Lovely moment of serendipity today. I was looking at this Massively post, asking the question ‘Is user generated content the future of MMOs?’ and thinking ‘Hmm, I’d like to comment about that on the blog’ and then Matt Miller goes and drops Da Bomb in his 4th Anniversary Address for City of Heroes:
Similar in concept to our character creator, [this future feature] allows you, the players, to create missions and story arcs for your characters and others to participate in. You’ll be able to pick the map, villain group, and objectives, as well as write the dialogue and any clues needed for the missions. When you are satisfied with it, you can upload it and have other players across all servers play it and rate it. Fame will come to the players whose stories rate the best overall. It is features like these that we never dreamed of including when we first shipped, but are excited to be able to offer players very soon.
Happy Anniversary, indeed.
I was aware that this was coming – I certainly didn’t realise that it was going to be talked about so soon, so I had a ‘Woah’ moment when I read the text myself, as I’m sure a lot of other players did too! It’s obviously very exciting news for the game and for the community, especially for all the roleplayers out there (and I’ll cross my fingers for your /walk emote, too…). I may even allow myself a small ‘w00t’.
w00t!
It even appeals to the retired GameMaster in me, too, considering that like almost everyone else I’ve often thought about how interesting it might be to create my own missions in-game. The key is of course that these missions won’t just be for yourself – but for other players, and the community at large. It’s pretty dizzying in fact, and just another huge, exciting development for a game that sure doesn’t feel ‘old’ at all to me.
By the way, do I think that user-generated content is the future of MMOs? Not entirely. It sure is part of it though, and it’s great to see that other developers share the same thought.
Now if you’ll excuse me, there are some missions requiring my attention in Paragon City….
#1 by Gangrel at April 28th, 2008
Indeed this is almost the biggest bombshell that i have every heard (and i mean EVER!)
*runs off and loads upthe PC*
MWAHAHAHA, now time to reactivate the account and start plotting the demise of the puny players.
Who can defeat the almighty Mr. Pugnacious and his evil horde of Pug-N-Tug Robot Monkies…..?
#2 by Shuttler at April 29th, 2008
This is getting the Gaxlings quite aroused
http://www.gaxonline.com/profiles/blog/show?id=1511077:BlogPost:134424
I think it’s gping to be great!
#3 by Zortel at April 29th, 2008
Depending on how it’s implimented, this could be one of the greatest things to happen to CoH. Not only do you have the players pumping out great stories, amazing art work and doing insane things with demoediting, but imagine all that creative potential directly channelling into the game, and what all of the additional content will provide.
I’ve already got a few ideas for some missions that I hope will be workable. From a fight in the water at that Arachnos Cave in Faultline (with the subs in) against Mako and Barracuda, to fighting a rogue Cataphract in a Longbow base. Outcast waves with a rush of basic minions charging at you (It’d be cool if you could include a level range of enemies. You could have hordes of little minions that give no exp to bowl through along with the people your level.)
And a ton of Freakshow missions with l33t dialogue.
sw33t.
#4 by marc_johansen at April 30th, 2008
A Mission Generator for CoX! ZOMG! W00T! and many other celebratory noises!
As Zortel said, this certainly has the potential to be one of the greatest things to happen to CoX and presents so many opportunities for those people with much greater creative talents than myself.
#5 by Dante at May 3rd, 2008
In one foul swoop, the question of End Game Content is answered. With something like this, where characters go at 50 is entirely up to the players. By opening this up, it’s the equivalent of generating an infinite supply of content designed by users. I’m quite excited. It’s woken up the latent tabletop GM in me as well.
I just hope that there’ll be a way to rate missions, perhaps even get nominations for Creative Genius awards as well. But hey, I know it’s all speculation at the moment.