Why do you play DC Universe Online?

Discussion in 'Gotham City (General Gameplay)' started by Will Power, Aug 23, 2014.

  1. Toshknight Loyal Player

    the housing reminds me of Swg and eq2 combined, i like teh crafting.. the customization of costume is the best in any mmo. the pvp combat and combat is amazing. the legends reminds me of a Mortal kombat style mmo if there was such thing, feats are amazing. one thing soe does good is make addictive good games.. ya thers bugs. and lots of messed up stuff with soe no offense. but I never had more fun playing any other mmos then SWG, Eq2 ,DCUO, and soon H1Z1 which im sure is gonna be epic, and i love Green lantern, superman and batman so much,
  2. 139 Masks Dedicated Player

    We both have opinions. You have a right to state yours just as much as I have a right to state mine.
    I'm not going to argue with you about opinions.
  3. 139 Masks Dedicated Player

    I apologize for mis-typing on my part if I said PlayStation 2. I may have indicated at PS2 (which would have been referring to Planetside 2), but I'm not going to look back through to sway which or either at this point as I need to get some sleep. Sorry about the confusion for either.

    I do think that the way that this game is "intended" to be played would work better in a PS2 (as in Planetside 2) like environment. That is that this game is intended to be an "action" MMO versus a "RPG" MMO.

    DCUO appears to have been designed more so for the PlayStation 3 than for a PC. There are many factors in this game that "smack" of a "video game" instead of an MMO. Things like barrel breaking, coin popping, click on icons instead of doors in order to get into buildings, etc.

    I haven't given deep explanation in regards to the RP aspect yet in this thread. I have gone into it in some detail in others. I will have to get back to you later in for better detail, but I can quickly say grouping (group mechanics - especially in lower level missions), the view that all pre-level 30 content is only a tutorial, the mentality of players that only think that this game can be/is an Action MMO ... (I'm sorry, but I really don't have time for more input now, but I will be back in regards to RPG issues in general).

    (You want more detail than I can supply at the moment. I'll have to work on this another time, but I am glad that you have asked for specifics.)

    (I use a controller to play the game even though I am on a PC = see :: https://forums.station.sony.com/dcu...pad-dual-action-controller-how-to-use.165296/ I do use the keyboard and mouse to augment the controller use, but I can use the controller to E on things.) Clicking on a glowing circle on the ground with an E to access is more "video gamey" than E'ing on a door to open it and/or enter content. There really is no reason - other than to have the "look of a video game" - to click on a glowing circle rather than a door to go into a building.

    I'm assuming all of the content where you can play as a DC Universe icon are in the higher tiers. I have not run across them playing up to the low/mid 30T3's. I'm sure that there are plenty of players that would like to join the game, not make a character, and simply play as a DCUO icon from the get-go (instead of creating their own character). Even if this means simply playing the missions and On Duty menu as the Icon (instead of a player made character).

    (as I said, I will return to reply more as I have time. I'm apologize for my time being short at the moment.)
  4. spack2k Steadfast Player

    i play to get max skillpoints to be honest , i dont know what will happen when i hit my goal.

    194/195 sp.

    with next gu41 i should get them if its true what tunso promised.
  5. 139 Masks Dedicated Player

    I'm sorry about the delay.
    I will respond as much as possible today and continue in another reply if my time constraints do not allow me to complete my reply or the post becomes too large. (I'm going to respond to the RP element in a separate reply).

    PS2 aka Planetside 2 (in SOE's own convoluted parlance)
    I believe that I have already addressed the use of PS2 to mean Planetside 2 rather than PlayStation 2. If I used it in error in referring to playing DCUO on a PS2 I meant a PS3.
    I believe that I was primarily focused on the way that the action and environment is handled in PS2 (Planetside 2). If you are familiar with PS2, you know how the environment works. There are continents and the factions battle for control of the sub-regions in each continent - each faction having a warp gate on each continent were they can transfer to and from continents.
    Imagine that each continent is a City (Metropolis, Gotham, Central City, etc.) and the sub regions are hot-points (hospital, bank, etc.). This model works a bit better with three factions, but when it comes down to it DCUO has 6 factions (hero/villain and magic/meta/tech for each). Add in AI bounty style characters involved and Alerts for specific player focus, and I think you get the drift.
    Heck, PS2 (Planetside 2) even has vehicles which super hero MMO players have been requesting for more than a decade now).
    If I need to go into an explain in regards to this further, just ask.
    I think it's pretty spelled out.

    Going into Buildings
    I'm confused about your confusion on this one.
    There is a big difference between "E"ing on a door and "E"ing on a glowing circle with a big icon sticking up from it in the street in front of a building doors. The difference between the two is walking up to a door and going in and stopping before you get to the door and clicking on something other than the door. The motif of having that big glowing circle on the ground comes from the old PlayStation Spider-man games (I'm guessing, because that' s the first place I saw it). A glowing edge of the doorway should be obvious enough.
    As I'm sure that I said - this goes back to the whole "breaking barrels and coins pop out" video-game mentality. This is Donkey Kong level video game development. We are past that. Super heroes don't break garbage cans to grab coins and stuff that pop-out of them in main stream comics (unless mainstream comics have fallen that low in the last year or so).
    If this sounds insulting, well .. I find these dated video game contrivances pretty insulting in a present day video game or MMO. I think any computer or video game player should be at this point - especially if they are over 10 years old. We are past that.

    Playing LEGENDS in Adventures before the END of the END-GAME
    Yes, you may be correct. I do believe a read about playing some Iconics in the very end-game.
    My point is that some players want to play LEGENDS characters (and not just certain Iconics) from the beginning of the game and that they don't want to make another character at all.
    Sure. I could watch a video about how they are going to do more of this in the very END of the END-GAME, but it does not address my point.
    Some players do not want to play through the entire game to play a certain few Iconic characters at the End of the End-game. They want to play one of a large assortment of LEGENDS characters from the get go. They wouldn't mind playing these through the adventures and environments that already exits. There are already multiple phases running at once, these characters could be locked into Iconics/LEGENDS only phases.
    Players really want to play Green Arrow (I wonder why) and he isn't even available in LEGENDS.
    One of the last times I was playing a player was complaining in /shout about not being able to play Superman. (yes I know they can buy a LEGENDS Superman for LEGENDS (content only and not the open world)).
    If this isn't clear, ask and I will be more specific.
  6. 139 Masks Dedicated Player

    1) Character description storage w/ option to be veiwable by other players.
    This doesn't have to be a huge amount of space. 256 ASCII characters minimum. I'm sure players that care would aprpeciate 1024 characters of writing space.
    This is the first step in RP - developing your own character. Mere creation isn't enough if no one (even you) care about fleshing out details about your character.
    It is also step 2 - allowing other players to read basic information about your character if you want to provide it. Now other people know who is actually thinking about RP elements and who isn't. Someone that has taken the time to write some character background or description is more likely to interact on a RP level than someone that hasn't.

    2) Places to Hang-out.
    Sure the Villains have clubs, and I have seen these used for limited RP because they have a dance floor (yes, simply the act of employing the /dance emote on the dance floor is an act of RP).
    Heroes don't have this option - in a police station. Who dances in a police station?
    Most of the time heroes end up hanging out infront of Little Bohemia in the street near the beach or in the Watchtower. The extent of this hero hang-out is watching heroes beat upon each other with an occasional villain attack.
    It's amazing what making an area available and stating that it is for Role-playing purposed does.
    Otherwise, you are going to get ERP mostly hidden in bases where no one is going to see it and those that are involved are unlikely to report it. I'm using ERP but some might call it MRP. Erotic or Mature - I think you get what this is about. This is different from roleplaying getting ready to hunt down [insert bounty here] or gather a team for [insert End-game content here].
    Certainly there is no room to RP in the /LFG channel and that is not what it is meet for on any level. (this is a channel shoved in the face of all new players and shoves any relevant content off the screen - because no new player has any use for messages in regards to level 30 content - the /LFG channel should not be a default channel in the default chat tab at this point in this game's development.)

    3) Every character in the game is address as if they are male.
    NPCs even refer to your character as being white or at least "pink skinned". Alot of this is in e-mails or by screaming of generic thugs on the street and not mentor voice-overs. I'm not sure how hard it is to script the e-mail messages or generic thug messages to detect what sex the hero/villain PC is, but I was able to write it into player created missions in City of Heroes (specific commands for him/her, he/she, his/hers, etc.), so I don't think it is that difficult. Using "them" instead of "he" in most situations is the dirty solution (yes, that is to say it isn't a "clean and polished fix")
    Addressing a character's race or skin-color is kind of crazy as this game can have PC's that are robots, foxes, wolves, lizards, plants, etc. as well as virtually any colored skin.
    I quote this example from the game ::

    From :: Grond
    Subject :: NOT FOR HUMANS
    What are you doing with these schematics, pink skin? Never touch Gorilla technologies! You admit much admitting you gathered them! Never again touch our mighty war machines!

    Note the use of the term "pink skin" to refer to the player's character.
    I don't know how many other skin or race related references there are.
    I know that all player characters are "humans infected by exobytes" as far as the DCUO lore, but that is not true from players points of view.

    4) Secret Identity
    The option to change between civilian clothes and costume without the need to pay for a 2nd (can't remember because I will never use them). The easy solution is to have the Secret ID form be like any NPC bystander on the street - they have no powers and can't attack or be attacked by anyone.

    5) Staying true to Character Conception :: Sub-genre
    Being able to play missions related to the mentor's sub-genre without having to run missions from the other sub-genres to reach level 30.
    This is strait forward. You should be able to run all magic missions until you reach level 30 if you have a magic mentor. As the game is now, you are forced to play your character (regardless of which mentor you pick) through missions from all the mentors in order to reach level 30.

    6) Staying true to Character Conception :: Morals
    Not being forced to do run missions that are out of character conception because you will not be given another mission until you complete the offensive mission.
    In particular, I point out three missions in regards to this.

    The heroic mission thread where I have to give the Demon my soul "for safe keeping" so I can run around soul-less. I don't really care if Wonder Woman says that she used her lasso and it's okay; I don't see her giving up her soul to the Demon. And believe me, I have joined a team and managed to let the other members give up their souls and be turned into zombies, remained human, and manged to get credit for their zombified kills, so I see the loop-hole Wonder Woman is using - and it's not just her lasso. Most of my character would never give up their soul for any reason. I have to question the heroic nature of those that would.
    -> In the end, the Demon never gives your soul back. <-

    The villain mission thread where I go to Hades/Hell and eat souls. Well, if I'm playing a demon, then that's not so out of character, but for those villains that I make that aren't demons, devouring souls is out of the question.

    Fighting against Poison Ivy's plant creatures is pretty much out of the question when I'm playing a plant creature. I'm sure that there arne't alot of players that play plant creatures, but I do. My plant creature characters don't want to fight other plant creatures.

    Now I understand that some of the leveling system has been streamlined because of the PlayStation 3. I also understand that it is set-up so that F2P players will always have misison to run in order to reach level 30. I, however, am an All Access member. I see no reseason that I should be handicapped and forced into more or less same mission progression once I reach level 10 regardless of what mentor I chose to begin with.
    *When I play a magic character, I want to run magic missions only until level 30. Same goes for Meta or Tech. This gives me the ability to experience the leveling process differently.
    *The same goes for opting-out of missions that I don't feel are within my charaters conception. There should be plenty of content to make the leveling experience a little different from one another over at least each mentor if not a little variation above that.

    7) Grouping
    When grouping at lower levels, characters around the same level, don't get credit for mission completion if they are not at the same point in the mission thread. This makes cooperative grouping almost impossible.
    Instead what occurs tend to be power-leveling groups where a low level groups up with one or more 30's that bulldoze the content. The new player doesn't get to enjogy the experience, certainly they don't learn anything during the process, and, you know, "who wants to play those boring sub-level 30 missions any way?!" - says the level 30 farming level 30T+ content for the last piece of some costume set.
    To me, those sub-level 30 missions are some of the best missions in the game.
    But the point really is, that once you have reach level 30 and RP has not been part of the gaming experience is less likely to happen with a bunch of players steam-rolling content as fast as they can for rewards. That kind of player doesn't want to role-play while in content and otherwise they are busy working on their gear or trying to find the next group to run with. That isn't the kind of player that I'm trying to get to RP because that isn't what they enjoy doing.
    I don't mean to be insulting, but when it comes down to it, those kinds of players are the "jocks" of gamers. They don't have time for the nerdy RP stuff. Funny that. The "jocks" always though that RP was nerdy. Why should it be different inside of a game (that was pretty nerdy to be involved with originally)?

    You don't have to leave them out, but the target doesn't always have to be the lowest common denominator or largest demographic. If that was the case, there wouldn't be a DCUO MMO - action or otherwise.
    The strong point of the DCUO is being able to play a super hero. If not a LEGEND then one that you create that is special to you for some reason. That alone is the basis for RP.
    But we can clearly see by the way things are handled I the game and in the forums that there are many that play DCUO just to be beating the game and getting rewards - - - and not because they want to be virtually living the life of a super-hero.

    There is little or no morality in DCUO. When they start be called "factions" instead of Heroes and villains (or good and evil, for that matter), the link to the concepts on which the game is supposedly based is lost.
    I understand that the line has become increasingly blurred between heroes and villains in comics, but that is a fundamental part of RP at the basis of the genre that make it what it is - the super human battle between the forces of good and evil that seek to protect or to dominate the normal humans in the world around them.
  7. 139 Masks Dedicated Player

    Can you be more specific about this?

    There seems to be some lack of understanding what RP is, why it would be important in this kind of MMO, and what could be changed about the game that would make it more RP friendly.
  8. Raijin1999 Loyal Player

    I play DCUO in hopes that one day it'll feel a heck of a lot more like the idea of a DC online MMO that I had in mind when first hearing about the game's development, and saw some of the concept footage (though much of it ended up being entirely scripted, which was a disappointment - and there were features that were cut from the game as well, like interactive power combos (setting a bus on fire that was held/lifted up by another player to add more doom to the boom of it's weaponized use).

    At times DCUO comes close to hitting that stride, but then again, to me, just as quickly trips over itself. It's a constant on/off cycle that wears you thin. There are too many variables in play as to why this happens and will continue to happen, chief among them is likely going to be the game's budget. Can only do so much with only so much. I've accepted this fact and am much more eager to see SOE take another approach to the comic book inspired MMO, but next time, without the DC brand.

    If you consider how many players play the game due to its accessibility and NOT because it's based on DC comics (let alone the people that don't know much at all about DC's various comic lines/history), it's safe to say SOE would be in completely safe ground making a brand new IP of their own liking and will succeed even more based on their crash course experience with DCUO and the freedom to do whatever the frak they want creatively/design-wise without having to deal with bloodthirsty legal eagles. (DC geared up hard during their custody battle for the Big S, including the retuning of origins to 'make it all their own', hence the 52 relaunch, and they've kept that suite of hellions in full force since - even to combat having their brand associated with grave site of a child that was killed as a result of child abuse).

    In any case, DCUO opened Pandora's box for this type of thing on consoles. There's opportunity to seize.
    • Like x 1
  9. 139 Masks Dedicated Player

    So I was wondering what your "play style" was.
    Do you have time to explain it?

    Yeah, this is quite odd seeing as most of the leveling content (aka "the game") is solo focused where-as the End-game (aka content tacked on the "end of a game") is primarily grouping content.

    If you like super-hero gaming, I can suggest creating another character and trying out a different power set, weapon type, and mentor - and just playing through the pre-level 30 content.
    Unfortunately, due to the current leveling track, you are going to end up basically playing the same missions starting at level 10 regardless of what mentor you picked.

    It's one way to get some use out of some of the money that you put into it.
    With an All Access Pass you have enough character slots in DCUO to check out all the power sets, all the weapon sets, and all the hero and villain mentors.