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DC Universe Online: Some Concerns
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
DC Universe Online has been out in full retail release for the past week now. In his latest DCUO column, MMORPG.com's Bill Murphy has played the game for around twenty hours now and voices some concerns about the game. See what it is that wrinkles Bill's brow and then add your thoughts to the mix in the comments below.
It should come as no shocker that leveling to the cap is an easy task in DCUO. There almost seems to be a flat (if slightly arched) curve for getting from level one to thirty. However the game comes with a built-in alternate advancement system that not everyone seems to notice at first. It’s bound to take character development far beyond simply getting new gear once you’ve hit the cap. For every 100 feat points you score by completing the game’s “achievements”, you are awarded a skill point. Feats award anywhere from ten to twenty-five or so points, and the skills offer some of the best additional stats to flesh out your character with in the game (especially when you start working on a secondary weapon set and open up boosted stats like toughness or dominance).
Read more of Bill Murphy's DCUO: Some Concerns.
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Comments
To be honest I am surprised you did not get an inkling of any of this when you did the review. I guess it's a differnt deal when you don't tend to completely imerse yourself in a game (as I do...too much liesure time). Still some of this stuff seemed glaringly obvious.
DCUO seem like an alt friendly game, I can't see why you would not have several.....except for the feats. They where becoming somewhat tedious on my first character let alone the 4th.
As for the content.... well lets wait and see, from what I have read it's pretty much the same as what you have seen but with scaled difficulty.
DCUO is MMOlite, in many ways.
Limited power sets, inexplicable lack of body variation, shortage of content, recycling of content.
To the weaknesses listed in this article, add the lack of a functioning auction house and difficulties with trading.
I agree with the poster above as well - grinding achievements (feats) in NOT an alt-friendly (or fun) method of advancement. Overall, I believe the game has fairly mediocre character development. One of the great things about both CoX and CO was the ability to modify individual powers, which is something that cannot be done in DCUO.
To me, it's pretty clear that this game wasn't ready to be released. Some of the systems are pretty well complete, while others are half-baked or non-existent.
Hell hath no fury like an MMORPG player scorned.
I'm really enjoying DCUO so far. But all these issues are certainly true. Its a fun action game in the short term, but player interaction and challenging content are going to determine its longevity.
Important facts:
1. Free to Play games are poorly made.
2. Casuals are not all idiots, but idiots call themselves casuals.
3. Great solo and group content are not mutually exclusive, but they suffer when one is shoved into the mold of the other. The same is true of PvP and PvE.
4. Community is more important than you think.
I've been avoiding the game, but I have a friend who's been playing it regularly, and he's complaining about all the same things. There's so little player interaction because the game is anti-group; the areas that actually require a group are few and far between, and even they aren't well-loved because of the ridiculous nature that is Healing. Basically it boils down to people self-healing and ignoring each other. There's not even chatting or joking or meeting new people because the chat system is such an utter failure, people don't bother. Even if you manage to somehow get it to work, evidently the chat filter hates the english language. In his words, only Free Realms' chat censor was worse.
Despite that however, he was having fun. He enjoyed the actual gameplay quite a bit, though with every passing day he's on MSN more and more. When he first bought it, I didn't see him for a week, and now I'm starting to see him regularly. That means the shiny is wearing off, and the game's issues are becoming more pronounced. This morning he pops on MSN and admits to killing his sub, instead just playing until the free time runs out (evidently SOE gave people a month free for having to take the servers down every night for undisclosed amounts of time?). Just like that. The passion for DCUO burned bright for that initial experience and then it was over. I wonder how many more people will be just like this.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
Maybe its just me and my "limited" expectations, but I would really like to hear more of this "lack of content"
With the exception of crafting, there is as much to do PVE wise, if not more, than Cataclysm. You have your alerts, duos, arenas, Raids etc. Yes it does not take that long to get to max level, but lets be realistic, there is as much endgame content as most other MMOs. And most MMOs are all about their endgame content, not how long it took to get there. If you look at Wow, yes it has more raid instances overall, but look at wow's endgame content model, they only ever have 1 (in this case, 1 split into 3) raid instances (first naxx, then it was Ulduar, then TOC, then ICC).
There is plenty to keep me busy until the next content patch, even if its months away. You have no idea how nice it is that you can queue for anything (a la dungon finder). This is the only other MMO (other than wow) I have played that has this feature, and its a blast.
The first two weeks were a blast.
I am more interested in how you feel after your first month of play.
After 1 month, you should easily be 30 and have been 30 for a while. You have seen all there is to see and done all there is to do at least once if not multiple grinding times.
Now there is NOTHING to do but grind achievements and the end game content...which is primarily PVP.
Get to that point and tell me what you think of the game.
I think DCUO would be a FANTASTIC single player game with mulitplayer PVP and NO SUBSCRIPTION.
There is nothing there to justify a sub honestly. It's a really good F2P game.
I cannot justify paying more than box fee for what I saw in beta. A gamer will finish the content in the first week. There were people at level cap after the first couple of DAYS.
Never violate a woman, nor harm a child. Do not lie, cheat or steal. These things are for lesser men. Protect the weak against the evil strong. And never allow thoughts of gain to lead you into the pursuit of evil. Never back away from an enemy. Either fight or surrender. It is not enough to say I will not be evil. Evil must be fought wherever it is found.The Iron Code"
Agreed!
It's one I'd pick up in a years time not because it's 'not ready' but because there will be 12 months of extra content (if they deliver). It would also be one I'd buy as a 'light hearted diversion when I just want to kill stuff', I am just not prepared to pay a full rate sub to drop in drop out once in a blue moon.
I appreciate the article greatly as I am soon to join the game (today I hope) but at the same time I don't want to know too much so I can experience it for myself so I know I will make lots of mistakes. This is how I enjoy new games and I have no desire to find that one 'best' path so many will follow at some point but since I have no plans to pvp (since that always brings out the meta bunch) and will go with my character idea and play it out. Still, I would like to know what the powers do but I find myself in a dilema of my own creation. If the game doesn't offer much info I fear I will choose powers that don't fit my character idea. In any even, great article.
I am sure it is purely coincidental, that this non-fantastically postive article about DCUO has nothing to do with the fact that the big, huge, DCUO banner is no longer on the top of the home page....
Timing being everything, and all....
Hehehe quick.... tin foil hats on!!
I was just curious since I didn't play CO (played cox but ended up making missions and felt no desire to play otherwise) why you didn't stick with those games if they both developed characters better (in your opinion).
It's a healthy change of pace and able to provide a nice long break from WoW. I haven't played WoW in weeks now... and I don't miss it at all. (I know there are folks out there that say you can't quit WoW... but it's easier now that Cata is out than it has been.)
DC Online is fun. It's not perfect. It's lacking in a lot of features. I think they are aware of that, really. Hopefully we'll see some serious feature rollouts over the next month or two.
A lot of the game does seem very 'solo' friendly. I don't think that's a bad thing, but the game also doesn't seem to have many features that really pull in players to form a 'community'. /Shout is really what we're left with. We need something to really pull players together and I have yet to see that.
As a PC gamer, I think the combo's are a bit 'clunky' and in need of some fine tuning. I feel like I'm really limited in what I can do with my controls, and I realize that's due in large part to the fact DCO is a 'port' for consoles/PC's. I just wish PC gamers didnt' have to feel like they pay a penalty and lose functionality to the game interface because of the cross-platform playerbase.
Overally I like the game. I love the IP. If SOE ruins this as they did the Star Wars IP, they will officially be 'dead to me'.
"After 1 month, you should easily be 30 "
Those words send shivers down my spine. Game after game the dreaded "should be this level by this time" haunts me to no end. I enter a game just wanting to be immersed into it and you know most will be on the leveling ramp full speed ahead. On the other hand maybe that will make this type of gamer avoid the game but can the game succeed without them?
I have no idea though I tend to doubt it. CoX had it all for the 'super' genre but still something about it annoyed me in that I didn't feel super and most playing it were all about that race to max level.
So I did in fact become a alt-a-holic like I do in most mmo's I really hope this won't be the case with DC.
I would agree completely, if SOE doesn't come out with monthly content updates like I've heard they proposed to do. The thought of monthly content updates, sort of like a comic book, to extend the stories and such, is a great idea and can really extend the life of the game, for me at least.
I feel a lot of love for you right now Bill. On your comments about feats:
"I honestly think the staff could do more to make sure people know just how important Feats are to character development, as I can’t count how many times I’ve explained that you don’t want to abandon quests (even if you could). "
I couldn't agree with you more, and I was touting that ever since beta. I tried to detail a system, but there weren't many takers. Something as important as feats shouldn't be an afterthought, and its the largest mainstay for their player base that nobody knows about.
On to the chat. I'm with Izabelle, I like to use the chat system and type what I'm saying, but my very prestigious League wants to force me into Ventrilo, which I do begrudgingly only to listen and still type my responses. Some of my Leaguers are great and I wouldn't trade them for the world, others are outwardly annoying and its bad enough I have to listen to them much less respond vocally to them. But I am a hero through and through, and I'm always there to help.
Chat is terrible though. Initiating chat is a pain, as is having to type your channel every time so that you know where you're going to be speaking, and even then miss typing is common.
As far as guild functionality, you have pretty much a guild list in your social menu, and thats pretty much it. Some more functionality would be nice, a guild bank for instance, would do wonders for those wanting to stock up on cash and soder colas for planned raids on your enemies.
Power descriptions need to be much better, a lot of players are having a hard time figuring out what their powers do, and how they synergize with other powers in your set.
For instance you could mix powers in both ignition and immolation in the fire tree, not just for damage but to also increase burning and healing, but many players don't know this, or try to accomplish this without success because what they thought would happen obviously didn't.
Lastly, to comment on much of the others posting here, I can't help but laugh.
Some people will take to the game, others won't. I feel the PvP servers will stay pretty busy for a long time as you have much more content available if you are willing to open world PvP, or just PvP in general. While there are rewards that will take a long time to achieve, you can't go into an MMO and expect not to do anything repetitive.
Theres quite a bit of content still after you hit cap, lots of things that you won't be able to just queue for and do with a random group, and others that require some decent planning before hand. Some people won't ever reach this kind of content, and many will likely reach it but never accomplish it. Both types will likely still think the game doesn't have enough content -- which is pretty funny coming from the people who haven't experienced it all.
Me being a player that plays, even now, 5+ hours a day since launch, I haven' experienced the content, and i have 41 skill points, with plenty of renown (though I still need to grind more for that iconic batman helmet), a couple pieces of tier 2 PvP armor, all legends characters available to me, and theres still missions I haven't completed and content I haven't been able to do. If I haven't been able to complete all of the content, its very likely the guy who just hit level 30 and said "This game is content lite, theres nothing left to do" yeah, its likely he hasn't experienced it either.
Im worried if a reviewer writes this : " It’s no secret that DCUO is an MMO with a lot to offer the time-limited gamer, and I’m not here to start a debate over whether or not there’s enough content in DCUO at launch. "
The MMO costs 14.99$ a month. Just like any other AAA MMO. The MMO offers the same to a time-limited gamer as to a hardcore gamer. So it should be judged based on that too. Instead of making up excuses that its meant for the time-limited gamer. Then why is the sub that high? DCUO just doesnt have much content.
Or at least give the hardcore MMO players the advice to wait 6 months or so before subbing. To see if SOE delivers on their promise about loads of content.
+1 here.
In fact if they lumped 3 to 6 months content together and made a reasonable (small) charge that would be acceptable too. "Here is some content, pay me" would be more palatable then "Pay me and I promise to deliver content"...especially with Sony's rep.
a year sounds about right, by then they might even have improved the chat system, having to rely on Teamspeak or Ventrilo is all very well, but, for those who don't like using voice comms, its too restrictive, and why should you have to rely on 3rd party programs to supply functionality to a game anyway? still not a fan of 'clickfest' games though. maybe if the game was B2P i'd be more positive about it...
I agree with the two comments that the game is A: fun and B: not perfect, but on C and D, I have to disagree. I feel they aren't simply aware of the lack of features, in my opinion they intentionally never bothered to put them in. As to serious feature roll outs in the near future, why should they bother? They allready received a large return on their investment from box sales by convincing you guys to buy a seriously content light, though admittedly fun game, where they knew you would hit level cap in less than your free month. If they had any intention or care of keeping you guys around for a long period of time they would have included that content at launch.
But, well, you know, that's just, like, my opinion, man.
I do have to wonder how it is only now that Mr Murphy is mentioning some of these problems when most of them were voiced by beta testors pre-launch.
"Gypsies, tramps, and thieves, we were called by the Admin of the site . . . "
From the sounds of things, this game barely seems worth 50 dollars + 15 dollars a month.
Why are so many game coming out half done? Its like publishers have gotten stupid. Or something is happening to make games release too soon. Do devs think their games are good enough with very little to do? I hear "such and such game has 5 years of content while this game is new, so it needs time", but new games like DCUO aren't competing with games 5 years ago, they're competing with game right now.
It sort of seems like they made this ame so that you can level up fast and pvp. Thats another thing that confuses me a lot. Why would developers focus on pvp when only a small percentage of player enjoy it, and many wont even bother. (which is one of the reasons APB was doomed to fail because it was given to the wrong audiance...with a hourly/monthly subscribtion only a fool would fall for). Maybe this game will pick up. I never liked DCUO's decisions to limit the game on purpose. Like the coloring of powers thing "we dont want players to color their fire powers so that when they use them, other players will know its fire and think its cool". Thats just silly. And limiting most of the costume pieces to be unlocked. that might work, but I dont want to start a hero game in regular tights.
I'm kind of supprised so many people are spending 50 to 60 to get the game, unless its mainly DC fans. I think I'll wait for a free trial.
To kind of speak a little about that, in beta, chat was never really functional. Voice chat has always worked well when grouped, except it was default set as "on" and not on Push to talk, so you would get into a group and hear a lot of static, or someone licking his dog, or fighting with his mom. Or maybe they were all just watching strange TV shows.
But I digress, the Broker was in when beta was going on, but pulled on launch because it had issues. The bank was broken but fixed, and I believe is working now, but haven't tested it. There were a slew of other power sets created but not activated, and will likely not be activated for at least 3 months.
As to content light, read a few posts up in the area marked in green. If nothing else, I suppose we can always agree that "content light" is subjective.
I'm not a WoW player, but I do recognize that WoW is a deeper game than DCUO in just about every way.
Crafting is only one way in which it's deeper, and it's a bigger difference than some want to admit. Crafting isn't just pushing a button to make an item - it's a system that encompasses individual character development as well as character interaction and the world economy. It includes: increasing skills in a non-combat way, harvesting, refining, acquiring the desired recipes (some of them rare, or requiring increased reputation with factions), all in order to create something of potential worth to the community. It's a system that helps tie the community together as a part of a virtual world. DCUO missed the boat here, not just in the lack of crafting, but in its failure to provide alternate systems that create a community or virtual world feel.
WoW also added Archaeology - a collection system that's a lot more sophisticated than simply hunting for question marks on the tops of buildings.
One of the most fundamental flaws with DCUO, in my opinion, is the pacing of the game. I'm not just talking about the speed to level cap (which is also ludicrous), but in the pacing of endgame. At least in vanilla WoW, the average raid guild did not burn through the entirety of something like Molten Core or BWL in one or two weeks. The average group did not burn through all of Ulduar in a week or two, either. Such is not the case with DCUO - even at endgame, the pacing in DCUO is too fast.
On a final note, I think the automatic queuing and teleporting to instances as seen in WoW and DCUO (and other games) is a bit of streamlining that turns a vitual world into a lobby game. Just my opinion.
Hell hath no fury like an MMORPG player scorned.
DCUO is a lot of fun for what it is, but it's a "secondary" MMO. It will never be my "main" MMO, which is WoW. In food terms: DCUO is an appetizer, and WoW is the main course.
With about 40 million PS3's in the US alone, I think they were much more interested in offering them the first MMO, knowing so many have been waiting for a console version of an MMO. I think from the start this was their primary target. DLC will raise revenue as will the monthly subscriptions. Boxes will still sell for $40-60 for some time. All in all, it was a great business sucess which will lead to other developers following this model. Many people who bought this game for their console will continue to subscribe until they have a better option.
I don't enjoy the game much, but I do respect the company.