New DC Universe Online details emerge Comments by Ellie Gibson

So, City Of Heroes then?

Yup, destined to go the way of Marvel online

could be good

You know what would work, rather than the implausible 'city filled with 10,000 heroes' would be to have the heroes as NPCs and let people form teams of slightly underpowered henchmen. Imagine batman as a 40 person raid, working into the batcave to bring him down, maybe with the joker as an NPC leader of your 'gang'. Would at least be a bit more believable and in keeping with the license, no?

Chainsaw: yes - for raid contant that would be really good. Like - the question is the raid boss for levels 10-11, and superman is the boss for max level characters. I like that idea, and the idea of a low-powered modern fantasy. Still: CoH has sort of done that too.

The thing is, I'm a major fan of superheroes, and played CoH for two years... well, less and less for the last of those two years, but still. I am psyched about the new Batman movies and I do pick up a comic once in a while... I should be right in the middle of thi's game's target audience, I believe.

But still... I am feeling rather empty when told about this stuff. I am a little sceptical of Sony credentials as an MMO company, even though it does have some fine horses in it's stable - Star Wars Galaxies was hauling ass there for a while, before it all went pear shaped, and in those precious two months prior to WoW launching, EverQuest 2 was the finest MMO available to humanity.Well, of sorts. Anyway: I like Sony just fine, I'm just not a Sony Online Entertainment fanboy - I believe that particular breed of fanboi is unlikely to actually exist in reality. Just not that much to be excited about.

I have a feeling that DC Online is going to show up to the MMO party five years too late.

Marvel > DC

/runs

Additionally, lower-level missions could be cutting the security for some other boss, letting (errm - apokolips - i'm no DC expert) in through a shield to fight superman, maybe working up to the roof of a skyscraper to shut the shield down as a small group of henchman, then watching the fight from the rooftop as a reward ;-)

The trouble with a game like this is that nobody will sign up to play as a lowly henchmen or fourth-rate Justice League reject. People play MMORPG games to live a fantasy - everyone will want to be Superman or Batman, or as close as they can get. That's why City of Heroes works. It's a created universe, so there's no default top tier that players can never live up to. Once you set a game like this in an established superhero universe, with established characters with established power levels that can't be undermined, you essentially create a glass ceiling for players. You can go so far, but the core of your fantasy is unattainable.

I don't know, nobody gets to be superman in any mmorpg, really (apart from maybe archlord). You just end up as one of a number of guys with the top gear. This game won't let you play as superman either, but alongside/against would be more original? Wouldn't it be a more innovative design that you merely create the most significant moments in the world through your actions? Most of the best bits in warcraft are when you trigger something cool to happen, emergent moments from the gameplay or set-piece design. You don't have to be the most powerful person in the world to enjoy that. I@m not saying make the henchman weak, just make the heroes ridiculously powerful (which they already are!!).

Well, just seen the E3 trailer. :o)

This could be good, if it gets off the ground. The Marvel Universe online trailer was also very good (granted there was no gameplay) & was well into the development phase but then that was not mentioned for ages & then quietly cancelled. Could this go the same way??? I hope not, but we'll have to wait & see. Its a sad fact, the MMO's get partially developed & then cancelled, despite there being a baying market for them. Marvel & Star Trek being examples of this.

One things for sure, MS's Champions Online will have to kick major ass to compensate for the DC franchise its going up against with its no-mark heroes. Thats if THAT makes it out too!!

Also, previous posts here & on many other sites have discussed how the game will work. If you can create your own heroes, how long will it be before you see Wolverine, Spiderman or the Hulk running around the game? & I'm pretty sure Marvel wouldn't like that. Could this be why Marvel online fell? Because they didn't know how to play it out, & they couldn't find a way of policing players for copyright reasons without pi**ing them off?