Just to be clear, there's other origins and story themes than magic, k?

Nice post.
I would say that the people having a problem are likely having it for the reason that you point out (beyond any other possible personal reasons, by individual): things are pretty mixed and you don't often get full doses of just one theme.
In fact, perhaps the magically-themed stories do tend to remain more about the magic, where other origins are often, at least, touched by magic and other origins.

I don't have a problem with how things are (although, I would enjoy some more old fashion tights-wearing enemies, but that's just something I'd enjoy), but you might be on to something there!

That and some people just definitely have a problem with magic.

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Good question. It does kinda seem like some folks would rather see all things related to magic sort of cordoned off in their own little area, away from everything else.

Both, but this is just my opinion.

Look at the Avengers: Earth Mightiest Heroes cartoon as an example.

Out of all of their members, only one is 'magical'. Magical elements are treated as rare (to the point Tony Stark is *still* in denial) and magical threats got at most one two-parter to close the season, and the main theme was how much the other Avengers were out of their element.

Even if you look at a series like Justice League, where magic was more common it was still less common than everything else combined, and they really didn't have any "magic users" in the original roster.

Compared to that, CoH is drowning in magic. I'd say despite being only one of five origins, magic is found in more than half of the enemy and NPC groups, even the ones that don't have a magic focus has a major magic division like Arachnos.

DA, Rularuu, the Midnight Club, Darrin Wade, First Ward, arguably Ourobos (because we don't exactly know how they work) with their Pillar of Ice and Flame and resident Titan: It's not hard to make the claim that WAY MORE than 1/5 of the recent content has been magic related.

Magic very much has intruded into everything, and everyone's power coming from a magical font only underscores that.


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Yes, I read it too, and gluing feathers on a rat still doesn't make it a swan.

quack!



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The fact that you demand rigid adhesion to genre tropes fortunately does not mean the devs feel compelled to kowtow to them as thoroughly. I'm glad they're capable of being a bit more creative than some, aren't you?

Possessed by the Circle of Thorns, though.

Or superscience beings whose efforts at time manipulation spawned the many universes.

Fair enough. I really have no argument against someone opining there's too much magic, it's the "why is there nothing other than magic" that makes no sense at all.
I can't think of any remotely compelling reason that roughly 1/5 of content should focus on each origin, though. Natural, Science, and Tech are pretty distinct from each other as "what is the origin of my powers", but when talking about the themes of a story, they often kinda blend together. I'm not sure what it would even mean for a story to be mutant-themed, since CoH doesn't have the mutant persecution that is present in settings like Marvel; it kinda rolls together with science anyway, and on its own as a plot element I don't think it lends itself as well to making compelling stories. Magic really stands out from the rest as a theme, though. So rather than dividing the stories up by the 5 character origins, it seems more useful, at least to me, to divide them basically into "magical" and "not magical", and then of course there's lots of themes within each.
And that doesn't mean it should necessarily be a 50-50 split, either, because again I can't think of any remotely compelling reason that each category should get equal coverage. I'm just saying that "we have 5 origins" should not necessarily lead to "one-fifth of the game must be about each origin".

Yes, but Praetoria's biggest plot twists are all magic. Dark Astoria is magic. Who Will Die was about a magic villain.

First Ward was a good mix at first until it focused JUST on magic.

Magic is just the easiest to write for because it requires the least bit of explanation.

IMO mutant seems to get the least bit of love.

And this.

Or if you put it another way, SUPER natural.

Is Galactus magical? Is the Phoenix Force? The High Evolutionary? Darkseid?

Agreed with the first 3, but I thought Darkseid was technically a god no?

EDIT: I guess it matters if you see gods as magical or tech.

I'd say gods are like the incarnate origin . . . out there by there lonesome and powerful enough to crush the other origins with just a sneeze.

Er, Arachnos is roughly 1/4th magic. (Between the Widows, Various robots, Spiders and Mu)

Ehhh I don't 100% agree with that. It's implied (I could be wrong) that Nictus/Rommulus are also Incarnate based in some way. And last I checked Nictus come from science.

EDIT: When I say implied I mean the last cutscene in Mender Ramiel's arc.

In fact isn't the AV (another version of Cole, no?) from the Khan tf shown there? Am I wrong in remembering that he got his powers by some technological/science device that absorbed power from other coles.

I admit I drink sometimes while playing COH, so don't hold my bad memory against me. LOL

Mixed origins methinks. That or they're Incarnate level but not exactly incarnate.

Gotta jump all over this one.

Praetoria has no magic outside of First Ward (or at least very, very little).

DA is... yeah, okay.

Who Will Die was about a COMPLETELY NORMAL GUY who spent 10 years acquiring information and magical relics to help him accomplish his goals. Normal guy. Natural origin.

I said praetoria's biggest plot twists as in things like Praetorian Hamidon.

And yeah I was a bit unclear on Wade. Meant he's an ex-midnighter so I associate his character around the magic origin despite he himself being a normal guy.

Yeah, a creature (including its minions) that isn't magical.

Yes and no - Wells are created from every member of a species, so there will be some magic in our Well because some humans are magical.

Hamidon is science, yes, but tapped into the well. The Well, while "Incarnate", may as well just be magic.

Edit: Or what GG said, I don't remember the details too well.

Both the Hamidon Pasalimas used dark magic blended with science to transform themselves.