The Root Problem.
You've succinctly stated the root of the problem again. The devs are telling stories. They're supposed to be creating a game for us to play.
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I would not want to play the game you want to play nearly as much.
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
Personal story missions in the 1-20 GR content would have been epic.
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I play the game to play my hero not someone else's.
Thankfully there are not many instances where they occur, so I won't complain about the ones in DA.
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That's your opinion of what a "game for us to play" should be, and I dare say, its an unusual one at best. There are quite a few people on this forum who take exception to story telling that limits their own characters by assuming their motives, goals, origin of power or personality. However, I don't think I have ever before seen anyone denounce the devs for telling a story at all.
I would not want to play the game you want to play nearly as much. |
But yeah a game completely devoid of story isn't really one.
Blazara Aura LVL 50 Fire/Psi Dom (with 125% recharge)
Flameboxer Aura LVL 50 SS/Fire Brute
Ice 'Em Aura LVL 50 Ice Tank
Darq Widow Fortune LVL 50 Fortunata (200% rech/Night Widow 192.5% rech)--thanks issue 19!
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I think perhaps Remus might be crazy. But I've seen a lot of crazy lately, so it might just be blowback. I don't see anything in recent writing that doesn't have our characters in the thick of things. Even the SSAs, which show the Phalanx failing time and again, and our characters doing their part perfectly.
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You've succinctly stated the root of the problem again. The devs are telling stories. They're supposed to be creating a game for us to play.
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So the actual root of the problem is your misplaced expectations, not the game or the stories contained within.
Edit:
Here is the fact that you are missing -- the game world is theirs, not yours. Your character is a part of their world/universe. If you don't like that, may I suggest that you might want to create your own game?
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Triumph: White Succubus: 50 Ill/Emp/PF Snow Globe: 50 Ice/FF/Ice Strobe: 50 PB Shi Otomi: 50 Ninja/Ninjistu/GW Stalker My other characters
I'm moaning that the personal missions are the latest, most blatant way in which CoH has been changed from a game into a movie where your character is not the star.
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But then again I'm not someone who thinks everything has to be about my heroes, am glad that we're seeing plot advancing, love the personal story missions for being able to see a different perspective on events, love seeing NPCs getting fleshed out, don't think I should be able to warp NPCs into whatever I wish because I AM THE PLAYER IT'S MY SHOW WHY ARE YOU GUYS GETTING SCREEN TIME!?
I want to see more Personal Story Missions. I hear they have some interesting tech in the works that could really make them interesting, by giving you the ability to use temporary powers. So non-combat PSMs could become Combat PSMs.
And Dark Astoria made Rushmore feel like the All-American hero he is. He took on two armies by himself, for pete's sake! And that final mission of the zone's story arcs? I spent ages just wandering around to see who had gathered. It was a feeling like no other.
And Dark Astoria made Rushmore feel like the All-American hero he is. He took on two armies by himself, for pete's sake! And that final mission of the zone's story arcs? I spent ages just wandering around to see who had gathered. It was a feeling like no other.
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Seriously you're doing the work of a huge group of supers by yourself, you're barnstorming in there, kicking the hell out of everything in your way and proving yourself to be awesomeosity personified...what's not to like?
I liked the Personal stories because they felt like the "Meanwhile..." segments in comicbooks, you know where they show something to the reader to help flesh out the story.
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A real showstopper!
I liked the Personal stories because they felt like the "Meanwhile..." segments in comicbooks, you know where they show something to the reader to help flesh out the story.
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Thought for the day:
"Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment."
=][=
I must be wired backwards.
I know exactly how powerful my main is... and he's REALLY powerful. The fact that I'm facing enemies that require over a dozen people just as strong as me to defeat just impresses on me how powerful my enemies actually are and how important it is they be defeated. And I feel damn heroic when we win. |
Well said!
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Thelonious Monk
I think it's amusing you're using the new DA to co plain about not feeling Super, when the DA content is IMO the most 'Check me out I'm BADASS!' content the game has ever given us.
The raids are rubbish for that IMO - I just feel like a grunt, nothing special about me personally, the NPCs don't even refer to me specifically.
But DA?
I fight an army. On my own. And then I go it alone against a God, with almost the whole pantheon of other Supers waiting for ME to save the world.
On my own.
Your problem can be avoided by clearing out your old missions by abandoning them, can't they?
Why didn't you finish them when you had them? You left contacts hoping you'd help and just wandered on to another set of villains? Not very hetoic, that, eh?
Sounds like you're doing a good job on your own of lessening the stature of your own toon.
Eco
MArcs:
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The Audition, Arc ID 221240 (6 mish, complex mech, comedy)
Storming Citadel, Arc ID 379488 (lowbie, 1mish, 10-min timed)
lLook, I'll be honest; sometimes I think that there's one and only one change to the game that would make me instantly re-subscribe my VIP status. If they only allowed us to make Supergroups out of our own characters I would be happy. Because it would allow me to build a home, and tell stories with a stable of characters of my own, even if only in my own head.
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Get yourself a free account, spend a couple dollars to make it premium enough for SG invite. This is very very cheap. Now, you have 2 accounts that are linked to your SG. Log in one to invite characters from the other. The free account becomes the inviter to all your VIP characters. Even call the character The Butler lol.
If you are supercheap just ask people to join your SG for 5 minutes to invite your alt. I did this for 3 years.
RESUBSCRIBE
RESUBSCRIBE. Brother. let me tell you why. I have multiple SGs strewn across 4 servers, many huge affairs. All just me. Quite a few were at one time active with people. But 3 are only me, ever. My latest is just me and my wife, and she plays an average of 3 hours a month. I started it in December, and it has all porters Blueside, without my buying any prestige.
Get yourself a free account, spend a couple dollars to make it premium enough for SG invite. This is very very cheap. Now, you have 2 accounts that are linked to your SG. Log in one to invite characters from the other. The free account becomes the inviter to all your VIP characters. Even call the character The Butler lol. If you are supercheap just ask people to join your SG for 5 minutes to invite your alt. I did this for 3 years. RESUBSCRIBE |
@bpphantom
The Defenders of Paragon
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Also, this is what happened when I stepped into Praetor Duncan's personal story last night.
![](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7042/6967539589_748962a97b.jpg)
That's less Quantum Leap and more telepod from The Fly.
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In one little corner of the universe, there's nothing more irritating than a misfile...
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Completely serious, GG. You should know me better than that.
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I've played CoH from the beginning. But over the last almost 8 years I have taken breaks from the game that total almost 1.5 years. But everytime I come back, it's like coming home again.
Here we go. You're not. Don't do them. Avoid DA. Nothing forcing you to go there. You are CHOOSING to play those arcs. You.
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If I had known in advance that playing as an NPC was required, I might have chosen not to play the DA arcs at all. That warning was not given; it's too late now.
Get yourself a free account, spend a couple dollars to make it premium enough for SG invite. This is very very cheap. Now, you have 2 accounts that are linked to your SG. Log in one to invite characters from the other. The free account becomes the inviter to all your VIP characters. Even call the character The Butler lol.
If you are supercheap just ask people to join your SG for 5 minutes to invite your alt. I did this for 3 years. |
I have people who have offered to help me consolidate my characters into a SG. I never took them up on the offer because it feels like imposing, because it's obviously counter to the way the devs want us to play, because it will take an entire day's playtime, and because I'll have to do it all over again whenever I make new characters. It's a workaround, not a solution. My price for resubscribing is a solution to this problem.
Please, I'm begging you, take a break from the game, RemusSheperd.
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Not that anyone cares. I've stated my concerns and few people here seem to understand them, let alone share them. Those who did are long gone. Paragon Studios has the players it wants -- they won't get any more like me -- and the players that remain have the game they desire. I hope you all have fun somehow.
...
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Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass slaughter can be hilarious.
I've stated my concerns and few people here seem to understand them, let alone share them.
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![Stick Out Tongue](images/smilies/tongue.gif)
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
Well, if you're not having fun, you're making the right decision. I can't wrap my head around the issue you're having, but that's not really important.
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
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In one little corner of the universe, there's nothing more irritating than a misfile...
(Please support the best webcomic about a cosmic universal realignment by impaired angelic interference resulting in identity crisis angst. Or I release the pigmy water thieves.)
Some thoughts on the DA narrative, in particular the Personal 'Arcs'.
I don't feel the NPC's here are stealing the limelight. They aren't stealing my character's thunder or saving the day in their own right. These are little more than intermission vignettes between plot that give a little insight into the supporting cast.
It shows us something of how they came to be in a position to feed our characters information about the events unfolding in DA. They can provide a vehicle for demonstrating the effect our choices have on other inhabitants of the world once we've otherwise moved on.
As to the problem of storytelling...that's part of what any DM does. If one does not like participating in the stories the Paragon Studios collective DM is writing, there's always the AE.
But it's not reasonable to expect them not to tell a story in a storytelling medium.
Can they do more to involve us in that story? Yes. Are they?
Yes.
City of Heroes offers the player far more agency in determining the flow and outcome of stories than virtually any other MMORPG on the market. It's not Shakespeare or Fallout, or even a particularly robust CYOA novel, but there's a clear trend towards giving more responsibility to the player as a storytelling agent.
And if you don't like the stories they're telling, they've given us tools to tell our own...independently, or to others.
Claiming that they are forcing you to do something you choose to do comes across as somewhat disingenuous. The idea that we are forced to do the Personal Arcs if we choose to do DA is arguably the same as saying "I have to play Dark Astoria to play Dark Astoria."
You choose your own level of participation.
Incidentally, am I the only one thinking that every time that happens its totally hilarious? If I was a dev, I would be out roaming the servers just doing that to random players.
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In one little corner of the universe, there's nothing more irritating than a misfile...
(Please support the best webcomic about a cosmic universal realignment by impaired angelic interference resulting in identity crisis angst. Or I release the pigmy water thieves.)
I chose to play the DA arcs. In order to do that, I was forced to play the personal missions.
If I had known in advance that playing as an NPC was required, I might have chosen not to play the DA arcs at all. That warning was not given; it's too late now. |
On my 3rd toon running through DA..I do the personal missions at the end of ALL the contacts. Wow, better alert support I am somehow cheating and bypassing those evil evil personal arcs.
Yes. Because most of the other MMOs I've played managed to do so. I'd give specific examples if mentioning another game by name wasn't cause for banning on these ferkakta forums.
How it is blatant? Did you miss reading the part where I said that I did exactly the same in a duo with a friend..and we were allowed to continue the contacts..WITHOUT doing the personal missions. Maybe it is a bug? Cause it sure as hell can not be happening to everyone doing the DA content. And if it was..oh man, a 5 minute solo mission? And 6 of them? You POOR guy. How dare they try to enrich the plot and lore for us. Those evil, conniving overlords.
And..because other MMOs do something..that automatically means THIS one should? Even if it never has, or if the devs dont, you know..want to do whatever it is you think your entitled to, in THEIR mmo? That is like saying that movie/book/song/car/etc Xxxx does things this way, so why should it EVER be any different? Genius argument.