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Paragon Studios closing, City of Heroes to sunset before the end of the year [Updated]
NCsoft is closing Paragon Studios due to a "realignment of company focus and publishing support," according to a blurb just posted on the City of Heroes website. Community manager Andy Belford says that the superhero MMO will shut down before the end of the year, and recurring billing (as well as Paragon Market purchasing) will be discontinued immediately. City of Heroes originally launched in 2004 as the world's first superhero MMORPG. Belford goes on to say that more information will be forthcoming over the next few weeks, including a firm cessation date as well as "what you can expect in game." [Update: NCsoft has told IGN that it is aiming for a November 30th closure date.]
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Things to steal from Guild Wars 2
Whether you play NCsoft games or work for NCsoft, it's hard to ignore that this is the week Guild Wars 2 launches to the general public. And if I know the folks at Paragon Studios, which I sort of do but not really, they are scouring the game right now to figure out what can be yanked from the game and adapted for City of Heroes. This is not an insult. City of Heroes has always done a great job of taking ideas from other games and blending them into the core engine, creating a game that takes some good snippets from other games and puts an interesting spin on each individual element. Granted, some of those adaptations work better than others, but it's the core concept that works so well here. So I wouldn't be surprised to see some elements from Guild Wars 2 leading into updates for CoH. But to save a little time for the team at Paragon Studios, I've gone ahead and figured out what could be nicked for the game. (Or for a sequel. Just saying.) You can all take a look at it now and thank me later.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Spotlight on the Freakshow in City of Heroes
There are three basic tiers that the villains in City of Heroes occupy. At the bottom you've got guys like the Hellions and the Skulls, chumps with just enough superhuman ability to deal with low-level heroes and villains. In the middle are groups like the Trolls and the Family, groups that either lack organization but have power or have organization but lack power. At the top are people like the Circle of Thorns or Nemesis, organized societies with villainous intent. The Freakshow are another ballgame because they're not organized at all, but they break to the top through sheer power. If you're going to be facing off against street thugs in the highest levels of the game, you'll be dealing with the Freakshow, and that's true of both villains and heroes. The gang is just a group of punks without any real goals or overriding drive, and yet they're a big enough force that even Arachnos has to deal with them from time to time. So it's worth looking at the group as a whole, since they're a bigger threat than they get credit for even if they don't have any sort of real goal.
City of Heroes' Nature Affinity powerset now available
Paragon Studios wants you to know about the new Nature Affinity power set for City of Heroes. The support and healing set debuted today alongside an explanatory video featuring designer Phil Zeleski. The Nature Affinity set allows players to buff up teammates prior to a fight and then hang back and heal during the fisticuffs proper. The set makes use of buffs, debuffs, heal-over-time effects, and the new stacking bloom effect that boosts targeted heals. The set is now available in the Paragon store, and you can check out the full video after the break.
The Daily Grind: How should MMOs handle character names?
Names are a big deal in MMOs. I've struggled through many a horrible launch to score a good name and camp names for friends until they can log in because only rarely does a game allow unlimited copies of a name. Ultima Online is one such game, as is Champions Online, though your global handle there is yours alone. The Secret World requires a unique nickname; your "real" name can be a duplicate. But most games just code for one use of a name per realm. (After all, one Malcolm Reynolds per server is plenty.) City of Heroes took a stand on the issue. Years before CoH's F2P conversion, Paragon Studios boldly adopted name-recycling. If your account was inactive for three months, your characters' names were put back into the pool for other players to use. You didn't lose your character, but you were forced to rename her the next time you logged in. It was wonderful for active players who could make more immediate use of names no one was actively using but not so great for encouraging former players to return. So how do you think MMOs should handle character names? [Thanks to Joel for inspiring this topic!] Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: City of Heroes' Issue 24 is coming
When I first started doing my "next time on A Mild-Mannered Reporter" routine, I knew that there would be a problem -- namely, that every so often I would find out some news that makes my preview incorrect. In this case, it was the preview of Issue 24 that dropped on the same day my column came out, which meant I couldn't write about it then. But I can write about it now, so that's good. I'll freely admit that even as a fan of City of Heroes, I hadn't been super-azzed about Issue 24. It wasn't that I thought it would be awful; it just hadn't really roped me in. But now that all of the features are laid out in front of us, I find that it's actually looking a lot more interesting. There's some cool stuff here, and in what may be the most welcome news, it's stuff focused on a variety of the game's elements.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Hooray for the existence and removal of City of Heroes' Tweet Code Thursdays
I've given Paragon Studios a lot of grief over the past year and a half or so. I don't think this is unwarranted; the studio is still feeling out how City of Heroes works in the free-to-play marketplace, and part of my job as an opinion columnist is to occasionally mention that the emperor's new dress code could use the addition of some actual clothes. But we're still talking about a game I like run by a studio I like and staffed with people genuinely attempting to make the game as good as it can be. So when I have the opportunity to give the team behind City of Heroes props, I'll take it. And this week, I can give it props for a bad idea and then further props for apparently realizing that this was a bad idea. I'm talking about the Tweet Code Thursday giveaways that the community team had been running via social networking. It's an idea that deserves tons of respect for the attempt and tons more respect for the cessation of same.
City of Heroes' Issue 24: Resurgence features new stories, powers [Updated]
City of Heroes just keeps on rolling, and the latest update to the eight-year-old superhero MMO takes the form of Issue 24: Resurgence. The Praetorian War has ended, and players will enjoy new power sets, missions, and content across the game's extensive progression range. CoH fans can also take part in three new story arcs that deal with the loss of iconic heroes Statesman and Sister Psyche. The update is free for everyone, but VIP players will have access to a new Incarnate story arc, new abilities, and a new tier nine Tech Knight costume. [Source: NCsoft press release] [Update: The team has also just released a dev blog on the upcoming Nature Affinity powerset.]
City of Heroes previews new powersets and other Issue 24 changes
Getting new powers in City of Heroes is always a reason to be excited, especially when they fill out a gap you hadn't even realized existed beforehand. The most recent livestream from the staff at Paragon Studios has unveiled two sets that do precisely that. Martial Combat (a secondary for Blasters) and Martial Assault (a secondary for Dominators) allow you to mix in some melee attacks to an otherwise ranged character, a requested addition following the introduction of more "mundane" sets such as Dual Pistols. Both sets feature a fair number of melee powers as well as the support and utility powers that players expect for the archetypes in question, including a few ranged attacks for Martial Assault and some familiar self-buffs for Martial Combat. (And Caltrops is in there, in case you were worried.) As the header image shows, this is only the tip of the iceberg for Issue 24's changes (since that image has Marauder in Ms. Liberty's usual haunt)... but it's certainly worth watching the full demonstration after the break.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Can City of Heroes' PvP be saved?
In theory, City of Heroes boasts a variety of different PvP options. In practice, pretty much no one notices or cares about any of those options because the game's PvP is dead in the water. Beyond dead in the water, even. Its carcass has settled to the bottom of the ocean and been nibbled away into just bones and a few shreds of clothing. Paragon Studios' reaction is usually to distract anyone who asks about PvP, either with a code giveaway or a well-timed blow to the solar plexus. I could go into a routine about a parrot, but I trust you get the idea. This doesn't bother me categorically. I play other games, and those games give me enough of a PvP fix. PvP has never been why I play City of Heroes. But it does matter a lot to some people, and so it's worth asking: Can PvP be saved? Or should it just be allowed to continue its current slow death of neglect? Speaking from the outside, I think the answer seems to be a definite maybe. I do think that things can be done to make the PvP actually worth playing; unfortunately, those changes might burn away a chunk of what the hardcore PvP crowd is hoping for, and they might frustrate some of the existing crowd that's quite happy with PvP in its current state as a faint memory. I'm not going to talk about whether or not it should be saved; I'm just going to look at whether or not it's even a possibility.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Two City of Heroes factions played as one
At launch, City of Heroes didn't have factions at all. You were a hero. That's just what you were. Once City of Villains went live, however, the game had its second faction, one that existed in contrast to the original option. Now you could be a villain, a super-powered bastard of the first order, stealing and destroying and doing generally villainous things. And yet people don't really think of the game, on a whole, as a two-faction game. Oh, the game has two factions -- everyone acknowledges that. But it's not lumped into the same category as the many games that have a direct split between two opposing player factions largely because the game has two factions only in the most high-level sense. Let it be known that this article isn't meant to discuss whether or not two factions are a good size for a game or not; that's a Soapbox topic right there, and it's not one I have a very strong feeling about anyway. No, this is entirely about why it is that City of Heroes has two factions but you never really see them as such. Being a hero or villain is almost a afterthought when it comes down to it.
One Shots: A big white blur
Conventional wisdom holds that snow zones in games and movies make for a featureless, monochrome eyesore that bores onlookers, and yet both Star Wars Galaxies and Star Wars: The Old Republic couldn't resist the allure of Hoth. Today's One Shots from reader Brooks reveals his character resting above an imposing crevasse on the notorious ice planet as depicted in SWTOR: Surrounded by the harsh beauty of ice and stone, Jedi Knight Omiko Kell takes a meditative moment to reflect on the weight of her responsibility to the native people and Republic forces struggling for freedom and survival on the desolate and unforgiving planet of Hoth. Does she sway from her primary mission set forth by her Order and help others, or will she let them stand alone in their fight against the Empire, pirates, and mercenaries while she focuses on her Masters' directive? Whichever one gives you the most legacy points, of course. Brooks' full screenshot and a few others are beyond the cut!
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Too many choices
We've gotten a lot of new powersets in City of Heroes ever since the game went free-to-play. This is something that I've talked about before: There's rather uncomfortable cycle during which a new set is released full of bugs, but it gets played for a month before the next set comes out and you stop thinking about the old one. And that's definitely a potential problem, but with the release of the new Water Blast set, I'm thinking that there's a much more coherent one in mind. Specifically, I'm thinking for the first time that maybe there's something to the old issue of being locked into a power set after character creation. Don't get me wrong -- I don't think Water Blast is overpowered or underpowered. It actually looks like it makes better use of a new mechanic than did the last big ranged set. But we now have an absolute surfeit of options for playing a Blaster, and as the game gets more and more endgame-heavy, I'm starting to wonder how long it will be before players get tired. We're seeing a different sort of power creep here: We just have too many choices for a new character.
The Daily Grind: Is looting important in MMOs?
As I play City of Heroes, rolling through the Summer Blockbuster content, I'm reminded that CoH's looting system is really weird. As in, there kind of isn't one. Recipes, enhancement, salvage, and influence just sort of magically appear in their respective trays. There are no sparkly bits to tell you that hey, you should totally come click this monster because its still-warm corpse has shinies for you. You never have to worry that you missed a piece of choice loot back in the last room. And players never, ever fight over loot because at the end of an important mission, everyone gets a drop. At the same time, CoH is missing some of the thrill that comes when you best the random number generator and finally get your purple shiny sword of doom. The near-intangibility of the game's drops means fewer crushing defeats when that freaking Hunter rolls on your tanking sword, but it also means fewer victory laps. You give up the rush from clicking on a monster just to see what he has; that step is completely stripped out. What do you think -- is a physical "looting" process critical to MMOs? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: City of Heroes' Summer Blockbuster in review
Ah, summer, the time of year when kids and teachers don't have to worry about school, no one has to worry about clean sweaters, and the movie industry worries about which films wind up with the most significant profit over the next several months. More knowledgeable folks than I have discussed summer blockbusters in the past, but the truth is that I'm not here to talk about the concept; I'm here to talk about the new City of Heroes event. The idea behind the Summer Blockbuster is a pretty clever one, although you have to be willing to accept the kind of meta structure of the whole thing. It's still a chance for players to go into the meat of a big summer blow-out extravaganza, which would seem like exactly the right time for the developers to just give us some enormous brawls. Instead, the event consists of two parts that actually show off some of what City of Heroes is capable of despite its age. It's good stuff, in other words, and there are some things worth taking away for the future.
City of Heroes shows off the Water Blasting set under development
Are you ready to get wetter than you've ever been? If not, how about letting your enemies get drenched? The Water Blasting set coming to City of Heroes will allow you to do just that, and it's a set that players have been waiting on for what seems like half of forever. And if you're wondering what the set can actually do, it's probably a fine time to take a look at the newest issue of the Intrepid Informer, showing off the set's powers and the new mechanics involved. The core of Water Blasting is a stacking buff known as Tidal Power. Certain powers build Tidal Power, certain others consume it, and some build the buff if you're at less than maximum capacity but consume it otherwise. The powers involve several knockdowns as well as a heal, a short-range defensive burst, and an assured AoE knockdown when played correctly. Take a look at the full rundown and start planning on your upcoming squirt gun character (Super Soaker being the obvious choice)!
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: All we need are radio missions
Radio missions are not the most controversial aspect of City of Heroes. Considering the nature of the game, I'm hesitant to even point to one thing as being "the most controversial," but PvP and Incarnates would probably be near the top. That doesn't mean that radio missions aren't an important part of the game, nor does it mean that these missions are universally beloved, and that's because they screw with a very big part of the game in a way that not everyone is going to like. First added in City of Villains as newspaper missions and later ported over to heroes via the police radio, these missions are great little bursts of content that give you a place to fight and a reason to do so without hunting down a contact or a specific arc. Unfortunately, they also do so in a way that really steamrolls much of the game's content and encourages their nigh-exclusive use. Like many of the systems added to City of Heroes over the years, they add a lot of fun, but they also are directly at odds with an existing set of fun content.
MMO Blender: Eliot's self-made legend
I like games that make your characters feel legendary, but sometimes I think they've gotten the whole formula wrong. The problem is that the only thing important about your character is what he or she has done, not what he or she is. World of Warcraft has a lot of quests and raids that seem to imply your character is a big deal, but how big a deal can you really be if you're learning all of your tricks at the local trainer? What about a game where your personal history has as much to do with your future development as anything else? A game where your accomplishments aren't just backstory but an integral part of your character's abilities? A game where every new encounter is a chance for your character to learn something unique? I'd love to see a game where your accomplishments are not a list of things that you've killed but a clear litany of skills learned and scars accumulated -- a game where the path to power isn't necessarily clearly marked.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Upcoming Blaster changes
Not every game faces the mage problem, but a lot of them do, and it starts back in classic Dungeons & Dragons. The core of the issue is pretty simple to understand: Because mages have so much phenomenal offensive power, they need some staggering weakness to balance that out. As a result, the class is very physically weak and lacks any real defenses. But the counter to that is that this creates many situations in which the mage is just plain useless because he or she has no effective defenses to weather an initial assault. Blasters aren't mages. Unless they are, anyhow -- City of Heroes is kind of resistant to pigeonholing. Whether your Blaster is an arcane caster or just a guy with radioactive hands isn't important because the class still suffers from the mage problem. Blasters are one of the most powerful classes in the game when it comes to raw damage, but they're also one of the hardest classes to solo, and they're one that goes from hero to zero the fastest.
City of Heroes summer blockbuster event starts tomorrow
We're in the thick of the summer movie blockbuster season, so you can't blame the folks at Paragon Studios from trying to get in on the fun. The devs are so on board with this concept, in fact, that City of Heroes will kick off its Summer Blockbuster Double Feature event starting tomorrow. As the name implies, this event features two movie-like adventures. The first one is called Time Gladiator, and it features an over-the-top fight in a Roman coliseum. The second one, Casino Heist, is a robbery-gone-awry as the superheroes take on the tough security forces. Each movie event has a different mechanic as well: Time Gladiator will have players filling up a favor meter to unlock a bonus stage, while Casino Heist divvies up your team into specialized roles. Paragon's even made a movie theater lobby for players as they wait. It's here that winning submissions from the player-designed poster contest are displayed. Players are welcome to kick back with this double feature as long as they're level 15 or higher. If a player completes both movies, they'll be treated to a new universal damage IO enhancement. One enhancement can be earned every 20 hours.
