DCUO's Jens Anderson unveils the Meta origin story

@CCon99
Yep, really freakin sucks that you can't make an actual "brick" character, the best you can do is use "Iconic Powers" or Travel Powers and gimp yourself because you build exactly zero threat. And half of the good ones can't be unlocked till you are past level 20 (of 30 levels).

Its really freakin odd that a game built around a DC license, doesn't let you make a character who is pretty much the premier character they have.

@DiscordSK
Woops.. with the last patch they apperently do build up threat for you, hadn't touched that char for a while now but apperently they did get around to adding threat to iconic powers.

@Natasha

WoW is that away. --->

@Utakata "WoW is that away. --->"

Just what every Developer about to launch a game wants to see recommended to potential players. But you won't have to worry, 6-8 weeks after launch, the mass exodus will likely be headed right back ---->

@CCon99

Oh ye of little faith. This game has already managed to distinguish itself from WoW in numerous significant ways. And besides, the game likely isn't even going to need WoW's user base, on account of building one of it's own. After all, this game does have one significant advantage over WoW. It's a genuine console MMO. A rare beast indeed.

@Lazy Thinker
Coming from the beta, I don't expect this game to be a failure, I just see it as something that will be the next Aion, a huge launch that eventually becomes a footnote in the history of missed opportunities.

Don't get me wrong, the game is fun enough, but there's little to keep you playing for an extended period of time. Alot of the powers are simply cosmeticlly different from power set to power set and there exists no real way to interest players with the ability to create unique and creative toons like CoX and CO offer. Content post 30 revolves around a few instances, some of which are recycled from earlier levels to be used again with the big prize at the end being another feat point. Unfortunately, you can only slot six powers at once and a limited ammount of passives exist so you quickly pick up all the powers you already wanted anyway, something I acomplished before even hitting 30 personally.

That being said, the original comment for me is fairly accurate, once completed there is really no reason to repeat said instance, unless you are into farming bosses again and again for random, often contradictory, costume pieces that are tried one once and then forgotten.

DCUO is at best a decent console action game, but is overshadowed by many steller games that came out in that market already, or at worse a very shallow and extremely short, I hit max level in three days of playing, MMO.

@Natasha I wish MMOs just stopped making leveling content and just built a big world that was all "end game". In fact, the very term "end game" shouldn't exist. It should just be "the game".

Like, when I turn on Left 4 Dead, even after all this time, it is still a fun game. No end game needed. Sure, L4D2 was nice to switch to as a breath of fresh maps, characters, etc... but it is still the same fun game.

I firmly believe MMOs don't need levels. They are holdbacks to pen and paper games that are constantly adjusted by a live "game master". The level really means nothing much other than letting that game master select a campaign that is somewhat balanced for his players. All the while allowing him to adjust it on the fly as needed.

In the MMO world, this level climbing game is a reward system filled with pitfalls, one of the biggest being the split of the level game to the end game.


Of course, there are exceptions. Guild Wars uses levels as a way to train you how to play the game. In a matter of days (or even hours I suppose) you reach the level cap and have only touched a fraction of the game world. The game does not even have the WoW itemization treadmill and it is still a compelling game to play. If you never played Guild Wars, even your weapons and armor hit the cap incredibly fast and finding "new" armor is more about finding armor with new artwork rather than new stats.

@CCon99

Lol! This is CCon99 is one of my favorite commenters. :)

@DiscordSK

DiscordSK pretty much nailed how I feel about the game. When I first got into DCUO's beta back in October, I was pretty excited (this was the hero game I've been waiting for since way back when it was announced and everyone else was excited for Cryptic's Marvel Universe game). Once I got past the disappointment that was the limited choices in powers and customization, I found myself enjoying the game a lot. But over the next 6 weeks after easily taking both a Hero and Villain to 30 and another hero in the early-mid 20's, I just found myself staring at the patcher screen wondering why I should login?

Maybe if there was an active community or if it were a more social game I would login to play and interact with others, but that's one of the game's flaws, even when you group nobody chats, nobody speaks in built in chat, they just team up and run around with no communication. Granted that easily could change with guildmates using Vent, but most of my guildies feel the same about the game.

In the end the game feels like a console game, which isn't a bad thing. But like most console games, after a few weeks of playing you grow tired with it and toss it aside for the next game that's releasing. I think it's going to have a very big and successful launch, but like Conan, Star Trek, and Champions, I also think it's going to have a very large mass exodus after those 30 "free" days are up. Just because it's a console game, doesn't mean it has to be severely dumbed down. Games like Red Dead Redemption prove a console game can be both fun and deep. Game Developers just need to get out of the mindset that console means 80 IQ score, those days are long over and they need to catch up to the times.

@CCon99

The lack of chatting in missions, I think that is possibly the new norm in gaming. Every MMO I played this past year there's been very little or no chatting outside of the main social hubs. I think part of it is that the mission's require next to no strategy, everyones already done similar in one game or another.

@CitizenH

Nice try. But this game is going to in all likelihood be much more successful than City of Heroes or Champions Online ever were. It may not be a coincidence that most, if not all, of the people who are bashing this game seem to be dedicated fans of one or both of those two games. Oddities like the ones you mention are likely going to make little difference, if any. The main reason that CoH and CO may have more robust character creation is because they got a considerable head start and have thus had much more time for expansions. Nevertheless, it's looking like DCUO is going to totally outdo both of it's Superhero MMO competitors in terms of story and gameplay. And after a few expansions of it's own who knows?

@Lazy Thinker

Conversely, I've seen a lot of people who proclaim that DCUO is going to be a massive success are either massive DC fanbois or have only spent a week or so in-game. That may not be you, but that's my experience.

CoH had a more comprehensive character creator at launch. And that was 6 years ago.

Even assuming SOE fixes the chat system and social / teaming issues, the core problem DCUO faces is in-game content. Mentors have some unique missions, but then characters level up through 'shared' missions given by mentors, through general area quests (i.e. Arrest 10 Hoods) or through completing the same races or collections. It's fun for a character or two (1 hero, 1 villain) but then you've seen what DCUO holds. And the path from lvl 1 to 30 is pretty quick - not a bad thing in my opinion, but it must end with a host of things to do at lvl 30.

(I am in the pre-order beta, which still is locking characters to lvl 20, but the same complaints are being echoed by those in the 'real' beta that have been at lvl 30 for a month or more.)

@UnSub

Interesting. So we may be in for another fan war of sorts.

But anyway, yes I have heard that before. That the story and gameplay of DCUO may be fine but the game is also in need of more content. Fortunately DCUO is a game that is developed and supported by a very large company and what is by all accounts a very dedicated staff. If more content is what it needs, then it's all but a sure thing that that is what it will get.

And this is of course assuming that the staff isn't holding content back from the beta and saving it for the full release of the game.

@Lazy Thinker

While I agree to an extent, with how unforgiving the general gaming population is unless that new content is out within two months (the standard free month + one month of subscribed time) it's going to be fighting an up hill battle.

@Protoavis

I think two months is probably plenty of time in this particular case.

@Protoavis

Okay. I just checked and according to the staff the game will be receiving monthly content updates so we should be good.