Ask Statesman

The latest issue of the “Ask Statesman” news is out.
Biggest (or at least most locally-questioned) bit is:

Once the body slider/face slider changes go live with issue 4, will we be able to change our body/face at Icon or will our current characters be ‘locked in’ to our existing body?

You’ll be able to change your avatars at Icon.
Mildly disappointing (that we have to go to Icon to do it, with, presumably, the associated costs), but not surprising. Actually, if Icon allows changes in body type as well, that’s probably better than I suspected we were going to get.
There’s also this:

What do you think are the most important lessons you’ve learned from City of Heroes, and how are you applying them to City of Villains?

First, make every zone dynamic. In other words, make them come alive. We accomplished this quite well with Striga; that zone provides a new standard for us. Secondly, communicate the story better. We?ll have some new technology in City of Villains that will allow players to see the plotlines in a cool new way. Thirdly, give players what they want. We have a much better understanding of what makes Archetypes and powers cool. Lastly, make missions feel unique. One of the earliest criticisms was that our missions were repetitive. Now we’ve got over a year?s worth of new tech and art to use as we write the City of Villains missions from scratch.
Actually, it sounds like some CoV lessons might make their way back to CoH.
Which raises an interesting question (to me, anyway): will CoV make the gameplay better on CoH? In terms of (more specifically) folks who are “I like CoH because I like to smash things and run around in an undisciplined fashion and cause chaos” more likely to migrate to CoV? Just a thought. Granted, there are other reasons to go to CoV, too, both for the tech changes listed above, and as a different sort of play style and RP possibility. But I have this gut feel as well (or maybe just prejudice) that some of the less desirable (to me) sorts in CoH might shift over to CoV because … well … I don’t want to call them “evil” or “villains,” but … well … because they’re anti-social undesirables.
Just a thought.

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