The Curious Case of DC Universe Online

Some day you’ll be able to play DC Universe Online on the PC and PlayStation 3. This, along with a few other scraps of random screenshots and information, is all anyone knows about the massively multiplayer online game. Video footage of actual gameplay is scarcer than gold Kryptonite. The trickle of information reached new levels of madness today when Sony Online Entertainment made an official announcement that Zatanna, a D-list superhero (fear her because she casts mighty spells by reciting them backwards) if there ever was one, would appear in the game. True, other characters have been revealed, including heavy hitters like Superman, Batman, and Green Lantern, but in something called DC Universe Online, it would be more of a story if these guys didn’t suit up for the show.

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The Bizarro trickle of information about DCUO should be troubling for anyone looking forward to playing it. MMOG’s that feature already-established properties like The Matrix and Star Wars (another red flag: SOE also had a hand in both of these troubled MMOG projects) are extremely tough to pull off. The inherent flaw with these types of games is no one gets to be Neo, Luke Skywalker, and Superman because everyone wants to play as Neo, Luke Skywalker, and Superman. As a result, when you eventually play DCUO, you’ll have to settle for being a generic caped crusader and hope that sometime soon you’ll bump into the real Dark Knight (you’ll know things aren’t going well if you find yourself running into Zatanna instead).

I don’t see how SOE is going to make this work. I get a headache just thinking about the logistics involved with putting DCUO together. In a recent Facebook video Q&A (a rare instance of disclosure that, not surprisingly, doesn’t include any in-game footage), a developer boldly proclaims “This is the best superhero game you’ve ever played”. Does anyone actually believe this?

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Mike Williams

I put some decent hours into City of Heros. I was never much of a social gamer and I had no interest in doing raids or teaming up. I wanted to be Daredevil. I wanted to police a small section of the city by myself and just tear up low level thugs and organized crime. Soloing was near impossible so I had to give it up. Hopefully DCUO can do it better.
charlieromeobravo

“a developer boldly proclaims “This is the best superhero game you’ve ever played”. Does anyone actually believe this?”

Has anyone ever heard a developer saying anything else about the game they were working on? :-)

@Mike Williams
I played COH for several years. They’re pretty up front about the game being more team friendly than solo friendly but you can definitely solo in CoH. You just can’t expect to see all the content the game has to offer.
http://loonyboi.com/ loonyboi

In fairness, SOE had nothing to do with the development of The Matrix online. They only picked it up post-release when Sega dropped it like a ton of bricks. Why they did that is beyond me, but at least they didn’t develop it.

I am very curious about DCUO. It *could* be great. The scenarios for fighting alongside the various heroes of the DCU sound pretty cool, actually. Although I do expect to see a million guys with names like B@man and Souperman.
http://loonyboi.com/ loonyboi

Also Mike, when did you play CoH? By the time I got around to playing it, soloing was actually really easy to do. It eventually evolved into one of the most solo-friendly MMOs out there.

I hate other people, so I always play MMOs solo.