DEVS, GREAT IDEAS & SUGGESTIONS

Steve Jobs said: "Good artists copy great artists steal." Who would've thought that one could build a billion dollar company like Starbucks by selling coffee when coffee and coffee shops has been around for ages? Why reinvent the wheel when you can perfect it?

It never ceases to amaze me that there are many MMO's out there, with the same (oft-critized) pay model as DCUO, worse combat mechanics, and less famous lore, that manage to do far better than DCUO in terms of revenue and game population attraction and retention. They must be doing something right that DCUO is neglecting. This post is kinda long but please bear with me. Here are some ideas that DCUO can implement to make this game great again.


1. INCENTIVES

I've played a fair share of MMOs (DCUO, SWTOR, Star Trek, Guild Wars 2, Aion, Dust 514, etc) and I'm always keen to see what they makes one stand out from the other. In my obversation, the MMOs that are the most appealing to players are the ones that give them the greatest incentives to play. This makes sense because people love to go where they feel most appreciated and well treated.

A. GW2: Daily rewards JUST for logging in!
Guild Wars 2 rewards players for logging in daily and to keep things interesting they vary the rewards from crafting materials, to level boosts, xp boosts (tomes of knowledge), to currency tokens, to random gear. Moreover, the rewards culminate with a box having a really rare, cool weapon + mark + other goodies. This big reward is given every 30 logins or so. People are encouraged to log in daily so that they can eventually collect that random rare weapon that they're hoping for. I can honestly say that I've never seen an MMO with as great a population as GW2! This is especially true after an expansion.

DCUO could mail a daily reward or have players collect it somewhere in the world; it could be an xp boost, marks, crafting mats, rare styles, etc. Note that it must be random to keep things fresh and give a sense of wonder and excitment.

B. SWTOR: Monthly rewards for subscribing
Just like DCUO, Star Wars: The Old Republic is blessed with a great, popular, and cherished lore that can be seen especially when a new Star Wars movie comes out. Despite the fact that they receive(d) HEAVY criticism for their subscription model, they've managed to keep a pretty decent population logging in by offering monthly reward to subscribers. So far, the mailed rewards have consisted of cool speeders, weapons, stronghold (lair) decorations, brand new/rare companions, and armor sets, etc. This is a very good incentive for people to subscribe because they wish to get the weapon or poster of their beloved hero.

DCUO can do the same. There could be rare styles, weapons or lair items mailed to subscribers from month to month.

C. GW2: Compensation for Inconveniences
One of the wise things that GW2 does is that they give players random "boons" after performing either a long or inconventient maintenance. After maintenance (a lot of times) they'll give players a speed boost or xp boost that is automatically applied to your character (meaning that you don't have to click anything to get it). Just log in and you see on your screen that you xp is boosted for 30 minutes or an hour or as long as the inconvenience took. This is a great way to allow players to be patient because they know that they'll get a certain compensation for having to wait for servers to get back online.

DCUO can allow players to go somewhere on metropolis and collect a free xp boost, or SP token, etc. Incentive is huge for players especially subscribers! I've actually stopped subbing to DCUO because I feel that I'm not getting as much in return for my money as compared to other games. Lack of incentive is a real issue.

2. CASH SHOP

One of biggest MMO trends right now is the Buy-to-Play model. Games like Final Fantasy: A Realm Reborn, Elder Scrolls Online, GW2 are all B2P MMOs and all of them are doing better than DCUO. You don't have to sub, just buy the game and expansions. So how do they manage to sustain themselves in between expansions (which can take up to a year to release)? They all have a cash shop filled with vanity items like wings, gliders, mounts, weapons, boosts, hairstyles, etc. From what I can see, Gw2 updates its cash shop many times a month and ALWAYS has some kind of sales going.

This is truly where DCUO falls flat. I can't count how many threads I've read where players said "Please give me this hairstyle", better yet "if you do that, you can take my money!". If GW2 is able to maintain a LARGE game and huge population while releasing only a single expansion a year then it MUST be that the cash shop is a greater soursce of revenue than proponents of the subscription model think!

3. WORLD EVENTS

Right now SWTOR has a Dark vs Light event where players can either play a new darkside or lightside character all the way to endgame. Depending on whether the majority of players are lightsided or darksided, the next story coming out in the fall is expected to reflect that by giving the upperhand to whichever side wins. GW2 from the very beginning had what's called "world events" whereby at various times of the day there are bosses on different parts of the map that pop up and wreak havoc. Huge groups of players gather to take out those world bosses and get the big loot thereafter.
GW2 world boss timer: http://guildwarstemple.com/dragontimer/events.php?serverKey=119&langKey=1

DCUO REALLY ought to implement world events. Just recently, Mepps spawned gorillas and avatars of meta in the WT. This was great!!! DCUO needs to do more of this! Maybe it could be randowm or time-based so that players can gather in anticipation of the event. This is an easy thing to implement.
Mepps spawns avatars in WT:

4. DYNAMIC EVENTS

With such a great hero vs villains lore, DCUO should have more open world PvP events where heroes and villains can fight for and eventually capture an entire zone for a whole week. During that time they would get special privileges and perks for controlling that area. SWTOR does this with "conquest" where leagues compete against each other earning points in crafting, pvp fighting, starship battling, all vying for a specific planet. Once captured, anytime a player of any faction lands on that planet, whether they're in PvP mode or not, there's a pop up on the top of the screen telling them that this planet is controlled by said league. DCUO can do this! Also, GW2 has world events where enemies come and destroy an entire region (Lion's Arch). Even after the fight, the destruction is still seen in that city for months. They gradually rebuild it to look different than it was before. Things like this add interest and intrigue to a game.

So what are DCUO's strengths and weaknesses right now?

STRENGTHS
1. Lore. DCUO has one of the most beloved lores in MMO history and this is probably the key factor that has kept it alive so far in light of its many blunders.

2. Graphics. DCUO has some of the best graphics of any game out there. One of the things I like about DCUO's graphics is that characters are compact and tangible, you can't go through other characters and NPCs like you can in the VAST majority of MMOs. This is a PLUS because this add to the realness of the game. The more a game feels true to real life, the easier it is to immerse oneself in it. I cannot count how many times I've decided to try to download World of Warcraft, after hearing of how great it is and the huge population it has, but couldn't bring myself to it because of how cartoonish their graphics are.

3. Movement modes. DCUO's movement modes are pretty cool and well implemented. We could use more though.

4. Styles. DCUO has some great styles but there's room for improvment.

WEAKNESSES
1. Size. Too small for an MMO that has "Universe" in its name! Ideally, DCUO would have multiple planets and players would be able to literally fly into the sky, past the mesosphere, and into outer space! Players who can't fly would have to use teleporters. This ought to be a long-term goal of DCUO. Regardless of whether flying character can pierce through the atmosphere or not, there should be more planets and areas like metropolis and Gotham, as opposed to Central City for example which is very small.

2. Combat. Sadly, this used to be a strength! Combat mechanics should be more fluid less predictable and uniform. I remember the amazement I and many other had when we came into a raid with full gear and got destroyed on the board by an Earth DPS when Earth was considered the weakest then. Everyone was wondering what loadout he must've used. Nowadays every DPS power has the same single loadout. This makes for dullness. Back in the days (prior to GU36) there were MANY videos showing different loadouts each having its own advantage all the while being competitive in raids. The combat should really be revamped from the ground up imho.

3. Lack of incentive. Mentioned above.

4. Breakage in Storyline. I personally find the fact that DCUO jumps from story to story very distracting. This release is Amazon Fury P1, next thing you know the next release is War of the Light P2. I think that most players lose track of what happened from episode to episode due to the lack of continuity in presenting the stories. They should be continuous to the end instead of breaking into a completely different storyline that was started last year. By that time most of us forgot what it was about. SWTOR is the king in this area.

5. Too Simple Character Customization. Not enough presets for face, hair, body, posture, etc.

6. Stale Marketplace.

Those are some ideas that I hope DCUO would take into consideration during this hiatus.

Please feel free to chime in with your own ideas. Thanks for reading.

The lack of styles in the marketplace has drivin me nuts for 5 years. It flat out makes no sense.

The Bad One says DCUO is fine the way it is. Some people on this game are unappreciated of how good they have it. Know it all crybabies trying to change things to the way they want it when they can not accept the way it was designed to be. The people that work to make this game have all their efforts thrown in their faces by spoiled brats that think they are entitled to something. No forces you to pay or play. That is a choice people make. We all play this game for a reason that we should never forget. It is for the love of it and when you love something that much you accept it for what it is and why you fell in love with it in the first place. Comparing it to other games is wrong. The Bad guy feels sick to his stomach.

I disagree because the truth of the matter is that every MMO is in competition with all the other MMOs out there. How else would you gauge your progress except by comparison with other MMOs? Also, like I said above, this was Steve Jobs's methodology: find ideas that are already out there and perfect it. If you have an Apple device then know that your device is the brainchild of this line of thinking.

There's nothing wrong with learning from the successes of others.

The Bad One says DCUO is a one of a kind game and has its own identity. It is the first of its kind. Let those other butter cup games steal some ideas from this great game. What they do and what they have we do not need it. This great game is 5 years strong by doing things their way. The Iron Bull does not nor will he ever use a apple device. He does not even like apples, apple juice or apple jacks. He does enjoy a lot of apple pie but that is it. So how do like them apples.

This game has changed dramatically since I fell in love with it (not in a good way obviously).

And its the same as a million other MMO's. There's nothing new or unique. All based on the same systems and mechanics of a hundred games that came before it.

C'mon.

I'll start by saying I have no problem with the subscription model of DCUO.

I'll continue by saying comparison to other games can be tiresome, but these comparisons hold weight, in my opinion.

Some of these ideas are good, and are utilised well in other MMOs. I'm an SWTOR subscriber too, and I enjoy the monthly benefits and incentives. I particularly like the idea of going into the cities to collect the rewards. It makes the open world a little more relevant. I also agree on many other points, the MP in particular.

Again I'm happy with what we have, but it could be a lot better. I'll use a WWE analogy that the Bad One might appreciate.

Summerslam is coming. Dean Ambrose defends the WWE title against Dolph Ziggler, Seth Rollins faces Finn Balor for the Universal title. Whomever wins those matches, I'll be happy.

But Ambrose and Rollins winning, to me, is like the current DCUO model. It'd good, people enjoy it.

However I really really want Ziggler and Balor to win. In my opinion that will be awesome. Balor and Ziggler are some of your ideas.

Do not... Ever... Use Wrastling as an example... Of anything. Lol

Fixed that for ya.

You're right the game has changed a lot. There's nothing wrong with change except when it's bad changes. There's nothing new, like you said about the things I mentioned, I just hope that some of these things would be implemented into DCUO.

You're a funny guy, I'll tell you that. I have strong feeling that you're a Rock fan.

Oh, I agree.

First n foremost, the Marketplace. Sites, styles, styles.

The amount if money lost these past 5+ years is beyond comprehension.

Idk if we ever found out why they never made styles for the Market. Its just sooo bizzar. There's a fortune lost right there.

It'd be really funny to know that he really is "The Rock". In his downtime, he trolles internet video game forums. Lol

That would be HILARIOUS!

Did The People take the day off today? ...jk jk

I am glad you have shared your insights on the game...and of course...apples.

On topic: the op ideas are great though i highly doubt they will use any of them, given how long the game has been as it is now.

Let's keep hope alive. I do see them implementing changes in the game. So it's fair to say that they are trying. DCUO has too great a potential to fail at this point

I hope the devs will take these ideas into account. I know that it's difficult hearing people constantly criticize your work especially when you put a lot of effort into it, however criticism should be viewed as an opportunity to grow. No one can view themselves except with a mirror and that is what criticism is supposed to do. Criticism is more valuable when coupled with constructive suggestions, which is what I tried to offer in this post.

Let this not fall on deaf ears.

Better idea fix nature and electric and not in 6 months now!!!!!

You can't play FFXIV without a subscription FYI and I wouldn't exactly say it has a great cash shop. Most of the items on there are very pricey or relatively niche. Most customizations or extras are available in game with no need to do any additional purchase beyond a subscription. This is the largest strength of FFXIV BTW. The sheer fact that it is subscription only means that it maintains a healthy fund which is used to be able to give more items away for "free" (very loosely used given every player pays for it).

Also I think you are taking the "universe" part of the name too literal. All it means is that the game uses the DC Universe subset of comic book characters. In regards to comics DC Universe refers the collective works of DC Comics but for the most part unless Superman is involved (or you focus on the lanterns during their own stories) you don't leave Earth. Most of the storylines involved with DC take place on Earth. So it's not a surprise that the game focuses on Earth.

As for the variation that is actually something players have asked for over the years. I'm not saying it represents the entire community, nothing does, but there were a lot of "Brainiac again", "more Brainiac!...", etc. comments early in the game. When monthly content came around there were a fair group of players that liked the variety. Actually when they announced the initial 3 storylines (Amazon Fury, War of the Light and Halls of Power) that eventually molded into monthly content variety players liked that transition so that they didn't "have" to sit through lores (characters, teams, etc.) that they didn't like. Certainly the "when we will have X character featured" or "when we will see more Superman/Batman/Wonder Woman" comments attest to the variety that is liked.