Zeb Cook now working on City of Villains

[Krug]

Cool.
http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/city-of-villians/644153p1.html

 

[I'm A Banana]

I knew he went into MMO's, I remember seeing him in E3 stuff, with regards to City of Villains.

I want this game...

 

[Aaron L]

Who?! Ohhhhh, you mean Lord Recluse!


Yeah, he's head developer of City of Villains. Hoping for my beta invitation this week...

And I heartily recommend City of Heroes to anyone interested in trying a superhero game, even if you have never tried online RPGs.

 

[Sammael]

Zeb Cook worked for Interplay for a while, and holds the (flattering?) title of the best paid Interplay game designer of all times.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

And I heartily recommend City of Heroes to anyone interested in trying a superhero game, even if you have never tried online RPGs.

I'm going to dissent here: City of Heroes would be a fabulous console game. It would be a dynamite game if it worked in a peer-to-peer model like Diablo II or GuildWars.

But as a subscription-based game, it's simply too thin. From your first day to your last, all there is to do is punch (or blast) enemies. New content is regularly added that ... lets you blast (or punch) guys. For those who have never played another MMORPG, that might seem sufficient, but even the thinnest of other MMORPGs has more choices available than that.

City of Heroes is a fun game for the first month before the monthly subscription kicks in, and it's great on subsequent periods when Cryptic gives out free time to try and lure back the lapsed faithful. But CoH is not going to go down in history as the great superhero MMORPG. It's one of the ones that will lead the way to that one, whichever it will be.

They did a lot of great things in the game, and I know that some of their plans were squelched by financing realities, but now that the game has been out for quite some time, and they haven't really turned to rectify the game's core issues suggests that they don't see them as issues and will probably never address them.

If you want a game with superheroes who have secret identities, who can focus on doing more than three investigations at one time, who build gadgets and actually have real relationships with friends and contacts (who inevitably become the targets of their enemies), City of Heroes ain't it.

If you want a game with a world-class superhero costume generator (it's hard to over-praise it) and that gets the visceral feel of being Batman/Spider-Man/Daredevil dropping from the rafters of a warehouse into a mass of goons and laying the smack down absolutely RIGHT, City of Heroes has that. But it doesn't have a lot more.

I've loved Zeb's pen and paper work, and I'm sure he's bringing good stuff to the table in City of Villains, but I just wish he was with a product that had more ambition and scope.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I agree a bit. I'm in a "bored with CoH phase" now. But the limited gameplay is a boon to people like me who don't have the time to put in the game like is required to have fun in games like EQ. But there are only so many identical wherehouses you can raid on carbon copy missions before the luster is gone.

Plus I'm not sure the vision of how I "should" play in my head lines up with what the Dev's think I "should" be doing. My favorite character is about the be mega-nerfed in the next issue so that may be the final nail that makes me cancel my subscription.

On the Zeb Cook issue, his RPG work was more miss than hit for me so I'm not exactly pumped...and CoV and the change of focus from Player vs Computer Enemy to Player vs Player has been bad for the game IMO.

I'm going to give it till the end of this months sub before I make a decision, plus if I do cancel I can always resub and get my characters back later is they do something exciting.

 

[Blue_Kryptonite]

I just decided this past weekend that all the luster was gone. I've only been playing for six months, too. I got my 10 bucks worth (special price with reward points from Media Play for the DVD box), and I got my monthly fee in enjoyment for the period. But I logged in, tried each of my characters... No longer cared. It felt repetitive, and devoid of options. I tried again yesterday... Even worse. I deleted all my characters and canceled the billing. Its not worth a monthly fee for just the costume modeler.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I agree a bit. I'm in a "bored with CoH phase" now. But the limited gameplay is a boon to people like me who don't have the time to put in the game like is required to have fun in games like EQ.

To be fair, though, EQ1 and CoH are opposite ends of the spectrum. If you want an MMORPG that's got more meat to it than CoH but that doesn't need to be a career like EQ1 eventually does, there's a ton of choices.

I deleted all my characters and canceled the billing.

Eek, why did you delete your characters? They would have been waiting for you to play, for free, the next time Cryptic sent out a free week or weekend offer, which they do two or three times a year. I may not need to pay to see my guys regularly, but they'll still be waiting to fight the Tsoo (or whatever) next time I get online.

 

[I'm A Banana]

MMO's have that problem no matter what the game, though.

There's only so many fido missions I can take in WoW before I get bored being a zarking errand boy....

The appeal of MMO's is the development of the character, not in the actual accomplishment of big goals...which is unfortunate, but, for now, very true (and who are they to mess with a winning formula?)

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

To be fair, though, EQ1 and CoH are opposite ends of the spectrum. If you want an MMORPG that's got more meat to it than CoH but that doesn't need to be a career like EQ1 eventually does, there's a ton of choices.

Well gimme some names please! I'd like to give a few a shot.

Eek, why did you delete your characters? They would have been waiting for you to play, for free, the next time Cryptic sent out a free week or weekend offer, which they do two or three times a year. I may not need to pay to see my guys regularly, but they'll still be waiting to fight the Tsoo (or whatever) next time I get online.

Good point. I know someone who didn't play for a year and they were able to reactivate thier characters and account.