GameAmp: Close To Purchasing City Of Heroes

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kflo

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Close To Purchasing City Of Heroes

I am very close to buying this game for my son (who is 7) and myself. Before I purchase I just want to now the learning curve for a 7 year old. Now he is very pc & windows savy. Meaning he can launch games by himself and enter user names and passwords if needed. We both have our own characters in Dunegon Runners (which I am a paying member). He has also played games like X-Men Legends, Ulitmate Alliance so he gets the role playing aspect of assigning points as you get levels, figuring out which gear/loot you pick up is best to keep, etc, etc.

Would this game be too hard for him to pick up if he is playing it 2 or 3 times a week? I am concerned at paying 14.99 a month after spending 30.00 on the game and not getting really enough use out of it.

Thank You

Edit by Phedre_D: I removed the link. Asking questions is fine. Free advertising is not.

***THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED***

03/31/08 10:06

Phedre_D

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RE: Close To Purchasing City Of Heroes

He should be able to play the game by himself, but I would be a bit leary to let him do so. The reason why I would say so is because he will be interacting with many other people that might not all play nice or realize they are dealing with a 7 year old kid. The game mechanics are probably not too hard for him, but the player interaction probably is.

03/31/08 10:21

kflo

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RE: Close To Purchasing City Of Heroes

Thank you for the reply. When you say player interaction. Do you mean there will be swearing and stuff in the game world or the other players will get frustured interacting with him to try to compelte goals, quest or join groups because he totally doesn't understand what to do or can't read everything that is typed on screen or type back ina way to make people understand?

Will he be able to take his character and play solo without having to really interact with other PC's? Can he compelte missions and such they are given out as quest from NPC's and still enjoy the game and progress?

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03/31/08 11:04

Fort05Nox

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RE: Close To Purchasing City Of Heroes

Some people curse, some don't, you can never be too sure, never mind, just checked, i don't think it can be downloaded for free, unless you know someone who has it, then you could just down load the client updater.

***THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED***

03/31/08 11:32

Perceptor II

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RE: Close To Purchasing City Of Heroes

There is a swear filter, and the chat channel is pretty clean in my experience. Your son will be entering a world with a wide variety of people. Most everyone will be nice. A few will be jerks.

There's also the issue of costumes. With the female types there are some skimpy costume pieces. Nudity isn't possible, but every once in a while I'll see someone who tries to simulate it. It's rare, but it happens.

The game can be played solo, though at times it will try to steer you into forming teams. The Hollows zone is designed to be really tough for a solo player and for some missions the contact will specifically tell you, "I recommend you take a team with you on this one." But team play isn't required.

Though now that I think about it, finding a protective big brother or big sister to team up with might be the best thing for him.

The community is actually quite open and friendly. Most everyone will be helpful. And if your son is like the 7-year-olds I know, he shouldn't have too much trouble with the controls.

I'm an incurable altoholic, but most recently I've played as these characters:

Abana (hero, Champion), lvl 35 mag tanker, stone/stone/fit
The Ballplayer Reverend (hero, Champion), lvl 14 nat tanker will/mace
Shrathala (hero, Triumph), lvl 12 mag scrapper, dual/dark
Fat Kat (villain, Pinnacle), lvl 10 mut brute strength/will
Souleymane (hero, Champion), lvl 14 mag defender, dark/psy

03/31/08 11:43

RonJ73

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RE: Close To Purchasing City Of Heroes

The game is rated T for Teen because of the violence and costumes which can be a bit "sexy". Also, because it's a large multiplayer game, he'd be interacting with a lot of people, many of whom are adults.

Personally, I wouldn't let a 7 year old play. There are too many situations that wouldn't be good for him to experience.

City of Heroes/Villains
Onion - L50 - Katana/Super Reflexes/Body Mastery Scrapper
Scotch Bonnet Girl - L50 - Fire Aura/Fire Melee/Pyre Mastery Tanker
Aurora Australis - L41 - Willpower/Energy Melee Tanker

03/31/08 11:49

lani

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RE: Close To Purchasing City Of Heroes

Well, I'm a European degenerate so I tend to take a liberal view to Teen Ratings. :-)

Still, I'd not let a 7 year old play unsupervised. I.e. If you want your kid to play this game and enjoy gaming yourself, I strongly recommend getting accounts for both yourself and the kid and regulate his playtimes to coincide with your own.
Nothing beats involved parenting.

But that applies to Dungeonrunners and any other MMOG as much as City of Heroes. To be honest, City of has one of the best communities around, especially compared to some of the big franchises out there and more Player vs Player oriented games.
In fact, only community that I like better was EQ-2's EU community.

03/31/08 12:41

bigspeer

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RE: Close To Purchasing City Of Heroes

And fortunately enough, by default, the profanity filter is turned on so you don't have to worry about setting it up for him.

And it has a very lengthy 'adult' dictionary. even words that are pretty rare are bleeped out.

03/31/08 15:58

shiva333

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RE: Close To Purchasing City Of Heroes

about the money part: i know you can download it for free, i can post that link for you, but i bet you could also do something with the "refer a friend" thing and get yourself some free time if you end up doing it. i believe the first month is free, so if things don't work out you can just cancel the account after that and his toons will all be saved. i know that as a player it can be tough teaming with people who are 12 or younger, but he would have an awesome teacher like you to show him the ropes. at the same time i bet alot of "power players" could get mad at him for doing who knows what and that would suck if it got him down/ frustrated, for that reason i would recommend he avoid the Freedom server.

http://www.cityofheroes.com/promo/combobud...0_existing.html

03/31/08 17:22

Solarix

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RE: Close To Purchasing City Of Heroes

QUOTE

at the same time i bet alot of "power players" could get mad at him for doing who knows what and that would suck if it got him down/ frustrated, for that reason i would recommend he avoid the Freedom server.

seconded. i suggest looking at the server list and seeing which are the least populated, and having him play on those. freedom has the most people on usually, and therefore the highest number of jerks. on the other hand, virtue is the second-most populated i think, but because its the unofficial "role-playing" server, the community there is very nice and almost always welcoming to new players. and because the RPers are playing as heroes, they will more than likely step out of their way to help a new hero.

My DeviantART (the comic is going up, page-by-page about once a day!)
City of Heroes
Global Name: @Lethal Dose
Virtue
Lady Arya - lvl 50!! D3 defender(main)
Luna Moonlink - lvl 27 Peacebringer
Mr Galactic - lvl 20 Fire/Fire Blaster
Ethereal Phoenix - lvling Fire/Kin Controller
Aurelei - lvl 26 Warshade
Zhaan - lvl 18 Storm/Sonic Defender
Amazing Alice - lvl 21 Dark/WP Scrapper
Clara Wink - lvl 28 claws/regen scrapper
Imamu - lvl 24 sonic/ice blaster
and various others...

Freedom
La Psypathe - lvl 34 FF/Psy Defender
True Psight - lvl 28 illusions/empathy controller

Plus, I play Guild Wars.

03/31/08 20:07

govtmorgue

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RE: Close To Purchasing City Of Heroes

If you plan on getting this game, at least you stopped in at one of the best family oriented sites around. The game environment is fun and addictive and for the most part completely soloable. If you felt like it was safe letting your son play by himself, there are many "parental" control's that could ensure that in-game. One is the chat filter as stated, but there is also the feature to turn off the chat channel entirely, on top of having the ability to block random team invitations. So parental control wise, you have lots of options. I, myself, am one of those guys that has teamed with anyone from 8 years old and up (to like 50 something) and each experience has been unique to say the least. Some of the younger kids acted older, some older guys acted like they were younger, and the ability to gender swap makes it so that you may want to keep an eye out, but that happens to go with any game that has that option. Really, it comes down to 2 things. Do you want to watch your kid or do you want to interact with your kid. My 2 cents worth, hope they helped some.

I forgot to mention one thing as well. Gameamp.com has a global chat channel in game that almost always has a moderator on, and we do try to keep it family oriented, as the Message of the Day states.

***THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED***

Signature by DeathFetish

03/31/08 22:47

kflo

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RE: Close To Purchasing City Of Heroes

Thanks for all your help. I am going to purchase the latest verison from walmart. The good vs Evil edition is what I was looking at.
I read something about a free download. Could someone tell me about that and the difference between the free download verison and the Good vs. Evil verison.

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04/01/08 07:36

lani

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RE: Close To Purchasing City Of Heroes

QUOTE

It's not so much a free download as that the client isn't what you're paying for. The one in the box is just as "free". That "free download" client does not work without an active account, which you can purchase by either:
- Buying an account license, for instance the Good vs Evil Combined edition listed 2nd from the top at PlayNC.com
- Buying a boxed game at a store. (for instance, the Good vs Evil version)

The only difference between box and digital download is that with the box you get a booklet for which a tree had to die, a box (recycled paper), maybe a 2-color-map (for which another tree died), a very out of date game-client on cd/dvd (which indirectly caused the death of a brush I'm sure) which will be effectively downloading the free download client in order to get up to date, and a license-key you then have to activate your account with on PlayNC.com.

Personally, I'd skip the eco-unfriendly box step and purchase online. :-)

Edit: Was linking to EU/GB site.

***THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED***

MMORPG (Roleplaying): Mostly Men Online Role-Playing Girls
MMORPG (Acheivement): Miserable Malcontents Online Rehashing Past Glories
MMORPG (PvP): Macho Men Obviously Really Prefer Griefing
MMORPG (itemization): Misers May Obfuscate Recently Purchased Gold
MMORPG (Social): Virtual Worlds with Virtual Wealth and achievements, but with Real People with Real Feelings.

04/01/08 07:57

kflo

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RE: Close To Purchasing City Of Heroes

Refer a friend. If somene here can refer a frien for me. I will download the client and sign up for account on weds. then after 14 days if we botrh like it I will sign up for a full account that way you can get a month for free.

gamer1@kennygraves.com

Thanks

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04/01/08 09:49

lani

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RE: Close To Purchasing City Of Heroes

QUOTE

On its way.

04/01/08 10:04

kflo

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RE: Close To Purchasing City Of Heroes

I just got it and added it to my account. I will install the cient when I get home from work today. Thank you.

QUOTE

On its way.

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04/01/08 10:58

kflo

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RE: Close To Purchasing City Of Heroes

Ok so far I enjoy the game. MY thoughts so far...

1) Combat: I hope this is just me getting the hang of combt but the system is just so-so IMO so far. I wish you could left click to attack like Duengeon Runners. Seems to me hitting the power icons on the bottom right or using the number keys on the top of the keyboard is just nto to user freindly.
Is combat "turn based"? Seems after I use a power and it fully recharges when I click it again it does not go off right away.

2) Graphics are wonderful I mean really good. Even with everything dialed up it is still fast.

3) Charcater Creation: Was tough at first but now I have the hang of it no problem. You can check name before going thru the whole process of creating a toon but you need to have at least one toon on that server created before being able to use the check name feature.

All in all I think I will pay for at least one month and give it a whril if I get hooked in one month then I will stay.

Thanks for everyone's help.

Any tips on making combat more enjoyable and user friendly please let me know.

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04/03/08 08:52

lani

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RE: Close To Purchasing City Of Heroes

Ok, I think you just ran into a central difference between most Korean MMO's (with Dungeon Runners being one) and Western MMO's like City of Heroes.

That un-userfriendly combat system is actually a feature. :-)

Most enthusiasts of the game will not even understand it being unfriendly. It's a lot more player-involving than click-to-auto-attack. As you'll progress you'll learn that not only do you need to work with the keys to make maximum use of your powers, but you'll also need to make tactical, even strategical choices in what powers to pick, use and when.
To many, this is what makes the game fun and vibrant.
Personally I find CoX's combat system to be more stimulating than the auto-pilot style of for instance Dungeon Runners.
It can get hectic though :-)

04/03/08 09:43

Jorden_Yen

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RE: Close To Purchasing City Of Heroes

QUOTE

Combat only seems that way because you don't have many powers yet. As you get more, it becomes much more important to be able to select your powers rather than have some sort of auto-system.

As for playing with your son, I play with my 7 year old daughter and her biggest issue is moving around. One of the first powers you'll want to get is "recall Friend" from the teleportation pool (available at level 6). That way, you only have to run one character across the screen then teleport your son.

The other thing is that he'll be fine on the game if you teach him which buttons to push for which powers. I'd keep him to ranged attacks and holds (Defender, Blaster, Controller). Tanks and Scrappers require more dexterity and for now, just get him used to playing and using powers without adding the complexity of movement and enemy selection to the mix.

Best case, have him click on your character and hit the "F" key in missions. He will follow you around and automatically target whatever you do. That way, he can just click the different powers at first.

Oh! And make sure you start out with the Heroes side and not Villains. Villains is WAY more bumpy with tall walls and such making it hard to get around.

Jordan's Town
My lousy name for the comic that I did which can be found here CoH @ JeremyDuffy.com

GFU! (Giant Freaking Update)
Check out the site's new look!
My favorite guide - Advanced Costuming. How to work your costume into your character's theme, story, and playstyle.

Jordan Yen 50 Dark/Dark/Dark Defender
Shazel 35 Fire/fire/fire blaster
Screaming Gale 35 Storm/Sonic Defender
Jordan Yin 36 Warshade, Jordan Yang 33 Peacebringer
Mudnuke 38 Earth/Rad Controller
Doctor Kev 38 Necro/Dark Mastermind

04/03/08 13:14

lani

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RE: Close To Purchasing City Of Heroes

Oooh, I'd completely forgotten about the 7 year old son.
Luckily Jorden's here to save the day :-)

04/03/08 13:52

Jorden_Yen

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RE: Close To Purchasing City Of Heroes

QUOTE

Oooh, I'd completely forgotten about the 7 year old son.
Luckily Jorden's here to save the day :-)

Even better, having only JUST started my second account and letting my daughter play, I can definitely bring real experience to the table :D

My daughter LOVES to play with me. She makes the characters (though I help a little to make sure the color scheme and such makes sense) and she picks the powers they have. Then she follows me around and pounds enemies with me.

In my house the constant cries of "Daddy! Wait for me!" followed by "Relax honey, I'm not going anywhere! I won't leave you" can be heard.

04/03/08 14:34

lani

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RE: Close To Purchasing City Of Heroes

QUOTE

My daughter LOVES to play with me. She makes the characters (though I help a little to make sure the color scheme and such makes sense) and she picks the powers they have. Then she follows me around and pounds enemies with me.

Heh, Purple dots over Pink underlay do make sense, to 7 year old girls anyway :-P

QUOTE

In my house the constant cries of "Daddy! Wait for me!" followed by "Relax honey, I'm not going anywhere! I won't leave you" can be heard.

Secretly, I envy you :-)

04/03/08 14:55

Perceptor II

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RE: Close To Purchasing City Of Heroes

QUOTE

In my house the constant cries of "Daddy! Wait for me!" followed by "Relax honey, I'm not going anywhere! I won't leave you" can be heard.

Aw! lani's not the only one envious. :-)

By the way, your advice above was good enough to get you credited.

04/03/08 15:05

Jorden_Yen

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RE: Close To Purchasing City Of Heroes

QUOTE

In my house the constant cries of "Daddy! Wait for me!" followed by "Relax honey, I'm not going anywhere! I won't leave you" can be heard.

Aw! lani's not the only one envious. :-)

By the way, your advice above was good enough to get you credited.

Whee!

04/03/08 15:15

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