CuppaJo_NA

On this, the last day of E3, we bring you our second installment of E3 photos, covering the show at the height of its thunderous, pulse-pounding three days of gaming magic. Enjoy this E3 2005 gallery.

Check out our updated In the Press section for current and recent reviews, articles and interviews. Here’s a sample of what the press has been saying about City of Villains at this year’s E3:

GameSpy E3 City of Villains Preview May 19, 2005
"Every comic hero needs his arch nemesis, and NCSoft is about to drop a whole lot of bad guys on the City of Heroes landscape when the company releases City of Villains later this year."

GameSpot E3 City of Villains Impressions May 18, 2005
"City of Villains sounds like it will offer fans of highly accessible and highly addictive online role-playing games a great reason to revisit Paragon City, perhaps this time as an enemy of the state."

IGN E3 City of Villains Preview May 17, 2005
"City of Villains also comes with plenty of new graphical effects. The light bloom effect adds a nice touch to the game. Seeing the sunlight bleed around trees and buildings makes it all seem much more realistic. The new armor reflections also add a snazzy style to your favorite outfits. A cool new water refraction effect is in place as well and will distort objects that are underwater."

I have seen this xenophobia junk on other forums and I had really hoped that CoH wouldn't get the disease.

Don't hate ramen just because it's tasty and inexpensive!

Every culture has it's heroes (and tasty snack treats). The heroes of Paragon have had many alliances with heroes of other countries in times of war and peace.

(Insert Web of Arachnos subliminal message)

A hero is a hero, is a hero. Korean, English, Mutant, American or Kheldian. All heroes would do well to remember that, not just in times of need.

We’ve prepared a gallery of exciting photos taken from the show floor of this year’s E3. The spectacle, the excitement, the frenetic and dizzying beauty of our industry’s big week, and it’s all in glorious digital color for your enjoyment. Our first installment is from earlier in the week as the show begins to ramp up. Tomorrow, we’ll be bringing you more shots featuring E3 in all its crazy glory. Enjoy.

Inspired by all of your questions about working in the game industry, I thought I would put together a guide of sorts to working in the industry.

First, let me direct you to a link elsewhere on the boards that includes an interview with a game developer at NCsoft - Christoper Straz. Click Here!

So you want to work in the Video Game Industry huh? Do you really? Because it is not the easiest industry to get into, the hours can be long, and the pay can be less than optimal. Sure, there are stories of those who just "fell" into the industry, but many others worked long and hard to get here, just like any other entertainment based profession.

What do you want to do exactly? Do you know enough about how games are made to even be able to answer that question intelligently? Let's shed some light on the subject.

Industry Jobs - Not just developers!

Just like every other industry, the game industry has a large group of people who handle the business side of things and help keep companies going. Human resources, executives, accounting, sales, marketing, public relations, IT, and administration are some examples of "non-development" type jobs that are available.

Just because you want to work in the industry doesn't mean you need to give up your old line of work. While you may not be "developing" games, it can be a great way to transition into the industry and get a taste of the opportunities. The culture of game companies is generally very laid back, fun, geeky, and accepting of all kinds of people. Imagine being a lawyer and being able to wear shorts to work. The environment alone can be reason enough for someone to keep their current job description but move to the game industry. That, and the free games.

There are also support jobs. Customer support, tech support, billing support, and GameMaster (GM) are other jobs that can be options to break into the industry. Many of these positions are "entry-level" and require as little as a high-school diploma, a love for gaming, and some customer service experience. Yours truly started in tech support since I had previous experience working in tech.

There is also online/creative support. We have people that design the game boxes, T-shirts, posters, Web graphics, build web pages, throw contests, write for the web, run in-game events, moderate message boards, and help the devs and community understand each other.

Finally, there is a large demand in MMOs for network professionals to design and maintain large networks of hundreds of thousands of players and there are publishing coordinators that make sure patches get from the designers, through QA, and out to you.

But Cuppa, I want to MAKE games!!

Great. Which part? Game development takes a team of specialized professionals. Artists, musicians, designers, coders, and writers just to name a few.

Programmers - You should be an experienced C++ programmer to think about going this route. If you are trying to break into the industry I would suggest working on some open source or freelance game projects so that you have a few games that you helped code to submit. Mods are also good.

Quality Assurance - QA. Like Vyvyanne says, making games better one bug at a time. You start in this field as a pool tester checking bugs. You get a sheet of paper that lists a million things to check and try. It can be rather tedious. As you gain experience you can move up to be a sr. tester, a QACC (Vyvyanne, Valdermic), and eventually, a lead for a game. Attention to detail, unconventional thinking, and patience are required in ample amounts. See also, overtime.

Artists - You have to not only love to make art and be great at it, but you have to be able to use (at a professional level) industry standard software for 3-D art and animation such as Maya and 3D Studio Max. Again, working on open source or freelance game projects is a great way to get experience and network with other game creators. You can get into concept art (more pencil and paper), environment (landscapes, buildings), modeling (characters, objects - computer based) - this is where you take the concept artists drawings and make them happen on the computer), animator (take the modeled objects and bring them to life), texture artist (incredibly detailed, the skin of a model), FX artist (takes all those neat physics engines and has them fit game actions - ex. blood spatter, explosions).

Musicians - A job of not only composition, creation and technical skill, you have to be more like a movie sound person in that you have experience with Foley and voice acting. One of the most challenging musical jobs you can have. Are you expecting me to say you should work on some open source or freelance projects here? Good. You should.



Producers - Where would we be without producers? Nowhere. I mean that. You have to have someone to coordinate all of these separate parts and make everything come together and out the door. Someone has to talk with the publisher. In the non-entertainment field these are called project managers or product managers. There are levels to this. If you can't stand stress, do not choose this path. Most producers have less hair than anyone I know from pulling it out all the time.

Design
I made you read this far to get to this point for a reason. It is not easy to be a designer. Everyone, and I mean everyone, wants to be a designer. Of course, this means that designer jobs are valued commodities and very hard to get - unless you have buckets of cash and are willing to start a design house yourself.

As with other positions, there are different types of designers.

UI designers - User Interface/Heads-Up Displays. You need to know how people interact with things on a screen, a mouse, kbd, joystick. Where do people look for things? Quality of Life issues - menu ease. Think about it - ever played a game and wanted to throw the controller because you couldn't control your character or navigate a menu? Yeah - bad UI. This person is the one who is always simplifying things or making them easier (thanks for the third menu tray!). A good education of ergonomics, and lots of game play help here. You know what I am going to say about open source / freelance projects.

Writers - "Cuppa, that's not a designer" Yes, actually, they are. More accurately called "Story Designers," these people help take the original concept of a game and distill that all the way down to mission text. Often seen at NCsoft walking around asking things to themselves like "How would a grok speak? What would they say? How do they spend their day?" It's the little things that are the bulk, but also the overall story must be compelling. Manticore does this. There is more story there than you realize. You should be a fiction writer for this position.

Systems Engineers / tools design - Lower level coding (closer to the hardware level), networking issues, game engines, hardware compatibility. Go to University for this one kids. Then help make open source engines. C, assembly language. Python. I bet doing this for an open source project would help.

Level Designer - This is the person in charge of fun. You spend the majority of your gaming life in a level/mission somewhere. You have to work with the story designer to define the point of the mission and where the mission takes place. Once you have a goal and a setting you design the level. You work with the artists and do level layout and art. Define challenges. How many baddies? What difficulty? You think about every type of character that goes through it. Mods/open source projects are good ways to do this in your spare time to see if it fits and learn about creating fun for players. You do this before you can be a...

Game Designer - Not just one person usually. You may have a lead designer that makes/takes the concept and works with the other developers to create the game play systems (influence/XP/ATs/Balance).

Not all developers get to come up with the concepts. Some are handed concepts and then make the game. You should have a background in level design and understand games fluently. Know what fun is. This would be a good time to mention open source/freelance projects if I haven't already. In this case, you want to start the project and get people to help you with it.

Resources

I am a very big proponent of research. In the Internet age, there is no reason not to be able to learn as much as you want about anything. There are a few links below to help get you started, but the bottom line is - read, research, play games, critically evaluate every game you play - what's good, what's bad, what you would like to change, what really really stands out, why you keep playing. Then pick a direction and work on a project. You meet people and impress people this way. Action speaks louder than words.

Finally, I will tell each of you the same thing I have told every single person who has asked me this question. The axiom goes, writers write. If you really ARE a writer, you will write if all you have is a hunk of charcoal and a tablet. Writers care less about money, fame, and being a writer than they do about actually writing. This is no less true about game makers. Game makers build worlds and make games even if the only people who ever play them are their friends and all they have is a deck of cards.

Check out the Tabula Rasa website for some great info on what the devs do and how they got in the industry. www.playtr.com

www.gamasutra.com

www.igda.org

www.gamedev.net

Your local bookstore should also have a few books in the computer section on game design and getting into the industry.

It’s that time of the year when the electronic gaming world’s attention acquires a target lock on Los Angeles.

NCsoft, of course, will be present in full blitz mode, bringing you, via our web sites and online live Internet broadcasts from MMORadio, all the exciting, pulse-pounding Massively Mutliplayer Online Game (MMOG) goodness that we’re famous for.

For more information about NCsoft at E3, please visit our special E3 feature.

Deep within Lord Recluse’s lair, surrounded by his evil minions, Statesman and company square off against the nefarious Lord himself:

“Well my old friend, shall we see who is truly cursed? Attack!”

And the desperate fight is unleashed in this exclusive new cinematic video straight from E3 and now available on the City of Villains teaser site. Utilizing state of the art CGI, the climatic struggle between good and evil comes to explosive life.

Two life-long adversaries face to face. The future hanging in the balance. Only one can prevail…

“Now we finish this!”

To watch Statesman and Lord Recluse become reacquainted, please visit the City of Villains Theatre or to download the trailer, head on over to our own City of Heroes Movies Page.

As part of his insidious plan to conquer this year’s E3 and unleash his darkness on an unsuspecting world, Lord Recluse gathered his most talented and decadent web designers and commanded them to create a new City of Villains site to showcase the full majesty and power of his malignant kingdom.

Toiling day and night, his maniacal web team conjured up a deliciously evil site that any henchman would be proud to own. Chock full of exclusive information and exciting visuals, the City of Villains site is a gift of dark beauty. Prepare to be seduced by the wickedness that is City of Villains.

Next week (May 18-20), the annual gaming tradeshow known as the
Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) opens at the Los Angeles Convention
Center for three days of gaming glitz and madness. The show isn't open
to the general public, but that doesn't mean you have to miss out on the
excitement.

As a big part of our E3 coverage, we'll be bringing to you--straight
from the heart of NCsoft's booth to your web browser--daily live
Internet Radio broadcasts from MMORadio. They will be cranking up the
tradeshow festivities with music, exclusive interviews, news and much
more. But that's not all-NCsoft wants to give you the chance to win BIG
just for listening. For full details, the NCsoft E3 interview schedule,
and MMORadio's entire E3 broadcast schedule, look for the "Listen and Win"
Web Radio Contest on www.plaync.com

We'll have a whole week of E3 updates on our web site, so keep checking
back!

We will be conducting a main server maintenance today from 2-4pm CST to correct several game issues. We apologize for the down time.

I just wanted to thank everyone who posed here or sent me PMs in response.

There will always be those who back us - no matter what we do.

There will always be those who think we don't care - no matter what we do.

The majority are between the two.

Like I say around here all the time - "You can't please all of the people, ever."

No matter which one you are - We still thank you for playing and we will still keep trying to do the best we can.

The following bug was just identified by QA. Please be aware of this bug and let other members of the community know about this issue.

If you are defeated and then attempt to load to a new zone you will crash and then be unable to log back in with that character.

This can happen with being defeated at the end of a mission and then zoning out before going to hospital, dying and using a tram, or dying and then logging out and trying to come back in. The crash occurs while trying to load the zone and does not happen if you use the "Go to hospital" option.

So, if you are defeated - ALWAYS use the go to hospital option or use a res inspiration/power. Do not zone while defeated.

If you have had this happen - please send an email to support@coh.com or /petition a GM from another character in game so they can fix it for you.

We will be applying a patch to resolve this as soon as possible.

The Top Cow creative team behind the new City of Heroes comic book, including writer Mark Waid and artist David Nakayama, will be signing copies of CoH Issue #1 at the Golden Apple in Los Angeles on May 11 from 4:00 to 7:00PM (PDT). The new series will focus on the signature heroes from the online game, starring the Freedom Phalanx with Statesman, Manticore, Positron, Sister Psyche and Synapse.

So if you’re in the LA area, here’s your chance to meet the talented folks who will bring City of Heroes alive in the pages of what promises to be a great series!

Lots and lots of good questions, comments and points.

Lets start with some failures on our part.

I completely agree that the regen test data should have been clarified that it was not the only test data. Rereading the post I can see how a player might draw the conclusion that those were the only results. I apologize for the lack of clear information.

[ QUOTE ]
Some of the players with the most passionate responses are also the ones who care the most about the game.

Being respectful to anyone is important, Devs included. I must say though, that over the past year it has seemed (I say 'seemed' not 'is') that the same level of respect is not always returned. And I don't mean that Devs are directly rude, but that they sometimes take what appears to be a condescending approach of You don't see the big picture, so you do not realize that what you are doing is not actually fun.

[/ QUOTE ]

I also apologize for this. Statements like this are not intended to be condescending in any way. Internet postings can sometimes incorrectly convey someones meaning. As someone pointed out today, Ancient Greeks would not consider a written contract binding because of the loss of intention that can only be conveyed by a face to face exchange. I am sure that anyone on staff who appeared to come across as condescending was misconstrued.

A note about intent that I think is relevant.

[ QUOTE ]
Add to that you failed to disclose the reduction in healing power of Integration until we, the forum posters, noticed it. Then you posted skewed results as evidence of the power of all Scrappers only to have to retract your statements. All of this combined sends a message to us and that message is one of distrust.

[/ QUOTE ]

I understand your feelings here, however I want to emphasize that there is no malice in our intentions. Yes, the test data was bad. Yes we listened and checked and retracted. Yes we corrected the issue and retested. There was no intent to deceive you in this - nor to "put those regens in their place" or any other malicious reasoning going on. No, we are not perfect, yes, we make mistakes. But I think we do a pretty good job of owning up to it when we are wrong and making efforts to correct our mistakes.

I don't want to turn this into another regen debate - but I do want everyone to know that there is no malice in anything we do. Yes, we will listen, however, we may not always agree. We can explain things til we are blue in the face but no explanation will ever be good enough for everyone and someone is always going to disagree. I understand that this is the nature of the beast.

I am not interested in analogies to dictators, terrorists or non-violent protests. I might be if we were your government, but we're not. Were your entertainment company. I acknowledge that you invest hours of time and that your time is valuable and you don't want it to be wasted. I mean come on, I have a lvl 37 fire tank. I know how long it took me to get it there and how much attachment I have to my character. The thought of changes to it make me feel all squicky inside. I understand how multiple changes to regen could make people upset. But I still don't think it is anywhere near the level of threatening a devs life over changes, or even calling them names over it. I know they don't have it out for me or my fiery tank brethren. They are just trying to do what they think is best for the game and the community. We do want your feedback - even if you disagree - we just prefer constructive to destructive. However, I will take your concern about letting you know when we are satisfied with a change and see if we can't improve in this area. Be warned - It may be me saying it. Don't kill the messenger.

Ok - on to other things - I think I might be beating on my own dead horse a little.

Taunt changes - I am going to put up an OT about it tomorrow after maintenance. I tested it with my fire tank and didn't notice a change (one taunt SO even level both BA and taunt)- however I am the only fire tank In my group and my burn isn't such that it recharges fast enough to lay multiple patches down so it hasn't seemed to affect me. Notice - this is my character - not a test character and is not an official sanctioned test-o-rama, just your average running around playing. Your Millage May Vary. (TM)

Speaking of Official Threads (OTs) - Send me a PM if you think one is needed - and I will take a look. It might be a bug that needs to be reported instead, or something else, but I will consider it. Many of the OTs we have now came from suggestions from you via PM.

There is an OT for SS/SJ - it is Statesmans post about the changes they are going to make.

The "roles" question is best addressed by Statesman - AFAIK scrappers dmg > Tanks. Tanks def/res > Scraps. Blasters = dmg via range. These are gross generalities.

The "numbers" issue. I know there is a post around here somewhere where a dev says something about not providing #'s because we don't want it to be "City of Math" - I have seen some of the calculations required to get numbers and I have to say that my head a-sploded. Plus there is the maintenance of such a list - and well, you have seen how often the manual gets updated. (note on that - it is coming this month with I4 included) So I would also state that there are some resource constraints in that area. I doubt this will change.

[ QUOTE ]
concern that the defensive bonus of Invincibility is not stacking properly with the defensive bonus of Tough Hide

[/ QUOTE ]

I have submitted this question to QA but have no response yet (it is awful late).

If I missed something - I apologize - i'm exhausted. I will revisit in the AM but feel free to send me a PM as well.

Statesman and I discussed community concerns in a conference call today and I wanted to share a few things with you that came up during the call. This is going to be rather long - just a friendly warning.

Background Info (AKA what is Cuppas relationship with the Dev Team?)

For those of you who have recently joined the CoH family or are just unclear about it, I wanted to explain exactly what my role is with the CoH team.

My job as a Community Coordinator is multi-faceted, but the main part of my job is to communicate community concerns to the rest of the CoH Team. I produce several status reports and participate in conference calls with the team in California twice every week.

I am also in constant communication with the rest of the team via email, phone calls, and in-person meetings. This includes the entire team, from the GMs, to CS, billing, Tech Support, OCR, the Dev team, the producers, marketing, PR, QA, network ops, and publishing coordinators.

I am "the voice of the community" as it were, not just a moderator. It is a powerful voice and it is a responsibility I do not take lightly.

I am also the conduit of information from the CoH team to you via the message boards. Yes, the devs do post here quite a bit, but I also post info from the other parts of the team (such as network operations) who do not post here. I am lucky as a community coordinator (CC) to have such a vocal dev team, many games do not and must rely on the CC for all communication. I am also lucky that the devs read the boards voraciously, many dev teams do not.

The Devs and Cuppa Discuss the boards -

After some recent comments the devs and I want to address some player concerns and clarify a few things.

Recent Regen Test Results

We have read quite a few comments that are concerned that the recent test results posted were the only tests done on regen. This is NOT the case. This was just a small set of data from a much larger range of tests. Statesman just wanted to post a small example of the results.

The comments the community has made have been read and were considered before Issue 4 went live. It was decided that the dev team felt the changes were needed and the issue went out with them.

No recent response to an issue -

Many times, if you do not see a response from the dev team about an issue then either investigation is ongoing and no conclusions have been made yet or the dev team is satisfied with the issue as it is. I want to stress that even though this may be the case, they are always reading your feedback and taking it into consideration.

The Devs Hate us!

No they don't. Despite all the comments by players to the contrary, the devs do not have it out for any AT/power set/power. We have a responsibility to the individual player to make their game experience fun, but we also have a responsibility to the whole community to make their game experience fun too.

This also extends to Issue content - we try to add a little something for everyone each issue. Every player has things they consider their priority for new content. Some love costumes, some like new art, some new story. We try to even it out to give everyone something. There is only so much time in the day - but we work as hard as we can to make the game better.

Official Threads, Posting, and You

Finally - The devs wanted me to state again why we have official threads and what they are looking for in posts.

Change is stressful. We understand that. However, certain comments (and these are mild examples)-

"The Devs are retards. These changes are crap."

"Nerf <insert AT here> instead"

Are just unconstructive and honestly, put people on the defensive. If you want to know what types of posts make the most impact take a look at this recent post -

"I jumped into the arena on test last night to check out the latest changes. While playing a couple matches, I really thought gameplay moved very slow. Not lag, but the interaction with players. With no super speed, suppression, etc. I certainly didn't die as much, but I wasn't damaging, being damaged, or encountering other players either.

I was playing a grav/storm, which has looong animation times for anything so that probably comes into play. But half way through the second match I just got bored with it, and found it niether frustrating or exciting - just, meh.

I'm really not sure what happened or if this is just my AT, but it would be a reason why I probably won't visit the arena half as much as I thought I would. Maybe it was the frustrating component and the danger of the suped-up PvP that kept me coming back night after night."

Not a glowing report - but simple, honest, tested feedback. We love seeing some of the more complex testing posts that some of you do - those are awesome, but I don't want the community to feel like it takes that level of post to be constructive or that you will not be listened to if you do not post that way.

Official Threads are not places we herd you to to ignore you - They are created so that all of the player comments on an issue can be easily read and digested by the devs. It keeps people from feeling like they need to post the same thing in 17 threads to make sure they are heard. The devs and I would encourage everyone to post constructive feedback in the official threads. They are the best way to get your concerns read.

I have seen comments that state that if the devs are going to be devs then they should grow a think skin and learn to take the insults. We disagree. We care an awful lot about this game. We pour our hearts, minds, and energy into making this game. Many of us have spent years of our lives working as hard as we can and trying our best to make the best game possible. We want players to have fun. We stealth team with lowbies to hear the reactions to things like super jump for the first time. To experience the joy of a great pick up team take down an AV.

Hurtful insults and disrespectful comments affect us. We are human. To have people disrespect you and insult you and something you have worked so hard on in front of the whole internet is disheartening and demoralizing at the very least.

The bottom line is we respect you and your comments, we do listen, and we are glad you play and thank you for being heroes. We ask for your respect in return.

Finally, thanks to all the heroes who test, provide feedback, and go above and beyond the average player to help us make the game. Thanks to the community who makes us laugh when things are rough and for all the kind words you have sent our way in the past year. We appreciate it!

Held this year from May 18-20, it’s the gamer’s dream event known as the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). For three days of gaming magic and madness, industry professionals and the press converge on sunny Los Angeles and revel in showcasing the “Next Big Thing” in gaming. It’s open only to industry professionals and the press—so very few folks from the gaming public actually get a chance to attend. But why should you miss out on all the fun? While we can’t bring you to E3—we can do the next best thing and bring E3 to you --straight from the floor of the LA Convention Center via live Internet radio broadcast!

This year, MMORadio will be live broadcasting all the goodness E3 has to offer, straight to you from the NCsoft booth. So get ready for three days of exciting coverage including interviews with designers, developers, and musicians from around the gaming industry. For complete details, please see the official press release. Keep your eyes peeled - we'll be bringing you MMO Radio's broadcasting schedule soon so you know when to tune in!

/em Click Aim
/em Click Build Up
/em Click Blazing Bolt at target "thread"

BOOM!

Pwnd.

UPDATE - This has been extended to 3:00 CDT. We apologize for the delay.

On Wednesday, May 4, our scheduled daily server maintenance will be extended from approximately 7:00AM CDT to 11:00AM CDT. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your understanding.

City of Heroes is a year old! And what a year it has been. You’ve battled countless villains, made wonderful friends, and earned the undying respect of a whole city. We want to thank you for being a part of the CoH family. None of this would be possible without you!

We also want to give a very big thank you to everyone who participated in our First Anniversary Heroes Choice Awards and Contests. The results are in and we’re ready to announce our picks and yours. Click below for the big announcements!

Heroes Choice Awards
First Anniversary Contests
Anniversary Badge and Respec
Statesman's Anniversary Address

Congratulations to all!

Ernie “Doc” Lardner takes a look at the Arenas in his new column.

“When the Paragon City Building Commission extended an invitation to yours truly for a hands-on preview of the new soon-to-open Arena in Galaxy City, it was a no-brainer…”

To read the entire “Doc’s Press Box” column, click here.

PlayNC and the support section of the City of Heroes website will be undergoing an upgrade and maintenance on Tuesday, April 26, between 9:30 AM and 11:30 AM CDT.

Customers may not be able to access the Knowledge Base, “Ask a Question” and “My Stuff” sections of the Support Tool for the duration of the upgrade and maintenance window. For all Support inquiries during this time frame, please send e-mail directly to support@coh.com ; these inquiries will be queued for review once the upgrade and maintenance period has been completed.

The winners of our Valentine’s Day email campaign are in! These lucky individuals were randomly selected from all those who participated in our promotion which ran from February 22 to March 13.

Because these participants encouraged a friend or loved one to signup for a free trial of City of Heroes that ended up rolling into a minimum one month membership, they became eligible for one of 10 available City of Villains beta invites (which will be sent as soon as the CoV Closed Beta Test begins)!

Congratulations to the following winners (who officially accepted their beta spots before the deadline):

P. King (Hampton Bays, NY)

K. Stewart (Deep River, Ontario, Canada)

D. Laitola (Key West, FL)

M. Morrison (Hazlet, NJ)

I. Figgous (Jennings, MO)

M. Osborn (Cedar Park, TX)

D. Wendt (Columbus, OH)

L. Cole (Minot, ND)

J. Smith (Moore, OK)

Once again, congratulations! A big thank you to everyone who participated. We hope to bring you more CoV beta slot promotions soon, so keep watching your email!

The PlayNC site and the support section of the City of Heroes website will be undergoing an upgrade and maintenance on Thursday, April 21, between 9:30 AM and 1:30 PM CDT.

Customers may not be able to access the Knowledge Base, “Ask a Question” and “My Stuff” sections of the Support Tool for the duration of the upgrade and maintenance window. For all Support inquiries during this time frame, please send e-mail directly to support@coh.com ; these inquiries will be queued for review once the upgrade and maintenance period has been completed.

From the Paragon Times: Dreams Before The Storm - Sister Psyche and the Journey Home

"She lies obscured by shadow, unmoving and silent, in a small secure room on an undisclosed floor of the Bell Medical Center in Independence Port. A Sleeping Beauty waiting for a psychic kiss to guide her out of a three-year dream..."

To read the full article, please visit the current Paragon Times.

Two events occurred in 1931 that would change Paragon City forever. In that fateful year, two very dissimilar men would arrive at the Birthplace of Tomorrow. One, a long absent prodigal son, would return heralding the rise of the super-powered hero. The other, a foreign-born artist, would change the very shape of the city itself. Both would be instrumental in the creation of a city of heroes. Read the full story here.