Champion of Chimp-peon?

I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned that I enjoy MMOs. So far, the best one I've ever played was Lord of the Rings: Online. Though it does sadden me to say that I don't play it anymore.

I've played several others, some good, some bad. I'm currently playing Star Trek Online, and Champions Online.

After a few bad experiences with MMOs I've gotten into the habit of not playing them until their first year of running, just so that many of the bugs can get ironed out. Given that I'm a fan of both superheroes and sci-fi, I broke that cardinal rule, and tried both. I got into Star Trek Online about 1 month after it hit the shelves, and tried Champions Online about 3-4 months in. Champions has been kind of hit-and-miss with me. It was buggy, had lag issues, servers constantly crashing, and creating characters with a good spread of skills was kind of tough because the descriptions of the abilities you were buying weren't often clear. It also doesn't take place in a world I'm familiar with, based on a RPG I've never played. Everything in the Champions universe seems like hodge-podge of homages to practically every sci-fi/fantasy/comic situation or character. Instead of Hulk, you get Grond. Instead of Iron Man, you get Defender, etc. I think there's a fine line between "homage" and "being unoriginal bastards". But after taking a 2-month break, I heard that they had done some revisions, fixed some bugs, applied some patches, and I'm back to my crime-fighting. And might need a 12-step program to quit.

Got a game-related milestone accomplished, too. Leveled a character up to level 25, and made them a nemesis to fight. Yay me! But does this make me a champion, or a chimp-peon?

Star Trek had alot more polish, had kick-ass space combat, and was overall pretty awash with Trekishness. Having watched all the different series' growing up, films as well, it was a formative thing while I was growing up. But I kind of let my fandom of Trek slide for the last few years. Playing Star Trek Online certainly rekindled that. If only the leveling were a bit easier, with less grinding cookie-cutter missions.

I think I have a hankering to play some now.

"Beam me up, Scotty."