Just what do most people do in Freedom Force?

[kkhohoho]

So, I'm someone who at this point mainly dabbles in FF (FFvsTTR mostly,) having already played the campaigns and most of the major mods for both games, but I'd like to be a bit more committed to it. The problem is, if I want to use my my own hero files, I either have to put them in a campaign that they've got no business being in, or just put them in the Rumble Room. For me, the Rumble Room is just like playing a match in a fighting game; it's fun for a bit, but it only goes so far, and doesn't always hold your interest for that long. So just what about FF keeps your interest? What keeps you playing it after all these years, and how do you keep it from getting stale? Because, at least for me, I don't really know what else to do with it other than turn it into a glorified action figure collection, and I'd like it to be a bit more than that. Anyone got any ideas on how to liven things up?

[BentonGrey]

Well, I imagine what I do is pretty obvious.    I mostly tell my own stories, build little projects that slowly morph into massive, sprawling undertakings that take way too long to finish.  Ha!  Basically, I start out thinking, 'you know, I really love X, but there isn't anything that is really just right out there for it.  Ohh!  I should make that!'  It usually starts with the characters, trying to get them 'right,' or with a story that comes to me and demands to be told.  That's how the DCUG got started, trying to create my perfect, nonexistent comic universe.  I wanted the DC Universe to be 'right,' which didn't really exist anyplace.  As I started building the characters and seeing the whole universe come together, I started creating stories.  It began with Batman, and from there it exploded outward.  These days, I spend most of my time designing characters, hassling the talented people in the community to make stuff for my projects, writing stories, creating maps, and doing all the other 1000 and 1 things that go into making a mod. 

I don't get to play through my own stories as much as I'd like, since I'm always fighting to get things done.  I'm usually playing a mission to see if it's broken, and when I actually get it working, I rarely get a chance to go back to it.  I have really enjoyed playing through my Pulp and Marvel campaigns to see where I left them, though.  That was a lot of fun because they were mostly finished.

I can still get a real thrill out of throwing characters together in the RR and seeing how they interact.  I had a blast pitting the Avengers against the Squadron Supreme as I was testing balance, and I always have fun testing new characters.  I think one of my favorite things may be when I get a shiny new skin/skope for a character I never thought I'd see and get to go into the game and create them, OR when I write a story, do all the drudge work of setting up the map and everything, and then go in and see it all come to life.  That makes it all worthwhile.

In terms of what you can do, well, that's part of the reason I make my mods!  I design them to be platforms for storytelling, with lots of resources at a player's fingertips to create their own adventures.  I've done all the heavy lifting, so folks can just come along, take one of the included maps, write their own story using built-in characters, and bring it to life.  That's what I would recommend.  If nothing else, you can recreate some of your favorite comic stories.

[Podmark]

other than turn it into a glorified action figure collection

That's kind of what it is to me. That and it scratches my artistic itch.
In a theoretic world I'd love to some mods; put the characters I skinned into action.

[Panther_Gunn]

Back when I had time for it, what kept my interest would mostly be alternating between having plain vs. battles in the Rumble Room of varying flavors/themes, and taking teams through the Instant Action themes, seeing which teams could get a higher score (LSH, JLA, Avengers, Teen Titans, X-Men, etc).  And when I thought of another team to put through the paces, I would go through making all of the characters for the next team, researching them, tweaking them just right, testing, etc.  Cycles of creation and curiosity gratification.

[detourne_me]

other than turn it into a glorified action figure collection

That's kind of what it is to me. That and it scratches my artistic itch.
In a theoretic world I'd love to some mods; put the characters I skinned into action.

Ditto!
I like constantly learning new things while making content for the game.

[Cyber Burn]

For me, FF/FFvt3R has helped me learn a bit about Computers, it's allowed me to develop a sense of creativity, and when the opportunity has arisen, I've gotten to be a part of something bigger by helping others with their projects.

But the main thing that keeps me around, isn't the FF/FFvt3R games in and of themselves, but rather, it's actually FR, and all the fantastic people that I've been fortunate enough to meet here over the years. This alone is going to keep me interested in the game, and in the Community.

[abenavides]

For me, it's definitely the story-telling aspect. (At least it will be, once I get that going again!).

And like Cyber, I've learned a lot of new technologies and skills from being involved with FF. From PHP and MySQL so I can do things on my website, to Python which I learned to script missions, and I'm even decent with Photoshop now (maybe someday I'll release some skins!)

And believe it or not, there's still some mods I would reaally like to make time for and just play! (someday!)

[Deaths Jester]

I mainly use it to try out new art techniques and experiment with skinning ideas.  It might sound weird, but the graphics engine is perfect for just tinkering with ideas and just strong enough to give me a good idea of what things might like look before I go do trying the idea in another game engine.  That and we all know...obscure characters need to be done...

[daglob]

I mainly use it to try out new art techniques and experiment with skinning ideas.  It might sound weird, but the graphics engine is perfect for just tinkering with ideas and just strong enough to give me a good idea of what things might like look before I go do trying the idea in another game engine.  That and we all know...obscure characters need to be done...

Ditto. I call this thing a silly game all the time, and it is. But the people who participate that make it something more. Everyone here wants everyone else to have fun. I like making characters that I enjoyed reading, or still enjoy reading (working on "Glare of the Gorgon" by "Kenneth Robeson" right now). Some of it is simple egoboo, but it is also support (see "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" in the general forum) , education (all sorts of stuff), creativity... words are starting to fail me. This is just a nice place to be. So, maybe it's not the game itself that brings me back.

And it is a collection of action figures, some extremely personalized.

And it is fun to load The Hulk into the danger room every once in awhile, give him cops to fight, and just start smashing the city.

[BentonGrey]

Yeah, y'all have hit on a bunch of things I didn't think about, but which are true for me too.  The community here keeps me active, even when I'm burnt out on modding.  I've also learned a TON working on this game.  A lot of what I've learned about computer in the last decade has been a function of figuring things out for Freedom Force.  I was able to open up a whole branch of language learning for our ESL students at our university because of what I learned about sound recording and editing making voicepacks. 

And yes, it is always fun to throw the Hulk, or Galactus, or Superman, or whoever into the RR and just level a city. 

[yell0w_lantern]

I cycle through my hobbies as I just don't have enough time for them all.  FF is darn fun to play and I am a hopeless tinkerer with this kind of stuff.

[SickAlice]

I'm in school for 3d modelling and other related subjects so I use it to hone my craft as well as a long term portfolio of my production. Also it's like collecting little virtual action figures that breathe and move about.

[skyflyerjen]

Have you played through the campaign with every available character?  I know I personally like to stick to certain teams for certain missions; I tend to not use many of them.  Maybe you'll get a different experience with a different team.