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Why does no one play this game?

trancejeremytrancejeremy Member UncommonPosts: 1,222

It's the start of a double XP weekend.

 

Out of the 16 servers, only 3 are not green - Virtue, Freedom, and Justice.

 

Jumping on all the servers I have characters on - Champion, Guardian, Defiant, and Protector, there aren't many people. Champion/Guardian used to be pretty good. Defiant, I made a mistake of picking, I know. But I've spent about 2 hours jumping through my servers and can't find a team (and only two people even talking).

 

I mean, it's old, but in ultra mode the graphics are still pretty good (save the character models).

 

Is it the f2p model that sucks? It's not so great if you aren't a subscriber, I know, since you have nerfed characters without IOs.

 

R.I.P. City of Heroes and my 17 characters there

Comments

  • MagnetiaMagnetia Member UncommonPosts: 1,015
    It was the leveling experience for me. I just couldn't grind the quests anymore.

    Play for fun. Play to win. Play for perfection. Play with friends. Play in another world. Why do you play?

  • ste2000ste2000 Member EpicPosts: 6,194

    The Super Hero theme is not ideal for MMOs.

    It is not so Super when everyone is same as you, plus I enjoy item progression in MMOs.

    I like to get better looking gear as I level..................CoH gives you the better looking gear already at the beginning, so I have no incentive to play.

  • OSF8759OSF8759 Member Posts: 284
    It's an old game and the business model is pretty bad. Heavy on the pay to win. I still enjoy playing it every now and then, but the game has always been good at burning people out. At one time, it had the highest retention rate of any MMO. No longer.
  • RamanadjinnRamanadjinn Member UncommonPosts: 1,365

    i loved this game. it was my MMO of choice for years...

     

    sadly though, i loved the pvp.. and when they released the issue that put harsh diminishing returns on everything and travel suppression i all but hated the game.. still i stuck with it until just a bit before the going rogue expansion hoping that they would revert some of those changes.

    when i found out they were not i lost faith in the developers and lost faith that i would ever love the game again.

    i know i'm one of like 20 people who played the game for pvp.. but it is what it is.  thats who i am and thats why i don't play the game anymore.

     

    i did love AE and powerleveling.. trying new builds out and soloing AVs..  but that stuff alone just couldn't hold me without the fun of the pvp zones.

  • WicoaWicoa Member UncommonPosts: 1,637

    I loved this game for a long time based myself on the freedom server. Even done the latest incarnate raids and got many toons up and made some nice money and loved the IO craft system.

    The problem comes down to I think its just dated now. The pvp is a mess and it lacks features other games use for quality of life.  They can't be far off city of heroes 2 and I will most certainly purchase that and stick to it long term.

  • OSF8759OSF8759 Member Posts: 284
    Originally posted by Wicoa

     They can't be far off city of heroes 2 and I will most certainly purchase that and stick to it long term.

    City of Heroes 2 is never going to happen. It's a nice fantasy, espeically with the huge disappointment Marvel Heroes Online turned out to be, but only a fantasy.

    As to server population, I checked in again at primetime today and there are two red servers (Freedom; Virtue) and 5 yellow servers. Not too shabby!

    In case anyone is wondering, the base free game is definitely worth playing. Lots of free powersets and archetypes to choose from, and 1,000 or so hours of free content. But yes, the population isn't the highest. Stick to Virtue and/or Freedom if you want to see another living soul lol.

  • grapevinegrapevine Member UncommonPosts: 1,927

    Probably because it now feels very dated.

     

    Why don't loads of people play Donkey Kong? They used to, but time moves on.

  • CyrosphereCyrosphere Member Posts: 105

    Hm, that is a little bad if you ask me. Check in again a day later during double xp perhaps? All the servers were yellow or above when Freedom launched. Of course, you can get to 50 in 8 hours or so even on a normal AE farm so perhaps double xp has lots its shine (this ignoring pay2win XP boosters)

    As for servers feeling empty, you definitely need to have kept up with global channels to find events going on, the game activity has become involuntarily gated as custom chat channels isn't a common MMO feature and CoH is as you know highly instanced. Check the boards.cityofheroes.com and check your server's subforum for the biggest global channels.

    The one sore thumb for the F2P change for CoH is as you pointed out, IOs. You need to sub, be a tier 7 premium (that's like 5 years of being previously subscribed), or pay $2.00/month to unlock them. This is a make or break deal for many returning players, so I guess it fell on the side of break for most people I talk to.

    edit: If you still care or have any available server transfer tokens, head to Virtue for the best community. Freedom had a surge but has been in a slight decline since the devs have refused to address PvP 2.0

    Remember, it has to be fun to be a game. Grinding is a bedroom activity, and the point is definitely not to do my wife as fast as possible.

  • TheocritusTheocritus Member LegendaryPosts: 9,751
         Like several others, the superhero theme just didn't play right for me......
  • CasualMakerCasualMaker Member UncommonPosts: 862

    Bleh! Why would you want to power-level-to-max in CoH?! I've been playing since the end of 2005 and only have one up to 50... and that was more to try out the Kheldian archetypes than anything else. Guess I'm just a confirmed alt-aholic. Plus lots of dabbling in EQ, EQMAC, EQ2, Vanguard, AoC freebie, considering SWG Basilisk and DAoC Uthgard, etc.

    I haven't found the servers really all THAT dead, even the low-pop ones. Except in Praetoria; that's moribund even on Freedom.

  • OSF8759OSF8759 Member Posts: 284
    An above poster mentioned custom chat channels. I really hate those, they take a small community and divide it up into even smaller parts. Worse still, n00bies have no idea they exist. They only see dead chat and that doesn't make the game look good. Custom chat channels have done a lot to destroy overall community in the game. They stand as one of the game's biggest design mistakes (along with Ouroboros, PvP, AE, Praetoria and Incarnates).
  • TeknoBugTeknoBug Member UncommonPosts: 2,156


    Originally posted by trancejeremy

    Out of the 16 servers, only 3 are not green - Virtue, Freedom, and Justice. 

    Those 3 servers has always been the busies even before the game went F2P.

    image
    image

  • KyleranKyleran Member LegendaryPosts: 43,498

    It's old, it's boring (at least for me) and there's been newer titles in the super hero MMO genre that people are probably playing.

     

    "True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde 

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    Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm

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  • WicoaWicoa Member UncommonPosts: 1,637
    Originally posted by OSF8759
    Originally posted by Wicoa

     They can't be far off city of heroes 2 and I will most certainly purchase that and stick to it long term.

    City of Heroes 2 is never going to happen. It's a nice fantasy, espeically with the huge disappointment Marvel Heroes Online turned out to be, but only a fantasy.

    As to server population, I checked in again at primetime today and there are two red servers (Freedom; Virtue) and 5 yellow servers. Not too shabby!

    In case anyone is wondering, the base free game is definitely worth playing. Lots of free powersets and archetypes to choose from, and 1,000 or so hours of free content. But yes, the population isn't the highest. Stick to Virtue and/or Freedom if you want to see another living soul lol.

    You sir have no idea.
    http://uk.gamespot.com/news/city-of-heroes-2-trademark-filed-6256970

    The name has already been trade marked and the game has already been worked on.

  • Crazy_StickCrazy_Stick Member Posts: 1,059

    In fairness COX is a good game “from its time” that had a long and profitable run. I tried to play it not long ago but to be honest the combat feels really clunky when compared to either Champions Online or DCUO and that’s the main thing you do. The graphics are pretty dated too (models.) But it does beat both alternatives on cool, playable, content though.

     

    I am not sure that being a super hero genre game can be held against it. In modern times the most popular film franchises all seem to be about four color super heroes. Without fail some one tries to put a new super hero series on television every year. There is a market there on PC too (and on video game consoles in particular) if some one can figure out how to cash in on it.

     

    Heck, look at The Secret World. NPCs start referring to the characters as super heroes at and you start feeling like you are playing X-Men vs Cthuluu at points.

     

    Really, I think its time for COH 2 but I am not sure if it will ever happen especially after hearing that the next Lineage game got canned. I want it to happen as it seems like a game I'd want to play though.

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