Rolled/Changed alignment to a Hero instead of a Villain because 'nobody plays villains?'

Most of my characters go both ways... Uhm... They're in the gray. Yeah, better.

Funny you mention Praetoria because both it and the Rogue Isles have the same discouraging flaws that blue side completely lacks:

1) They both contain a closed-environment system with a singular story to tell (dictator rises to power; player fights to keep dictator in check or possibly overthrow)
2) They both are centered around an exclusive, one-man dictatorship.

Once you overthrow the dictator, the stories for those worlds are over. No reason to go back unless you want to relive the glory of overthrowing the dictator again (via alt or Ouroborous).

As a result, red/gold side gameplay ends when the dictator is overthrown - and the players move on to blue side. Granted, red side is BIGGER and has a more diverse choice of enemies to fight (albeit they're all villains already available on blue side which is a significant design mistake - cause why are you going to fight the same villains in a depressing, slummy environment when you can engage them in a cheery, more upscale, bright and modern setting?).

Praetoria is a dystopean society but design-wise it might as well be a zone in Paragon City. And when the player realizes that, coupled with the fact that Praetoria requires them to make a hard decision at lvl 20 (ie, hero or villain") then what's the point of playing in Praetoria at all if you're only going to be there for only 20 levels?




Blue side works differently:

1) It's an open-environment system with no mainstream story arc
2) There is no one exclusive enemy figure/one-man dictatorship to fight against

As a result, blue side gameplay is a completely open-ended story that the player makes up as they go along - and they never have to leave or end it. Fight Crey, fight Hellions, fight the Cabal, fight whoever you want - its entirely up to you. There's no "one" overarcing story, and society teaches us that heroes *always* have a role to play -- so why should we believe there's an end to the blue side storyline? Villains however always end up in jail... Or do they?! As for the oppressed - well, they are always looking to escape from their oppressor... Or are they?!

Regardless of whether one believes in heroes or villains, the fact remains that only one of these three systems employs open-ended gameplay that keeps the story going forever and that's blue side - which is why blue side is still so very popular with the player base. If the Devs want to reinvigorate the gameplay experience in the Rogue Isles and Praetoria, then they need to topple the current one-man dicatorships that exist (which they're doing) and avoid introducing future one-man dictatorships because they're muting/interfering with the player's personal story as it continually unfolds in CoH.




Me personally, I'd rather see open-environments for all three worlds (Paragon City, Praetoria and the Rogue Isles) with tons of unique, side exclusive enemy groups for the player to engage -- but with certain caveats:

1) Blue side is for PvE/Team XP bonuses with blue side-exclusive drops/craftable items
2) Red side is for PvE/Team Inf bonuses with red side-exclusive drops/craftable items
3) Gold side becomes an open-world PvPvE realm with Team merit/prestige bonuses and gold side-exclusive drops/craftable items

These realms should complement each other and provide an exclusive gameplay experience rather than overlap each other and provide the same or lesser gameplay experience as they do now (which is another reason why most folks always play/stay on blue side; there is absolutely no incentive to go play in those other worlds for achievements and rewards that you can't already get on blue side).



But I digress... Red side rules!

Good analysis. I assume that these side exclusive items would untradable on the market and account bound?

Because if you can trade them on the market you run right smack into the same issue as before: what's the point of playing any side if I can just get the same rewards by staying blue and getting the gold and red stuff on the unified market?

I don't see them adding pvp to Gold side though.

I've often felt that the omnipresent overlord which is Arachnos was always a mistake. As far as I'm concerned, every island should have had its own independent governor and faction ruling it. I could see both Mercy and Grandville being Arachnos land, but the rest? I'd rather see Port Oaks as the crime-ridden port town with a glitzy villa area for the rich mobsters, Aeon City as the beautiful city of the future built over the tomb of a demon and run by a mad but actually INTELLIGENT scientist, Sharkhead as the small mining town of poor people and dirty jobs, Nerva as the independent peaceful state and St. Martial Island as the perfect, gleaming city of the rich where the poor undercity is invisible unless you know to look for it.

I'd have liked to see a Nemesis island, too, which would be a perfect utopia where everyone is genuinely happy and content and with good reason - their benevolent master provides for them and asks for nothing in return. No Praetorian façade totalitatian state, an honest-to-god perfect island with which Nemesis can demonstrate the argument he's always making - that he's better at ruling the world than anybody else.

So, yeah, I agree with this. I'd honestly prefer to see the Rogue Isles as the perfect tourist destination - beautiful nature, lots of expensive resorts, clean and neat cities, with all the evil hidden away where the dumb tourists won't go to look for it. Being a bad guy in a good place is far more satisfying than being a bad guy in a rat hole, but City of Villains wasn't intended to be satisfying. It was intended to be depressing.

That's not true. People prefer to have fun, and for pretty much the last seven years, red-side has consistently failed to be fun by presenting itself as one part morality lesson that crime doesn't pay and living a life of evil is unpleasant and two parts trying to cater to a demographic which never existed - that of the sociopathic players who enjoy seeing others in pain, suffering and agony and want nothing more than to commit the most vile acts imaginable. Yes, specific people who enjoy this kind of fiction exist and that's a legitimate form of FICTIONAL entertainment, but there have never been enough of those to constitute a demographic.

City of Villains was originally envisioned to be like, to quote the Ultimate Warrior, "**** dribbling down your throat for all eternity. It was designed to be grotesque, revolting and unpleasant because that's what someone thought evil was. And while that IS how evil generally is in the fictional world, what someone forgot to account for is that whether people play villains or heroes, they want to have fun, they want to leave satisfied and they want an experience which makes them happier for having played it than they would have been if they hadn't. Hence, the above.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Why is that idea so perfect

and the isles so ******?


Seriously, I understand why all the blue-side zones have to be similarish. Because it's all different sections of one city. But the Isles are a whole chain of islands. Why do they all look exactly the same.

Damn straight! I'm griefing those red-side players BY MY ABSENCE!

Ah I see, thanks for clarifying that. However I have to be honest and say I haven't seen very many people behaving in the fashion you describe outside of the occasional "Merge the Server" rants on the forums.

I have a hard time believing that. Redside never had a huge population and what there was, was spread across 15 servers. Spread out like that the fraction that left because of low population wouldn't make a noticeable difference.

Now if they were all from the same server I'd believe people would notice their absence.