The absolute, best thing about city of heroes.

Copied directly from ign.com:



"While the game allows players to fight on their own (there are tons of bad people and things roaming the streets of Paragon City), City of Heroes really encourages team play in a lot of ways. The battles are much more intense, the enemy mobs can be much more challenging, but most of all, finding a team is easy as pie and almost everyone that I've met in City of Heroes has been extremely nice and helpful (even if my female character Nikki Star did get some unwanted attention from some disturbed individuals). Most MMOs I've played I haven't come back to simply because it's too hard to find a group, meet up with them, and finally make it to a quest only to find that the people I'm playing with are a bunch of jerkwads with serious social issues. The interface here lets players advertise their availability on a list that shows their origin and archetype so that others forming groups can simply peruse this list and invite random players. I think the longest I've ever waited for a group in my time playing was 15 minutes and that was in the higher level areas at 1:00 in the morning. It's still possible that you could get stuck with impatient players that will get you killed, but even then, most of the people will apologize and listen to advice. Either I've been extraordinarily lucky in my groups or this community is really great. Unfortunately I can really only speak for my own experiences."



This is the main reason why this game is now one of my favorites.

Welcome to Paragon City.

Heroes, Villains and Heels we got 'em all but more Heroes on the whole.

And here I thought we were talking about the costume creator. (Still one of my favorite parts of this game; I easily lose track of time in there.)

Glad you have discovered what many of us already have. I'd say IGN nailed it: there are those few people about whom we say, "How the hell did HE get in here...?" but on the whole, it's all teams and good fun.

Costume creator. Combat is nice too.

Never having to see "You must be facing your target" when I hit an attack.

For me it's running my scrapper into a platform filled with Mobs, being rushed by the mobs, and then seeing the pile of bodies at my feet.

That's feeling Super!

I'd have to say teaming is one of the least interesting aspects of the game. Aside from the usual PUG problem of having to work alongside people I'd usually much rather shoot, the PCs get stupidly overpowered once buffing and debuffing builds start accumulating. Developer tactics to cope with this (rather than just fixing the damn problem) tend to be cheesy and unfun, like Battle Maiden's insta-death attacks.

True in 2004. Truer today.

An open letter to NCsoft

The single most important reason I like playing CoX more than many other MMOs is still the pure action itself especially in higher level teams.
The combat, the intensity - in some scenarios intwined with simple to moderately complex strategic team efforts and (also playing a major role in this) the awesome visually pleasing mixture of graphical effects.

At the same time, I have to add however, this on its own wouldn't have been quite enough to keep me around for as long as I have been.
A, to me, important aspect of the game that's responsible for keeping me around in addition to the before-mentioned is the wide variety of customization options available both for aesthetics and performance - although performance much more than aesthetics.
In one word: builds.

The whole in two words: action, builds.

For me the best thing is the players

I think the versatilty of the game is the best thing. There is solo, small team, large team, and raid content. There is Hero, Vigilante, Villain, Rogue, and Co-Op content. The costume creator, you have street clothes, Tights, Tech Armor, Ancient Armor, Mutantions, Animal parts, and much more. Again I think the versatility of the game is the strongest point.

Hard to pick a favourite, but I suppose one of the things I really like is that you can solo and still have a great time, though levelling is slower. And this is despite the fact that CoX is a team-oriented game by nature. (If it were not, the Devs would have given us the ability to "multi-class" our toons to the point we might never even *need* teammates. Then again, even Thor & Superman still choose to team with the Avengers & JLA when not working solo. There is an intrinsic desire, it seems, for adventurers to band together. It's good drama as well as good strategy).

I used to team much more often before my twins were born, but now if I need to drop out because one or both are yelling for a bottle / attention, the other players are invariably good sports about it. So let's add to my list of likes: great players. Mature, helpful, generous, and easy to chat with. If I want a team, it's easy to find one, & I know most players will be acting for the good of the team rather than showboating.

I love the costume creator (though of course, like everyone, I have suggestions for plenty of additional parts); I love the intuitional combat system, which doesn't require me to have the reflexes of an 18-yr-old fighter pilot, but allows strategy, stealth, & cunning to take me to victory.

The graphics are actually better than they need to be, and getting better all the time.

Storylines make comic-universe sense, and even if you're not a long-underwear type comics afficianado, you can create hardcore mercs, soldiers of fortune, vampire hunters, starship troopers, crime noir detectives, etc.

As a writer myself, I'm satisified with plot & narrative, and get some chuckles from the NPCs, who do seem to have definite personalties. I also enjoy being able to team with NPCs when I'm soloing.

I could say much more, but #1 on the list: good players who communicate & interact. A good *community*, really. I've tried the other superhero MMOs, & perhaps I didn't give them a fair chance, but really, anything else falls short of CoX.

Hard to pick a favourite, but I suppose one of the things I really like is that you can solo and still have a great time, though levelling is slower. And this is despite the fact that CoX is a team-oriented game by nature. (If it were not, the Devs would have given us the ability to "multi-class" our toons to the point we might never even *need* teammates. Then again, even Thor & Superman still choose to team with the Avengers & JLA when not working solo. There is an intrinsic desire, it seems, for adventurers to band together. It's good drama as well as good strategy).

I used to team much more often before my twins were born, but now if I need to drop out because one or both are yelling for a bottle / attention, the other players are invariably good sports about it. So let's add to my list of likes: great players. Mature, helpful, generous, and easy to chat with. If I want a team, it's easy to find one, & I know most players will be acting for the good of the team rather than showboating.

I love the costume creator (though of course, like everyone, I have suggestions for plenty of additional parts); I love the intuitional combat system, which doesn't require me to have the reflexes of an 18-yr-old fighter pilot, but allows strategy, stealth, & cunning to take me to victory.

The graphics are actually better than they need to be, and getting better all the time.

Storylines make comic-universe sense, and even if you're not a long-underwear type comics afficianado, you can create hardcore mercs, soldiers of fortune, vampire hunters, starship troopers, crime noir detectives, etc.

As a writer myself, I'm satisified with plot & narrative, and get some chuckles from the NPCs, who do seem to have definite personalties. I also enjoy being able to team with NPCs when I'm soloing.

I could say much more, but #1 on the list: good players who communicate & interact. A good *community*, really. I've tried the other superhero MMOs, & perhaps I didn't give them a fair chance, but really, anything else falls short of CoX.

Simple answer:

CoH allowed me to recreate superhero and villain characters I dreamed up and drew as a kid, and thus brought them to functional life in this game.

No other game I know at that time allowed or provided that.

That's one dream I can cross off and say came true.

My first MMO was FFXI on the PlayStation 2. (/e twitch)

My second was City of Heroes. Anyone who says I still play CoH because it was my first is kidding themselves.

Bar Room Brawls. Running into a group of hostile, superpowered, heavily-armed baddies and dropping all of them with barely a scratch. I frick'n love it and always will. Sometimes I love it when I've got a few bruises to show for it (ah, blasters).

When the original creator of CoH made another game where they capped AoEs mostly at 5 targets... I knew I'd be back here.