First Guest Authors Feedback Thread

So, now that we finally have our first offical Guest Author Story Arcs published live in the MA System, I figured it was appropriate to start a thread where those of us who have decided to play one or all of the Guest Author arcs can post their feedback here on the forums

For those who don't know, the four Guest Author Story Arcs now available in the MA are as follows:

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Arc Name: OMG, it's the LOLBAT!

Guest Author: Scott Kurtz

Arc ID#: 337435

Description (Taken from the official CoH Website): OMG! Your new contact on the street is none other than the internet meme-obsessed hero, the LOLBAT, and he brings grave if not confusing news. The Algonquin Hate Table, a rogues gallery of the LOLBAT's greatest foes, are looking to expand their heinous if not artfully influenced crime syndicate into Paragon City. If you know what's good for you and the citizens you protect, you won't let that happen. Luckily, the LOLBAT knows how these guys work and he's ready to help you defeat these pompous profligates.

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Arc Name: Mission: Awesome

Guest Author: Rooster Teeth

Arc ID#: 337438

Description (Taken from the official CoH Website): Help Captain Dynamic defeat the Great Face's evil plans...

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Arc Name: The Great Face-Off

Guest Author: Rooster Teeth

Arc ID#: 337436

Description (Taken from the official CoH Website): The Great Face is wanting to wreak havoc on Paragon City. He needs your help to free him from Paragon Prison and then carry out his master plan...

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Arc Name: Quest for Magic

Guest Author: Bill Willingham

Arc ID#: 337434

Description (Taken from the official CoH Website): Irena Faust is tired of being a civilian in a super world, so she's embarked upon a quest for super powers. She thinks magic is the way to go and she has an idea where to start. Can you help her?

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So, if you decide to play one or more of these story arcs, and want to leave some feedback in this thread, feel free to post your thoughts regarding these arcs here. Please keep all feedback constructive, and as always, respect the forum guidelines when submitting your post

I played Quest for Magic and one of the things I noticed throughout is the really good writing. Both in mission briefings and bios for the bosses. The vampire boss in the second mission was pretty noticable. The twist at mission four I saw coming a mile away, but it was still handled pretty well. I found a few typos and errors, but Dr. Aeon said that they've been fixed. Also a nice inside joke about Azuria's vaultkeeping skills makes me wonder if he's a CoX player, or if he got that info from another source. Good map choices, enemy choices, and an all around good arc. I enjoyed it.

Pic of his custom mobs in mission 2. I'm in the middle there somewhere.

Is it safe to assume everyone knows who Bill Willingham is, or should one of us that read his stuff religiously fill folks in?

P.S. I guess that explains what you were doing when I interrupted you earlier this evening, Bubba.

I have no idea who he is.

I'll be honest, none of the descriptions of these arcs makes me interested in playing any of them.

I've never heard of Bill Willingham either, or this "Rooster Teeth" fellow. Nor do I read PvP and the title of that one would make me skip right over it in a random arc search.

I don't read comics.

Played Mission Awesome today as well, it was pretty fun, a lot of nice callbacks to the Captain Dynamic videos, and also a few typos which I forwarded to Dr. Aeon. It had some pretty nice humor in it and somewhat interesting custom mobs, though they started getting a little tired (as opposed to Quest for Magic which had a different group in each mission, 2 separate custom mobs, Snakes, and Hydra)

As far as who they are, I didn't know who Bill Willingham was, though I've read enough of these threads to see a lot of praise (never heard of Fables either)

I've never seen Red vs. Blue, but I enjoyed the Captain Dynamic videos from Rooster Teeth.

And I've never read PvP, and will probably not end up playing the lolbat one unless I'm on a team that decides to run it.

Not to derail the thread, or seem like a fanboi, but I *am* a comic book afficianado... afficie... affic... um... collector-kind-of-guy. "Fables" is unlike anything else. It's a totally different take on all the characters from all the kids stories and fables. Many people that aren't fans of most comics have enjoyed his series. My wife swears by it.

That's not to say his arc is guaranteed to be any better than many of the ones we discuss, play, and/or review regularly. Not having played it, yet, I'd have no clue. I'll vouch for his writing talent outside of CoH in any case.

Just saying.

Oh, and to further muddy the waters and make myself seem even more brown of the nose, Scott Kurtz's "PvP" is a really fun series. It's often hilarious. He has his own website, as well as a comic series reprinted from the site (oh, and an Eisner Award as well). Doesn't mean he can write his way out of the proverbial paper back when faced with the same restrictions we are in the MA, but I'd bet his arc's not going to suck.

I know a lot of folks feel like the devs are short changing player-creators when it comes to the promise of Dev's Choice awards. Heck, I'm with them. But this *is* a game about comic book heroes. Giving some special recognition to award-winning comic book writers who play the game with us just makes sense. Now, where's Troy Hickman's arc?

While I'm very familiar with Bill Willingham and actually did recognize Scott Kurtz's name I won't be really impressed by the guest authors until we get Arcs written by Jim Butcher, Gail Simone and Mercedes Lackey, all of whom have played/still play the game.

I know Mercedes global and she hasn't done an MA yet. I wasn't aware that Gail played the game. That's just sweet! And, who's Jim Butcher?

Thus far, other writers that play the game that are MIA as Guest Authors are:

Troy Hickman
Gail Simone
Mercedes Lackey
Jim Butcher

Any others?

Mark Waid played for a while.

If I knew Gail Simone's login I don't think I could help but pester her with terrible arcs full of the random misogyny that seems to be so prevalent in fan writing as a sort of "can you believe this?" kind of thing, so it's probably best that I don't.

To be honest, I wasn't very impressed with the guest arcs. I thought Scott Kurtz's was the best, but the others were kind of... Eh.

Bill Willingham's was well written but REALLY predictable, and the Rooster Teeth ones I just found lame.

I think the trouble is a lot of players have become pretty skilled with the system, so compared to them the guest arcs just seemed kind of... Amateurish.

o.o

Minor spoiler for some of the arcs below.












I've done BillWill's (never heard of the guy before yesterday) and Kurtz's last night. Both of them had the contact, story wise, not technical issue, unable to actually be contacted at some point, rather a narrator or a force that wasn't the contact gave the mission info.

Both used the same color text to denote narrator or "the contact isn't talking here" during the contact text. Is this something that the MA community has aggreed upon and the guest authors just used it? Yeah, I though both arcs were a bit cliche, but having a community standard for, 'The contact isn't talking here' may be the best thing to come out of this, if it wasn't something agreed upon already.

I happen to be familiar with all three of the parties involved - Willingham since his stuff for Villains and Vigilantes (which evolved into his own comic series, Elementals); Rooster Teeth since the first seasons of Red vs. Blue (which I have on DVD); and Kurtz, from the beginning of PvP (and boy has his art style changed). Sad to say, in all three cases, I've not been much impressed by their recent work. Some bright spots, yes, but...