Twelve Years In A Rubber Suit

Even as I was compiling that list of mmorpgs I remembered playing in 2022, I was aware there had to be some I'd forgotten. One that seems embarrassingly obvious in retrospect is DC Universe Online.

I've been "playing" DCUO since beta. It's set in my lifelong spiritual homeland, the DC Comics metaverse, and I'm eligible to play as a "Member" thanks to the game's inclusion in Daybreak's All Access pass, an excellent offer to which I subscribe annually, mainly for EverQuest II.

I put "playing" in quoatation marks because all I ever really do in DCUO is log in to grab the  giveaways that catch my eye, something that happens several times a year. I'm mostly interested in decorating my base, which is coming along quite nicely, thanks for asking. DCUO probably isn't the first game you'd think of when it comes to housing but it's probably my second-favorite after EQII these days.

After I've picked up any new posters, furnishings and house pets, I generally take a look at the current Episode, as the regular content drops are known. Featuring familiar locations, characters and plotlines from the extended DC Universe, these often tie in with whatever movie is in the cinemas at the moment. I'm not sure if they ever follow developments in the actual comics, which increasingly seem to be there purely for the purpose of providing a foundation for expansion into just about every other medium imaginable.

That's a whole other post, though. For now, let's stick to what happens when I log into the game.

To an extent, coming back to DCUO every few months is like dropping back into any mmorpg. There's always some patching as the client catches up, followed by a flurry of pop-ups and notifications when you log in to the game itself. 

Compared to some, DCUO is really quite tidy and well-organised when it comes to catching you up on what's been happening since you last dropped by. There are usually some big, banner headlines about the current Episode and any Holiday or, in this case, Anniversary content that happens to be running. You're offered a choice: jump straight into the action or save it for later. 

Once you've made your decision, everything you didn't pick remains available from a neat sub-menu, accessible by pressing F1. A smallish icon in the shape of a wrapped gift sits on screen, reminding you not to miss out but as soon as you press it once, it goes away, trusting you to manage your own affairs from then on.

This morning, when I hit F1, I was faced with the choice of either claiming my "Granted" items or collecting Doctor Fate's Daily Rewards. I can't say I recognized the screen that appeared when I selected the latter. I can't honestly remember if DCUO even had daily login rewards last time I played. Maybe the entire system is new.

This, of course, is something that happens every time I log in to any mmorpg after a few months (Or years...) away. It's not just the new stuff that confounds expectations - it's the not-so-new stuff I've forgotten since the last time I was there.

Naturally, my first inclination is to claim absolutely anything on offer. I'm all about the free stuff. Unfortunately, in most games, a hoarding habit leads to inventory issues that are only made worse by this kind of wantonly acquisitive behavior. It was no surprise at all today, when I hit the buffers on storage before I'd hoovered up all the freebies on offer.

That led to the typical secondary behavior of checking everything in my bags, finding a vendor, selling a few things to make space, opening everything that could be opened, equipping any upgrades that fell out, selling everything that didn't seem like it was going to be needed and destroying whatever could neither be sold nor used. After that I was able to go through the "Granted" list and refill my bags from the freebie pile, before repeating the above sequence with a whole new set of boxes.

One of the reasons I prefer DCUO's housing items to any other kind of handout in the game is that they're comparatively simple to process. Not absolutely simple because DCUO's decoration system lies somewhat towards the technical end of the spectrum, requiring multiple steps and the use of in-house devices just to hang a picture on the wall. Still, compared to the actual gear, weaponry and ancillary combat support paraphenalia, placing a poster or adding a light fitting seems a lot more manageable.

In this session, for example, I received Batman as an Ally. The Ally system was added relatively recently and I have no clear understanding as yet of how it works. 

Batman comes with a list of features and abilities so long it requires a separate command to scroll through all of them. I'm sure he's a great asset in a fight. In the comics, somehow he always manages to be useful, even though he has no actual superpowers and would, you might think, very quickly be reduced to a bloodstained smear by even a run-of-the-mill alien invasion.

For now (And most likely for ever.) I settled for recording his availability by "Collecting" him. There's a lot of "collecting" in DCUO, where the term covers both actual collections of objects and data found in the world and the adding of styles, appearances and, as in this case, allies to your hero's repertoire.

With the acquisition stage out of the way, what I tend to do next is visit the starting area of the current Episode, where the feature character and a selection of their team-mates, amanuenses, acquaintances and professional nosey-parkers stand around wearing exclamation points for hats. The idea is to scoop up all the missions then run around the dedicated instance, ticking off tasks until everyone's satisfied. That gives you currency to spend at the Episode vendors - or something. 

I'm not really clear what it gives you, if I'm honest, because I rarely if ever get to the end of an Episode. By the time I've been playing for an hour or so I usually find I've had about as much DCUO as I can take in one bite. Despite being very well-documented and approachable, it can still be a little overwhelming, a trait it shares with just about every mmorpg ever made.

I imagine it's a boon to the regulars but for a returning player, the overlap between events can also prove daunting. As well as the current episode, featuring the new-to-me Black Adam, who just happens to have a movie out right now but whose previous existence in the extended universe had otherwise somehow managed to pass me by, DCUO is celebrating it's twelfth anniversary. 

I'm not sure if it says anything about the resources available at Dimensional Ink or just points to the understandable ennui that accompanies all but the most significant of birthdays after a certain age, but the event for the Twelfth is a repeat of the Anti-Monitor event from previous years. Actually, for all I know, that's the annivesary event every year. I mean, it's not like I was at any of them... oh, wait a moment...

There are, naturally, new rewards even if the content is old. One of the most notable is a free character advance to Combat Rating 333. To unpack the jargon there, it's a bump-up of any one character of your choice to the current minimum entry requirement for end-game content. Everyone gets this, free players too, and it's available to claim until the end of January, so if you've ever played the game or think you might like to try it, don't hang about. You do need a Level 10 character to qualify but you can get to ten in an hour or so, so don't let that put you off.

If you do miss the skip bus, don't worry; there'll be another along in a while. As you can see from the screenshot, this would appear to be at least the fifth such Advance I've claimed and I think it's more than that because I have a couple of characters who seem to be a lot higher level and CR than I remember putting in the time to achieve.

I haven't yet decided who to use my boost on. Chances are, by the time I make up my mind, CR333 won't be the tipping point any more, anyway. Not that it matters. It's not like I'm ever going to do current content outside of the easy-mode, all-levels episode instances and the open-world holiday boss zergs. Mostly I won't even manage those. I ran out of steam today before I'd even started any of the half-dozen missions Black Adam and his gnag had handed me.

But of course I'll be back. I always am. Twelve years and counting. DCUO is never going to be my main mmorpg or even my significant other but I'd bet I'll be picking up my comic-book cover posters and hanging them in my base until either the game ends or I do. And based on current trends in live service gaming, the smart money has to be on the game.