Off week update already? Where does the time go?

In case I haven’t repeated it ad nauseum in my videos, I’m currently heading out for MAGfest. Literally. I should be packing, not writing this.

Regardless this is my self-imposed duty do I’ll get something out before I make the drive.

First off, next ep… should go smoothly. I had to do a few things differently, but hopefully that won’t cause an issue in editing. It WILL probably cause an issue in vid length and quality, simply because it’s a browser-based Flash game, and my processor doesn’t like doing those at the same time it’s using fraps, or Debut, or what ever else I have to jury-rig to in order to get what I need. I’m almost positive this ep is going to be late. For real this time!

In other news, I probably have a few new fans… or enemies from my City of Heroes review. For those of you scratching you heads at what I just said, let’s just say that when I said the community was “passionate” I forgot how close that also includes a few of bits of “obsessive”. Ok, before you think I’m harping on all of you, I’ll say that’s not the case. My comments on BT and here have been, for the most part, overwhelmingly positive for a review I thought I had to rush through. In fact, a second version was just uploaded to fix issues I had with a credits typo, and adding the definition of “cooldown” when I first mention it.

However, I only recently found out the REAL reason the poll had so many votes for CoH. Ya know how I said that the forums posted about the poll? Well, yes they did… but whoever runs the CoH Facebook page at Paragon Studios also posted it there to it’s 50k plus fans. Most of whom probably said, “Not sure what this is. Voting CoH anyway. COH ALL THE WAY WOOOO!”

Well Paragon again posted on the CoH page, this time linking to my review. And… wow… did I apparently piss some people off. While I’m certain most of the people didn’t really watch the entire video, as most of the critiques was “Not sure what this is. What is he talking about WoW? CoH is better. COH ALL THE WAY WOOOO!” there were a lot of people who gave legitimate complaints, but stemming mostly from not exactly knowing what I do. So I’m going to clarify here:

1. “It doesn’t cost much to unlock those features! If you can’t afford to play, you shouldn’t be playing!”
This stems from my referring to how limited the game was in chat if you didn’t pay for anything. Hate to burst the bubble, but this is a Free-To-Play review show. I review the game as a free-to-play, regardless of the model of F2P used. Trust me, I’d mention how limited WoW’s F2P model is as well. Doesn’t make it less true.
It also doesn’t matter how “cheap” it is to unlock these features. If one has to pay 50 dollars or 50 cents, it’s still not “free”. Half these comments came from long time players who admittedly didn’t even know how the F2P model worked.

2. “Combat isn’t slow!”
Ok, fine. The combat does end up getting faster when you get more powers at later levels, but when starting out, and especially coming from another MMO when your character, especially as a melee class, just STANDS there taking punches while you wait to decide if you want to stab them again… that’s slow to me. People also took offense to me saying there was no auto-attack, and well… there isn’t. What I mean by that is one I right click on my enemy, as in most other MMO games, my character should start attacking them. If I’m wielding a ranged weapon I should start taking shots. If I am melee I should be punching or swiping constantly. This game doesn’t do that at all. As I said, in order to attack at all you need to use a power, which is the equivalent of only being able to attack with spells in other MMO games. (A line which kept getting taken out of context, and reminds me about something I’ll talk about in three.) In addition to that, You’re frozen in place while they cast, and completely unable to move, and if you’re used to playing a caster class in other MMOs this is going to feel really restrictive. Add to that the fact that these powers don’t usually do all that much damage, have a high chance of missing early on, and have a shockingly long cooldown. (Yes the enhancements let you change these as much as you see fit, but the early ones are, as I’ve been told on several forums, nigh useless, so it really sours the newbie experience.)  Yes, other MMO’s have a casting time, but a lot of powers are “instant” letting you move while using them, and most basic mage casting spells take 1-3 seconds on average to conjure, and can be cast again IMMEDIATELY after launching the spell. Unlike those games, though, positioning, and movement isn’t nearly as important, and this doesn’t effect the gameplay whatsoever. Your character CAN take a good beating most of the time. I was told that Ctrl-clicking on a power will let that one auto attack as long as an enemy is in rage, so there;s that, but not what I meant by “auto attacks” The same goes for “Aura powers”.

3. “They’re “missions”! Not “quests”!” 
I hate “rebranding”. What’s “rebranding”? Rebranding is when you take an existing and common concept and give it a brand new name, despite having changed nothing. LOTRO was filled with “rebranding”, going as far as rebranding the stats as well as the names for guilds, and parties. In MMO’s there are common terms that carry across all of them. The most common is “quest”. Did an NPC tell you to go to a certain location and retrive/kill/find some sort of book/monster/guard? Congrats. You’re on a quest. It doesn’t matter of the game I’m playing calls them “excursions”, “missions”, “adventures”, or “skiddlyborts”, they are quests. It’s the name most recognized by the community at large. In the review when I first identify the quests as CoH as “missions”, I continue to call them that for the rest of the review. The same goes for me calling “Supergroups” guilds. They’re guilds. That’s what the MMO community calls them. Case in point when I said the line, “In LOTRO at least they let you chat and join guilds”, if I had said, “In LOTRO,  at least they let you chat and join Kinships” would anyone outside of the LOTRO community have known what the hell I was talking about?

4. “You’re just a WoW lover! GBTWoW!”
You know I haven’t played WoW in over 6 months, right? I think THIS is why people are so pissed about my calling the game terms by the simplified MMO equivalents. Because they’re the same terms used by WoW. And they think I’m a WoW fanboy “angry” at CoH. You know why I mention WoW so much? Because it’s the game I’ve played the longest. It’s the one I’m most familiar and most importantly, it’s the most popular and identified MMO in media. It’s the easiest for outsiders of the MMO community to relate to. I sure as hell don’t see WoW as the be-all-end-all of MMOs and I’m not trying to convince people to play that game instead. It’s the whole reason a “Play-Pay-Pass” system exist so I can compare the game I’m reviewing to the most expected standard, and let people know objectively what the game is like so they themselves can make the informed decision to play it or not.

5. “Your review was limited/rushed!”
Yes. It was. But not in the way most people think it was. Check out some of the other MMO reviews out there if you want to see limited. I’m maybe seen only one other person try to delve into the entirety of the game, and you can imagine what kind of hell they would wreak on your social life and video release schedule. TBH, I think I’m taking a risk with a fortnightly show, considering that it doesn’t lend itself to recognition as well. Yes, I don’t have all that much time to delve into an MMO as someone who’d take a month o more between them, but I’ve always been about the basic ideal and concept of the game. A newbie’s guide. An outsider looking in. Of COURSE an insider is going to know the ins-and-outs of playing a game they’ve been with for years. I’m not going to know this, and I’m not going to ask. It’s unfair “above-the-board” knowledge to those who AREN’T going to have someone hold their hand throughout the entire review…. Also isn’t  it more fun to let players discover the quirks and deeper aspects of the game themselves? Isn’t discovery of new things what a LOT of people look for when playing MMOs?
The simpler fact was… this review was scheduled for Christmas week, and I had a LOT of things to do… and once Christmas actually came around, I got sick. This was NOT an easy one for me to finish.

Honorable mention: “This game does have a loot system!”
It’s a crafting system, and it’s not available to F2P. When I think loot system, I think taking stuff off of enemy bodies, having to prioritize space. Selling things I find to NPCs, and constantly wanting to upgrade to the next +5 Sword of Unending Disappointment. Enhancements come a lot closer to this system but not close enough that I feel it’s the same. Some players are admitted loot whores and only want to play a game so they can raise their e-peen level with an intangible item written in purple text. Those people would be lost in CoH.

Well, sorry for the rant, but I figured I’d try to clarify my points a bit better… I must be off though. I should have left for MAGfest a half hour ago.