Worst MMO Ever? - Champions Online

By coincidence I logged into Champions Online for the first time in five years about a week ago, and saw a character called Josh Strife Hayes standing atop a building. I flew by thinking 'Wow, an impersonator'. But no, I now see it was the man himself. ^^

Not naming the hero Josh Strife Saves is a tragic missed opportunity.

My friend played this. Due to the level of customization my friend was able to make an accurate Monarch Henchman from Venture Bros. And he actually found more people that did the same and they ran like idiots acting like they're Monarchs henchmen.

The Clark Kent approach is genius though "Look, let him keep his 9 to 5. That's 8 hours less a day he's out there stopping us, so just go with it!"

I loved the customization options in this game. You could make just about anything. *proceeds to make The Uninspired Bulk*

Oh boy, I almost forgot this game, but now seeing it gives me serious nostalgia. I remember creating a robot character with ice powers. He had a backstory about being a fridge that gained sentience and updated his mission from preserving food to preserving humanity. There was a charged frost shot ability with a modification that would deal extra game on every hit against a frozen enemy. But the additional damage would be the same regardless of how long you charged the shot. So I would freeze my enemies and then spam uncharged charge shots for ridiculous dps. I don't know if the skill was intended to be used that way, but it sure felt like bug abuse to me back then.

I loved this game as a kid. I remember making my super hero called The Light who was a Brazilian doctor. While tending to a small village a meteor fell from the sky and touching it gave him powers. He used golden energy powers and healing abilities it was such an experience.

23:28 "Now is not the time for fear. That comes later." Surprisingly raw line

The Qularr invasion used to actually be the first thing that introduced you to the game and it wasn't a simulation. After the qularr invasion you would get dropped into the power house and yeah, you actually used to have to visit the powerhouse to level up and it let you test abilities there. The weird video things were not there in earlier versions of the game, they added that later if I remember correctly.

I loved all the superhero themed jabs given throughout this entire episode. Got to hand it to Josh, he goes for a theme and sticks with it completely.

I actually draw my own hero characters and was amazed at how well I could replicate the looks and abilities of those characters in this game.

I played this years ago. You see that Ghostbusters-esque pillar of light shooting into the sky from the top of a building? I flew there once and there are two NPCs named Gatekeeper and Keymaster on the roof! It's actually a Ghostbusters reference. I did not expect to see that in a MMORPG, but it's really cool they did it!

The Qulaar Invasion was actually there from the start. It's just that it's place narratively has changed. Originally you were actually one of the heroes that responded to the invasion proper, but now it's considered a "historic event" that is used as a training scenario for new heroes.

I was there from the beginning. Part of the CO beta, Lifetime sub bought way too early, and seen it devolve... The original tutorial IS the Qularr invasion. It's actually been cleaned up since it's original inception. Then you went first to either the Desert or Canada as your starting zones. You didn't go to the City until level... 15? 20? I don't remember, the main quest eventually sent you there. The videos you complained about were actually added later as part of their Free-2-Play relaunch to address complaints of confusion over the original tutorial. Also the F2P conversion introduced the problems with the voices overlapping.

You mention the fact that Champions Online doesn't use the vertical space in their dungeon design and I'd like to share one of my favorite MMO memories related to that design concept. In City of Heroes I was playing an Illusion/Kinetics Controller doing some group content in one of the instance missions that takes place in an office building. At one point, our group got separated in an area that had three or four floors all open to each other through a space in the middle. The tank was on a floor in the middle with most of the enemies, the two dps were on different floors with smaller groups of mobs, and I was flying from one floor to the next and back again doing my best to throw out crowd control and healing to keep them all alive. It was exceptionally fun and an experience I have not found in any other MMO to date.

I was always a big fan of just taking every ability that gave me a pet and stacking them up as much as possible. The results were an absolutely massive army following me around, so much fun.

A slight correction: Champions (the ttrpg) is specifically for a superheroic setting. The HERO system is actually a universal ruleset for any kind of game you want to run. Fantasy Hero (fantasy), Star Hero (space), Ninja Hero (martial arts), Danger International (spies), and Champions (superhero) are all based on the same rules.

Lifetimer since 2011 here. Still playing quite regularly. This is a very fair video regarding the good and bad things the game has to offer. It is also very frustrating to think about what it COULD have been, had Cryptic learnt to ride the superhero trend wave, when we see what it currently is. But this is a place where we can be anything thanks to one of the best, if not the best, customization system in any MMO. Many of the dedicated players have dozens of alts just for the fun of creating very different characters, powers and appearances wise. And it never feels out of place because this is a superhero game, so you can have ninjas running alerts with cyborgs, aliens, werewolves, mutants, whatever. Also fun to see one of my ingame friends, Alto the robo kitty, helping you out on the missions. So yes, game is outdated, left to die in the dust by the people who are supposed to keep it alive and growing, but we still love it. And any new player is welcome. There's a non-official Discord channel to help newcomers. Feel free to give it a try, folks. In memory of Scott "Thundrax" Bennie.

Can't say it enough. What makes good commentary is the preparation and writing. Josh consistently delivers and makes every video top notch. "As fleshed out as She Hulks supporting cast".

I remember when they shut down City of Heroes. Support and devs gave management the middlefinger, and rumors of sourcecode leaked. Players recieving massive reimbursements. It was an amazing community and devs/GMs and players ran around side by side. Sometimes a new thing needed testing and they would ask if anyone ingame wanted to join the fun. A one time amazing online gaming experience, never seen since.