The Daily Grind: How do you choose a side?

by Lesley Smith May 15th 2009 at 8:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Super-hero, City of Heroes, City of Villains, The Daily Grind

This morning I'm finally getting 'round to installing City of Heroes. But while the game downloads and patches, I've been reading the manuals and trying to figure out which side I want to join. Normally I follow my friends or take the moral high-ground by picking the 'good' side.

Granted, in many fantasy MMOs, the line between good and evil is a blurry mess. Take WoW for example. The Alliance are not angels but neither are the Horde completely without merit or compassion. City of Heroes is stark in its choices and definitions of good and evil; there's a line. So readers, I ask you, how do you choose a side? Do you prefer playing as good or evil characters? Do you think our definitions of good and bad have the same ramifications in the virtual world as they do in reality?

Tags: city-of-heroes, city-of-villains, good-versus-evil, the-daily-grind

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Cephalexin said on 8:22AM 5-15-2009

If you have any friends playing, I would suggest hooking up with them. Most likely they wold be more than happy to roll a new 'toon and help you out on which side to choose.

If you are going it solo, I would suggest blue side first.

If your still not sure, you could always roll 'toons on both sides and play the first 10-14 levels to get a feel of what's going on before you commit.

Tyranor said on 8:40AM 5-15-2009

I play wherever I find the most people! If I can't find a party, the game is pointless after all.

PaperbagBoy said on 8:41AM 5-15-2009

I find whatever side has Night Elves, and then I choose the other.

Critus said on 8:55AM 5-15-2009

This.

borgy78 said on 11:56AM 5-15-2009

Very valid however games like WAR have gay elves on both sides. AND the sorcerer is dark elf only and looks like a emo. Which F***ing annoying. but what u gonna do...

...go oRk!

Jyotai said on 1:33PM 5-19-2009

That may sound silly...

But its about my method too.

Look for the elves, go for the other side. That worked for me in WoW at first, until they put the darned Gygaxian-fantasy-beasts on both sides.

I'll have to admit that one reason I was never able to get into Everquest was the presence of elves on both sides from the get go. It just served to lock out an ideal option for me.

If there is some aspect of a subgenre you really dislike, that can make your choice for you. If not, you're going to have to get a little more involved.

With something like City of Heroes/Villains (CoX), you have to play through a few levels on both sides to get a feel. I find the music, stories, and zones better on Red Side (villains). But my preferred AT (tanker) is only on Blue Side (hero)... I get by a bit with Brutes on red side, but its not exactly the same thing.

Klemzo said on 9:19AM 5-15-2009

I find a side that has either gayish elfs, freaking dwarfs or retarded humies and then like PaperbagBoy choose the other side. I NEVER played the good guys not because they are good (I consider myself a good guy, a good g33k xD) but because they have these gayish character and everything is so in order. I want them to be thrashed to have their armor look cool and their places look cool!
That is what I choose :)

Kdolo said on 8:54AM 5-15-2009

The CoV sucks. The maps are all jagged and cut off and, without travel powers until lvl 14, a nightmare. If you don't want ALL your hair pulled out, play a Hero first.

In the more general, I usually like stocky brutes, and they're usually on the "evil" side, so that's usually my choice.

Bunny said on 9:06AM 5-15-2009

Has it been a while since you played? You can get a travel power at level 5 by doing a bank mission.

Demona said on 9:10AM 5-15-2009

When playing a game for the first time, I almost always play a "good" class first, then head over to the other side. As for the third question, the problem with virtual worlds is that "good" and "evil" are usually polar opposites, whereas in reality there are nearly infinite shades of grey..... We might all agree that a murderer is "evil", but what if he killed that person to save another? What about 100 others? Is this murderer "evil" then? Where does the definition of "evil" begin to break down?

Oh, and in case the above poster doesn't know, you can buy a jetpack at any time in Grandville for 10k Infamy or earn one from an Atlas Park Mayhem Mission in Port Oakes once you're level 5-9. There's no need to wait until 14 to get a travel power....

Arbor Hawk said on 9:14AM 5-15-2009

CoH has more options as to different zones than CoV. That is all mute in light of the Architect system. You can go to the Architect Building at lvl 1 and adventure there.

Holgar said on 9:33AM 5-15-2009

I like games where the good/evil line is truely a blurred mess and everyone is more or less one shade of grey or another.

snowleopard233 said on 9:39AM 5-15-2009

I do find myself rolling “good” characters despite how much I like the idea of moral ambiguity. My guy in WoW is a Draenei and they’re pretty much the nicest guys in the Warcraft universe. That being said, however, what I like about the warcraft setting is how likeable all the different races are. You can play any of the races and still feel like a hero in some sense. Sure, all of them have their own prejudices and faults, but by the end of the day, I’m rooting for the savage yet honorable orcs to save the day just as much as the close-minded but noble humans.
The recent expansion ahs realy made things morally interesting by giving you tasks that are less than warm and fuzzy. Ever since stepping into northrend, I’ve had to kill a dozen orcas, kidnap baby wolvar, and euthanize a couple of azure drakes. I’m not sure if I feel exactly heroic anymore.

Steph said on 9:39AM 5-15-2009

Hero side is definitely the easier way into the game. Personally I find villains more fun to play solo because the classes aren't as co-dependent as heroes. But there's usually more people playing heroes so it's easy to find a team.

If you'd never played before I'd go Hero side to start. Definitely go over the red side and roll a character. Masterminds are a new experience if you like pets (don't bother with offensive powers... stick with buff/heals for you pets), Stalkers are fun if you've always wanted to be an assassin. Corrupters are great if you want a range dps with healing/buffing (super fun to play). That and you can experience the Mayhem Missions (can get repetitive, but super fun to go around destroying stuff - that and it'll get you a temp travel power to help ease the pain of travel early on.)

I play on Justice if you want to come join the craziness there.

chriskovo said on 10:32AM 5-15-2009

Go evil. Alot of the classes are hybrids that heal and do dps and in general are more interesting. The good ones are just too cookie cut standard roles for mmos and just arent that fun. A better option is to apply for the champions online beta. Its just looks so much better then coh and you are not stuck with power sets like u are in coh. :P

mleaman said on 10:45AM 5-15-2009

Seeing the City of Heroes/Villains box I couldn't help but be reminded that there really is only one side left in the CoX franchise.... The farmer. Gameplay and story telling is all but dead. It stinks. I hate to leave the game because I'm a super hero mmorpg nut. The Mission Architect was a good idea, if players actually bothered to be creative and tell stories... but almost nobody plays the game anymore. They just power grind to 50 using AE missions.

Lemmo said on 10:52AM 5-15-2009

That's a bleak outlook, and it's definitely not the game I log into. If you want a list of clever and fun MA missions, check the forums and MA communities. Also, read up on the new Going Rogue expansion if you're curious about the next direction they're actually taking.

Beekay said on 10:55AM 5-15-2009

Personally I play a Villain in City of Heroes/Villains. I just found the classes (when when char was created) played better on the Villains side. Morally I don't feel that my Stalker is a bad guy.. perhaps a little misunderstood at time, but I crush enough truely evil fiends under my boot heals to consider myself a heroic Villain, though not quite a villanous Hero... yet.

With the recent announcement of "Going Rogue", however, the decision between Hero or Villain is going to less perplexing. I may find that my Villain changes 'alignment' though good deeds, rather than conscious thought.. a fine line exists between good and evil, and it's about to get blurry.

In other games, it usually depends on where my friends are going, and what the options are. I'll choose British over any other army, where possible (which isn't to say they are good not evil, just British people rule ), and I'll go for the more unusual races in fantasy games.. I get to be human all day (mostly), so I like to change that up.

In the end.. morality plays very little in my decisions.. the time of day, temperature of my Tea and the number of jokes John Stewart made about Bush Jr the night before determins what I do (i.e. I like to keep it random)

Owen-Lars said on 11:53AM 5-15-2009

It comes down to two things with me really.

- How easy on the eye and interesting the different zones are (if different)
- What side is the underdog (PvP orientated games or servers only)

Normally this means i play the 'good guys' or the 'light side' but if i play a more PvP focused game or when i make my PvP server toons ill normally play on the 'evil' side.

For city of heroes specifically, i almost always play on the side of the good guys. This time its not just the zones are better on the eye and there is no PvP but because the ranged classes are better to play on the Heroes side. With Rogue i cant wait to bring my Brute over to the heroes side.

pufonthis said on 12:23PM 5-15-2009

I have to agree with another poster in that you shouldn't even bother with COX now a days. It's just one big giant farm anymore.

All you see now is "so and so class looking for farm". The devs made some really cool mission building feature and what did the stupid COX community do with it? Used it to build farming missions.

Go ahead and try it if you want, in 2 weeks time you'll be right back here telling me how right I was.