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Today's just thought of game video: City of Heroes inventions
by Zack Stern 
{ May 18th 2007 at 12:00AM }
Today's video pick shows the new inventions system in City of Heroes. This overview explains how players can create superpowers that are new to the game, as part of the recent update. Are you still playing City of Heroes or City of Villains? What do you think of the new system?See the video after the break.
New City of Heroes & Villains update lets you invent 'stuff'
by James Ransom-Wiley { Jan 24th 2007 at 10:47PM }
For it's ninth "Breakthrough" City of Heroes update (also compatible with City of Villains), NCsoft has introduced the 'Invention System,' whereby tinkering types can create new items out of in-game resources. Enhancements, costume pieces, new powers, and gadgets are possible to produce. And if anyone else is still lurking around the server, you can take your new wares to the 'Auction Houses' and try to get paid.We applaud NCsoft for its continued support of City of Heroes, but it's hard to get excited about CoH (even when the new content is free) when facing the simple truth that many players have been moved on to World of Warcraft. With Burning Crusade captivating the world, will anybody show Paragon some love? Anybody?
NCsoft expanding to consoles, handhelds
by Alan Rose { Sep 22nd 2006 at 2:30PM }
GamesIndustry.biz spoke with NCsoft's European product director Thomas Bidaux about the Korean publisher's expansion plans on next-gen hardware and portable devices. According to Bidaux, the MMO maker best known for City of Heroes and Guild Wars is looking to create a gaming experience that will transcend the boundaries of a single platform. "The holy grail of gaming is a game that plays across as many platforms as possible," he said. Traditionally, those types of games have been the big-budget franchises and movie tie-ins, such as Madden, Harry Potter, and King Kong -- which have often resulted in inconsistent gaming experiences of varying quality (depending on the platform). But Bidaux says NCsoft is also looking for persistent immersion: "It's about making a great game that you can play on a PC or console, and then incorporate your mobile phone to expand the whole universe."
What licenses and properties would you like to see adapted to this type of cross-genre, "play anywhere" style of gaming? The model NCsoft appears to be shooting for is one that emphasizes the strengths of each platform. For instance, using a mobile phone or handheld system for character customization and puzzle solving on the go, the PC for strategizing and role-playing, and a console for more action-oriented elements.
See also: No future for desktop and laptop PCs?
Cryptic may bring heroic MMO's to consoles
by Nick Doerr { Jul 27th 2006 at 2:00PM }
Recently IGN released some news regarding City of Heroes and City of Villains creator, Cryptic. They have announced they are looking for programmers and artists for new PC titles and consoles. The MMO-related jobs open include Lead Designer, Lead Programmer, and Associate Producer. The rest are listed at Cryptic Studios website, for anyone interested.The only confirmation Cryptic has let out is they have multiple projects in the works. City of... Mutants? The Lead Designer position calls for interest in mythology and history, both ancient and current. Don't worry -- they say there's no Rome or Greece involved. Hopefully they also don't intend on World War 2. All three of those are very, very overdone. What kind of City of... would you like to see come to consoles? Cleverness is quite appreciated. City of Zombies would be neat, even though most zombie games (excepting a few, like Resident Evil) are sort of lacking in gameplay.
NCsoft Austin shows 70 workers the door [update 1]
by Joystiq Staff { Jun 24th 2006 at 6:35PM }
Perhaps fueled by the disappointing performance of Auto Assault and other MMOs under NCsoft's control, the company has confirmed that they have indeed made a round of cuts to their Austin office -- 70 employees have been pink slipped. According to a statement on the company's Lineage II boards:"NCsoft's Austin business has announced an immediate restructuring within its organization that included the difficult task of reducing members of its workforce. ... the company sees a slowdown in its launch pattern and the need to streamline its business. For this reason, NCsoft has reduced its 300 person workforce in Austin by approximately 70 people to accommodate this change. This decision has no impact on the schedules of any projects currently in development and service to NCsoft's current games will continue without interruption."
While some have blamed the subscription numbers of AA and City of Heroes/Villains, an NCsoft rep assured GameSpot that those rumors were false. A rep said the figures shown were incorrect, and "not just barely wrong, but all wrong." NCsoft's Guild Wars may be enjoying some real success, but it seems the others may be holding the company back. Who knows how this will affect their upcoming venture Tabula Rasa, but considering this recent news, it can't be all positive.
[via MMORPG.com]
[Update 1: The Austin chapter of the International Game Developer's Association (IGDA) is looking to help any recently laid-off game designers. They write, "There are plenty of employers around town who would like to snatch you up as soon as possible because of your previous work experience. We'll be displaying the resumes on our website along with an announcement of this opportunity for other employers around town."
Interested? Stop by their website and see what they need from you.]
"RPG" missing from today's MMORPGs
by Alan Rose { Jun 12th 2006 at 5:00PM }
Are you getting enough role-playing elements out of your MMO? Cari Davidson over at MMORPG.com thinks we could use a lot more, and feels that a true MMORPG with an engaging storyline has yet to be created. She refers to the current crop of online time sinks as "glorified chat rooms" that are big on player interaction, but void of entertaining narrative or character development. The type of experience Davidson longs for may not be possible in today's MMOs, and she acknowledges this, sort of. Initially, she claims "it's really not that hard" to create player interactions that blend well with role-playing, character development, and storytelling. But then she recants, "telling a story in a world populated by thousands of players is a big challenge."
I would subscribe to the latter train of thought, and I suspect Dungeons & Dragons Online developer Turbine would as well. DDO favors the "meet and greet" party formation, and the system creates an instance of each dungeon for you and your co-players. This type of controlled gameplay experience allows for the possibility of more immersive storytelling, but its execution has met with little success. As a result, Turbine has added solo play to DDO, and PvP is on the way. Which means more lifeless, formulaic quests for those gamers who prefer a little more depth to their adventures.
A happy medium has been around for the past four years in the form of Neverwinter Nights. It supports dozens of party members and, while not quite massive, is considerably larger than a typical Baldur's Gate or Diablo II session. Skilled modders have succeeded in prolonging NWN so successfully that BioWare has even hired some of them on -- maybe to work on the Canadian developer's new MMORPG.
What are your thoughts on the current state of MMORPGs?
MMO players convene after E3
by Jennie Lees { May 16th 2006 at 12:59PM }
Those of us heavily invested in massively multiplayer games are part of a community, just as FPS clans have a brotherhood borne out of hours of playing together. Events like BlizzCon provide an opportunity for MMO guilds and players to meet up -- for the unknown to meet the infamous.E3 may have been over, but that didn't stop NCsoft arranging a player get-together last Saturday. Over 400 players signed up, some travelling from as far as Arizona for this one evening. While NCsoft had rented out a LAN centre for the event, players spent just as much time talking as they did playing, with a sizeable contingent of developers and community managers on hand to help the event along. NCsoft celebrities including Richard Garriott and Matt "Positron" Miller attended the event, showing a pleasing commitment to the player base.
Create a superhero - offline
by Jennie Lees { Jan 18th 2006 at 9:00AM }
Accompanying NCsoft's launch of City of Heroes in Asia,
the game's character creator is now free to download for Korean players. One of the most fun toys in the game, the
character creator in City of Heroes differs from most other MMOs in the fact that you can create pretty much
any superhero costume you can think of, rather than sticking to one or two hairstyles and faces.With games like The Sims 2 offering up their character creation module as a teaser before the game's release, we're surprised City of Heroes didn't pursue a similar tactic. The downloadable creator is in Korean, but 1up points to a site with instructions on how to run it in English.
Hacky Holidays, says City of Heroes intruder
by Jennie Lees { Dec 22nd 2005 at 11:00AM }
Fortunately, the issue was fixed
quickly, and neither the intruder nor anyone else will be able to repeat the feat. Also, official sources have announced
that account data was not compromised. What's interesting is that since the City of Heroes/City of Villains
holiday event is centred around a trickster character called the Gamester, several players immediately thought that the
intrusion was related to the Gamester and made up part of the festivities. The intruder's plugging of his own website
managed to shatter the illusion, but without that, players could still have been wondering about it today.
