City of Heroes is the World Wrestling Federation of Superhero MMOs

(Please note that I wrote World Wrestling Federation and not World Wrestling Entertainment. This is also a little history lesson that, I believe, the folks at Paragon need to be wary of.)

From the early 80's till about 2004, I was a hardcore fan of the WWF. I don't know if it was because watching wrestling with my Uncle was the only form of bonding we had before he died or if I just got too wrapped up in their storytelling, but I felt obligated to devote all of my time to their product. (I slowly lost interest in wrestling when CoH came into my life )

Over the course of 10 years, the WWF destroyed the competition. Other wrestling companies crumbled and the talent at those companies slowly moved to the employment of the World Wrestling Federation. Sure, Vince McMahon poached the talent, but he got the job done and set his company up for global domination.

There was one reason, above all others, that the WWF succeeded where the other companies could not: they turned everything into a gimmick. Hulk Hogan was an unearthly popular gimmick (the character, not the person.) They began to have gimmick matches at almost every Pay Per View event. The brought in more gimmick wrestlers that would test the resolve of older gimmick wrestlers. By 1997, everyone in the company was a gimmick Superstar... including the owner of the company and his family.

When their gimmicks tired out, they brought in gimmicks from outside of the wrestling industry: Mike Tyson, James "Buster" Douglas, Pete Rose, Aretha Franklin, Lawrence Taylor, and so on.

Those outside gimmicks were usually used to drive in new viewers because little by little, the fans that they catered to slowly faded away. At this point in WWF history, their weekly shows consisted of 4 actual wrestling matches that took place within a 40 minute frame and the last hour and 20 minutes was gimmick interviews, destroying vehicles that "belonged" to other wrestlers, and even backstage tours while one gimmick wrestler would be searching for another gimmick wrestler that did him wrong.

But where did their fans go? On the horizon, a longtime established company and largest rival to the WWF, called World Championship Wrestling (WCW) decided they would fight fire with fire. The created the "mother" of all gimmicks that stole the fans away from the WWF. The created a gimmick organization called the nWo (New World Order) that was comprised of former WWF talent. They played this group off as a bunch of irritated wrestlers that were sick of all the gimmicks they were given and now they were staging a coup to take their industry back.

Guess what? It worked. Longtime fans of the WWF jumped at the opportunity to get away from the "gimmicks" but little did they know this was the biggest gimmick of all.

WCW began to beat the WWF in ratings week after week. After a year, WCW was the top company in the business. But, WCW made a huge mistake... they let the fans in on the gimmick. After a year of the nWo running rampant, most of the wrestlers from the WCW parent company were all part of the nWo. They ran out of opponents for themselves. So they broke up the nWo into two factions, red and black, and had them fight each other. This was about the point when the WWF decided, "Hey, the fans want less gimmicks? Well, let's give it to them" and the WWF Attitude era was born.

All of the WWF talent that had played the part of a gimmick almost immediately dropped those gimmicks and took on slightly altered versions of their real life persona. Well, that drew the fans back like a moth to a flame. Sure, the WWF still had gimmicks but they didn't rely on them anywhere as much. WCW tried to fight back but they couldn't win back the fans trust. In 2001, the WWF bought out the failed WCW and closed down the competitor while absorbing many of the WCW talent.

The WWF was forced to change it's name to WWE in 2002 due to a court ruling against them by the World Wildlife Fund. But the new WWE decided they were going to change things with the company since they closed down the competition. They started relying on gimmicks once again to draw the attention of new fans. Slowly gimmick wrestlers returned and week after week more gimmick matches were added.

Then in 2006/2007 a company began to spring up that was based with the motto "Less gimmick, more action." That company was called TNA (Total Non-Stop Action) and in short time they began to steal away the fans of the WWE. (See a pattern here?)

The WWE and TNA are still battling it out in 2011. Both companies have put more action and less gimmick into their products but there is a small bit of gimmick that occasionally gives one company the edge over another.

Now, this is where I ask you all (those of you that were brave enough to read this) if you see anything here that Paragon Studios could use in City of Heroes?

City of Heroes beat the competition? check
City of Heroes has been dominating other games of the same genre of MMO? check
City of Heroes opened their doors to new players with a new, free gimmick? check
City of Heroes is relying less on gimmicks to be sure that players don't get burnt out? ... ... ...

Sadly, the last part is no. Every new update to the game has a new gimmick. Some gimmicks pile on older gimmicks and tie them in with new gimmicks to create a hybrid gimmick. Then those hybrids are broken down, converted, upgraded, sidegraded, deslotted, and enhanced to the point of the game itself BEING the gimmick.

So I ask the Developers, what brought players into City of Heroes in 2004? A new gimmick or giving people the ability to become, in digital form, the hero or villain they wish they could be in real life? Was it a gimmick that kept people here or a story that made them feel like they WERE that hero/villain they wished they could be.

I believe it's time for an "Attitude Era" of City of Heroes. I believe it's time they stop focusing on gimmicks to pacify people and strip it all down to what people love about this game. I'd even to go out on a limb and say that I'm not the only one that feels this way.

What is this I don't even...

Wait...

Aretha Franklin?



On a more serious note, I don't know what you consider a "gimmick" and what you consider "attitude." Are new features gimmicks? Because the developers have been pumping new features into the game since Issue 1 in 2004. Is there a particular system you think is a gimmick? Because I can guarantee you that whatever system that is, there will be a lot of players who will swear that it's essential for their fun, even players that will tell you that it drew them (back?) to the game.

Even at the game's release in 2004, the game itself could have been considered a gimmick. I mean, it's not like this is the first MMORPG, those had been around for several years. At the time, the genre was dominated by a little thing we like to call Evercrack. (It may be hard to believe now, but even the current 800 pound gorilla didn't come along until after the launch of City of Heroes.) Just about all MMOs were set in fantasy worlds, when out of nowhere comes, what is this? A superhero-themed MMORPG? Gimmicky... but hey, kinda cool. Look! We can wear spandex and fly! I even distinctly remember the guy who got me into the game shortly after launch explaining to me, "It's kind of like Everquest, but with spandex." (Obviously since the genre of "MMORPG" has expanded considerably and new subgenres have developed, such a description wouldn't really help much today. Still, hopefully you see my point.)

So what is it that you propose would be getting back to "attitude"? What is it that you think that "people" (as if we're all of one collective mind) want, that the game needs to be stripped down to? Because I can tell you, if the game regressed to what it was back in 2004, it would seem excruciatingly boring to people who have been playing the current version.

But what was CoX without the gimmicks? Were the good old days really all that good? OVer the years I've had almost a dozen friends try COH, see that it's nothing more than a second generation treadmill MMO with nothing to do except grind alts, and leave.

I've lured a few back with the 'hey, it's free!' thing. They like the quality of life changes, but, since they're not VIPs, they have the same complaints. You make a character, you get on teams, you grind to 50, you make a new character.

Roleplay? If that's your thing then all the gimmicks in the world won't stop you. End game grind getting you down? Don't make a character that needs to become an omega incarnate to fill it's rp niche.

Raid? That's where gimmicks come in and frankly the old task forces were really, really dull without them. The tanker taunts. The av beats helplessly on the tanker until its mez protection is overloaded and it becomes a statue. The statue is beat on until it dies. Alternatively there is no tanker and the av is so debuffed it beats helplessly on a controller until it dies. Whatever works.

At it's core concept City of Heroes is about allowing you to make a character with superpowers and beat things up. How has that changed any?

edit: Especially since all the old pre-gimmick content is still in the game, whining with puppy dog eyes, begging to be played?

I'd like to know what exactly has been added to the game that you consider gimmicks.

Don't get me wrong, I still play the game. I still love to play the game. Just that the focus on the game seems to be skewed. Even War Witch mentioned that the game was originally about "the player" and that they were going to take that concept and build more of the game around the player. But having abilities that you get that can only be used in very specific situations, it doesn't add much.

There have been tons of gimmicks added to CoH over the years. Mission Architect, Incarnates, Auction House, Invention System, Hami-O's, Arena, PVP, specific ways to accomplish missions/tf's/iTrials that can't be completed in any other way, Veteran Rewards, Paragon Rewards, Paragon Market, City Info Kiosks, EAT/VEAT's, Super/Villain groups, ED, MARTy, Bases, Invasions, Power/Weapon Customization, Flashbacks, Day Jobs, Multiple Builds, etc., etc., etc.

I'm not saying that all gimmicks are bad and quite a few improve the game experience. Just that as we go on, there are more and more new "gimmicks" while the older stuff is left on a backburner that's heating element has burned out.

Rabid_M, got what I was getting at. Everything about Incarnates is based on Praetoria. Will it be the same down the line? Things just seem to die off or left in the background with little use. Things that players want to use, but there is no time for them to revisit because there is too much new stuff to pile on.

Once again, I do not hate the game. I love most of it. I even love many of the gimmicks. But when gimmicks take the forefront then left to die in favor of a new, shiny gimmick with super awesome rewards, where can you really take your characters when there is no one that wants to use the older gimmicks?

Because every mission should be mashing a few key in order to beat up hundreds of bags of hp leading up to beating a larger bag of hp -- by mashing those same keys.

I agree!!! No more gimmicks!!!!

I'm not comfortable that the argument presented by the OP hinges entirely on the accuracy of comparison between WWE and Paragon Studios with regards to their marketing strategy, their product, and the demographic they serve. The first category was discussed compellingly, but the latter two...

EDIT: Actually, what is the argument, precisely? Just so its clear.

All I can say is "LOLWRESTLING!"

I won't lie. Back in the early-80's (when I was like...10), we'd put on this little soap opera called "wrestling", eat pizza and laugh.

And while I admire the athleticism and showmanship that goes into trying to keep this carnival sideshow going, the melodrama got old for me years ago (like, 1985).

And while you're trying to draw some concordance between the "plot of the week" of "Rasslin" and CoH, the match really isn't there.

Yeah, CoH is starting to come up with more methods of increasing enemy threat value. But not all of them are necessarily cheap or cheaty (though a few are).

Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.

Did someone take that long to basically just say "Less fluff-more content!"?

So wait let me get this right. Since every MMOG out releases regular gimmicks [features, powers, classes, races, etc.] every few months it is bad for COH to do the same thing?

just like to point out that those fake wrestlers are some of the best Athletes in the entire world.

just sayin