... our forums ... were far better than most
I enjoyed reading parts of the forums, particularly the player-created guides and the folders about archetypes and power sets. Often, I would read someone's post about a power set combination that they loved playing, and their passion and enthusiasm would inspire me to go into the game and play.
There's no shame in admitting that you had no interest in discussing the dry mathematics of the game.
Thank you, Arcana. Your statement of compassion for the mathematically challenged has given me the courage to come forward and speak.
Hello, my name is Todogut, and I... I had no interest in the mathematics of the game.
There! I actually said it--out loud! Oh, my goodness! What a feeling of relief... it's oddly empowering.
Let me explain: when I was a kid, my grandma bought
Rubik's Cubes for both me and my brother. He was good at math and science while I preferred writing and drawing. Hence, my brother was fascinated by the Cube, and he spent hours playing with it and studying it... until he mastered it.
At his college fraternity parties, my brother's standard ice-breaking conversation starter was to walk up to people (often co-ed guests), present the Cube, and invite them to twist it around and mix up the colors as much as they liked. Then he would take back the Cube and twist it in a rapidly rotating pattern, while smiling and looking the person in the eyes (not looking at the Cube), and
solve it within seconds. Yes, this party trick really did impress smart college girls.
Me? The first time I twisted my Cube, I quickly became dismayed when I could not figure out how to return it to its original state. Frustrated, I put the Cube down. And never felt compelled to pick it up again.
It was a similar experience for me in CoH with
invention origin enhancement sets. Oh, I understood that enhancement sets could make my characters more powerful by adding more bonuses than standard enhancements... and I collected purple enhancement sets and stored them inside a base; but, I never equipped any of them.
I read on the CoH forums, someone described enhancement sets as "essentially, a big puzzle". I don't like puzzles.
One night in-game, my supergroup buddy, who is a whiz at math, asked me, are you using sets yet? I answered, no, they're too complicated. Aghast at my response, he instructed me to view the
Combat Attributes or "Real Numbers" display and patiently explained how sets made his character's numbers better than mine.
The next time we played together, he asked, have you slotted any sets yet? No, I hadn't. He argued, but, we looked at the numbers last time. Yeah, that was the too complicated part.
Another player once advised me on how to get over my sets hang-up: just go into Mids' and play around with them. Mm... that wasn't my idea of "play".
Instead, I was happy with crafting level 50
Invention Origin enhancements. They were pretty powerful, and they were simple. For some powers, just slot three accuracy and three damage enhancements, and my toon was good to go.
I didn't have to keep track of esoterically named sets and calculate their combined bonuses and try to figure out if my scheme optimized my character's performance for his (or her) roleplaying concept... ugh! Not my idea of "fun".
But, I had tolerance and compassion for those who loved sets.
