[ QUOTE ]
You shrug off the praise of Faultline by citing hours.
[/ QUOTE ]
Its a better unit of measurement than qumquats
.
[ QUOTE ]
It's true that the story can be completed in 4-5 hours. That's an "accomplishment" style of play: play it, beat it, forget it.
[/ QUOTE ]
Um, maybe my memmory just works too well - once I've played a mission (and carefully read every clue, breifing and review), I don't have a burning urge to do it again. Even with other powers, since at this point I have played through with every powerset that interests me. Now if there were a new powerset to explore, I'd be reasonably interested in running a fair swath of the game again. That was sort of my hope for inventions - that they would change my play experience. So far, not so much. The funniest thing being that I was starting over with a villian alt and took Burke. His
very first mission, kill a very minor number of mobs but run around planting bugs made me really wish there were more missions out there where there are goals (even simple ones) other than fight, fight, fight.
[ QUOTE ]
There are still hours of explorer-ranged experiences...
[/ QUOTE ]
Did you skip travel powers? I had a decent feel of the zone shape and flavor in about 40 minutes. I have to admit, my new choice of MMOs has really spoiled me on how well done outdoor maps can be. By comparison, CoH (and to a lesser extent CoV, which shows a more expereienced hand) seems like a lot of empty space put there mostly to bog you down between instances. If the Cape mission were at a fixed location with a unique map that you could visit any time you wanted too, the world would feel a little more significant and substantial to me. I could longue around the Hero One museum for a few hours now and then and feel a connection to the world. You read web articles about an old newspaper building, but you really can only go and stare at it from the outside and notice that it's a mirror immage of 2 other buildings in the zone and about 8 across town as a whole.
[ QUOTE ]
and even "puzzle" discoveries of appreciating the hidden references in character stories & NPC dialogue.
[/ QUOTE ]
*yawn* *smacks lips* I guess I'm just not hard core enough. Not one of the cool kids who gets all the in-jokes.
[ QUOTE ]
There's also the ability to street-hunt in a new area with new experiences.
[/ QUOTE ]
Ppphhhhhbbbbbttt! Fighting the Lost next to a new bulding doesn't constitute a "new experience" to me. Then again street hunting has always trenscended the pointless barrier for me. Its exactly the sort of thing I could be doing in ANY game, and ussually could feel is a more interesting tactical exercise in most.
[ QUOTE ]
The game also introduced safeguard missions the same issue, IIRC, and many of the "throw away" stories have their own little discoveries that can make them last much longer before seeming too "repetative."
[/ QUOTE ]
*Snort* I didn't include police missions, but since you brought it up, mix and matching 5 enemy types, 4 maps and 11 plots is still just 11 missions to me. Its not like I havent had to butcher Circle of Thorn guys in the 5-layer cave before,
ad nauseum 
. The Dragoon balls and P.L.O.T. Devices were cute, in a sort of vaguely sterile, popcorn like non-significant plot sort of way. I appreciated the writing, but at the end of the day its just annother go there and kill job. It made me actively miss the handful of patrol misisons in the game.
I did enjoy the Safeguards somewhat. Count that as another 8 or so missions worth of good clean fun. None of my friends cared, naturally, since they don't play heroside.
[ QUOTE ]
The greatest MMO's have never been about passively consuming someone else's story, but giving you a playground to create your own.
[/ QUOTE ]
Sounds awesome. Care to point one out that meets this criteria? I'll be over by the trainer clearly playing second fiddle to someone else's Mary Sue.
[ QUOTE ]
You choose not to- others get a great deal of value out of their $15 and would be disappointed had the devs taken your direction.
[/ QUOTE ]
*shrugs* Yup. That's the bet they are taking. Could be they won that bet overall, but my money says COX is on life support now and will be shut down in, lets say, 20 months. This estimate based not on spite, but apathy. Or I could be completely off base and the introduction of lewt has successfully lured in a whole new crop of players that will also get 1-2 years of enjoyment out of the body of content they have now. That's actually a testable hypothesis since apparently population numbers are sort of available from the corperate site. I should go see if I can check.
Then again, maybe the whole "new threat" thing the seems to continuously hover in the "available within 1 year from now" range will really blow my socks off. That would be nice. Having that in our hands before year's end would be nice too, but the time frame really isn't pressing to me anymore. I'll re-up whenever its ready, assuming it looks cool.
[ QUOTE ]
Your contempt for the game is common...
[/ QUOTE ]
So you're thinking less than 20 months then? Common contempt is not a recipe for success
.
[ QUOTE ]
but usually misplaced: $15 doesn't get you very much nowadays, as far as entertainment goes.
[/ QUOTE ]
Uh, if they put out an issue every month, I'd be tickled pink - and far more forgiving of the flailing they've displayed lately. Generously speaking they manage one every 4 months, and by that standard, Hell Yes, there are TONS of things out there that give me more pleasure than each of the last 3 issues have for $60 or less.
[ QUOTE ]
Your $15 won't even get you a 4 hours of entertainment at the movies... even excluding popcorn.
[/ QUOTE ]
Hmm, you tout all the secondary benefits of Faultline, but you don't talk about movies with your friends afterwards? Kinda a double standard. I can manage movie + an evening shooting the breeze about it for maybe a smidgeon over $15 - but then again I don't buy theater sodas
.
[ QUOTE ]
Most $60 games are gearing for under 20 hours of playability- in fact, many game reviewers now cut on a game if the story drags on for too long.
[/ QUOTE ]
Most videogame reviewers strike me as idiots, and I've got a shelf full of RPGs telling me I can do 20+ hours of good story-based gaming for less than $60 casually. Usually with a new set of player tools (classes/powersets) to explore, as good or better a score, equal or better graphics, and stangely very little lag or crashing. Not bug free certainly, but plenty of folks on these boards will remind you, "what is?" I certainly got my time and fun out of God of War II as far as non-RPGs go. Next you are gonna tell me I'm missing out on all the combative bidding over at the auction house. A shame that :P.
yes, I have meet some nice people on-line. Ive gotten loads of compliments for being a generally nice player to work with and praise for my costuumes and back story, so I know I've also contributed to the fun of others. I don't regret my time on CoX, I just think that the Devs are failing to serve long time players and are strategically trying to dress up old content to appeal to the churn. Your loyalty and entertainment dollar demands different things. Nothing wrong with that. I'm saying 20 months because I'm not particularly in the majority I think. If eveyone was like me the severs would go dark by year's end.
[ QUOTE ]
Many games that do claim more than that have gameplay that makes that "hunt for the last darn glowie" tedium seem rich in comparison.
[/ QUOTE ]
Wow. You have some really rose tinted goggles for playing CoX
. Or don't know what the hell you're talking about. Or maybe just buy a lot of bad games. Not sure. Occam's razor doesn't immediately offer a solution on this one.
[ QUOTE ]
I know this won't convince you not to leave- you're not satisfied here... just don't be surprised if you're not satisfied elsewhere either.
[/ QUOTE ]
Your concern is noted, but so far I'm liking my new MMO reasonably well, and having paid once for a lifetime membership, I don't have to reassess it every couple of months to see if it's still a worthwhile transaction. I've sunk about $600 into CoX, and I don't regret it, but the last year has been a steadily declining level of enjoyment and growing irritation, and i9 finally cracked the floor. Its the first issue that not only added intolerably little, it also actively pissed me off. My biggest concern isn't where CoX is at, which I like less than I did a year ago, it's the direction it's going. Your forecast is clearly brighter.
. It came out really well - I look forward to seeing the growing line-up!