I've played CO since launch. I have a few 40's, I've done all the content except TT because I just don't have the time, I've explored, beat people up, dabbled in PvP, learned the lore, gotten involved in the different communities that have popped up. Sadly however, I think it's about time I said goodbye to the game. It's been something that's been brewing for awhile actually.
As I said I've been playing CO since launch, actually since the last stage of beta. I was there for the launch day changes. Like many I was less then pleased by this "balancing" that they did. I stuck it out though. I even stuck it out through the 2-3 months that the game was next to unplayable on Nvidia based video cards. I stood by them through in game drama, poor business choices, their failed attempt at wanting to put out a paid expansion only a few months after launch. I was there for Vibora Bay, the first Halloween and Christmas events. I was there when Serpent Lantern launched and more recently when Demonflame went live. I've even dabbled in the F2P beta. The last part has played a large part in my choice to part ways. There are others of course.
Back when I first started playing CO I was part of an internet radio station that dedicated itself to CO, Storm Radio. Through them I started meeting other groups. Eventually Storm went the way of the dodo for reason I wont talk about. A few months later I helped form Dimensional Radio.During the course of time all this was happening I was playing the game a lot. Leveling characters, trying content and builds, even RPing when I could. Eventually I got someone to 40, then a second one, then almost a third. While leveling that third character something dawned on me, except for Vibora Bay there wasn't a lot of new leveling content. Sure you could play through Serpent Lantern and Demonflame starting at level 11 but the XP was rather crap thus making leveling through them pretty piss poor. What leveling content did exist in game was pretty stupid easy, missions designed for a team of three could be soloed. In fact the whole game could be soloed save for the two lairs(Nemesis Confrontation and Therakial's Temple) The lairs I found to be kind of boring because they didn't need the players to act as a team just walk in, hit shit hard and leave.
All in all I found that over a year the game hadn't really improved. The game play was bland, there were still bugs from before launch that had never been fixed, teaming was a joke. Then they announced F2P. I admit I got excited. Not because I planned to stop paying, rather the opposite, I planned to continue to pay to help the game and hopefully we'd start to see people in game again. Then I got into F2P beta. The archtypes the free accounts will have to use are, well they're a joke. Unbalanced as all hell and completely boring to play. "Well that's the idea, you can /pay/ if you don't want to use them." Yeah except if I was trying CO for the first time and using these archtypes I'd bail before I even /considered/ paying for it. They make the game boring. Bleh fine, I'll stick around for the RP. I still like RP.
Honestly the RP in CO has gone to hell. Drama, vampires, werewolves, furries and lesbians being played by dock workers is pretty much the norm. There's /nothing/ super about the RP. Don't bother trying to /create/ good RP either because it wont get attention. RP has become very much a clique event. You're either with the milshake club or you're not. And it's not just the milkshake club(because someone is gonna read this and know who I'm talking about) it's all the RPers. "Well we're not ignoring you were just working on closed RP." Really? Then why the fuck are you doing it in public? Look I'm not against closed RP but when I do it it's in an environment I can control. Don't stand there in a social instance and get pissed because someone tries to join your RP. All in all it's gotten to a point where CO can die in a fire. I want /real/ superhero RP even if I have to make it myself. Which, in this case, I'm already working on.
So yeah, me and CO, it's time we went our different ways. I'd love to say I'm leaving for some big, new MMO but I'm not, it's just that you've refused to change, refused to improve and well, I demand more from my interactive entertainment. So long Champions Online, I still hope one day you prove me wrong but honestly I wont be crying the day they shut down your servers.
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