(no subject)

[oakenguy]

Friday was a conjunction of sorts: the discovery that a certain game was on sale, the realization of just HOW good my genius sweetie's constructed-from-scratch computer was, and an urgent need to thwack things. And so a rubicon was crossed.

I've gone and joined my first giant multiuser game ever. I'm on City of Heroes.

Some quick notes and comments:

*I'm on the Virtue Server; I'm the 4'10" dweeb in the suit and tie named The Legal Aide. ('The Temp' was already taken; anyhow, he'd need temporal-based powers, methinks.) "After mistaking an experimental cosmic ray machine for the office photocopier, Tony Bolero was granted immense powers (but still can't get on the company health plan)".

*About those 'immense powers'....yeah. I designed my character to hit things very hard and be as invulnerable as possible, and what was I doing five minutes after setting out into the city? Running for my life. From purse-snatchers. Ah, the almost-forgotten joy of being a 1st level character in a very big game.

*The setting, Paragon City, is one MESSED UP place. After a while I got used to seeing the purse snatchings and muggings on nearly every corner--I mean, hey, I've spent a day in Cleveland-- but the techno-zombies? The little clockwork robots? And that's not even counting the part of the city that's apparently under MILITARY SIEGE. This is exactly why I'd never want to live on the Marvel or DC worlds...the one in a million chance of getting superpowers is totally offset by the continual wave of crises that keep hitting. Even DC-Earth, the 'light, fluffy' one comparatively, has had, what, two US cities and an entire Middle Eastern country destroyed?

*The other players are FUN to watch. There are fewer rip-offs of established characters than I'd been expecting to see, and those I've seen have been from cartoons instead of comics; I've seen a Pink Power Ranger, the Scooby Gang, and 'Fiery Smurf', who's four feet tall, blue, and has flame powers. There's also 'Zombie Jesus' somewhere out there, but we haven't met yet.

*Speaking of rip-off characters, I caught myself fiddling around in the Costume Creation area to see if I could create a character with a hunchback, and only then realized it was because I really wanted a super-powered Miles Vorkosigan. (I can't decide whether he'd have mental domination powers, or be a group healer/enhancer, though. Maybe I could create Vorkosigan and Naismith and do them both.)

*It's VERY cathartic.

Comments

[flynngrrl.livejournal.com]

Is Miles Vorkosigan the brittle boned guy on the world where "abnormals" happened pretty often because of the way people got to that planet? But he was really created because of an assassination attempt on his mom?

I've read a short story with him in it, I think - courtesy of the Baen free science fiction library - but nothing else. Are the books with him in them awesome?

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

You'd LOVE the Vorkosigan books. He's a great character, and the author's very good at portraying someone whose survival depends on thinking very, very fast.

[superrob.livejournal.com]

Ah, Barraryar! How I miss it!

[northernminx.livejournal.com]

Hmmm the desire to tempt you over to the Guardian server ;)

And yah Paragon's a wierd place. Very wierd. My last mission I was finding and returning Rikti Alien body parts to a lab.

Mmm alien lungs.

[audioboy.livejournal.com]

I've been playing CoH for about 2 weeks now. All my characters are on the Champion server because that's where most of my friends play and it's also a low-traffic server. I've never seen it listed with anything but a green (low-traffic) light.

Word has it that NCSoft is working on an update that will allow users to cross servers. That would be awesome.

Enjoy the game and maybe I'll see you fighting crime and rescue your ass. ;)

[mythfish.livejournal.com]

Most of my characters are on Justice, because that's where most of my friends were when I started playing. Now I know people on other servers, and I'm waiting for the ability to cross servers. I imagine it will involve doing some sort of mission to an interdimensional portal or something.

I do have a couple characters on Virtue, Brian, so if you need a tour guide/sidekick/whatever, let me know and I'd be happy to help!

[telepresence.livejournal.com]

Ooh! Yay!

[bad-gustav.livejournal.com]

Go Champion, Go champion!

[fightguy.livejournal.com]

Another one lost to the allure of City of Heroes, aka The Crack of Champions... *G* Keep an eye open for bad_gustav and ladytrue, I understand that they kick tail in Paragon on a regular basis.

I'm almost relieved I don't own a functioning PC right now. CoH would insure that I'd never leave the house, ever...

[mythfish.livejournal.com]

"The other players are FUN to watch. There are fewer rip-offs of established characters than I'd been expecting to see, and those I've seen have been from cartoons instead of comics"

Oh, and about this: it's my understanding that blatant rip-off characters are regularly deleted by the admins in order to avoid copyright issues. Seems like an awful lot of work, but that's what people tell me.

[spatch]

(The rule against rip-off characters is vigilantly enforced by the GMs because of the stupid lawsuit Marvel Comics has against NCSoft. As well as for the fact that you really don't want to group with the kid who thinks it'd be cool to call himself Woulverynne' because you know he's not gonna be much of an asset in a group.)

But beyond that, hHooray for City of Heroes! A fun and engaging MMORPG with a great theme, fun gameplay, and a rich backstory. Those who actually take the time to read their mission notes, as well as explore the city for historical plaques and whatnot, are well rewarded. It's a shame the actual comic book you get when you subscribe was mediocre, though. But I stopped getting them after the second Jury Duty issue and I admit it was picking up at that point, so maybe they've gotten better.

If you're hanging around Virtue, look up The League of Above-Average Gentlemen sometime. That's the supergroup I started originally for the benefit of a few friends; the group has grown quite a bit since then. I can safely say they're Good People, helpful, and fun to play with. If Lux Amperes ever comes out of self-imposed financial exile, I'll say hi too.

[amare.livejournal.com]

Hee, Jesse has been playing that lately. I convinced him that the Music server we're putting in the entertainment center should be a Music/gaming computer because my Mac won't run City of Heros and I kind of want to play it now after watching him. Mostly I just want to make characters though. The problem is that the wacky characters I keep having ideas for aren't creatable in the game because they have weird body types that don't scale to the existing ones in the game.

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

OMG. This sounds awesome.

Can you get it online, or do you have to go to a store?

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

You'll need to get it from a store; the good news, though, is that it's down to about half its original price (I think as a way to get people onboard before they launch 'City of Villains', the sequel).

[frla.livejournal.com]

yeah,.. that's what I was gonna ask,...
when the hell do they add the ability to make villans,...
that's the only thing holding me back.


Cause aside form that it sounds peachy.

KK!

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

I am so in trouble if I get this game!!!

[eroika.livejournal.com]

Champion, go on Champion!!!

[enidenvy.livejournal.com]

city of heros? sigh.

[artemint.livejournal.com]

Hi! You seemed interesting, so I friended you! Looking forward to reading your posts.

[telepresence.livejournal.com]

I am saddened, because the Legal Aide logged off and the Co-Council never got to play with him. Now I'm feeling goofy and tempted to make "Legal Briefs."

[superrob.livejournal.com]

Virtue? (Mentally checks list of superhero characters on COH servers) We'll speak on this later, mon ami.

Welcome aboard!

[superrob.livejournal.com]

Hey, next time you're on, check out Tesler, lvl 8, on Virtue. I'll be looking out for you.