One of the things our players are most interested in is how we go about the process of designing the missions and story arcs they play through so much. It’s not just an easy process of throwing together some pre-created maps, plopping down some enemies to get rid of, and setting up the appropriate rewards. We carefully consider the plot of the missions or story arcs and their flow in the gameplay sense, what resources we can (or can’t) use to achieve our goals, carefully balance difficulty with rewards, and consider how to creatively get the best out of what we are typically able to use to make the entire encounter much more interesting.

Worth a read, especially if you're a CoH devotee. Even if you're not, it's an interesting, real-life glimpse into the design process.

Behind The Scenes On City of Heroes [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

“Players will soon be able to join the battle of good versus evil in the most popular comic book MMO on both the PC and Mac platforms…and in the same game world,” commented Brian Clayton, executive producer of City of Heroes for NCsoft West. “Given Mac’s fame as a platform for creative people and City of Heroes’ unprecedented character customization options, I think City of Heroes is a perfect fit for the Mac gaming community.”

Of course City of Heroes will already run on an Inter-based Mac using Boot Camp, but this news just makes it that much more convenient.

NCsoft and TransGaming Announce City of Heroes for the Mac

Battle of Good vs. Evil Now Available on Two Platforms

SEATTLE and TORONTO, Ontario, October 30, 2008 – NCsoft®, the world’s premier publisher and developer of massively multiplayer online games (MMOs), today announced a partnership with TransGaming, Inc. (TSX-V: TNG) to bring their award-winning City of Heroes® franchise to the Apple® Macintosh®. The game has been enabled for the Mac by TransGaming, a leading developer of portability technologies for the electronic entertainment industry. City of Heroes for Mac will be available for public beta testing with the release of the game’s thirteenth expansion, Issue 13: Power and Responsibility later this fall. The official launch will occur pre-holiday this year with a special digital-only Mac edition of City of Heroes, available across all NCsoft West consumer territories.

“Players will soon be able to join the battle of good versus evil in the most popular comic book MMO on both the PC and Mac platforms…and in the same game world,” commented Brian Clayton, executive producer of City of Heroes for NCsoft West. “Given Mac’s fame as a platform for creative people and City of Heroes’ unprecedented character customization options, I think City of Heroes is a perfect fit for the Mac gaming community.”

In City of Heroes, the most popular comic book inspired MMO on the market, players craft their hero or villain identities and join millions of other player created characters in a constantly expanding universe. Unparalleled character customization is a hallmark of the City of Heroes franchise. Players can choose from hundreds of different powers and thousands of costume options, resulting in near limitless personalization. Players may go it alone or band together with others in super groups.

City of Heroes for Mac was made possible using TransGaming's CiderTM Portability Engine, which acts as a "wrapper" around the game software, enabling it to run seamlessly on Intel-based Macs. The partnership with NCsoft to develop and publish City of Heroes for Mac offers the Mac gaming community its first opportunity to do battle in the streets of Paragon City™ and the Rogue Isles™ in a persistent universe with no differentiation between the PC and Mac. “NCsoft’s City of Heroes MMO is an incredible franchise and TransGaming is thrilled to provide Mac gamers the ability to demonstrate their creativity by building their own heroes and villains and immersing themselves in the battle between good and evil,” commented Vikas Gupta, CEO & president of TransGaming. “Through Cider, the Mac version will parallel the developments of the PC version, providing all game updates, new features, and storylines simultaneously on both platforms.”

The City of Heroes Mac Special Edition digital product will be sold at the PlayNC store and at GameTree Online. City of Heroes is rated "T" for Teen. For more information about City of Heroes go to http://www.cityofheroes.com.

Hit the jump for more details, including what's in store for Lineage II, and Exteel players. Did someone say free giant mech paint jobs?

Guild Wars

On Friday, October 24, Mad King Thorn makes his return to Guild Wars in yet another ghoulish Halloween season in Tyria. Players can take on the king and his maniacal mini-games, jokes and riddles at their own risk. But the rewards will be worth the effort. Winners will earn fabulous prizes. Losers will be killed. But like any good Halloween event, you can always come back to try again. Other events for this Halloween season include a costume brawl in a newly designed area of Guild Wars, dreadful Halloween peddlers located in Lion’s Arch and Kamadan who will barter for their creepy items and photo ops where you can take your character’s picture amongst some of the holiday props and settings. More information on all the frightful happenings in Guild Wars can be found here, http://www.guildwars.com/events/ingame/halloween2008/.

City of Heroes

City of Heroes’ annual Halloween event is back again with even more evil twists. This season, gruesome zombies are on the prowl and they’re after all heroes and villains. In addition to fighting off the dead guys, City of Heroes’ Halloween event has a familiar look with Classical Costumes. Badges will be awarded to those who collect the most costumes. But don’t stop there. Wear your costumes and go out trick or treating in Paragon City. Check out http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/archives/2008/10/halloween_event.html for more info.

Lineage II

Lineage II players will be celebrating Halloween along with the launch of the latest update to the game, Gracia – Part 2. On Tuesday, October 28th, the day Gracia – Part 2 launches, all players level 20 and above who go to their warehouse will receive a Pumpkin Transformation Stick which will change the player into a pumpkin ghost. Additionally there will be a surprise gift, but we can’t tell you what this is until next week when the event starts. All the details about Lineage II’s special Halloween Haunt can be found here, http://www.lineage2.com/archive/2008/10/halloween_haunt.html.

Tabula Rasa

For the next two weeks players can participate in special Halloween missions scattered throughout Tabula Rasa’s expansive world. Complete them and you’ll get a trick or treat emote and one of nine masks. If you played trick or treat in Tabula Rasa last year, you may recognize some of the masks but some will be brand new. For more information visit http://www.rgtr.com/news/latest_news/trick_or_treat.html.

Exteel

Starting Wednesday, October 29, Exteel will be celebrating its first Halloween by giving all of its players the opportunity to paint their robotic Mechanaughts orange and black at no extra cost. They’ll also be able to enjoy their new Halloween-themed paint schemes while earning 50% more credits and experience for every match played in the game. Be sure to take advantage of it quickly—Exteeloween ends on November 5! For more information about Exteel go to http://www.exteel.com.

Issue 13 will be released this fall, with Issue 14: Architect bringing the Mission Creator to the game in early 2009. Hit the jump for full details on the new updates and changes!

Issue 13: So big it can’t be contained in a single update!

Good morning! When we announced Issue 13: Architect a couple weeks back, we were overwhelmed by the positive response. Much of the feedback was centered around the Mission Architect system which allows players to create their own missions and story arcs. We have been actively following forum threads and private messages about the feature, and have even discussed it with players in person at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle.

It became apparent that you guys really want this feature, but in order to fully realize your dreams of writing your own missions you need creative control in one more key area: The ability to create “customized” characters to fight with or against in your missions. Adding custom characters has always been on our Mission Architect feature list, but we had considered it a “stretch goal.” That is, we could launch the system without this feature because our confidence was high that the rest of the system was incredibly robust.

But after listening to you guys, we realize that this feature simply must be in at launch. You have convinced us that it is an integral part of the Mission Architect, and we have reworked schedules and timelines to accomplish this. Rather than push the launch of Issue 13 out completely for one (albeit really cool and very complex) feature, the Mission Architect is going to see a slight delay. What is not going to be delayed is the rest of Issue 13. To that end, the previously announced feature set for Issue 13, together with new features that we are announcing today, will become Issue 13 and Issue 14.

Issue 14 will take on the name “Architect” and contain the Mission Architect feature along with other features we’ll announce at a later date. We are planning Issue 14: Architect to be released Winter of 2009. Issue 13 is now called “Issue 13: Power and Responsibility” and be launched in the Fall of 2008.

Issue 13: Power and Responsibility

Issue 13: Power and Responsibility will contain the bulk of features we’ve announced previously, including:

* Shield and Pain Domination powersets
* Merit Reward system
* Day Jobs (that include a suite of new costume pieces)
* Additional Cimerora and Midnight Squad mission arcs

In addition, we have some other new exciting features to reveal that will be included in Issue 13: Power and Responsibility. These include:

* Leveling Pact
* Multi-Builds
* PvE & PvP Powers rebalancing
* Villain Patron Power Respec
* Supergroup Base Repricing

Over the coming weeks we’ll be providing more details about the above points, but let me give you an overview of some of them now.

The Leveling Pact: A new innovation to MMOs, this groundbreaking system allows you and a buddy to create new characters and have your XP be permanently in sync, whether both characters are online or not. You will always be the same level, even if your buddy plays ten times more often than you do! It’s sort of like “Extreme Sidekicking.”

Multi-Builds: Another innovation to City of Heroes, we are delivering the ability to have two different build-outs of each character, including which powers are selected and which Enhancements are slotted. This will now be possible for characters who want to take advantage of it. By visiting any Trainer you can switch the entire build of your character to an alternate one. You can use this separate build for whatever you like. If you wish to use different power selections for soloing and groups, you can do that. This even makes it possible to have different IO sets slotted for PVP and PVE. It’s up to you.

PvE and PvP Powers Rebalancing: Floyd “Castle” Grubb and the powers designers have been hard at work in finding ways to strike a better balance between the many powers in the game. The scope of what they are doing is too broad to go into details here, but we’re very excited and we’ll share more information soon. Suffice it to say that we know that you don’t want your PvE powers adjusted because of how they play in PvP, so we’re taking a new tact in power balancing with Issue 13.

The update will also introduce offline progression in the form of day jobs. Players determine what they do when they aren't playing superhero by the location they log out from. Logging out from City Hall makes your character a City Official, while logging out in a Hospital grants you the Caregiver day job. Day jobs offer thematically appropriate rewards - City Officials gain influence, Caregivers gain health buffs - and once you've spent enough time on the job you'll earn badges that can be combined to unlock Accolades and increase the amount of rewards you rake in.

All this, plus two new power sets - Shields for the melee classes and Pain Domination for the villainous Corruptors and Masterminds. Hit the link for the full details on this truly epic update.

City of Heroes Issue 13: Architect [Official Site]

As an added bonus, both the $20 City of Heroes card and the $14.95 Tabula Rasa cards come with bonus in-game items - a jet pack and a rocket respectively. CoH and Exteel cards should be showing up at Target already, with those two and the exclusive Tabula Rasa cards appearing in Best Buy next week. Hit the jump for more info on pricing and availability.

NCsoft Expands Retail Presence with New Game Cards in Stores across North America
Target, Best Buy and Rite Aid to Sell Cards for Popular NCsoft Online Games

AUSTIN, Texas—(BUSINESS WIRE)—NCsoft® (KSE: 036570.KS), the world’s leading developer and publisher of online computer games, is teaming up with InComm, a technology firm that develops, markets and distributes stored-value gift and prepaid products, to bring many of NCsoft’s popular games to consumers on prepaid Game Cards.

Some of the top retailers in North America are participating in the new retail initiative that will include City of Heroes®, Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa® and Exteel™. Target, Best Buy and Rite Aid will be the first stores to offer the NCsoft Game Cards.

“This is a great opportunity for NCsoft to grow its expanding portfolio of triple-A massively multiplayer games beyond traditional retail channels,” said Lisa Bell-Cabrera, vice president of sales for NCsoft’s North American business. “Of course, we think this is a huge value to our customers. The InComm cards provide an incredibly convenient way for our customers to access our games and by using the cards, they’ll be getting some bonus items that will enhance their game play experience.”

The City of Heroes cards will provide purchasers with an exclusive in-game jet pack in addition to a convenient way to download and play the comic-book inspired online computer game without requiring a credit card. The City of Heroes Game Cards will retail for US$20 and come with 30 days of game play.

Tabula Rasa Game Cards will retail for US$14.95 and will be available exclusively at Best Buy stores. Those who purchase the Tabula Rasa Game Card will get an exclusive in-game rocket. Like the City of Heroes card, the Tabula Rasa card provides a handy method for downloading the game and includes 30 days of game play.

Those who enjoy the fast-paced action of fighting robots on futuristic battlegrounds can purchase the new Exteel Game Cards at participating retailers. The cards will provide buyers with NCcoin™, NCsoft’s new micro-transaction system that allows customers to use real-world money to purchase in-game items and upgrades. The Exteel card will include 1,000 NCcoin, plus 200 bonus NCcoin, to purchase more powerful weapons, skills and parts for your fighting Mechanaught. Exteel is a free-to-download and free-to-play game. The Exteel Game Card retails for US$10.

“The prepaid card market continues to grow year over year,” said Brooks Smith, InComm President and CEO. “We are thrilled to have one of the leading MMO publishers as an addition to our growing portfolio of prepaid game cards. With its limited packaging, the InComm card provides consumers with a ‘green’ alternative to their game purchases, plus it adds flexibility and other offerings that consumers can appreciate.”

City of Heroes and Exteel Game Cards will be available at Target stores the weekend of July 26. City of Heroes, Exteel and Tabula Rasa cards will be available at Best Buy beginning August 3 and Rite Aid will begin offering City of Heroes cards on September 3. Other games and retailers are expected to be announced in the near future.

To activate their prepaid cards, NCsoft gamers simply purchase a Game Card, scratch off the serial number on the back of the card and activate their new game on http://www.PlayNC.com/us/gamecard/.

Star Trek was never about a single character, ship or even planet; Star Trek was always about an entire universe. And MMORPGs are uniquely suited to create such a thing and allow players to explore every inch.

First gameplay footage as well as more details about the game will be unveiled at the annual Star Trek convention in Las Vegas on Sunday, August 10th. Those unable to attend can check out the live webcast at the game's homepage.

Star Trek Online [Official Page]

There's a more or less constant trickle of mainstream articles discussing people 'finding love in all the wrong places' — but Tom Francis has a hilarious look at his attempts to play the dating game in MMOs. He tracks his progress in EVE Online, WoW and City of Heroes. The CoH section is my personal favorite, featuring Francis' trenchcoated character, 'Manley Power,' whose bio page read "Power's two favourite things are commitment and changing himself.":

Although some of the female gamers I know only play sexy characters, all of them object to luridly over-sexualised body shapes. This did not seem like the sort of physiology a real woman would choose.

Still, I invited her to do a mission with me. She accepted and suggested I take the lead. Manley Power approved. I didn't want to spring the obvious question too soon, as it'd be a shame to creep her out if my intuition was wrong. But after skewering most of the goons in the warehouse together, an easy way to broach it occurred: "So, from the sheer size of your character's breasts, I'm guessing you're male in real life?" At exactly the same time, a speech bubble appeared over her own head: "lets go out."

Wait, what? Is Manley Power that attractive that she'd instantly ask his player out? Or was she referring to some sort of cyber-relationship? God, maybe she was male and still wanted to hook up in-game. I should have known when I found myself warming to my creation: I'd made him too pretty. I'd created a manly monster. Hang on, she probably means the warehouse. We've finished, we can leave now. "Yeah, im male lol" Correction, he probably means the warehouse.

It's a clever and funny look at the intricacies of introductions in MMOs - and a hell of a lot more fun to read than an article on some guy who left his real-life wife for a Second Life vixen.

The Dating Game [ComputerAndVideoGames.com via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

Similar in concept to our character creator, it allows you, the players, to create missions and story arcs for your characters and others to participate in. You'll be able to pick the map, villain group, and objectives, as well as write the dialog and any clues needed for the missions. When you are satisfied with it, you can upload it and have other players across all servers play it and rate it. Fame will come to the players whose stories rate the best overall.

What Positron so nonchalantly tosses out in a forum post could be one of the most significant advances in the history of the MMO. While games like Asheron's Call 2 toyed around with giving players some degree of control over the game, full-on user-generated content is completely new to the genre. Back at GDC 2007 when Phil Harrison talked about Gaming 3.0, where the experience was driven by user-created content and community interaction, I never thought I would see the concept applied to a game like City of Heroes. I don't like to bandy about the term 'revolutionary', but damn if it doesn't apply here. As Leigh put it, this could very well be the beginning of MMO 2.0.

A Message From Positron - 4 Year Anniversary! [City of Heroes Forums via Eurogamer]

"City of Heroes is a key property for NCsoft and we take great care to grow and nurture our player community," said Brian Clayton, General Manager of NCsoft's Northern California studio. "We are pleased to work with Double Fusion on City of Heroes, as they have demonstrated sensitivity to the needs of our community and fundamentally understand how advertising can bring value to the players when executed gracefully, and in the appropriate context. In addition to allowing any of our players to opt-out if they so choose, their flexible technology will not only allow us to bring brand messages into the game but also provide a fun, new platform for displaying player-created materials."

NCsoft and Double Fusion make the common argument that the real world ads will add a level of realism to the game, but by allowing players to decide on their own whether that's really true they seem to be putting their money where their mouth is. NCsoft added that they will "dedicate all advertising dollars it earns to fund further game development for the online title."

I'm still not a fan of in-game advertising, but leaving the control in the hands of the players is a HUGE step forward. Dumping their earnings into further development is also a big plus.

The ads will go live sometime this summer, according to NCsoft NorCal GM Brian Clayton and the billboards can also be used to display player created content like, say, a picture of the top character in the game, which is kinda cool.

Bringing Optional In-Game Ads to Paragon City and the Rogue Isles [City of Heroes]

NCSOFT SELECTS DOUBLE FUSION AS GAME ADVERTISING PARTNER FOR CITY OF HEROES

SAN FRANCISCO — Apr. 3, 2008— Leading independent game advertising provider Double Fusion has entered an agreement with NCsoft®, the leading developer and publisher of online computer games, to represent the successful comic-book inspired massively multiplayer online game, City of Heroes®. Double Fusion will provide the technology and sales force to bring brands into the popular online role-playing game which takes place in a modern urban setting, an ideal environment for unobtrusive in-game advertising.

Double Fusion and NCsoft are focused on providing value to the players through this advertising partnership. While real world ads will lend realism to the urban world of City of Heroes, NCsoft also plans on taking advantage of Double Fusion's technology to display player-created content within the game. The publisher will dedicate all advertising dollars it earns to fund further game development for the online title, yet still allow players to opt out of advertising in order to provide flexibility to community members.

"Our partnership with NCsoft is a clear showcase for two of our guiding philosophies: bringing value to the player through appropriate use of advertising spaces and bringing new business models to the marketplace by creating new revenue streams that can help fund game development and community support" said Jonathan Epstein, president and CEO, Double Fusion.

"City of Heroes is a key property for NCsoft and we take great care to grow and nurture our player community," said Brian Clayton, General Manager of NCsoft's Northern California studio. "We are pleased to work with Double Fusion on City of Heroes, as they have demonstrated sensitivity to the needs of our community and fundamentally understand how advertising can bring value to the players when executed gracefully, and in the appropriate context. In addition to allowing any of our players to opt-out if they so choose, their flexible technology will not only allow us to bring brand messages into the game but also provide a fun, new platform for displaying player-created materials."

The addition of City of Heroes to the Double Fusion network demonstrates the company's commitment to offering their advertiser and agency partners a wide array of in-game advertising opportunities, to maximizing revenues for its publisher and developer partners and to building a portfolio of top titles among retail PC and console games, massively multiplayer online games, social networks, casual downloadable games, advanced online games and virtual worlds.

RED ALERT! CAPTAIN EMMERT TO THE BRIDGE! [w00tStudios - thanks, Mike!]

The folks over at NCSoft have amassed quite an interesting collection of eBay auctions for Child's Play this year. The auctions, which will donate 100 percent of the proceeds to Child's Play, includes signed copies of games and posters, rare finds and, the best one, having a Tabula Rasa NPC named after you.

City of Heroes Poster Signed by Dev Team Signed City of Villains Collectors Edition City of Villains Lord Recluse Statue Tabula Rasa Signed Game & Bonuses Tabula Rasa Signed Game & Bonuses Tabula Rasa NPC Named After You!

So far the auctions are up to more than $2500, but NCSoft is hopping to hit twice that figure, so get to the link below to find the auction of your choice and get to bidding/donating.

Help Child's Play [NCSoft]

Matt Miller, Lead Designer on the City of Heroes project and formerly with Cryptic Studios said, "We're thrilled to be bringing the CoH franchise to the next level. And we couldn't be more pleased to be working completely under the NCsoft banner. We feel that City of Heroes' best days are in front of it."

NCsoft Announces New Studio in North California; Takes Full Ownership of Successful City of Heroes Property

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 6, 2007—NCsoft® Corp, the world's leading developer and publisher of online computer games, today announced the formation of a new development studio in Mountain View, California. The announcement comes as the company begins a renewed push to further develop the City of Heroes® property, which is now 100 percent owned by NCsoft. Previous to today, ownership of the intellectual property (IP) was split between NCsoft and Cryptic Studios, the original developer of the project.

The new studio will be built around key members of the City of Heroes team from NCsoft and Cryptic Studios including the art, programming and design team leads.

"We're happy to announce that NCsoft has acquired full ownership of the City of Heroes IP," said Brian Clayton, NCsoft executive producer and manager of the new studio. "Our plans are clear. We are now in a position to make a major reinvestment in the City of Heroes product line. With our existing Cryptic and NCsoft team as the core, we will be able to run our current service without any interruption to our players, expand our studio to deliver triple-A content, and take City of Heroes to new heights."

NCsoft will soon be announcing formal plans for the City of Heroes IP, which will include expansions and sequels to the popular comic-book inspired massively multiplayer online (MMO) game.

Matt Miller, Lead Designer on the City of Heroes project and formerly with Cryptic Studios said, "We're thrilled to be bringing the CoH franchise to the next level. And we couldn't be more pleased to be working completely under the NCsoft banner. We feel that City of Heroes' best days are in front of it."

For more information about City of Heroes, go to http://www.cityofheroes.com.

City of Heroes / City of Villains - Issue 11: A Stitch in Time

First details of the latest free expansion pack, A Stitch in Time.

Wednesday 3rd October/... NCSoft Europe proudly brings you the the eleventh free expansion to the City of Heroes® universe, introducing a whole new level of depth, gameplay and excitement to the franchise.

SUMMARY
Issue 11: A Stitch in Time reveals that all that is and was is not as it should be! The mysterious Ouroboros organization, a group of beings from the ends of time, enlists the aid of Heroes and Villains to rewrite the past. Heroes and Villains are able to travel through time using the new Ouroboros System, which opens the gates to both new and existing content for players. Issue 11 also unleashes two brand new power sets: Dual Blades and Willpower, giving Heroes and Villains a slew of new power options. Additionally, Dual Blades offers Weapon Customization - taking the "City of" Character Creator to the next level! And the Inventions system is enhanced with new "Very Rare" Purple invention sets.

OUROBOROS SYSTEM
Through the mysterious Menders of Ouroboros, players gain the ability to "Flashback", that is to travel through time and relive major events from the history of Paragon City™ and the Rogue Isles™. Heroes who travel back in time will embark on missions such as preventing the Circle of Thorns from unleashing a devastating demon on a defenseless world, a story originally presented in the City of Heroes comic book. Villains who journey through time will get the chance to assist Lord Recluse™ in his initial campaign to conquer the Rogue Isles, and much more.

Heroes and Villains also use the Ouroboros System to return to story arcs that they may have missed and replay hundreds of missions from earlier in the game. Players will even get to set mission parameters for these missions to earn special badges. Heroes and Villains will be auto-exemplared to the appropriate level for each story arc to ensure the challenge level remains constant.

WEAPON CUSTOMIZATION
Sometimes an assault rifle just isn't the right tool for the job, or character, especially when he or she should be using a sniper rifle instead. Players can now change their weapons in the same way that they change their costume parts! From within the costume creator and tailor screen players select the new "Weapons" region. A number of new options are now available for appropriate power sets. Current power sets that benefit from this upgrade include Assault Rifle, Mercenaries/Assault Rifle, Bow, Broadsword, Claws, Villain Claws, Dual Blades (see below), Katana, Ninja Blade, Mace, Robotics/Pulse Rifle, and Thugs/Dual Pistols.

TWO NEW POWER SETS
The City of... universe expands with two new amazing power sets: Dual Blades and Willpower.

DUAL BLADES
With a flashing blade in each hand, the Stalker made quick work of the Coralax hybrids guarding the shipwreck.
Now Heroes and Villains can wield paired weapons to devastating effect! Use the new Weapon Customization interface to choose from several types of weapons. Dual Blades also uses a brutal new Combo system, where the order of your strikes can create new advantages for you to take down your foes! Dual Blades is available to Brutes, Scrappers, Stalkers and Tankers!

WILLPOWER
Available to Tankers, Scrappers, Brutes and Stalkers, the Willpower set offers a strong mix of resistance, defense and regeneration powers. This is the perfect power set for those characters who have the mental will and determination - the willpower - to ignore pain and press on through insurmountable odds!

NEW INVENTIONS
Issue 11 brings with it new invention sets including "Very Rare" Purple sets, as well as brand new invention sets for Taunt, Buff and Debuff powers, among others

He also wrote, "I crushed a dude's eye socket from repeatedly punching him in it, then I charged him with menacing and harassment (of me)." Trafalgar then added, "he took a plea to get away from me. He shoulda picked somebody else to try and fight."

A great deal of what Thompson has stated in the offending posts could be simple internet bravado, though the case of the eye-punching has been corroborated by police officials as an actual event involving a prisoner named David Michael Baker who wound up pleading guilty to attempted assault of a police officer.

Sheriff Bernie Giusto has launched a probe into the forum posts and related incidents, and if the police department doesn't discipline Thompson, Department of Public Safety Standards and Training director John Minnis is waiting in the wings.

Based on a reporter's characterization of Trafalgar's posts, Minnis said, "it sounds similar to other cases we have reviewed and successfully prosecuted (for law-enforcement decertification)."

Jail worker investigated [Portland Tribune via Game Politics]

Festivities kick off at 9 PM Central Time, ending at midnight, and are scheduled to include "all sorts of nutty things." Have fun, guys. Rest in peace, Auto Assault.

Auto Assault News [Official Site]

MMORPG City of Heroes looks to be next on the Hollywood chopping block. Transformers and X-Men producer Tom DeSanto has snagged the game's rights with plans to turn it into a feature film and later a television series. The movie will be set during the Rikti Invasion, which happened a few years before the game begins. As tipster Kelp Plankton points out, this makes the case for the film being based on the unrealized and cancelled third City of Heroes book. So a flick and a TV show, huh? They've doubled the odds for cruddy Heroes live-action adaptations. But, DeSanto's produced some good films, so maybe this will all work out. He's just got to find a savy director. Brian Ashcraft

City Movie, TV Show [SciFi.com Thanks, Kelp!]

This weekend, City of Heroes, the comic book super hero based MMO celebrated three years of saving the earth from certain destruction. The thriving community boasts over twenty four million user created characters with more than half of those reaching the game's top tier of Level 50.

Sure, the numbers aren't as impressive as something like World of Warcraft, but you have to give them credit for being around so long and creating a fun user experience even if it does get a bit repetitive. At least they don't have to resort to giving points for demolishing abandoned buildings like some MMO's we know of.

Yes, Star Wars Galaxies, we're looking at you. Flynn De Marco

Note that I might have spelled their names wrong, but considering half the people in the room thought I was McWhertor magically transformed into a giant man with a shaved head and brown hair, I think I am allowed a little leeway here.

Players will be able to visit universities and learn how to craft new costume pieces, gadgets (like the amazingly cool wings), and enhancements far more powerful that those old, non-crafted relics you've been running around in. Through a series of missions you will learn the simple process, which is as easy as gathering materials, finding a crafting station and pushing a button.

There are no crafting wait times like in many other games, as the designers wanted to maintain the fast-paced feel other the game. An MMO with action-oriented combat doesn't need players sitting in a room somewhere watching a meter fill up.

Materials, called salvage, will drop off of mobs like loot. The good news is they don't ever plan on having special drops off of rare spawns, so you don't have to worry about competing with other players for hours on end as you try to get that one special item to drop. Just find the mobs, kill them for awhile, and you'll have your salvage.

The only thing missing here is magical items. While tech-based characters are certainly suited for making gadgets, it would have been nifty for magic-based characters to be able to craft similar items, only with a more mystical theme.

Once you are done pimping out your character you can then sell your creations via the new auction house system. While the hero and villain side markets are separated from one another they are not server specific, so anyone on your side on any server will have access to what you are selling. This of course opens up cross-server influence transfer as well, as a low level character on one server can put an item up for a ridiculous price, which a higher level character on another server can then purchase. Hooray for cross-server twinking!

So the City of series is finally going to get an economy and enough neat new gadgets to draw even the most jaded former player back for another go at it. While the concept of beings with the powers of gods sitting around building gadgets does seem a little odd, it should be enough to bring more than a few ex-players back into the fold for another go. Michael Fahey

The update will also feature a few new encounters and high-end task force mission. Big changes are a'comin to the 'City of' universe. The release doesn't say when exactly the changes will come, but certainly something to look forward to. More after the jump! Michael Fahey

Issue 9: "Breakthrough"
City of Heroes/City of Villians 9th expansion

Wednesday 24th January/...NCsoft Europe proudly brings you the the ninth free expansion to the City of Heroes universe, introducing an entirely new level of depth and gameplay to the franchise.

SUMMARY:
Issue 9: Players acquire and invent new items and have the option to buy and sell them using the new hero and villain auction houses. Along with Issue 9's other great features, this brand new system results in a wealth of new gameplay options for players.

FEATURES:
Invention System (Heroes and Villains)
Using the highly anticipated Invention system, players acquire and collect valuable resources in the form of Salvage and Invention Recipes. These will be used together to invent powerful new enhancements, costume pieces, new powers, gadgets, and more. This creates a world of new possibilities, rewards and even greater character evolution!

Auction Houses (Heroes and Villains)
Where better to buy and sell all of these new items than in the new auction houses! Wentworth's Fine Consignments have sprung up throughout Paragon City while the villains prefer to do their dark dealings alongside "black-market" trucks placed throughout the Rogue Isles .

Statesman's Task Force (Heroes only)
This high-level PvE content allows eight heroes to team up in order to face and defeat Paragon's greatest enemies! Completing this difficult challenge results in some of the game's rarest rewards!

New Hamidon Encounter (Heroes and Villains)
Not only do villains get their own end-game raid encounter with the "Hamidon," but the new experience is also brought to the Heroes side where players must use new tactics to bring down one of the city's greatest threats.

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NC Soft has announced that the latest free expansion for City of Heroes/Villains, Issue 8: To Protect and Serve, is now live. New features include: Safeguard Missions (Heroes Only), Police Band (Heroes Only), Pocket D Arenas (Heroes and Villains) and Faultline Reborn (Heroes Only). Additionally, both Heroes and Villains can enjoy a retroactive Veteran Rewards Program that rewards long time players with special costumes, powers and badges.

In related news, About.com named City of Villains the #1 science fiction MMO followed swiftly by City of Heroes at #3. Flynn De Marco

Over 100 Supergroups in City of Heroes logged on last Friday evening to discover, oddly enough, that a dimensional vortex had sucked up their bases, leaving them standing in the middle of a Tron-like grid of red lines bisecting a gray, infinite plane. Worse yet, not only was the base gone, but all the items and prestige these groups had worked for had disappeared too.

Well, not to fret. Cryptic are rolling back all the deleted bases, along with group's prestige. They are also giving each afflicted group an extra 1,000 prestige per member to make up for the inconvenience. Kudos to Cryptic for the fix; jeers for taking over a week with it. Florian Eckhardt

Over 100 SuperGroups and VillainGroups Left Homeless! [Gay Gamer]

The game, which has access to the entire Marvel Universe, will allow PC and console players to game against one another on the same server and in the same game.

Check back a little later today to read my interview with Microsoft Game Studios, Marvel and Cryptic. Brian Crecente

Oh goodness me, Ashcroft. If I may amend to your list the following stores (with pictures*): Softmap Amusement Store: Located on the main street you'll find a multi-story game paradise. Featured games on the first, all Sony on the second, Microsoft and Nintendo gracing the third, with higher floors being of interest to, well... those who *love* animated characters. Liberty 8 (LINK NSFW): The above store also has a small figure/hobby floor, but it's dwarfed in comparison to Liberty 8. As there are too many things to see here, the link goes not to a single picture, but to a page where you can choose (ads are NSFW). Softmap 11: Softmap 4 pulls out the newest in games, but Softmap 11 is perhaps the best of the bunch. If you're looking for a used camera, pda, or even music player, no place is as reliable or cheap as Softmap 11. It's even located right across from Super Potato. How convenient... Ark!: Perhaps you already have the latest gadgets, but you're a bit short on memory sticks, SD cards, or other... Ark may not have the best prices for everything, but they make a killing on selling cheap memory. Besides, they (at last visit) had a playable version of HL2: Episode 1. What more can I say? Feeling hungry during your stay in Akiba? Doneru Sand(o): Arguably the best gyros in the area and can be found down the side street before Softmap 11 and Super Potato. It's your choice of several different sauces/toppings including my favorite - yoghurt, garlic, and tomato. Of course, such a tasty treat will set you back 400, 500, 600 yen depending on the size of your order. (By the way, Ashcroft, I am glad Super Potato made your list. ^^) * Not my images. Respect to whoever took the time to take them all.

Don't forget to post away today for your chance to win. I will be randomly selecting a post tonight, as I will every day this month, and then deciding which comment about the post was the funniest, most insightful or interesting and hand out a prize to the poster.

Today's prize are copies of the books City of Heroes: The Web of Arachnos and the City of Heroes Art Collection. Brian Crecente

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I have no idea what the source of this chart is, but glancing at the most current numbers it seems pretty accurate to me. (If you know the source, email me and I'll gladly update this post.)

While the dominance of World of Warcraft is unsurprising, it does look like its never-ending ascendancy may be slowing. The popular Lineage is taking a dive, nearly on par with its sequel, which for about a year was exceeding its player base. (I wonder what caused all those people to come back to Lineage in the last year?)

Can that many people be playing RuneScape? Their website says they've got 70k people or so playing right now, so I suppose a three-quarters of a million subscribers is possible, but I'd never even heard of it. Maybe we know the source of this chart after all: RuneScapes' savvy marketing team. Joel Johnson (Thanks, Llama3!)

Update: Thanks to everybody who pointed out the source of this chart, the very fine MMOGChart.com.

On Friday the City of Heroes turns two years old and to celebrate NCSoft is throwing a virtual party and giving away some badges.

To get your 2nd Anniversary Badge, just log into the game on April 28 or anytime in June. I'm told that if you already have the 1st Anniversary Badge, getting the 2nd will unlock some sort of special dealio.

Starting Friday morning everyone in the game will get a free costume token so they can dress up like some of the good guys and bad guys from the Silver Age of comics.

Two Year Anniversary Party at Pocket D! Heroes and Villains are invited to come get your groove on at our Silver Age, 1950's to the 1970's theme party to celebrate two great years of crime fighting action!

The morning of April 28th we are going to toss all you cool cats a free costume token for some stylin threads to pay homage to the superheroes of old! Take all day getting ready (without violating any copyright laws) and then come get funky at the Pocket D. We hear some VIP heroes might be stepping out to dance with you, so don t miss out!

And don't worry, we'll throw you another costume token on the 29th so you can get back into your street duds and ready for action.

Where: Pocket D - All Live Servers (Not Test)
When: 7 - 10 PM CST, Friday, April 28th
What: Silver Age Anniversary Celebration
Why: To Celebrate the City of Heroes Two year anniversary!

In the past two years 17,558,847 charactes and 551,287 supergroups have been created in the City of Heroes and 2,034,557,881,794 Influence has been earned.

Another Tyrant [Napoleon Guide

Kotaku reader WhiteRabbit created the above image after quitting World of Warcraft cold turkey. His work is certainly telling. Hardcore players put in long, long hours playing, and there has been an isolated incident of a gamer dying from overplay. But, could this all be overblown? Our Luke most definitely has an opinion, but we want to hear what you think.

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

MMORPG.com [Official Site]

Prodigious Gaming reports that MMO City of Villains will get a content update with the April showers. Timed missions called "Mayhem Missions" will be introduced, allowing players to harass civilians, mess up the Po-Po and rob stores for points. Expect some user interface updates, general streamlining and a bunch of textures being upped to hi-res in both CoV and its honorable older brother, City of Heroes.

City of Villains update in April [Prodigious Gaming]

Someone haxored City of Heroes and City of Villains servers Tuesday night. The hacker used the software the developers use to remotely access their own servers. The hacker claims that the software was not password protected and that he was able to access all of the servers. So far he's only knocked down the two west coast servers (Champion and Protector).

The hacker also created an emulator using the Heroes source code which allows local servers to run off the original software. Early Wednesday morning the City of Heroes forums had a message posted in announcements saying that the issue had been resolved.

If you feel like sending an angry hello to the hacker, hit the link.

Hacker's Site
[Thanks Mr. Jones]

People in tights can just get along after all. The legal battle with Marvel and City of Heroes/Villains has been settled and without requiring change to the existing character creation system. Problems arose when characters were creating Marvel clones in NCsoft's City of Heroes game using its character creation system. From the release: "While the terms of the settlement were not disclosed, all parties agree that this case was never about monetary issues and that the fans of their respective products and characters are the winners in this settlement."

The fans win again!

The site has also added some temporary Santa Hats and what goes better with a jetpack than a red fur-lined hat?

Jetpacks [City of Heroes]

City of Heroes second annual costume contest wrapped up recently. This year, Ncsoft asked gamers to submit a screenshot of their hero from the game and a second picture of the gamer dressed like the hero s arch enemy from City of Villains.

Prizes included a Sony 32-inch CRT HD TV, TiVo Series2 DVR s, 12 month Tivo Gift Subscriptions, Apple iPod 4 GB nano s and City of Villains Collector s Edition copies.

Winners after the jump:

Best Overall Kor
(Adam McDuff, Kent, WA)
board name: Kor
Best Female - Frostfaerie
(Maral Agnerian, Toronto, ON)
board name: Frostfaerie
Female Runner-Up - Vile Thorne
(Sarah Stewart, Covington, GA)
board name: VileThorne
Best Male Xius
(Adam Singer, Oak Lawn, IL)
board name: Chronos
Male Runner-Up Argonnus
(Kevin Casper, Palos Heights, IL)
board name: Ayundas
Scariest Kill The Clown
(Justin Papreck, Decatur, GA)
board name: FreshOats
Scariest Runner-Up - Solomon Creed
(Sean MacDonald, Hamilton, ON)
board name: Smackdee
Best Costume/Public Location Ravenna
(Rob Gaines, Fairfax, VA)
board name: Avonlea
Costume/Public Location Runner-Up Vortex
(Joshua Heeter, Fulton, MO)
board name: n/a

Halloween Contest [City of Heroes]

Issue 3 of City of Heroes will expand the world, add new villains and give high-level characters a chance to play as a entirely new type of hero called Peacebringers or Warshades. The free expansion will also include a major shake-up in the game s overarching storyline.

Now on with the show:

How big is the team working on City of Heroes right now?

We have 25 to 30 programmers.

Why do you think City of Heroes has become so popular?

I think it s because it lacks a lot of the steep learning curves that other massively multiplayer games have. It s accessible very quickly, because of there is a certain dynamic within the community. You don t have as much of a separation between the haves and the have nots.

Do you still read comic books?

I read 90 titles a month. My knowledge of comics is very extensive. My favorite heroes of all time are Prince Namor and Nightwing. I like both of them for different reasons, but neither are really current heroes.

Do you think City of Heroes players are more game fans or comic book fans?

I don't really have a sense of that right now. I think a lot of the player-base has read comics, but don t read them on a regular basis. They outgrew them.

Did you know that comic books were going to become trendy again or were you just lucky?

We knew comics were already having an upswing when we got started. Comics reached mainstream America and become a real industry in the 80s, it became a common fixture.
Now you have this generation which has grown up with comics being a part of their culture and they are making the movies and writing the books.