One of the comments that people often make is that they never got bored with CoH like they have with other games. I found that to be true for me also. So identifying why sounds like something worth discussion.
Off of the top of my head, I could always dinker around with refining my look OR build on my favorite toons. I never got tired of that. There was a lot of depth and complexity there that is THEORETICALLY there in other games, but somehow didn't do it for me. I think it was because, unlike the other games I played, the complexity in building wasn't just complexity for complexity's sake--it wasn't just a time-sink--the tweaking that I did actually made a significant difference to playstyle and made my hero look AND play more the way I imagined him.
Also, the missions were SO well randomly varied, ESPECIALLY with the awesomely precise difficulty slider, that I always had something I could just log on and enjoy for a few minutes that had some freshness to it while I decided if I wanted to get into something more involved. I mean, there's only so much content you can create, but if it is personalizable and randomly varied well enough, it stays pretty fresh.
In Champions I just eventually ran out of anything that was still fun to do, and in DCUO there is nothing quick and easy that stays fun to do, you have to get into a whole thing--queuing for teams or something. And, you know, in CoH I could kill time just fighting mobs because the fighting was practicing the unique combinations I had created, where as in CO and DCUO it was more twitch but rinse and repeat.
In both of those games there IS STUFF to do, but in Champions eventually everything seemed so repetitive that it just got old. In DCUO you mostly had to be up for a whole big que and raid thing, which I'm only occasionally in the mood for. And in both, the armor-based gearing system is pretty basic and so the planning and tweaking stage is over pretty soon and then it's just THE GRIND to get what you've planned. To much of the gear just increases your basic stats but didn't really sculpt the playstyle of your toon.
I just never remember feeling like any of that in CoH. Or at least not nearly as much.
This is all obviously just my opinion, and I may be wrong, but what kept you from getting bored with CoH?
FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)
Honestly? I did get bored with CoH on several occasions. But I kept coming back to it.
That said, what kept me coming back was definitely my characters, and the sheer possibility of making new characters. Not just in name and looks, but also in how they actually played. Heck, even within archetypes there was massive differences in how characters could play, most notably Defenders. A Trick Archer, a Forcefielder. or a Storm Summoner did not play like each other at all. And that kept me coming back, to try out new power combinations.
Of course, this also meant that there had to be stuff to do in all level ranges. Which is something Coh did pretty well. Not just focusing on the endgame and last levels, but actually making new content in all ranges from 1 to 50+. That's just not something you see that often, and was definitely a part of making CoH feel like an alt-friendly game.
So, yeah, all level content and a game that encouraged different alts that actually played quite different, but rarely were weak despite just how odd some power combinations could be.
However, I will add one thing. There should be an option to do boring stuff. I've logged into CoH several times and just stood around watching things, doing some crafting, fly a bit and log off. And it was nice to be able to just do that, with no real need to go fight stuff. The game didn't encroach on me when I actually wanted to be bored in the game. Which was really neat to see.
So, yeah, give players stuff to do on multiple characters, but do make it so that if a player wants to be bored, he can do that, too, without the game hounding him about it.
Yeah, I think for me the single most significant thing was the variety in both ATs and power sets. On those rare occasions when I did start to feel a bit bored, all I had to do was switch characters or create a new one, and it was almost like a new game.
Spurn all ye kindle.
I got bored with CoX on several occasions for several reasons
1) I am not a huge alter and if something doesn't click for me with a powerset, I would just end up deleting it immediately.
2) Lack of stuff to do in "downtime" that actually wasn't mission based, and didn't cost money to achieve (ie crafting. If you ran out of components, I couldn't just go around gathering materials... you ended up killing for them. CoX's drop based system failed a little bit in this as well, because if they were "grey" to you, there was no point in trying to kill them, even if they were the ones that dropped them normally.
The economy would have been different if low level mobs could still drop salvage for characters just +5/+6 (I forget the cut off point) to the mob level
3) The general lack of variety in missions. With the exception of a few missions, it was pretty much *entirely* "Kill X" or ended up being "kill ALL missions". The heavy instancing of the game didn't help combat this, because even the escort missions you ended up pretty much killing everything THERE to the mission (unless you had stealth/SS) and then killing *everything* on the way back. The AI of the escort mob was fairly dumb when it came to dealing with those characters who could move faster than them.
Those all built up to boredome/frustration of the game with me so much so that I could only really sub for a couple of months *max* after I took a break initially and tried other games.
Other games which although might not have had the *character* build variety... but more of a variety of stuff to do apart from missions.
For me it was RPing and alting. I would design a character on Mid's and then playtest it to see if it actually worked. I did a little marketing and crafting but only to build my characters, not to earn a great horde of Inf for its own sake. I'm a writer so I could spend HOURS in a good RP session. If we did missions along the way that was cool too.
I would try to get to new places where I had never been before just to see new stuff. The thrill of a new map or some hidden niche in the wall somewhere rates a screenie and a comment in Broadcast
I remember when Star Wars was cool...a long, long time ago...
As others have said, alting was what kept me from being bored. Even in a single AT, power sets made a huge difference in how an alt played beyond just what flavor of damage they dealt. add to that little bit that I really enjoyed playing all the different ATs and I had a near endless amount of new characters just waiting to roll out if I grew bored with what I was playing.
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I never set anything on fire accidentally!
The Titan Legacy - Defender of the Inner Flame
I was just reading around the forums and realized something else that kept me from getting bored--teaming was so EASY that I didn't dread it sometimes like I did in CO and especially DCUO.
Part of that was the community, but a big part of it was the innovative mechanics.
Sidekicking/mentoring made it SO much easier to play with buddies or just fill out a team, the teaming interface and chat was easy to use, and there wasn't so much damned QUEING. I'm not a fan of queing. Even the little bit that showed up in CoH endgame wasn't my favorite, but at least it wasn't everywhere and it was handled very well. It really didn't bother me as much in CoH as it has in other games since.
Also, the tired old mandatory trinity WASN'T mandatory. Yes, it was great and a good idea to have a tank and a healer along, and you definitely looked for them, but I ran lots of really fun TF's and even incarnate and DA stuff with teams with no tank or healer, just a random mix of buffers, trollers, and DPS.
I think part of this was that Controlling was actually viable in the game. Control is mostly a joke in CO, TSW, and DCUO (the only other games I've played).
You know, it just occurred to me, TSW gameplay (not setting, of course) felt more like CoH than CO or DCUO to me. Obviously I don't mean it worked the same, just the freer feel of build, gameplay, and teaming--but in the end I missed the Superhero genre and no travel power drove me nuts.
I used to pug like crazy in CoH and have a BALL, and this crap of getting denied or kicked from a team before you even start and show what you can do because you aren't "specced" right in other games absolutely flabbergasted me when I first encountered it.
FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)
*shrugs* I got kicked from teams because although I have empathy on my controller, I was not always willing to do the "sit back and just heal" routine...
Before the vigilance inherent was added (and well before inherent stamina of course) it was possible for an Empathy defender to run out of endurance if they were spamming attacks along with their heals. That being said:
1) It was still a jerk thing to do to kick you off the team instead of talking to you about it.
2) Sometimes being a defender means laying down some covering fire, despite what Tanky McTank and Mr. DPS think.
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I never set anything on fire accidentally!
The Titan Legacy - Defender of the Inner Flame
But he was a [b]Controller![/b]
For me, there's nothing more boring than grinding out Crafting. Gather materials, bash them together to make a doodad, destroy the doodad in hopes of finding a recipe for a better doodad, Repeat...
Be Well!
Fireheart
Well, I meant specifically being not selected or selected and then looked at and dropped before even getting a chance to play, not being dropped for playstyle (though in my opinion it's a jerky thing to kick someone unless they are really doing something that makes the whole team's experience no fun--rude or belligerent behavior or getting the team repeatedly wiped and refusing to change what they're doing).
I dunno, I'm sure it HAPPENED in CoH, but I was never kicked off of or not selected for a team DUE TO MY SPECS once that I can remember in CoH (or even for my actual play or behavior that I can remember--maybe one night when I was drinking and playing :P "Whij way are je bad guysh?"), and, while I had HEARD of it happening, I don't even remember meeting anyone who was passed over or booted for specs only. But, in DCUO, for example, if the spec or CR isn't exactly what is popular for a particular mission, you're generally SOL for pugs.
And, yes, you can have multiple builds in DCUO (which is cool and is a nice feature in TSW too--not a bad feature to look at for CoT maybe), but it was so much nicer in CoH where you can just build the hero that you want for concept and at least 90% of the time be perfectly viable in everything. That was awesome.
FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)
My bad, I missed the controller part, although, that makes it even worse as there was no logic.
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I never set anything on fire accidentally!
The Titan Legacy - Defender of the Inner Flame
Could there have been other factors? I know I kicked a total of three people from teams over 8 years of CoH. One was an Ice Troller who would cast Ice Slick and then Frostbite, negating the knockdown.
Now normally, I wouldn't have kicked them for this, but the knockdown was the only thing saving the low level team (no member was exempt) and their frostbite was interfering with my Tank's Ice Patch. They're complaining about dying, they're not listening to the requests not to use Frostbite as it had -KB, and it fact getting upset that they're being asked to play their character in a way they don't want (Frostbite being their attack).
Sooo, the question I always wonder, is there more to the story.
Though, yes, I played with someone regularly who always asked for Powersets, and unless he knew you and how you played, he wouldn't accept you to team based strictly on powersets. :/
I will say that this was before inventions and ED came in. But that was also the phase of the game where I was fire controllers were also well liked because of the "horde of flaming monkeys".
Other factors? Not that I was aware of. I was keeping the rest of the team up, using my controls on mobs... quite possibly overshadowing the other 2 controllers on the team.
The thing is, the players who I was unable to heal were those who had split off from the main group and had broken LOS with me, and I was there keeping the main group up and together. The team leader told them to stay with the main group, and yet I was the one kicked.
But the thing thing that I was trying to get across, is that no matter the game it happens.
I *personally* have not been in a team in WoW where I saw someone get kicked from a PUG due to their build or because of what they were doing unless they were *seriously* being disruptive to the running the group.
But I am not saying that it never happened in WoW or other MMO's
You have to remember that *here* we are talking to players who have more than likely teamed up with each other without realising it., unless of course you lived or frequented certain channels on the EU servers..
*shrugs* It is no skin of my nose.... I have left a team because I didn't speak Portuguese and that is what the rest of the team were speaking exclusively, although I received the invite in English. I have dropped team due to the leader/team members saying something offensive that I didn't agree with (and reported the player for it). And I have been kicked from teams (which put me off quite a bit with not teaming with friends).
However, in WoW with its dungeon finder/Looking For Raid services, I have rarely seen people quit the team (in terms of percentage about 1% of dungeon runs I have done, I have yet to see people quit out cold... and only 2 LFRs where someone was kicked, and that was because they were AFK from the start right up to the final boss, where they got kicked).
But it wasn't so prevalent, right? I mean, if I'm remembering right and not with rose-colored glasses, it was a rare thing and generally considered unnecessary and jerky, and definitely not part of the culture or game mechanics.
What shocked me was going to other games (CoH was my first and only game for 8 years) and finding that it was common, accepted, and often not totally unwarranted due to game mechanics.
In many ways I had no idea how good I had it till CoH was gone. "Don't it always seem to go...", now I have that song in my head.
HEY, since this is an "avoiding boredom" thread, I just saw this old Massively article "http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/03/07/why-i-play-city-of-heroes/" and thought I'd see what people think about the whole theme park vs sandbox thing. I agree with the article that the blend and hopefully "best of both worlds" approach CoH took worked for the Superhero genre and was VERY friendly to casual gaming.
FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)
I can only speak for what I saw on Virtue. Freedom Server may have been an entirely different beast and the low population servers may have just been glad to get anyone.
I saw it a few times besides just my friend. No Stormies! No Energy Blasters! No Stalkers! Though not often enough to think it was a problem, but often enough to know it wasn't just a friend of a friend who played with the friend of their father's brother's uncle. :p
Personally I was kicked only twice in 5+ years of play. One was by a control-freak of a tank who objected to KB from my NRG Blaster and one was by a very apologetic leader to make room for a friend. I have heard and read of others being kicked numerous times and I don't dispute that it happens. I've seen others booted for what I considered minor infractions and some for being complete morons. I've decided that instead of Friending everyone I have 1-2 good missions with I'm going to restrict my list to those that I feel comfortable will suit my more casual playstyle. 20 good friends is better than 100 people I seldom remember.
I remember when Star Wars was cool...a long, long time ago...
The Paths system in Wildstar really encourages different kinds of gameplay. I'm a scientist because I really love learning game lore. But I also want to play as an adventurer because I love reaching hard to reach places on the maps.
Many of my "sit and talk RPers" want to be Settlers and it will give me a reason to "sit and chat with them" for their perks. I don't know if i'd play a Soldier, not because killing wave after wave of enemy is not what I want (i sincerely DO) but because I feel I'll get enough engaging combat without that path.
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Finding the WAYS players/characters want to spend their downtime and rewarding them for it is genius to me. When there's not enough "content" to keep you satisfied you will actually have other things to do!
Crowd Control Enthusiast
Just a note about CoH... Others have noted that one could just be in the world and do whatever seemed interesting at the time. No interactions were required and you could spend a lot of time in exploration. I enjoyed this immensely. My brother Jim and I look forward to CoT. Until launch, be well.
^ You know, I was just talking to a good friend of mine who is VERY busy between family and his career who said the same thing.
He said he was always happy to pay his sub because in CoH, he could just log on for a few minutes any time he was able and just screw around, or do nothing at all, and it was always FUN.
He hasn't found another game since that has that quality- nor have I.
I wonder what the magic was that made it that way?
FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)
Having played the warrior path, it isn't really that bad. A lot of the missions would happen in area's that you have to go to.. the assisinate missions give you a reward for killing a *specific* mob in the area that you would be in anyway if you were going for the map completion anyway.
Sure, the holdouts can be boring by yourself, but they do scale up the more players you have in the area for it... they don't even have to be on the warrior path, they just scale up if more players get involved. Which is a good bonus.