Lord Mayhem

I'm not sure I have altitis (not since I5-I7 anyway) but I am serial leveller, so I guess I've treated my altitis by reining it in with an Achiever-led focus on levelling. Basically I tend to only play 1-3 characters actively at a time, until they hit L50, but then they mostly go into retirement except for the few "purpled up" favourites who get pulled out for endgame TFs/SFs/Raids (though I have been known to pull some/all of my L50s out of retirement for new content or holiday events). When one of my focal levelling characters hits L50, they get replaced with a new character that starts the journey again - mostly this is done in regular duos with the same friend/SG-mate, so he shares my playstyle.

The only exception has been on recent dxp weekends when we've levelled a few new level-pacted characters from L1 to L20/22, to get them to Stamina and maybe L25 IOs ready for future play, but this is only because we have seen the lower level game so much that we want to rush past it (roll on GR - I'm desperate for some new Dev-created content).

In most MMOs I'm fairly single-minded about playing a single character to the level cap, though I dabble with a few low level alts after that before quitting the game, having lost my drive to endure the level grind again. In CoH/V I don't find levelling a grind, so I guess that explains the replay value, and I've hit the level cap 17 times. My L50s are as follows, but I'm not playing much of anything at the moment (due to an arm injury) so I'll wind back the clock a couple of months to when I last played regularly when I talk of which characters I still play.

Lord Mayhem - Fire/Fire Brute - I had wanted to play a demon character in an MMO (or any game) for so long and CoH was the first game that let me. Mayhem hit L40 in I6, L50 in I7, levelled the whole way in teams, and hasn't been played much since as he is rather too squishy for my liking, even though he did amazing damage in his prime. While levelling him I met most of my global friends, so he has become my forum name and my global handle because to most people who know me in CoH I will always be "Mayhem".

Baron Steelfist - Robotics/Dark Mastermind - a psychotic damaged cyborg with amnesia, made from an unwilling kidnap victim. Baron was my first mainly solo character (though he did a few levels in teams), hitting L40 in I6 and L50 in I7 (within weeks of Mayhem getting there) - I was bored by Bot/FF in CoV beta, but Bot/Dark interested me enough to get to L50, though I haven't felt like playing another MM since (I deleted a L20 Mercs/Traps soon after Baron hit 50, and a similar level Ninja/TA recently who had been holding down a name for my Arch/TA Corr). Baron only gets played when GM-killing teams need a -regen debuffer, if I don't feel like playing Havoc (see below).

Nightbow - Archery/Energy Blaster - an ex-Wyvern vigilante with cybernetic eyes that replaced ones he lost to a cruel Hellion, Manticore rescued him, paid for his treatment and later mentored him. Nightbow hit L50 entirely in I8, duoing all 50 levels with my friend's scrapper after the Faultline revamp encouraged us to try CoH for a change. I love his name, costume, bio and adore his playstyle (I am a Rain of Arrows addict) so Nightbow still gets played, solo & teamed, and has been fully "purpled up" - he is my go-to character for most TFs on blueside Defiant.

Trinary - tri-form Warshade - a silicon-based alien being who is host to both a genocidal sentient technovirus and a mass-murdering Nictus parasite (both of which he is trying to rehabilitate). Not just tri-form, Trinary is three life-forms in one body, and represents the most fun I ever had getting a character to L50. He levelled very quickly during I8, mainly in hazard zones, duoing the whole way with my friend's Fire/Kin Controller, and gets played occasionally on TFs when I'm feeling nostalgic for the old double-mire playstyle.

At this point I took a break from CoH/CoV from I9 to I12 - I had half a dozen characters around L30-35 on redside (due to duos and regular teams breaking up before L50 ), all of which hit L50 in a short period once I came back to CoH/V in I12.

Powerbreaker - Energy/Electric Brute - a former Crey engineer who they manipulated into becoming a villain after he gained superpowers in an accident. Levelled in a regular duo with my friend's SS/Elec Brute in I7 until L35, but he didn't want to play that Brute again when we returned to CoV in I12, so I soloed Powerbreaker the rest of the way, mostly in RWZ (mainly outdoors) as Rikti just couldn't hurt him and EM/ excelled on boss-heavy spawns. Powerbreaker was always one of my favourite characters for all the usual reasons (name, bio, costume and gameplay) and was my go-to character for SFs/Raids if I felt like playing a Brute. Sadly the EM/ nerfs ruined my enjoyment of playing him, but he still gets logged in regularly as he is my main redside marketeer.

Sergeant Havoc - Fire/Radiation Corruptor - a British super-soldier gone rogue in an experimental suit of nuclear-powered armour. Havoc hit L35 in I7 and L50 in I12, duoing the whole way up, with another Corruptor until L35, then because I wanted Havoc levelled fast and my friend wanted his L35 Dominator (from our Dom duo, which I didn't enjoy) levelled fast we paired them up in I12 for the last 15 levels. Havoc was my go-to character for SFs on Union from I12-I14 (by which point I had purpled up my Crab/Bane Spider and was tending to use that in preference). Havoc still gets wheeled out occasionally when a range of debuffs are needed (rather than just the -res my Bane Spider can provide) and I do enjoy playing him in teams.

Marshall Saint - Bane/Crab Spider - a grizzled old Arachnos Marshall who got on the wrong side of Arbiter Daos and now has to prove his loyalty to Recluse again. Saint levelled L1-50 quickly in I12 as a Crab Spider, duoing with my friend's Night Widow, but spends most of the time now as a Bane Spider. Since purpling up his Bane build in I14, and his Crab build in I15, Saint has become my main go-to character for SFs, Raids and pretty much everything I need a L50 for on redside Union - that's unless I feel like playing my Night Widow instead.

Winter Tiger - Claws/Willpower Scrapper - an experimental Soviet super-soldier, whose DNA was spliced with DNA from a Siberian Tiger, when the Berlin wall came down most of the scientists in his program fled Russia to work for Crey Biotech in Paragon and took their "project" with them (until he was rescued by Mynx). Another of my favourite characters (especially for his main costume), Winter Tiger was my solo project after Powerbreaker and did a lot of his levels during a dxp weekend, but afterwards he still got played often on TFs and is/was my go-to character for Mothership Raids on Defiant. Since getting my Night Widow to L50 I haven't had much impetus to play him, but as my main blueside marketeer he still gets logged in regularly.

Ghost Spider - Energy/Energy Stalker - an assassin enhanced with cybernetics (actually the Union-verse version of the Defiant-verse Nightbow, but Mako kidnapped him instead of Manticore rescuing him). Ghost Spider was part of a regular team of four in I6-7, up to L30 when a couple of the team members quit CoH and my remaining friend and I suspended the team in case they returned. I was in no rush to play him again, as I disliked Energy Aura, but I started soloing him a little once I came back to CoH in I12. I gradually got Ghost to L41 and was soloing +2 Toxic T's happily in GV the day before the EM nerf happened, but struggled to solo even-level ones reliably the next day - that damaged my enjoyment of the character, so I stopped playing him again. Stubborn determination made me level him the rest of the way to L50, partly during a dxp weekend, just so that I could consider him "finished" and I haven't played him since - I think he's the only one of my L50s that has never done the ITF.

Agent Godwin - Mind/Psionic Dominator - a master of disguise with mental powers who infiltrated Arachnos, Longbow, Malta, the Council, etc. for reasons unknown (good excuse for faction-themed costumes). I had always wanted a pure psionic character, but Godwin cured me of that; he levelled to L35 slowly in I7 in a duo with my friend's Plant/Thorn Dom (hence the slowness - two damage-deficient pre-buff Dominators) who seemed more capable than Godwin so I felt weak, like I was leeching and not pulling my weight. I hated that duo, but when we returned to CoH in I12 my friend wanted to play his Dom so we split the duo up to pair his Dom with my Corruptor (Havoc) and Godwin was abandoned. However I still hoped that PSW might redeem Godwin, so eventually I levelled him with my friend's Corruptor to L38, then PSW's pre-nerf wonderfulness carried him swiftly to L50. Sadly the character is still tainted by bad memories, so even after slotting him for permadom (with a few cheap purple sets) and using him on a few SFs, I haven't played Godwin since and probably never will again.

Raven Shadow - Super Strength/Dark Brute - an amateur boxer who became a vigilante hero in a bid to avenge his parents' murder, but failed at that and was subsequently experimented on by The Council, who implanted him with modified Nictus shards. I enjoyed playing Raven to L30 in I7 (mostly solo iirc), but when I came back in I12 I just never got around to playing him. Eventually I persuaded my friend to play his abandoned SS/Elec Brute again (Powerbreaker's ex-partner) as a duo partner for Raven and we levelled together to L50. I'd play Raven again, but whenever I need a L50 villain nowadays I always grab one of my beloved VEATs.

Arctic Prince - Ice/Storm Corruptor - a cold-hearted mutant and the evil Union-verse version of my Defiant-verse Ice/Ice Blaster (who isn't L50 yet). I really enjoyed levelling Arctic to L50 in a duo because of his 3 Rain powers, but he hasn't seen much use since. When I gave SF/TF teams a choice of Arctic or Havoc they always wanted me to play Havoc, and since I14 my VEAT obsession has sidelined both of them.

Krog the Conqueror - Battle-Axe/Willpower Brute - a brutal reptilian Galactic tyrant who made the fatal mistake of attacking the Rikti homeworld; the Lineage of War annihilated his empire, captured Krog (now the last of his race), tortured him as an example to other aliens, then recently the Restructurist faction released the dethroned dictator onto Primal Earth in a confused and raging state as both a diversion and a twisted joke. Krog did 37 of his levels in a single dxp weekend, and soloed the remaining 13 levels fast too, he is my favourite brute from purely a gameplay perspective and I would play him on Mothership Raids at least if my VEATs didn't exist.

Mistress Distress - Night Widow / Fortunata - a cruel upbringing in Haven House, followed by Arachnos brainwashing, forged an orphan into a killer who believes that she must be meaner than everyone else in order to survive. Levelled as a Night Widow in I14, in a duo with my friend's Crab Spider, Mistress now has the most expensive single build of any of my characters (almost 3bill inf for her 192.5% global recharge), an expense that will likely have doubled once I complete slotting her Fortunata build. She is my only female L50 and the only L50 on redside Union that gets played as much as Marshall Saint.

Magma Colossus - Earth/Fire Dominator - a Japanese vulcanology professor who sacrificed one of his students to a volcano god to save his own life during Mount Azuma's 1977 eruption, he is now the avatar of that god, a huge 8ft tall Magma Colossus (though the Super-Science booster has allowed him to turn back into the skinny 5ft Japanese professor he once was). So much fun to level, even before the Dom buffs in I15 which happened when he was L35ish, Magma single-handedly restored my faith in the Dominator archetype (so much so that I now have a L22 Plant/Elec, with plans for an Ice/Earth). Again, if my VEATs didn't exist I would play this character more often.

Punchy the Loon - War-Mace/Super Reflexes Brute - a mischievous brat from Haven House who disrupted a tawdry Punch & Judy show that Phipps had arranged to distract the children while Arachnos took some of them away for psychic testing (which was when Mistress Distress, above, was taken). Vengeful Phipps called in a favour from Darrin Wade and had the boy cursed to look like a Mr Punch puppet, hoping it would drive him insane, but Punchy has embraced his fate becoming a hired thug. Punchy was inspired by my forum avatar here, with a main costume to match, but he felt rather weak until I soft-capped his defences at L40ish and sorted out the last of his end issues (fortunately he duo'd to L50 with a /Kin Corr), then he became a beast, rivalling Krog in damage and survivability. No points for guessing why I don't play him much now.

Stormcharger - Electric/Ninjitsu Stalker - a Ninja hired to assassinate Tub Ci, who failed and had his arms cut off to serve as a lesson to other assassins; while imprisoned by the Tsoo he discovered his Mu ancestry, manifested arms of red lightning, and fought his way free - he now has cybernetic arms powered by his magical lightning. My second attempt at a Stalker was amazingly successful; while Ghost assassinated single targets, Stormcharger assassinates whole spawns. I had so much fun levelling him to L50 in a duo. Ditto on the reason I don't play him much at L50, though of all my L50 non-VEAT villains I would be most tempted to play him again.

My next L50 on blueside Defiant is very likely to be my Illusion/Rad Controller (currently at L32, in a duo with an Illu/Kin - my friend and I decided to both play Illusion Control with our own favourite buff/debuff set). On redside Union my next L50 will be either my Plant/Electric Dominator or my Archery/TA Corruptor (both L22, levelled on the last dxp weekend). Those are the 3 focal duos atm. Next in line (once my injured arm allows me to play again) are my Shield/SS Tanker and Dark/Sonic Defender, which will eventually give me a clean sweep of every non-epic AT at L50, then I just need a Peacebringer at L50 for the full set. I did create a PB a few months ago, as a Defiant-verse version of Powerbreaker (for added impetus to play it to L50), and that same day I made a Claw/Invul Brute as a Union-verse version of Winter Tiger, so that two of my favourite characters might live again. Sentimental? Me? Maybe a little

Though I definitely feel the need to play more Dominators, Brutes and especially Blasters - I don't think I'll be done with this MMO for a loooooong time.

Forgive the long self-indulgent post, but... well, you asked

I used Walk briefly a couple of times in my SG base the other day, on characters I was moving to new day job locations (via base teleporters), just to see what the walking animation looked like (it looked better on my female villain than on the male ones I tried it on).

However because Walk turns off toggles (instead of suppressing them) I doubt I would ever use it outside of safe areas like the SG base - indeed I have removed Walk from those characters' hotkey bars and will probably never use it again - I don't RP or make machinima, so I really don't have much reason to use Walk, though I am glad the Devs added it for those who enjoy such pursuits.

I don't think any of my characters' combos are particularly rare or odd, as I always tend to pair up powersets that have powerful synergies (then I justify that pair-up with a concept/bio, to partly conceal my powergaming nature ) - but you can judge for yourself, as all 17 of my L50 character combos are listed at the link in my signature and my lower level ones are: Illusion/Rad Controller, Plant/Electric Dominator, Archery/TA Corruptor, Claw/Invul Brute, Dark/Sonic Defender, Shield/SS Tanker, Energy/Mental Blaster, DB/WP Scrapper, Ice/Ice Blaster, Fire/Kin Controller (not played since I7 though), Broadsword/Shield Scrapper, Sonic/Energy Blaster and a newly made Peacebringer.

I have played non-standard combos without synergies in the past, but they always ended up being deleted as I found their performance lacklustre compared to my other characters.

What an interesting read! It's more evidence that our Dev Team really cares about the lore of this game when they produce quality work like this for our entertainment and illumination (rather than purely for marketing reasons).

Lore is important - it's one of the few things that makes an MMORPG so much more than just a soulless button-mashing exercise with a chat room added on - well, it does for those of us with an imagination who want to experience more than "nothing but pixels".

I liked Ruin's letter the most from the forums, and from the website Ajax's letter (nice twist) - though Branforth the Seer's predictions were very interesting too - what a shame his clairvoyance didn't go a little further, like a few more issues/expansions further

The only disappointment for me was Hero 1's letter, because I think it was a somewhat missed opportunity to give more depth and pathos to the character, and a lost chance to differentiate him from his rather obvious inspiration.

I don't think you were in the wrong for asking. I think he was in the wrong for snapping at you. However I think you were also partly in the wrong for not accepting his reasons (however rudely phrased or inimical to your playstyle they were) - I don't know what good you thought would come of it - trying to "re-educate" players on their behaviour in that way rarely does what you intended and almost always leads to verbal escalation (as it did here). Lesson learned, maybe.

Tray 1 is usually single target attacks and controls - basically anything short-recharge as I activate powers from the keyboard. It may have area attacks/controls too if the archetype/powersets I'm playing has the next tray full of other things (like debuffs/buffs/heals).

Tray 2 is usually debuffs/buffs/controls/heals and maybe area attacks too if I'm playing a Blaster/Brute/Scrapper/Stalker/Tanker that already has Tray 1 full of attacks and doesn't have much else to put on Tray 2.

Tray 3 is usually armour/buff toggles, Accolade powers, GvE jump pack, pet summons (for Doms/Trollers and Dark Miasma characters) and I tend to stick self-buffs like Hasten/BU/Aim/Domination/godmodes there too (even though I activate them from the side/shoulder buttons on my mouse), just so I can easily monitor when they've recharged.

My Tray 4 is rather similar to Forsaken_Empire's: temporary travel powers on the left side (Raptor Pack, Goldbricker Pack, Sky Raider Pack, Zero-G Pack) until they're used up. From the right hand side I have Rest, Pocket D TP, Base TP, Mission TP, Ouro Portal & Mystic Fortune (and probably Assemble the Team when I get it soon-ish). If I have space I chuck the BM/WW Day Job TP in there as well plus the Architect PDA. Basically Tray 4 is either travel temps that I activate with keybinds or long recharge powers I use infrequently by mouse-click.

My Tray 5 tends to have Temp Powers I might find useful situationally such as Shivan/Vanguard pets or other temp pets, Warburg nukes and any other interesting temps I've picked up from Day Jobs or mission rewards that I might use at some point (but usually forget to). I usually dump the Self-Destruct in this tray as well, though it never gets used. On my Mastermind the henchman summon/buff powers go here as well.

Tray 1-3 are in the bottom centre of my screen, while Tray 4-5 are off to the right with the inspiration and enhancement inventories.

Well I've finished watching the Cowboy Bebop series, and I watched the movie today, and I enjoyed both immensely. This is the closest an anime has come to matching Ghost in the Shell: SAC in my estimation - it doesn't quite topple it as my favourite anime, but then I like both series for different things: GitS:SAC intrigued and fascinated me, while Bebop just straight entertained me (and quite often made me laugh). Both had fantastic characters that will live long in the memory. So:

Cowboy Bebop +1
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie +1

Next up, Trigun, which fortuitously arrived from Amazon yesterday.

We can only hope that in GR the Devs use everything they've learnt from the last 5 years and we get most of what's on your list.

You know, I really hate the idea of improving rewards to get players to use content. I've spent years in various MMOs following slightly more appetising carrots hanging from long sticks through boring content and it's not the brilliant fix some of you think it is.

The Mothership Raid has a non-uber reward and plenty of people do that because its a fun little community gathering. It follows that if Hami was fun then people would also be turning up to wade through his jelly and pop his little glowing balls on a regular basis.

Oo-err, that sounded a bit rude

Going Rogue should give us some new indoor mission tilesets and layouts so that should help - plus a load of Dev-created arcs/missions.

Simple really - Lord Mayhem is the first villain I made on the day of CoV's launch and my first ever level 50 character here (on either side). I had wanted to play a demon character in an MMO for years and this was the first MMO that let me, and the name seemed to fit.

Admittedly I did change my forum handle when the EU & US forums merged, so that it would match my in-game global handle - which I had also changed at some point because most of my in-game friends were calling me Mayhem (as he was the first character of mine they ever grouped with) regardless of my previous global name or which character I was playing, so I just caved in to public opinion. My forum handle on the EU forums (and iirc my old global name) was Valkryst, the name of the first CoH character I ever created in I5 (Count Valkryst - BS/Reg scrapper), which I've used as a character name in dozens of other online games previously.

I don't know whether to be happy that we ranked above EVE Online, or to be sad that we ranked below Darkfall It is nice to this game recognised as a landmark in western MMOs though - and that list is obviously only covering MMOs made in the west.

I didn't play it (just trialled it) but I am surprised Anarchy Online doesn't get a nod for being the first major western sci-fi MMO. I also suppose they excluded Planetside as it was an MMOFPS and not MMORPG. DAoCs 3-side PvP was quite a big stride in the genre, but yeah not sure it classes as a landmark in the kind of company on that list - a great game, but not really one that influenced what followed (to the chagrin of many WAR players, no doubt).

I keep Tab as is, use Q for nearest target and the tilde key for "follow" (because on my melee archetypes using follow is the fastest way to get into melee range once I have a target). Admittedly in combat I only really use my mouse for mouse-looking (hence why I don't need Q/E as I use A/D for strafing and the mouse to turn), placeables (on some characters), and the side-buttons (for things like Aim/BU), so occasionally using the mouse to click-target doesn't really hold me up much.

Warshades (hard-capped res) and SR/Ninjitsu/Shield (soft-capped positional def) characters are pretty easy to get perma-godmode without using an awkward and quaint little T9 godmode power that has a nasty end/hp crash at the end - even Invulnerability, Energy Aura and Ice Armour can soft-cap against the defence types that tend to matter most of the time (S/L, maybe E/N too), but...

...shame on all of you for not mentioning any of the VEATs

I think a lot of Dev teams underestimate how important just the feel of a game is. If I try out an MMO on a free trial and my character feels too clunky (and it's not a giant robot), too floaty (and it's not a winged pixie), or slides around the game world with no sense of friction (and it's not an ice skater) then I just give up on it and uninstall the trial. I have to feel comfortable in my character's shoes.

One of the things I love in CoH is that characters feel like they have just enough weight - they feel connected and part of their world - and moving them around just feels natural and instinctive, even when they're doing very unnatural things like leaping over a building. I love how Huge characters feel heavier than Male/Female characters thanks to their animations and sound effects - it makes a huge difference and so many MMOs just don't bother making big characters feel any different to small characters except for where your eye-line is in first-person view.

One of the things I really hated in CO is that my character felt too light and seemed to be sliding everywhere - he almost didn't feel connected to the ground or the world. There have also been other games (such as Vanguard and PotBS in avatar-mode) where I didn't feel like I was moving my character, I felt like I was managing their movement - that really kills immersion for me.

The graphics contrast was another element of that too - CoH's character graphics match the world graphics pretty well (though I worry about how some older costume pieces will look in contrast with ultra-mode graphics outdoor in Praetoria) - characters look like they should be in the world - they fit - but I've played so many MMOs where either the world graphics were much higher quality than the avatar graphics (CO, EQ2, DAoC, Vanguard, WoW to some extent) or vice-versa (errr, well PotBS in avatar-mode in some towns, and EQ in the original zones after the Luclin avatar graphics update) that it looked like the characters were visitors to the world from another game. I find that really jarring too, and immersion-breaking, to the point where I'd rather have average graphics everywhere than have average terrain with the avatars being much higher quality.

It must be tough for Dev teams, though - it's hard to quantify what some players will like and others won't, especially in nebulous areas like "feel" and gameplay. I just don't have much faith that gameplay and feel is near the top of the list for many Dev teams - and I think that is where teams like Blizzard, Valve and Bioware win out. I've read interviews with Devs on those teams and with Blizzard in particular before WoW's launch they spoke about building a single zone/area and just getting everyone at the studio taking whole afternoons to play that alpha version so that they could tweak the gameplay and iterate until it was fun. Then getting their friends & family to play it and see if they find it fun too. And really battering out the basic gameplay in that area and learning lessons before the world is built around it (actually I think I read that they discarded that "test" area and used the lessons learned to build their world). I seem to recall reading a Bioware interview on SW:TOR mentioning a similar work procedure.

Then you read other Dev teams giving interviews and all they want to talk about is the graphics engine that they spent 2-3 years building, or about the licence, or about all the features they want to add - anything but the actual gameplay. Heck, I've been in beta tests where major physics and gameplay changes were still being made up to a week before release - that's far too late - stuff like that should be nailed down early in beta at the very latest. It's the core of the frakkin' game!

Auto Assault's Devs in particular seemed to struggle mightily with nailing down the feel of their driving experience, and imho it still felt too light and floaty at end of beta (personal bias perhaps, but I expect a truck to feel heavy). I think CO's launch day xp nerf is another example - not so much gameplay and feel related, but it does have a major effect on gameplay when an xp nerf creates a content drought in several parts of the levelling curve.

SOE were actually pretty bad for last minute gameplay changes in EQ2 beta (admit it, you're shocked!) - they're great at running betas technically (their betas often run more stable than many release games) and organisationally too (with focused testing and Devs present to take feedback on-site, sometimes on a per-quest and per-encounter basis) - but in design terms they can seem somewhat clueless. After 6+ months of having all of us closed beta-testers focused testing different areas and tweaking gameplay, to a point where myself and a lot of testers were really enjoying the game and thought it was a pretty decent, SOE pulled the entire combat abilities/spells system about a week from release and replaced it overnight. All that gameplay/balance testing for nothing - all that iteration seemingly thrown out the window. We wouldn't have minded if the new combat system was better, but it was bland. And I think they realised that because a year after release they ripped it all out and completely replaced it again (and supposedly the new system is a lot more fun - I wouldn't know, I'd quit long before then).

I think you can tell when you play a game whether gameplay and feel were on top of the devs list of things to make sure they got right - or at least to a position that they and a lot of their testers were satisfied with - ultimately you can do no more than that and there is always an element of personal taste to these things.

But I also think MMO Dev teams are often the worst offenders for not making sure the basic gameplay is as fun as it could be. We've heard that gameplay needs to be compromised because of latency issues (and yet FPSs seem to handle it just fine), or similar excuses. But I think a lot of the time the Dev team are so concerned about building a world and handling the other complexities of building an MMO, that gameplay falls by the wayside until near the end of alpha (and occasionally even the end of beta) development.

Sure, graphics are important, reward mechanisms are important, socialisation supporting features are important, story is important - but gameplay is at the core of whether any game is fun or not. It's why I still play a certain 3 levels of Halo, years after I beat the whole game. It's why I've spent so much time playing games like Civ2/4, Diablo 2, the Burnout series, Settlers 2/RoaE, etc. long after other games were uninstalled with their discs consigned to a drawer. It's why in my halls of residence at university the two most popular videogames in our block were Virtua Tennis on my Dreamcast and Mario Kart on my flatmate's N64 - nobody really cared if they won or lost (beyond short term bragging rights and teasing), but there was a continual stream of students into our flat wanting to play those games because they were just really fun to play (especially 4-player games). And ultimately it's why I play CoH, even though I have 17 characters at L50 and have experienced just about every Dev-created piece of content in the game - because I enjoy the basic gameplay.