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City of Heroes

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City of Heroes
City of Heroes box cover
City of Heroes box cover
Developer(s)Cryptic Studios
Publisher(s)NCsoft
Platform(s)Windows
Release2004
Genre(s)MMORPG
Mode(s)Multiplayer

City of Heroes (CoH) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing computer 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 France, Germany, and the UK (by NCsoft Europe) on 4 February 2005 with Scandinavia, Italy, Spain, and Benelux to follow. A Korean open beta of City of Heroes, entitled City of Hero (시티 오브 히어로), was launched on January 18, 2006. On October 31, 2005 the game's first sequel, City of Villains, was launched, allowing users to play as supervillains. Eight free major updates (Issues) for City of Heroes have been released since its launch, with more on the way for both City of Heroes and City of Villains, with the latest Issue, Issue 8, being released on November 28, 2006.

In the game, players create superhero player characters who can team up with others to fight various villains in Paragon City and its surrounding areas. Heroes must fight members of various gangs and organizations and complete Missions (called quests in other MMORPGs) given to them by Non-player characters (NPCs) in order to accumulate experience points (or "XP") and increase their level.

Overview

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

Players begin by using the game's extensive character creation system to select an archetype and Power Sets, design a unique costume, and write a back story for their hero.

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 chance to hit an enemy is determined by the difference between his level and the enemy's threat level. Low level heroes always have trouble successfully damaging high level villains. As a hero's security level increases by doing missions and defeating foes, they gain benefits 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. Enhancements are level oriented, and a hero may only slot enhancements that are within + or - 3 of his or her level. Once a player outlevels an enhancement, it no longer provides a bonus to the power it was applied to.

Paragon City, the city in which the game takes place, 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. In player terms, this means to go to a different area the player has to either use the monorail operated by the Paragon Transit Authority or the roads that are guarded by the Police. Players can also travel to hazard or trial zones and the city's sewer system, which teem with large groups of enemies.

Heroes initially move around the zones by slowly jogging, sprinting or if they bought the deluxe edition of the game, sliding by using the Prestige Power Slide power. As heroes grow in level and accumulate more powers, they gain the ability to choose one of four traveling powers: teleportation, super speed, super jumping, and flight, 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, non-class specific powers such as Grant Invisibility, Provoke, Recall Friend, and Boxing.

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 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. Some 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 is accepted from the contact. It is usually possible to tell, by reading its description, whether a mission is timed before accepting it.

Heroes can venture into mission maps together if they form a team and choose a particular 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 for some story arcs, a badge.

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. 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 connected. 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 Task Forces reward players with an opportunity to "respecify" their characters by choosing a different complement of superpowers or 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.

Character creation

Main article: City of Heroes characters

Creating a character consists of several steps. First the player selects an origin, an archetype and a primary and secondary power set. Next the actual avatar with its costume is created. And finally 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 battlecry.

Items

Main article: Items in City of Heroes and City of Villains

Like other MMORPGs, City of Heroes/Villains have various items that are rewarded within the game. However, these items are described as intangible or other-worldly; being "inspirations" or "influence", which are ideas in the real world.

Enemies

Main article: City of Heroes enemy groups

In City of Heroes there are several 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

Main article: City of Heroes zones

Paragon City is a fictitious city located in Rhode Island. This was revealed to the players by Lead Developer Jack "Statesman" Emmert very early on in the City of Heroes beta test period.

Updates & History

Main article: City of Heroes history

The Development team continually expands City of Heroes with free downloadable patches/updates as well as massive free expansions dubbed "Issues." City of Villains was released as both an expansion and stand-alone game, a concept which has been dubbed "Expanshalone." Guild Wars uses a similar system with its additions. The Development team had planned on releasing a retail expansion to the game (similar to World of Warcraft and its retail expansion The Burning Crusade), but the idea was scrapped, and the content that had been planned to be released in the retail expansion will instead be released among several future free Issues.

Servers

Main article: City of Heroes 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. When the Korean City of Hero comes out of beta testing, they will more than likely have their own set of servers as well.

Praise

Computer Gaming World hailed the game saying "City of Heroes blows a superpowered gust of fresh air into an increasingly stale sword-and-sorcery MMO world" in August of 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 and has consistently given the update issues high marks. The launch of City of Heroes was widely reported as one of the most successful MMO launches in the history of the industry.

It also is often praised for having a development team that actively communicates with its playerbase. 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.

Also, the game is praised because a subscriber's characters are not deleted, even if the subscription has been cancelled for an extended period of time. Most MMORPGs delete a character after a period of inactivity (usually 3 months after an account is cancelled). For a relatively short period, inactive accounts ran the risk of having the names of their characters taken by new players in the character creator. The lack of names being taken from inactive characters eventually led to this policy being revoked. While this policy was active, the character itself was left untouched and a player who lost his character's name was given the option to choose a new one.

Awards

Criticism

A major criticism of many players is that City of Heroes does not release or reveal full numerical values for the powers and abilities of players. According to an interview with Jack Emmert, this was, in part, due to his belief that too many numbers could be intimidating to casual players. Due to this, there is concern that with any new release of the game that powers may be adjusted without the knowledge of the players.[1] Although the developers try to list all changes made to the game, sometimes changes do not get listed due to human error. The players, when this occurs, often find the changes quickly through testing, and report this to the development staff. Some games, such as World of Warcraft, disclose virtually all these numbers, and players often press the CoH development staff for the release of this information. Jack Emmert has commented, "Maybe I outthought myself!", in reference to WoW's popularity, even releasing these numbers. With the Issue 7 update, complete numbers for many powers, mostly from City of Villains power sets, were released in a free add-on to the previously released strategy guide binder for City of Heroes/Villains.

A more recent criticism is against a change in the game's mechanics, called Enhancement Diversification (ED). The changes were originally posted on the City of Villains beta forums, however some testers who were angered by the changes attempted to leak the information on to the City of Heroes forums despite their Non-Disclosure Agreements.

Eventually the developers posted the information on the CoH forums. They stated that ED had been in the works since March 2005, and that all changes to the game had been made with it in mind. Jack Emmert stated that it wasn't mentioned before because he did not want to release the information because they had not worked out the exact system and did not want to release incorrect information. This is understandable considering that some things mentioned in the past by Jack have been altered considerably or simply cancelled.

Some players have pointed out that City of Heroes has thus far been able to escape penalties for its shortcomings because, as of now, they have the monopoly on super hero MMORPGs, although that may change as other contenders release similar games. A few of those who feel they have been slighted by changes in the game's mechanics claim they will jump ship at the first alternative game to be released.

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. coh.ogaming.com has an article on why MMORPGs have recurring fees. [2] In addition to paying subscription fees via credit card, another option is pre-paid 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.

As of September 2006 City of Heroes has around 172,420 subscribers in the US & Europe, according to financial reports released by NCsoft in November 2006. [3]

Payment options

US dollars

  • 1 month for $14.99
  • 3 months for $41.85 ($13.95 per month)
  • 6 months for $77.70 ($12.95 per month)
  • 12 months for $143.40 ($11.95 per month)

Beginning April 5, 2006, NCsoft began adding sales tax to the above subscription charges for customers living in the states of California, Texas, Arizona, and Minnesota, due to having a legal business presence in those states. [4]

Euros

  • 1 month for €12.99
  • 3 months for €34.99 (€11.66 per month)
  • 6 month for €64.99 (€10.83 per month)

British pounds

  • 1 month for £8.99
  • 3 months for £23.99 (£7.99 per month)
  • 6 months for £44.99 (£7.49 per month)

Beyond the computer

The 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 backstories of 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. 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 homeworld, 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 CoX, and The Rikti War may or may not be published.

The comic book

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 featured the heroes/roommates Apex and War Witch with their neighbor Horus. The more recent series features signature heroes and villains from both City of Heroes and City of Villains such as The Statesman, Positron, Lord Recluse, and Ghost Widow.

Collectible card game

Main article: City of Heroes Collectible Card Game

Alderac Entertainment Group has also worked with CoH to create a collectible card game featuring characters from the game, as well as several original characters.

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. [5]

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.[6]

The game includes in its end-user license agreement (EULA) 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 EULA 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. [7] 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.[citation needed]

As of December 14, 2005, all claims have been settled. Although the settlement has not been disclosed, no changes will be made to the City of Heroes client. [8]

Although details of the settlement are scarce, it is believed that Marvel's case was floundering, because Marvel had admitted that some of the of allegedly infringing characters cited in the complaint had been made by Marvel's own investigators. This led the court to strike those exhibits from the complaint. Further, the court had dismissed, with prejudice, some of the claims, specifically the ones alleging indirect trademark infringement, because Marvel had not plead use in commerce, by players, of Marvel's marks. Use in commerce is a required element of trademark infringement under American statutes.

Time-Warner, owner of DC Comics, reportedly sees the franchise as something which could promote the sales of its comics and does not consider the game to be a threat of any kind.[citation needed]

Despite all of this, in October 2006 Marvel Comics selected Cryptic Studios to develop its own superhero MMORPG for Windows Vista and Xbox Live. 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.

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 Cryptic and 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

When the player reaches Level 10, the player can register a Supergroup, aka "guild" in other MMOs, as mentioned above in the overview. 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.

Fan Sites

Numerous City of Heroes fan sites exist with a wide variety of formats and purposes, including roleplaying sites and informational sites. NCsoft maintains a City of Heroes fan site portal on its official site. 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. Fan sites listed on the portal are periodically reviewed by NCsoft to ensure that they are up and maintained.

External links

References

  1. ^ "City of Heroes Official Forums: Ask Statesman - Answers!".
  2. ^ "Paragon City : City of Heroes OGaming - Pay-to-Play".
  3. ^ "NCsoft.com: financial report".
  4. ^ "PlayNC.com: Important: Account Billing Process Change".
  5. ^ "Eden Studios, Inc. Current News". Retrieved 2006-12-12.
  6. ^ Alex Vega, Associated Press. "USATODAY.com - Marvel sues two companies over role-playing game".
  7. ^ "PlayNC.com - City of Heroes EULA".
  8. ^ "City of Heroes Community Site: Marvel Entertainment, Inc., NCsoft Corporation, NC Interactive, Inc., Cryptic Studios, Inc. Settle All Litigation".
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