Global Chat: November 6-12, 2011

I have been saddened by this Incarnate system, mainly because I feel it railroads characters to do the system in order to continue enjoying content.

I don't know what possible explanation the writers can give for making everyone have to rely on the supernatural power of the Well of Furies in order to survive the impending war.

The developers attempts of trying to hand-wave player concerns by saying: "It's not magic! It's its own special force!" seem to ring hollow. Especially when you see from the story that the WoF can forcibly control individuals who acquire power from it to quickly like Statesman and Recluse.

When you have a Task Force that says either be an Incarnate or get a -4 level debuff tacked on to you, then the developers are pretty much slamming you for not participating in it.

The story and mechanics in City of Heroes used to be broad enough that you could include any type of hero you could dream up. Now with this latest inclusion, they pretty much say: "Incarnate or Get Out!"

I'll probably be done with CoH if this becomes even more confining with incarnate only content. I really like the game, but it is quickly moving away from the freedom that it showed over the last few years: being able to change your alignment, still being able to participate and being able to still contribute if you only had SOs vs. IOs. Now a lot of that feeling of freedom has been dashed with the Incarnate system.

Dividing the player base after spending so much effort to go Free to
Play seems like a classic case of: "Two steps forward. One step back."

Rather than solo vs. guild it's quite possible to approach the game socially without guilds at all. Using myself as an example, I'm actually a very social player; however, I do not like limiting my associations to a guild. I've always loved the "massive" part of massively multiplayer games, and tying myself down to just a few people always seemed like an odd expectation to me.

I appreciate that for some people, the sense of identity or common goal a guild might lend might make it easier to meet new people within the confines of their guild or give them a solid base of people they can rely on, but it's never been something I've needed, and constantly meeting new people is one of the great joys of these games for me.

I don't join MMOs just to experience new worlds but also to hopefully meet equally as strange and unknown people in these unfamiliar backdrops. It really helps round out the sense of adventure when I walk into these worlds initially not knowing a soul, and unless I actively keep a low profile, I know I'll hit the friend cap in the first day or two, so there's no need to rely on existing connections.

I know that's not everyone's thing, but I bring it up to illustrate that not everyone outside of a guild is necessarily alone.