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Massively Speaking Podcast
Massively Speaking Episode 185: Bree-to-play
Latest episode: Tuesday, February 7th, 2012
Reader Comments (3)
Posted: Jul 16th 2009 6:57PM esarphie said
I don't think the error was not having it available from Day One. I mean, seriously, the percentage of people invested in pvp in the City of.. Universe is, was, and always shall be really small. Plus they separated pvp areas by distinct levels, which guaranteed a level-neutral fight from about 3 days after City of Villains was released.
No, the error that made it fizzle from what it should have been, was that City of Villains was simply City of Heroes in a dirtier environment. It really didn't matter if you were a hero or a villain, you pretty much went from contact to contact, getting missions to run to a door, then defeat everything inside that building/tunnel system/secret base for whatever reason the text you really didn't read said.
It needed a totally different feel... a risk vs reward structure that felt much more criminal and a lot less procedural. Heroes fought for reputation with the populace... and Villains fought for anti-reputation with the populace?
That, in my opinion, was the failing of City of Villains. The fact that it didn't really explore the feeling of being a criminal, but simply flipped some text around to call your superpowered character a villain instead of hero.
Posted: Jul 17th 2009 7:06AM Damn Dirty Ape said
Personally I think that the only good way to have a superhero game with heros and villains is to have either direct or indirect PvP throughout the game, rather than in battleground type areas like the 'City of' games. Direct PvP is obvious, but by indirect I'm thinking more along the lines of things like WAR's public quests (you send your NPC henchman to rob a bank and a hero has a chance to stop you, etc).
Posted: Jul 17th 2009 4:20PM esarphie said
For my part, to really feel a sense of super-villainy, I want some sort of reward/downtime to happen after succeeding. If you rob the biggest bank in town, split the cash and have an extravagent party at the local nightclub, or buy a stupidly expensive sports car, or something.
It'd also be nice for your villain to not be running around the world kowtowing to contacts for their entire career. Sure, as a young, wanna-be villain you've got to pay your dues, but when you've got 40+ successful levels of villainous behavior behind you, you really expect the people who want evil things done to come to you once in a while.