...is over.
I had been told by a friend it was going for a week and I didn't bother to double check. It actually only lasted the weekend.
I got past the starter area, but I wasn't enjoying it so much that I was eager to play a lot. In the back of my mind I felt I still had a week to try it out. But even then that strong desire to get back in there and play during the weekend just wasn't there.
I think I know what WoW had in the beginning that is missing from many other MMOs and it seems very simple. The feeling that you are improving. The quick and early level dings made bright yellow and shiny. Your skills improving with each whack or blast in blue. Loot, even when grey (poor), being better than what you had. And as you level getting more spells or attacks.
Champions Online starts you out with decent powers (attacks) (City of Heroes, depending on which type of archetype (class) you chose could be painful starting out because your powers were so weak). But at least for the few levels I made it through, didn't give you any more powers. You don't need them, you can do just fine with the 2 you start out with, but you *want* them.
You get to slot some things, but they slot areas (?) instead of armor. Instead of taking a glove reward and putting it in your hand slot (simple enough), you get a "Primary defense" reward and put it in your "Primary defense" slot (Huh?). I get that a pair of white (common) gloves are better than (grey). But it's not apparent that a talisman is better than a shirt when they can both go in the "defense" slot.
When you level it is showy, but since you're not getting anything special by doing so its just fluff. If I had my sound off, I'm not sure I would even recognize that I leveled. The feeling of progressing is extremely important. Why do so many of us get bored at end-game? Because the feeling of improving ceases to exist, or slows to a crawl. So you should definitely give the player some idea that they are getting stronger early on, or it will feel like a slog from the get-go.
It's like Champions Online and others are copying models, but forgetting why the models are how they are.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
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About this blog
"I don't *need* to play. I can quit anytime I want!"
Blog Archive
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2009
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August
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- Make up your mind, whydontcha?!?!
- It's the principle of the thing
- Makin' the rest of us trees look bad
- My previous Aion post...
- WoW's toehold
- Aion gets an A for Amazing!
- Champions Online open beta
- Once more with feeling
- CoX Cancelled
- Extended raid lockouts
- CO & ToC
- Additional instances cannot be launched
- Painting myself into a corner
- Opinion or review?
- What changes?
- Lifetime subscription - no thanks
- You don't *have* to do anything
- Visiting the World of Warcraft
- WoWtards
- Double XP weekend
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August
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2 comments:
Copying models is not quite the right thing to do...well they are a hit in the market.
This is great news here...love the reading.
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