Why is this game so amazing?!

Chompie deserves even more positive Forum Rep for starting this; yes. Just because. Aint it grand.

My take is that it keeps it simple, its the miyamoto "fun factor" where you try to keep from getting between the player and his/her fun. there is depth from the breadth of activities, but you can do the game of most of them with relatively few intermediary steps. plus, the costumes let me create fancy for the joy/trauma of all those around me.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

Lots of things. But my top three would be:

- Sidekicking. Especially the new SSK. The best feature ever implemented in a MMO.

- The Speed. You can actually fly and superjump. For real! And you can just pop into the game for an hour or so and immediately jump into action.

- Customizability. Every hero and villain looks unique. And the power pools are so varied, that you can basically create any kind of hero you want.

I love CoH because it gives me so much, yet asks so little from me in return.

Last night, I was teaming with a good game-buddy (We have been teaming together for 3-4 years), and we were both playing our level 50 Broadsword/Shield Scrappers, both of whom have softcapped defenses. My buddy's mission, set for +4 players, and we are up against Carnies. We herd up a huge group of foes who would be a problem for most level 50 characters, pull them to a corner. Both of us let loose with Build Up, Shield Charge for massive damage . . . . and the entire huge group faceplants. Both of us were cackling with glee.

It has taken us a long time of understanding how builds work and the right strategies, but it is a heck of a lot of fun feeling that "super."

Then we teamed up with someone new to us, but a long-time vet of the game, and had a great time using voice chat and killing stuff amazingly fast. Later we started doing some Malta missions, which were enough of a challenge to be fun.

The Dev's have done a nice job reducing many of the more frustrating aspects of this game while leaving it to be a challenge and improving the fun factors.

And there are a lot of great people in this game.

#1 The people
#2 The Boom de Yada
#3 The FREEM!

My playtime goes up and down (the next 2 weeks will be hugely UP thanks to use it or lose it PTO rules). I just cant ever see myself unsubscribing, unless I literally cannot afford it.

CoX is a game. Other MMOGs are chores, at best.

for me, the main thing about this game that makes it exceptionally fun is that with enough time, patience, and attention to detail, we are able to not just create a character, but craft something that is on par with the most difficult things the game can throw at us and still be balanced.

no other game comes close to the detail you have over your character and what that character can achieve. also, it helps that you can make literally any concept and it can fit into the game world.

I ask myself this so often. It seems like even if I try to play one of my other games I am thinking that I could be playing one of my heroes or villains instead and if that other game doesn't grab me fast enough I quit and go to City.

I cannot itemize why I enjoy this game so much but I do enjoy it more than any other game I have played in the past 5 1/2 years.

There are a great many things, but I think, for me, it comes down to two.

I really feel like my characters are uniquely mine. The combination of free-form backstory text, sooo many appearance combinations and the great variety in possible builds even within the same AT make it possible to feel they really are your creations. That sense of attachment leads to investment, both in terms of time and emotional attachment.

Most fundamentally for me, though, I love the combat engine. Yes, the AI is dumb. I really don't care. What matters is that combat is sufficiently random. I have to do things to react to the fact that no combat plays out exactly as planned or exactly like the last one. At the same time, though, I don't feel as though I'm completely at the mercy of the RNG. It's just random enough that my actions control the majority of my destiny, but I can't be certain they'll do exactly what I intended.

Finally, related to the above, the fights feel epic. Taking on lots of foes gives me great joy. Even if they could all be outflanked by a sack of potatoes, it still feels fun.

Chicks man. It's all about the chicks.

Slightly off-topic, I keep seeing references to "Boom De Yada" lately... and I have no idea what it means.

An open letter to NCsoft

It's a song from a Discovery Channel advertisement.

It's being used as a soundtrack and screenplay choreography for movies of just about every video game you can think of. It... works really well.

Too many to name..Let me just sum it up by saying this game is awesome.

I can play for 15 or 30 minutes and actually accomplish something. Or even several somethings if I'm fast.

I can invite a friend to pickup the game and actually play with them in the first 5 minutes. And I never have to use my max level character to powerlevel them so they can get to the good part of the game sooner, because it is all fun.

The Shadow Shard, especially the cascades.

FrostFire's custom map.

Big melee brawls on ice.

Having my stalker confused by a succubus so I can Placate and AS a teammate. =)

Using confuse powers on Sky Raider Force Field Drones. I get way to much of a kick out of that even after a year of doing it.

But the big one for me is actually getting to be heroic if you want to. Most other games have too much corruption and negativity and "the world is doomed just do what you can before it's all over" mentality. Sometimes I just wanna be as cheesily boy scoutish as Superman at his best.

And, well, being a part of anything that gives people like Ian McConville access to the most powerful and flexible character creation tool in MMOs. Ok, maybe that last one isn't always a good thing, but it still makes me laugh.

The genre in CoX is a very flexible one. Comics are one of the only mediums where you can mix almost every genre there is. whether is romans, robots, lizard men, superhero, mad scientist ect ect.... It's all an option. This is the essence that the Devs have embraced and through all the customization options make it possible to bring whatever you can dream to life (as long as it's humanoid :P).

Another great thing for me is that the door swings both ways. Not only have I been able to bring what I envision to life, but the options and builds available have led me to create characters I would have never thought of.