.Viridian.

Another song that comes to mind is the 'theme song' that my first SG adopted, back in the Issue 1 days. We had a few wannabe writers (myself included, of course) in the group, and most of the stories we wrote about the SG were about a desperate group trying to create some kind of safe haven in a suffering city. We had kind of a dark view of CoH back then (not bad, just... dark).

World on Fire - Sarah McLachlan

Swedish House Mafia - Save the World

This song came onto my Pandora while I was doing my best to keep my mind on other things. I couldn't handle it. I broke down and became useless for like an hour after hearing that song.

I made my first character concept for this game before CoH launched. I wasn't in the beta, but I had him ready to go the moment I installed the game.

I remember in college, my laptop wasn't strong enough to really handle CoH, so I played for two weeks in a weird, greyscale, semi-transparent landscape. But I played anyway, because flying is fun whether you can see properly or not.

Autopilot - En/En Blaster

Autopilot was a bit of an Iron Man ripoff, but with a twist. A hero named Steel Thunder gets aced by some Crey, and before he loses consciousness he tells his power suit's autopilot to take him home. There, he gets medical treatment, but slips into a coma.

Problem was, he had restricted voice access to the suit's autopilot, so it never shut down. Eventually, it started following basic routines that Steel Thunder had followed - basic city patrols, identification of hostile/criminal acts, etc. As time passed, it began to expand its library of procedures, until Autopilot became a hero in its own right.

I just came here to say that Ninja Run/Wheelbarrow sync errors while waiting in the supergroup base to test Cathedral of Pain was the best thing ever. 10 people running and jumping around at Ninja Run speed, only... wheelbarrows.

Hey all,

I'm not going to be able to match the epic write-ups that Dr. Aeon, Black Pebble, et al. have managed to put out there. Life's been hectic lately, and truth be told I've been avoiding the forums. There's a been a lot of heavy emotions running throughout the studio and I'm doing my best to keep an upbeat, positive attitude through all this.

You guys, though, have been amazing. Black Pebble keeps linking all of these amazing threads, fan comics, the change.org petition (13,000 signatures? Holy crap!), and I can't keep silent after seeing all of the support you've been giving us.

Some of you may know that I started in QA. The longer version of that story is that I was nearing the end of my rope in QA. I had jumped straight into the game industry from college (with a major that focused on game design) with the intent to become a designer. Four years passed, and I was still working in QA and didn't really have anything to show for it. During my time at Paragon, I had decided that if I ended up leaving and having to look for more QA work, I was going to switch industries. I was ready to give up.

But that didn't happen. An opening appeared, and the people here knew I wanted to give it a shot. We were on a crazy deadline, trying to get Freedom out the door. I took the design test, interviewed, and suddenly I was working on the content team. I never knew exactly who was championing my cause, but I'm pretty sure War Witch, Second Measure, Positron, and Arbiter Oates were among them.

When City of Heroes first came out, it was my first MMO (I don't really count Planetside). 7 years later, Paragon Studios became the birthplace of my career. I owe this studio and this game so much, and I'm deeply honored to have been a part of both. Thanks to everyone here - the players, the forum community, the rest of the studio - for everything you've given me. It will not be forgotten.

Love and respect to all of you,
-Ryan 'Viridian' Greene

P.S.: Confidential to Dark Respite - if you turn this song into a CoH tribute, I will do the following:
1) Probably cry
2) Save the video to show my children when they ask about my first game
3) Nominate you for the title of Queen of Machinima

I personally find feedback on writing, storylines, lore et al. to be quite useful. When I’m putting together a storyarc, I try my best to tap into the kinds of stories that our playerbase is looking for. This is harder to do when I’m working on something that’s tied to the larger narrative, but even small changes in storytelling style can make a world of difference if those changes are what your audience is after.

The biggest lesson that the community has taught me personally is how to write better villain content. A lot of feedback I’ve seen on the forums has asked for villain stories that are self-driven and proactive. It’s a lot more fun to hatch your own diabolical scheme than to have one handed to you by Arachnos. It’s more difficult to write, certainly, but the payoff is usually worth it. If it weren’t for direct and critical feedback from the community, I might not have learned that lesson so quickly (if at all).

So personally, I welcome constructive criticism. Sometimes people can get... passionate about the storylines, certainly, but isn't that a good thing? Besides, I already knew I’d need to have thick skin if I wanted to succeed in this industry.