(warning, wall of text)

So I bought DC Universe Online a monthish ago, when it first came out. I like it.

Now for that opinion to hold any water let me detail out my previous MMO experience.

WoW: Played over the course of a year, to level 43 and a few alts
Guild Wars: Level 20-something
FF11: Played to level 23 or so
Star Wars Galaxies: oh god, I have no idea. but I got into jabbas palace, if that counts for anything.

So I have some MMO experience, but not as much as say, the people who run around doing things with their guilds all the time, playing massive amounts of end level content.

But I LOVE DCU. Why? heres a short list of raisins.

1. I hit the level cap without having to be in a party even once!!! Works for me since I hate being in parties, and I HATE trying to deal with idiots.
2. Interacting with famous DC heroes and villains. It doesn’t sound as cool as it actually is. Almost every “final storyline” instance has you and a famous hero beat the crap out of a famous villain. I just beat the crap out of the Spectre with Green Lantern. How badass is that?
3. The cities. Ok, so its super lame to only have two- metropolis and gotham. But at least they are pretty sweet to explore. at least, for awhile.
4. fast leveling. If you have played any of the MMOs I listed above, expect to level twice as fast, if not three times as fast. Makes you feel like you’re accomplishing a lot.
5. “Real” voice actors. Mark Hamill as Joker? Check. Kevin Conroy as Batman? Check. um, Zoe from Firefly as Wonder Woman? Um, Check?
6. You know how I said I hate parties? Well normally I do. But DCU has optional group instances called Alerts. You just queue up for one, it zaps you to like, the moon or something, you do it, then come back. The first time you do them it also clears a mission from your journal, so its good to do them all, at least once.
7. Beating the crap out of someone in PVP is always entertaining, but feel sextra special when you know youre beating up a super villain!!
8. They really let you tweak all the colors you could ever want to tweak in your costume.
9. You can equip armor B, while still using the stats of armor A. SO basically, you equip whatever, but then just change your visuals.
10. You can fly pretty much anywhere you can see. Its sweet.

Negatives, I have to mention them.

1. The menus are laggy, load slow, and are poorly set up.
2. The draw distance is shitty.
3. There are only like 14 different armor sets, which seems like a lot, but it really isnt. Especially when 10 of them look so stupid nobody uses them. So basically you have everyone wearing the demon set, the insect set, the angelic set, or just something that looks like spawn. Its a shame.
4. I dont know why there is a monthly payment. So far the additional content does not thrill me, and they are not charging out the gates with new item sets.
5. Why is there money? Sure they just released the auction house, but it sucks. Imagine WoWs auction house if none of the items were actually hard to find. Also if it was almost impossible to use. there ya go.
6. Watchtower is too big. Thats where the JLA hang out in case you dont know, its the only real “city” in the game. Like a town. Its so large, with 99% empty space. Its dumb, and poorly laid out.
7. I miss mounts. I know its crazy when I can fly, but looking forward to buying a badass, or Epic mount is one of the things that keeps you going.
8. There is very little detail graphically in the world.
9. There is very little reason to explore the world map.
10. Besides having areas that are on fire/torn up/covered in trees there is minimum variation in the land. WoW has rolling plains, huge mountains, creepy swamps. DCU has two cities with tall, bland buildings.

well wow, I didnt realize there would be so many negatives. But the point is, I just hit the cap of 30, and enjoyed the hell out of the time it took to get me here. Will I continue playing? sure for a little while (especially since the gf is using my account for her own character) but I doubt I will keep paying a subscription fee into the summer.

-kidc

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