From what little I’ve read, it doesn’t get “good” until 30, so I think this is a good sign.
Things were a little rocky in the middle - the Mirkwood expansion was…soso. The Enedwaith free content was pretty good (IMHO, though some people might argue). The Dunland expansion was…not very compelling, but the recent Rohan expansion has been AWESOME.
And as for CoH’s “sidekicking”, it’s not included in most games because it most games it’s incredibly thematically ridiculous and super, super “gamey”. (This was discussed earlier in this very thread.) It “works” for superhero games, but it becomes somewhat offensive to some people in other genres. Certainly, it annoys me, but I tend to wish my MMOs were more simulationist and less gamey. I also, truthfully, don’t really understand the problem. How hard is it, really, to have a character you play with other people that you don’t play without them? Social contract people, we shouldn’t need a technological solution.
Unfortunately, maintaining that social contract can be rough. Brainiac4 and I do exactly that - there are WOW characters I play by myself when he plays other games, and WOW characters I play only by myself. But we have a friend who sometimes plays with us - so now I need to simulplay at least three characters - one just once in a while. Four if our friend and I were to start playing together without Brainiac4, since he really doesn’t like WOW. Add my daughter, I have five. I’ve never been that alt-happy. I like to have a character I’m working on and one I switch to when I get bored - two. Our friend falls in love with his characters and then plays them “just a little” without us - then coming in three or five levels above us, which makes it a lot less fun for us, since now we are following him around. The CoH sidekicking thing made all of this much easier. And I don’t get why it would be offensive in other games - don’t want to do it, don’t do it. Why anyone else cares what I do with a MMO character is beyond me.
As to duo friendly MMOs, Neverwinter is turning out to be very nice for duo play. The storyline is really linear, but maybe that will expand as the game gets out of beta and content is added.
See, I don’t get this at all. LOTRO stands for Lord of the Rings Online, right? Well, you previously lauded it for travel time being trivial, but the long, difficult journey is the essence of the Lord of the Rings trilogy (and the party being separated was a huge part of the books as well, to cover your “to unite the party” specification).
Trivializing travel time so the party can jump right into things is super gamey and not at all simluative of the genre.
I can’t parse how you’d be offended at super-sidekicking but tout quick travel. It just sounds like you like your game and want to say something negative about someone else’s game, to me.
I don’t “tout” quick travel; I will point out that it exists if someone SPECIFICALLY ASKS for it. Am I super excited about it? Absolutely not. However, I am willing to accept it, because, obviously, there are some things that you need to surrender to have a playable game. No one is here arguing that it should take a real time week to walk from The Shire To Bree.
“Trivializing” travel time to “unite the party” is sortof absurd from a narrativist or simulationist perspective, because if necessary, the story starts when the party is assembled. No long books were written about how long it too Gimli to get to Rivendell before joining the Fellowship.
People care what other people do with MMO characters because people want to feel like they are playing on a level playing field. It’s not really a very difficult concept to understand. If someone gets crazy loot because an encounter was “adjusted” by the devs, and then gets changed again and people keep the loot, the folks who “missed” the opportunity become cranky. It’s the same principle. Everyone likes to feel like they have a fair chance to do anything anyone else can. Otherwise, why do we even bother having level restrictions on group XP? Why have “sidekicking” at all when you can just let people gain insane amounts of XP while grouped with a higher level character who does all the work? Because it’s not a good idea, and it’s preferable to have people actually contribute, even if it makes no sense, but nonetheless, someone people don’t like to feel that “You know someone who’s played a lot, so now you get a free ride.”
The Council of Elrond, at which the Fellowship was formed, occurred in Book II, Chapter 2, of the Fellowship of the Ring. That puts it fourteen chapters into the book.
Uh…what?
Maybe you’re not clear on how it worked?
“Super-sidekicking” eliminated the big xp boost from being teamed with a higher-level character, and for that reason was widely derided by power-levelers when it debuted. As time went by, however, one typically heard positive things about it, as people realized it ended the artificiality of trying to find people of a specific level range and allowed everyone to participate in actual gameplay and roleplay without overly rewarding the lower-level characters.
It was so obviously a good idea, bringing players together without imposing game mechanics on them, that it is repeatedly cited by former COH players as one of their favorite innovations.
The game did have certain content that it would be inappropriate for, and that content was indeed level-gated, eliminating the possibility of unfair power-leveling. But most routine content was available to sidekicked players.
Obviously not clear how it worked.
Side kicked characters got Xp proportional to their level, and their powers were proportionally scalded along with hit points and defenses. Their rewards were also level proportionate, if you were level 12 side kicked to a level 40 player, your damage and hit points looked like level 39, your experience and drops were at level 12
Exemplaring had the level 40 character gaining no xp (they got something, but i cant remember what). and his powers would function at level 12. He loose access to powers gained after level 12. And the 12 character only has his limited powers when playing at 40.
The biggest downside might be getting stuck on a team with someone who had only a few powers in their set. But since early leveling happens so fast, they’d have enough to be useful.
Thanks for the replies. Sorry this thread is a little “zombified”.
Yes, yes. I’m used to the old rap “why do you play MMOs if you don’t like people”. I’ve heard it a billion times.
For me, social is my husband, and maybe (maybe) a close friend I absolutely trust. I just take my gaming too seriously to have someone wreck my suspension of disbelief.
Turns out, Neverwinter is a great game that loves duos. We even do the “five man” dungeons alone! I am very happy with it.
XIV, on the other hand, has a bizarre fetish for telling you how to play at all times. There are parts you literally cannot take another person to, and the required (to advance the story) dungeons refuse to let you in without a full group. I have never felt such betrayal from a developer in my life. The fact they want me to pay them a fee to be unhappy is ridiculous.
I don’t understand why any company would force grouping. I get suggestions, recommendations, warnings. But just out right refusing to let a person experience part of the game? It’s a nanny attitude I find deplorable.
Tried LotRO long ago. I couldn’t get into it. Same thing with DDO.