jwbullfrog

Folks, when people ask you "what is so special about City of Heroes?" show them this vid and say, proudly...

"These are our developers. These are the people who make our game. Can you show me any other team that loves their job this much?"

wait, wait, wait.

Wade had a meltdown. I know, I was there and watched it happen.

Actually, I was perfectly happy to turn him over to Lord Recluse for... processing... but, being a hero I had to be nice about it.

A bit of a wine nerd question...

Do you organize dry to sweet or by price or by similarities or...

{{{ for non wine people there are 1001 ways to organize your wines}}}

-- It's ready to go so, here we are, just a bit early this week. As always, thanks for sticking with me -- JWB





Hiya Paragonners. Alexis Alexander here, covered in Zombie goop.


Ok, not exactly goop but the smell was definitely something that stuck to you. Surprisingly, there was a small restroom, not much better than the one you find in your average convenience store at the end of the cell block and, thanks to Zandra's time screen, I was able to wash up a bit before we moved on. Even though I was able to scrub off the worst of the sludge, the harsh, institutional soap that was in the dispenser couldn't completely kill the undead smell.

"Great, now you smell like anti-bacterial Zombie," said Caridad in a snarky tone of voice that made me strongly consider locking her back in her cell. I could tell Zandra was trying not to laugh. I was outnumbered by my own side.

As we got ready to leave the cell block, we were faced with the very real possibility that there could be dozens of soldiers waiting for us. We couldn't tell because one of the side effects of Zandra's time screen was that we couldn't see through it. Zandra tried to explain why but after a few seconds of temporal-physi- blah, blah, blah, I stopped listening. It wasn't important I know and, even if I did, knowing wouldn't do me any good. I got the feeling that it was a bit like explaining the theory of electricity to the average medieval farmer.

"Sure," the farmer would say, "but what does that have to do with oxen?"

Not that I know that much about oxen readers, but you get the point.

I could tell from the way that she was bouncing very slightly on the balls of her feet that Caridad was eager to get going. I didn't really blame her, I'd been a guest of the Council before and I knew it wasn't a picnic. I wasn't as familiar with Zandra's body language but she was holding her rifle in a way that suggested she was personally offended by the fact that there wasn't anything to zap.

Both of them were trying, and failing, to keep a straight face whenever I was looking at them. I knew we were in trouble because, even though we had rescued Caridad, there were a few unresolved issues to sort out. We had to get out of the base and back to the Katana, most likely fighting the entire way. Before that, we had to go deeper into the base looking for some kind of portal which might or might not give Zandra the answers she needed and, once she had those answers, a portal that she felt the need to destroy. This was not going to be easy. We needed to be serious.

They couldn't wait to get started.

Zandra had dropped to one knee and took up a firing position facing the doorway. Caridad stood to her right and just a bit behind. Her right hand was in front of her, palm to the door. The faint glow that was a side effect of her own mutant abilities surrounded her.

"Where do you want me?" I asked.

"Around the corner," both of them answered, just slightly out of sync. They looked at each other for a moment before breaking out in a fit of giggles.

"Alexis, " Caridad said after a moment, "you've done a great job getting in here and I'm proud of you. But I am still your bodyguard and right now I need you to let me do my job."

"And," said Zandra, "it would be far too much paperwork if I were to let you, of all people, die right now."

"You know, I've been meaning to ask abou..."

"Screen coming down in five...four...three...two...one!" Zandra's shout interrupted my question as the time screen blinked and then went out. Caridad's golden beams and Zandra's blue-white lanced out at the same time, tearing a hole through the midsection of a large robot that the Council had brought up. They must have hit something important because the robot staggered backward one step then dropped heavily to the ground, crushing a group of zombies behind it.

"Mine!," shouted Caridad as she launched another set of beams down the hall, sending soldiers scrambling for cover.

"Yours?" Zandra replied as she climbed to her feet and started slowly walking forward.. "I don't think so, I hit it first."

"How do you figure?" asked Caridad.

"I'm a Professor of Time, I'm an expert in when things happen."

"What? You cheat," Caridad accused as she stepped forward, slowly moving her hands in front of her looking for the next target."

I stepped out from around the corner and slowly shook my head. I could hear them arguing about 'the rules' between blasts of high energy fire. I stepped over the sparking hulk of the robot and kicked a zombie that was still a bit too lively. Those two were peas in a pod and the part of my brain that obsesses over puzzles began spitting out the insane theory that they might be related.

I'd have to come back to that since the fighting had grown more intense. Zandra and Caridad were blasting their way through the soldiers and, as far as I could follow, Caridad was ahead in the point total. With those two in front of me, my job became very simple, kick in the teeth of anyone who got to me.

We kept moving, clearing the base hallway by hallway. By the time we reached the nearest stairwell (we weren't crazy enough to trust the elevators. I was certain the Council had seen the same films I had) we were unopposed.

"Computer maps said that his should be the last flight," said Zandra. "we're near the bottom of the hull and if there are any more stairs, we'll be swimming out."

"Ok, so what's the plan?" asked Caridad.

"The plan," said a hollow voice that was both above and below us, "is for you to die so that Mot may live."



Mot? What was a Mot?

I had tears left....


thank you.

Forgive me players for I have sinned...

To this day I have six characters with no travel powers.

I have four characters that were build pre-inherant stamina that have never been subject to a respec.

I have, over the course of six years, played only four characters to lv 50. Two of those just since Black Friday.

Of those four, only two have unlocked incarnate powers and neither of those has gone beyond the alpha slot.

I have never even seen an HO.

I tended to hide during Rikti raids, Zombie Apocalypses, and Praetorian invasions.

I have never played a fire Tank.

I have three SG/VG that I am the sole member of.

I have tried to play a petless MM seven times. Never successfully.

I didn't think ED, AE, or Marty were bad ideas (/em tinfoil hat)

I have one and only one Ragnarok in my posession. It resides in the hands of my Emp/ Archery Defender and is slotted into rain of arrows.

I played a villain side healer before Pain Domination

those are the worst of my gaming sins. I shall take myself off for flogging now.

There's no reward more fitting for an artist than to hear during their lifetimes that their work was appreciated and loved.

That's a bit dramatic, but it has the right feel. You and all of the others at Paragon did stellar work and, for the better part of six years, you have entertained me and made my life a bit happier.

And, to blazes with legalities, all of you will remain Paragon Studios, the finest game company around. Whoever gets your services in the future should consider themselves insanely lucky to have you.

godspeed.

Let's see...

Only three servers...

I've filled two and a half already...

OK, I still have room.

If those were the only choices and I could move characters over, ok.

---- and back on time this week. Ha, knew I'd get there--- JWB



Hiya Paragonners. Alexis Alexander here from a desperate rescue mission.


Ok maybe going all hyperbole on that byline was a bit much, but it was essentially true. After seeing in print that Caridad was scheduled for 'interrogation' I knew we had to move quicker. The Council were the kind of people who interrogated by hitting you with several objects until you were barely able to answer the questions they asked. Then, if they didn't like whatever answer you just gave, it started all over again.

In case you missed the clues in my earlier writings about the Council, they are not nice people.

And, if that weren't enough to get me running, the line 'dispersement to allies' was ominous all by itself. I chose to interpret that as 'becoming the focal point of a magical ritual that would suck out her soul and feed it to a rather unpleasant being, leaving nothing behind but a shriveled husk which might then be used as an undead foot soldier.' Caridad annoyed me more often that not but not enough to let her become a zombie.

Zandra seemed to share my urgency. I didn't quite notice when her rifle had been switched from 'stun' to 'vaporize', but it's blue white beam made short work of anyone who got in our way. After taking down a group of three Council soldiers with a few well placed strikes and a bit of packing foam (it was handy, deal with it) I caught a glimpse of Zandra's face as she, very calmly, blasted a Vampyre to atoms. She wasn't the dead eyed, soulless killer that you hear of in fiction, but she was not at all cheerful about her work. She was very methodical and clinical about it. Almost like she was taking notes for a report that she would have to file later.

I guess the word got out about us or, more likely, about the madwoman with a high powered energy weapon and her sidekick. The Council started throwing more and more robots and drones at us mixed with Banished Pantheon zombies. The living members of the opposition had had enough of risking their own, still mortal, necks in dealing with us so they'd decided to wear us down with constructs.

Actually, I didn't blame them.

It did cause a slight shift in our tactics since, not being super strong, trying to punch a robot would just break my hands. I went on zombie duty which was just about as pleasant as it sounds. I could have lived without the feeling of punching a dry sack of bones and skin, or the nauseating feel of something oozing between my fingers when their heads split open. The smell was indescribably foul, like leftovers that had been left over just a bit too long. And I would have dreams about the sucking, squishing, sound when I hit one that was still sort of fresh, for a long, long time, afterward.

I will admit that I had a few 'oh wow' moments as well. I actually was able to punch one zombie's heart out of it's chest (there wasn't much keeping it there) and I did get to pull the arms off another and use them to beat it to death (also not very well attached in the first place). But, overall, it was a very nasty and exhausting slog down to the prison wing.

We reached the cell block and I ducked inside while Zandra set up another of her time fields.

"This one's a bit weaker," she told me as the blue field covered the doorway. "We'll have maybe twenty minutes before the charge runs down. There should be something around here that will tell us which cell she is in."

"You could just ask," shouted a very welcome voice from behind a door at the end of the hall.

"Cari?"

"About time, Alexis. Get me out of this box. I'm running out of songs I know all the words to."

We found her cell easily. It helped that she was wiggling her fingers at us through the eye slot at us. I gave those fingers a brief squeeze before warning her to get back from the door. Zandra had already lined up her shot and was just waiting for me to get out of the way. I stepped back and Zandra's rifle lit up the door. It didn't seem to be doing much at first but after a few seconds the door did a perfect Hollywood fade-out revealing a very messy but otherwise unharmed Caridad.

"Alexis," she said as she stepped toward me to give me a hug only to stop a yard away "you smell bad.."

"Well I'll remember to shower first the next time I have to rescue you from zombies."

"And who's the girl with the ray gun?" asked Caridad as she noticed Zandra standing off to one side.

"Introducing Professor Zandra Alexander-Reyalde, " I said. "She's from the future trying to rescue us and figure out who's screwing up the Bermuda Triangle all at the same time."

Caridad looked her up and down for a moment before asking "lottery numbers?"

"No chance," Zandra shot back before unleashing one of her epic grins.

Caridad was smiling just as brightly and I think they had each just found a new playmate.

"Ok, now that that's been settled, " I said trying to head off the inevitable mischief, "how do we get back out of here? It's not like we have a magic blue button or anything."

"Well," said Zandra. "I'd say we go out the way we came. There can't be too many of them left."

"That might not be true," said Caridad. "They have some kind of portal at the core of this thing. They might be able to use it to bring in reinforcements."

It took her a moment to realize that both Zandra and I were staring at her.

"What? They talk too much. I overheard it while they were carrying me down here."

"Right. Change in plans then." Said Zandra. "We need to find that portal."

"You want to use it to get out of here?"

"No, Alexis, I want to use it to find out where in time they came from then I want to blow it up."

"I like her. She's my kind of girl." said Caridad.



I just knew I was going to regret staying close to those two. And I still smelled like zombie.

Simple fact is, they stopped taking my money. I wasn't willing to stop giving to them.

Oh well, right now they have nothing more I want so they'll become the online equivalent of the gas station that I don't stop at because the prices are too high.

we're not dead yet. And, if nothing else we have until the 30th. Get in there. PLay. Enjoy it while we have it. And, if you have the ability, make more noise. Even if we don't save this game, we'll make a mark that might affect the next one that gets shut down.

OK, this all reminds me of something. Stick with me here...


LEO: Hm. It's amazing. absolutely amazing. But under the right circumstances, a producer could make more money from a flop than with a hit. Hm. Yes, it's quite possible. If he were certain the show would fail a man could make a fortune.

MAX: Yes?!

LEO: Yes what?

MAX: what you were saying. Keep talking.

LEO: What was I saying?


aaaaah.... just watch the masters do it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjn1Y9YcIQM

Sound vaguely familiar?

I took the liberty of forwarding the link for this over to Eliot Lefebre at Massively. Perhaps he'll feel the urge to circulate this. If we can show people whats was coming, we might be able to build more interest.

In fact, if you have a favorite gaming site, or any site at all, send the link. The more noise we make, the more awkward of a position NCSoft will find themselves in.

I know it's a long shot, but you miss 100% of the shots you don't take.

My wife and I watched through this and saw some of the details that could have led to interesting story points.

--One of the parks had small tents in it that sort of looked like a craft fair had been set up..

-- Something that almost looks like a small subdivision on the island.

-- A cargo ship sailing by.

-- A hole in the war wall (maybe just a flaw or unfinished graphics at that point)

Thank you so much for posting this Leandro and GG. Such gorgeous work and this might be the only time we ever get to see it.

There are crimes and there are sins. Not seeing this go live is a sin.

--- getting better with the delays. only one day this time. ---JWB



Hiya, Paragonners. Alexis Alexander here from a hole in the ground.


It almost makes sense to be looking for zombies in a hole in the ground. Kind of logical when you think about it. Actually, thats not quite right. Zombies are usually found outside of holes in the ground. Thats part of the problem with them. If they stayed in the ground, they'd be much less trouble.

Our footsteps had a hollow echo as we descended the metal stairway. The light from Zandra's flashlight chased shadows from the corners and complimented the light streaming in from the now evaporated hatchway. I was tensed up and just waiting for the flashlight's beam to highlight something that wanted to kill me.

Zandra was still grumbling something under her breath about fools and time machines.

We reached the bottom of the stairs and stepped into what looked like a large pre-formed concrete hallway. Whoever our Zombie master was, he bought off the shelf. A string of industrial lamps were draped along the wall just close enough together to make walking along the hall without running into the walls possible. No effort was made to improve upon the bare concrete. I was guessing that whoever made this was far more concerned with function than form.

The hallway had a slight tilt downward and that, I think was what allowed us to see the guard before he saw us. Much to my surprise, it wasn't a zombie. It seemed to be a normal, living, human man dressed in gray fatigues and steel helmet. I knew that look all too well.

"Why am I not surprised?" I mumbled. I was over 500 years in my own past and I still could not get away from the Council.

"Friends of yours?" asked Zandra.

"One of them tried to use me as the trigger for an Atomic bomb once."

"So, not good friends then."

"No."

Zandra knelt down and took aim. A bluish white light shot from her rifle and into the Council soldier. His body stiffened and then slumped to the floor bonelessly. Without changing her position she glanced up at me. "Taser, I promise."

Actually, I wouldn't have minded otherwise, but she did have a point. He was just doing his sadly misguided job and probably didn't deserve being vaporized.

Probably.

As we walked past the unconscious soldier I began to wonder why he was even here. Readers, it's no secret that the Council tends not to make friends. Truth is, other criminal organizations find them a bit... intense? Creepy? Uncomfortable to be around? In any case, they don't often work with others so what were they doing here with the Banished Pantheon?

More to the point, what did the Pantheon need the Council for? There was a mostly incompatible set of goals at play here. Both groups wanted to rule the world but I was pretty sure that the were not going to settle for a coalition fascist/evil god kind of government. It really didn't make sense.

The hallway wound deeper into the island. and it became obvious pretty quickly that we were looking at an iceberg situation. There was far more of the island below the waterline than above it. We took care to stay out of sight as we moved farther into the island. We were here on a rescue mission not as an assault team. The few people we encountered were disabled either by Zandra's rifle or a quick kick or two from me.

"We need a map," said Zandra after sending another soldier off to an electrically induced sleep. "I don't suppose you've found a helpful 'you are here' sign recently?"

"Mmm, no. But will a computer do?"

"Maybe," said Zandra as she walked over to the terminal I had found. She pulled her silver box out of her pocket and set it down next to the screen and pressed a button. The screen flashed for a moment and went into what looked like a reboot. After a moment it settled back to a more normal looking interface.

She leaned closer and started opening files. She scanned through most of them quickly, discarding them as useless or at least not what we were looking for. One or two of the files prompted a longer look and a small sigh, but even those were closed and forgotten after a few moments. The entire time, a small green light blinked on her box.

"Aha, got it!" she said as she leaned back from the terminal. She pressed another button on her box and the green light went out. The computer flashed for a moment and the screen reset to what it had looked like before.

"You can hack computers?" I asked.

"Not at all. But this thing's operating system is kind of old news from my point of view. I just pulled the programming up from the archives and declared myself an administrator."

"Isn't that the same thing?"

"Nope."

Readers, she really believed that. I wasn't going to argue the point or ask the really obvious question of how out of date. It really wasn't important. We had a map and, even more importantly, a specific location where prisoners were kept. The cell block was one level below us and, according to Zandra, it was currently occupied. The file on that read: Prisoner, 1, female, recent, hold for interrogation and/or dispersement to allies.


That didn't sound good.

Wonderful. I think we needed a bit of a laugh.

I would be happy to support a successor to CoH.

As long as it is a good game to start with.

Suppose that interested parties put together a game that is full of promise and promises and you start it up and... ugh, it looks horrible.

At that moment, you've lost me.

I will not play a game I cannot stand looking at (trying not to look at you here, CO.) On top of that theres the issue of gameplay. Is it smooth like city? Does it flow? Is it easy to team? Can I solo? Am I forced into PvP? Do I like the game world? Do I like the game lore? Do I need 'uber l00t' just to keep up?

Assuming somebody creates a game that meets all (or, at least, most) of my criteria, then I would be willing to play. If I happen to find the rest of the community there, then I'll consider that a bonus.

But let's get the game first.

Overbrook (AKA Faultline)

The rents are cheap, there's plenty of space, and its pretty easy to get an apartment with a view.

Sure there's a slight problem with Lost infestation or the occasional Arachnos raid, and the noise of the Clockwork can get a little annoying, particularly at 3AM when you really need the sleep; but theres decent food at Bianco's and you can get donuts 24 hours a day.

I will agree to part of this. NCSoft is not my enemy.

I honestly do not care whether they continue to exist or not. They stopped taking my money on August 31 and they don't have any other products I care to purchase.

At this moment in history they mean as much to me as any of the restaurants that I no longer go to, or the gas stations I don't stop at, or any of the hundreds of businesses that I do not spend my money at.

No, they are not my enemy. Right at the moment, they ARE the only people who can keep the game alive. And, like or not, if we have any chance of saving this game, we have to continue to associate with them.

We do not have to like them. We do not have to agree with them, We do not have to give them any slack because of what they have done in the past. We do have to deal with them.

Keep making noise. Keep the word going around. Do not let them dictate what the news sees. Keep up the pressure and make this enough of an embarrasment to them that the only way to make it stop is by becoming open minded enough to release the game to interested parties.

I do not care if they admit their foolishness. I do not care if they become the laughingstock of the gaming industry. I do not care if they go out of business or become the biggest success story ever.

I do not care because they are not my enemy, and after November 30th, they will cease to be a part of my life.

I do so love corporate press releases. They are such brilliant examples of BS in action.

Basically this whole politely worded statement amounts to 'shut up and go away.' Well, basically we will..

...but not without making a whole lot of noise first.

Even if we cannot save our game, we can still make the industry take notice and turn this into an example of how not to end a game. We can make this such an embarassment to NCSoft that they become the company that the others laugh at in the halls.

Well that was a politely worded kiss-off.


Until the servers go dark, I'll enjoy the game as much as I can. Then, down the road, when people ask "what games did you play?" I'll be able to say "City of Heroes."

-- Late but not abandoned. Sorry gang. --JWB

Hiya Paragonners. Alexis Alexander here with my latest report.


I wish I had Zandra's energy. Actually I'd like to have it in a convenient pill form that I could sell as the world's greatest anti-depressant. I'd make a fortune.

After two helpings of breakfast (which she insisted I eat, readers) Zandra packed up her camping gear, grabbed her jacket and rifle, and dismissed her time bubble with an elaborate flourish of her hands.

"Nothing up my sleeve...presto!" She said in a reasonable Bullwinkle voice before breaking into a light bubbling giggle. There was something not quite right about her. Well, to be honest, there were several things that could be considered 'not right' but none of those were really important at that moment. The most important thing was figuring out where Caridad was and getting her to safety. I'd picked up some very welcome but unexpected firepower and now I just needed a place to put it to good use.

We started back uphill to the clearing on the cliff top. I wasn't exactly sure where to look for Caridad so I just went back to the last place I had seen her. It's a method that usually works for car keys I figured it would work for people. At least, I hoped it would.

The clearing was pretty much exactly the same as when I saw it last, minus several zombies. Zandra gave a low whistle as she surveyed the damage.

"Wow, crispy!" Zandra pulled another small box out of her belt and extended two antennae from it. "Ok, we've got a starting point, lets see what we can see." The area between the antennae started to glow as Zandra slowly swept it around the clearing. I could see images forming from the glow almost like watching a video rewind of reality itself."
"It picks up residual impressions of events over a localized area," said Zandra distractedly. "It not very detailed and it doesn't have a very deep scanning range, only about three or four hours over about 100 meters but..."

"It would be perfect for tracking a person's movements," I added.

"Exactly," she said. "It's invaluable for search and rescue work and standard issue for NPPD detectives."

There it was again. New Paragon. She said it so casually that it had to be just part of normal for her but it sent little echoes of fear through my head. Between my reality of Paragon City and her reality of New Paragon had to be an event that changed one into the other. I decided not to worry about it much. It was most likely another alien invasion would wreck the city and we'd move on like we usually do but I kept getting the feeling that it was something bigger than that.

"Ah, here we go," she said as she waved me over to look at the images. I watched as Caridad was picked up by three large zombies and carried across the clearing to a boulder. They stood there for a moment while a section of turf swung upward.

"You know, there has to be somebody making a fortune on the secret doors-in-rocks franchise," Zandra quipped. "I'm not sure we ever found them all."

I gave up trying to balance my curiosity against prudence. "You know, I've been meaning to ask about New..."

Zandra froze the playback and walked across the clearing to the same boulder. She knelt down and looked at the area that had to be the hatch we had seen.

"Hm," she said. "Nothing obviously mechanical or psychic here. Possibly a magical trigger to open this but I wouldn't be able to do much about that. I suppose we could blast it open, and I have no intention of telling you anything about the future."

Her bubbleheadedness was all an act apparently. I guess the word professor should have given me a hint.

She didn't look upset as she looked back over her shoulder at me. In fact, she had a smile on her face. "What took you so long? I've been expecting you to ask for the last hour or so."

'Well..."

"Alexis, knowing wouldn't do you any good. You are intelligent, clever, and braver than is probably good for you, but you lack the proper context to get it all right. Even if I gave you a printed timeline of events from Damocles' first shot to the Grandville firestorm, there wouldn't be anything you or anyone you know could do to stop it. Let's just say that it was bad, very bad. We lost a lot of people, and everything changed.

Right now, it's far more important to save the ones you can save, and that means getting your friend out of this hole. Once we get that done, I promise you we can worry about saving the rest of the world."

She didn't say anything more as she closed up the antennae and slipped the box back in her pocket. "Looks like there's nothing for it, I'll have to blast it open."

I was getting mental whiplash from the speed of her topic changes. There was so much more I wanted to ask but I didn't know where to begin. I watched as she made a few adjustments on her rifle and pointed it at the ground. There was a white flash and the hatchway faded out like a slow movie effect.

"Tah Dah. Instant hole, just add raygun."

"When do those become standard equipment?" I asked.

"Never. But I got this one in 1968 from a lovely man named Karl Wunder. An underappreciated genius if there ever was one."

Now that, readers was a point we both agreed upon. Karl Wunder was one of my favorite historical figures and as the armored hero Kaptan Wunderfaal, fought crime in Paragon city for 20 years before opening a highly popular amusement park. And that thought depressed me a bit readers. He didn't deserve what happened to him, but I'm getting off track. That is a story for another time.

As we looked down into the hole Zandra glanced out of the corner of her eye and asked "see anything here that just doesn't fit?"

"I see a staircase. What's so wrong about that?"

"A steel staircase on a Caribbean island circa 1552?"

I caught her meaning instantly. This was modern technology in a place it had no business being. "Somebody else came back in time to set this all up?"

"Looks like it." She sighed quietly and pulled a small flashlight out of her belt. "Here we go again. Why can't people just stay in their proper times? Is that too much to ask?" She grumbled under her breath as we started down the stairs.