Captain Piett

First of all, I admit it: I stole the name. I'm sure at least one of you knows from where. But I think it's an acceptable theft since... well, that'll come out eventually. :)

Fyre and Will make for an interesting duo. I've always been told that defense-based characters are risky at best, but teaming a force-fielder with a fire dom is proving to be pretty cool. It was rough at first, but now with Will on IOs and DOs, only bosses seem to be able to give the mercenaries too much trouble. I can't wait to see what happens once I've got Stamina, SOs, and Dispersion Bubble.

But mechanics isn't what I wanted to talk about here. I'm having a blast playing a "newbie".

Will was living in Paragon City when the Rikti attacked. He lived a fairly sheltered existence there, details of which I haven't let slip yet. He left shortly after the invasion and has been traveling the world, doing the mercenary thing for the past few years. He does his research before he takes a job, but he was never a hero and doesn't have any security clearance of any sort. So while he's heard of a few of the more obvious things, I take a large portion of what I've learned playing CoH to level 50 (almost three times), and I throw it out the window.

Will doesn't believe Fyre when she tells him about the connection between the Lost and the Rikti. He doesn't know who the Malta Group is. He's heard of the Tsoo but had never seen them before last night. He didn't know Crey was an evil corporation (although that was easy enough to believe since they have a headquarters in the Rogue Isles). He's never heard of the Paragon Protectors.

I think once you've played the game for long enough, especially if you've gone all the way through to 50, it becomes easy to take for granted everything you've learned. It's easy to forget that a huge majority of what your hero learns along the way is a secret from most the world. Look at people creating brand-new characters who work elements of the game world into their character's background and get it wrong. Especially the Rikti, who are [potential spoiler alert] not aliens from another planet, but humans from another dimension [end spoiler].

And honestly, while it's easy to get comfortable in the world of CoX, pull yourself out of the game for a moment and think about some of the plots, pretending that you know nothing about them. To the average Joe on the street, what the heroes of Paragon go through has got to sound pretty ridiculous. So that's the way I'm playing Will. Sure, some of the plots of Paragon bleed over into the Rogue Isles. And yes, Will will have to come to terms with some of it. Eventually.

My favorite moment of the night? I'll try to dig up the exact quote later, but as Fyre was trying to explain Rikti politics and the factions to Will, she said she regretted not paying more attention when E was talking. :)