Last year, developer Cryptic Studios and publisher NCsoft's City of Heroes helped massively multiplayer online games leap a tall building in a single bound. Previously, online role-playing games usually involved creating a fantasy character and repeatedly beating on skeletons and goblins to earn copper coins, magic swords, and the privilege of beating on larger skeletons and goblins. City of Heroes took massively multiplayer games into the realm of comic-book superheroes by letting you create your very own superpowered do-gooder, complete with superhuman abilities like flight, superspeed, and a whole host of other powerful abilities designed to let you conquer the thugs and criminals of Paragon City, the game's home area. Now, Cryptic and NCsoft are working on their next game, City of Villains, which isn't an expansion pack, but rather, is something of a stand-alone sequel to City of Heroes. You won't need the original game to play City of Villains, but you might want to consider getting both games eventually, especially if you're interested in pitting superheroes against supervillains in player-versus-player battles.