Zanriel

I agree. There have been many times when I've had to leave the room to go kill time while waiting for a character to regenerate. EQ was even worse though. I remember how tedious it was having to sit for 5-10 minutes between each pull. It was almost all built around downtime. Even getting from one zone to another could take 30 minutes to 1 hour. And then people used to sit in vigil for 24+ hours waiting for a rare spawn. It was awful.

COH is one of the best out there in terms of endurance/mana/stamina usage.

I remember in WoW, when I got my mage to the mid 30's, I made a post complaining about downtime and mana usage. I was really quite dismayed over the issue. However, with some twiddling with talent points and just "getting over it", I got into the 40's and mana was no longer an issue. I ran into the same problem at level 80 for a while, but again, it just took some fiddling with talent points to fix the issue.

COH is very similar. If endurance is an issue, it only takes a bit of experimentation and mixing up different enhancements, and it's not that hard to fix. That said, I still stand by my assertion that subscriptions are down, and anything that might point to a cause should be addressed.

Personally I don't think game mechanics should be at the top of the priority list. What the game really needs are more varied maps and tilesets, more varied locations (outer space? other planets?), more innovations with interactive / destructible environments, more varied mission types, and more basic conventions ripped from the comics and other games: Secret identities, interactive NPC's, branching dialogue, multiple choice missions, friends and foes that have their own motivations, relationships (Superman's best pal, a girlfriend, a boss, a neighbor, the landlady). Grab some ideas from The Sims and any game by Bioware, but with a comic book flavor. That would be awesome.

So... don't anyone get the wrong idea about me, I don't think endurance is a HUGE issue. But I can see the OP's point, and I do agree with him to an extent. I can see both sides.

I'm glad they don't put you in charge of development. Isn't like/dislike pretty much THE primary factor in deciding whether or not to play (or pay for) a game? What else is there?

The real question is: How many people have quit the game at least partially over the issue of endurance? How many more subscribers would the game attract if endurance wasn't such a huge factor? Compare endurance usage in WoW and Champions Online to how it works in City of Heroes and the difference is pretty striking.

If you want a game to be popular, it has to be fun, and people have to like it. It's a game, it's entertainment, people play to be entertained. Is it entertaining to sit around waiting for your toggles to drop?

I can't complain about end usage for defenders, but for tankers and certain scrapper builds? Absolutely. It's an issue, I agree. Not enough of one to keep me from playing, but I'm pretty hardcore into COH. For someone who's more on the fence? I don't know, it might be worth taking a look at it.

Want some raw data? Do a poll or survey some focus groups. What are you going to find? Whether people LIKE IT or NOT. I think subscriptions numbers tell a pretty interesting story. Endurance mechanics certainly isn't the primary factor, but isn't it possible it could be a factor nonetheless?

I don't see any reason to defend the status quo. It doesn't take a math genius to see the numbers are a lot different in terms of players online than they were 2-3 years ago. A lot of other games have taken cues from COH, perhaps it would be worth entertaining the idea of COH taking cues from other games? Wouldn't it make more sense to look into new ideas and explore new possibilities? Would it make the game less fun if endurance were less of an issue? Can you define fun with equations and formulas? When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. Sadly, that doesn't always work out too well.