WoW versus City of Heroes
by Amanda Rivera 
Jul 18th 2007 at 11:32AM
Recently a friend of mine bought me a game card to reactivate my City of Heroes/City of Villains account, and I was quite grateful. Two years ago I had really enjoyed the game, and when I logged in to play after such a long absence I remembered the excitement that I originally had as the character selection screen came up. Playing CoX again was a lot like watching some of my favorite television shows again, the ones I had originally enjoyed as a child. The first time around it was a blast, but the second time, I had my experience in WoW to compare it too.
My favorite part about CoX is by far the customizability of their character creation system. Yes, the models themselves are fairly generic, but you have, as a player, the ability to create hundreds of combinations to build the ultimate hero or villain. In fact, when I reactivated my account I found that my characters have multiple opportunities to redo their costume simply by visiting the Icon agents in
Another concept I would love to see translated from CoX to WoW is that of the sidekick/exemplar. This feature allows those of any level to play together, allowing you to play with your friend no matter what their character's level happens to be. I don't envision this as used in instances, but in the world at large it would be lovely to play at the level of my friends. In fact, we often do this anyway, helping each other with quests despite not getting experience; we play together because we enjoy it. The difference would be, however, that we would be matched in level for the time we played together and each receive experience appropriate to our level.
CoX's greatest asset is also, in my opinion, its greatest weakness: brevity. The game is not about deep lore, it's about jumping into the world, scrapping it up for a few minutes and moving on. This means that for a player like me who enjoys story along with my fights, there isn't much to go on. Each dungeon is very simple, and each is like the last one, because they are randomly generated. The lack of uniqueness in the instances is pretty boring, and I lose interest quickly. The very nature of the game is what loses me, but as they say, we are all individuals, and what I find boring others might find exciting. If you never know the map of the dungeon, it might add a level of surprise that the fixed dungeon map can't give you.
Yes there is plenty in CoX I love (their cloth is absolutely breathtaking, especially for an MMO), but at the end of the day, I found myself wanting to log in to play my mage. For me the magic was gone.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Chris Jul 18th 2007 11:54AM
I started on GW and the moved to CoH and found both seriously lacking compared to WoW. GW is a waste of time IMO. CoH is nice but what bored me was the repeated instances. For example, imagine you had to kill a boss at level 15 but the instance was in the same portal as Scholo, and looked exactly the same, except it was full of level 15 mobs. Then you had to go back at level 25 and 35 and so on. The design of the instances never changed, just the level of the mobs. Boring. I know they have made changes since then but after fight the frost guy at every level between 5 and 15, I will not be going back.
therationalpi Jul 18th 2007 11:57AM
I used to play CoX, and I think there are some features that could serve to be translated to WoW. Mostly, I think that CoX puts the right emphasis on grouping to level. In WoW, you spend most of your early days alone working towards the level cap. In CoX, you will routinely hop in a group of 8 or so people and roll through missions just to level. Personally, I think this is the way an MMO should be, a game that you play primarily with other people.
When you cap out, and start running instances for rep and raiding, the focus goes to grouping. But I think that WoW really favors soloing too much as the way to level from 1-70.
Philo Jul 18th 2007 12:05PM
#2, I have to disagree. What's great about WoW is you CAN solo all the way to level 70, but the fact that grouping to do quests is SO much easier and fun, means you'll seek out other people. Add to that that there are plenty of instances for every level, and that you get the best gear there and in group quests, I really think they struck a good balance by allowing people to play solo but inciting them to play in groups when they can.
Ahoni Jul 18th 2007 12:10PM
But some of us like soloing. There are times I don't want to deal with other people. I shouldn't HAVE to group to play. There are time I just want to grind something, kill a few things and relax.
Running instances and doing quests that require a group is a lot of fun. Actually, instances and raiding are some of the best fun I have had in this game and continue to be some of the best fun I have in this game. But I don't always feel like grouping. I think WoW gets it exactly right. There is plenty to do in a group, and plenty to do solo. Pick your poison.
Shadowisp Jul 18th 2007 12:12PM
I really enjoyed City of Heroes, it had a stronger community spirit in my opinion when it first started.
The costume feature was awesome, best part was the costume contests players would sponsor. Halloween was real fun in that game cause everyone would have an L1 in Atlas Park dressed up for Halloween.
The socket enchancement system was a great approach to the game, but without the Armor/Weapon loots of other games it lacked end-game or player's need to work hard to perfect thier characters.
The Lore was good, the stories were strong and seemed fitting... but there was no-end game, no trades.
Sidekick/Exempler system was awesome, but so easily exploited. Created a Powerleveling group revolved around sidekicks, take an 3 L1 Sidekicks and an AoE DPS Tank... boom!!! Max level in less than 12 hours played.
I liked the naming system too... stop playing for 6 months and your character name is unlocked and available for use. So if someone took a cool name, but doesnt play anymore, you can take it off them :P
Paw Jul 18th 2007 12:14PM
I found CoX too boring to continue past the first month I had it. I think I spent more time creating new toons than I did anything else. I agree that the character creation aspect of the game is about the best part of the game. And the ability to travel at breakneck speed at a relatively low level meant no spending hours of my life simply getting to the next zone. The addition of temporary transport devices, such as the jet pack, is an ingeneous way to keep people from getting too bored with the travel aspect, thought there really isn't much to see in the game that I can't see in Philadelphia or Baltimore in real life.
What I would like to see WoW adopt in idea from CoX is the travel. Make it optional, and make it relatively expensive so you are forced to use it only when needed. Have mount stables scattered around that you can borrow from (kind of like LOTRO now that I think about it). You get it on a timer, and if you dismount it is gone.
I guess I could say I'd like to see "armor" as customizeable as in CoX ~ ahem ~ but if you were allowed to created your own base garments that would be visible when you were sans armor to replace the current underwear, that would be interesting.
siorai Jul 18th 2007 12:16PM
I played CoX pretty heavily before moving over to WoW. Yes, CoX is pretty shallow as far as content and lore. But that's almost a plus. You get in, you kick some butt, and that's it.
The sidekick/mentor system is great because there's no real worries about your friend leveling faster than you. In WoW what happens if you get to about level 30 and realize you really don't like your class? Well, you're kindof screwed for playing with your friend for a bit. In CoH, you make your new toon, get sidekicked, and go have fun. The whole mentality of making tons of alts is rather refreshing. You really get a chance to experience all the different classes, while also being able to always play with your friends.
To me, that's the strength of CoX. It's far more friendly to varying degrees of gamers. You can be a casual gamer and still have fun with your hardcore gamer friend. This is definitely where WoW fails as an MMO. There's no real way for a level 70 to group up with a level 10 and both still have fun. In CoX, a level 50 can sidekick a level 5 and both can still have a blast. Conversely, that level 50 could exemplar down (become the level 5's "sidekick"), do the level 5's missions and rake in tons of cash. Win/win either way.
As for the repetition of missions and mobs... WoW does the same thing. Go kill X of X mob. Go find X items. Go talk to X and come back to tell me what they said. Ad nauseum. It's just that WoW has a wider range of mobs/missions so it's not quite so obvious. Even then, what's the first things you encounter in Outland? Boars. Oh sure, they're demon boars, but they're still boars.
I look at CoX as being something that you can just hop into for a few quick missions and not feel that you have to really invest tons of time in. WoW on the otherhand feels more like something that demands your time what with all the rep grinding and whatnot.
Shadowisp Jul 18th 2007 12:27PM
... but the best part about CoX was the Developers Cryptic Studios, they knew thier stuff.
The CoH Beta was a dream, besides "mapserver" lag the whole game ran pretty smoothly. NCSoft knew how to run
A lot of critics at the time said it wasnt a Beta, it was like a invite-only release for the game. The Devs didnt have the arrogance you see in other Dev teams, they were down to earth and would easily swap banter and quips with the forum junkies.
A game critical bug, an unfair exploit of one powerset/archetype, a pvp balance issue... 24 to 48 hours and it would be patched. Not 2 months later, not one year on a list waiting for its turn.
Big Updates, they werent as fast rolling them out, but once they built them and had them in the Test Server it was running smoothely and working great.
And I never ever heard them once say... "working as intended"
(P.S. Also there is press chatter last month or two that City of Heroes has been licensed for a possible movie screenplay)
khaosworks Jul 18th 2007 12:31PM
I used to play CoX, from near the start of CoH's commercial release in 2003, mainly because I'm a massive comics geek, and had friends who were as well. It was really fun for a while, but then after a point it just started being a grind - the missions were limited in scope, most of the instances were the same, and the city itself was pretty small. Story-wise, there were some cool storylines, and the taskforces were fun - especially the one with the giant robot in the volcano at Strega Isle - but the depth just wasn't there. That and the penalty for dying - in terms of XP "debt" - was really demoralizing.
I tried WoW for a laugh in January 2006 because my best friend migrated there, and I was pretty much hooked from the second or third day on. There was no zoning between most areas of the game, there was no XP penalty for death, and the lore was so much richer. Even the grinding in WoW is more enjoyable than CoX because there are goals to aim for. I haven't looked back since.
Chilblain Jul 18th 2007 12:34PM
I used to play CoX... it's a decent beginner MMO, but has design issues that prevent it from being compelling.
1) No end game. You spend hours getting your character to level 50, and then... nothing. There is one "raid" and a couple of high level task forces, but the routine for most people seems to be get to 50, re-roll an alt. I had 8 level 50 characters when I quit. Worse, you feel no attachment to any of them. You have no real, "main" that gets all the fun rewards and puts in all the work. You have a stable of interchangeable characters that don't really mean very much.
2) Lack of individuality - I'm not talking about appearance, but in build type. Everyone takes their travel power at 14, everyone takes Health and Stamina. And when people select a power to learn, they usually all slot their enhancements the same way. An Ice/Ice Blaster is an Ice/Ice Blaster in a different costume.
3) There just aren't very many people playing anymore... I started back at Issue 3, and with Issue 10 looming on the horizon, the game has lost a lot of players. At one time, everyone would hang out in Atlas Park... it's become a ghost town.
It was a nice change from Dragons and Swords, but an MMO isn't much fun if it doesn't feel massive, and I went where the people were. Even at 70, I can do quests, work on reputation, run instances, or just fish or work on my engineering... There is so much more to do in WoW.
Sacktacular Aug 4th 2007 9:26AM
I use to play CoX too, And I often find myself missing it, and I know when I play it again, eventually I'll miss WoW. The only solution is to have an active CoH and WoW account and to same time to I can flip flip when i get bored with one. Unfortunately, I'm poor.
But the thing I'd love to see in WoW from CoX is Guild housing. Superbases were awesome.
PoliticalGamer Jul 18th 2007 12:56PM
For me, CoH was more or less the first MMO I had played. I say more or less since it was only for a 15 day trial that was given away at last year's PAX.
And as a MMO noob, it was a good place to start. After all, there wasn't much you had to worry about in leveling up - the enhancements seemed more like bonuses then required equipment, there wasn't much navigational abilities required and the entire system was built to be more simple then complex.
If there was one thing I would have liked to see more of was PvP. After CoV came out, it was perfect place to have an open PvP system that WoW's faction system has. Alas, I saw none of that. There are contested zones, but the low level one had virtually no one on either side playing it.
But the whole kick-in-the-door style of play (as the D&D DM Guide terms it) made it boring fairly quickly. There was no real exploration and few missions that didn't go down to just killing bad guys. Worse yet, there just wasn't many missions you can take at a time, even fewer (if any) in which you can get out of the way at one time.
While it was fun for the trail that I had, it definitely could be improved, even within the realm of gameplay it has built.
Coherent Jul 18th 2007 1:01PM
The sidekicking system in CoH was an amazing thing that more MMO's should implement. It worked VERY WELL and everyone who used it had fun. Of course they would need to implement some sort of diminishing returns to the system to make sure that some people don't spend ALL their time as sidekicks, but overall the sidekicking system is the one mechanic that needs to be in more games, CoH's contribution to the MMO universe.
Nathan Jul 18th 2007 2:30PM
For anyone at all interested in roleplaying, City of Heroes/City of Villains beats any of WoW's rp servers hands-down. Because the game runs much more fast and loose, it's easier to fire off wisecracks and dramatic speeches, even in combat. Plus, you can be anything you want, which opens a vast array of character possibilities. (I've played with orphaned schoolkids who shoot fire, exiled demons with flaming skulls and zombie control, and, at one point a hero named "Ulysses S. Grant."
Want your night elf hunter? Roll an archery blaster and play around with the character creator. Orc warrior? One Super-Strengh/Invulnerable brute coming up.
le Jul 18th 2007 10:18PM
all my friends that plays wow and city of heros/villians says the only good part about coh/v is making a character
Baluki Jul 18th 2007 1:48PM
It's interesting that people here say that having the same dungeons scale with your level is annoying, yet there are so many people asking for Heroic versions of many/most/all the current WoW dungeons. Personally, I don't think I could stand to do MC or BWL again, but the rest would be cool.
xdiesp Jul 18th 2007 1:54PM
"the game is as simple as WoW is complex"
Is this intended as a joke? Because in the mmporg world, WoW is the least complex at all ... I don't want to say the gameplay is brain dead, but pioneers like UO were infinitely more advanced than WOW ages ago (features wise).
Me Jul 18th 2007 1:55PM
I played COH from two days after Beta, and have two accounts there. My wife has three. We started on the "Protector" realm/server, which was massively populated then. It became known as the power leveling server, and after nearly all PLing got nerfed, the population died. Hard. We moved to Virtue, the most populous role-play server then. I've played up to max level twice on COH, and nearly five more times now besides, which shows how much I love COH, and how repeatable the content can be. It was heaven--but COH, unlike WOW:
COH is an action game first. Everything else is secondary.
WOW is an immersive world-based game. COH is only now beginning to creep towards that.
That's the key difference. It's like comparing Halo to a modern Final Fantasy game for depth and immersion. COH to their credit has finally introduced crafting in the form of special enhancements, which allow you--with careful preperation--dramatically customize yourself. Since we went to WOW almost exclusively earlier this year, I've falled head over heels in love with WOW. My wife, not quite so much, but we both love playing. Once the pending "Issue 10" of COH comes out, I imagine my time will be evenly split, as with that issue they're finally exploring the lore aspects I've always loved most (Earth's alien invasion). But beyond that, COH is finally going to have server transfer for characters (ala WOW) shortly after I10 goes live.
Getting to pull out my old, still favorite, and forgotten original server characters to play with my current friends? Heck yeah. COH doing that, combined with the other hinted changes that are forthcoming, will end up finally making a run at WOW in many ways. The still major drawbacks are (to me) a lack of World/open PVP, but for many that's also a draw--you have to go the equivalent of battlegrounds and arenas to fight. The lore itself, on COH however, is actually pretty well developed. Keep in mind that COH was made from whole cloth, and expanded upon each release/issue, every 3-5 months. WOW had years of lore built up from multiple games, RPGs, novels, and everything else.
Short version: Action Game with RPG elements, vs. a full-blown RPG world with action.
RandomSomething Jul 18th 2007 1:57PM
EQ1 had something along the lines of what I think you are looking for...the ability to change the face of your character...as it is there would not be a way for them to allow you to change the actual physical makeup of your body because all the armor models are designed to overlay the model of the character. In EQ1 there was an option called /facepick where you could choose a new face, hairdo, color of hair...basically everything you had available at character creation. Would be kindof fun to allow something similar except I don't think it would be fun to allow someone to choose a completely new face...only allow new hair dos, earrings, and color of hair...give the wow chars the same options as we do in RL. :)
James Jul 18th 2007 2:40PM
CoH/CoV's character customization is incredible. And I played it for quite awhile thinking nothing could be it. Fact is though, it is a more shallow experience than WoW. That becomes very, very apparent with the end game 'content'. There is none, really. No big raids, no big dungeons. You have Hamidon, and thats about it. Re-rolling alts is novel in that you get wildly different power sets if you so choose. But...you're back grinding the same mobs in the same place all over again. I know that some will say the same thing about WoW, but trust me, WoW's content surpasses CoH/CoV and then some. And make no mistake, CoH is a level grind from beginning to end. The level cap is 50, and it gets boring, especially after seeing the same dungeons (FrostFire) over and over again. WoW is easily a superior experience.