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On the City of Heroes forums, a player asked, why aren't you using Architect Entertainment? Here is my reponse.
Before AE was released, my CoH-friend and I were excited about the description we had read, where you get to create your own missions and share them with other players. We began to plan stories that we wanted to tell; but, we didn't know how the system would work. It was a surprise to learn that AE is a holographic studio, like Star-Trek: The Next Generation's Holo-Deck.
Trying to fit a preconceived story into AE mechanics was frustrating. While the interface was relatively easy to use, it also seemed quite limiting (compared to other game's similar systems, such as Bioware's Aurora toolset). Almost invariably, I found the AE mechanics would not let me tell the story the way I wanted, resulting in unsatisfactory work-arounds.
Eventually, I adopted a different approach to developing a story for AE. Instead of first imagining a story and then becoming frustrated because I couldn't find the right maps and events for it, I looked for maps that I wanted to play on, villain groups that fit my desired level range, and events to fit the maps and foes. In this way, the maps, villains, and events inspired me to develop a story that strung them together.
At first, I created several story arcs just for my friends to play, featuring our custom characters as NPCs. Later, I created an arc that hopefully any CoH player can enjoy.
I've played many great story arcs created by other players, exhibiting wonderful storytelling skills and a lot of hard work. (I've also partially played many other story arcs--before quitting them--that were, well, not so good. I'll never get back those wasted minutes of my life... but, I digress.)
Yes, AE has negatives as pointed out by other posters. In particular, the copyright filter deserves to be called out. Did you know, if you choose "Black Scorpion" from the standard list of villains, the filter will flag your story as invalid--presumably because "Scorpion" is a copyrighted Marvel Comics character? Note that "Black Scorpion" is CoH intellectual property and provided in AE's interface as a standard pull-down menu option--that is, not a player-created custom character name. So, choosing a standard menu option will cause your story to be flagged as invalid. Clearly, the copyright filter is myopically misguided.
Even so, I am glad AE is part of CoH. Could it be better? Yeah. But, still, it's a really cool feature, one that I enjoy using periodically.
Before AE was released, my CoH-friend and I were excited about the description we had read, where you get to create your own missions and share them with other players. We began to plan stories that we wanted to tell; but, we didn't know how the system would work. It was a surprise to learn that AE is a holographic studio, like Star-Trek: The Next Generation's Holo-Deck.
Trying to fit a preconceived story into AE mechanics was frustrating. While the interface was relatively easy to use, it also seemed quite limiting (compared to other game's similar systems, such as Bioware's Aurora toolset). Almost invariably, I found the AE mechanics would not let me tell the story the way I wanted, resulting in unsatisfactory work-arounds.
Eventually, I adopted a different approach to developing a story for AE. Instead of first imagining a story and then becoming frustrated because I couldn't find the right maps and events for it, I looked for maps that I wanted to play on, villain groups that fit my desired level range, and events to fit the maps and foes. In this way, the maps, villains, and events inspired me to develop a story that strung them together.
At first, I created several story arcs just for my friends to play, featuring our custom characters as NPCs. Later, I created an arc that hopefully any CoH player can enjoy.
I've played many great story arcs created by other players, exhibiting wonderful storytelling skills and a lot of hard work. (I've also partially played many other story arcs--before quitting them--that were, well, not so good. I'll never get back those wasted minutes of my life... but, I digress.)
Yes, AE has negatives as pointed out by other posters. In particular, the copyright filter deserves to be called out. Did you know, if you choose "Black Scorpion" from the standard list of villains, the filter will flag your story as invalid--presumably because "Scorpion" is a copyrighted Marvel Comics character? Note that "Black Scorpion" is CoH intellectual property and provided in AE's interface as a standard pull-down menu option--that is, not a player-created custom character name. So, choosing a standard menu option will cause your story to be flagged as invalid. Clearly, the copyright filter is myopically misguided.
Even so, I am glad AE is part of CoH. Could it be better? Yeah. But, still, it's a really cool feature, one that I enjoy using periodically.
Where did City of Heroes go wrong?
On the City of Heroes forums, a player asked, where did the game go wrong? Here's my response.
Where did CoH go wrong? I don't think it did. I liked it for what it was.
Still, it's interesting to consider paths not taken.
The founders of CoH (Rick Dakan, Jack Emmert, and others) indicated that they had played the Champions pencil and paper roleplaying game, and that's what inspired them to create a superhero MMO. When CoH was released, its strengths included character creation, travel powers, and strategic combat (all big parts of Champions). I told a friend about my initial impression from playing CoH, "It's a great superhero combat simul
Going Rogue compared to Star Trek's Mirror, Mirror
On the City of Heroes forums, another player posted an observation about the Going Rogue expansion: I see Praetoria as sort of this game's version of Star Trek's "Mirror, Mirror" universe.
Here is my response.
Creating an expansion based on an alternate reality with a new starting point for players (and directing new players to start there) is an odd design choice. It's like, if someone created a Star Trek MMO (hypothetically speaking, of course) and players were directed to start in the Mirror, Mirror universe and play there for the first 20 levels.
With Star Trek, players already know the primal universe from the TV shows, movies, novels
Kid-Kinetics
On the City of Heroes forums, a player asked for advice on playing a kinetics defender. Here is my response.
I have a level 50 Kinetics/Energy Blast Defender named Kid-Kinetics. He's based on my 11-year-old nephew (if he lived in Paragon City and had super powers).
http://i754.photobucket.com/albums/xx188/Elenlanta/Kid_Kinetic.jpg
When I play the character, I like to team with a tanker, brute, or scrapper. I shadow my melee partner close enough so that my Transfusion power (with a radius of 20 feet) can heal him/her.
This also means that I'm close enough to our opponents to take some damage from their area of effect attacks or even some s
The Eternal Red Dragon
On the City of Heroes forums, the Player Event Resource Committee sponsored a story-writing contest. The rules were to "write the beginning story of your character" in 1,500 words or less.
I wrote the following story about my character, Red Dragon. It won the contest, and I received a generous reward of in-game currency. (I'm not sure, but I suspect my story might have been the only one entered and so won by default.)
Inside the Skyway City community center, in a corner of the recreation room where martial arts classes are taught, a young Caucasian man kicks and punches at a red leather target ball suspended from the floor and ceiling by wh
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