New MMO Concepts Specifically Tailored for CoH players

New MMO Concepts Specifically Tailored for CoH players

So even with the efforts of the Titan Network, and the artists formerly known as Paragon Studios, there's still at least a 38% chance City of Heroes will be no more in a few months. And the burning question is: where should we go from here.

Lets face it: there are other MMOs out there, but none really offer enough of the riveting online gaming experience we've come to need, or else I'm pretty certain most of us would be playing it now. Especially after NCSoft released that thing they called a store. But still, we have something unique here: a game that appeals to our sensibilities, our interests, our lack of hand-eye coordination, our need to feel like we've outsmarted an explosive barrel. And you can't get that anywhere else but here.

What we need is for someone to pick up the baton and make a new game that addresses the needs of our community. And unfortunately I don't have a development team handy at the moment, some jerk seems to have fired them all. But what I do have are ideas. I'm not just a player of City of Heroes, I'm not just an egomaniac forum poster for City of Heroes, I'm also a student of City of Heroes. I've spent over eight years pointing out everything the devs have ever done wrong, not just in developing this game but also in terms of haircuts and parallel parking skills, and I believe I'm fully qualified to know just what a game needs to do to pander to the City of Heroes connoisseur.

With that, here are my top MMO ideas certain to be wildly successful with attracting literally tens of hundreds of City of Heroes players:


The game: Cannonball Run Online

• The concept: players race from point A to point B, and then to point C. And occasionally beat up biker gangs.
• What we keep: global chat, fast travel, customization
• What we lose: all other superpowers, except possibly Martial Arts
• What we add: vehicles
• Why it would be like City of Heroes: characters would be scattered all over North America, making the game look empty. Players would spend most of their time on global CB radio chat complaining about how expensive superchargers were in the CRO store.
• The Downside: If Paragon Studios managed to reform to develop this property, Matt Miller would have to advertise the game as Captain Chaos.
• Why I would play this: to see Matt Miller forced to advertise the game as Captain Chaos.

• The concept: superheroes in a real, if really dumb world.
• What we keep: all our ridiculous powers
• What we lose: all our ridiculous costumes
• What we add: even more ridiculous powers
• Why it would be like City of Heroes: the HEROES IP is the only comic book related property that has a worse sense of powers balance than City of Heroes, so we'd feel right at home.
• The Downside: devs only tool for dealing with exploits would be rebooting the servers and rolling back six months.
• Why I would play this: Everything is ultimately a Nemesis plot

• The concept: seriously, read the book
• What we keep: costume creator, insanity
• What we lose: Boring architecture, common sense
• What we add: double the drug budget for the writing staff, triple for the VFX staff
• Why it would be like City of Heroes: force everyone to play on Virtue and make the tutorial dump you into Pocket D, and you'd be halfway there already.
• The Downside: downside?
• Why I would play this: pre-order bonus power: the Chair Leg of Truth

• The concept: players control game developers working in an MMO studio
• What we keep: sense of superiority
• What we lose: excuses
• What we add: hats, vending machines, cubicles
• Why it would be like City of Heroes: we'd just be cutting to the chase.
• The Downside: cosmic justice dictates the actual devs would control NPC MMO players in the game
• Why I would play this: I'd subscribe just to watch the devs get their revenge. Also, I've been beta testing this for eight and a half years already.

*kicks the Arcanaville to get it working it again*


Hahaha, oh man... I wasn't expecting that! Thank you!

Seriously... I would absolutely play a Cannonball Run MMORPG!!!
Yes, please (not just to have Matt as Captain Chaos).

I don't want to talk about... him.


For years and years (and years and years and a few extra months and days added in), I've dreamed of a Cannonball-Run-like game, so it is just extra funny that this was your first offering in that list.

Ever since I was a little kid, playing video games, I used to dream of games that didn't have these obvious and confining boundaries. Don't trifle me with your silly, mindless objectives and your narrow paths... if I want my car to go on the grass in Pole Position... I should be able to make it so! Maybe I want to experience driving through the stands and run over that guy who yelled that my car looked stupid.

And Cannonball Run was always a great model for what I dreamed for in a game...

• Customization - Your own selection and customization of cars, outfits/disguises...
• Openness/Exploration - You're traveling cross country... and you won't want to follow one straight path... and it's not always in the same country anyway... That's a lot of openness! Roads? Who needs roads? I have a Japanese supercomputer car with jet engines!!!!!
• High Speed - This needs no explanation.
• Variety - Beyond the variety of character and vehicle customization, we have complete environment and game variety...
  • Working on your car and disguises and teams before the race (this portion includes a lot of variety of its own - crafting, socializing, fighting, stealing, racing, making your one phone call)
  • Driving high speeds, avoiding police, racing and competing against your rivals
  • Bar fights, street fights, fight fights
  • Side-betting
  • Multi-player shared vehicles!! Take turns driving or interacting with your team inside your vehicle (and with police, competitors and rivals outside of your vehicle)
  • CB communications throughout (never know when you might need a friendly truck driver)

Oh my gosh I am SO there for HEROES on-line! =)

The game: Rifts Online

• The concept: Palladium's pen and paper RPG as an MMO
• What we keep: all our ridiculous powers
• What we lose: all semblance of power and class balance
• What we add: even more ridiculous powers
• Why it would be like City of Heroes: the Rifts IP is the only pen and paper RPG property that has a worse sense of powers balance than City of Heroes, so we'd feel right at home.
• The upside: you can import characters from any other game into Rifts.
• The downside: most characters characters imported from other games would have to rely on huge amounts of gear to survive. Then again so would many native characters. Also the Devs could import enemies from any other game. And would buff them
• The other downside: past level 2 the game would consist of an endlessly spiraling inflation of gear, stats, damage, and armor numbers. the same would apply to most new content. Think Dragonball Z and beyond. Only more so
• The other other downside: The game mechanics would be relatively simple except for being arbitrary, confusing, and inconsistently applied
• Why I would play this: If anything could kill my inner [min/maxer]/[munchkin] through overfeeding and make it stay dead it would be Rifts

I'm disappiointed that there was no mention of Arrested Development Online (with Blue Man Group Online built in... the first MMO within an MMO, if you don't count World of World of Warcraft) or PrimaGuides Online. I've been looking forward to these for years!

Huh. Transmetropolitan Online's description actually made me want Snow Crash Online.

Where everyone listens to Reason.

The game: Call of Cthulhu Online

• The concept: Players investigate strange happenings in Innsmouth, the Antarctic, the hideous Plateau of Leng and less exotic areas like the GOP/Dem conventions.
• What we keep: Insanity, AR, Dual Pistols, Martial Arts, the "sword sets" and Mind Control (see addendum below)
• What we lose: Any advancement past level 20, by that point your SAN should be any playable threshold. Confuse in Mind Control acts like an aggro magnet and might actually confuse your allies. Them's the breaks.
• What we add: SAN bar. Starts at 100, decreases with each encounter. Increases somewhat with levels. Trips to the hospital can cripple you permanently.
• Why it would be like City of Heroes: We'd still be shooting stuff and travelling and reading clues.
• The Downside: We'd end up shooting each other a lot. Not just due to phobias, but because the RP crowd still took Flamethrower and Mass Confusion, resulting in DoT/Self-annihilation every few minutes.
• Why I would play this: Arcanaville would laugh off the SAN loss, I'd actually get to shoot incompetent teammates.

• The concept: Players start in the now ruined city of Imrryr and venture into the Young Kingdoms for adventure.
• What we keep: All the sword sets, "natural" fighting sets, Control Sets and Fire/PSy/Ice Blast, Warshades (see Why it would be...)
• What we lose: Any self-determination. Arioch/Donblas know how this is going to end, but you won't until you re-sub for at least one month.
• What we add: More gruesome violence. The concept of anima/souls powering you up with each defeat.
• Why it would be like City of Heroes: Warshades already do everything in What we add.
• The Downside: Pohsyb never got around to letting the player models of Runeswords be "Stable". On the plus side, you can progress easily enough if you kill one of your teammates every now and then.
• Why I would play this: If I'm doomed, I may as well have a giant magic sword to kill with.

• The concept: You're a clone. The Computer is always right. Trust no one.
• What we keep: Everything, but...Citizen, who gave you the right to proc Fire Blast in such a manner? COMMIE TRAITOR TERMINATE.
• What we lose: Any trust in the fellow player.
• What we add: Purchaseable Clone packs. 80 Paragon Points for 5, 160 for 12, 400 gives you a 24 but about half of them are faulty/bugged.
• Why it would be like City of Heroes: The game already gives us instructions and not all of them are reasonable...
• The Downside: Computer model ARCA-NA1-V1ll3 has been known to mercilessly eliminate citizens that, well, are blatant idiots or nuisances.
• Why I would play this: Fun is mandatory, as per R054 QU4rtz module update. (Nice catch :-) )

• The concept: You are the world's favourite superspy solving mysteries and telling off your boss.
• What we keep: Gun sets and most "normal" armor sets.
• What we lose: Any affection for Mr. Bean, he's your first mark.
• What we add: Great roles for females. Sadly they all end up being a "role" in the hay with Bond.
• Why it would be like City of Heroes: We'd get to visit exciting locales, fight interesting foes and be insulted by our boss (the Devs) with each new update.
• The Downside: War Watch posing as "M", Posi as Bond and Zwillinger as "Q". Arcanaville never got fair play as "Mathzilla" since Bond can't count past seven.
• Why I would play this: If I could kick Bond in the nuts just once, I would lifetime sub.