such powerful nostalgia goggles that it was actually made.

IMO, FFIV blows WoW out of the water, so 'going back' to an older version holds no attraction.

You can't play FFIV with friends.

 

Me being my centrist self, I don't see why you guys are such tribalists.  It's a game...

 

If some people go play WoW for a while, that's a break from CoH that might envigorate them if/when they return to whatever game they decide to play again.  This whole brand loyalist mentality is especially faulty when you're not even selling something.  But if you're comfortable being a crotchety old grump and stoke embers of a feud long run cold, who am I to poke fun at your illogical perspective?

 

FYI, I've never played WoW. I was a FFXI player...

[jubakumbi]

2 minutes ago, Leogunner said:

You can't play FFIV with friends.

 

Me being my centrist self, I don't see why you guys are such tribalists.  It's a game...

 

If some people go play WoW for a while, that's a break from CoH that might envigorate them if/when they return to whatever game they decide to play again.  This whole brand loyalist mentality is especially faulty when you're not even selling something.  But if you're comfortable being a crotchety old grump and stoke embers of a feud long run cold, who am I to poke fun at your illogical perspective?

 

FYI, I've never played WoW. I was a FFXI player...

The FF MMO - probably got the number wrong.

 

I played WoW as well back in the day, not brand loyalty for me, I just prefer table top for fantasy, TBH.

I have been spoiled MMO-wise since CoH came out...it has what I want...I have played pretty much all MMOs at one point or another...

[Charistoph]

I played WoW, CoH, and SW:tOR all around the same time.  I like each for different things.

 

I've played FFXI, and as someone who doesn't know how to win friends, much less influence people, it wasn't the game for me.

 

I played Vanguard, Saga of Heroes, and I found it more enjoyable than Everquest 2.  I even tried EQ 2 for free, and never got much farther than the first few levels with a character.  Vanguard was a little to group-centric for me to be able to get far, but I still enjoyed it.

 

I still play WoW, and just finished the latest Pathfinder and have basically played it for in-game currency since right after BfA launched.  I have a Vanilla and Wrath server I like to put some time on, too.  I haven't played SW:tOR too much because they are soo pay-to-play without inconveniences these days.  CoH is still the best superhero MMORPG on (or off now) the market, though.

[THEDarkTyger]

7 hours ago, GM Widower said:

He means WoW Classic, I imagine. Since the core CoH population has always been rather disdainful of WoW, I'd guess "not much, if at all".

Honestly, I predict that WoW Classic will have a surge at the beginning, but people will quickly realize just how rose-tinted those glasses are. It'll keep a core of dedicated players, but it's not going to be the smashing success a lot of the player base seems to think it will be in the long run.

[KnightSoul]

They're bringing back Women of Wrestling?!

 

How nice of WoW to finally get around to aping the last thing it didn't lift from EQ.  Some of EQ's most populous servers these days are the progression servers, but I wager its less the nostalgia and more the fact that the whole server is leveling up as a group that accounts for that.

[Primantis]

11 hours ago, Black Zot said:

Meh.  "Classic WoW" was basically "WoW before Blizzard learned how to make a genuinely good RPG".  I've played WoW intermittently from Vanilla all the way to present-day, and frankly Vanilla was garbage compared to Wrath-and-onward.

I find interesting how everyone treats Wrath like the apex of the game now. Yet, when it first launch it seemed most veteran players strongly disliked it.

 

Reminds me of how the public opinion changed on Zelda Windwaker and Mario Sunshine too.

 

For what its worth, I loved wrath. The story was back on track to finish up Frozen Throne, the atmosphere was great, the music was fantastic and the balance seemed pretty well. Some archaic design choices were finally being reverses. Albeit it was a bit on the 'easy' side, which is why I believe it got some tough love at first.

 

 

I plan on revisiting Classic purely out of curiosity to see how well it holds up. Gotta roll a Shaman and experience them during their prime baby!

Edited August 2, 2019 by Primantis

[THEDarkTyger]

4 hours ago, Primantis said:

I find interesting how everyone treats Wrath like the apex of the game now. Yet, when it first launch it seemed most veteran players strongly disliked it.

Pretty much seems to be the pattern with most expansions. It's the worst thing ever while it's live, then suddenly it's awesome a couple expansions down the road.

 

Except Warlords. #$%^ Warlords.

[Omnicron]

In a weird way, WoW is the whole reason I wound up playing CoH.

 

I was a huge Warcraft fan, and I was really looking forward to the release of WoW, to the point where I made an upgrade to my PC just so I would be able to run it when it came out. (It was my first real gaming PC: my others before that were just incidentally for gaming) However, WoW was delayed from the release date they had announced from it, so I was sitting there having blown a ton of money on this new machine and not seeing any return. And I happened to hear about CoH and I was like "yeah, I'll play that for a bit. Just until WoW finally comes out."

 

So as it turns out, I loved CoH. And at the same time I started getting more and more pessimistic about WoW. Less because of the gameplay but more because of how badly they were mangling the established Warcraft lore (as I noted, I was a big Warcraft fan). As the months went by and the game wasn't released, I became more and more invested in CoH: I joined a Supergroup and became IRL friends with the others and I got some of my IRL friends into the game as well. So when WoW finally launched, I found I had lost all enthusiasm for it. I didn't even feel like trying it anymore.

[Omnicron]

6 hours ago, Primantis said:

Reminds me of how the public opinion changed on Zelda Windwaker and Mario Sunshine too.

Or the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, for that matter.

 

It seems like people will always hate the new thing until something else comes along, then the new thing becomes the old thing and there's something new to hate again.

[jubakumbi]

10 minutes ago, Omnicron said:

It seems like people will always hate the new thing until something else comes along, then the new thing becomes the old thing and there's something new to hate again.

Wise words.

It ia fascinating and hilarious to watch in the gaming world.

 

It'a almost as if humans love to make groups based on what they all hate...

[PaxArcana]

3 hours ago, THEDarkTyger said:

Pretty much seems to be the pattern with most expansions. It's the worst thing ever while it's live, then suddenly it's awesome a couple expansions down the road.

 

Except Warlords. #$%^ Warlords.

Warlords was fine while levelling, IMO.  What ruined it (and for me, WoW entirely) is the whole "No Flying" debacle, and the absolutely, petulantly punitive way they finally put it back in.

 

"At- or Near-level-cap means you can fly now" has been a thing in WoW, longer than Vanilla was.  TBC, Wrath, Mists, Cata, all of those had "once you've done the Storyline stuff once, you're free to fly around" as a goal to work towards.

All of a sudden, new lead dev for Warlords hates flight, so "No Soup For You!"

😠 ARGH 😠

[Justisaur]

15 hours ago, jubakumbi said:

The FF MMO - probably got the number wrong.

 

I played WoW as well back in the day, not brand loyalty for me, I just prefer table top for fantasy, TBH.

I have been spoiled MMO-wise since CoH came out...it has what I want...I have played pretty much all MMOs at one point or another...

The marvel game scratched the itch fairly well, it wasn't as good obviously, but I did like playing squirrel girl and captain america, and a little bit some of the other characters, but the microtransaction stuff was pretty annoying, having to pay just to store your loot, and unlock character slots,  And all the GD loot management!  I didn't like CoH's enhancements much, but they're way better than dealing with the loot mess that that game had.

 

DC was pretty fun in the early levels, but I got pointed by the game to missions that were way beyond my abilities and decimated, and found the whole thing too confusing after a bit, the character creator was possibly as good as CoH and I made a couple of characters reminiscent of my CoH favorites.  If I'd had friends there who could've showed me the ropes there it probably would've been better.  I didn't stick around long, probably less than a month.

 

Warframe is the only one I've played that in many ways I felt was better than CoH.  Real easy to get in groups for most things (like how the lfg tab should work,) smaller groups, shorter mission times that I could complete in 15-20 minutes.  Some ability to fly or at least leap and run around fast.  Superpowers and an huge variety of guns and weapons.  A very interesting and engaging story (far beyond anything CoH has I think.)  Altitis paradise since you effectively get to play a large variety of supers but yet you're all the same person and have an overall level on that person.  I'm not a big graphics whore, but the graphics are way better too.   I played 6 months without ever feeling I was grinding (which is the major complaint people have about the game,) but then got to the point I either would've had to dump a bunch of money in it or grind for eternity to make much more progress, and that's what finally did it in for me.  I consider myself more taking a break than done with it, but the thought of going back for more grinding doesn't appeal, so not sure I'll ever be going back. 

[VanCorp]

On 8/1/2019 at 3:55 PM, Black Zot said:

Meh.  "Classic WoW" was basically "WoW before Blizzard learned how to make a genuinely good RPG".  I've played WoW intermittently from Vanilla all the way to present-day, and frankly Vanilla was garbage compared to Wrath-and-onward.

As someone who's played Blizzard games for 25 years (since Warcraft: Orcs and Humans and every title since), I'll take that old Blizzard over the Activision sock puppet that did Diablo 3, HoTS, Overwatch, and the last three WoW expansions.

Especially with the absolute crap happening to Overwatch on Sept 1st.

Edited August 2, 2019 by VanCorp

[THEDarkTyger]

9 hours ago, PaxArcana said:

Warlords was fine while levelling, IMO.  What ruined it (and for me, WoW entirely) is the whole "No Flying" debacle, and the absolutely, petulantly punitive way they finally put it back in.

And they've done it every gorram expansion since. Some people say it's fine because it's a one and done that unlocks flying in the zones for your whole account, but I'd rather just pay.

[WumpusRat]

I played WoW a good bit when it came out, splitting my time between that and CoH. I played it semi-regularly up until the release of the first expansion, but by then I was so bored of it that I left and didn't look back for a long time. I tried it out again a couple of years ago for a bit, but it just doesn't have the same feeling of exploration and interest that it used to. So I only ended up sticking around for like 3 weeks, then left again.

 

But now that CoH is back up, I'm here full-time. :)

[Charistoph]

3 hours ago, THEDarkTyger said:

And they've done it every gorram expansion since. Some people say it's fine because it's a one and done that unlocks flying in the zones for your whole account, but I'd rather just pay.

I like the principle of it, but I find the methods to meet the rep grinds with obnoxious pain.  Warlords was the worst, and Legion was rough, with BfA actually managing to be a LITTLE helpful instead of targeted obnoxiousness.  I found that running a Human as my first character through made it just enough faster for looking so boring.  I probably should have pushed my Hunter to be first, but my Death Knight can tank, so he gets dungeon queues faster to finish certain decent quest rewards.

Edited August 3, 2019 by Charistoph

[VanCorp]

If I'm going to be honest, it isn't Classic WoW in August that will severely cut down any play time I dedicate to City of Heroes, but rather Borderlands 3 in September. The wife could not get back into CoH with Homecoming. In a lot of ways, the old magic is gone since what made CoH for us was our SG, the people, and the friends we made. 

In the 7 years from sunset to Homecoming becoming public, those people are long gone. The couple we remained friends with through social media have aged the same as we have (I'm 46). We're not the same people anymore. We don't even game the same anymore. One of them returned to Homecoming for a while, but time had simply moved on.

 

Borderlands, though? We're big Boderlands fans. That's where our play time will be in September. Probably replaying BL 2 a bit as well.

We actually don't play WoW, or Blizzard games at all, anymore. The Bnet launcher was removed the day Overwatch announced forced 2-2-2 Role Queue going live on September 1st.

[Hyperstrike]

The thing is, CoH has a history of being extremely friendly to casual play.
There were multitudinous incidents of people leaving the game for weeks, months, even years sometimes, playing a bunch of other things, then coming back to CoH.

So, if you're gonna go off and fiddle with another game for a while?  Cool.
We'll still be here when you get back!

[justicebeliever]

On 8/1/2019 at 4:52 PM, Leogunner said:

But if you're comfortable being a crotchety old grump

Can I just be this?  Do I have to stoke embers of rivalries between videogames I've never played?

[Sanguinesun]

On ‎8‎/‎2‎/‎2019 at 1:19 AM, wjrasmussen said:

Affect our population? I have no plans to play it.  Anyone else have thoughts about it? Anyone going to play it?

 

To say that there wouldn't be (as was here) an explosion of players and thus more than likely a portion of this player base spending more time there would be disingenuous.

 

However, long term, I don't see any correlative theory crafting that would suggest such would spell doom for CoH by any means.  After all, Homecoming isn't for profit in intentions unlike the motivations for WoW Classic.  That alone causes comparative concerns to rather miniscule.

 

But people always chase the new shinies and then go back to something else.  Be it WoWC, Borderlands 3, etc etc

Edited August 3, 2019 by Sanguinesun

[madpoet67]

I played WoW for many, many years... I went back and forth between CoH and WoW until CoH shut down then went full time WoW. Oddly though, I didn't start WoW at launch. I waited until Burning Crusade. Reason: All the people on the original CoH forums badmouthing WoW made me think it MUST suck! I remember the constant references to "World of Walking", etc...

 

That's my nostalgia moment for today... 🙂

 

[DR_Mechano]

A lot of the WoW classic hype is driven by streamers/influencers who have rose tinted goggles for days gone by and the whole 'Classic was difficult lol' thing. People like Asmongold, Preach, Nixxiom all yell from the rooftops about how much better classic was. This is mainly because THEY were the elites back then, they were in the raiding guilds, pushing things like Naxx before BC came out. Firstly they forgot that until AQ40 (the THIRD large raid instance in) that Blizzard were terrible at designing complicated encounters, Molten Core is a snoozefest compared to the raid instances of today, 90% of the fights were basic tank and spank with a minor mechanic to watch out for (either adds or a single mechanic like the living bomb on Baron Geddon) that were overfilled with trash just to pad out the time or had some very annoying areas to do just that (the whelp rooms with the slow in BWL spring to mind).

 

Secondly non-raiders were, by and large, told to suck it up and left in the dirt, if you didn't raid at endgame, you didn't DO anything. Admittedly they did throw these people a bone with the Dungeon set upgrade quest line which gave you tier 1.5 gear for like thirty times the amount of effort it took to actually raid. For some reason these youtubers/twitch streams seem to equate 'took bloody ages to do' with 'challenging content', which isn't the case. Not only that they'll have the advantage of a legion of subs helping them out just so they can get a 5 second shout out on their stream (Asmongold is notorious for basically being fed through the game, supplied gold, equipment etc. by his subs just so they can get a mention). People who aren't these guys will find it much harder and not a lot of fun once the rose tinted goggles wear off and find that trekking across the continent via walking and flight masters not a lot of fun. 

 

Vanilla isn't very much fun, despite what people say, it's a slogfest of old school MMO design that, in the modern age, doesn't work as well. Now Wrath of the Lich King, when Blizzard finally got their act together, knew how to balance leveling speed, well paced and interesting quests (ones that, while were essentially still 'go get 10 bear asses' were still engaging) and interesting talents is when WoW got its act together. 

 

I predict that WoW Classic will have what happened with Homecoming. A huge surge of people at the beginning followed by a sharp drop off after the first month and then a slow dwindle down to much lower numbers. I also predict that at this years Blizzcon not only will we get an announcement for the next WoW retail expansion but classic: TBC edition! (much easier to do since all the TBC content is there and remains largely unchanged beyond numbers tweaks) with offering the option to move from Vanilla servers to TBC servers if the playerbase wants.

[Charistoph]

Yeah, one of the best examples of Vanilla WoW's problems were the so-called "hybrids".    Druids and Paladins were supposed to be able to Tank, even Shamans could a little, theoretically.  However, they often lacked the tools the Warriors had to be effective at it, especially as the content you were facing was more difficult than your equipment or level could address.  They were often left to healing, especially when their damage couldn't keep up any more than their tanking could.  Even the raiding gear pushed them in to those pigeon holes as well.

 

Oddly enough, I tried to talk to someone about this a few months back, and they asked if I thought that I could trust the programmers to make the changes without destroying the game.  My own thoughts are, you're already expecting them to make the game as original, and it won't be.

Edited August 3, 2019 by Charistoph

[Nihil]

I have no interest in a Vanilla WoW reboot. Now if they did a reboot of The Burning Crusade that would be a different story. 

[biostem]

I played WoW a little when it first came out.  Perhaps I'm still bitter about it, but it annoys me that because of WoW, we didn't get another full-fledged Warcraft RTS.  It also irked me that you practically had to use add-ons to efficiently navigate to quests and such, (or maybe CoH's clear marking of quest locations just spoiled me).  I also didn't like how many of my friends who play WoW almost view it as work...