The Well, Praetoria, and Incarnates; Problems with Writing?

A few points that come to mind whenever I see these worries.

This also has something to do with limited resources. The devs can't work on a dozen top enemy groups at once if they really want to shine the spotlight on them. They have to decide what to spend their resources on. Resources include available artists and writers and programmers and team leads, and hours available to be worked. This isn't me knowing how the industry works, it's me using my brain.

It also has something to do with "darned if they do, darned if they don't." Would we all be happier if they solely focused on Arachnos for several issues? No. Would we all be happier if they focused on different "big-time" enemies for several issues at a time? No. So there you have it. They can't make us all happy.

It also has something to do with myopia. For me, Arachnos hasn't gone anywhere. Neither have the Rikti. And my namesake character is just now getting into the Portal Corp content for the first time. I love how I've been playing for two years and still firmly consider myself a newbie. There are seven years worth of content in this game, and it feels like it. There is still so much I haven't seen. I realize that puts me in an enviable position compared to some of you, but I'm not gloating. I'm pointing out that old content doesn't disappear when new content is introduced.

I've never had the impression that "OMG they're forgetting about the XYZ!" Unlike Marvel Comics, Paragon Studios doesn't have a gazillion writers and artists working on a gazillion interrelated and separate titles all at the same time. Of course, if NCSoft wanted to put up the money to make this game more like that, I'd be one happy paying customer. But that's not how the cookie crumbles, or something....

P.S. I should add that if it were later and I didn't suspect this had too many readers, and if I hadn't received a phone call when posting this, it would have been one of the dozens and dozens of posts I've deleted right after making it. I really hate getting into personal arguments about personal opinions on the Internet. It always takes everyone's eye off the ball and that's never a good thing for a discussion.

I think the complaints about the writing are subjective, for the most part. Anyway, the devs have gone well beyond the point of saturation with Praetoria. It was cool, we had an aspect of it and it seemed fresh. Now we've been getting it crammed down our throats for well over a year and half. Most of the major content additions have been Praetoria related. They killed any buzz or cool and have made a lot of players get nearly physically ill when we see anything Praetorian related.

The comic universe tends to be a big place. It may have been neat if we could have some other major player come into the fold but no...it's all Praetoria. It is also a huge joy seeing all these Praetorians have a primal counterpart (for the most part) and then many other main NPCs are versions of our signature characters? A bit of this might be fun but boy oh boy we are getting it and then some. I really think a lot of these factions lose their cache when they just got thrown at us over and over; it goes from cool/neat to resentment in some cases

Now on the note of Pandora's Box, I've come to take this interpretation of it:
Pandora's box didn't actually GRANT super powers, but it basically removed a mental block on human minds. (And I mean human minds)

Normally, in city of-verse, a human mind is closed off to the supernatural. If we're hot, we think it's a fever, if we see a wall, we'd only imagine climbing over it or going around rather than jumping over or running up, we'd see tank and think 'I can't punch that!' And with magic, we completely ignore it because it does not exist by our understandings of reality.

But with Pandora's box thrown open, we become inspired and open to new possibilities. We see a wall and think "I can make this jump", we have a high temp and realize "this isn't a fever, my fire manipulation mutation is starting to manifest!", we see a tank and punch it because we believe we can, we can suddenly also see ghosts, demons, and magic because we now realize they're VERY real.

It's also possible to subvert this mental block or be born without it in rare cases, such as Giovanni Scaldi and so forth.

It's a bit of s stretch, but it worked for me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.