Melancton

Long ago and far away, prior to the Great Migration to these forums, there was agitation from the fans to have the Cyrus Thompson Community Center put in the game. Ultimately, Cyrus' statue made it ingame to the great pleasure of those fans who had agitated. Around that time, as I recall, I noted that in the comic, there was a business across the street from the Center called "Mon Grounds," whatever THAT was, and wondered with a wink if it, too, would be added to the game.

Troy Hickman responded and asserted that "Mon Grounds" was a Jamaican coffeeshop. Yes, we all realized it was an "I see what you did there" in the comic for Common Grounds, but the notion that what was presented was actually the full name of the business and that Mon Grounds was a Jamaican coffeeshop became a running gag itself, to wit:

So there you go.

When Chase_Arcanum uses the gag, then the gag has a tremendous groundswell of popular support. When Troy Hickman uses the gag, it has become Canon.

He got better.

Hey, if Protean can get better, anyone can.

Grannie needs to lighten up and talk to Statesman's dead wife, who assured him that he was no longer needed to save the world, that other heroes could now do that instead, so go ahead and die already, which he promptly did.

Oh, wait, she meant me, and nobody else but me!

Yer dern tootin'! Look out, Muhammed Ali, it is I that is now The Greatest! (We'll just overlook that business in SSA1 where bushels of folks die all over the joint with me standing around, okay?)

Gosh, I sure do feel Good about the Me that is Me!

Nothing! That is why you "welcome your death" at the hands of your daughter's murderer with a huge smile on your face. And you are so happy to be die like that, it remains on your face once you are dead!

Yeah, that whole business was sort of the All-Star Team of Bad Writing.

This Result: Inconceivable.

The cure for that is More Hickman.

You are quite right, Sam.

The way to proceed is to have us do greater things than the great heroes of the past and thus take our place of prominence in the pantheon of great heroes.

Well, at first it was just Statesman that was disdained. It does not improve things to be an equal-opportunity disdainer of the rest as well.

There are a good number of folks who ignore the lyrics to the songs they listen to. My beloved wife often has her hair stand straight out when I recite the lyrics to a ditty she is humming. The problem is that the lyrics are part of the work. When purchasing a song, one rewards the artist and provides incentive for more of the same. It is simply an individual question as to how bad the lyrics need to be before it trumps the other considerations. Personally, I avoid music that glorifies bad behavior, even if it has a catchy tune.

The Devs have made some horrible, unforced errors in their storylines. Hopefully they are datamining and see that I, going on 8 years of subscription, don't bother with the objectionable storylines. Sure, I could "pretend" what the Devs say is the situation is in the story is really not the situation, but I could also pretend that a song about abusing a girlfriend is actually about My Little Pony... but it isn't, and I don't. Just my personal preference.

Ah, so we shall commemorate Statesman in a typical pose, ie, signalling that someone scored a touchdown, eh?

I believe that is my cue to yet again cite the accomplishments of Troy Hickman and tactfully remind the Devs that he is a cheap date. Of course, what he produces is great stories and dialogue as opposed to Personal Favors, but I will let him address his availability for the latter.

Well met, Viridian. Hopefully when I have complained, it has been constructive, and when I have praised, it has been noted.

The writing matters. A good, well-written story attracts and a bad one repels. Folks are not watching "Casablanca" for the great special effects. Good writing truly enhances the CoH experience and makes me want to log on.

The writing for Laura Lockhart is a recent example. Little details depict her as particularly winsome, such as "a wry smile" coming across her face before she answers and other nice touches. She is different from the horde of other female contacts in that manner. Graham Easton's jumpy, self-absorbed manner is another well-done bit of recent characterization. Sun Xiong has an interesting portrayal. The overall missions, though, are not all that different from many, many others, yet they are more attractive. And there are a number of other great characters and writing, even in the very oldest content, that I have enjoyed.

I would put these arcs up in counterpoint to the notion that "the only reason I play is to kill things, so the plots, characters and whatever do not matter." If that were true, there could be a single contact for every mission who simply said the equivalent of "Go. Hunt. Kill Skuls."

Bad stories and bad characterizations I just avoid. I never finished "Who Will Die?" after Smilin' Statesman "welcomed his death" by walking into the Obvious Trap™. It was just that bad. The missions still required the defeat of bad guys and apparently some really great graphical stuff later on, but the story it was hung on reeked so badly I wanted no more of it. But I play Lockhart and Easton's arcs with each new hero in that range. For that matter, I have watched "The Empire Strikes Back" quite a number of times over the years, but only small bits of "Return of the Jedi" since I walked sadly out of that theatre in 1983 for pretty much the same reasons.

The forums exist to discuss. The Ignore feature has a function. Discussion about the writing indicates that folks are tuning in and logging on and hoping for better things. When there is utter silence, it means that the shark has been jumped and folks have simply left, and the servers will shortly close. Surely we do not want that.

Well, I do love me some Blasters, so I also part company with Sam there, but Blasters can certainly use some help, especially in the snipe area, so I know where he is coming from.

The original concept of Blasters led to many troubles, depending on the powersets. The "ranged damage" aspect was never enough; the Devs set it up to where my squishable squishy had to run in close to use some powers, and until you have some finesse, it usually does not end well. At this juncture, I can skitter in and out of melee intact, but the learning curve was long and brutal. The exact powersets also make a vast difference in this regard.

The snipes really could use some love. Too long to fire and plagued with constant interruptions, not to mention moving targets that duck behind cover, they are extremely situational for me.

But stop Blasting? No way. Either I love a challenge or am a glutton for punishment, but I enjoy the heck out of those Blasters.

Which is a great solution to an old, old problem. Thanks to the Devs in general and the clever person that figured it out in specific.

And those that have been watching all take a drink!

Sam, you continue to amaze me with your command of English. Here you use deliberately poor grammar as an ironic tool to reinforce the point, which is a VERY subtle nuance! *doffs hat*

I am reasonably conversant in a language that is not my native tongue but don't look for ME to demonstrate anything CLOSE to that level of skill!

Meanwhile, back at your main point:

I agree with the specific challenges of writing for Superman you note, and about plotlines in general.

Which is pretty much in a nutshell what separates the writers we enjoy from those we do not.

See, I think there is a difference between a trap that the hero runs afoul of because of clever anticipation and excellent use of stealth and surprise and one that is the archetypal Obvious Trap™ that all but has big flashing neon arrows denoting where the hero has to go to be undone. If the writing is good, it is not necessarily going to follow that tropes are going to be involved. There are legitimately surprising and innovative traps and/or attacks to be made upon heroes that do not necessarily involve an Obvious Trap™ or an Obvious Trope™.

More specifically to the point at hand, the cover art for SSA1.4 suggested an epic duel between Statesman and Wade, but what we ended up with was Statesman flopping like a fish and "welcoming his death" with a big smile on his face after strolling into what was the textbook definition of an Obvious Trap™. Whether it was colossal arrogance or Biblical-scale stupidity that was the official "motivation," it left a horrible, horrible aftertaste.

There is a faction of folks that reduces everything everywhere to some sort of a trope. Perhaps that is somehow true on a technical level, but even if one concedes the point for say, "Casablanca," the writing and execution are so skillful that it does not matter a whit--- the experience is wonderful. It does not follow as the night the day that you must prepare for the hero to be unreasonably stupid in order to have a plot. Troy Hickman has demonstrated that, and used the City of Heroes characters to boot.

At some point for some heroes, you DO have to suspend some rational thinking in order to have a plot. Whenever I see Superman cocking his arm to punch an antagonist, I realize that if he did what I would do, ie, punch the bad guy 50,000 times with super-strength in the space of one second, the story, as you say, would be over right there. Even if you have to have such Winks and Nods, with skillful writing, the journey is enjoyable nonetheless. With poor writing, "Count the Tropes" becomes a more agreeable activity than following the bad plot and execution.

SSA1 had many, many problems: "STATESMAN IS GOING TO DIE" announced well ahead of time, the "Killing off Statesman" comments by Matt Miller and the enforced stupidity/idiocy on everyone, resulting in multiple deaths and complete frustration. But the absolute nail in the coffin was Smilin' Statesman, walking into the Obvious Trap™ and "welcoming his death" at the hands of his daughter's murderer.

I stopped with episode 4 and never finished the arc. I have no plans to. It provokes too many bad responses for multiple reasons.

So I appreciate the spoiler-free endorsement of SSA2, Sam. There is still good writing being done in CoH, particularly in giving NPCs personality and telling some tales that are not so darkety-dark-dark-dark, or at least having options to head in another direction. I want to play a superhero that helps people, not be a helpless participant in an Existential Angst/Despair Festival. Given that you appear to have the same viewpoint, I will have to give SSA2 a whirl based on your endorsement.

I also continue to be bemused that Samuel Tow, speaking and writing English as a second language, is so fluent and well-spoken, and finds the sloppy grammar, typos and poor vocabulary choices in the CoH texts so annoying. I am reminded of something said by President George W. Bush: "I know that upon occasion I have some trouble with my sentences and I have sometimes had my English corrected by others. It is just a surprise when it is Governor Schwarzenegger correcting me."



Edit: Let me clarify, though, that the point is that Sam is correcting folks that ought to know better since English is their first language. Let me be clear, though: Sam, you are hardly a Schwarzenegger in your command of English, and I never would have discerned that you did not speak English natively had you not disclosed it. Having seen some of the things you have objected to, though, I think even Schwarzenegger would object to them as well.