Not to long ago, it was announced that Marvel was putting the Marvel Superheros MMO on hold (or canceled, hard to say), so the recent announcement by Cryptic I was directed to is welcome news indeed.
And an interesting read the Champions MMO webpage makes. Note the cell shading on the screen shots. Note the heavy emphasis on common complaints with City of Heroes: Power Customization, Free choice of powers, wide ranging locations (everything not crammed into one City). As well as careful hints about keeping the good: Massive costume customization, interactive combat ("No boring waits for auto attacks and long recharge times", though arguably CoH had the latter...). And some nice additions that I have seen requested for CoH, but really fall under the label "New to this game", such as the custom archvillain for your character that you design yourself...
The Champions RPG universe is a storied and rich one, and it will be exciting to see what Cryptic and Jack can do with it. Jack has always been a fan of Champions, as anyone whos played a game of Champions GM'ed by him at conventions could tell you. This bodes well for the project, for the same reason I have high hopes for Warhammer: Age of Reckoning. Passion breeds quality, and Jack has a lot of passion for Champions.
Does this bode ill for our beloved City of Heroes/Villains? I dont believe so, but I have only history to back that up with. DaoC didnt kill off Everquest, and World of Warcraft didnt kill off either of those two. Anarchy Online still lives and breathes, despite (or perhaps because of) Tabula Rasa. Older MMOs dont appear to die off just because new ones come out. Usually it takes drastic mismanagement by the owners to finally kill off an MMO that manages to make it through the first few years. And CoH is well established.
On the other hand... If Champions delivers on its many promises (and I wont hold out to much hope till beta reports, still many moons away), it might spell the doom of the CoX franchise for _me_...
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Champions MMO announced by Cryptic
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3 comments:
Nice. I didn't get into the Champions RPG as much as you did, but this looks good.
A more tactical combat system where you're a little more involved in the process, would be nice.
From the screenshots, the power FX looks exciting. Great lighting and colors.
Yeah, thinking about this gets me more revved up than a Marvel Superheroes MMO, even though I adored the RPG growing up. After what Marvel has done to its various comic lines, and what they did to CoH, I can only see their own creation being soulless and money driven.
The indie/passion side of things makes the user experience more enjoyable. You know, like playing the TMNT RPG rather than watching the TMNT cartoon.
Unfortunately Statesman is at the helm once again. Based on some recent interviews he's done, I'm very unimpressed with him as a developer. CoH has only gotten better since he has been out of the picture as lead. I hope it will be good, but it would take more than I think he is capable of to pull me away from CoH, given my time investment in it.
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=17549
~Quat
I agree that Statesman has his... issues. And they only seem to have grown more pronounced since he sold CoH to NCSoft. But I see it like this: I was convinced by Back Alley Brawler and Castles passion for the City of games that they would not languish, and I know for a fact that Statesman is over the moon for Champions. So, Im going to give that passion a chance to create a cool game. Of course, right now hes promising the moon and stars. We'll see what actually gets delivered.
Of course, Champions isnt going to give us real numbers, as Castle and co finally did with CoX after Statesman left...
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