I am pleased beyond all belief that this game continues to prosper four years into its life. Our community is stronger than ever, the game as a whole is stronger than it ever has been, and the future for the game, as well as the franchise is extremely bright.
When I look back upon the game that we shipped in 2004, I cant help but look at all the things that were missing from it. Things we added immediately, and things we added recently. Badges were not in the initial launch. Heck, level 41 to 50 were not shipped with City of Heroes! As the game has progressed, I think we have added more free features with our updates than any other MMO on the planet. Multiple zones, missions, features and systems have been added to the base game over the past four years, making the game better and better with every update.
Every time I visit the Tailor in the game, I say to myself Heh, I couldnt even change my costume when City of Heroes launched. Every time I Exemplar down to play content with my lower level friends, I note that this too was not a feature in the game four years ago. Now I actively seek out Inventions and Recipes both in missions and on the Black Market. The Invention System worked out very well for both City of Heroes and City of Villains, and was not part of the plan when we were finishing up CoH in the first quarter of 2004. Just over this last six months weve also added our Ouroboros Flashback System, Weapon Customization, and more quality of life features than the game had ever seen (until Issue 12).
Thats not to say we havent been without our missteps. Weve implemented a couple things imperfectly (Epic Archetypes and Enhancement Diversification come to mind), which caused a lot of headaches for us down the road. I cant promise that we will never make mistakes, but I will say we will do our best to ensure that we dont repeat them.
I cant tell you how excited I am for our games future, and although we have some major announcements yet to be made, one of the things I can talk about is a feature that we are planning. Similar in concept to our character creator, it allows you, the players, to create missions and story arcs for your characters and others to participate in. Youll be able to pick the map, villain group, and objectives, as well as write the dialog and any clues needed for the missions. When you are satisfied with it, you can upload it and have other players across all servers play it and rate it. Fame will come to the players whose stories rate the best overall. It is features like these that we never dreamed of including when we first shipped, but are excited to be able to offer players very soon.
In the end I just want to send out a thanks to all of the players of City of Heroes and City of Villains. Everyone, from the veterans who have been with this game since it launched (and even earlier for some beta testers!) to the users who just subscribed last week, have made this the most fun game to work on in my seventeen years in the industry. I look forward to reviewing our accomplishments this time next year when we celebrate our 5th anniversary!
- Lead Designer, Matt Miller (Positron)
To highlight the four years of City of Heroes gaming, we bring you some fun facts about the game.
Since City of Heroes launched:
[*] More than 32 million characters created thats 4 times the population of New York City![*] Players have spent a combined 292 centuries playing City of Heroes and City of Villains[*] More than 100 million items have been traded through the consignment (auction) houses since they were launched in 2007.[/list]Additional items of interest include:
[u]Most Popular Origins[u]
Mutant (25%)
Magic (24%)
Natural (21%)
[u]Most Popular Archetypes[u]
Hero: Blaster
Villain: Mastermind
[u]Most Popular Travel Powers[u]
Fly (34%)
Super Jump (30%)
If you have a specific in game, account, tech or billing problem please contact our Customer Support team via The Knowledge Base "Ask A Question" page.
Four years.
I will say that again in case you misread it.
Four years.
I am pleased beyond all belief that this game continues to prosper four years into its life. Our community is stronger than ever, the game as a whole is stronger than it ever has been, and the future for the game, as well as the franchise is extremely bright.
When I look back upon the game that we shipped in 2004, I cant help but look at all the things that were missing from it. Things we added immediately, and things we added recently. Badges were not in the initial launch. Heck, level 41 to 50 were not shipped with City of Heroes! As the game has progressed, I think we have added more free features with our updates than any other MMO on the planet. Multiple zones, missions, features and systems have been added to the base game over the past four years, making the game better and better with every update.
Every time I visit the Tailor in the game, I say to myself Heh, I couldnt even change my costume when City of Heroes launched. Every time I Exemplar down to play content with my lower level friends, I note that this too was not a feature in the game four years ago. Now I actively seek out Inventions and Recipes both in missions and on the Black Market. The Invention System worked out very well for both City of Heroes and City of Villains, and was not part of the plan when we were finishing up CoH in the first quarter of 2004. Just over this last six months weve also added our Ouroboros Flashback System, Weapon Customization, and more quality of life features than the game had ever seen (until Issue 12).
Thats not to say we havent been without our missteps. Weve implemented a couple things imperfectly (Epic Archetypes and Enhancement Diversification come to mind), which caused a lot of headaches for us down the road. I cant promise that we will never make mistakes, but I will say we will do our best to ensure that we dont repeat them.
I cant tell you how excited I am for our games future, and although we have some major announcements yet to be made, one of the things I can talk about is a feature that we are planning. Similar in concept to our character creator, it allows you, the players, to create missions and story arcs for your characters and others to participate in. Youll be able to pick the map, villain group, and objectives, as well as write the dialog and any clues needed for the missions. When you are satisfied with it, you can upload it and have other players across all servers play it and rate it. Fame will come to the players whose stories rate the best overall. It is features like these that we never dreamed of including when we first shipped, but are excited to be able to offer players very soon.
In the end I just want to send out a thanks to all of the players of City of Heroes and City of Villains. Everyone, from the veterans who have been with this game since it launched (and even earlier for some beta testers!) to the users who just subscribed last week, have made this the most fun game to work on in my seventeen years in the industry. I look forward to reviewing our accomplishments this time next year when we celebrate our 5th anniversary!
- Lead Designer, Matt Miller (Positron)
To highlight the four years of City of Heroes gaming, we bring you some fun facts about the game.
Since City of Heroes launched:
[*] More than 32 million characters created thats 4 times the population of New York City![*] Players have spent a combined 292 centuries playing City of Heroes and City of Villains[*] More than 100 million items have been traded through the consignment (auction) houses since they were launched in 2007.[/list]Additional items of interest include:
[u]Most Popular Origins[u]
Mutant (25%)
Magic (24%)
Natural (21%)
[u]Most Popular Archetypes[u]
Hero: Blaster
Villain: Mastermind
[u]Most Popular Travel Powers[u]
Fly (34%)
Super Jump (30%)
[u]Most Traded Item (via Consignment House)[u]
Base Salvage: Alien Tech Salvage
[u]Most Wealthy Archetypes[u]
Heroes: Scrappers
Villains: Brutes
Click here to discuss this announcement.
Lighthouse
Community Relations Manager
If you have a specific in game, account, tech or billing problem please contact our Customer Support team via The Knowledge Base "Ask A Question" page.