Kruunch's Revelation

[Kruunch]

MEE BLOO PILZ DAT TYDUL!

*cackles and shakes his jibblies at another blue pill*

This morning I logged on real quick to finish off my level (L37) and in SG chat we had a new guy asking the question:

"What's there to do at L40?"

At first I thought he was being facetious given the amount of topics that have covered this since the game was released (closed beta actually) but I soon found out he was serious and was asking what kind of raids and multi-group content was available (he was looking forward to that stuff with some anticipation apparently).

Being the positive guy I am, I mentioned fighting the Cosmic and roaming world monsters, the UNITY dailies and missions/instances they spawn as well as filling out his Perks and PvP.

He kept answering "But is it fun ...." and "But are their raids ..." and while I kept equivocating it dawned on me that I was no longer being positive but evading the question and I finally came out with this response ...

"Ok to be truthful, most of the Cosmics and roamings monsters can be two-manned right now, the daily missions take up less then an hour and give you access to instances which for the most part aren't finishable due to bugs and give unsatisfying (to me) rewards."

It was a little less blunt because I traumatized him with a wall of Kruunch-speak but it kind of stopped me in my tracks a bit as I realized that I am playing a game that is "finishable" (a tragedy to say this of an MMO) in less time then it took me to finish BioShock (not exactly a particurlarly long console game). Ok it didn't stop me in my tracks, as I knew that about this game already but the realization really hit me on how poorly this game was conceived.

I don't mean the bugs and balance issues and so forth (although they are indicative of this) but rather the over all game design. At some point when you're designing such a broad based game as an MMO (and hopefully very early on) you as the Lead Designer have to ask/state ... what is the purpose of this game? What are the players driven to do ... and since this is a game based on a recurring subscription model ... what is there to keep the player p(l)aying?

For the life of me I can't find a time when this was stated/addressed when I look at and play Champions Online. Certainly there was no overall design doc in place with any level of granularity or if there was, they went so far away from it as for it to be completely ignored.

Maybe this has to do with Microsoft bailing out on Marvel Universe Online (the original project for Champions) and maybe this had to do with the lead designer giving up the reigns of his "baby" too far into development (Jack Emmert leaving and Bill Roper stepping in). I don't know. But ultimately it has to astound someone (whether in Atari's upper management or Cryptic's or any one of their distribution vendors) that millions of dollars and years of time and resources have been spent on this ... and I seriously doubt there is even a comprehensive design doc (certainly not one that mirrors the current game).

I'm shocked (and yes I know ... I'm slow and dense so this is coming a bit late).

Anyways I started messing around with Aion the other day and I have to say, if you wanted to see night and day with regards to how an MMO should be approached .... wow (and I'm not a big fan of Asian released MMOs to date). This is not to compare the games (I haven't played Aion nearly enough to even have an intelligent opinion on it) but rather to throw this one nugget out ..... in 4 hours of played time, I am more connected (and into) my L8 character in Aion, then any of my double digit level toons in Champions that I've spent the last two months on.

Let me repeat: It took four hours, for me to be more vested in another game then the one I've been playing for two months.

And that's the revelation.

*shakes his jibblies some more*

MEE DINKZ IBN KRIPTIK NUT INNA PANIK MODE NOWZ UHTAREEZ SHUD BEE.

*nods*

[Bisonberg]

Well said, Krunnch.

You're going to get a lot of flames though. Not just because you criticized the game (albeit in a well-written and analytical way) but also because you mentioned the dreaded A-word (and if you hadn't said that you weren't comparing them I'd be telling people to take a shot).

[Calsetes]

Wow... if Kruunch says it's good..... then maybe there IS something to it.

I've got Borderlands to tide me over when Champions becomes dull in between content lulls (that's "lulls", not "LOLZ"). In the event that it's a real long dry spell....... well, Assassin's Creed 2 is next month...?

It's going to suck if Kruunch goes bye-bye though - I don't know how the forums will be the same without him.

[Chat]

I still haven't heard a good reason for me to activate my copy of Aion.

And O...M...G... I don't love you anymore... Go back to being that tall, dark and mysterious stranger saying sweet things(well it's what I translates most of your posts into) right now!

[GeoGenetic]

Kruunch, I started with AION and came here. I hope you like grinding and feeling detached from your character because that's how you will feel in about another week.

I really hope Champions releases some really good end game content but for right now I am loving the journey of moving through the different zones and leveling. I'm forcing myself to stick with one character now because I'm going to do so many other concept characters later on. I'm really excited to roll alts for the first time in a long time.

I appreciate your point of view Kruunch, as always, but AION has had a lot of content out in other countries for over a year. Champions is what a month old? AION is new to america but the rest of the (Asian) world has had it for quite some time.

[Thrusty]

I am not at the cap yet.... and I am glad I am not. From everything I hear, its a pretty empty place right now.

I have asked similar questions (what was the overall goal for the game, perplexing design decisions, etc.) and the conclusion that I have come to is that we got 80% of the intended game. The original cap was lvl 50 and it shows. It seems to me like they knew they didn't have enough time to finish before release so they put all their efforts into having a complete path to lvl 40. Everything else was secondary.

As for being emotionally invested in my characters..... I have to say I am, for the most part. What I have heard about Aion does not really impress me. It's another fantasy grind fest from what I have read and heard from friends who have played it.

[8bithero]

Originally Posted by Bisonberg

Well said, Krunnch.

You're going to get a lot of flames though. Not just because you criticized the game (albeit in a well-written and analytical way) but also because you mentioned the dreaded A-word (and if you hadn't said that you weren't comparing them I'd be telling people to take a shot).

No, he's spot on. People, like you, get flamed (deservedly) because they insult the devs, community, and game childishly and throw tantrums.

When a person can present a reasonable case without acting like a 5 year old, it is respected.

And I'm not just saying this because I like Kruunch and am a member of NERF.

The game probably is unfinished at the end. The difference for some of us is that we realized that fact coming in and were, thus, in absolutely no hurry to get to the end in a week or two. Some of us sit back and enjoy the game for the game, taking in the setting and story.

Those that do this have an overall more enjoyable experience because we don't see getting to the maximum level as quickly as we can the entire purpose of gaming. Powerleveling benefits nobody.

As Special K said, I also am not attached to my toons. For different reasons. I knew that there were to be sweeping changes to a MMO at launch as people played it; that's common sense. Happened to every other MMO so far, why would this one be different. I haven't retconned because if my toon doesn't work the way I want it to, I delete it and try again.

People came into this game with such high hopes. That's their problem. I came in because I enjoyed CoX for a while and wanted a new Hero game. This one did what I wanted it to, so I chose it. I didn't see a WoW killer of the next coming of Christ.

I saw a game.

If not irrationally hating a video game makes me a fanboy, then I am a fanboy.

[Bisonberg]

I know people were going to focus on the Aion part of his post. I just knew it.

[Bisonberg]

Originally Posted by 8bithero

No, he's spot on. People, like you, get flamed (deservedly) because they insult the devs, community, and game childishly and throw tantrums.

People like me get deservedly flamed because I insult the devs, community and game while childishly throwing tantrums?

You're so damn far up there on your high horse you probably can't even see who you quoted.

[Blackdodge]

It's pretty obvious the game needs a massive content injection, not just at the end game to give us reasons to keep playing our level 40 characters, but also at the other levels to give us more incentive to make alts. As it stands there's just enough content to get you to 40, you're simply retracing your steps when you make an alt.

The frustrating part is that the potential is there, I'm sure while you've been playing you've come across a quest, a moment or a fight that has made you think "YES, THIS IS ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC, MOOOORE." only to settle back into killing 5-10-15-20 guys and collecting their knick-knackery far too often. It feels like the bones of the game are here, you have the kill/collection quests there for mindless leveling, now is the time to start pumping out some more impressive quest lines.

I'd like to see a more coherant storyline style quests, imagine converting some of your favourite comic storylines into CO mission format. Difficult in some places, to be sure, but if they could nail it then it would be awesome. If they could make them repeatable while keeping them fresh, even better.