I helped setup a website this week, check it out: http://www.desertwheel.com/
The site uses WordPress, which I am strongly debating moving this site to. While I don’t have any significant issues with b2evolution, I really like the ease of use that WordPress offers.
I have cancelled my subscription to Champions Online. I liked the game, but I haven’t been playing it in the last month or two. The problem that I have with the game is that character changing decisions are too permanent. Unlike WoW, where you can relatively easily change your character build (talents), it is much more difficult to do so in Champions Online. Basically, you have to deeply pre-plan your character to be successful. Sure, you could do this in WoW as well, but I don’t think that you would be punished quite as much for a poor decision like Champions does. What broke my motivation to play was that I had leveled up a character quite a ways, and I decided to change the character to try a new build. I’d tried a lower level version of the build, which seemed quite fun to play. In order to rebuild my character, I was forced to sell everything I owned in game in order to afford the massively expensive rebuild. But when I got done, the character was impossible to play, having changed from a combat monster into a glass cannon. I now couldn’t afford to return back to my original build, thereby trashing my main character.
Sure, WoW doesn’t currently offer the ability to change your character so extremely. You can’t change character class, though there are rumors that might be coming. However the option was given to me to be able to do so and it bit my hand. While I wasn’t high enough level to recreate my original character build with a new character, it sure did crush my motivation to play.
Secondly, the graphics in the game are disappointing. While I can understand that they are trying to replicate the feel of a comic book drawing, which I can appreciate, you are setup from the beginning for a massive let-down. What I mean is that you start off in perhaps the most powerful character builder I’ve seen to date, able to customize everything to the smallest detail. The graphics in the character builder are quality 3-D modeling, so you are given the impression that this is what the game looks like. Then the game starts, and the comic graphics replace the 3-D modeled character you just got done building…
My final issue with the game is the lack of an open world feel. The game is setup with regions which are not attached to one another. One thing that I like about WoW is that you feel like you are in a “real” world (vaguely but you do) where you can wander around. However the zones were like maps in a console game, where you move from one box-canyon to the next box-canyon. The idea of using instances for the entire game, where a limited number of people could be in a given zone at a time, seems like a good idea for performance reasons (especially compared to racial cities in WoW). However in practice it doesn’t encourage the feeling of a real world environment. You almost never run into the same people twice, which doesn’t encourage groups to form or even casual friendships because its unlikely you’ll ever see a person again.
It’s not all bad though, as there are aspects of Champions which I feel are superior to other MMOs that I have played (namely WoW). Built into the game is a mission assistance mechanism similar to how the QuestHelper addon in WoW works. It’s easy to use, and helps new users get right into the action without just wandering around not knowing what to do.
I think that if the game is still going strong in a year or so, which is debatable giving the publisher’s spotty history in MMOs, I might pick it up again. Despite my above complaints, I really enjoyed playing the game when I did. Hopefully by then, I will be able to play without feeling penalized or feel like there is a real community of players around me. I’ll stick with X-Box for now, but I already miss playing an MMO…
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