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Why aren't superhero MMOs more popular?
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Superheroes does not have a very good and beleivable universe backing it up. Mmo's are heavily based on worlds, even themeparks. There can be only one Spiderman, so the superhero can't be you, and therefore the universe must provide for other characters to be played.
Although I don't get the superheroes thing myself, I would guess it is much about imagining beeing one, and there lies the problem. As a single player game, the player can take the role of Batman, but 500 Batmen roaming the same Gotham city doesn't work. Even if you take all superheroes and toss them into a game, it will always be the case of "I am spiderman" ..no "I am the real spiderman".
Until that dilemma is solved, and some background universe supports a multiplayer setting, I think it would be hard to create a good mmo around a superhero story.
"I am my connectome" https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HA7GwKXfJB0
To those who keep using the "if everyone is super argument", how does that differ from your typical fantasy game, where everyone is running around with god-like abilities in a setting that is often depicted as an age where magic has all but gone out of the world?
Take elves for example. In nearly every MMO I've played, there aren't suppose to be that many elves left in the world. Yet the race with by far the highest population is whatever elf race the game has playable. How is that not immersion breaking? How is it not kind of silly to see 10 of you run by in the exact same armor with the exact same weapons you have?
Of all the genres and settings out there, I actually think superhero MMOs mask it the best (no pun intended).
I could not stand the interface or combat for DCUO or Marvel Heros. CO uses a console interface, if I wanted to play a console game, I would buy an Xbox instead of a PC.
City of Heroes was one of my all time favorite games. I still keep track of the efforts to revive the game.
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.
Benjamin Franklin
That's no different from the fantasy MMOs where everyone is "the chosen one" or whatever and yet people do feel like heroes there.
FYI I did feel like a superhero in CoX so your statement if false.
That hasn't stopped any of the other dozens of fantasy games out there.
Well, partly because the regular MMO mechanics are really optimal for superhero games... The setting is rather different and deserves it's own system instead of just a revamped D&D system.
Partly also because while some of the games been pretty fun the games havn't really been in the same class as the top fantasy MMOs. Superhero games needs it's own Wow or at least it's own GW2.
City of heroes had it's good parts but the game never felt alive. It was like the only reason the civilians existed was to be robbed or hurt by the bad guys and saved by heroes. Of course, that was all they were in the game for but the better MMOs at least pretends that the NPCs are doing something else besides being all helpless victims.
I think that superhero MMOs will have a game that really competes with the top fantasy games somewhere in the future, Marvel might be a pretty good game but it ain't that good. The genre is very popular for movies, series, comics and other types of games so we will surely see more of them and sooner or later will someone get it just right.
The same thing could be said about many other MMO sub genres as well, the problem is that all of them really needs it's own mechanics and the trinity combat wont cut it for most of them.
A MMO superhero game will need group dynamics similar to the comics and movies, it should really feel like watching something like an Avengers or X-men movie when you play and that is rather different from what we seen so far.
Good point.
Nah, that is hardly the problem here. Most MMOs worlds aren't that focused on stuff like that.
And even Forgotten realms isn't that believable, but it still have been the IP for many great single and multiplayer game.
I had hella fun playing Lego Avengers with the wifey!
Does that count?
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Superheroes do not lend themselves to group play. Marvel Heroes and DCUO probably delivered the best case scenarios, but it just doesn't work for the masses.
I can fly higher than an aeroplane.
And I have the voice of a thousand hurricanes.
Hurt - Wars
http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=avengers11.htm
because they get shut down for no reason at all when they become successfull.....
"I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"
I'm not from the US, and my friends and I were huge comic book nerds while growing up. Now we watch the movies and shows instead of reading the comics. :P
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
Any game where you cannot create your own character is not an MMO in my book.
The one thing I loved about CoX and CO were the ability to make hero after hero. The games themselves, however, lacked the spontaneity, combat and story a superhero MMO would require for long term play.
Joined 2004 - I can't believe I've been a MMORPG.com member for 20 years! Get off my lawn!
Your book is not the common book, and irrelevant.
Most places classify it as a MMO, and that is good enough for me. More importantly, it is a good (to me) game. Whether it is a MMO is actually not important to me.
Originally posted by laokoko
"if you want to be a game designer, you should sell your house and fund your game. Since if you won't even fund your own game, no one will".
marvel ultimate alliance 2? The story was pretty good, coming from the civil war comic books. No hal jordan, of course since it is marvel, but you do get to play all the marvel characters.
BTW, the best green lantern is john stewart.
Lol, is there such a thing as a good lantern?
(ok, I admit I never really liked that branch, the whole "emoticon-spectrum with blingz" seems a bit lame 
)
But if any, then the best green one was obviously Sinestro, both in writing and in character.
lol .. there is certain no good lantern on screen yet.
Idk.
I wished we had a god super-powered MMO like CoX.
But that probably wont happen for a while.
Witty & Wicked
I wasn't thrilled with marvel ultimate alliance 2. I wish I would have liked it more. Personally I have nothing against John Steward or Hal Jordan as Green Latern, beyond those two though, well that is where the line is drawn.
Really? I never did... unless I went back to a low level zone, thugs and gangsters were always beating me up.