friendliness vs play2win

Now i have been playing CoH for 5 years now and i STILL love the game. The kind of ppl you meet are generally nice ppl willing to give a hand to newbies. Those who know me in game know i can be harsh but I always try to answer questions and help where i can. From running a tf to sitting talking through builds/game play with newbies.

I have recently started playing Streetfighter 4 online and tho its not a MMORPG I still want friendliness and sportsmanship when playing. However its seems these 2 things (streetfighter and friendliness) cannot coexist.

Here in city of* i have been accustomed to things being nice and relaxed and helpful to other for example http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=204181 this thread shows how ppl react to new ppl to the game. reading through the thread you dont see a single sign of PL TO 50 GET PURPLES GO PWN there is not even any go read/watch videos/guides to playing. Its all very nice, so nice i think i have been spoiled when it comes to online gaming.

As previously stated i dabble a little in streetfighter 4 i aint a raw noob but i aint a mega combo king either. I play because i enjoy the game. This apparantly is the wrong attitude to have in games! note this site http://www.sirlin.net/ptw catagorically describes why my/our attitude is and i quote 'superfluous and counterproductive' the guys in street fighter would have me powerlevel/farm/gank in anyway just to get ahead. I cannot belive this is the attitude becoming of gamers these days. am i getting just too old and wrapped in my cloak of niceness or is it something else i am having trouble sorting right from wrong here. i'd like your oppinions (fyi this IS CoH topic as its about your gamer attitude IN game)

Generally I help people out when I can, offering advice and some helpful tips and tricks.

As for SF4 there's a big difference between Coh and SF.
CoH is largely a cooperative experience whereas SF is entirely a competitive experience.

I don't know who you mean by the guys in SF, but the guys I know from SF while playing to win have also been helpful when asked for advice.

I'm curious as to which forums because the main one Shoryuken.com has always been helpful, most of the posters aren't exactly friendly to anyone with an 09 registration date for some reason, but generally the place is helpful.

Although I was talking more about the actual tournament competitors in NY. They've always been helpful when I've asked questions at the tournaments.

The friendliness of CoX is an anomaly. The majority of games online are simply not as friendly as CoX in my experience. This game is more like the exception that proves the rule.

Yeah, I tend to get a little too used to the nice, understanding and frankly pretty dang wise people around here, which is always a culture shock when I ship out to another game from time to time. Inevitably I find their forums unwelcoming and full of self-important people still lugging around old misconceptions I keep forgetting the world hasn't gotten over. And I'm a mouthy person, too, so I incur wrath pretty much at the drop of a hat. I've basically had to fight people tooth and nail until they realise I'm stubborn, at which point reasonable people tend to come in and take it from there, but my first impressions of almost every other game's board has been like it's populated by little kids acting big with the occasional adult who only gets off his chair if someone makes a point about it.

Here, while we have our fair share of idiots, jerks and internet bullies, at least I feel the community is a lot more responsible and a lot wiser. And, in general, I feel safer to speak out without making seven backup plans about what I'm going to do if I get any one of the dozen variants of unpleasant responses. Around here, as long as you're cool about it, you can dare to be stupid and people will be nice enough to play along, within reason. I don't feel like I have to be on my guard all the time, and I like that. A LOT.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Compared to pretty much...well...any MMO forum the CoH forum is the friendliest MMO forum I've ever had the pleasure to be on.

WoW official forum is notorious for being a practically unmoderated mess, people are not usually very helpful. AoC, CO, WAR all seemed to attract the same kind of people sadly. You know what I found odd to be a very helpful forum (and ingame)...

Eve, you wouldn't think it with it's PvP focus but the forums and people ingame were very helpful to the point of being escorted out of 0.0 sec by a friendly player when I ended up there by complete mistake, they could have quite easily blown the carp out of me but they realised I was in waaay over my head.

I think the whole superhero setting gets people into the right mindset

I am so happy to be here now more than ever! i love you guys! :P

This is just one of the responces i got

Hmm also think there's a key difference between WoW and CoH.

In WoW you team because you have to if you want the best gear or to get the quests done that lead into the 5-man dungeons, to accomplish anything at level cap that isn't marketeering or rep grinding (aka daily quests) you simply have to team.

In City of Heroes there's the TFs which you don't HAVE to run if you want the best gear, you could simply earn it solo through merits or have a level 50 get lucky with a purple recipe drop and buy most of your sets. People tend to be more easy going and friendly because they're not relying on you to get a chance at netting their next piece of loot. Infact the best loot in the game drops off regular mobs...

So in WoW if people don't know you they tend to be more suspiscious and probably a few bad PuG runs of a dungeon they've been running 10 times for the one piece of loot they need is going to make them a little hostile to newcomers because they simply don't want to bother to teach them anything, they just want the dungeon done so they can get their piece of loot and move on to raiding.

Plus the larger the subscriber base the larger the number of idiots. I remember WoW being described as 'an MMO for the counterstrike kiddies' because like counterstrike it was (and still is) THE MMO to play, who cares about making a good first impression on someone on a trial account because ten other people will replace them whereas here making that first impression good really does count.

The guy is pretty much the definition of the trope 'stop having fun guys' and that playing to win is the only way to play, he comes across as someone who would pummel his friends into the grounds at Street Fighter IV to the point they nolonger want to play with him.

I learnt this lesson the hard way with Super Smash Bros Brawl where thanks to many hours put into SSBM and at the time having a mate who had put as many hours into it as I had, I could thrash all my current friends at the game which completely turned them off it and thus...nobody else to play with and we went back to Mario Kart where the randomness of it all is both a bonus and a curse!

I don't have any problem with the Play to Win mindset when playing competitive tournament games. You enter competitions to win them.

CoX is not a tournament, and isn't subject to that philosophy in the general case. Its less tolerated for that reason.

The article is evidence that anyone can declare themselves an expert.

As for playing to win, I play to win with my friends in game (PvP, speed runs, etc.) but I putz around too. The comunity here is waaaaay more laid back than any other MMO I've seen. I guess the moral of the story is to each his own. That or lolz dark armor.