Did you know... The unofficial history thread
By
0zymandous,
Posted on: 2006-03-23 01:22 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
Did you know... One of the Surviving Eight is a player-created Hero!
In the pre-beta days, when City of Heroes was still not-quite-vaporware, Cryptic and NCSoft hosted a contest in which forum members were invited to submit one of the Surviving Eight members of the Freedom Phalanx. The winner was revealed on July 24, 2003. On that date, Numina joined the ranks of the elite of Paragon City's heroes. Her current description differs from that of the original contest entry in only minor details. Her physical description is different than her in-game appearance to the extent that she has a body in the game (and now, the comic) whereas she was originally described as an astral presence that had lost its original body.
Alas, the Wayback Machine has lost track of Numina's original concept art. If anyone has access to it, please PM me and I'll add a link to it.
Did you know... One of the hazard zones was named by a forum reader?
On September 19, 2003, Cryptic announced a new contest. This contest involved forum readers submitting names for one of the hazard zones that were being designed for City of Heroes. As it turned out, there were four winners who submitted substantially the same name as that picked by the judges. Crey's Folley acquired its name as a result of this contest.
Anyone have any listings of some of the non-winning entries?
Just a llittle "Did you know"
Blue shield was not an original trainer, he was added during Beta after many requests for somewhere to train while in Kings Row
Also Kings Row is the only CoH city zone with no stores.
COH/CoV - Virtue
8 Ball - Lev 50 Kin/Energy Defender
The Canadian Fist - Lev 50 Ice/EM Blaster
Omega Ghost - Lev 50 Robo/Dark MM
Ghostfall - Lev 50 Arachnos Crab Soldier
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Just a llittle "Did you know"
Kings Row is the only non-Hazard CoH city zone with no stores.
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>.>
Gothika (Grav/Kin) Marionette (Ill/Rad) Terra Firma (Earth/Storm) Alana Dale (Arch/Nrg)
Iceblink (Ice/Dark) Fantasia (Mind/Fire) Shadow Minx (Claws/Nin)
--Virtue
Did you know... More Real-Life Influences on Zone Names
King's Row is a real-life street located roughly 1/4 mile from the offices of Cryptic Studios. The nearest cross street to Cryptic's street address is East Gish Road. You might not realize it if you grew up mainly in The Hollows, but The Gish is one of the neighborhoods in central King's Row in City of Heroes.
Considering Kings Row is meant to be a slum, it certainly says something about their opinion of their studios. 
Did you know that the last contact you get in the Outbreak tutorial, Coyote is a tribute to the first member of the City of Heroes pre-beta community.
His forum handle was Kiyotee, his real name was Matt Bragg. He was an active contributing member of the pre-beta community for 2 years, one of the nicest guys around, but died tragically around the time the game was released.
The tutorial character Coyote, bear's Matt's name and character's identity.
Did you know that trainers weren't always on their little platforms?
Those were added in closed beta due to many complaints that the trainers were hard to find with so many people bunched around them.
At SlickRiptide's request,
I was the first poster to hit P10K. I was given the opportunity to choose the name, and selected Forum Cartel due to the meme at the time that a select group of forum posters were able to control dev decisions.
Someone else will have to explain the full origins of the "forum cartel" label, however.
Elsegame: Champions Online: @BellaStrega ||| Battle.net: Ashleigh#1834 ||| Bioware Social Network: BellaStrega ||| EA Origin: Bella_Strega ||| Steam: BellaStrega ||| The first Guild Wars: Kali Magdalene ||| The Secret World: BelleStarr (Arcadia)
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At SlickRiptide's request,
I was the first poster to hit P10K. I was given the opportunity to choose the name, and selected Forum Cartel due to the meme at the time that a select group of forum posters were able to control dev decisions.
Someone else will have to explain the full origins of the "forum cartel" label, however.
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See my post in the "Who's in the Cartel" thread! It explains everything. Around page 11 or so.. one minute, I'll pull a link up.
EDIT: Presto! And I was right with page 11. About 3/4 down the page.
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Just a llittle "Did you know"
Blue shield was not an original trainer, he was added during Beta after many requests for somewhere to train while in Kings Row
Also Kings Row is the only CoH city zone with no stores.
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I'm guessing Kings Row was left without a trainer for a while because...
Back in Beta, Galaxy City didn't exist!
That's right, back in Beta you went straight to Atlas after being forced to do the tutorial. Kings Row appropriately had retired police officer Michael Knight AKA Back Alley Brawler serving as the trainer of Kings Row.
Since Beta had become so crowded, there was a call for a second starting zone, thus Galaxy City was born, and Brawler moved there.
Since Galaxy didn't exist at the time, Kings Row connected to Perez Park! You can still see the spot where the old gate was. It's in the northeast part of High Park. You can't miss the lookout posts and the fenced in section.
Never surrender! Never give up!
Help keep Paragon City alive with the unofficial City of Heroes Tabletop Role Playing Game!
Did you know...
That Perez Park was named after George Perez, one of the comic industry's legendary artists.
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Did you know...
That Perez Park was named after George Perez, one of the comic industry's legendary artists.
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Every area in Perez Park is named after a famous comic influence. Even some of the exploration badges reflect this (Around the Bendis, for example).
Never surrender! Never give up!
Help keep Paragon City alive with the unofficial City of Heroes Tabletop Role Playing Game!
Did you know...
Dark Astoria'a Zones is refererenced after famous horror movies directors? George Romero for example.
In the Arena of Logic, I fight unarmed.
The Newsman badge refers to Theodore Knight, who played Ted Baxter on the Mary Tyler Moore Show, and was also the narrator for The Superfriends.
Moggie's big forum-brother.
"I'm a tech. I tell it how it is. I'm incapable of the sunshine blowing necessary in their field." - BillZBubba
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The Newsman badge refers to Theodore Knight, who played Ted Baxter on the Mary Tyler Moore Show, and was also the narrator for The Superfriends.
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I believe Posi also connected that badge to the Fantastic Four's Baxter Building at some point. I could be wrong though.
In Founder's Falls:
Williams Square named for Roger Williams who left Mass. to found Rhode Island.
Hutchinson Park is named for Anne Hutchinson who left Mass for religious freedom in Rhode Island.
The Gaspee was a British ship burned in Rhode Island during the revolutionary war.
The Blackstone Hills are named for the Blackstone River which flows into Providence (the capital ) Rhode Island.
Interesting stuff. Several things that I didn't know about and I've been around since beta 3. 
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Did you know...
Dark Astoria'a Zones is refererenced after famous horror movies directors? George Romero for example.
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The hospital in Dark Astoria is named for St. Elegius, which is the name of the hospital in the medical drama St. Elsewhere.
The sword on Ms. Liberty's hip is the fabled Excaliber which was entrusted to her mother Miss Liberty.
Ms. Liberty also wears the Girdle of Hera which was a wedding present to her grandmother from the Furies.
The Dark Blade
"I've felt your mouse on me before, you perv...." - Troy Hickman
Paragon Wiki
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In Founder's Falls:
Williams Square named for Roger Williams who left Mass. to found Rhode Island.
Hutchinson Park is named for Anne Hutchinson who left Mass for religious freedom in Rhode Island.
The Gaspee was a British ship burned in Rhode Island during the revolutionary war.
The Blackstone Hills are named for the Blackstone River which flows into Providence (the capital ) Rhode Island.
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Paragon City located in Rhode Island? This is something I heard/learned only recently after wondering for a long time.
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In Founder's Falls:
Williams Square named for Roger Williams who left Mass. to found Rhode Island.
Hutchinson Park is named for Anne Hutchinson who left Mass for religious freedom in Rhode Island.
The Gaspee was a British ship burned in Rhode Island during the revolutionary war.
The Blackstone Hills are named for the Blackstone River which flows into Providence (the capital ) Rhode Island.
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Paragon City located in Rhode Island? This is something I heard/learned only recently after wondering for a long time.
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That is correct. In fact...
Did you know... Paragon City is actually an alternate universe Providence, RI?
Never surrender! Never give up!
Help keep Paragon City alive with the unofficial City of Heroes Tabletop Role Playing Game!
Did you know... That Cryptic cannot do anything with offending some portion of the playerbase?
A list of various complaints include:
Moving the patriot badge away from the american flag was unamerican,
that the flag on City Hall should be lit and not doing so was unamerican,
that they should use the metric system instead of the U.S. Customary Units (Or English Units),
that the original Family badge was offensive to Italians,
that both the Cabal and Coven were offensive to Witches,
that the Croatoan witches were CALLED the Cabal, instead of the Coven like they were in the Halloween event,
that not allowing Pre-I2 players to get the Isolator badge on their current characters was an offensive slap in the face,
That the Hellions using the symbol of Baphomet (Or whatever it is called) is offensive to Satanists,
That the fact that Tankers, Scrappers, and Blasters were all represented by Men and that the "weaker" Controllers and Defenders were represented by Women in the CoH Install screenw as offensive to women,
That being able to attack Sally the Croatoan Lake Monster when she wasn't a visible threat was wrong, offensive, and unheroic,
That the Fir Bolg and other Croatoan enemies were represented as twisted bastardizations was offensive to those of celtic decent,
That replacing the 5th Column into the Council was modivated soley to appease the Europeans,
And more!
Did you know...
Statesmans origin was origonally magic artifact? It's true. Many years ago Statesman helmet granted him his powers.
Did you know...
The origonal game design didn't include archetypes at all. The player would choose what ever powers they wanted. However, pre-alpha it was decided that with that system the player could make unplayable characters and unstopable characters so it was decided to make archetypes.
Did you know...
There were two more origins than there are now? Magic Artifact and another one I forget the name of. I believe it was technology related. Anyway, they were combined into what is our current origins.
Did you know...
Origins used to be the deciding factor of how powerful your chosen powers could become. While not much was known about the game mechanics back then, origin would decide how powerful your powers were.
Did you know...
Heroes who used guns would have to go into a store and buy ammo and weapons. ( I may be wrong about the details but the fact that you could go into a gun shop and buy something is true.)
In scanning through the web for various bits of info recently, I've become aware of many things that I didn't know, and of the apparent erosion of data referring to many things I did know.
Thanks to website reform, forum pruning, and the general come and go of players and developers, a lot of history that we old-timers take for granted is slipping away unnoticed.
My proposal for this thread is that we try to document as well as we can the memorable events in the history of CoH, both in-game and out. There's no limit on what information you might deem worthy of preservation Simply ask yourself "Is this information I'm posting something that would interest a player reading it five years from now?"
We don't have to limit ourselves to just the MMO. Background on developers or notable players is welcome, as long as it is factual. The forums and website (pre-beta, beta, post-Live) are as much a part of the game experience as the game itself.
The important thing is that you can cite a reference if you make particular claims about an event or a rumor. If you write a paragraph about how "Statesman once said X" then be prepared to cite the source of the statement.
So, help preserve the history of CoX. If you were at the Rikti Invasion at the end of Beta, write a paragraph or two about it. If something particularly noteworthy happened on your server that people still talk about, make a record of it. If you remember a bit of info that it seems like nobody else remembers any more, research it and record it so that it isn't forgotten for good. It doesn't have to be the "mists of time". Something significant that happened yesterday will be ancient history when it's read by someone playing Galaxy of Heroes five years from now.