[MUD-Dev2] genre vs creativity [was: Rant against Vanguard]

[cruise]

Replying to two mails in one, since I want to say much the same thing 
each time :P

Thus spake Jeffrey Kesselman...
> But if you think by "treadmill" Im merely referring to combat then
> your missing the bigger picture.  A treadmill is boring because you do
> the same thing and see the same things over and over.  CoH is a
> treadmill not because its combat based, but because the combat
> challenge is repetitive and ultimately uninteresting.

Thus spake Sean Howard...
 > Plus, outside of the missions, there's very little exploration or need
 > for explorations - most of the zones are cityscape with some variety,
 > but certainly not enough. Likewise, there's no crafting, lewt
 > collecting, lewt trading, things to do while hanging out avoiding the
 > next office building, and so on. A lot of that downtime stuff is where
 > MMORPGs happen - not in the instanced missions. That's where Diablo
 > happens.

I think is now just a matter of preference - I enjoy the combat in CoH. 
I don't really mind the environment I'm fighting in, and I don't mind 
doing it over and over, because it is, even after nearly three and a 
half years, damn fun to me.

I try to avoid mentioning CoH where possible here because I can easily 
turn into a raving fanboy, but my point is that there are good reasons 
for my opinion, in that the game appeals to me. I enjoy the absence of 
loot/trading/collection/crafting etc. I don't play computer games to 
socialise - I have a wife and friends for that. So that downtime is 
simply time I'm not getting what I paid for - which is the ability to 
pretend I'm a superhero...