City of Heroes

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. On October 31, 2005 the game's first sequel, City of Villains, was launched, allowing users to play as supervillains. Six gratis major updates for City of Heroes have released since its launch, with more on the way for both City of Heroes and City of Villains.

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 quests given to them by NPCs in order to accumulate experience points (or "XP") and increase their security level.

Overview

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 start their adventure in a tutorial zone 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 permanently.

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 you have 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 (listed below) 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 organisations 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-playable characters (referred to as "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

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.

Enhancements and inspirations

Enhancements and inspirations fill the roles of equipment and items in City Of Heroes, with enhancements being permanent and inspirations being temporary. Usually, heroes earn random enhancements and inspirations by defeating enemies, but they can also be bought at stores. Special enhancements can also can be earned by completing missions, trials and task forces.

Enhancements

At certain levels a character is given new enhancement slots to attach to a power. Every power comes with one slot, and can have up to six slots attached to it. Each slot can hold exactly one enhancement. Once an enhancement is put in, it can only be replaced by a different enhancement, or combined with another enhancement.

All enhancements have the following characteristics:

• Stat affected is labeled on the enhancement, and shows what stat of a power it will boost. This can either increase or decrease the affected stat. For example, the damage enhancements increase damage, but the endurance cost enhancements decrease the endurance cost. Hamidon enhancements affect two or three stats.
• Origin type determinates which origins can use a specific enhancement and how large its boost is:
  • Training enhancements can be used by any origin and give about an 8.3% boost.
  • Dual Origin enhancements can be used by only two origins and give about a 16.5% boost.
  • Single Origin enhancements can be used by only one origin and give about a 33% boost.
  • Hamidon, Crystal Titan, and Hydra enhancements can be used by any origin and give a 33% boost in two or three different categories (for example, it might do both damage and accuracy).
• Level is a number on the enhancement that determines what security level a character can be to use it. The difference of the level of the enhancement and the character must be within 3. For example, a level 6 character can use enhancements level 3 through 9. Hamidon enhancements are only level 50.

Combining enhancements

To combine two enhancements they must have the same origin type and affected stat and one must be slotted. Also the further apart the levels of the two enhancements are, the greater is the chance that the combination fails, thus losing the lower leveled enhancement. Two enhancements with the same level can always be combined without failing.

The combination will result in a single enhancement one level higher than the highest leveled enhancement used. An enhancement can only be combined twice with lower leveled enhancement, after that it can only be combined with a higher leveled enhancement.

Inspirations

Inspirations are quick powerups that many enemies drop randomly. Inspirations can be used quickly and it is common to store some for more difficult battles. They can also be traded between player characters and bought from non-player characters. Characters gain the ability to hold more inspirations as they gain in level.

There are usually 8 types of inspirations. The types are generally referred to by the color they are represented by in the interface: blue (endurance), green (health), red (damage), yellow (accuracy), purple (defense) and the newest, orange (damage resistance). There is also a type that gives resistance and frees the hero who uses it from most status effects, usually referred to by the name of the weakest version, break free, and a type that resurrects a fallen hero, usually just called a rez or awaken. In each of these types there are three specific inspirations, which help the affected area by 25%, 33%, and 50% (with rez, this refers to the amount of hp they have upon resurrecting). The more powerful versions are less common. There is also one special inspiration, called ambrosia, used only for the Eden Trial. Special "gift" inspirations with a random ability (including temporary immunity from experience debt) have also been available upon occasion.

Influence

Influence is the currency within City of Heroes. For completing missions and defeating opponents heroes not only gain experience points, but also receive influence points. Especially after a hero defeats a group of villains threatening a civilian on the streets of Paragon City, that civilian will run up to the hero and thank him by giving additional influence. Influence can be spent to buy enhancements and inspirations, change the costume and adjust the difficulty level of missions.

Enemies

Badges, plaques, and accolades

In order to give the game more content, Cryptic introduced a system of collectible badges in its second content update to the game. These badges are obtained by visiting particular areas, achieving a certain security level, completing certain missions or sets of missions, defeating a quantity of specific types of foe, or special in-game achievements like taking a certain amount of damage or earning a certain amount of Influence. These badges may be viewed by other players in the player information dialogue, and may also be worn to add the name of the badge as a title under a hero's publicly-displayed name. Thus, if a player finds the name of a badge to be well-suited to his character, or finds some in-game accomplishment especially significant, he can choose to title his character accordingly with that badge.

Also added were a number of historical plaques, placed throughout Paragon City. Each plaque relates some historical fact about Paragon City's, its heroes', or the world's back story, and they are grouped into sets based on their subject matter. Heroes can obtain certain badges by visiting and reading each plaque in a set, which are often scattered across two or more zones within the city. Plaques do not have to be read in any particular order.

When a hero has collected specific groups of badges, he is granted an "Accolade"—a badge that includes additional special powers for the hero, such as a maximum health or endurance boost, or an attack.

As the game has expanded more badges have been added, as well as special "event" badges, the first was for Holloween of 2004, but more such events happen a couple times a year. Badges have become, for some players, a greatly needed push for more to do in the game than just fight.

Geography

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

Updates

The developer continually expands City of Heroes with free downloadable patches/updates. City of Villains was released as both an expansion to City of Heroes and as a standalone game, a concept which has been dubbed "Expanshalone".

Criticism

Some players have criticized the game for being improperly balanced, with some power sets far outshining others. As in all MMORPGs, there are calls to weaken, or nerf, these apparently overpowered sets.

Some sets have powers that are rarely taken and are dismissed as useless. Other powers are so useful that they are considered essential for every character, such as Hasten, which allows powers to be reactivated more quickly after each use, and Stamina, which increases a character's endurance regeneration rate.

Other criticisms are more subjective. Some players say the game lacks an immersive feel and doesn't express fully the superhero comic book genre on which the game is based. Other players have also noted that the game does not incorporate the experience suggested in the in-game text written for mission descriptions and historical plaques, or the fictional world's history found on the game's website.

A more recent criticism is against a change in the game's mechanics, called Enhancement Diversification (ED). This is causing an even larger outcry than those on the changes in Issue 5. 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. The lead developer stated that it wasn't mentioned before because he didn't want to release the info because they hadn’t worked out the exact system and didn't want to release false information. This is understandable considering that Statesman had mentioned a special "Super Secret Out of Combat Skill System" in the past that has never materialized due to problems developing the system. Statesman, in a response to a private message sent to him by a forum-goer regarding "SSOCSS" stated that this system is currently shelved for the time being.

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. 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.

However, it should be noted that currently the only alternatives that are in production are a Microsoft XBox 360-exclusive Marvel online game that may play more like a regular ORPG like Diablo, it should also be known that Microsoft has a shady history when it comes to MMORPG's, they've been held responsible for the death of Asheron's Call 2 and they have announced promising MMORPG's only to end up canceling them such as Mythica and True Fantasy Live Online. Finally, the fact that the game will only be for XBox 360 is a heavy factor against it as it not only depends on a player to own the console, but also possibly be subscribed to XBox live Gold (Silver membership is free with ownership of the console and may very well be all that's required by Microsoft) and also have to pay an additional fee (which Marvel's development group would be collecting). There is also a DC Comics MMORPG that is being produced by Sony Online Entertainment. SOE has a repuatation for poorly handling licensed MMO's, such as Star Wars Galaxies (which has undergone several system revamps that have caused thousands of frustrated customers to leave each time) and Matrix Online (which SOE actually bought from Warner Bros. Entertainment, they have been criticized as not doing anything to help the already-troubled game, they are letting it get stagnant). As such, many fans of CoH feel that only Cryptic will be able to keep up a proper Superhero MMORPG whereas SOE and Microsoft will not.

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 actually communicates with it's playerbase. The development team will admit mistakes and also implement player suggestions. The communication level between players and developers is such that a player can actually private message Statesman, get their suggestion/question/complaint read, and possibly even responded to.

Also, the game is praised because your characters are NEVER deleted even if you leave the game for an extended period of time, unlike most MMORPGs where you character is fair game for deletion after a period of time (usually 3 months after you cancel your account). To be fair to newer players though, characters on canceled accounts may lose their names to players making new characters, however the character itself is left untouched and should the player return, if their name was taken they are allowed to give the character a new name, if the name was not taken they can still use it.

Awards

• Computer Gaming World, MMORPG Game of the Year - February 2005
• Spike TV, MMORPG Game of the Year - December 15, 2004
• GameSpy.com, PC Games of the Year - December 24, 2004
• Billboard 2004 Digital Entertainment Conference & Awards, PC or Console Game of the Year - November 5, 2004
• Billboard 2004 Digital Entertainment Conference & Awards, Multiplayer Game of the Year - November 5, 2004
• Wargamer, Award for Excellence - October 14, 2004
• 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 - June 30, 2004
• The Adrenaline Vault, Seal of Excellence - June 15, 2004
• Actiontrip, Editor’s Choice - June 3, 2004
• Warcry, Best Expansion - City of Villains - E3 2004
• IGN, Editor’s Choice - May 28, 2004
• Gamespot, Game of the Month - May 2004
• Gamespy, Game of the Month - May 2004
• GameSpy, Editor’s Choice - May 28, 2004
• Game Critics Awards, Best Online Multiplayer - E3 2003
• Game Revolution, Best of E3 2003 - Best Online Game
• Game Critics Awards, Nominee - Best Online Multiplayer - E3 2002
• IGN, Best of E3 2002 - Runner Up - Best MMOG

Servers

Subscription

As in 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 [1]. 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 March 2005 City of Heroes has around 150,000 subscribers worldwide (according to MMMGchart.com [2]).

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)

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 comic book

North American subscribers to the game receive the City of Heroes monthly comic book in the mail; it is also available in some comic book stores. The comic follows the adventures of fictional Paragon City heroes and ties into the game's plot development at times, as well as featuring a section devoted to fan art, fan fiction, and other miscellany in the back. At times, this rear section has also included comic strips by Scott Kurtz of the PvP webcomic and Tim Buckley of the Ctrl Alt Del webcomic.

The comic's first volume ran 12 issues from May 2004 to April 2005. It was written by one of the game's designers, Rick Dakan, art was by Brandon McKinney and coloring was by Moose Bauman. It followed the story of the heroes Apex, War Witch, and Horus, who were virtually unmentioned in the game until Issue #5, where War Witch is a trainer in Croatoa.

Beginning with the May 2005 issue, the comic book is published by Top Cow Productions, written by noted comic book writer Mark Waid, and illustrated by newcomer David Nakayama. Unlike the previous volume, this series will follow the adventures of the city's most illustrious supergroup, the Freedom Phalanx led by The Statesman.

Mark Waid wrote the first three issues of the new Top Cow comic.Starting with issue four, Troy Hickman (who received Eisner Award nominations for Best Short Story and Best Anthology for his Common Grounds comic from Top Cow Productions) wrote a three-issue story arc entitled Smoke and Mirrors. This was followed up by Dan Jurgens, who wrote the next three-issue arc named Bloodlines.

As of City of Villains launch, the free comic book deal switched from being an actual comic book being mailed to you to being able to access all existing CoH comic books on the company's website. It's belived Cryptic did this not only to compensate for the lack of additional monthly fees for playing both CoH and CoV, but also to solve the problem of comic books getting lost in the mail. For a small additional fee, you can still get the actual comics sent to your door. Some have criticized Cryptic for doing this, but many more feel that this is fair considering you never paid for the comic itself in the first place.

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 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, is due for release in May 2006 and will detail the reformation of the hero team the Freedom Phalanx in the 1980s. A third novel, The Rikti War, written by Shane Hensley, is due out in August 2006 and will cover the epic transdimensional war between Earth and the Rikti homeworld. Artist George Pérez provides the covers for the first three novels.

Collectible card game

A recent 16 March 2005 press release announced Alderac Entertainment Group, maker of several collectible card games including Legend of the Five Rings, has been chosen to release a City of Heroes CCG.

Role-playing game

In another press release, Eden Studios, makers of RPGs based on Army of Darkness and Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchises, have been tapped to produce a tabletop role-playing game for City of Heroes. It will be based on Eden Studio's Unisystem rules and the core book will be called Registration Manual. Other supplements (Paragon City source book, Monitor's Support Pack, Super-powered Operative's Dossier, etc.) will follow.

Suit by Marvel

In November 2004, Marvel Comics filed a lawsuit against City of Heroes developer Cryptic Studios and publisher NCSoft alleging that the game not only allows, but actively promotes, the creation of characters whose copyrights and trademarks are owned by Marvel, and that Cryptic has intentionally failed to police these infringing characters. The suit seeks unspecified damages and an injunction to force the companies to stop making use of its characters.

Some have noted that Cryptic already includes in its end-user license agreement (EULA) language forbidding the creation of copyrighted characters and has been known to delete or rename such characters. Others have pointed out that the EULA also includes a clause which gives ownership of created characters to Cryptic.

Cryptic has replied that the lawsuit is frivolous. Many intellectual property analysts agree, but others have noted that trademark law is structured such that if Marvel believes their properties are being infringed upon, they have little choice but to file a lawsuit, regardless of its outcome. 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.

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. [3]

Although details of the settlement are scarce, it's believed that Marvel's case was floundering because when they launched the suit, the examples of copyrighted characters being replicated by the games character creator cited by Marvel were found to have been made by Marvel's own employees, this led the judge to dismiss these specific examples and ordered that Marvel can never use similar evidence again. Also, it's believed that Marvel's reputation of being trigger-happy with lawsuits worked against them.

It should be noted that Time-Warner, owner of DC Comics see the CoH franchise as something which could promote the sales of its comics and doesn't consider the game to be a threat of any kind.

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. Currently, the primary forum moderator is CuppaJo.

The value of this forum to the average player is a matter of debate. Some find the presence of the developers, and their willingness to interact with and answer questions from players, to be laudable—especially in comparison to other MMORPGs, which tend not to have this type of developer availability. However, there is also a very vocal faction of disgruntled gamers that produce flamewars and complaints which can cause would-be participants to stay away. Reportedly only about 10% of the game's player base actually participates in these boards.

The official web board is moderated to remove extreme antisocial behavior, discussion of client modification (such as map patches, skin modifications, or disabling certain sounds) prohibited by the EULA, and discussion of moderator decisions.

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

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.

LiveJournal communities

Over sixty communities on the LiveJournal weblog site list City of Heroes as one of their interests. Most of these are communities devoted to specific supergroups or servers.

The LiveJournal community for general discussion of City of Heroes-related issues is city_of_heroes. A variety of matters are discussed here in an informal setting, including discussions prohibited on the official forum. Flamewars seldom occur.

alt.games.coh

alt.games.coh is a low-traffic USENET newsgroup where City of Heroes is discussed. As with any USENET group, flamewars can and do occur, sometimes lasting for days, but they are relatively seldom. As an alt.* hierarchy group, alt.games.coh may not be available from some news servers.