[MUD-Dev2] [OFF-TOPIC] City of Heroes tangent (was: genre vs creativity)

[Michael Hartman]

Jeffrey Kesselman wrote:
> On 3/16/07, Damion Schubert <dschubert at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>>2) A truly marvelous Unique Selling Proposition, that is all about the
>>best Character Creation system in the genre.  If there was ever a
>>game that wanted its customers to have dozens of alts, it's this one!
>
>
> I don't entierly agree.
>
> The system LOOKS very flexible  on the surface, but get into it and
> you'll find that balance is a real issue.  While many combinations are
> *possible* many are also frustratingly ineffective.

Oh without a doubt. There are an obscene amount of "builds" that range
from horribly gimp to mediocre. But that just enhances the point.
Without a painful grind, a lot more people would be willing to create
characters in these sub-par build areas just to experience that style of
play and to realize the vision they have for the character.

In fact, some people already do this, but they are truly the most
hardcore of comic book fans.

If their advancement rate were say 1/10th as long, I think they would
actually retain people longer and see people trying out an insane amount
of combinations.