My City Weekend.

This weekend just gone it was Double Xp weekend in City of Heroes.
As much as I love Warhammer, I do still play in the City with Shannon and others and really... double xp? How can you not?

A little recap of the achievements.

Robo-Buddy Mk III (Crab Spider) went from 47 to 50, making him my 6th 50.
Tempestas Silex (Controller) went from 46 to 48, on the cusp of 49. Two more levels and the great staminaless duo (a conversation for another time) will hit 50.
Specialist Mitchell (Shield Tank) went from 21 and a bit to 31ish. I say ish because Shannon is at home, playing the last of DXP and our Specialists are using level pact. It is entirely possible that I could log in when I get home and hit 32.
[Breaking news : Ding 32]

A few other characters got some work, including my scrapper and Warshade.

DXP weekends are always food for thought. Seph for one DXP weekend thought ahead and made sure to buy in groceries and dinners that could be cooked quickly to ensure minimal downtime due to food. His lovely other half Erin also got plenty of xp that day.
I myself made sure to have snacks on hand, no plans and a clear idea of who I wanted to get where in the grand scheme of things.
Then there's folks (who shall remain nameless) in the coalition who all but drove themselves into the ground. Missing sleep, missing meals and practically making themselves sick... all because of double the normal reward.

City of Heroes isn't that hard any more. It really isn't. Without doing the crotchety old guy schtick, when I started, debt was a big deal. Missions were worth the same as random mobs in the street. You slogged to 14 (travel power), then to 20 (Stamina), six slotted it to squeeze the best out of it and rejoiced at 22 when you got Single Origin enhancements.

Now there are Yin-Os and IOs. There are missions to get a travel power from level 5. There is patrol xp, rewarding you with faster levelling for taking a break and more besides. Yet people organise their weekends around these events and others.

Is it good to see?
Yes and no.

One or two Double Xp weekends a year is all you should have. Any more and the novelty is undone. Also you want people to keep playing your game, if it was DXP the last weekend of every month, everyone would hit the cap with very little effort in very little time. People are everywhere, work is done. It's a good time for most.
The dark side is of course the people who will play insane hours to their own detriment or the inevitable complaints from people who can't play. DXP regularly puts Virtue server in the red and unstable. It population locks Freedom Server. You can imagine what the boards look like after a crash or an inability to log in.

I had a good weekend. But I wouldn't do it often.