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A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Someone dies at the end, part one
So that doubled experience weekend sort of, um, didn't happen. In my defense, by the time we knew about it, it was Wednesday. That's when you read the column, but not when it's written. So I couldn't do much more other than shake my head and wonder what I was going to talk about when City of Heroes had inadvertently yanked my column topic away at the last moment as if it were a football. Instead, we're going to look at the rumblings about the first Signature Story arc, which asks us who is going to die at the end. Now, to be fair, "nobody" is a valid answer. But it's heavily implied that one of the members of the Surviving Eight will bite the big one, and that means a big shakeup in the game's status quo. So let's run down the big eight and see which one seems most likely to die, at least in comic book terms. (And yes, it's comic book terms. War Witch is already dead, and that hasn't stopped her from being in-game as a trainer, remember?)
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Spotlight on Hellions & Skulls
In every hierarchy, there has to be someone on the bottom, and that's where the Skulls and the Hellions sit. Sure, these gangs are terrifying to the civilian populace of Paragon City, but to heroes they're little more than a mild irritant. (They're probably less terrifying to the civilian populace of the Rogue Isles just by virtue of terror overload.) The one thing they're perfect for, however, is starting at the bottom of the many enemy groups within City of Heroes, because these two gangs are likely to be among your first enemies and the ones you level past the fastest. Normally, villain groups deserve their own writeups, but in the case of these two gangs they can't help but be lumped together. Not just because they're similar in play, but because they're similar in structure. They're both the new kids on the block, metaphorically speaking, and they;'ve both made aggressive gains in various parts of Paragon City. The good fortune of one necessitates the fall of the other, even if one of the gangs is clearly destined for disintegration sooner or later. So let's look at the facemask-wearing enemies of the early-level game.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: In the case of archetypes
I can't say I'm unhappy about the announcement of a new round of powerset proliferation in City of Heroes, but I can be a little upset about the timing. I mean, really, Paragon? You couldn't have waited until my ten-part series talking about the powers available to each archetype was a little more cold in the ground before shooting it to pieces? Would that have been such a tragedy? Now it's pre-obsoleted before I even had the chance to develop a profound dissatisfaction for it. Oh, well. I might not be able to go back and edit all of the columns to accommodate all the upcoming changes (well, not credibly, anyway), but I can at least talk about the process and my thoughts behind the overall focus. And even if the columns won't quite stand the test of time, methodology matters, right? So let's get on with it and take a look back over the ten core archetypes, talk a little more about the epic archetypes, and even glance at the future of each given set.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Nine misconceptions about Freedom
So one of the interesting elements of having written up the initial column and post on the newest City of Heroes change is that I didn't have time to really see what the community reaction would be. I knew that I was excited about City of Heroes Freedom, and I knew that there was a lot to hope for, but the only guess I could make was that people would crow about the game's impending demise rather than focusing on the many positives coming from the switch to a hybrid model. It's been two weeks now, and while I won't claim to have my finger on the pulse of the community (who the heck is Leonardo Leonardo?), I do think I've gotten a general idea of the biggest complaints about the upcoming change. Some of them are entirely accurate -- yes, you will have free players on your server, and yes, that will include the already-burgeoning Virtue. But other complaints are a bit inaccurate or stem from misunderstandings, so today I want to talk about the nine points that seem most frequently misunderstood about Freedom.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: In the case of Stalkers
It's kind of fitting that I wrap up this series on archetypes in City of Heroes just before I begin a six-week stint of a game chosen by popular opinion (go ahead and check in on Choose My Adventure if you're curious) because it's time for the last of the lot, one that seems almost obvious in retrospect when you look at the pattern in which I've been talking about each archetype. Scrappers were followed by a hybrid melee class, Brutes, which were followed by the Tankers, followed by the similarly party-oriented Defenders. Then we moved on to the inversely powered Corruptors, then the similar secondaries of Masterminds... and so on. Long story short, there's just one archetype left, and in many ways it makes sense that this one would come at the absolute end of the proceedings. After all, we're talking about a class that prefers to stay hidden, one that sneaks out of sight and destroys opponents through a sudden and unexpected blow to the vitals. That's right, it's time to talk about Stalkers, and whether you're new to the game or just the class, let's cap things off with the sneakiest player option in the entire game.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Freedom
I know, I promised you all Stalkers today. But in case you haven't noticed, something sort of trumped the last archetype under discussion. Something like City of Heroes making one of the biggest announcements in the history of the game. And the weirdest part is, I'm writing this before most of the world knows about it, after being on the phone with Paragon Studios and talking about all of the cool stuff that's coming along with City of Heroes Freedom. Working in game journalism means knowing about what's coming up before other people much of the time. I knew that there was something big en route when I sat down on the call, but honestly I had expected another expansion pack. And that's really what we're getting here, albeit not quite in the format that most players would expect. This is another major expansion to the game, one that will open up the playerbase as well as offering new content to existing players. So this is one of those times when it's almost difficult to sit down and focus clearly enough to write about what's coming, just because the net effects are so far-reaching.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: The freedom to travel
The issue under discussion today is not something that will make or break City of Heroes. It is not a massive problem or a huge threat to the game's continued operation. But it is an issue, and in many ways it's the same sort of issue that led to the development team finally granting us the Fitness set as an inherent power set more than six months ago. And just like that, it requires a bit of a history lesson, some conceptual nattering, and an understanding of what relevance gameplay restrictions had in the past and have in the present. See, today I'm talking about travel powers. The fact of the matter is that we've gone from having travel powers as an important milestone at level 14 to having those powers be more or less irrelevant in their restrictions. There are arguably bigger issues that have to be attended, more pressing areas of the game in need of updates or cleanup... but it's important to look at these issues as well. In the wake of the (singularly awesome) Steampunk Pack, it's as good a time as any to look at what the game is doing now and ask whether there are pieces of complexity that aren't really necessary.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: In the case of Blasters
In a way, there's a unique glory to unrepentant damage-dealing classes. Let the other characters focus on having unique and subtle hybrid style, through which every movement builds into some arcane methodology. That's all well and good, but you need to have a character option whose sole purpose in life is destruction. The sort of class whose idea of subtlety is shooting the target, shooting it again, and setting it on fire, and if there's anything left after all of that, maybe you'll ask it a question or two. A hammer is an excellent tool when you just want something smashed, after all. Blasters fill the role of unmitigated damage dealer in City of Heroes, and that makes them a joy to write about because they are focused without being monodimensional. Whether you're new to the game as a whole or just new to playing a ranged damage machine, read on for a discussion of the archetype, its abilities, and what can be expected when you decide to just blast everything into oblivion.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Consumerism at its finest
As of today, the Steampunk Pack should be live in City of Heroes. If anyone needs me for the remainder of the evening, I'll probably be logged in and furiously punking some steam or whatever you would call it when one surrounds oneself with clockwork gizmos and dripping oil slicks. Suffice to say that I like this pack a lot even sight unseen -- I've been excited as heck about it since the announcement, and I'm more than ready to purchase this one the day it goes live. It's nice to see that the art department at Paragon Studios is putting a little more emphasis on launching specific theme packs for character costumes -- if you don't have any characters to use the concept, you can pass, but if you do, it's money well-spent. At the same time, I have to admit that I'd like to continue branching pretty far afield from the traditional superhero genre just to keep producing new packs. And hey, that's worth a column, especially as my head fills with visions of new costume pieces with steam and rivets.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: In the case of Dominators
Holy wow, it's been a really long time since the last archetype column. We kind of had an entire month (and then some) taken up with various anniversary shennanigans, and while I wouldn't exactly call that unfortunate, it did sort of take a bit of momentum out of the whole project. But we're back to discussing the archetypes of City of Heroes, and in a way today's discussion seems appropriate for being locked in place and unable to act for quite some time. Yes, today we're taking a look at how the other half lives when it comes to control-based sets with a look at the Dominator. Like every villainous archetype, the Dominator combines elements that were previously separate, but on the surface it looks an awful lot like a Controller. Whether you're new to City of Heroes or just to the archetype, it's a good time to understand the difference and show off the positive elements of the class, because while those differences from Controllers might be subtle, they're important.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Ruining your own birthday party
There are few times when I wish that my columns came earlier or later than they did. As it stands, this column doesn't go live until at least nine of the City of Heroes servers have gone through the big Praetorian invasion event, and that's kind of disappointing on one level, because I would like to use it to warn people about what's around the corner. Then again, at least we can all be united in disappointment. Or maybe I can be told that on every server other than Virtue, the event has been a non-stop cavalcade of roses and badges and possibly free Incarnate shards. Lots of things are possible. If it weren't obvious already, the implementation of Wednesday's event left a bad taste in my mouth that I'm still trying to spit out several days later. And while I'd really like to say it's the sort of thing that's wholly understandable and I don't mind the technical problems that cropped up... I really can't. There's complaining about lag, and then there's complaining about an event designed to run into huge problems that ran into bigger ones.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: The future freaks me out
I'm hoping that the "splitting the anniversary column into two parts" thing doesn't become a yearly tradition, but we took a look into the future last year, and we're going to do it again. We're also once again referencing a song with no relevance to the proceedings beyond the title, because when you establish a tradition, you darn well stick with it. The future does indeed freak me out a little bit, because just like it does every year, City of Heroes is facing a bunch of challenges. This coming year, City of Heroes is going to be facing an interesting field if for no other reason than the simple fact that not much is happening. Unlike the past few years, which saw major superheroic MMOs launching left and right, this year seems to be in the clear. DC Universe Online has launched, Champions Online is still working to fit into its free-to-play niche, and by and large it seems like the field once again belongs to the City as it always has. And that runs a bit counter to my predictions from last year, doesn't it?
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Seven years in the city, part two
Welcome back to the second part of our look back through the past year of City of Heroes. The last installment, in case you missed it, discussed the first two issues that went live over the past year, Issue 17 and Issue 18. And here's a quick recap: They were pretty awesome, but they were lacking much for the high-end portion of the game. This time we're turning our gaze forward to the later two issues, the good and the bad. And there was some bad that came with these updates, a certain level of unavoidable badness. I called this part of the game's history the fall of the unleveled empire, and while I don't think we've quite obtained empire status, there are those among us -- including me -- who either believed that leveling past a certain point would always be an option or believed at least that level-locking was something that happened to other games. Enough meandering about it -- let's finish up our look at City of Heroes in its seventh year of operation.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Seven years of city life, part one
It's the seven-year anniversary for City of Heroes, and that feels just as strange to type as I imagine it feels to read. Seriously, I remember when the game had just launched and was receiving rampant praise as the next big thing in MMOs. In my mind, the game is still part of the new guard of MMOs alongside other games like Ryzom and Guild Wars, games that are trying something different instead of the tired EverQuest-era rehashes. This is in sharp contrast to the fact that the computer I am running the game on now could not have existed when the game launched. But this isn't about how old I am (or feel); this is about seven years of our favorite superheroic MMO. Last year I had the unenviable task of trying to sum up six years of progress in the game, but this time around we're just looking at the stuff that's changed since April of 2010. But that's still a lot of ground to cover, so for today I'm going to look back at the first two patches City of Heroes received over its past year of operation... because there's a lot to unpack even there.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: The right now in review
About a year ago, we saw the six-year anniversary of City of Heroes, and along with the overly long and yet still not comprehensive retrospective, I wrote a column about what the game needed for the future. It was a reasonable column at the time, what with a year stretching out ahead of us, another potential competitor on the horizon, and the game's latest and greatest expansion still not available for play. But time makes liars of us all, and there are a lot of things that have happened over the past year. So before we look back on the game over the past year, let's take a look at what we needed then, what's happened since, and where I was enormously wrong. (I'm nothing if not honest.) And let's also look around at games other than City of Heroes, because let's face it, if you're in the genre of superheroic MMOs, you can't ignore the other two competitors in the fairly narrow field. When I first talked about the future, we were awaiting DC Universe Online's launch, and we weren't expecting any big business-model moves out of Champions Online.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: In the case of Controllers
Every game has certain classes that seem unique. I don't mean to suggest that the rest of City of Heroes isn't unique, but when the game launched, the Controller was definitely in a league by itself. Time has shown that the Mastermind's personal army makes the archetype a bit more uncommon than a class focusing on holds and control elements, but the Controller was pretty unique stuff when the game launched almost seven years ago. Or at least, it was to me. Other audience members may feel differently. These days, with the trinity in most games having supplanted any unique roles, it's even more odd to think of "support" as a party role to be filled. But we're not here to talk about the gradual erosion of what was once a far more robust party structure; we're here to talk about Controllers. They're one of the original heroic archetypes, and they're also a very odd class from a design perspective, with a lot of offensive abilities but very little direct punch. So whether you are new to City of Heroes or just have never played with a hold set before, click on past the break for a look at what makes the archetype tick.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Electric Nagaloo
I was sorely tempted to purchase a Razer Naga for City of Heroes, but it was Star Trek Online that finally pushed me over the edge. (Flying the ship with your mouse is the only way to go.) But that initial reasoning behind wanting one was a supicion deep within my brain that the mouse and the game would go together like peanut butter and chocolate, if the chocolate itself were already mixed with peanut butter. As it turns out, I was entirely right about that. You've heard me wax poetic about the little gadget before as a fine investment, but this is A Mild-Mannered Reporter, not Eliot Talks About Products He Likes. And before you drop money on a product, it's best to know how it's going to help you in practical terms rather than in abstract capabilities. So let's talk about using that Naga to really augment your City of Heroes experience, making you faster, more dangerous, and better able to manage complicated situations.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: In the case of Masterminds
It's hard to get a much more iconic villainous archetype than the Mastermind. Most of the City of Heroes choices can make perfect sense for both factions, but if you're calling in legions of battle droids to fight your opponents, you're really half a step away from building a laser to destroy Newark. (Although that might just be throwing good lasers after bad, there.) That doesn't mean that the players have no right to play on the faction they want, just that... it's a bit harder to see the archetype as particularly heroic. But we're not here to talk about the thematic elements of the class (or at least not just for that). This week it's time to look at what is also one of the most recognizable archetypes in City of Heroes by virtue of its uniquely overwhelming system of minions. So whether you're new to the game as a whole or just to this particular archetype, click on through for an examination of what it means to be a Mastermind.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Between the lines of PAX
I think that the first year of PAX East spoiled me for any and all future City of Heroes panels. At the time Paragon Studios held that panel, there was a new expansion due out in that marvelous sweet spot when it's just far enough away that a lot of questions are unanswered but not so far away that we can't be told all of the cool parts. Every panel since then has had a bit less to share, but really, that's kind of the nature of the beast. Until we get expansion number three on deck, we aren't going to have another panel with that much information and that many surprises unloaded all at once. Still, another part of my brain can't help but feel as if the most interesting part of this year's presence for City of Heroes wasn't the panel itself but the other elements surrounding the panel. (Considering that I already wrote up what happened there, this may also serve a stunningly convenient purpose for writing a column about the convention.) There's certainly no hints of a big revelation around the corner, but there were little elements hither and yon that piqued my interest for various reasons.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: In the case of Corruptors
From a design standpoint, the archetypes offered by City of Villains are just straight-up more interesting than the ones in vanilla City of Heroes. The older archetypes were designed to fill specific holes, but the villainous types were designed for filling more than one role at once. It's true even of the most vanilla of all the archetypes, the Corruptor -- an archetype perhaps notable for being almost identical to a Defender, except in reverse. But there's more to the archetype than just having a damage primary and a support secondary -- if everything were that easily summarized, I would have been finished with this series on the first week. There are a lot of similarities to Defenders, sure, but the devil is in the details, especially with this particular class. So let's take a look at the insidious and powerful influence of the Corruptor, whether you're new to City of Heroes in general or just haven't played the class before.
