ClawsandEffect

A guess:

It's a leftover strongpoint from the Rikti War. With the two guard towers and the wall surrounding it, it looks like it was designed to give troops some cover to fight from.

If that's the case, it's kind of a nice touch that stuff like this is still around reminding people that this city was the site of a major conflict not that long ago. I mean, you still see Civil War era forts standing in places, and medieval castles are still all over the countryside in Europe, so it isn't too farfetched that some fortified areas would still exist in a city that was a full-blown battleground less than a decade ago.

Strange that you mentioned in in your OP, but I actually DID meet my wife while playing CoH.

Other things about the game and forums I appreciate.

-I can log in and not feel like I have to spend 8-10 hours playing in order to get anywhere. As opposed to other MMOs where, if you take a break you have to play catch up to get back to where the people you play with are. I can log in for a half hour and put a level on a lowbie, and it's fine because i didn't fall behind anyone else.

-The development team, which has displayed an amazing capacity for actually listening to their players. Too many games' developers take the stance of "If they don't like what we do, they can play something else". Here, our devs will listen to our feedback and make changes accordingly. (the thing with the APP power replacement leading to there now being 5 powers in the pools is a perfect example)

-The forums, for giving me an outlet to debate things that never (or very seldom at least) gets personal. Maybe it's a character flaw of mine, but I enjoy debating things, and will frequently debate something I don't feel particularly strongly about for the sake of the debate itself.

-The costume creator and available powersets, for letting me create (nearly) anything I can imagine. It has it's limits, but it is more versatile than any other character creator I have ever used.

Interesting responses.

For the record, I wasn't trying to say my way of doing anything was better than anyone else's. I was honestly curious why someone would spend their free time doing something they did not find enjoyable (grinding for shards in this case), complain about how unenjoyable they found it, and do it anyway.

It's also interesting to note that, from what I have inferred from the responses (pure guesswork), a larger number of people than I initially suspected, when given a choice between something not fun that offered a reward and something fun that didn't, would choose the unfun rewarding activity over the fun non-rewarding activity.

I work at a job I dislike because I need the reward from it (my paycheck) in order to simply survive. I don't want to spend what little free time I have feeling like I need to earn rewards in a video game to make it worth my time. I play the game and accept whatever rewards happen to come my way, but I don't do things I find unenjoyable in order to maximize them.

I suppose that's where the disconnect is occurring for me. I don't understand why people would do something in the game they find unfun simply because it gives better rewards. Especially since you get rewards for just playing the game in the first place.

Okay, so, what I'm getting out of the responses to my post is:

-I'm saying that everyone who doesn't play like me is wrong.

Not at all. I'm just wondering why people spend so much time doing something the don't enjoy in order to get a reward out of it, when that time could be spent doing something perhaps less rewarding, but more enjoyable.

When people use terms like "work" and "effort" to describe something meant for entertainment, it makes me scratch my head. I can't think of any time in my life I have ever "worked" at watching a movie, or put "effort" into a TV show.

But playing online video games is different. For an apparently overwhelming number of people it seems to be not only normal, but expected that you should put a lot of effort into the game in order to advance, or keep up with other players.

That's fine, as long as you're having fun doing it. But when it gets to the point that the rewards are more important than whether you're having fun or not, maybe it's time to do something else for a while.

I casually mentioned once that since I had never done a particular TF, that I would like to take my time with it. I was actually told: "It's not about having fun, it's about getting our merits as fast as we can." I was leading the TF, and was given no choice about the pace of it, even though I stated when I was recruiting for it that I was not interested in speed running it.

I guess what confuses me is that people actually seem to have the mentality of "Who cares if it's fun? We're getting STUFF!"

And I was misunderstood in my last post, by a couple people. When I said "In my opinion, if rewards are the sole reason you play the game, you're doing it wrong" it was interpreted wrong. If rewards are what make it fun for you, okay, I don't rally understand it, but it's your definition of fun, not mine.

But, if you DON'T find it fun, and are doing it JUST for the rewards, then you've missed the point of doing it. Unless getting the next shiny IS the point of the game, in which case I guess my approach of doing what I find fun regardless of the rewards involved makes ME weird.

Something has been bothering me slightly for a while now.

That thing is: Why are so many people obsessed with being rewarded for the time they spend playing City of Heroes?

I see complaints about the drop rate of Incarnate Shards, purples, and any other thing that you get while you're playing, and I can't for the life of me figure out why it is so important that people get these things.

Try something real quick: Think back to when you first started playing the game, and why. I can guarantee that, whatever your reason for playing the game was, it did not involve purple drops or Incarnate Shards. In fact, I would go so far as to say you started playing the game because it was fun.

Now, when I read the forums, it seems that for a lot of people, the amount of fun they have is directly connected to the amount of rewards they get while playing.

Look at anything else you do for enjoyment. Lets say you enjoy bowling, for example. When you go out bowling with your friends, you're going out for the express purpose of going bowling. Having fun while bowling is it's own reward. You don't get upset that you didn't get a trophy for it, you had fun bowling and that was the point of doing it.

Why are video games, and MMOs in particular, so different? You would think that it would be the same. If you go bowling to have fun, why wouldn't you play video games for the same reason?

But I see a lot of people saying that they are playing to get the rewards associated with it, and complaining when they feel that they aren't getting them fast enough. That would be the same thing as going bowling and getting upset that you didn't get a trophy at the end of the night.

What happened to the fun? Why do people feel the need to be rewarded for entertaining themselves? You don't expect a reward from watching TV or a movie. You don't expect a reward for playing catch with your son (or dad, as the case may be). You don't epect a reward for going bowling, or hanging out with your friends. In all of those activities you do to entertain yourself, the fun you have while doing it IS the reward.

Why is a video game so different?