I would say it's my attachment to characters this place has given me the ability to create, and the Characters that keep me here more than the setting.
i'm also a terrible aesthete, my mina character has changed greatly over the last three years and the game has allowed me to refine it more and more, which means usually i get irritated with the lack of options everywhere else.
Still Champions on-line will give similar opportunities so who knows what will happen after that comes out.
So to summarise, I tolerate the setting for the sake of the character. rather than finding particularly special.
I have to say that it's the characters that really hold me here as well - mine and other people's and their various connections. There's a vast wealth of deep, interesting, well-thought-out characters to meet and interact with, and I've barely scratched the surface with my Militia-centric activities.
Still, the setting has its charms. I'm a big fan of the Rikti, who are quite an original take on the "alien invasion" theme, and I'm glad they seen some development recently. I'm also quite fond of Nemesis, who's just such a likely-seeming comic book villain that following his stories is always fun.
Then again, for me, the setting and world of WoW were one of the main reasons why I despised it. The horribly mangled rendition of the setting I'd been looking forward to just grated too much. City of Heroes had the advantage that it had no ideal to live up to.
Knights Exemplar: Wolfram, Autumnfox, Starlit Spirit.
Militia: The Portent, Wavekite, Mr. Sandman.
The Cadre: WarpLocke, Zajin.
Numerous others.
Oh, don't worry. I said I admired the Warcraft setting, not the World of Warcraft one. Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeally fell apart when the MMO came about ("Hey, let's dumb down the Night Elves! Strip out the Horde's inner struggle by having them show no remorse about their invasion of other lands! Let's completely forget about entire nations we made! Let's change an abstract, mysterious force into something that's tangible and clearly defined!"), but that didn't stop it being the reason I played.
At any rate, just trying to get my head around things really. I so desperately want to get involved in roleplay beyond my current crop of mild flirting with catgirls, going GRR RAWR at Heroes in Pocket D and so on. I can see the potential in the City of world, I'm just a little weird when it comes to unlocking it.
The one thing that REALLY binds me to this world is characters that are my own.
In WoW I feel like 'just another Dwarf hunter' the fact that the game is one mahoosive gear-grindingfest really doesn't help either, everyone looks exactly the same as everyone else in varying degrees in what amounts to different armour and weapons. The character isn't really mine, it's just another dwarf in a variation of armour and weapons (this is one of the main reasons why the Chinese and Koreans really love WoW but detested CoH when it was released over there, simply because they desire everyone to look roughly the same whereas CoH was all about being unique).
I did switch to playing WoW for a while and CoX a lot less but then the inevitable 'raiding blues' as their called, set in pretty quickly over the space of two weeks, the realisation that I spent 12 hours of my life a week fighting bosses that may or may not drop something I needed...so for all the effort I may just get sod all reward...where as CoH, the reward I get = effort I put in.
It's the fact that while yes, the WoW world is that much more immersive than the CoH world (for the love of god remove the warwalls) by the very fact that once your loaded in you almost never encounter a loading screen unless your either a) entering a new continent or b) doing a dungeon instance. The constant loading screens always break immersion while ingame for me in CoH.
BUT
Having an immersive world is nothing without decent gameplay to go with it, once you come to realise the whole game is basically designed around grinding, it doesn't matter how epic the setting is, you heart sinks because you realise you'll be stuck on this never ending treadmill of grinding for 'the next best loot' UNLESS your one of those guilds who is at the bleeding edge of content constantly...you're always playing catch-up. Whereas CoX, you really DON'T need the best of the best loot (IO sets etc) to be able to do the endgame content and then you don't need to do that endgame content until your sick of it to get Purple IO sets so you can do the uber-uber endgame content (and so the cycle continues forever and ever and ever and...).
While lore is very importaint in a game, the WoW lore has become shoved to the side in favour of the grinding (or lollore as it's refered to on the WoW forums) and all the wonderful things I so loved about the Warcraft games have pretty much been demolished single-handedly to make way so 5% of the population playing the game can get the 'phat epixs' and reduce the lore to nothingness but another excuse for a meaningless grind.
CoX has a very different lore, it's one that's uncovered slowly, bit by bit, it may require reading something off Paragonwiki or it may come at you in a completely random order (such as learning Blue Steel is the one responsible for the Clockwork Kings' current state AFTER doing the Synapse TF...) but you piece it together yourself. It's not quite like WoW which relies on the last 3 RTS games + expansions to provide it's lore (lets face it, WoW has added very little in the way of lore when compared to those games) it requires you to read the clues and missions briefings carefully so you can go "ohhhh...that makes more sense now".
The reason I stick with this game because they're really isn't any other game where I can RP a character of MY choosing and not be forced into the way of how a specific race should act as bought about by the games lore (Dwarfs HAVE to be a certain way, Nelfs HAVE to be a certain way) and any going contrary to the way they're suppose to behave really is an outcasts amongst their people...
phew...sorry got a bit ranty there...
Badge Earned: Wing Clipper
A real showstopper!
I can only agree with what the others have said; It's all in the character(s).
If you have a fun character with a good background and interesting personality it doesn't matter where you are. You make the setting fit around him/her.
If I'm in a night club in New York or in a battlefield in Korea, it's still the same character.
- How would my character react in this situation?
- How would my character respond to this action?
- etc. etc.
Focus on the character and not the setting, I'd say.
And I love humour, so I always try to toss in some odd quirks to make something more to work with.
I like the morphability, the close reference to the RL but with the fantastic.
WoW has a big world, a nice fantasy feel about it. I like it, I know it's not everyone's cup of tea. But, it's all very set in stone, it's what it is, little can be changed, and it's hours upon hours of reading to catch up. I know a bit, as I played Warcraft 1 and 2, but I haven't paid much attention to the story.
So, what I like about the setting is that it's easy to get in to, it's easy to create convversation pieces: just take from RL if it's nothing major or political.
Somehow I don't see someone in a WoW pub breaking the ice by saying "What about those Lakers, eh?" and be taken serious enough.
I find the setting a good blend between the present day, Scifi and Fantasy.
@ShadowGhost & @Ghostie
The Grav Mistress, Mistress of Gravity
If you have nothing useful to say, you have two choices: Say something useless or stay quiet.
As Cass said,
[ QUOTE ]
I would say it's my attachment to characters this place has given me the ability to create, and the Characters that keep me here more than the setting.
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I think ive quit WoW and returned here four times now, like you say WoW gets old after 3 months, and from what i saw (Atleast on Moonglade) RP wasnt as good, nor taken as seriously as the community here.
But definatly characters my character Roleplays with make this game, and its community worthwhile. As much as i like WoW the gear grind gets tiresome and even on the RP Realms i found it was still about gear, roleplay came second, gear came first. Maybe i wasnt hanging with the right crowd but thats the feeling i got. I never really got hm, immersed? In WoW either, as much as i loved my Draenei, and Human. The setting CoX is in is something i can relate too it makes it that much more fun to play and come up with chracters.
Oh, and what ShadowGhost said, coulden't of put it better.
The thing that keeps me playing is the Character Creator there are so many costume designs and I have neevr seen anyone with the same cossy(Except Vanguard cossies and duo's etc.). Also the villain groups. I love fighting Freakshow and the AV battles are fun, and ofc the MS Raids. Mainly the creative side of the game and the characters keep me coming back for more.
i realy have nothing to add, as its all been covered already... but...
Blah blah blah characters blah blah blah blah lower fantasy blah blah blah generic avatars suck blah blah for destroying the warcraft franchise for me, blizzard can take a long hard suck of my blah blah blah
First thing for me was that it is Superheroes.
That's what made me pick up the box from the shop shelf those years ago. I've played a thousand fantasy games across the years and frankly, wouldn't have even considered a subscription to play yet another elven battle-dancer, or another brave knight, etc.
But as others say, what keeps me here is the characters and interactions in a world I can really identify with more than imagine. I can call upon my knowledge of career skills, science, history, etc in order to bring interesting concepts and considerations to the game. Sure, there might be humour value to having a life insurance salesman or something in WoW, bt there's certainy no believability in it.
Reporter, Weathergirl, Cop, Private Eye, School Teacher, Surgeon, and thousands of other careers really don't fit in a fantasy world without making it feel twee and shallow. A world of parody rather than immersive roleplay. But I prefer a realistic setting, because for me the psychology has to feel real. That's a lot easier to attain in a setting that has more connection with our own, IMHO.
http://www.savecoh.com/
Well there's a few things I like about City of Heros. For a start you really can create almost whatever you want. There's no characters i've yet met that's totally unbelievable. It was something of a joke in WoW that people playing Vampires or Werewolfs broke setting and it was true, but in CoH they don't really break the immersion, they're entirely possible!
You could even create a badly named Eastern Superhero who's here on the pay of a amoral company and has to keep up her web site popularity to stay in the country. BUT THAT'S MY IDEA BACK OFF PUNKS.
Still, it's a setting yhat doesn't tie you down to pre-established lore much, it's very freeform, you can make pretty much whatever you want and run nearly any story you like!
Also there seems to be a very large proportion of roleplayers! I think it's because without a loot grind, you don't slowly lose people to the grind, whcih can really kill a player made plot arc. Plus it's the kinda game where you liek to have a story with your character, since you're so unique and all 
I do it with whipped cream and a blindfold.
[ QUOTE ]
I do it with whipped cream and a blindfold.
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I am Shadowe, and I am slightly nauseous about this post.
The wisdom of Shadowe: Ghostraptor: The Shadowe is wise ...; FFM: Shadowe is no longer wise.
; Techbot_Alpha: Also, what Shadowe said. It seems he is still somewhat wise 
; Bull Throttle: Shadowe was unwise in this instance...; Rock_Powerfist: in this instance Shadowe is wise.; Techbot_Alpha: Shadowe is very wise *nods*; Zortel: *Quotable line about Shadowe being wise goes here.*
I'll go one further. (About characters you filthy people!)
Having a compelling character is good and each new one will interpret the city and its inhabitants in different ways. But once they form relationships with other characters, that's when things really fly. Interacting with other people's creations and then tackling the environment together I find makes for good fun. Which is why I've never been a huge person for just standing around and chatting. Talking, interacting and then uncovering the stories hidden away around the city as a team, that's what I find can make the repetitive missions and tasks come alive, give it meaning. 
@Dante EU - Union Roleplayer and Altisis Victim
The Militia: Union RP Supergroup - www.themilitia.org.uk
Stick with the setting, I mean.
I've just come from WoW for what feels like the umpteenth time, but with something of a realisation: in Warcraft I enjoy its setting and world, however the game gets real bloody old, real bloody quick. Conversely, City of Heroes seems to have the opposite problem...namely that while I absolutely adore the game, as a general rule I don't find it's world terribly gripping so without a strong base to roleplay around my interest normally dwindles.
How do you guys do it? What is there that hooks you to keep coming back again and again, in character discussion after in character discussion? I love Arachnos, I love the Fifth Column, I love the idea of brutal vigilantism groups such as Wyvern embody...but otherwise? Something just seems very off to me about the whole world (even if it's one of the more thorough and lively ones I've played in).
Really want to make a go of dedicated roleplay, but I need that little push or spark to help find the right hook!