The Death of a Statesman
by Matt "Positron" Miller
Killing Statesman off in the world of City of Heroes was never something we took lightly. Veterans of the game know that the character was the namesake of Jack Emmert, who was the lead designer who originally launched City of Heroes in 2004. Jack posted as Statesman in the forums, came up with his backstory, and was instrumental in the character becoming the original poster-boy for the game's marketing. Killing off the character meant a lot of things to a lot of people, but for me it was the ultimate declaration that City of Heroes has grown up and left the nest from which it was born.
Many players thought we would "do the deed" when Paragon Studios was formed and Cryptic ended its relationship with the title to work on other endeavors. It seemed simple, to kill off the character and remove them from the game, but it was anything but. Statesman, as I previously said, was the poster-boy, the guy-on-the-box, and mentioned all over the place in the game lore. He was an enemy in villain missions, an ally in hero ones, an objective in others, and even handed out his own chunk of content in the Statesman Task Force. When Paragon was first founded, we discussed the idea of a story of killing off Statesman, but ultimately decided that the timing wasn't right.
Then along came Freedom.
Early on in Freedom's development we had a meeting where everyone got free reign to pitch their ideas for what could be in the massive update. At the very end of the meeting someone said "can we kill off Statesman?" At first I was shocked that this was even being brought up again; I had considered it case-closed. Too much work, not enough time, especially with all the other things that were going into Issue 21 and the Freedom launch at that point. Still, wasn't the point of the Incarnate system to let the players out-power even the powerhouses of the City of Heroes universe?
It wasn't a terrible idea. We had pondered on this puzzle for days when I came up with the idea of a monthly story arc, like a comic book, that could extend out our time of actually killing off the character. Then I had the idea of making it a countdown of sorts, hinting that someone from the "Surviving Eight" would perish before the end of the arc.
This was exactly what we needed in order to pull off the feat of killing an iconic figure like Statesman. It gave us the time to launch Freedom as it was originally designed, without throwing a big monkey-wrench into the game world right off the bat. In addition, it allowed us to tell a better story, with a mysterious, yet familiar, villain finally pulling off the "impossible". We were able to establish how Darren Wade was able to pull off the feat over the course of several mini-story arcs spanning the first few months of the main arc. We were able to craft both a hero and villain angle to the first few stories, so that everyone got to play the arc for their own motives.
Now we have said in the past that the character killed will be removed from the game, and this is mostly true. With the launch of issue 23 later this year, the character will no longer be in the game world handing out his Task Force (that duty will fall to someone else), and will have references to them removed as well. We didn't do this for Issue 22 because the story arc will still be in the midst of being released when that is launched, and we want the game to reflect the state at the end of the story, not the point five-sevenths of the way in.
One place you might be surprised to still see Statesman's visage will be the marketing material and load-screens for the game. There is a conscious effort for us to not radically change our branding for people not intimately familiar with the inner machinations of the game. Our login screen will still carry his image, but it will be done as sort of a memorial to the man who shaped a City of Heroes. We kept these images of Statesman around not for the die-hard forum goers but for the new players who City of Heroes Freedom continues to attract. We have used Statesman in the marketing of the game for many years and it would be a misstep to completely remove that image from City of Heroes, and I think you'll agree.
I'd love to see your thoughts on this twist in the storyline. If you'd like, you can use the hashtag #Statesman on Twitter to express yourself. Tell us what you think, and where you think the story can or should go in the future.
The Death of a Statesman
by Matt "Positron" Miller
Killing Statesman off in the world of City of Heroes was never something we took lightly. Veterans of the game know that the character was the namesake of Jack Emmert, who was the lead designer who originally launched City of Heroes in 2004. Jack posted as Statesman in the forums, came up with his backstory, and was instrumental in the character becoming the original poster-boy for the game's marketing. Killing off the character meant a lot of things to a lot of people, but for me it was the ultimate declaration that City of Heroes has grown up and left the nest from which it was born.
Many players thought we would "do the deed" when Paragon Studios was formed and Cryptic ended its relationship with the title to work on other endeavors. It seemed simple, to kill off the character and remove them from the game, but it was anything but. Statesman, as I previously said, was the poster-boy, the guy-on-the-box, and mentioned all over the place in the game lore. He was an enemy in villain missions, an ally in hero ones, an objective in others, and even handed out his own chunk of content in the Statesman Task Force. When Paragon was first founded, we discussed the idea of a story of killing off Statesman, but ultimately decided that the timing wasn't right.
Then along came Freedom.
Early on in Freedom's development we had a meeting where everyone got free reign to pitch their ideas for what could be in the massive update. At the very end of the meeting someone said "can we kill off Statesman?" At first I was shocked that this was even being brought up again; I had considered it case-closed. Too much work, not enough time, especially with all the other things that were going into Issue 21 and the Freedom launch at that point. Still, wasn't the point of the Incarnate system to let the players out-power even the powerhouses of the City of Heroes universe?
It wasn't a terrible idea. We had pondered on this puzzle for days when I came up with the idea of a monthly story arc, like a comic book, that could extend out our time of actually killing off the character. Then I had the idea of making it a countdown of sorts, hinting that someone from the "Surviving Eight" would perish before the end of the arc.
This was exactly what we needed in order to pull off the feat of killing an iconic figure like Statesman. It gave us the time to launch Freedom as it was originally designed, without throwing a big monkey-wrench into the game world right off the bat. In addition, it allowed us to tell a better story, with a mysterious, yet familiar, villain finally pulling off the "impossible". We were able to establish how Darren Wade was able to pull off the feat over the course of several mini-story arcs spanning the first few months of the main arc. We were able to craft both a hero and villain angle to the first few stories, so that everyone got to play the arc for their own motives.
Now we have said in the past that the character killed will be removed from the game, and this is mostly true. With the launch of issue 23 later this year, the character will no longer be in the game world handing out his Task Force (that duty will fall to someone else), and will have references to them removed as well. We didn't do this for Issue 22 because the story arc will still be in the midst of being released when that is launched, and we want the game to reflect the state at the end of the story, not the point five-sevenths of the way in.
One place you might be surprised to still see Statesman's visage will be the marketing material and load-screens for the game. There is a conscious effort for us to not radically change our branding for people not intimately familiar with the inner machinations of the game. Our login screen will still carry his image, but it will be done as sort of a memorial to the man who shaped a City of Heroes. We kept these images of Statesman around not for the die-hard forum goers but for the new players who City of Heroes Freedom continues to attract. We have used Statesman in the marketing of the game for many years and it would be a misstep to completely remove that image from City of Heroes, and I think you'll agree.
I'd love to see your thoughts on this twist in the storyline. If you'd like, you can use the hashtag #Statesman on Twitter to express yourself. Tell us what you think, and where you think the story can or should go in the future.
You can also join the community discussion hhere.