Zwillinger

Hey everyone!

What is War Witch doing writing a Producer’s Letter? Funny you should ask! I moved into this role a few weeks ago and I’m getting settled in and checking out the view. What a change! I went from Office Manager nearly ten years ago to Producer of the whole enchilada. How’s that for the land of opportunity? I know I won’t get it all right, but I’ll try my best to keep development in line with the community and what we, as a studio, have always tried to accomplish with City of Heroes: quality, innovation, gobs of content and fun! (Notice I didn’t say anything about that bar.) I could go on and on, but that’s boring so let’s just cut to the chase.

Issue 22: Death Incarnate has plenty of exciting (or dark, depending on how you look at it) content coming your way from the newly updated Dark Astoria that is now in Incarnate Zone and Trial, to the Drowning in Blood Trial, new missions in Cap au Diable and Steel Canyon, to a bunch of quality of life fixes. That’s just the tip of the iceberg and I could regurgitate it for you, but it’s all on the website and with far more flowery language than I could produce so I’d like to focus on what is coming up for the game after that. By the way, I want to give a shout out of thanks to the players who have been giving us great feedback on the Beta boards. It’s been really helpful, so keep it coming.

I don’t want to be too sales-y on this, but since we’re talking about the Paragon Market, it’s kind of a given. March is going to have some cool stuff so l’ll break it down briefly. There’s the Flying Disc which is a fun temp power that allows you to, well, toss a disc back and forth. Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, there is a Leprechaun pet that follows you about spreading the luck of the Irish, a rainbow, a few four-leaf clovers, and a nice buff. But I’m sure all you Masterminds are just waiting on the Beast Mastery Power Set, which will include the ability to master the wolves of the wild to enforce your bidding. Finally, we round out the month with the final chapter of the Signature Story Arc in the Who Will Die series. With so many twists and turns so far, what could possibly be left to reveal? You’ll see.

There’s another Double XP weekend coming up on the weekend of Friday, March 16th, too, so if you’ve got some characters you want to level up, that’s the time to do it.

From a producer standpoint, at a very high level, we have been working on refining our planning approach for the next few years for MTX offerings (with a good degree of flexibility) and Content storylines. A lot of this is in direct response to feedback we’ve received from the boards, at Cons, and especially at the Pummit just a few months back. We’ll be doing this again really soon at the next one, so I’ll be taking notes then, too. And if you didn’t notice, many of these will be interactive, so that will be quite fun. (Or utter chaos, time will tell.)

We’re already on our final push for Issue 23 polish, in pre-production on Issue 24, and putting some exciting new content into place for the summer. You may have heard whispers, but it will be fun. Think: popcorn.

It’s not just been me that’s been busy here at Paragon Studios. All of the developers, QA staff, Publishing staff, and the Community team (yes, even Marketing!) have been working really hard to get some exciting content to you on a regular basis. If I could give you a snap shot of what it’s like here, it would be: one part elementary school playground, one part ultimate Frisbee, two parts awesome company culture, and nine parts freaking hard work every single day. This is an extremely exciting time for all of us and me especially. I’m not going to lie; it’s a little nerve-wracking trying to fill Second Measure’s shoes. Have you seen the guy? He’s over 6 feet tall.
Thanks for reading!

War Witch

P.S. For you trivia fans, we actually wanted to call the Incarnate Trial, “Death Becomes Her”, but there was that movie that time and it got pooh-pooh’d by Legal. But wouldn’t that have been awesome?

We have a few organizational updates to share with the Community. Because our team has a close relationship with our players, we feel that it's important to share this with you all so that noone wonders why you may not see their names around.

For a over year, Nate "Second Measure" Birkholz has been at the helm of City of Heroes Freedom. Under his watch, we smoothly transitioned CoH from a traditional MMORPG to a successful new Hybrid business model. Nate's constant guidance was a great contributing factor to our successful launch of Issue 21 and City of Heroes Freedom.

Of course there is no rest for the Wicked. Nate has moved over to another project within Paragon, and taking his place as the Lead Producer for City of Heroes Freedom is the one and only Melissa "War Witch" Bianco. As many of you know, Melissa has a long history with City of Heroes and has, on multiple occasions, taken it to the next level.

Sorry Mel, I had to.

So hey Community, join me in welcoming Melissa to her new position as the Head Honcho, the Big Cheese, Canadian Numero Uno, The Ghost with the Most...someone, please stop me...

Join the Community Discussion here!

We have a few organizational updates to share with the Community. Because our team has a close relationship with our players, we feel that it's important to share this with you all so that noone wonders why you may not see their names around.

For a over year, Nate "Second Measure" Birkholz has been at the helm of City of Heroes Freedom. Under his watch, we smoothly transitioned CoH from a traditional MMORPG to a successful new Hybrid business model. Nate's constant guidance was a great contributing factor to our successful launch of Issue 21 and City of Heroes Freedom.

Of course there is no rest for the Wicked. Nate has moved over to another project within Paragon, and taking his place as the Lead Producer for City of Heroes Freedom is the one and only Melissa "War Witch" Bianco. As many of you know, Melissa has a long history with City of Heroes and has, on multiple occasions, taken it to the next level.

Sorry Mel, I had to.

So hey Community, join me in welcoming Melissa to her new position as the Head Honcho, the Big Cheese, Canadian Numero Uno, The Ghost with the Most...someone, please stop me...

I approve of both ideas...in fact, I kinda want one of the knit hats, but in page boy style!

I love you guys too.

The additional Imperial Dynasty pieces are coming with Issue 22 (the first update after the launch to be specific). Unfortunately there wasn't time to work them into a build prior to the release of the Pack.

In other words, Soon™ .

You can breath easier Michelle...Issue 22 is *not* this week guys. The only thing I will say is that we've upgraded from Soon™ to Very Soon™.

There are many players out there who love involved, interesting and compelling dialog. There's also many players out there who have never read a bit of mission/quest text in any MMORPG they've ever played. There's certainly a fine line we have to walk; do we provide more dialog/story and please a passionate and devoted segment of our Community or do we risk a inducing story fatigue within another, equally important segment of our player base?

As some have observed, we do have some limitations with they way our quest dialog system works, most noticeably that dialog cannot be shared amongst teammates. Of course even if we did, there's no promise that everyone would have the same level of appreciation as everyone else for dialog.

I am extremely proud of the importance we have always placed on the lore of City of Heroes/Villains. I've always found the stories of Statesman, Recluse, Tyrant and the rest of the CoH-verse entertaining and interesting. If you take into account I am one of those people who click through most quest dialog and barely reads lore, the fact that the writing of Protean, Dr. Aeon, Viridian and those who came before them actually compels me to pause and read...well, it means something. This coming from a guy who almost broke his space bar while recently playing another MMO .

I clicked on this thread fully expecting to see:

I'm sorry to hear about the situation you're experiencing. I'll be sure to pass this feedback and suggestion along to Clockwork O1.

And the final results from round 2:

Deadline is in 5 minutes!

Thanks for all of the submissions guys and we're definitely going to do this again!