SEATTLE, Washington - May 12, 2009 - NCsoft®, the world's premier publisher and developer of massively multiplayer online games (MMOs), and Paragon Studios™, the developer of City of Heroes®, today announced the development of City of Heroes Going Rogue™, the first major expansion for the City of Heroes franchise since the launch of City of Villains® in 2005. As the name implies, Going Rogue will blur the line between heroes and villains in the first and longest-running super-powered comic book MMO game.
In the Going Rogue expansion, hero and villain characters will become immersed in the new parallel universe known as Praetoria, which is governed by Tyrant™, the evil incarnation of the game's main protagonist, Statesman™. As gamers search for Tyrant and the rest of his Praetorian guard, implacable foes and fierce resistance will arise to face them from all sides, causing heroes and villains alike to question their loyalties.
City of Heroes Going Rogue will introduce a new alignment system that helps players explore the shades of gray that lie between good and evil. For the first time, hero characters can become villains and vice versa, enabling hero archetypes to cross over to the Rogue Isles™ and villain archetypes to experience Paragon City™. Clearly marked missions, in addition to behaviors and decisions made by the player, will move a hero's or villain's moral compass, which could eventually change the hero's or villain's alignment. Going Rogue will also introduce two primary new fictional characters representative of this alignment shift in the game's lore: Maelstrom, a pistol-wielding hero gone rogue, and Desdemona, a demon-summoning villain who has been redeemed.
"City of Heroes has brought a fresh new perspective to the MMO stage with its foray into the super-powered hero comic book genre, and we are excited to present gamers with even more innovative content in Going Rogue," said Brian Clayton, general manager and executive producer at Paragon Studios. "For years, players co...
Read more about City of Heroes Goes Rogue with New Expansion Pack
According to this report on the F13.net forums, City of Heroes players have been receiving in-game messages from Cryptic Studio's inviting them to beta test Cryptic's Champions Online Game.
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Let's not pretend for one second that the MMO industry is a friendly place, full of friendship, flowers and bunnies. When a multi-million dollar product and dozens of jobs are on the line, competition will be fierce and taking market share (read: players) from your competition is going to be a basic business practice.
However, there are lines you don't cross because 1) even competition should follow some rules of professional conduct, and 2) it opens the door for everyone to do the same thing to you. Representatives of Cryptic Studios crossed this professional line in the sand recently by going into City of Heroes / Villains (CoH/V) - their old product, which they sold to NCsoft - and, using PMs sent through the forums and allegedly through in-game message systems, attempted to lure players into the Champions Online (ChampO) beta test - their new product.{...}
There is an official comment on this from NC Soft over at the official City of Heros forums :
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Those of us here at the City of Heroes® franchise wanted to take a moment to comment on solicitations our players may receive from outside sources -- either in-game or through our message board system. We would like to acknowledge that we know these kinds of communications occur. It is unfortunate that people do this...but we also recognize and accept the fact that ultimately, we do not have control over the messages our customers with valid accounts send one another. Although we cannot stop someone from initially communicating with you - whether it be RMT (real money transaction) related, another game company trying to lure you to their competing product, or general spamming...we are in a position to investigate the situation (and potentially take action) once a so...
Read more about Cryptic Studios is playing dirty ....
Good afternoon all you wonder gals and pals. And now for the news from Paragon City. Issue 6 with the much debated Enhancement Diversification has made it to the Training Room. Strangely enough Enhancement Diversification wasnt mentioned in the official announcement post. Enhancement Diversification for those of you not in the know is the new system for slotting enhancements. No longer will you be able to slot powers with 6 of the same enhancement types without severe reduction in effectiveness. The very reason for I6 is to add Enhancement Diversification to CoH and somehow they just forgot to mention it? When a board poster asked about it COH Online Community Representative CuppJo said "ED is in there". The last time I checked the original post about ED there were 396 pages of protests on the boards... Now the thread has been locked due to "forum issues" Let's just say ED is going over like a lead balloon. Now I'm not saying that ED is the end of Super Heroes in CoH but I do think it makes them less Super and more like average citizens imho. Ok so here's the post about I6 making it to the Training Room
Quote: Issue 6 Features
Hey Heroes,
We are working on getting the features update on the website as soon as we can – so I wanted to give you a heads up on Issue 6: Along Came a Spider.
If you only have CoH -
New Zones As they become available to the players of City of Villains, the following PvP Zones will also open up for player of City of Heroes:
• Bloody Bay This is a PvP Zone for Villains and Heroes with a minimum level to entry set at 15.
• Siren’s Call This is a PvP Zone for Villains and Heroes with a...
Good afternoon Wonder Gals and Pals. And now the latest news from Paragon City. Issue 5:Forest of Dread is LIVE! I gotta go make my archer. Muwhahaha!
Quote: FEATURES:
New Zone – Croatoa. Designed to challenge characters level 25 to 35 in a mysterious region infamous for its links to powerful magical forces and deadly creatures.
New Villains – The Cabal of witches, the nasty imps called Red Caps, the giant Fir Bolg and the legendary Tuatha de Dannan rule this realm.
New Task Force – Perform missions for contacts in Croatoa to unlock the exclusive task force.
New Power Sets:
Archery for Defenders and Blasters Trick Arrows for Defenders and Controllers Sonic Blast for Blasters and Defenders Sonic Debuff for Defenders and Controllers
New Badges for epic character accomplishments and special badges for events within Croatoa.
New Zone Events:
Hellion Arson – The Hellions are torching buildings and it’s up to the heroes to snuff them out!
Troll Rave – There’s an upgraded Superadine source and the trolls are overdosing to create “Super-Trolls” that are out of control!
New Debt System – Half XP Debt when characters are defeated in missions and no XP Debt until Level 10!
Mission Customization – Many existing missions have been updated with hostage escort missions, villain wave attacks and more!
It was announced yesterday on the City of Hero's forums that the City of Villains Closed Beta test has officially started.
As stated in earlier news releases from the development team, players who have had a subscription to City of Heroes for at least 1 year, and have meet other requirements, have earned a beta test slot for City of Villains. They are, however, looking forward to expanding to a more open beta phase as soon as possible.
Below is the official statement released by the City of Villains Online Community Rep.
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City of Villains Closed Beta Is Starting!
Hello everyone!
I am very pleased to announce to you (as promised) that the start of the City of Villains Closed Beta Test is finally upon us!
As we have mentioned in the past, first priority into the Closed Beta will be offered to long-time, currently active City of Heroes subscribers as part of a program designed to reward their continued support. Please note that due to the sheer number of people who have been with us for 12 months or longer, not everyone who qualifies under this program will receive an invitation today. Because of hardware constraints, stability issues, etc., beta tests typically start small and then ramp up gradually to include more and more people. This test is no exception. So, if you are a long-time subscriber and you don’t receive an invitation right away, please do not bombard us with PMs and email asking why you didn’t get one! Everyone who qualifies under this program will be invited into the Closed Beta eventually.
Contest winners should expect to receive invites within the next couple of weeks. We will send you an email in the coming days to verify your account information, so please be on the lookout for that.
For those of you who pre-ordered City of Villains or won a beta slot at E3, the exact date of your beta entry is still being determined. However, it will be at a later stage, after those who qualify under our long-time subscriber program have been invited.
As a reminder, once you have entered the City of Villains Closed Beta, you are legally bound by a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). Please be considerate and don’t flaunt your participation to other members of the City of Heroes community. All it will do is make the people who haven’t been invited feel bad, and will only encourage...
Free Expansion Issue #4: Colosseum is now on the live servers!
Paragon City is a battleground where heroes unselfishly man the thin, embattled line between good and evil. It’s a never-ending fight full of danger and sacrifice, one that requires all heroes to seek new ways to improve their combat abilities. With Issue 4, heroes of all levels will be able to test their tactics and skills against their peers in the new PvP Arenas. Other new features in Issue 4 include a whole host of new costume additions, body scaling options, and the ability to link Super Groups together through Coalition Chat.
For an overview of Issue 4 "Colosseum," please visit our Features Update Page !...
Read more about Issue 4: "Colosseum" Live!
Hello wonder gals and pals and now for the news from Paragon City. You can now download Update 4:Colosseum before it goes live which may or may not be a long wait. When I opened CoH today I saw the message that Update 4 : Colosseum content is now available for download. But
Quote: Colosseum's live release is not imminent- we just wanted to give you plenty of time to start downloading ahead of time.
Quote: Federal Judge Dismisses Claims and Strikes Allegations in Marvel Lawsuit Against NCsoftMakers of City of Heroes online computer game score favorable decision; judge labels Marvel allegations as “false and sham” and throws out trademark claims
LOS ANGELES, March 11, 2005—A U.S. district court judge in Los Angeles dismissed several key claims by comic book publisher Marvel Enterprises, Inc in the company’s trademark and copyright infringement case against online computer game publisher NCsoft® Corporation and game developer Cryptic Studios™. Marvel sued NCsoft and Cryptic Studios in November of last year, claiming that the City of Heroes® online computer game allows players to imitate comic book characters owned by Marvel.
In a March 9 order, U.S. District Court Judge R. Gary Klausner agreed with NCsoft that some of Marvel’s allegations and exhibits should be stricken as “false and sham” because certain allegedly infringing works depicted in Marvel’s pleadings were created not by users, but by Marvel itself.
The judge also dismissed more than half of Marvel’s claims against NCsoft and Cryptic Studios, including Marvel’s claims that the defendants directly infringed Marvel’s registered trademarks and are liable for purported infringement of Marvel’s trademarks by City of Heroes’ users. In addition, he dismissed Marvel’s claim for a judicial declaration that defendants are not an online service provider under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The judge dismissed all of these claims without leave to amend, meaning that Marvel cannot refile these claims.
Although the judge allowed certain claims to survive the motion to dismiss, NCsoft and Cryptic Studios are pleased with the result and are confident that both the law and the facts will support their case. In fact, citing a 1984 Supreme Court case holding that the sale of video cassette recorders did not violate copyright law, the Court noted that “It is uncontested that Defendants’ game has a substantial non-infringing use. Generally the sale of products with substantial non-infringing uses does not evoke liability for contributory copyright infringement.” Only “where a computer system operator is aware of specific infringing material on the computer system, and fails to remove it, the system operator contributes to infringement,” the Court stated.<...
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Let's just say ED is going over like a lead balloon. Now I'm not saying that ED is the end of Super Heroes in CoH but I do think it makes them less Super and more like average citizens imho. Ok so here's the post about I6 making it to the Training Room 
