On July 22nd we updated City of Heroes / City of Villains to a new game version. This change includes a number of refinements and corrections. For all the details, please visit the Patch Notes web page.
It's All Access for City of Heroes and City of Villains
NCsoft readies the number 1 super-powered MMO for more.
There is a reason for the rejoicing in Paragon City and the Rogue Isles. It is official - NCsoft has completely merged the two games into one game universe. All current subscribers who only had one of the games (City of Heroes or City of Villains) now have access to the features of both games. Additionally, all City of Heroes and City of Villains games for sale at retail or online will grant access to both games.
This is the final step needed in preparing the IP for future projects, to be announced later this year. Paragon City and the Rogue Isles have always been a part of the same game universe. When City of Villains launched in 2005 as a stand-alone game, it did not launch with an extra subscription fee, so there has always been this feeling that they are closely related. What's different here is that NCsoft has taken down the barrier where players had to have a City of Villains serial code to make a villain, and vice versa. Now, it doesn't matter if you bought Heroes or Villains, you can make characters from either faction and experience their unique game content. Additionally, Heroes now have access to base building, which was previously only available if you had purchased City of Villains.
"In setting the stage for our upcoming plans for the IP, we felt the time was right to truly consolidate the City of Heroes and City of Villains universe," said Brian Clayton, General Manager and Executive Producer. "We have removed all restrictions that were created when City of Villains launched in order to make way for some really cool content and features we have in the pipeline. This is an evolution of the IP that lays the foundation for what's to come."
The most recent game update, Issue 12: Midnight Hour, launched in May and included a wealth of features, including a new Greek and Roman inspired zone, Villain Epic Archetypes, Powerset Proliferation, as well as more character slots so that players can try out the new character powers and Archetypes.
"We know that character variety is one of our greatest strengths and that's why our players love to create new characters" said Matt Miller, Lead Designer. "Even former players who reactivate will be pleasantly surprised to see new open character slots waiting for them."
Uniting the City of Heroes universe enables the development team to focus on other features slated to come in future installments. Improvements to Supergroup Bases and raids, an offline character reward system, and the previously revealed Mission Maker are just some of the systems that will see the benefits of a unified City of Heroes game.
That’s right folks, starting on Friday July 18th, 2008 City of Heroes and City of Villains will be giving away double the experience, prestige, influence, & infamy through Sunday July 20th. Check out our Official July Calendar for the listing and other important dates.
On the morning of Wednesday, July 9th we pushed out a new patch to City of Heroes and City of Villains. The patch includes some powers revisions, the new unlockable Rularuu claws along with bug fixes and corrections.
For all the details, click here to read the complete Patch Notes.
The City of Heroes Veteran Reward Program continues to roll out new rewards! Every three months an account is subscribed, it earns new rewards. We’ve recently updated the Veteran Reward Web Page to include the rewards for 51 Month and 54 Month veterans.
For more information about the Veteran Reward Program, please follow the above links or visit the Veteran Reward FAQ.
For everyone with the day off or some extra time to enjoy this long holiday weekend, we want to wish you a very happy, safe and sane 4th of July!
As a point of interest you can see on the 4 year anniversary calendar that the 4th of July is also when the original Freedom Phalanx was formed back in 1932. Only 7 days later, the Freedom Phalanx confronted and overcame Nemesis in the massive street battle known as “Brass Monday.” If you are interested, you can read more about game lore on the City of Heroes website, on the player maintained ParagonWiki or in the novels The Web of Arachnos and The Freedom Phalanx.
If you do get some time to enter the virtual world of Paragon City or the Rogue Isles this weekend, we hope you find your own great adventure there, in whatever form it takes!
We are pleased to announce the latest edition of the City of Heroes Fanzine!
The Fanzine is a collection of player submitted art, comic and stories from City of Heroes fans. If you are interested in submitting material for consideration for the next Fanzine, please visit the Fans Submission Guidelines web page.
On behalf of Toyota and GameTrailers.com we are proud to present the Matrix Machinima Contest: Get In Touch With Your Dark Side!
Make a Machinima video with City of Heroes / City of Villains and have the chance to win the grandprize of a 2009 Model year Toyota Matrix S filled with good stuff! Act now! Submissions can only be uploaded to GameTrailers.com from July 1st through August 10th. Winners will be announced on Spike's GTTV on September 12th.
Click here for the contest details and rules!
So get your minions, sidekicks and henchmen ready, load up on hard drive space and make a Machinima masterpiece!!!
Flashback to 2005 and the relive the release of Issue 3: A Council of War with the July 2008 Anniversary Calendar Desktop Wallpaper.
July 23-July 27th members of the City of Heroes team will be at Comic Con to share in the fun. Stop by the NCsoft booth # 5209 to meet up with Lighthouse, Ex Libris, Blue Steel, and others from the City of Heroes & City of Villains team.
Brace yourselves as the full fury of the Rikti Invasion Force is set to descend upon Paragon City™ and the Rogue Isles™ starting on Friday, June 13th and continuing through Thursday, June 19th.
For details or to discuss this event with fellow players, please join us on the Official City of Heroes Message Forums.
City of Heroes forum poster, FlyByKnight, rallies community support and participation via the Official City of Heroes Message Forums for his entry into the Molotov Alva Machinima Contest and wins 1st place!
You can view FlyByKnight’s machininma that is titled "This American Hero, Part 1" and features footage from City of Heroes on the Machinima.com website at: http://machinima.com/molotovalva/index. FlyByKnight takes home $2,000 for his winning entry!
Also, we invite you to join us on the City of Heroes Message Forums to discuss FlyByKnight’s victory here.
It's a new month and a good opportunity to change your desktop to the June City of Heroes 4 year anniversary Calendar!
Click here to view the 4 year anniversary calendar wallpaper page.
Choose the June calendar and save the image as your desktop and enjoy a retrospective view from City of Heroes!
MMOABC.com recently interviewed City of Heroes Executive Producer and NCsoft Norcal Studio General Manager Brian Clayton to find out what's currently going on and future plans for the MMORPG title. Here’s an excerpt:
“Also, among MMORPGs it (CoH/CoV) has an unrivaled character creation system that results in every character being different. Our players love to create interesting and unique characters as evidenced by over 32 million of them having been created in North America alone!We also think that City of Heroes / Villains has a nice combination of mass market friendly gameplay and the right amount of depth to keep the hardcore gamer challenged.”
This Thursday evening at 5pm PST / 8pm EST, City of Heroes / Villains lead designer Matt “Positron” Miller will be testing Dyyno’s streaming technology with a live demonstration straight from his computer desktop of some of the new content from Issue 12: Midnight Hour.
Matt will give viewers a brief tour of the new Villain Epic Archetypes, including creating new characters in the costume creator and demonstrating their powers in game. As part of this, he will take viewers on a tour of the new Roman and Greek inspired zone, Cimerora, and he’ll try to answer your questions along the way.
This is a test and there is the possibility that technical issues could arise but we hope that you will join us to experience this exciting new technology and City of Heroes game content.
Read the details on MMORPG.com.
Click here on Thursday to visit MMORPG.com’s Dyyno Room and watch the live video stream!
*Note: The live stream is limited to up to 500 viewers, so be sure to tune in early!
