Firstly, hi, everyone! Some of you old-timers might remember me; I posted here pretty frequently from 2004-2006. CoH was a different game back then; I loved it, god knows, and I really loved the world and the storytelling, and I played the hell out of it till I was just straight-up, legitimately burnt out - but coming back to it now there's no denying that what we have is a vastly superior, more user-friendly experience in almost every conceivable way.
Except one.
As a huge fan of the lore, which I tried to keep up with even when I wasn't playing, what going through the game again with a bunch of new friends has really driven home that while I love the gameplay and quality-of-life changes, some of the cool story stuff has been lost or obscured. One of my friends, a new player, was complaining the other night that she feels really disconnected from what's going on or what anything in the game is, and I can't really blame her, because she is constantly being presented with possible options (go here! do this!) that she then outlevels, sometimes while in the middle of a story. Hell, I'm an experienced player, and I just finished Jim Temblor's missions only to get the cold shoulder from Penelope Yin - again. Imagine what it's like for all these new folks!
As an example, she's got a level 20something now, and she's encountered the Vahzilok and the Lost all of once, in the new sewer trial, with no idea who they were, and no explanation given, and now she's out of their level range for good. In 2004 the idea of playing through the first twenty levels without encountering those groups would have been absurd unless you were one of those people who started powerleveling at Peregrine Island right out of the tutorial.
CoX is in the weird position of having so much content that it's all crowding itself out. You might be interested in the Faultline story, or First Ward, but god forbid you take any missions or spend a night grouping outside of those zones, or you might be locked out of seeing the middle or end of the story. And none of this is presented in any sort of consistent way - get to a new level range and you'll have five or six contact popups appear, with no indication that this guy gives you a seven-year-old Clockwork arc, that guy gives you Ouroboros content, and this other guy leads to a zone arc.
My friend was legitimately surprised when she overheard me and another friend excitedly discussing the implications of the new Desdemona underground trial. She had no idea the game's lore had that kind of depth. And really, how could she? CoX is packed chock-full of exciting mysteries and revelations, but if you miss the setup - which is *incredibly likely* - everything after is going to be a confusing mess. Discovering the truth about the Rikti, or the relationship between the Council, Arachnos, and the 5th Column, are exciting moments - but it's only exciting if you actually are invested in the story behind the Rikti, or if you've ever actually done missions against the Council, Column, and Arachnos and had a chance to explore their background. Otherwise it's just a blur of noise and color.
The story of Paragon City really has the potential to be an exciting, drama-filled tapestry, but so much of it is locked away in tiny, individual text clues in obscure story arcs that may not even be accessible anymore without the use of Ouroboros. What's the number of players who have fought the Hamidon versus the number of players who have any idea at all that he was once Hamidon Pasalima, fanatic biologist, and that there is an interesting story attached to him beyond being a zone-sized blob?
I'm back in Paragon City for the long haul, I think, but what I would really like to see in the future is a rethinking of the mission and arc paradigm combined with a project of going back and revisiting/revamping old mission chains, cutting out the fat, and making them actually do-able in a five level timeframe; then presenting all of that in a way that lets you customize your experience beyond taking missions ad-hoc and hoping you don't outlevel the contact or the zone before you finish up the story.
Back before the game came out - waaaay back when I first saw it on the cover of PC Gamer - I seem to remember whoever was talking about it then (Rick Dakan, maybe?) mentioning that they wanted to have it where, like, you could roll up a dark urban avenger, or a magic dude, or a cosmic hero, and do dark urban avengery things or cosmic things or whatever all the way from level one to forty. And to some degree that's actually possible now! If you, as a player, were really dedicated to having a specific experience for your new magic guy, and were willing to do a lot of planning, you could, for instance, cobble together a "magic campaign" by starting in on the Hellions and Hollows stuff before moving on to the Midnighter Club, doing the Circle of Thorns and Banished Pantheon in the 20s, and then Croatoa followed by the high-level CoT and Mu arcs. Alternatively, you could do a "patriotic hero" campaign, where you spend your time dealing with Arachnos, the 5th Column, the Sky Raiders and the Council - and going to places like Striga Isle and Faultline - before topping off with Malta.
But of course that all relies on a lot of preknowledge and planning. What if there were something like that for *new* players? A roadmap for new characters to let them - in as much as possible - experience a certain side of Paragon City, encounter an enemy group often enough to become invested in its story and therefore invested in seeing that story through to its conclusion. I don't know - it's just a thought. What I do know is that my friend really loves the game, and has gone from F2P to having spent $30+ in the last week alone, but she enjoys it purely for the gameplay and the flexibility of the character creator rather than for its "confusing" story. That seems like a shame to me.
I found this quote interesting "I dont think we want to steer the player to the experience that we want." and yet it appears that's exactly what they're trying to do with the incarnate trials.