Re: Disappointment
It's been a mixed bag for me. I appreciate the depth of the character designer, which has seldom failed to allow me to get really close to the concept I was going for, but I am utterly dismayed at their take on powers, power-sets, build, balance, and their incessant mantra that "things that work good in pen and paper games seldom translate to MMOs."
My major instance of this is that they simply refuse to consider the idea of character disadvantages. It's really odd too considering that PCs are ideally suited for the number-crunching that makes disadvantages a handful for the GM.
Why shouldn't you allow your ice-based character to be weaker (if even by only a measure) to fire? Why shouldn't you be able to take a DNPC (and then, much like the minion missions, have to save them!)? This would surely provide a stop-gap in what is currently very limited content...
The pen-and-paper game drew me to the MMO, and suckered me into a lifetime subscription under the promise of recreating a universe and game system I have enjoyed since it's inception. Instead, I feel in many ways that CO is merely another MMO ruleset draped over the Champions skin.
I don't regret my investment for the sake of the Champions community, but I certainly regret the impression that the players of the MMO are taking away about what Champions is.
I see Champions RPG as the first gaming system that truly encouraged character development and role-play through allowing heroes to be people too. You get to deal with the self-same limitations that add flavor and depth to a character concept.
Cryptic has forsaken the roots of the RPG in exchange for an MMO which is prone to min-maxing, pvp vs pve disputes, and a host of other issues that would be remedied if the idea of character concept would have been allowed to take the forefront.
