City of Heroes/Villains

And then there's the masses and masses of player-made content, and Pv P (er, maybe. It was heavily re-vamped a few issues ago, and, well, uhm... yeah, really not sure).

Also, City of Heroes is... once you get things down... not terribly difficult. I don't think, anyways. It's not grindy, and a lot of the fun is having a bajillion alts and mowing down scads of guys. Not having played Guild Wars, I don't know if it'll be your thing or not, Matrix, but it's certainly worth a try.

Not grindy, a bajillion alts, and mowing down scads of bad guys?

FUCK YES.

OH DEAR CEILING CAT FUCK YES.

And don't forget alien monkeys. And extra-dimensional bars. And a Thirty Xanatos Pileup personified. And stupid deershrubs. And lesbian Hellions◊. And combining mecha. And male fortunatas. And Self-Destruct. And...

edited 3rd Jun '09 1:14:42 AM by Miijhal

Alien Monkeys.

Eh...

WE are Alien Monkeys, at least to some species on another planet.

Cuz ya know, Genus Homo is within the purview of what we call in layman's terms, "Apes."

Also, I think it's sad that we're the only species of our genus left... It's kinda sad. I hope we diversify someday. That'll definitely keep our genus going.

Sadly, any alien-monkey-ness we may posess does not grant us the ability to kill our enemies with our minds.

Also: Urk. Badly written character description.

Yes, but these monkeys bite your ankles and have psychic powers.

[1]

I have a bunch of characters on Virtue (although then again, I'm in Sweden, so totally wrong timezone probably) COH is great, I've mostly been playing WAR recently, but I'm going to return.

Also, to sum up how awesome the game is: Time-traveling alien nazi vampires.

You forgot tiny electric junkbots, Vietnamese ninjas with superpowers from magical tattoos and the super-strong ghosts of their ancestors (who look oddly Chinese-themed) fighting alongside them, 'Trolls' who got changed into that form by what's probably a cut supersoldier drug, Frankenstein-zombies that puke on you and are led by a Mad Doctor wearing a giant reanimated-corpse-battlesuit, and extradimensional gimps with lethal glowsticks.

... and everything except the gimps shows up before you hit level 25. City of Heroes enemies are made of Crazy Awesome.

edited 3rd Jun '09 6:01:26 AM by TeChameleon

Trial accounts are very restricted. This is supposedly to stop RMT spammers. How well it works is debatable. I've been telling my friends to get the actual game on Steam for a full account for a month.

Virtue's my main server, so I'll say that the RP there really does depend on what sort of group you hang out with, and what your luck looks like at the moment. There will be the standard Serious Business sorts, there will be the Sexy Catgirls sorts, there will be the Darkity Dark Demons sorts... you'll probably meet the whole range by the end of the first month if you go looking.

The majority of the RP is actually pretty decent, but it's kind of filled with a lot of Big Name players, who are actually good roleplayers, but they've been playing (and roleplaying) the game for so long that their characters' backstories could fill several volumes. They're usually newbie-friendly (although a few are quite elitist and prickly), and they'll try to explain all the backstories in their respective cliques as best as they can, but still.

In short: be patient, and don't be discouraged if you get brushed off the first few times.

One thing that seems to confuse a lot of people is how few other players they see when running around the city. This gives them the impression that it's an empty MMO or something; the truth is that there's usually at least some other players (I play on Singaporean time, GMT + 8, so I'm nowhere near peak hours), but missions in the game are instanced, and so everyone's in the instances.

The game is entirely soloable (I've done so with three characters so far) if you know what you're doing. Otherwise, teaming does cover for a lot of build mistakes and shortcomings. Buffs and debuffs are so effective because the base health regen is quite substantial compared to other MMOs.

Also:

• Spend some time on your costume. You're going to be staring at it for a long time.

• Never, ever say the word "healer".

Not even if I'm talking about another game?

Okay, I think I've made a trial account, but I don't see anywhere to download the client... Damn this site is confusing...

My Account > Account Management > Game Accounts > City of Heroes > Download PC Client / Download Mac Client.

Ah, okay.

Yeah, it's somewhat of a pain, but I'm guessing they did it that way to prevent people without accounts from downloading it.

Never, ever say the word "healer".

This can't be stressed enough. As long as it's very clear that you're talking about another game, you should be okay, but anything else will probably get you dismembered and/or lynched unless you're with people who don't know any better, but if you value your limbs, don't take that chance!

Okay, so it isn't quite that bad, but you're sure to annoy someone.

And if it's preceded by the words 'we,' 'need,' and 'a'...

Well, that's better left unsaid.

Well, after playing the game, my only gripe is that the graphics look kinda clunky. But, with the insanely advanced character customisation system, it's understandable.

Oh wait. I have another gripe. The camera controls are fucking backwards. I'm gonna change that if possible before that gets in my Muscle Memory. Because that will screw over playing pretty much any other MMORPG ever.

Aw damnit I can't change it.

Fucking backwards shit...

Should be under 'invert mouse', Matrix, if you're talking about what I think you are (under "Options").

Also, you can turn the graphics quite a ways up (assuming you've got the horsepower for it)- the default settings are kinda sad.

edited 3rd Jun '09 9:30:52 PM by TeChameleon

Ah, alright. I'll try to find that.

Yeah, definitely look through the options thoroughly. Characters aren't the only thing they let you customize out the wazoo. There's actually an option to turn off in-game advertisements on the billboards.

edited 3rd Jun '09 9:48:13 PM by Miijhal

I saw a "Reverse Mouse" option, but that only reversed the mouse buttons.