Played Lately: Champions Online

• My Wednesday night gaming ended up going to Champions Online solely because of Blood Moon, the superheroic Halloween event. It might have been a coin toss, otherwise, since I want to spend time with both games and neither will be uninstalled any time soon.


• Upon logging in, I poked around Millennium City to see what was up. The website told us that, in order to unlock the Celestial powerset early, each of the thirteen undead superheroes must be defeated and their souls redeemed. The only issue is that Millennium City is a big place even when you can rocket across the skies in a ball of fire. I found a couple of the crypts on my own, but the pull of the internet was too strong.


• One of those beautiful people from the CO forums (you know, the ones that actually contribute to the community instead of complain) posted a map of Millennium City showing all the crypt sites. With that at hand (or in browser window, at least), I could fly into action whenever someone called out a new zombie heroes had returned.


• I told myself I would do half and half: seven the first night and then finish the other six the second night. But after missing the mission on my first hero (since I didn't quite understand what I was doing at that point), I was constantly out of phase between vanquishing perks and crypt missions. I would make up another mission, but then I failed to get the perk for one hero. So I had to keep track separately of which missions and which perks I'd completed. I thought I could leave it and come back. But I was worried I'd lose track, so I pressed on.


• Then it was 2am. Oops.


• On the Van Hemlock podcast this week, Tim and John briefly discussed how much they enjoyed drop-in games (games you can pick up and put down easily) and how MMOs don't make that easy. I would argue that Champions is a perfect drop-in game. You can jump in, run a few missions, maybe track down another nemesis clue, then jump out just as easily. As you can see here, it's just as easy to be sucked in and not want to stop playing ever.



• Here's my new hero, Steel Angel. I wanted to try out the new Celestial powers without resorting to white feather wings and a halo. She might need a few tweaks, but I liked the look at 2am.


• Okay, I promise never to make a costume at that time of night ever again.

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