City of Heroes

Others have pointed out that the EULA also includes a clause which gives ownership of created characters to Cryptic. A related competition is FIRST Lego League for elementary and middle schools. 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. The earliest, and likely the largest, is Botball, a national US middle- and high-school competition stemming from the MIT 6270 lego robotics tournament. The suit seeks unspecified damages and an injunction to force the companies to stop making use of its characters. There are several competitions which use Lego bricks and the RCX, among other microcontrollers, for robotics. 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. These programmable bricks are sold under the name Lego Mindstorms.

Other supplements (Paragon City source book, Monitor's Support Pack, Super-powered Operative's Dossier, etc.) will follow. There are even special bricks, like the LEGO RCX that can be programmed with a PC to perform very complicated and useful tasks. It will be based on Eden Studio's Unisystem rules and the core book will be called Registration Manual. There are also motors, gears, lights, sensors, and cameras available to be used with Lego components. 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. LEGO recently announced the procurement of worldwide toy rights with the cable TV channel Nickelodeon for building sets with themes from two hit TV shows such as SpongeBob SquarePants and Avatar: The Last Airbender which will be available Summer of 2006. 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. Sets containing new pieces are released frequently.

Artist George Pérez provides the covers for the first three novels. Since it began producing plastic bricks, the Lego Group has released thousands of play sets themed around space, robots, pirates, vikings, medieval castles, dinosaurs, cities, suburbia, holiday locations, wild west, the Arctic, boats, racing cars, trains, Spider-Man, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Bionicle, and more. 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. Annual production of Lego bricks averages approximately 20 billion (2 × 10¹⁰) per year, or about 600 pieces per second. 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. Brick decorations and packaging is done at plants in Denmark, Switzerland, United States, South Korea and the Czech Republic. 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. Moulding is done at one of two plants in Denmark and Switzerland.

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. Manufacturing of Lego bricks occurs at a number of locations around the world. 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. It is thanks to this care in manufacturing that the Lego Group has maintained such a high degree of quality over the decades; this is one of the main reasons that pieces manufactured over 40 years ago still interlock neatly with pieces manufactured today. For a small additional fee, you can still get the actual comics sent to your door. According to the Lego Group, its moulding processes are so accurate that only 18 bricks out of every million fail to meet its stringent standards. 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. Worn-out moulds are encased in the foundations of buildings to prevent their falling into competitors' hands.

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. Precision-machined, small-capacity moulds are used, and human inspectors meticulously check the output of the moulds, to eliminate significant variations in colour or thickness. This was followed up by Dan Jurgens, who wrote the next three-issue arc named Bloodlines. Since 1963, Lego pieces are manufactured from a strong, resilient plastic known as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, or ABS. 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. In order for pieces to have just the right "clutch power", Lego elements are manufactured within a tolerance of 2 micrometres (0.00008 in). Unlike the previous volume, this series will follow the adventures of the city's most illustrious supergroup, the Freedom Phalanx led by The Statesman. They cannot be too easy to pull apart, or the result will be Lego creations that are unstable; they cannot be too difficult to pull apart, since the disassembly of one creation in order to build another is part of the Lego appeal.

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. When snapped together, pieces must have just the right amount of "clutch power"; they must stay together until pulled apart. 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. Bricks, beams, axles, minifigures, and all other elements in the Lego system are manufactured to an exacting degree of tolerance. It was written by one of the game's designers, Rick Dakan, art was by Brandon McKinney and coloring was by Moose Bauman. Retail Lego sets for young children are compatible with those made for teenagers. The comic's first volume ran 12 issues from May 2004 to April 2005. Lego pieces from 1963 still interlock with pieces made in 2006, despite radical changes in shape and design over the years.

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. Since their introduction in 1949, Lego pieces of all varieties have been, first and foremost, part of a system. 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. Nevertheless, such corporate admonitions are frequently ignored as corporate intervention in the use of language, and the word lego is commonly used not only as a noun to refer to Lego bricks but also as a generic term referring to any kind of interlocking toy brick. 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 company asserts that to protect its brand name, the word Lego must always be used as an adjective, as in "LEGO set," "LEGO products," "LEGO universe," and so forth. As of March 2005 City of Heroes has around 150,000 subscribers worldwide (according to MMMGchart.com [2]). "Lego" is officially written in all uppercase letters.

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. Thank you! Susan Williams, Consumer Services. In addition to paying subscription fees via credit card, another option is pre-paid cards that are available at video game retailers. Please always refer to our bricks as 'LEGO Bricks or Toys' and not 'LEGOS.' By doing so, you will be helping to protect and preserve a brand of which we are very proud and that stands for quality the world over. coh.ogaming.com has an article on why MMORPGs have recurring fees [1]. We would sincerely like your help in keeping it special. 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. The word LEGO® is a brand name and is very special to all of us in the LEGO Group Companies.

As in other MMORPGs, players must pay the publisher (NCSoft) a monthly fee to continue playing City of Heroes. Lego catalogues in the 1970s and 1980s contained a note that read:. 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. The Lego Group's name has become so synonymous with its flagship toy that many use the words "Lego" (collectively) or "Legos" to refer to the bricks themselves, and even to any plastic bricks resembling Lego bricks, although the Lego Group discourages this as dilution of their trademark. 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). Over the years many more Lego sets, series, and pieces were created, with many innovative improvements and additions, culminating in the colourful versatile building toys that we know today. 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. It wasn't until 1958 that the modern-day brick design was developed, and it took another five years to find exactly the right material for it.

The development team will admit mistakes and also implement player suggestions. Godtfred saw the immense potential in Lego bricks to become a system for creative play, but the bricks still had some problems from a technical standpoint: their "locking" ability was limited, and they were not very versatile. It also is often praised for having a development team that actually communicates with it's playerbase. It was his conversation with an overseas buyer that struck the idea of a toy system. The launch of City of Heroes was widely reported as one of the most successful MMO launches in the history of the industry. By 1954, Christiansen's son, Godtfred, had become the junior managing director of the Lego Group. 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. Many of the Lego Group's shipments were returned, following poor sales; it was thought that plastic toys could never replace wooden ones.

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. The use of plastic for toy manufacture was not highly regarded by retailers and consumers of the time. 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. The blocks snapped together, but not so tightly that they couldn't be pulled apart. 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. They had several round "studs" on top, and a hollow rectangular bottom. Entertainment, they have been criticized as not doing anything to help the already-troubled game, they are letting it get stagnant). A few years later, in 1949, Lego began producing similar bricks, calling them "Automatic Binding Bricks." These bricks, manufactured from cellulose acetate, were developed in the spirit of traditional wooden blocks that could be stacked upon one another; however, these plastic bricks could be "locked" together.

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. Hilary Harry Fisher Page, a child psychologist. There is also a DC Comics MMORPG that is being produced by Sony Online Entertainment. These "Kiddicraft Self-Locking Building Bricks" were designed and patented in the UK by Mr. 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). In 1947, Ole Kirk and his son Godtfred obtained samples of interlocking plastic bricks produced by the company Kiddicraft. 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. It should be noted, however, that the original, Greek verb "legein" actually has the meaning "put together".

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. The Lego Group claims that "Lego" means "I put together" or "I assemble" in Latin, though this is a rather liberal translation; the more accepted and widely used application of the word is "I read". 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. The company name Lego was coined by Christiansen from the Danish phrase leg godt, meaning "play well". 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. Ole Kirk started creating wooden toys in 1932, but it wasn't until 1949 that the famous plastic Lego brick was created. 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. The Lego Group had humble beginnings in the workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen, a poor carpenter from Billund, Denmark.

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. . 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 sets are produced by the Lego Group, a privately-held company based in Denmark. Eventually the developers posted the information on the CoH forums. High production quality and careful attention to detail ensures that Lego pieces can fit together in myriad ways, which is one of the main reasons for the toy's success. 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. Cars, planes, trains, buildings, castles, sculptures, ships, spaceships, and even working robots are just a few of the many things that can be made with Lego bricks.

This is causing an even larger outcry than those on the changes in Issue 5. Lego is a line of toys featuring colourful plastic bricks, gears, minifigures (also called minifigs or mini-figs), and other pieces which can be assembled to create models of almost anything imaginable. A more recent criticism is against a change in the game's mechanics, called Enhancement Diversification (ED). The number 102,981,504 (four more than that figure) is the number of six-piece towers (of a height of six). 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. The figure of 102,981,500 is often given for six pieces, but it is incorrect. 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. Six eight-stud Lego bricks of the same colour can be put together in 915,103,765 ways, and just three bricks of the same colour offer 1,560 combinations.

Other criticisms are more subjective. "Legot" (or "leegot"), plural form of "lego" (or "leego") is also used as a Finnish slang term for human teeth, because of the rectangular shape of the teeth. 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. Some sets have powers that are rarely taken and are dismissed as useless. As in all MMORPGs, there are calls to weaken, or nerf, these apparently overpowered sets.

Some players have criticized the game for being improperly balanced, with some power sets far outshining others. 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". The developer continually expands City of Heroes with free downloadable patches/updates. This was revealed to the players by Lead Developer Jack "Emmert" Statesman very early on in the City of Heroes beta test period.

Paragon City is a fictitious city located in Rhode Island. Badges have become, for some players, a greatly needed push for more to do in the game than just fight. 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. 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.

Plaques do not have to be read in any particular order. 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. 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. Also added were a number of historical plaques, placed throughout Paragon City.

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. 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. 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. In order to give the game more content, Cryptic introduced a system of collectible badges in its second content update to the game.

Influence can be spent to buy enhancements and inspirations, change the costume and adjust the difficulty level of missions. 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. For completing missions and defeating opponents heroes not only gain experience points, but also receive influence points. Influence is the currency within City of Heroes.

Special "gift" inspirations with a random ability (including temporary immunity from experience debt) have also been available upon occasion. There is also one special inspiration, called ambrosia, used only for the Eden Trial. The more powerful versions are less common. 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).

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. 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 are usually 8 types of inspirations. Characters gain the ability to hold more inspirations as they gain in level.

They can also be traded between player characters and bought from non-player characters. Inspirations can be used quickly and it is common to store some for more difficult battles. Inspirations are quick powerups that many enemies drop randomly. An enhancement can only be combined twice with lower leveled enhancement, after that it can only be combined with a higher leveled enhancement.

The combination will result in a single enhancement one level higher than the highest leveled enhancement used. Two enhancements with the same level can always be combined without failing. 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. To combine two enhancements they must have the same origin type and affected stat and one must be slotted.

All enhancements have the following characteristics:. Once an enhancement is put in, it can only be replaced by a different enhancement, or combined with another enhancement. Each slot can hold exactly one enhancement. Every power comes with one slot, and can have up to six slots attached to it.

At certain levels a character is given new enhancement slots to attach to a power. Special enhancements can also can be earned by completing missions, trials and task forces. Usually, heroes earn random enhancements and inspirations by defeating enemies, but they can also be bought at stores. Enhancements and inspirations fill the roles of equipment and items in City Of Heroes, with enhancements being permanent and inspirations being temporary.

And finally the player chooses a name and can optionally write a background story to add some flavor to the character. Next the actual avatar with its costume is created. First the player selects an origin, an archetype and a primary and secondary power set. Creating a character consists of several steps.

Players can also form teams with other players to go on missions and fight villains together. Heroes can then enter 'Supergroup Mode' and change the colors and emblem of their normal avatar to those of their supergroup. Supergroups pick a name, a motto, an emblem and two colors. 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.

Teamwork is a large part of City of Heroes. Several specially-designated Task Forces reward players with an opportunity to "respecify" their characters by choosing a different complement of superpowers or reassigning enhancements. 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. 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.

In the case somebody is involuntarily disconnected, then he will return to the Task Force when connected. If a Task Force member voluntarily leaves the team while the Task Force is in progress, he is unable to rejoin it. Once a Task Force has been started additional players will not be able to join the team. 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.

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. Once a story arc is completed, the hero is rewarded with experience points, enhancements and for some story arcs, a badge. Sometimes, these story arcs affect the player hero directly as well. 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.

Amid the missions, story arcs will emerge. 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. The difficulty level and number of the villains is adjusted according to the strength and number of the heroes grouped together. Heroes can venture into mission maps together if they form a team and choose a particular mission as the team's objective.

It is usually possible to tell, by reading its description, whether a mission is timed before accepting it. 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. Upon completion, heroes will be rewarded with an XP bonus, influence and occasionally a badge. As heroes venture further into the mission zone, they usually have to confront a Boss villain, rescue hostages, or find a particular clue.

When heroes reach approximately level 20, they begin to receive outdoor instanced missions set in fenced-off areas as well. 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. For instance, Circle of Thorns (a magic using villain group) members can always be found in the hazard zone of Perez Park. Certain gangs are more likely to appear in different zones.

Groups of villains, all from the same gang and usually all with similar security levels, roam around areas of Paragon City. There are a variety of different villain organisations and gangs in City of Heroes, each with unique attributes. 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. 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.

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. 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. Players can also travel to hazard or trial zones and the city's sewer system, which teem with large groups of enemies. 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.

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. Paragon City, the city in which the game takes place, is divided into different zones by giant energy walls known as "War Walls". Enhancements are power-ups which players can socket onto powers to improve them permanently. 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.

Low level heroes always have trouble successfully damaging high level villains. A hero's chance to hit an enemy is determined by the difference between his level and the enemy's threat level. Players may choose to skip this tutorial if they like and head straight to one of two starting areas (Atlas Park and Galaxy City). It is here they learn about the level system and how to determine which enemies to attack.

They start their adventure in a tutorial zone that teaches them how to play the game. 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. . 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.

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. 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. On October 31, 2005 the game's first sequel, City of Villains, was launched, allowing users to play as supervillains. 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.

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

6 month for €64.99 (€10.83 per month). 3 months for €34.99 (€11.66 per month). 1 month for €12.99. 12 months for $143.40 ($11.95 per month).

6 months for $77.70 ($12.95 per month). 3 months for $41.85 ($13.95 per month). 1 month for $14.99. IGN, Best of E3 2002 - Runner Up - Best MMOG.

Game Critics Awards, Nominee - Best Online Multiplayer - E3 2002. Game Revolution, Best of E3 2003 - Best Online Game. Game Critics Awards, Best Online Multiplayer - E3 2003. GameSpy, Editor’s Choice - May 28, 2004.

Gamespy, Game of the Month - May 2004. Gamespot, Game of the Month - May 2004. IGN, Editor’s Choice - May 28, 2004. Warcry, Best Expansion - City of Villains - E3 2004.

Actiontrip, Editor’s Choice - June 3, 2004. The Adrenaline Vault, Seal of Excellence - June 15, 2004. Loadedinc, Hot Property Award - June 30, 2004. Game Informer, PC Game of the Month - July 2004 Issue.

Computer Gaming World, Editor's Choice - August 2004. Computer Games Magazine, Editor’s Choice - August 2004 Issue. Games Magazine, Game of the Year 2004. Wargamer, Award for Excellence - October 14, 2004.

Billboard 2004 Digital Entertainment Conference & Awards, Multiplayer Game of the Year - November 5, 2004. Billboard 2004 Digital Entertainment Conference & Awards, PC or Console Game of the Year - November 5, 2004. GameSpy.com, PC Games of the Year - December 24, 2004. Spike TV, MMORPG Game of the Year - December 15, 2004.

Computer Gaming World, MMORPG Game of the Year - February 2005. Hamidon enhancements are only level 50. For example, a level 6 character can use enhancements level 3 through 9. The difference of the level of the enhancement and the character must be within 3.

Level is a number on the enhancement that determines what security level a character can be to use it. 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). Single Origin enhancements can be used by only one origin and give about a 33% boost. Dual Origin enhancements can be used by only two origins and give about a 16.5% boost.

Training enhancements can be used by any origin and give about an 8.3% boost. Origin type determinates which origins can use a specific enhancement and how large its boost is: