City of Heroes

[PWalk]

Is anyone paying this City of Heroes game online on their PC?

I was just in a PC lab here and I saw a bunch of people playing the game and it looked kinda neat. I'm wondering if it's worth the money to play it?

Check it out here:
http://www.cityofheroes.com

[Remedy]

HECK YES it's worth every penny!

I'm enjoying it in between school eating my head and life throwing me for a loop. It's more fun though if you've a friend to play WITH! It's fun to make sarcastic commentary as you beat things up and so on.

[Phil]

I flat out refuse to pay money to buy and game, and then pay more money to actually play it...

[Remedy]

*nods* I know many people feel the same way, however as a person entering intothe field of videogame creation, I know why they've set it up this way.
MMORPG's are constantly being updated and improved. New material is always being created which adds variety and more fun and challenge to the game itself. The game evolves thanks to the players, not just financially either... the feedback and dedication of the player base makes the game EVOLVE, sort of like it becomes customised to the players.
The reason why I don't mind the monthly expense is cause this also gives the videogame company a cash base to perhaps expand, make new games.

Making videogames, maintaining the servers for online live games, making new material, paying staff etc, is VERY expensive. The more money the company can squirrel away on TOP of amintaining excellence means we get to see games that AREN'T controlled by the videogame distributors and the financial backers (which are SUITS... now what the hell do a bunch of corporate people know about making games fun? Nada!)

This means we get to see games that aren't controlled by some old fart corporate lame-brain who says "Hey, that's a bit too this, or a bit too that... I want you to make it like THIS instead!" and the developer swallows, bites their lip and says "yessir, anything you say sir".

The bottom line is, I'm willing to pay in order to support the game developer make new fresh games that aren't controlled by their financial backers and investors... who have a say in the content and only CARE about the return on their investment... which equals the games being "guaranteed" to return their investments and even MAKE money. (PROFIT! as the underpants gnomes would pipe)

To guarantee anything, the game involved must be PROVEN to be sellable to a certain demographic according to the marketing data already available, which doesn't allow for surprise things like a sleeper hit (think Grand Theft Auto... which hit the market by storm but the average financial backer probably wouldn't want to be associated with).

Of course as a future game developer employee I want more companies to be able to work on their OWN games in-house and push the envelope, get away from the trite tried-and-true games. I'm also willing to put what little money I have where my mouth is, LOL!

While I don't expect everyone to agree with me on this, I thought I'd point it out.

[PWalk]

I'm with you Remedy, so long as the game is being updated I see no reason why not to spend money on it.

Now I've never really played these things (MMORPG's) but this game looks like it could be fun to try out, even for a month. Remedy is there a minimum time I'd have to sign up for to play or can I play for a month and be done with it?

[SwiftFox]

I flat out refuse to pay money to buy and game, and then pay more money to actually play it...

You know I used to agree 1000% Phil... then my friend got me onto Final Fantasy XI. Whiel I thought fees to play were HORRIBLE... seriously alright with it. I pay $60-70 to buy a game nowadays. And I beat them and it's MAYBE 20-25 hours. (Enter the Matrix was EIGHT!!!!!!!!) Since I bought FFXI 4 days ago... I have played over 40 hours. And there is so much depth. and it's only like $14 a month. A lot less than I play for cable, and I get a lot more out of it.

I'm not saying you should change your mind... just showing you a view from someone in the same position you were in :P

[Ottawa Renegade]

I flat out refuse to pay money to buy and game, and then pay more money to actually play it...

I have the same view, but this one REALLY tempts me...

Question to those who play: Can you more or less do your own thing, or do you always end up stumlbing into other heroes? I read in a guide for the game that it's considered improper to come in during a fight and finish off the bad guy because it steals a "kill" (or something) away from the hero who started the fight. Are there heroes on every street corner?

[mreeez]

I dig City of Heores a lot. I've been playing it for about 4 months or so and can't get enough of it. The second major update came out about a few weeks ago and they add all sorts of stuff like more villians, areas to go in story arcs and wrinkles in the game like glowing auras to your character and multiple costumes(of course you have to earn them).
In terms of running around and doing like hero stuff, you can join together with other heros in groups or just do missions on your own which can have long story arcs to them with a big payoff at the end.
I play a character on the Freedom server called Jet Stream and even have a costume that looks like the Guardian suit or as close as you can get to it in the game.