Slaunyeh

I... have never actually read any comic books. Practically all of my comic book knowledge come from other sources, like the the Marvel Overpower card game, movies, etc. Sure, I've browsed through a superman comic book or a X-Men album once or twice, but I've never followed any american (or japanese for that matter) style comic book for any length of time.

I grew up on French and Belgian comic books, like Tintin, Spirou and Fantasio, Asterix, etc. My frame of reference is weird, so I think I can safely say that I have never intentionally copied an existing hero/villain concept. I simply don't know them that well.

That said, however, disregarding people who actually go "hey, I want to play Wolverine!" I think a main issue is that the better known characters are more like archetypes. Their basic concepts cover a lot of potential character types. Like, if you have an idea for a tough, street-smart, "all natural" guy who fight crime with his fists, it's very easy to just settle for "Batman-like", even if their backstory and costume is nothing alike. These character types cover most of our reference for what superheroes are, so it's easy to chance upon a character concept that turns out to be inspired by one of them, even if you didn't do it intentionally. Heck, Statesman is an obvious Superman clone.

My subscription, as Arcanaville noted, is like five bucks a month. That's something like a new game every ten months. It's already crazy cheap. If there was an "everything included" Super-Duper-VIP subscription model, I'd be interested. But it should go for significantly more, IMHO.


As a side-note, I don't know if this is the intention behind the system, but I find that the Paragon Points system is actually, actively discouraging me from spending money on the market. Before, it was really easy to snatch up a rename token or a transfer token, or something. Now it's kinda a bother. 800 points? That's a lot. And I only have 300... meh, maybe later. Now, I only bother picking stuff form the market if it's something I REALLY want.

I agree with all of your points.

For me, the chief offender it's the whole raid mentality. Standing around with an army other people, wailing away at something lost in special effects is not fun. Feeling like "hey, if I went out for coffee right now, the outcome of this fight would be exactly the same" is not fun.

Had it been a really hard eight-man trial, they might have been a lot more approachable. I don't know. As it is, I have no idea what I'm fighting, or why I should care. Or why I just died.


PS. I think it's worth noting that Mayhem missions are fun due to a fluke. Imagine if the environment scaled with your level as originally intended. Imagine if it took the same 30 seconds to destroy a car at level 50, as it did at level 5. How'd that be for shattering any sense of "how awesome am I!?" Mayhem is awesome due to a bug that made it fantastic fun, not because it was designed to be fun! I don't know if there's anything to learn from that story, but there it is!

My moon-based death ray
Threatens all life on Earth
MOCK MY THEORIES NOW!

They called me insane.
Insane! Me! But I'll show them!
I will show them all!


(I only play red-side, so I must be rotten to the core.)

Psst. It's d'Artagnan.

Only a true sociopath would lack the emotional baggage to make this decision without any kind of prejudice.

Hey! Some of us have been waiting for dark illusions since i6.

Yup. But it's always sad to see a guy so young go (55 is young when we're talking death!). I might not have cared for the direction he wanted the industry to take, but his passing is sad, nonetheless. RIP Jobs!

I don't know what that means. How does posting a picture of yourself answer anything?

And even if they are familiar with it, they might not be that quick to treat cop outs as gospel.

My fire/ice dom would like a word with you. Plays just fine as a melee character (he's about as ranged as a spines scrapper ).

It's not the same thing at all? Interpretation 1 is: "Hey, I have a level 36 team running missions, want to join?" Interpretation 2 is: "Uhm, if you feel like starting and leading a team, I can be your first invite!"

My next account billing date is in, like, june.

Isn't that an argument for "Fighting"? I'm pretty sure it's not a hero-only set!

Poor Sister Psyche

Amen!

Gabriel Knight 3 actually had a really cool story (basically the DaVinci Mystery before Dan Brown made it cool), if you could get past the horrible horrible 3d engine.

The original is still the best by far.

I can still hear the hissed warning "Stay away from Malia Gedde!"

I would be sorely disapointed if Synapse, Numina or Citadel was the one to die.

Synapse, because he's kind of an unintended joke character. Killing him would be "too easy". The guy is being abused enough as it is!
Numina because, well, she's already dead. It'd be kinda lame.
Citadel because he's a very low-profile hero. You don't really see a lot of in-game stuff evolve around him. It wouldn't have much emotional impact if he died. And it's a bit too easy to "kill the robot" (not to mention that he was already 'killed' once, and got brought back in a new shiny body)

For the Who Will Die story line to have any meaning at all, I think it needs to be one of the high-profile members of the Freedom Phalanx. Statesman, Positron, Sister Psyche or Manticore. Or Back Ally Brawler if we ignore that he's not a member.

(personally, I know what helmetless freak I'm rooting for, but I'm not holding my breath )