Keyes for Dummies

Keyes isn't the only trial with unintuitive mechanics that you won't find anywhere else in the game. Pretty much all of the trials are afflicted with gimmicks of one kind or another. The lack of truly useful in-game explanation is trial-wide, IMO, and the only working cure is the passing of knowledge from player to player. In effect, the Incarnate system has become dependent on the willingness and effectiveness of qualified league leaders.

The most organized and well-explained and coordinated trial run I've been on so far was a Master of Underground Trial led by a toon called Crux Enigma. From what I can tell, Crux has made doing these Master-of runs something of a second career. She (the toon is female, so please indulge that choice of personal pronoun, if you would) made it abundantly clear from the beginning, and throughout the trial itself as well, that not following orders would get you kicked from the league. This wasn't just a veteran with a schoolmarm complex, this was essentially a military commander laying down the law so that the trial succeeded and everyone got what they came for. It went amazingly smoothly, despite a moment here or there of heart-pounding uncertainty when the wrong thing almost happened once or twice.

Now imagine if every trial was run this way. Sure they would take a little longer (and for a UG run to take even longer due to lengthy and repeated explanations/instruction, you have to have players dedicated to the task), but I assure you that no noob would get left behind. And every noob would know how the trial works and what to do and why by the end of it; invaluable knowledge for all future runs. It is a shame that there is no organic incentive for existing leaders to cultivate the next generation of leaders; the whole process is simply left to each player to arrive at on his or her own through osmosis.

I know it is just human nature to form PUGs and run through the content like tourists, but I think that attitude does a disservice to newcomers and does little to institute a culture of discipline and informed action during the trials. There are a handful of really good leaders out there, but I wonder sometimes if the grind has gotten to most of them at this point and they just don't bother with it anymore. "Let someone else lead," seems to be the prevailing attitude, at least on Virtue, where the number of people LFT vastly outnumbers the people willing to form and lead them.

Despite the number of times I've done some of these trials, there are still things about each that I am learning, so I am not yet in a position where I feel I can shoulder the role of league leader without disappointing everyone. Plus, it simply isn't in my nature to lead; I think really good leaders want to lead, almost like it is a calling, and that just ain't me. Besides, leading a trial league is like herding cats, which is even less fun than it sounds (even for cat lovers).

Oh, I completely get that and no offense taken. I have friends who have played many other MMOs (CoH is the only one I've tried), so I've heard tales. I can't help but wonder what our tourist-to-soldier ratio is though.


(And it's not that I can't follow instructions very efficiently - well, other than Lambda where I can't because my graphics card won't allow it during collection - I just don't have much of a will to.)