City of Heroes

City of Heroes
City of Heroes box cover
Developer(s)	Cryptic Studios Paragon Studios
Publisher(s)	NCsoft Level Up! Games Interactive Brazil
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X
Release	April 28, 2004
Genre(s)	Superhero MMORPG
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

City of Heroes (CoH) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game based on the superhero comic book genre, developed by Cryptic Studios and published by NCsoft. The game was launched in North America on April 28, 2004 and in Europe (by NCsoft Europe) on 4 February 2005 with English, German and French language servers. Fifteen free major updates (Issues) for City of Heroes have been released since its launch. The newest update, "Anniversary", was released on June 26th, 2009.

In the game, players create superhero player characters that can team up with others to complete missions and fight villains belonging to various gangs and organizations in Paragon City and its surrounding areas.

On October 31, 2005, the game's first sequel, City of Villains, was launched, allowing players to play as supervillains. Initially dubbed as an "Expanshalone" by the developers (a portmanteau of expansion pack and stand-alone), the game did not require CoH to run, but if the user had both games, content was added to the CoH side of game play. On July 16, 2008, NCSoft merged the two games' content together, thus a player who only owned City of Heroes could now play City of Villains, and vice versa. Prior to this, a purchase was required to access either game's content, but they were linked by one account and subscription fee.

On November 6, 2007, NCsoft announced their purchase of the CoH/CoV intellectual property and transitioned the staff from Cryptic Studios to a new location in Mountain View, CA to continue development of the game. The new studio on April 14, 2009, became Paragon Studios, which shares credit with Cryptic Studios for the development work. This then led to City of Heroes becoming available for download on the Steam software, along with other NCSoft titles, on April 22, 2009.

On October 30, 2008, NCSoft announced to a partnership with Transgaming Technologies to bring both City of Heroes and City of Villains and all 13 expansions to Mac OS X.

City of Heroes: Going Rogue was announced on May 11, 2009. Labeled as an expansion, the game centers around the alternate reality of Praetoria and features a new alignment system allowing player characters to shift allegiances between Heroes and Villains, giving characters access to both the Paragon City of CoH and the Rogue Isles of CoV. Paragon Studios describes this as "[exploring] the shades of gray that lie between Heroes and Villains".

Overview

A tanker (foreground) confronts one of the game's arch villains, the mad scientist Dr. Vahzilok, in City of Heroes.

Players begin by using the game's extensive character creation system to first select an archetype and Power Sets, then design a unique costume, and finally optionally write a backstory or description and battle cry for their hero as they choose a name. The name may be changed at a later time for a one time charge, and the description and battle cry may be changed at anytime.

They may start their adventure in a tutorial zone known as "Outbreak" that teaches them how to play the game. It is here they learn about the level system and how to determine which enemies to attack. Players may choose to skip this tutorial if they like and head straight to one of two starting areas (Atlas Park and Galaxy City).

A hero's security level increases by earning experience points from missions and by defeating foes, and then returning to a contact marked on the in-game map, at which time they gain benefits for rising in level such as more health, more powers, more slots for holding temporary power-ups called Inspirations, and more enhancement slots for powers. Enhancements are power-ups which players can socket onto powers to improve them on more permanent terms.

Paragon City, the game's primary setting, is divided into different zones by giant energy walls known as "war walls." In story terms, the walls are used to prevent large scale attacks upon the city and to prevent high level enemies from entering low level areas. Zones are usually connected by road tunnels, but other transportation is provided, such as two monorail lines for convenience, and ferries and helicopters for zones not geographically contiguous. Especially dangerous zones called hazard or trial zones, which teem with large groups of enemies, are connected by passages in the war walls guarded by the police and access is restricted to heroes with a minimum security level.

Players initially move around the zones by slowly jogging or using a minor speed increasing power available from level 1 to all characters, such as Sprint or a series of functionally identical Prestige Powers available to players who pre-ordered the game in 2004, purchased the special DVD version of the game, or have earned veteran rewards. As heroes grow in level and accumulate more powers, they gain the ability to choose among four higher speed traveling powers: teleportation, superspeed, superjump, and fly, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. While each archetype has its own unique set of powers and abilities, all players have access to the powers from the ten Power Pools at level six. The Power Pools contain the aforementioned travel powers, as well as other generic, usually utilitarian powers falling under categories such as Fitness, Concealment, and Leadership.

There are a variety of different villain organizations and gangs in City of Heroes, each with unique attributes. Groups of villains, all from the same gang and usually all with similar security levels, roam around areas of Paragon City. Certain gangs are more likely to appear in different zones. For instance, Circle of Thorns (a magic using villain group) members can always be found in the hazard zone of Perez Park.

Missions — the City of Heroes equivalent of the quests typically found in other MMORPGs — are given by non-player character (NPC) contacts and consist of either a "hunt" mission, where heroes are given the task of arresting a certain number of villains from one of the villain groups, or a private "instanced" mission map created solely for the player's team which is inhabited by a particular gang. When heroes reach approximately level 20, they begin to receive outdoor instanced missions set in fenced-off areas as well. As heroes venture further into the mission zone, they usually have to confront a Boss villain, rescue hostages, or find a particular clue. Upon completion, heroes will be rewarded with an XP bonus, influence and occasionally a badge, a publicly displayable reward. Most missions may be completed at the hero's leisure, but others will have a set time limit which begins counting down as soon as the mission has been accepted from the contact. It is usually stated directly in a mission's description whether the mission is timed before accepting it.

Heroes can venture into mission maps together if they form a team and choose a particular member's mission as the team's objective. The difficulty level and number of the villains is adjusted according to the strength and number of the heroes grouped together. Since the release of the Issue 3 content update "A Council of War," the player is now able to set the difficulty of the missions by visiting a special NPC, the Hero Corps Field Analyst.

Amid the missions, story arcs will emerge. These are a series of missions which form a larger story, often giving the player new insights into the history and mythos of Paragon City. Sometimes, these story arcs affect the player hero directly as well. Once a story arc is completed, the hero is rewarded with experience points, enhancements and a souvenir, serving as a reminder of the character's actions.

For players who can devote a block of several hours to the game, two other types of missions with deeper storylines are available—the Task Force and the Trial. Task Forces always require a team, and consist of a series of linked missions that must be run to completion by that same team before its members may take on any additional missions. Once a Task Force has been started, additional players will not be able to join the team. In addition, Leadership of the Task Force can not be reassigned. If a Task Force member voluntarily leaves the team while the Task Force is in progress, he is unable to rejoin it. In the case somebody is involuntarily disconnected, then he will return to the Task Force when reconnected. Trials are similar to Task Forces but are usually shorter and more challenging; some share the team restrictions of a Task Force but others are taken as individual missions, though teams are still practically required. Upon completion, both Task Forces and Trials usually (but not always) provide all participants with a badge as well as a reward—either a Single Origin or a special enhancement. Several specially-designated Trials reward players with an opportunity to "respecify" their characters by choosing a different complement of superpowers within their selected power sets and reassigning enhancements.

Teamwork is a large part of City of Heroes. Players can form supergroups (similar to other MMORPGs' guilds) reminiscent of classic comic book groups such as the X-Men or Justice League of America. Supergroups pick a name, a motto, an emblem, and two colors. Heroes can then enter "Supergroup Mode" and change the colors and emblem of their normal avatar to those of their Supergroup. Players can also form teams with other players to go on missions and fight villains together. Unlike many MMORPGs, City of Heroes has a system where players of vastly different power levels can team together; a lower-leveled player may play as the sidekick of a higher-leveled one and participate in missions which the player would normally be too weak for, or a higher-level player may act as an exemplar to a lower-leveled player, temporarily reducing the exemplar's combat level to match the lower-level player's.

In addition, as characters level up, they gain access to new quality of life features, including the ability to possess more than a single costume, with a maximum of five, and the ability to add capes and "auras", special particle effects, to their costumes at level 20 and 30, respectively. The costume slots are gained in two ways, first by level, gained by performing missions for special contacts at levels 20, 30, and 40, and the last slot gained by turning in special items gained in the Halloween event starting in 2006. The special salvage items can still be obtained, through trading with other players, or by purchasing the items on the in-game auction houses added to the game in Issue 9.

Character creation

Creating a character consists of several steps. First the player selects an Origin, an Archetype, a primary power set, and a secondary power set. Next, the actual avatar with its costume is created. Lastly, the player chooses a name and can optionally write a background story to add some flavor to the character as well as creating an individual battle cry.

There are five Origins a player can choose for his/her character that dictate what type of enhancements the character may use, affect which single short-ranged power they begin with (in addition to powers obtained from their primary and secondary power sets), and can influence the various villain groups that the character goes up against; these origins are Natural, Magic, Science, Mutation, and Technology.

There are also five basic Archetypes (or classes) in City of Heroes that affect a character's Power choices throughout the game. Blasters are primarily long-ranged damage dealers. Controllers have powers that allow them to prevent their foe from moving and attacking. Defenders support a team with a variety of weakening attacks (Debuffs) and ally strengthening powers (Buffs). Scrappers are melee fighters, dealing damage quick and close-ranged. Tankers' best offense is their great defenses and ability to take as much damage as they put out.

City of Heroes also has two "Epic Archetypes" which are designed to be more challenging to advanced players, and can only be unlocked after reaching the level cap on any other Hero on a player's account. Currently, there are two Epic Archetypes which are the shape shifting Kheldians. One group are known as Peacebringers, peaceful symbiotic aliens that have light-based powers. The other group are called Warshades, war-like symbiotes that are normally enemies to the Peacebringers but have reformed their "evil" ways. Unreformed Warshades are called Nictus, and appear in several missions throughout the game as enemies.

Like City of Heroes, 'City of Villains' has two "Epic Archetypes" (Added as part of Issue 12) for players who have reached level 50 on a Villain. The Villain "Epic Archetypes" are more commonly known as 'VEATs'. They can choose to begin as a Blood Widow or a Wolf Spider. When the player reaches level 24 they are given the option to choose a career for their chosen VEAT and branch off with new future powers based on the choice made.

Items

Like other MMORPGs, City of Heroes/Villains has various items that are rewarded within the game. However, many of these items are described as intangible or other-worldly; such as "inspirations" (temporary powerups) or "influence" (used instead of money), which are abstract ideas in the real world. "Enhancements"—slottable attribute boosts—also cover a range of ideas and items from magic enchantments to technological gadgets to training techniques. With the release of Issue 6, players began to accumulate "Salvage" from enemies while in "Supergroup mode" as well as "prestige," used to improve the bases added for Supergroups at the same time. The release of Issue 9 brought the "Invention" system to the game, using new salvage items and "recipes" to create Enhancements and new costume items. Inventions provide much better benefits over Enhancements, and even allow a player to achieve set bonuses. These bonuses can be anything from 5% recharge boosts, or 10% more regeneration. Some inventions also grant new costume pieces that cannot be gained otherwise.

In addition to these, there are also collectible "badges" for players to obtain. Gained for performing various actions in game such as moving over specific places in each zone, defeating certain numbers of enemies, healing allies, and taking damage, many serve no functional purpose for players. However, some few, called "Accolades" give players access to temporary powers and permanent bonuses to health and endurance (the game's equivalent to mana or magic points) and are gained by collecting other badges.

Players also have the option of purchasing (outside of the game) additional items known as Booster Packs, which currently include a permanent Wedding-themed expansion for costumes and emotes (actions) and a 30 day Jet Pack temporary power.

Enemies

In City of Heroes there are multiple NPC groups that players fight as part of "random" encounters. Many enemies are found on the streets of Paragon City, whereas others are found in specific instances or areas. There are also Giant Monsters and similar events that take place in parts of the city that are even rarer, such as Lusca the Giant Octopus in the waters of the Independence Port zone or the Ghost Ship that spawns ghostly enemies in the Talos Island zone as well as the Independence Port zone.

Geography

Paragon City is a fictitious city located in Rhode Island in the United States. The city itself is divided into several smaller neighborhoods that have varying villains and progressively higher levels of villains within them. The arbitrary divisions between zones are explained by the presence of "War Walls," powerful forcefields derived from alien technology, which are used to defend various areas of the city. Included within Paragon City are two zones which are also referred to as cities: Galaxy City, a beginner's zone; and Skyway City, which is much higher in difficulty and thus requires the heroes to be at a greater power level to be able to safely patrol it. Heroes set out by dealing with low-powered street gangs such as Hellions and Skulls in the initial zones, working their way up to fighting increasingly dangerous threats—such as organised crime, corrupt corporations, hostile aliens and supernatural terrors—even eventually entering other dimensions to fight ultimately powered villains.

Updates and history

The Development Team continually expands City of Heroes with free downloadable patches/updates as well as free game expansions dubbed "Issues". City of Villains was originally released as a combined expansion and stand-alone game, but eventually both hero and villain parts of the game were made available to all subscribers.

Issues

• Issue #1, "Through the Looking Glass", raised the level cap from 40 to 50, introduced several new enemy groups and the Rikti Crash Site and Peregrine Island zones for these levels, and added tailor shops where players can alter their characters' costumes for a fee.
• Issue #2, "Shadows of the Past", introduced the ability for players to earn capes and auras for their characters, respecification, badges for achieving various things in the game, and two new zones, the Hollows and the Shadow Shard, with new enemy groups which appeared in these zones. A small, hidden dance club, the Paragon Dance Party (later renamed Pocket D), was also added.
• Issue #3, "A Council of War", introduced a new zone, Striga Isle, replaced the Nazi-themed Fifth Column enemy group with the Council, added several new giant monsters and zone events, added the Peacebringer and Warshade Epic Archetypes for players who had reached level 50 on another character, and added Ancillary Power Pools for characters above level 40.
• Issue #4, "Coliseum", introduced City of Heroes' first player versus player content in the form of an arena, and also added a wide variety of new costume options as well as finer tuning of body and face scale than was previously possible.
• Issue #5, "A Forest of Dread", introduced one new zone, Croatoa, with several new associated enemy groups; it also added a few more zone events, and new powersets for some Archetypes based on archery and sonic powers.
• Issue #6, "Along Came a Spider", coincided with the release of City of Villains, and brought an overhaul of the game client to improve graphics and add support for dual-core CPUs and 3D sound; it also introduced three shared PvP zones, Bloody Bay, Siren's Call, and Warburg to City of Heroes, and the ability for Super Groups to build bases (though this feature once required ownership of City of Villains). The Paragon Dance Party was removed and replaced with Pocket D, a larger area performing the same function, but open to players of both City of Heroes and City of Villains; however, the factions cannot fight each other there. Finally, Gladiator matches were added to the Arena, where players selected NPCs to battle on their behalf instead of fighting directly.
• Issue #7, "Destiny Manifest", was mostly focused on improvements for City of Villains; it raised the level cap for Villains from 40 to 50, and introduced the new Grandville zone for Villains of that level range, Patron Power Pools (the villainous counterpart to heroes' Ancillary Power Pools), "Mayhem Missions" for Villains of all levels, several new power sets for new Villains, and a fourth PvP zone, Recluse's Victory, for both games. Further graphical improvements to existing City of Heroes content were also made.
• Issue #8, "To Protect and Serve", introduced a Police Scanner for Heroes that provides repeatable missions (similar to the Villains' Newspaper) and "Safeguard Missions" (analogous to the Villains' "Mayhem Missions"), as well as a complete redesign of the Faultline zone and the Veteran Rewards system, which gives special "perks" to players based on how long their accounts have been active.
• Issue #9, "Breakthrough", introduced the Invention system and auction houses; it also revamped the game's single raid encounter and opened it to Villain players as well.
• Issue #10, "Invasion", replaced the old Rikti Crash Site zone with a new Rikti War Zone area, featuring a new raid encounter and cooperative play between both Heroes and Villains, and introduced the Vanguard, an anti-Rikti organization frequently referenced in-game but previously not seen. The Rikti enemy group was also redesigned, and a new world event was added, where the Rikti would stage a mass invasion of a random zone.
• Issue #11, "A Stitch in Time", focuses on time travel; it introduced the new Ouroboros group, and its associated Flashback system for repeating game content which the player has progressed past the level of. It also added customizable weapon graphics for powersets which used drawn weapons, even more powerful Inventions, and two new power sets for a variety of Archetypes.
• Issue #12, "Midnight Hour", introduces the Midnight Squad, another time-travel group; a new zone, the Cimeroran Peninsula, set in ancient Rome; two Villain Epic Archetypes for players who have reached level 50 on a Villain, Blood Widow and Wolf Spider; a minor redesign of the Hollows; and new power sets for almost all Archetypes in both City of Heroes and City of Villains based on powers unique to the other game (a Plant Controller and a Brute with Battle Axe are described; whereas there could only be Plant Dominators and Tankers with Battle Axe before).
• Issue #13, "Power and Responsibility", was released on December 2, 2008 This issue allowed superbase improvements (such as cheaper plots), two new powersets (Shields and Pain Domination), and offline character development will be added. In addition new engine developments allow the true balancing of all PvP effects differently to PvE situations, and characters have the ability to have 2 different builds and switch between them at any trainer. Finally, Issue 13 added a feature called the Leveling Pact, allowing 2 players below level 5 to link their experience levels and obtain levels at the same rate, regardless of online status.
• Issue #14, "Architect", was released on April 8, 2009. This issue added a Mission Architect feature allowing players to create their own missions and story arcs using a tool similar to the character creator.
• Issue #15, "Anniversary", was announced on April 28 on City of Heroes' Fifth Anniversary date and was released on June 29, 2009. The update added Mission Architect features that didn't make the deadline for Issue #14, a new Task Force/Strike Force involving the Fifth Column (one of the early game enemy factions which had few appearances in the game until now), and costume creator sets, new faces, and the first free costume change emotes.
• Issue #16, "Power Spectrum", allows players to choose the color for their character's powersets. Includes more powerset proliferation, and enhanced difficulty options.

Booster Packs

Two "Booster Packs" were also released in 2008 and 2009. Booster Packs do not function like expansions (adding content to the game), but rather add optional sets to the game's character creator and user interface, and are available on the NCSoft Store for a one-time fee. Although each of these packs are themed after one of the five character origins in the game, their features can be applied to any or all the characters in your account regardless of their actual origin or archetype. Booster Packs that are currently available are:

• Super Booster I: Cyborg - Added new cyborg costume sets, character emotes that fit the cyborg theme, and a Self-Destruct prestige power which kills your player to deal large amounts of damage.
• Super Booster II: Magic - Added new magic themed costume sets, special character costume change emotes, and a Fortune Teller prestige power which can boost (or once in a while curse) your team mates with a random temporary ability.

The next booster pack will be called "Superscience", and will be based on the "Science" Origin heroes and villains.

The City of Heroes Development Team also initiates events based on North American and European holidays and observances, starting with Halloween in 2004, followed by a Winter Event (eventually becoming a primarily Christmas-themed event), and the newest holiday observance a Valentine's Day event.

City of Hero

A Korean open beta of City of Heroes, entitled City of Hero (시티 오브 히어로, Siti Obeu Hieoro), was launched on January 18, 2006. However, the game's official release was cancelled. The Korean CoH team directed its players to a coupon for an account on the US servers.

Servers

City of Heroes and City of Villains employ several servers that are based in different geographic zones (some are based in Virginia, others are in California). The servers are divided between the American and European markets, with separate servers specifically for German and French players.

Praise

An uncommon MMO

Computer Gaming World hailed the game saying "City of Heroes blows a super powered gust of fresh air into an increasingly stale sword-and-sorcery MMO world" in August 2004. PC Gamer, Game Informer, GameSpy and several other industry magazines critically acclaimed City of Heroes for its foray into the superhero genre and gave the game top or near top scores across the board.

GameSpy went on to say that City of Heroes has the most flexible character creator to date of any MMORPG (in particular the costume design system allows for a huge variety of sizes, colors, clothing types and other bells and whistles) and has consistently given the update issues high marks. The launch of City of Heroes was widely reported as one of the most successful MMOG launches in the history of the industry.

Recently, praise was given from IGN, The Escapist, and Allakhazam for the release of Issue 14: Architect which added Mission Creation capabilities. Paragon Studios produced "City of Heroes: Architect Edition", and re-released the game to Retail Stores in April 2009 containing the PC and Macintosh Versions and a free choice between either Super Booster I: Cyborg or Super Booster II: Magic.

Accessible development community

It also is often praised for having a development team that actively communicates with its player base. The development team will admit mistakes and also implement player suggestions. The communication level between players and developers is such that players can actually send private messages to the developer accounts, get their suggestion/question/complaint read, and possibly even responded to.

Since Issue 9, City of Heroes allows players to participate in Open Beta testing of the upcoming Issue Releases on their own Training Room Server. There is also a Closed Beta test done before that which allows players who are invited specifically by the Developer Team to try out the new issues features under a Non-Disclosure Agreement.

The City of Heroes Development and Moderation Team organizes regular appearances at popular conventions to meet players face-to-face, as well as organizing Meet & Greet events of their own. Recently, they announced plans to hold their first annual convention, "HeroCon", to be held in Santa Clara, CA from October 17-19th, 2008.

Casual-play friendly

Also, the game is praised because a subscriber's characters are not deleted, even if the subscription has been canceled or inactive for an extended period of time (ex. 4 years). Some MMORPGs delete a character after a period of inactivity. In anticipation of the release of City of Villains, Cryptic announced on October 10, 2005 that effective October 24, 2005, accounts which had been unpaid and inactive for 90 days would have the names of any characters on the account under level 35 flagged as unreserved, allowing new players to use that name. The character itself was left untouched, and a player who lost his character's name was given the option to choose a new one. This policy was suspended on May 4, 2006, because Cryptic's data-mining had shown that very few names were being taken in this fashion anymore; Cryptic said 30 days' notice would be given prior to future changes to the name policy. On July 31, 2007, Cryptic announced that the name policy would go back into effect as of August 29, 2007, but this time, it would apply only to characters under level 6, instead of the previous 35.

Awards

• Massively.com: Most Improved Game of 2008
• Computer Gaming World: MMORPG Game of the Year 2004
• Spike TV 2004 Video Game Awards: MMORPG Game of the Year
• GameSpy: Game of the Month - May 2004, Editor's Choice - May 2004
• Billboard 2004 Digital Entertainment Conference & Awards: PC or Console Game of the Year, Multiplayer Game of the Year
• Wargamer: Award for Excellence
• Games Magazine: Game of the Year 2004
• Computer Games Magazine: Editor’s Choice - August 2004 Issue
• Computer Gaming World: Editor's Choice - August 2004
• Game Informer: PC Game of the Month - July 2004 Issue
• Loadedinc, Hot Property Award
• Actiontrip: Editor’s Choice
• Warcry: Best Expansion - City of Villains - E3 2004
• IGN; Editor’s Choice
• GameSpot: Game of the Month - May 2004
• GameSpy: Game of the Month - May 2004
• GameSpy: Editor’s Choice
• E3 2003 Game Critics Awards: Best Online Multiplayer
• Game Revolution Best of E3 2003: Best Online Game

Criticism

Enhancement Diversification

A significant game play change called Enhancement Diversification, or ED, was implemented in Issue 6. ED received strong negative feedback from the player community. The response thread to ED on the official City of Heroes message forum exceeded 3,500 replies in the first 36 hours, and soon after grew so large that a second thread was required due to forum software limits.

ED imposed a point of sharply diminished returns on how far each individual aspect of each power could be improved. Prior to ED, a player could focus all enhancements on only one of a power's aspects and receive fully cumulative benefits. Cryptic's stated reason behind ED was "to promote the use of more different types of Enhancements in powers". Critics observed that ED universally reduced the maximum possible effectiveness of all characters, making it a global nerf; that many defensive powers had now been significantly weakened for two Issues in a row, which was especially frustrating for characters who specialize in such powers and invalidated many of their existing tactics; that some powers cannot legally or usefully accept more than one type of Enhancement and thus cannot be "diversified"; that it was deceitful to enact such a severe change less than a month after officially announcing "we’ve finished making large changes to the power sets"; and that ED was too fundamental a change to implement so long after the original launch. Some, but not all, of the negative effects of Enhancement Diversification were negated with the release of the Invention system in Issue 9, allowing players to create one enhancement that affects multiple statistics at once, while still honoring the limits created with ED during Issue 6.

Subscription

As in most other MMORPGs, players must pay the publisher (NCsoft) a monthly fee to continue playing City of Heroes. Portions of the subscription costs go to supporting a full-time "live" team, which develops additional content for the game; other portions support the significant server maintenance and bandwidth costs. In addition to paying subscription fees via credit card, another option is prepaid cards that are available at video game retailers. Once purchased, the player inputs a code from the card and their account is updated to allow as many months of play as the card is good for. PlayNC time cards are available from stores that work for any NCsoft published game, and come in 15, 30 and 60 day options.

Continuing active subscriptions are also entitled to Veteran Rewards. The system rewards players with a plethora of costume pieces, extra powers, supergroup base items, respec opportunities, and other minor in-game perks to all characters (both hero and villain characters) on any server tied to the active subscription. Inactive accounts do not accrue time for Veteran Rewards.

As of September 2008, City of Heroes has around 124,939 subscribers in the US & Europe, according to financial reports released by NCsoft in November 2008.

Both City of Heroes and City of Villains are now bundled together when purchased or downloaded, when they were once two separate games with a single subscription fee.

Other media

Novels

The first City of Heroes novel, The Web of Arachnos, by Robert Weinberg, was published by CDS Books (an imprint of the Perseus Publishing Group) in October 2005. The novel chronicles the back stories of the Statesman and Lord Recluse, the central iconic characters in the City of Heroes and City of Villains franchises. A second novel, The Freedom Phalanx, written by Robin Laws, released in May 2006 and detailed the reformation of the hero team the Freedom Phalanx in the 1980s; the story centers on the fledgling heroes Positron and Synapse, but also includes Manticore, Sister Psyche, and Statesman. The book's villains include Lord Recluse, Doctor Null, Shadow Queen, and Revenant. Artist George Pérez provides the covers for the first two novels, as well as lending his name to one of the early areas of the game itself, Pérez Park. A third novel, The Rikti War, was announced by CDS at the time the first novel was published, with an August 2006 scheduled release date. Authors Paul S. Kemp and Shane Hensley have been attached to the project at various times. The book will reportedly cover the epic transdimensional war between Earth and the Rikti home world, however a post on the official message boards containing a message supposedly from Kemp states that the "novel is not to be and [he] must leave it at that. "Developer Sean Michael Fish (Manticore) has recently stated that CDS will no longer be publishing books for CoH, and The Rikti War may or may not be published.

Comic books

Main article: City of Heroes comic book

To tie in with the game, NCsoft released original comic book series that featured various characters from within the games themselves. The original series by publisher Blue King featured the heroes/roommates Apex and War Witch with their neighbor Horus. The more recent series from publisher Top Cow features signature heroes and villains from both City of Heroes and City of Villains such as The Statesman, Positron, Lord Recluse, and Ghost Widow. However, the Top Cow series ended with Issue 20 (July 2007), with no current plans for another new series. The official website allowed people to download the comics in PDF format roughly a month after their release in comic book stores.

Collectible card game

Main article: City of Heroes Collectible Card Game

Alderac Entertainment Group also worked with CoH to create a collectible card game featuring characters from the game, as well as several original characters. The game's website also allows players to create a game-compliant card for their own online character. This card game is now discontinued.

Role-playing game

Main article: City of Heroes Roleplaying Game

The CoH team has also worked with Eden Studios, Inc. to create a role-playing game based on the massively multiplayer online game. While a free preview version of the game was released, the game has been delayed due to the cancellation license with Fox on their Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel roleplaying-games.

Movie/Television

In June 2007, it was announced that the producer for the Transformers film, Tom DeSanto, had acquired the option to make movies and television shows based on the City of Heroes franchise. In February 2008, it was announced that DeSanto has indeed begun preparations for the film. A plot summary has been released detailing that the movie itself takes place during the first Rikti War.

Suit by Marvel

In November 2004, Marvel Comics filed a lawsuit against City of Heroes developer Cryptic Studios, publisher NCsoft, and game administrator NC Interactive (NCI), alleging that the game not only allowed, but actively promoted, the creation of characters who infringe copyrights and trademarks owned by Marvel. The suit sought unspecified damages and an injunction halting further sales and shutting down the game.

The game includes in its User agreement strong language against such activity, however. It forbids the creation of potentially infringing characters, and NCI has been known to delete or rename such characters. The User Agreement additionally holds players accountable to indemnify (reimburse) NCI and its affiliates against third-party infringement claims, and demands either a granting of sole ownership in player created content, including characters, to NCI, or a warranty that a third party owner of the rights in player created content has made such a grant. It is unclear whether this grant is an exclusive assignment or a non-exclusive license, however.

The defendants replied that the lawsuit was frivolous. Many intellectual property analysts agree, but others have noted that trademark law is structured such that if Marvel believes their marks are being infringed upon, they have little choice but to file a lawsuit, regardless of its outcome, to preserve the strength of the marks. At least one has noted similarities to Fonovisa, Inc. v. Cherry Auction, Inc., a case in which a company that ran a flea market was successfully sued over intellectual property infringement because a vendor had been selling bootlegged records at that flea market. Although Cherry Auction had not been directly selling the infringing items, the court found that it was vicariously or contributorally liable for the infringement.

Marvel subsequently admitted that some of the allegedly infringing characters cited in the complaint had been created by Marvel's own investigators. In March 2005, the court struck those exhibits from the complaint. The court also dismissed with prejudice some of Marvel's claims. The dismissed claims included all indirect trademark infringement counts, because Marvel had not pled commercial use of Marvel's marks by the game's players. Commercial use is a required element of infringement under American trademark statutes.

On December 12, 2005, all remaining claims were settled under undisclosed terms. The game's operators asserted that the settlement did not require changes to the character creation engine.

Despite the recent litigation, in October 2006 Marvel Comics selected Cryptic Studios to develop its own superhero MMORPG for Windows Vista and Xbox Live, titled Marvel Universe Online. The news of the alliance led to a surprised reaction from players, but developer Matt "Positron" Miller assured fans on Cryptic's official website that development and maintenance would continue separately on both games , proved later by the complete split between City of Heroes and Cryptic Studios. Marvel Universe Online was eventually cancelled by Microsoft.

Acquisition & New Studio

On November 6, 2007, NCsoft announced that it will assume ownership of both City of Heroes and City of Villains. As part of a push to further develop City of Heroes, the company has also announced the formation of a new development studio dedicated to new titles as well as their interest in distributing and administering their future works once launched. This new team is centered on key members of the Cryptic and NCsoft City of Heroes/Villains teams who accepted the NCSoft offer to join their new studio in Northern California. The sale of the City of Heroes IP grants Cryptic Studios the freedom to work on its new superhero MMOG (at this time, a RPG/Action hybrid) Champions Online without concerns of conflict of interest.

Shortly after having acquired full ownership of the property, NCsoft granted all existing and former City of Heroes account holders access to both games (City of Heroes & City of Villains). This allowed all Hero players access to Superbases, which initially required a CoV purchase from its release in Issue 7 until Issue 10, and is no longer required as of Issue 11. Before the purchase, NCSoft allowed players with a subscription or a time card for City of Heroes to have the same access to City of Villains as well (at its lowest price point, $14.99 covered access to both titles for a month), whether or not they have purchased the other title. This is still being honored after all accounts who had only City of Heroes received access to City of Villains for free. In a July 2008 press release, NCSoft announced the successful completion of allowing all copies of City of Heroes or City of Villains to access the other game (it claimed that Single Title Retail Boxes recently purchased did not successfully unlock the other game when activated.)

On April 14, 2009, NCSoft NorCal formally changed its name to Paragon Studios to become a fully-owned developer subsidiary of NCSoft (similar to Destination Games and ArenaNet) dedicated to the City of Heroes IP. Paragon Studios is credited alongside with Cryptic Studios on the website and NCSoft websites for development of the game.

Communities

Many on-line communities exist for the discussion of City of Heroes. Some prominent ones include:

Official forums

The official Internet forum for City of Heroes is the web board found at boards.cityofheroes.com. This web board is run by NCsoft themselves, and frequented by various developers and customer service representatives (referred to by site regulars as "red names" because their usernames are highlighted in red on their forum posts) as well as players. There are forums devoted to announcements, general issues, player guides, questions, suggestions, each archetype, each of the eleven game servers, City of Villains, and other topics.

The European version of City of Heroes has its own separate official web board.

Supergroups

A player can join an existing Supergroup (also known as a "guild" in other MMOs) at any level. When the player reaches Level 10, the player may register a Supergroup of their own creation. When in a Supergroup the player can edit his or her colors and emblem to match the group. Also, if the player is in "Supergroup Mode", the player will earn Prestige and Salvage for the group. These can be used to improve the player's group's Base as well as paying rent on said base. Originally, the game did not have bases for heroes to inhabit between battles, but with the release of City of Villains, the feature was enabled for those who owned both games.

Fan sites

Numerous City of Heroes fan sites exist with a wide variety of formats and purposes, including roleplaying sites and informational sites. NCsoft maintained a City of Heroes fansite portal on its official site (indefinitely out of order at this current time). When operative, any person may create a fan site and submit it to NCsoft for publication on the portal, pending review to ensure that the site meets with the guidelines for a fan site submission.

General references

• City of Heroes, PRIMA Official Game Guide, Chris McCubbin and Christopher Pinckard, Prima Games (2004). ISBN 0-7615-4516-6
• City of Heroes Binder, PRIMA Official Game Guide, Eric Mylonis, Prima Games (2005), ISBN 0-7615-5205-7
• City of Heroes/City of Villains Bind, Macro & Emote Guide, "Shenanigunner" (2006-2009, updated regularly) HEROICA! website

External links

• City of Heroes North America official site
• European official site
• City of Heroes Going Rogue teaser site