An MMO showdown: City of Heroes vs. WoW vs. EVE
by James Egan 
Sep 22nd 2008 at 8:00PM
Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Sci-fi, City of Heroes, EVE Online, Opinion
For some gamers born and bred with traditional first person shooters and console games, MMOs are a daunting prospect, with an appeal that's not fully understood. The stereotypes (which are sometimes true) that persist are that "MMOs are boring, MMOs are too slow, all it is is kill quests, item gathering, stat-gazing and crafting -- and all those things are boring, boring, boring."
Ludo and Dante from gaming-centric site Man vs. Horse refused to 'be slaves to those opinions' and put together a cleverly written MMO Showdown. They played the trials of City of Heroes, World of Warcraft, and EVE Online respectively and wrote about their experiences with these titles, having devoted roughly 7 hours of solid play to each game. Which MMO came out on top from the perspective of two experienced gamers, but MMO noobs? You might be surprised by the answer.
City of Heroes
Ludo chronicled the 'Man vs. Horse' noob experience, and seemed quite taken with the fantastic customization in City of Heroes. He went from this rich aspect of the game to "an incredibly dull tutorial sequence that seemed to validate all of our prejudices towards the MMO genre." Despite this rocky start, Ludo found some interesting aspects to the game. That depth of customization was reflected in the player avatars he encountered, with no two looking alike. He also came across a few oddities, such as a speedy hero decked out in a smoking jacket with a cape, and a rather iconic ninja who stood at two feet tall in height.
As trials, Ludo and his friends had some difficulty in grouping, but the strength of most MMOs -- the player community itself -- saved the day, and they were invited to join a Super Group as well. Some of the flaws inherent to the game mechanics of City of Heroes were outweighed by Ludo's view that customization and the satisfying feel of the powers themselves make the game solid.
His verdict: tempted to subscribe, if it weren't for the upcoming Champions Online.
World of Warcraft
While Ludo and Dante were a bit enamored with some of the more dynamic aspects of City of Heroes, they went into the industry-shaping title World of Warcraft next. WoW, when compared to City of Heroes, has very weak character customization -- with both Undead of different classes looking essentially the same.
From there the duo was troubled by the limitations on their actions as trial members, and -- surprisingly to them -- trouble finding people who would group with them. They expected the most popular MMO of all time to have more of a social element to it, but paradoxically they found most players were more concerned with leveling than the 'massively multiplayer' aspect of WoW. Coupled with the need to go out and kill animals (fighting villains in CoH at least had some discernible purpose), and the lack of immersion they felt in World of Warcraft, Dante stated: "WoW makes no pretense of being anything more than these simple, shallow and god damn it I'm going to say it, dull mechanics. Why should it? Millions of people enjoy increasing these numbers, for reasons beyond my comprehensions, but for me, every time a number floats out of an enemies head a little part of me dies inside."
His verdict: disappointed.
EVE Online
Much like City of Heroes, EVE Online allows you to customize your avatar, creating a unique look. (Unlike City of Heroes and World of Warcraft, however, EVE limits you to being a snapshot until Ambulation rolls out in 2009.) While they liked the character creation system, they were disappointed that the avatar is so underused in the game.
One of the first things they did was try mining, which they found to be an exercise in boredom, and caution other new players away from it. They quickly grasped how to control their ships and navigate (using a menu-based system), and were impressed by the 3-D star map you can pull up. Ludo wrote, "Bringing up the map of the universe for the first time was an awesome moment. You'll see huge collections of systems and stars, linked by intricate jump gate pathways. EVE's world is huge and alive with people."
They also played it safe, by staying in high security space. As trials they faced no barriers to grouping, or forming a fleet, and were soon running missions. In truth, it's the same quest game mechanic found in other MMOs, but given the sheen of a space setting. "It also helps that EVE is easily the prettiest of the MMOs we played. At times it's staggeringly beautiful. You'll forgive the time it takes to travel between space stations as you watch the glowing nebulae glint off of your ship's hull. It's impossibly slick," Ludo said.
But for Ludo and Dante, that's where the 'slick' aspects of EVE ended. The interface was counter-intuitive and kept cluttering the screen as they played through their trial. Having things you buy automagically go into your backpack doesn't apply to EVE, where you need to manually move things from one place to another. But more than anything, they struggled with EVE's learning curve. For them, it just wasn't fun, but then again it wasn't all bad. Ludo wrote, "It was satisfying and intriguing in a way that the other trials weren't, but in retrospect the hours of hardship weren't really worth it."
That's some pretty damning commentary on the game, maybe even moreso than what they said about World of Warcraft, but there was also an upside to this view. Ludo followed up his criticism and said, "EVE is fascinating for the fact that it's so different to any other game I've ever played, coming closest to ancient space trading stalwart Elite. Of all the trials, we'd be most tempted to play EVE, if just to unravel its mysteries, to join its enigmatic guilds and learn more about the huge world that has been created by its inhabitants. Ultimately though, it's a game you'll want to read about more than you'll want to play."
His verdict: interesting concepts, poor implementation.
Their decision about which MMO is right for them -- debated over whiskey and stolen wifi -- is that it's none of the MMOs they've even played so far. Champions Online stands as their ideal title, and they'll be holding out their subscription dollars until it arrives.
[Via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
T said on 8:30PM 9-22-2008
CoH/CoV is a blast when you first play it, and yeah, imo, its better than WoW in the early stages and certainly when it comes to character customization.
Just wait til level 40 or so, when you're still seeing similar or the same mob type that you saw at 12, and when you're given missions to go kill 40 of something instead of 10. The game does not scale well at the upper levels.
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Rhaegar said on 10:55PM 9-22-2008
I feel like a lot of people who think MMOs are dull grindfests don't really see the RPG part. For example, their description of WoW's undead newbie experience as "killing random wildlife" totally leaves out the story that unfolds through the quests, which really does a good job of giving you a feel for what being undead is all about. In that starting area, you scavenge for supplies in an abandoned village, drive back a horde of mindless zombies that threatens the town, fight off religious zealots that want to kill you just because you're undead, etc, etc. It also sounds like they didn't like the art style, which I guess is just a matter of personal taste.
That said, they have a point that games are to the point where they don't need to leave that much to little boxes of text anymore. RPGs in general these days often try to use their story to distract from poor gameplay, and it's true that WoW's gameplay, when viewed purely from a gamer's perspective is pretty awful. What WoW succeeds in doing more than any other MMO I've played though, is creating a believable, interesting world that I can interact with.
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MightyIdle said on 11:03PM 9-22-2008
I played WoW for three years and I've come to the same conclusion. Leveling is plain boring until 70. Once you cap, there's plenty to do for a while, but it soon becomes a grind. There's only so many times you can do the same ol' thing before you're burned out.
I'm really glad my friends talked me into trying something else. First was AoC. It was buggy and broken, but some of the ideas they implemented were really good. It has a lot of potential if they can ever work out its many issues.
Warhammer was really the death knell for WoW with me. It's unbelievable the sheer amount of things to do that are available. You really become immersed in the game. In my opinion, any WoW player who tries Warhammer won't go back.
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Kasuro said on 9:06AM 9-23-2008
QFT about Warhammer. I played WoW since it's release almost, not constantly, more on-and-off due to real-life things (military). I got into the WAR open beta and WoW pretty much got the boot. As you said, there are a million things to do in Warhammer. Right now my personal quest is to unlock all the wierd, stupid ToK things, like 'Kill yourself by falling 25 times' so I can get the 'AHHHHH!' title. Or even better - click on yourself, without any armor, 100 times to get a title. It's fluff but fluff is fun!
Johnny_Velocity said on 11:07PM 9-22-2008
Sound advice - as a former COH customer, Champions Online is the next MMO that will get my money. I'm catching up on PC and XBox 360 releases til then!
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Cacheelma said on 11:48PM 9-22-2008
So basically they like playing dress-up? And they judge a game's "social aspect" by using a limited trial account which has limitations on the social aspect to begin with?
Can I say, RETARD?
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Calarius said on 6:34PM 9-23-2008
From the look of things, you can't.
But I agree that a limited trial account timeframe is not enough to really understand a game. Yes, you can decide if you are willing to play more to find out. But clearly these two have something in mind that none of these games delivered. That's their opinion, and they are welcome to it. Me, I'm headed back to Azeroth for more Brewfest...
Broseph said on 1:18AM 9-23-2008
I played City of Heroes for years (April 2004 - August 2008). The powersets he took - Energy/Fire - not a lot of fun or synergy there. The powers in those sets do look good though.
Also, I see he hastily took the power Hover, expecting it to be Fly but Hover is not a travel power. Also, he took Rain of Fire which is a PITA power - even more so with Energy as a primary.
I could go on but I think they might have had a better experience in City of Heroes with some seasoned advice. I suppose the idea was to go in blind and come out with first timer impressions.
I could go on but I just wanna say that the Champions Online article is just plain unreadable. I couldn't stomach the attempted fusion of roleplaying, marketing and reporting. Who thought that was a good idea?
I'd like to know more about the game but I'm not reading your LARP with Jack Emmert... :)
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ahnog said on 1:20AM 9-23-2008
You haven't really tried a MMO until you've tried the massive multiplayer aspect of the game. Just being online is not enough. In Eve the 14 day trial doesn't give you the real power of the game. Once you join a corporation that is active and vibrant then you have really played Eve.
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possum said on 3:43AM 9-23-2008
I agree with the WOW analogy, right on, i can say nothing of COH as i have never played it.
EVE however i played for nearly 4 years, i am quite familiar with it. ONE thing i disagree with is the comment of the learning curve................EVE has no learning curve, in order to have a learning curve in the first place one must have information and not understand that information, that makes for a tough learning curve, EVE has a STAGGERING *lack* of information, this is not the fault of the players whom may think themselves dullwitted, they arent, CCP has simply failed to provide information for any type of decent decision.
When an interface provides at least the barest of common sense info for informed decisions folks will do well, steep learning curve in EVE? not even close, lack of information? Exactly.
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Cyron said on 5:27PM 9-23-2008
Lack of information? Eve drowns you in information. The UI is horrible, I'll grant you that, but once you work it out, it gives you a wealth of information.
And apparently (though I've not done it myself recently) the tutorial is much better these days, explaining things much better than previously
W. Graves said on 8:17AM 9-23-2008
Has anyone considered that the learning curve of eve online is its charm?
The fact that Im a year in and still haven't explored about half of what the game has to offer.
Dont think of it as a learning curve, think of it as a mountain to explore(an admittedly steep one).
That being said I got similar impressions from the eve trial, but decided to stick it out, and the WoW comments were also pretty accurate IMHO.
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James Egan said on 1:58PM 9-23-2008
Actually, I have. I really threw myself into it for the first few months, soaking up as much as possible. There were a few frustrations, but more than anything, the game's really just a huge puzzle that I wanted to get my mind around. A lot of the pieces have come together, but there are still a number of aspects of the game I haven't been able to delve into yet.
The complexity and depth, for me, is what's good about the game. For others looking for a more casual/accessible game, it's daunting. (The tutorial is much-improved now over when I began though.) The game's not for everyone, but EVE really is one of the few MMOs I've come across where people who don't play it can enjoy reading about it.
Vandell said on 9:33AM 9-23-2008
The problem with World of Warcraft nowadays is that it is ancient, and has a "reach the end" attitude that new players can and will find very dull and boring to do by themselves.
When the game was first released, the experience was great -- there were tons of other players around, questing and leveling, competing for mobs, etc.
Nowadays it's a ghost town, so you notice the flaws of leveling by yourself. As a new player, that can be down right crippling.
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Merckx said on 2:27PM 9-23-2008
I can't understand why so many MMO players take criticism of there favorite game so personally? If you enjoy playing it who cares what everyone else thinks.
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OldManBrad said on 11:46AM 9-23-2008
I just gave up on WoW after over 3 years as well. The only thing that kept me there as long as I stayed was...well, I'm drawing a blank there. I can only really play later at night, and there aren't as many people around when you need groups.
The lower level instances are all but impossible to find a group for without waiting an hour or more, just to have someone leave 5 minutes after starting. Unless of course you have a lvl 70 running you through it, but that takes away the fun.
Really, when I found myself getting bored with the same things over and over, I just gave up. I had planned on going back for Lich King, but as of now I find that I'm not even sure about that.
That said, I have been LOVING Warhammer. There are similarities to WoW, but clearly they learned from the behemoth. My first reaction to the first Empire/Chaos scenario was "wow, it's Arathi Basin" but once I played it a few times, and realized that it's nonstop action...let's just say Blizz could learn a thing or two about BGs from the scenarios in WAR.
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Syme said on 1:54PM 9-23-2008
WoW as I played my first character was not as these two experienced it. But at this point, there aren't too many people in the starting areas aside from alts. Even it the person isn't trying to blast through the area as quickly as possible, he is likely just jumping on the character for an hour or less to do a little bit.
Due to that, not too many people group with people they don't know at the lower levels anymore. Even those who would like to help occassionally think twice about it after the first couple of times when they realize that whenever they log on, they will be contacted by these desperate people asking for more help.
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Syme said on 1:56PM 9-23-2008
Regarding EVE, I enjoyed the trial I did, but I have to agree with the conclusion these two reached. I realized that, while the players may be it's strength, without the players, there's not much to it. In order to do what I would have liked to do in EVE, I would have needed to be much more involved with a corporation than I really have time for.
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mercutio22x7 said on 4:32PM 9-23-2008
I can't believe they chose ChO. If you are going to take the time to try out three games why the heck didn't they pick one. They might as well have just said, "from reading about the following few MMO's we thought this one would be the best." Any idiot can do that.
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Lemons said on 8:59PM 10-01-2008
The reason you didn't get very much interaction in the undead starting area is because there are 2 kinds of people there:
1. Noobs
and
2. Veterans
The noobs are noobs and being noobs they probably barely know how to send a tell, let alone group up with someone else for a quest (on my first character I didn't group up until around level 24, mostly because, until then, I had no real group quests).
And the veterans are just there to powerlevel another character to 70, they don't care to group up with some noob who will just slow them down.
I'm sure there are more subcategories but these are the basic two I can think of.
All in all WoW is not a new MMO anymore, so if you want to get social about it than you have to be level 70 where everyone else is. Or, you know, you could hit up Second Life where all you do is socialize, I bet you'd get a kick out of that.
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