Monday, June 22, 2009

Back to the beginning

I fired up my very first mmo, City of Heroes, over the weekend because I wanted to play something else but not WoW.

I quickly picked a few elements of my superheroe's costume, choosing some new items that didn't exist back when I played and ran through the starter zone. I reached a common area, Atlas Park, and noticed familar comments in chat - costume contests, etc.

But you can't go back can you? If this had been my first time in City of Heroes I would have marveled, no pun intended, at the flames shooting from one players feet. Or been amazed at the 2 players hovering over a statue.

Just like when I saw the very first warrior in full matching armor back before tiers and dungeon sets.

"How do I get that?" "Where does that come from?" "Where can I get some of those?"

Once all of those questions are answered, once the mystery is gone you can't get that wonderment back. At least not by going back to old games you've left behind.

Sorry if this sounds depressing too, I'll address it when I get a chance.

4 comments:

Verilazic said...

It happens. I remember the first time I saw a video of Onyxia, she was amazing, and when she took off and bathed what looked like the whole place in flame, I was like "now THAT is a dragon!" But now we consider her to be pretty much blah. =/

Yane (Yet another night elf) said...

Exactly Jadyn.

*spoiler alert*






There is a quest in the Draenei starter zone where you can solo a dragon that looks exactly like Onxyia.

The same dragon skin we spent hours getting a chance to fight now its double is at the end of a starter area. :/

Ashimbo said...

I think the problem is we, as gamers, have evolved past the point of being amazed at foot-flames or matching gear.

If a new game comes along, we are able to scrutinize it to a much greater extent then we had been able to in the past.

We've become desensitized, and it saddens me.

Verilazic said...

I believe TotalBiscuit (from wcradio.com if you don't know about wow radio) said something to a similar effect: "skill creep". The entire player base is slowly learning how to play the game better, and is getting used to different mechanics, and visual things.

He was aluding more to the fact that a simple (relative to the fights today) fight like Ony or MC bosses is ridiculously easy today, even if our gear was low enough. We're used to more complicated and flashy fights now, so we're going to be a lot more critical.

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