If City of Heroes came back what might stop you?

[LadyShin]

Technically they already did - consider the levels of power you can attain with invention sets. Then realise that to get then you either have to have veteran rewards, buy an invention license or subscribe, all of which require paying money. Also they were selling the booster powers, and dual/team inspirations which were outright better than standard ones and unavailable without paying.

And yet, no one really seemed to mind. I can't speak for everyone but there's a certain level of pay to win that I can tolerate. Really it's only when non-paying players become unable to play the game effectively that I have a problem. On the standard difficulty, that is. Not having to set it to -1..

Ouch... I pretty much left the  settings at -1 from level 1 to Incarnate Shift +3...

[DarkCurrent]

If they restarted you at a 'freedom' level of account where you had the base number of character slots and zero vet perks, powers, access to Praetoria, etc.  And you had to buy all that stuff (inventions, character slots, respecs, costume changes, etc.) that took years of paying/playing to acquire...

Yeah, that'd be a deal breaker.  Especially if it was NCSuck that restarted it.

[okami]

I'd be annoyed to not have my ninja run and rocket board, I'd miss /ah and all my slots and costumes, but the only thing that would stop me from playing would be any involvement with NCSoft.

[Nyx Nought Nothing]

I'd certainly love to see CoH come back and I would most likely want to support anyone who decided to stick their neck out and reboot the servers. I was just wondering, what might be a dealbreaker to you coming back to CoH?

1. All player data being reset/lost. We all have to make new accounts and everything we bought, vet powers earned and characters made were lost. Starting over at level 1 with no characters. I would be annoyed but it wouldn't be a dealbreaker for me.

A data reset wouldn't faze me for a second. Now if the game was rolled back six years or more i'd be sort of "eeeehhh", but might try it a bit, depending.

2. No further developments or changes. Game in maintenance mode. (Issue 23) That is tough knowing the game will no longer evolve.
2a. No successor.

Permanently at Issue 23 i would still play, most likely not nearly as much as i used to after a while, but there was so much i had yet to do. Both in terms of character concepts, storylines, and the many fun and bizarre things the game's AI and physics engine could be contorted into. Often because of how the two interacted. There were a few things i still wanted to try.
As for 2a, well...there's already at least one successor in the works, thematically speaking, and i'm not that devoted to the specific locations and NPCs of CoH as much as the overall themes and style of the game.

3. Radical changes to the game. Adding in or removal of "key" features. Fairly generic catagory but its possible if the game came back the powers to be decieded to add some new feature like open world pvp or say removed bases or inventions. This might be too generic but just a topic of things changed which might make me not want to come back.

Honestly, after playing from Issue 0 up to trying out Issue 24 on beta the only radical changes that could drive me away would be ones that completely changed the nature of the game or at least changed it in ways i despised. For example, if CoH was brought back by simply doing a search and replace of names in Champions Online and then calling it City of Heroes i wouldn't play it for very long. Open world PvP might annoy me depending on my mood, but luckily there is no shortage of instanced missions. While i enjoyed the occasional PvP i always approached it with a strong sense of the absurd and whimsy. i rarely played PvP to win, but nearly always played it to befuddle.

Overall, if CoH came online, even perpetually at Issue 23 i would probably play it for years with decreasing frequency, or until an actual successor appeared. (With any luck MWM- TPP will only need a couple years anyway.)

[Tenzhi]

[General Idiot]

Ouch... I pretty much left the  settings at -1 from level 1 to Incarnate Shift +3...

A preference for doing so for whatever reason is not the same as being forced to do so because your character is absolutely incapable of running on the normal difficulty without buying boosts from the store, like some 'free' games do. Personally I frequently did the same, usually on characters with less damage like defenders or tanks just because it made it go faster.

[Lightslinger]

I think even if another company bought and restarted City of Heroes, we should expect it to be a blank slate restart. The challenges behind importing, indexing, verifying, keeping payment info safe and secure, and all that must go into online gaming accounts I could understand the new owners just wanting to start over.

Personally, I think they'd be better off buying the IP, making some sort of "upgrade", be it graphics or system related, and relaunching as a sequel. Hell for me i24 brought enough changes to warrant calling it a sequel (then again my main was a Blaster). I think people would understand needing to start over more if it were relaunched like that.

I'd personally be fine with re-rolling all 50 something of my alts if it meant I got my City back. There would have to be some extremely massive changes to the core game to keep me from coming back.

[Lothic]

Considering CoH was City of Altitis it really confuses me too that people wouldn't be thrilled at the chance to have an excuse to recreate their main and do it BETTER that time.

Le sigh.

Your enthusiasm about having the chance to "make new alts BETTER" is based on the assumption that our original mains weren't already pretty much perfect to begin with.  For example my 8.5 year old main character ended the game with/as:

Level 50+3 Incarnate with over 20 VR Incarnate powers.
1396 Badges.
300 Souvenirs.
2 billion INF.
Every costume/aura/pet unlocked.
Every Enhancement slot maxed out with Purple/PvP/IO/Hami-Os.
Every Enhancement slot with +5 boosters.
1000+ Astrals / 400+ Empyreans.

And so on...

Basically if it was in the game my main had it unlocked or had already done it.  Le sigh.

Despite all that I'm not against the idea of having some form of City of Heroes to play with again today.  I'm just saying if we were not allowed to play with our original characters I probably wouldn't bother to "recreate" my original main regardless because it would be impossible unless I had another 8.5 years to spare.

[Kistulot]

Point taken, but still, the thrill of having them again... I'd street sweep to 50 if I had to.

[DarkCurrent]

I think even if another company bought and restarted City of Heroes, we should expect it to be a blank slate restart. The challenges behind importing, indexing, verifying, keeping payment info safe and secure, and all that must go into online gaming accounts I could understand the new owners just wanting to start over.

Personally, I think they'd be better off buying the IP, making some sort of "upgrade", be it graphics or system related, and relaunching as a sequel. Hell for me i24 brought enough changes to warrant calling it a sequel (then again my main was a Blaster). I think people would understand needing to start over more if it were relaunched like that.

I'd personally be fine with re-rolling all 50 something of my alts if it meant I got my City back. There would have to be some extremely massive changes to the core game to keep me from coming back.

The dumb asses at NCSoft should've let I24 launch, then flipped the game into maintenance mode while shopping around for a buyer.

[saipaman]

The fact that NCSoft didn't chose to do that is circumstantial evidence that this had nothing to do with the game's finances.

[JaguarX]

The fact that NCSoft didn't chose to do that is circumstantial evidence that this had nothing to do with the game's finances.

yep.

I think the reason was realignment of focus or something along those lines.

[Tenzhi]

A preference for doing so for whatever reason is not the same as being forced to do so because your character is absolutely incapable of running on the normal difficulty without buying boosts from the store, like some 'free' games do. Personally I frequently did the same, usually on characters with less damage like defenders or tanks just because it made it go faster.

I found normal difficulty practically impossible with some characters facing some enemies.  When my FF Defender got to around the 40s the Rikti could often ruin his day.  When my Fire/Rad Controller got to the 40s, pretty much anything with a Mez was liable to cause faceplanting - regardless of all the debuffs and Controls, something always managed to get through.  Indeed, in my experience most characters that relied on toggles to survive but did not have Mez protection ended up being pretty screwed at high levels.  And that's before considering all the asinine special arcs that they were putting in that forced bosses/elite bosses on you regardless of your difficulty settings.

[tomborocks1]

If COH came back, regardless of it was NCSoft or another entity bringing it back, nothing would prevent me from coming back. If I needed to start from scratch without any of my previous toons, I'd be okay with that. I would just simply want to play again.

This time, however, I might actually be a bit more social. 

[Captain Electric]

This is such a loaded question. It's kind of exhausting to think about, too; it's not as if I hadn't thought about it long before now--I imagine I'm far from alone there. There are a couple of things that, I mean, I don't think they would stop me from ever logging in. No, that would be pretty extreme, especially if I knew my friends were back. And even if they weren't back, all of the bad things I can imagine could probably be contrasted by some good things too, and reasons to log in and play.

There are some things that would make me very sad to see. And some of those things would be inevitable if the game returned. For instance, of course, Paragon Studios is no more. Our dev team, they're gone. I've never been such a huge fan of a dev team, and I don't expect them to ever come back, even if City of Heroes does.

Someone recently corrected me when I referred to the game world, the fiction, as the heart of the game. They said the community was the heart of the game. And I immediately agreed, but only halfway. I think our dev team was the other half.

I don't know how to explain why I connected to City of Heroes the way that I did. No game of any kind has ever reached into me the way City of Heroes did. And this is coming from a guy who was already a veteran MMO player before stumbling into City of Heroes in March, 2009. I doubt I'll ever connect with and invest in another MMO like that. Not because I'm gun shy--I'd love to have another similar experience. I'd be open to it. But it's a chemistry thing. And even the devs agreed, City of Heroes wasn't just built, it kind of fell together over the years. It was a mix of love, sweat, and luck.

I am really, really angry with NCSoft. What's interesting is, I wasn't exactly angry with them in the beginning. I was too busy seeking to understand them. Then, too busy just being devastated. Then, too busy trying not to think about it, thinking about other things. As my head cleared and time marched on a bit, I would have expected to become more understanding of the situation. But instead, I seem to grow angrier and more upset with NCSoft as time wears on. Not because I haven't let go or accepted or whatever--I've done both. Or maybe I haven't, heh! Ah well.

One thing's for sure, it is what it is.

[JetFlash]

Hmm, what would stop me from playing if it returned?

1.  If NCSoft reopened it.  Maybe I would do a F2P if they did, but they will not get one more cent from me.

2.  Changes to the microtransactions, or in simpler terms, being turned into a Pay to Win game. No thanks.

3.  Forced PVP.


Restarting from scratch on all my characters?  Not a problem.

[Aleksandros]

Very little would stop me returning to the City - devastating physical injury, apocalypse scenarios (zombies I can deal with, til the power/internet go out).  Even if NCSoft were to dangle a new, re-opened City, I'd bite, though I'd watch the skies like a dinoaur on asteroid day.  Nothing else on the market appeals - played CO and DCUO, neither holds a candle - tried going back to EverQuest, nope, ya can't go home again.  Even tried buying Heroes of Might & Magic VI and playing through the campaigns.  It fills the time, but not the void.

[saipaman]

It fills the time, but not the void.

You sum it up so very, very well.

[Styrj]

For me, it would be:

1)  Any NCStupid involvement.
2)  Forced PVP.
3)  Having the game turned into a Pay-to-Win scenario.

[healix]

Nothing would stop me, after I stopped crying for joy so I could see the game.