For this second part of the City of Heroes 7th Anniversary Retrospective, we'll be telling you what our developers told us about their favorite COH video, their most memorable moments at Meet & Greets and Conventions, as well as what they did on the day City of Heroes launched all those years ago!
Read on for a little walk down memory lane by the makers of your favorite super powered MMO!
What was your favorite COH video?
Matt "Positron" Miller, Lead Systems Designer
"It's a tie: The Soldiers of Arachnos video (Issue 12) and the Rikti invasion newscast (Issue 10). I wrote both of these and the final results were exactly as I had envisioned them."
Melissa "War Witch" Bianco, Lead Designer
"The "Official Trailer." I remember sitting around the lounge back at Jury Court in San Jose with the rest of the CoH team (not a big team at the time, mind you) and watching OUR game as a CG video up on the screen with professional titles, music, and SFX and everything and thinking to myself, 'This is real. This...this is amazing. This is so awesome!!!' I had goosebumps! You can't recreate a moment like that. It was my first job in the industry, my first MMO as a dev, and it was the first promo video for the game. I'll never forget it."
Nate "Second Measure"Birkholz, Lead Producer
"The winner from our first Fan Video Competition. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF5lg41L11I"
Jesse "Ghost Falcon"Caceres
"My favorite COH Video is still the "City of Heroes Opening Cinematic Trailer". It was a call to arms for players to create their hero character in the wake of an alien invasion. When I saw it, I was hooked. I was thrilled when I got a job with NCsoft in October 2004."
Joe "Hero 1" Morrisey, Senior Designer
"Is it wrong to say the Captain Dynamic videos? I just loved the personality that those had. So much humor."
Vince "The Dark Watcher" D'Amelio, Principal Programmer
" I liked the original launch video from City of Villains. It had a good fight scene and of course Synapse being tossed around (because it became something the players laughed about...). And then the marketing vid for Invasion. It was different, using the new reel point of view, and I enjoyed the fact that I had a lot to do with that issue, particularly in the invasions themselves, so it was cool to see it get front billing in a launch video."
John "Protean" Hegner, Lead Missions Designer
"The Going Rogue launch trailer. This video hit the nail on the head for me about what Praetoria was all about. There is a scene very early on where you see Emperor Cole surrounded by cheering loyalist citizens and several of the Praetors, and he's giving a speech, and then the camera zips down underground and you see the tunnels choked full of Resistance fighters cheering and Calvin Scott is giving a speech. It set the stage for the entire rest of the video."
What are some of the most memorable moments you had at Fan Events/Conventions?
Nate "Second Measure"Birkholz, Lead Producer
"At PAX Prime last year, Matt Miller, Melissa Bianco, Eric Johnsen, and I all had a whole lot of fun with our panel. We got to laugh a lot and we had great questions from the crowd. I don't think any individual moment from the panel stands out, the entire time was a lot of fun. At Hero Con 2009 I was brand new at the studio, and doing the live event was extremely memorable, as well. "
Jesse "Ghost Falcon"Caceres, Business Manager
"The best PR-related event I ever attended was the City of Villains Launch party on Alcatraz in San Francisco. NCsoft invited press people from all over the world. Many of us spent weeks and days leading up to the event creating characters, setting up a local shard (Alcatraz does not have Internet access), and getting a stable build together. "
"At the end of the day, the island was closed for the exclusive use for City of Villains. One of the rooms was transformed into a demo area with a stage, and other cells/rooms were transformed into private PR meeting rooms. We had a woman dress up as Ghost Widow, and we had special lighting and fog machines set up to create an eerie atmosphere."
Tim "Black Scorpion" Sweeney, Systems Designer
"At HeroCon 2009 I stood around for several hours holding a hula hoop on behalf of the OCR team... that was probably the strangest moment I experienced that year."
Joe "Hero 1"Morrisey, Senior Designer
"My first Hero Con was awesome. I felt like I finally found my Super Group. I met people who actually cared about what I wrote. People who wanted to know more about the stories I was working on. It was great to take of my mask and just be a nerd with all these guys (and a few girls)."
Vince "The Dark Watcher" D'Amelio, Principal Programmer
"Going to the first M&G and not having an official Paragon name tag. They wrote one up for me, but it looked like all the attendee's name tags so no one believed that I was actually a dev."
"Attending the press launch party for City of Villains on Alcatraz. We took over the dining hall of the prison and turned it into a secret base for Arachnos. We even had a costumed version of Ghost Widow escort the press into the prison and welcome them."
John "Protean" Hegner, Lead Missions Designer
"Well, at the 2009 HeroCon I got to play Flux during the Live Mission Event. This illustrious role landed me right next to the pool on a beautiful Autumn day in California with a cold beverage in hand and Joe "Hero1" Morrissey to keep me company while I awaited the troupes of players to find me. As the refreshments were consumed the players and I started to have way too much fun performing the in-game emote "Come get some" to win gold stars. Ladies, you know who you are. Team leaders who selected the ladies to perform "Come get some", well played."
"Also at the 2009 HeroCon, on Sunday morning, I got to participate in the Praetoria Story Panel: Utopia, at a Cost. I think Bruce "Horatio" Harlick did a wonderful job as an unbiased interviewer while, Matt "Positron" Miller, Joe "Hero1" Morrissey, and myself (as well as an unsuspecting Nate "Second Measure" Birkholz), managed to stay in Loyalist character for almost the entire panel, praising the works of the illustrious Marcus Cole, questioning Bruce's dedication to the Empire, and defaming the pitiful mewling insects that called themselves "The Resistance" as if they were some Boogieman that could ever pose a threat to the mighty PPD. The audience caught on quite quickly and by the time Q&A came around the players were hailing Marcus Cole as their Emperor and Savior and doing their best to display their loyalty to the Praetorian meritocracy. It was this panel that convinced me that we had to take Praetoria and its Loyalist vs. Resistance story to 11."
What did you do on the City of Heroes launch day?
Nate "Second Measure"Birkholz, Lead Producer
"Unfortunately, I didn't play at launch. My first day in the game was a few months after launch, and I spent it street sweeping in Brickstown with the Super Group made up of my old Tribes clan. To this day, I still spend time in Brickstown faceplanting prisoners and Freakshow whenever I want to grind out some XP in my 30s."
Jesse "Ghost Falcon"Caceres, Business Manager
" Working on the publishing and development side of City of Heroes has prevented me from participating on "launch" days, because I was primarily focused on back-end operations or development live support. While I was not part of City of Heroes in April 2004, I was present for City of Heroes launches in Europe and Korea. I was lucky enough to be among the first group of players logging in, and while I sometimes created characters on shards that I couldn't speak the language of, it was fun to ride the waves of a CoH launch."
"With the launch of Going Rogue, I created a character, raced through the Tutorial, and parked
my character in front of Praetor Duncan in Nova Praetoria with the emote "sign" of "1", and left the character there for hours."
Tim "Black Scorpion" Sweeney, Systems Designer
"On launch day for COH I remember purchasing a digital copy off of the NCSoft store because my housemates who had wisely been following the game pre-launch and had pre-ordered were showing it off ... and I just had to experience it for myself. I think I hit level 14 with my Mind Control/Empathy Controller within about a day. I very distinctly remember gleefully teleporting around Perez Park, amazed that I was finally playing a game where I could teleport around like a madman."
Joe "Hero 1"Morrisey, Senior Designer
"I was working at Blizzard North at the time and we got a copy at work that I quickly 'borrowed'. I played it at home and at work for a number of hours. It was fun and my first real MMO experience. Regretfully, real life caught up with me."
For this second part of the City of Heroes 7th Anniversary Retrospective, we'll be telling you what our developers told us about their favorite COH video, their most memorable moments at Meet & Greets and Conventions, as well as what they did on the day City of Heroes launched all those years ago!
Read on for a little walk down memory lane by the makers of your favorite super powered MMO!
What was your favorite COH video?
Matt "Positron" Miller, Lead Systems Designer
"It's a tie: The Soldiers of Arachnos video (Issue 12) and the Rikti invasion newscast (Issue 10). I wrote both of these and the final results were exactly as I had envisioned them."
Melissa "War Witch" Bianco, Lead Designer
"The "Official Trailer." I remember sitting around the lounge back at Jury Court in San Jose with the rest of the CoH team (not a big team at the time, mind you) and watching OUR game as a CG video up on the screen with professional titles, music, and SFX and everything and thinking to myself, 'This is real. This...this is amazing. This is so awesome!!!' I had goosebumps! You can't recreate a moment like that. It was my first job in the industry, my first MMO as a dev, and it was the first promo video for the game. I'll never forget it."
Nate "Second Measure"Birkholz, Lead Producer
"The winner from our first Fan Video Competition. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF5lg41L11I"
Jesse "Ghost Falcon"Caceres
"My favorite COH Video is still the "City of Heroes Opening Cinematic Trailer". It was a call to arms for players to create their hero character in the wake of an alien invasion. When I saw it, I was hooked. I was thrilled when I got a job with NCsoft in October 2004."
Joe "Hero 1" Morrisey, Senior Designer
"Is it wrong to say the Captain Dynamic videos? I just loved the personality that those had. So much humor."
Vince "The Dark Watcher" D'Amelio, Principal Programmer
" I liked the original launch video from City of Villains. It had a good fight scene and of course Synapse being tossed around (because it became something the players laughed about...). And then the marketing vid for Invasion. It was different, using the new reel point of view, and I enjoyed the fact that I had a lot to do with that issue, particularly in the invasions themselves, so it was cool to see it get front billing in a launch video."
John "Protean" Hegner, Lead Missions Designer
"The Going Rogue launch trailer. This video hit the nail on the head for me about what Praetoria was all about. There is a scene very early on where you see Emperor Cole surrounded by cheering loyalist citizens and several of the Praetors, and he's giving a speech, and then the camera zips down underground and you see the tunnels choked full of Resistance fighters cheering and Calvin Scott is giving a speech. It set the stage for the entire rest of the video."
What are some of the most memorable moments you had at Fan Events/Conventions?
Nate "Second Measure"Birkholz, Lead Producer
"At PAX Prime last year, Matt Miller, Melissa Bianco, Eric Johnsen, and I all had a whole lot of fun with our panel. We got to laugh a lot and we had great questions from the crowd. I don't think any individual moment from the panel stands out, the entire time was a lot of fun. At Hero Con 2009 I was brand new at the studio, and doing the live event was extremely memorable, as well. "
Jesse "Ghost Falcon"Caceres, Business Manager
"The best PR-related event I ever attended was the City of Villains Launch party on Alcatraz in San Francisco. NCsoft invited press people from all over the world. Many of us spent weeks and days leading up to the event creating characters, setting up a local shard (Alcatraz does not have Internet access), and getting a stable build together. "
"At the end of the day, the island was closed for the exclusive use for City of Villains. One of the rooms was transformed into a demo area with a stage, and other cells/rooms were transformed into private PR meeting rooms. We had a woman dress up as Ghost Widow, and we had special lighting and fog machines set up to create an eerie atmosphere."
Tim "Black Scorpion" Sweeney, Systems Designer
"At HeroCon 2009 I stood around for several hours holding a hula hoop on behalf of the OCR team... that was probably the strangest moment I experienced that year."
Joe "Hero 1"Morrisey, Senior Designer
"My first Hero Con was awesome. I felt like I finally found my Super Group. I met people who actually cared about what I wrote. People who wanted to know more about the stories I was working on. It was great to take of my mask and just be a nerd with all these guys (and a few girls)."
Vince "The Dark Watcher" D'Amelio, Principal Programmer
"Going to the first M&G and not having an official Paragon name tag. They wrote one up for me, but it looked like all the attendee's name tags so no one believed that I was actually a dev."
"Attending the press launch party for City of Villains on Alcatraz. We took over the dining hall of the prison and turned it into a secret base for Arachnos. We even had a costumed version of Ghost Widow escort the press into the prison and welcome them."
John "Protean" Hegner, Lead Missions Designer
"Well, at the 2009 HeroCon I got to play Flux during the Live Mission Event. This illustrious role landed me right next to the pool on a beautiful Autumn day in California with a cold beverage in hand and Joe "Hero1" Morrissey to keep me company while I awaited the troupes of players to find me. As the refreshments were consumed the players and I started to have way too much fun performing the in-game emote "Come get some" to win gold stars. Ladies, you know who you are. Team leaders who selected the ladies to perform "Come get some", well played."
"Also at the 2009 HeroCon, on Sunday morning, I got to participate in the Praetoria Story Panel: Utopia, at a Cost. I think Bruce "Horatio" Harlick did a wonderful job as an unbiased interviewer while, Matt "Positron" Miller, Joe "Hero1" Morrissey, and myself (as well as an unsuspecting Nate "Second Measure" Birkholz), managed to stay in Loyalist character for almost the entire panel, praising the works of the illustrious Marcus Cole, questioning Bruce's dedication to the Empire, and defaming the pitiful mewling insects that called themselves "The Resistance" as if they were some Boogieman that could ever pose a threat to the mighty PPD. The audience caught on quite quickly and by the time Q&A came around the players were hailing Marcus Cole as their Emperor and Savior and doing their best to display their loyalty to the Praetorian meritocracy. It was this panel that convinced me that we had to take Praetoria and its Loyalist vs. Resistance story to 11."
What did you do on the City of Heroes launch day?
Nate "Second Measure"Birkholz, Lead Producer
"Unfortunately, I didn't play at launch. My first day in the game was a few months after launch, and I spent it street sweeping in Brickstown with the Super Group made up of my old Tribes clan. To this day, I still spend time in Brickstown faceplanting prisoners and Freakshow whenever I want to grind out some XP in my 30s."
Jesse "Ghost Falcon"Caceres, Business Manager
" Working on the publishing and development side of City of Heroes has prevented me from participating on "launch" days, because I was primarily focused on back-end operations or development live support. While I was not part of City of Heroes in April 2004, I was present for City of Heroes launches in Europe and Korea. I was lucky enough to be among the first group of players logging in, and while I sometimes created characters on shards that I couldn't speak the language of, it was fun to ride the waves of a CoH launch."
"With the launch of Going Rogue, I created a character, raced through the Tutorial, and parked
my character in front of Praetor Duncan in Nova Praetoria with the emote "sign" of "1", and left the character there for hours."
Tim "Black Scorpion" Sweeney, Systems Designer
"On launch day for COH I remember purchasing a digital copy off of the NCSoft store because my housemates who had wisely been following the game pre-launch and had pre-ordered were showing it off ... and I just had to experience it for myself. I think I hit level 14 with my Mind Control/Empathy Controller within about a day. I very distinctly remember gleefully teleporting around Perez Park, amazed that I was finally playing a game where I could teleport around like a madman."
Joe "Hero 1"Morrisey, Senior Designer
"I was working at Blizzard North at the time and we got a copy at work that I quickly 'borrowed'. I played it at home and at work for a number of hours. It was fun and my first real MMO experience. Regretfully, real life caught up with me."
Join in the Community discussion now!
Support Centre for our English European players
Support Centre for our North American players
Plateforme d'assistance pour les francophones
Support-Center f�r deutschsprachige Spieler