Jonathan Northwood

Hailing from the Pacific Northwest, Jonathan’s addiction to the social aspects of gaming began over thirty years ago, and shows no sign of lessening. He currently self-medicates through judicious use of missions and street sweeping in both the Rogue Isles and Paragon City. When not tied to the keyboard, he can be found writing short stories and novels, enjoying anime, brushing up on his cooking skills, or looking for the Next Big Game™.

Articles by Jonathan Northwood

Patch 2.4? WoW!
So here's the question: what's so good about Blizzard's World of Warcraft patch 2.4? What's changed? What's been improved, and what's been fixed? More importantly, have the patch changes given lapsed players a reason to come back, and non-players a reason to try the game? While I'd love to have one of our WoW specialists answering those questions for you, most of them have shut off their mobile phones and pagers, with mumbled threats involving spleens, sporks, and being tossed "hogtied, naked, and alone into Naxxramas" if I disturbed them while they were experiencing what the patch has to offer.
Clan Gear: guild clothing for the masses
Adam and Freya Chapman have run Threadsafe, a direct-to-garment printing business, for the last two years, and have managed to pull in a number of corporate clients. They provide printing services for Bountee -- a custom t-shirt site on the internet -- and shirts for Freaklabel music, just to name two. Now, in conjunction with Adam's brother Keith, they're opening Clan Gear, a direct-to-garment printing outlet for gamers, where the focus on the printing is your artwork, your character, and your designs.Here's the rub: while Threadsafe has been in business for a couple of years now, Clan Gear is just starting up, and they're still working on their proof catalog. While you can keep up with the advances in technology (and the company itself) via Clan Gear's official forums, the best way to see what they've done in the past is to check out Threadsafe's commercial customers and the clans that have already availed themselves of Clan Gear's printing. Current samples up on their web page include shirts for Marshmallow Underground -- a World of Warcraft guild with over 300 members -- and Guilds United, a coalition of ten WoW guilds.
New CoX comic book: relive the wedding
On Valentine's Day, players who were able to access the Test Server had the opportunity to see Sister Psyche and Manticore wed. Today, however, the rose petals are swept up, giant mutant zombie pigeons have consumed the rice, and the confetti's been acquired by the Clockwork for use in their bizarre building schemes. Manticore's back on duty, as is Sister Psyche, but does that mean that the wedding has been retconned? Never. NCsoft, in conjunction with ChaseArcanum, has provided a downloadable comic book to commemorate the event, and is also allowing players to see the vows exchanged during the ceremony.
Samuraiko's wedding video: now with more chaos
For those of you who didn't have the opportunity to see the wedding of Sister Psyche and Manticore on Valentine's Day, Samuraiko Productions captured the joy and delight of the event. Ah, the outfits, the pre-wedding jitters, the explosive fury of Citadel's rage, it was all captured for posterity. Just think, when there are little Manticores and Sister Psyches running (or flying, or teleporting) about, Justin and Shalice can look back on their wedding day ... and only wish things were this quiet at home. For a high-quality version, please check out Samuraiko Productions' web site, but if you just can't wait, here's the YouTube version.
Iconic Bliss: CoX Valentine's Day event
Today's event provided closure -- and a new beginning -- for a love story that's spanned both years and comic books. Today Sister Psyche married Manticore, and we all wish them only the happiest of futures together. Thanks to NCsoft, and the writers and artists of Top Cow, we've had the opportunity to watch their relationship develop, deepen, and bring them closer together. And today, Positron said the magic words: "With the power vested in me by the state of Rhode Island, and Ken's 24 Hour Internet Ministry, I now pronounce you Husband and Wife... You may now kiss the bride!" %Gallery-16127%
Valentine's Day events in the City
Let the bells ring out for Manticore and Sister Psyche: they're finally formalizing the relationship they started in the comics. Today -- Valentine's Day 2008 -- City of Heroes icons Manticore and Sister Psyche will be wed in a live wedding ceremony in the main Training Room on the Test Server. Manticore will be controlled by Sean "Manticore" Dornan-Fish, and his off-server wife Jennifer Dornan-Fish will allow Sister Psyche to mindride her for the event. With Matt "Positron" Miller officiating, and other iconic heroes attending, it's sure to be a ceremony to remember. The ceremony will begin at 3:00 p.m. Pacific Time and will repeat hourly for the next three hours. Please note, though, that the service is first-come, first-served, and each presentation will only be open to 100 participants. It's the luck of the draw, heroes, so you and your villainous counterparts will need to find the ushers in Mercy Island and Atlas Park in order to attend.
CoX Server Cap reminder
As Lighthouse announced on 6 February, NCsoft has made significant investment in the CoX servers to assist with the current concerns for Double XP weekend as well as for future events, but there's still the possibility that servers will reach loads that risk performance degradation. At such times, they may have to lock players out of specific servers until the load lessens. While this is an unpopular decision with players who want to use specific servers, NCsoft feels that it's a necessary step to take in order to ensure game play for all players on the server is not severely negatively impacted.Based on this concern, they have instituted a server cap, and when servers that have reached their maximum allowable capacity they will show as grayed out with a status of Full. Unfortunately, the server load seems to be hitting the West Coast servers particularly hard, as Freedom and Virtue were bouncing between yellow and red most of Friday afternoon and well into the night. Then again, as Lighthouse noted, "The Freedom server is accommodating more players than it, or any other City of Heroes server has, ever has before in recent history. In reviewing the last several years of log files I can't find where we've even been within 30% of the new number." That being said, if you have any issues with, concerns over, or questions about the server cap, please don't hesitate to visit the official forums.
Positron discusses XP curve smoothing in CoX
CoX Lead Designer Matt "Positron" Miller took some time out of his schedule to discuss XP Curve Smoothing. As was mentioned previously, the patch currently on Test provides enemy XP value increases across most levels, with the largest increases appearing between levels 13 to 20 and 36 to 50. As he explains, this action was taken to balance playability and level concerns, with the difficulty variable required for certain groups, zones, and missions.
CoX updates now on Test
Starting today, CoX patch 16.20080122.0 is live on the Test server. Both sides will see some important changes. Aside from a Combat Attribute window and Attribute monitor, a number of playability enhancements have been made. Debt is lowered across the board, Tasks can be dropped more often, Powers were tweaked, a large number of changes were made to Inventions, Server Transfers were clarified, a few Graphical Effects were adjusted, Base Storage is now more understandable, and the 45 Month Veteran Reward grants a free Respec. For City of Heroes players, changes were made to the Scrapper, Blaster, Defender and Tanker ATs, while City of Villains players will find changes to the Masterminds and Stalkers, instead. For both, graphical and sound effects have been adjusted for wristband summoning and strafing transitions.If you've been dealing with the known issue of spammers sending you influence and power leveling offers in-game, you needn't worry about them any longer. One of the changes in this patch is that characters below 10th level cannot send in-game email. For most players, this means their first two or three days of game play will see them blocked from sending (but not from receiving, reading, or deleting) mail, but it should also keep the spammers from flooding our inboxes. Speaking of known issues, if you run CoX in Vista, Vista-compatible cursors are now part of the build. As Lighthouse mentioned previously, though, changes on Test may be altered or reverted before going live. Now go forth, ye spandex-clad legions, and test that update.
CoX's Double XP weekend announced
You've been waiting, hungering for it, and now it's here. NCsoft announced today that the next CoX Double XP weekend will start immediately after the weekly maintenance on Friday, 8 February, and will end on Sunday, 10 February. For those of you who've never experienced a Double XP weekend, it's not just the XP that gets doubled, it's everything. During the course of the weekend, you'll wind up with twice as much XP, prestige, and influence/infamy. Don't worry, though: debt penalties aren't doubled, only the sweet taste of success. So plan on pressing your capes and brushing the dust off your winged sandals, the Rogue Isles and Paragon City are in for some serious server hits in February. As always, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to bring them up in the official forums.
PotBS: Seattle launch party
A little more than five years ago, Flying Lab Software began nudging their pirate ship into the treacherous shoals of software development. As they navigated through the vagaries of deadlines and beta tests, constantly circled by the ever-present threat of player ennui, they made their way into the Bay of Beta Testing, and users got their first glimpses of a new, immersive world. As of yesterday, Pirates of the Burning Sea is live, and now everyone has the opportunity to participate in a battle royale between the naval forces of France, Britain, Spain, and the hordes of pirates that roamed the Caribbean in this version of 1720.Massively had the opportunity to attend the Flying Lab PotBS launch party in Seattle, and also had the opportunity to sit down with some of the movers and shakers who brought you this phenomenal title. What does all of this mean? It means we managed to get some more information about future patches and expansion plans. Now that we're back home, we can tell you what the developers, the producers, and the CEO of the company told us. So get a firm grip on your tricorns and batten down your hatches, you swabs, the seas are fierce ahead.%Gallery-14155%
CoX: player-written guide updates
CoX Community Coordinator Ex_Libris would like to remind y'all that the Player Guide Section in the official forums is in need of updating, and they'd like to have all updates completed by the end of the month. That being said, if you've built a guide, please make sure that it's both up-to-date and listed in the Guide of Guides section.Aside from assisting your fellow spandex-clad heroes and spangle-bedecked villains, building a guide is a great way to make sure that you're rock-solid on everything that you need to know about your specific archetype. And please remember, if you need to delete an old or incorrect version of your guide, send a message to Zombie_Man, and he'll take care of it for you.
PvP for great Justice
Like to fight? Want to ring in the new year with the bells in your opponent's head? Well then, head on over to Justice, 'cause you'll be in the right place. The Merry Prankster, the Saturday Night Fights, the PvP Event Committee, and KPOW Justice Radio are all teaming together to host an almost three month long PvP/PvE festival. And just so you know they're serious, there's serious swag on the line, too: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place teams will all win physical trophies, alts with the best costumes will receive rare salvage or recipes, and the hightest-level alt at the end of the event will win a special prize.
MarsCon landing for CoX
The Stars of Paragon are hosting a booth at MarsCon 18 from 18-20 January 2008. If you're going to be in the vicinity of Williamsburg, Virginia, it may well behoove you to check it out. They're currently planning panel discussions -- based on interest and participation, of course -- and an LCD projector to show City of Villains and City of Heroes goodness to the other participants who have, sadly, not embraced NCsoft's gaming glory.Whether you're attending in order to sip Superadine and Rage punch handed out by glamorous super heroines, or get some assistance in building a character for teaming or soloing, feel free to drop by. It is, after all, a combination of educational forum and meet & greet, so you never know who you might see there. Incidentally, if you're an experienced player, please let Mike Halo know if you're available to assist with character builds and walkthroughs. Kudos to the Stars of Paragon for setting this up, and here's hoping to see some of you at MarsCon.
One of CoX's P.E.R.C.s
Whether you're feeling valorous or villainous on Virtue, you're in good hands. In fact, whichever server is your home du jour, you'll find plenty of P.E.R.C.s in asking for assistance. The Player Event Resource Committee is here to help you plan, support, and run events, whether they're server-specific or game-wide.Need some help setting up a raid in City of Villains? They're here to help. Want to build a cross-server smackdown of evil in City of Heroes? They can assist with that, as well. They've brought together players from each server, and they're focused on enhancing the CoX experience by making sure your events run smoothly. So far, it sounds as though they're doing a bang-up job of making sure they're meeting the goals stated in their charter.
Be a hero: put on The Cape
If you like good music, good conversation, and a good lineup of DJs, then it's a good idea to put on The Cape. And please, don't forget the commercials: listening to Lord Recluse talk about the Rogue Islands Pet Shelter is enough to make even a hero weep with laughter.The Cape radio is one of Virtue's best-known and most enjoyed web-based radio stations, and you can access it via Winamp, iTunes, or the WIndows Media Player at http://www.thecaperadio.com:8000. Whether you enjoy thwarting villainy in Paragon City, or embracing it in the Rogue Isles, you'll have a soundtrack to match your deeds with The Cape fluttering behind you.
Massively's Holiday Gallery - CoX
As we've previously mentioned, many MMOs are currently running their winter events, and we here at Massively have started to compile a gallery of screen shots from various titles: Saint Nicholas may not be sharing today, but -- as you can see from the snowball fight above -- we're going to share everything from the missions to the mischief. We hope you enjoy the images. For our first offering, here's the CoX winter event. As Eli noted, it went live on 17 December; and, while we've told you about the badges you could win on the slopes, as well as the new salvage and old missions, we thought you might enjoy actually seeing what winter in Paragon City and the Rogue Isles looks like. After all, a picture is worth 1,000 words, right? From snow beasts to Baby New Year, we've tried to capture it all in the Holiday Gallery. %Gallery-12217%
CoX Costume Contest winners announced
NCsoft has announced the winners of the annual CoX Halloween costume contest, and the results are up on the official forums. We'd like to congratulate CutestLilHero for winning the Best Overall, and kudos to both Reginold Longbarrel and Komic Kitten for Best Villain and Best Hero, respectively. The Community Pick winner was Dark-Hammer.A gallery of the official winners -- as well as images of the Community Pick contestants -- is available, so check out the creativity your fellow players show in matching life to art. Each year, this contest lets you know who wears the Spandex in the City of Heroes/Villains universe. And, as always, if you have any questions or concerns, a discussion section has been opened on the official forums.
CoX up for Reader's Choice nomination
Like City of Heroes? Love City of Villains? Want to show your support for them? Then cast your votes in MMORPG.com's 2007 Reader's Choice Awards. NCsoft's CoX line was nominated for Most Improved Game of the Year, Best Genre Other than Fantasy, and Best Game of the Year. You can also vote for it in the Favorite Pay to Play, Best Graphics, and Favorite Game Company categories.If you'd like to discuss the nominations, or share the "squee-riffic" feeling with your friends and the developers, head on over to the official forums and let them know your opinion. Don't forget, though, that you only have until December 30th to vote. So enjoy the game, folks, and lets keep those votes coming.
For NCsoft, spreading joy is Child's Play
NCsoft has a reputation for focusing on both the human element as well as the metahuman in their games, and their corporate culture is no different. This year, the City of Heroes team is auctioning off a poster signed by the development team, a signed City of Villains Collector's Edition game box, and a City of Villains Lord Recluse statue, with all of the proceeds benefitting the Seattle-based Child's Play charity. Whether you frequent Paragon City or make your lair in the Rogue Isles, it's Child's Play to help yourself to some CoX goodness this holiday season, and to help out children in need at the same time.