Ask City of Heroes Lead Designer Jack Emmert

Massively Multiplayer games have grown increasingly popular in the last few years, and one of the hottest products out there today is NCSoft and Cryptic Studios' City of Heroes. City of Heroes is currently hovering around the 180,000 player population mark, with a European launch for the game coming up fast. The lead designer of the online super hero game is Jack Emmert, veteran of the video game and roleplaying game industries. He has written gaming supplements for Deadlands and All Flesh Must Be Eaten, reads several dozen comics a month, and saves the world on a regular basis. Jack has kindly agreed to answer questions from Slashdot readers about game design, massive games, and what it's like to be a superhero, so go ahead and let em' fly. One question per post, please, but as many questions as you'd like. We'll forward the best on to Jack to answer and post his responses when we've got them.

Comments

How do you plan to get me back?

[bugnuts]

Jack, I played COH for a while, and am still very impressed by it. You should be proud of your remarkable achievement of finding the right niche. But after playing a couple months and doing several story arcs, I fell into the level-grind abyss. Things stopped being fun. The distance to my next power was seen in terms of xp, not in terms of heroic adventure.

So, what is going to happen to get me back? How can you significantly reduce the "level grind" (even if it's just the feeling of grinding levels) to get casual players like myself back?

Re:How do you plan to get me back?

[thenerdgod]

Others have asked how to reduce the "Level Grind", but I'd like to get more specific. This Halloween, the wife and I passed up several of the usual assigned door missions, stopped caring about XP, and did nothing but run door to door playing trick-or-treat. I think what appealed to us was that it was not merely a change, but partially a game-within-a-game. It was gambling, with the bonus that we got badges for killing so many pumpkin-headed monsters, and witches, and zombies.

Also, recently, Paragon City was "Attacked" by roving bands of monsters, which was fun, as well as the addition of new zones. Obviously things are being done to help alleviate the feeling of sameness and repetition, but it is unavoidably still there, since there are really only five or six common missions.

My question is, specifically, what other forms of game-play are being contemplated for non-PvP expansion? Will we see more interactivity in the city? Will, perhaps, the very landscape of the existing zones change (It was interesting when I heard that all the lights went out in one Zone when the city was attacked). Will there be opportunities, as there were this halloween, for large groups of people to come together to fight giant, lumbering monsters, and not just beat up the same group of baddies in some abandoned warehouse?

(The Apparatchik, Coalition of Communist Crusaders for the Proletariat)

Long term plans?

[claytongulick]

I've been playing CoH (way too much!) since beta, and have really enjoyed it, but I am running into some of the same issues that alot of others are running into, lack of content, lack of purpose, no new powers, nothing but "grind". My question is this: With all of the new MMORPGs coming out (EQ2, WoW etc) this month, what will CoH do to keep my interest (and paying account)? New powers? Anything?

Why No Mac Support?

[JohnA]

I would love to pay you a monthly fee, but alas, my Powerbook and it's Radeon 9700 are unsupported.

So why no Mac support? Any request to your tech support department is a canned response.

Capes

[jreaperhero]

Is it possible to iron your cape? Because I like to look fresh and clean in the game? Thx

Future CoH comics

[leyf]

Not to knock the present CoH comic, but what are the chances of getting some 'name' talent to produce some issues in the CoH universe?

Death penalty?

[claytongulick]

I understand that without some risk, death in a MMORPG would lose alot of the "tension" that game designerns feel that players need in order to stay "hooked". As a player, I can tell you that the exp penalty of dying is usually what ends up getting me to cancel an account. When I see all that debt/exp loss/penalty I start thinking "Why am I wasting my time here? Its a nice day outside..." Even the illusion of "exp debt" that CoH has still amounts to the same thing: total playing time added to make up for dying. Since death is frequently not a player's fault (lag, imbalance, etc...) I can tell you that I am very attracted the the approach that WoW is taking with having no death penalty other than travelling as a ghost back to your corpse. My question is this: What goes into the decision for death penalties? Has anyone actually asked the players if this is what they want?

MMO Competition

[servognome]

With several highly anticipated MMOs launching this year and next year (WoW, EQ2, Matrix Online), what is your perception of competition in the MMO industry, has it become too crowded? Do you believe new games can be supported by drawing new players into the genre, or will these games pull mostly from the existing player base?

Game Infrastructure

[chiph]

180,000 players is lot of people -- obviously, not all of them are online at the same time. But even so, what's the backend of the game like to handle that number of players?

Do you have redundant servers to handle systems failure? Are they geographically dispersed to avoid "backhoe" cable cuts? What are some of the operational challenges involved with running a Massive Multiplayer game?

Chip H.

City of Heroes on Linux

[a3217055]

I was wondering if City of Heroes ( which I played at a friends house ) can be available on for a Linux x86 based system? I seem to have used up all my money making my 100% Linux compatiabale Athlon 64 and so did not have any money to buy a Microsoft Windows License.

Priorities

[Dragoon412]

City of Heroes had a fantastic beta, with much communication with the dev team, and a sense that the game was truly moving forward.

However, almost immediately after release, issues regarding aspects of the game that had been widely known, reported, and even confirmed by developers to be working correctly during beta (i.e. Super Speed, Hasten) were quite savagely nerfed. Along with those nerfs was a change to the con system that drastically slowed the pace of advancement in the game.

One expects MMOGs to be in a state of perpetual change, but the severity of the changes made were practically unprecedented in the genre. What changed between beta and release that made those specific issues such a priority and warranted such a drastic change?

Biggest surprise after launch?

[DevNova]

Since the official launch, can you think of something that really, really surprised you about the game? Did the players start to do things you didn't expect, or did some game mechanics/results turn out far differently than you thought it would (for better or worse)?

A more general question...

[Gothic_Walrus]

My question is simple, but I think we need at least one question that's not related to the game or to Mr. Emmert directly.

What do you think of the MMOG market as a whole? Over the past few years, we've seen a flood of games released. We've seen sequels to established games - Everquest II, for example. We've seen games based on licenses, such as Star Wars Galaxies. We've seen high-profile titles such as Mythica cancelled. We've seen completely unique ideas, like A Tale in the Desert. Obviously, the market is completely different than it was even a year ago today.

Put simply, what do you think of the market in its current state, and what future do you see for it? Will you be a part of that future? MMy question is simple, but I think we need at least one question that's not related to the game or to Mr. Emmert directly.

What do you think of the MMOG market as a whole? Over the past few years, we've seen a flood of games released. We've seen sequels to established games - Everquest II, for example. We've seen games based on licenses, such as Star Wars Galaxies. We've seen high-profile titles such as Mythica cancelled. We've seen completely unique ideas, like A Tale in the Desert. Obviously, the market is completely different than it was even a year ago today.

Put simply, what do you think of the market in its current state, and what future do you see for it? Will you be a part of that future?

The question might not seem very exciting, but I belive that Mr. Emmert is in a very unique position to answer it...

RPG "light"

[Hays]

I'm an active COH player and an ex-everquest player. I must first give you kudos for making a really polished, fun game. It's really a great take on the MMORPG.

The game has a bus-load of fun ideas. The badge system is great. The costume system and character creation are amazing. Technically, the game is top notch- great mapmaking, great animation, etc...

One of the best ideas is simplicity. Starting players don't have to worry about complicated inventory systems. They just go out there and start kicking butt. Kicking butt is not to difficult, because the player is quite a bit stronger versus the environment compared to previous MMORPGs.

But that simplicity becomes a drag in the later game. I've got 3 characters approaching the high end (mid 30s) and I'm starting to dislike the slow experience grind, with nothing to look forward to but a new ability every 3 levels.

Missions are fun, but they get a bit formulaic. With one huge exception, they offer uninteresting rewards and have cookie cutter goals. (The exception being the wonderful respec mission)

I'm sure it was a conscious design decision to have no inventory system, no armor, no weapons. And I think that's a great idea, at first. But by the time you're level 30 and you've played the game for a couple of months, you really start to want MORE. The enhancement system doesn't cut it. That's just a trip to the store every 5 levels. I'd like to get a cool piece of (origin specific) armor when I complete a task force.

Even baby steps in this direction would great. A way to distinguish myself (other than aesthetically) from other players would be nice. This could also give origins a chance to actually matter.

So the question in all of this is- why the aversion to traditional RPG elements, even at high levels? Is this going to change?

Shared World

[miyako]

not sure if this will get modded up, I'm posting a little late, but anyway...
One idea that has always been interesting to me is a shared world between many online type of games, COV seems to be the first game to do something like this, with two stand alone clients connecting to the same world. Star Wars Galaxies tried to do something similar by allowing many different play styles. My question is this: With many different types of popular online games (first person shooters, RTS, RPGs, as well as more social type games like A Tale in the Desert and The Sims Online), what do you think of the idea of having a single shared world in which multiple types of games take place.