Random Dialogue: City of Heroes Reflections
Dialogue, 2004-06-08

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

NCSoft's recipe for success began with the promises they made to us. While there was some dissapointment when they retooled the origins system these many months go, for the most part the company has never presented pie in the sky ideas to the community. Every aspect of the game available at launch was discussed beforehand, and nothing they promised would be there was lacking. No missing player cities, no missing mounts, just sweet sweet content. From the way that people have been talking the only features that would have made the game substantially better at game launch would have been playable villains and capes. NCSoft has been upfront about the fact that they wouldn't be available at launch almost since the game's site opened, so there were no hurt feelings when the game got off the ground. The fact that both of these features are planned for patches and expansions in the near future doesn't hurt, either.

All this comes down to good community relations efforts from NCSoft and Cryptic. Communication with the testers and a string of events that culminated in the much commented on Alien Invasion brought players to the launch day happy. By involving us in the planning process, but not revealing half finished ideas, they avoided the problems that other games experienced where a bevy of players were dissapointed by the final product.

I am a Rock, I am an Island

Here's a Jeopardy moment for you. "This is usually buggier than a pay-by-the hour motel, slower than a 90 year old driver, and more unstable than a hydrophobe at a waterpark." What is Launch Day for a Massively Multiplayer game would be the answer we're looking for here. Not so with CoH. The signup period slammed the subscription server hard and fast, to be sure. Some folks had to wait a little bit to get registered. Once they were signed up, there were some minor slowdowns as servers hit capacity and I read reports of some map disconnects. All of this had cleared up about 3 hours after go-live, and by the time most west-coast folks hit the servers things were smooth as silk. Dark Age of Camelot and the American Final Fantasy XI launches have so far been the only recipients of the coveted "Good Launch Day" award. City of Heroes comfortably becomes the third game to launch with a flawless start.

All of this, of course, was the result of testing, testing, and more testing. And not the chintzy kind where you're still tweaking variables during your stress testing. CoH was stress tested with a bunch of people who were on for the sole purpose of putting load on the server. Good programming and instanced mission designs have ensured that the work of the testers has endured into the launched product.

Prompt Patching and Upcoming Updates

Despite a very solid launch there have still been some issues rooted out. Two patches have already gone in to take care of what sounds like relatively minor problems. On top of that, only a few short weeks after the launch of the game NCSoft announced the first content addition, Update Number 1. This update will include some requested items like instanced outdoor areas and more interaction to indoor missions. Ways to tweak your heroes appearance will also be included. The update includes new game elements, too. Two new city zones, a new game mechanic called "trial rooms" makes an appearance, and three brand-new villain groups are showing their faces for the first time. Considering the game literally just opened and there are bound to be only a very few characters who have made it to the highest levels of content, this addition is pure gravy. Though it remains to be seen whether Cryptic can live up to the sort of aggressive content addition schedule this seems to imply, I am certainly impressed.


"You hit the tiny mouse for -4 pts. of damage. The tiny mouse heals 4 pts. of damage!"

Probably the #1 reason that players have been flocking to CoH is the extremely refreshing change in genre that this game represents. No goblins, no orcs, no elves. Your starting life does not consist entirely of whacking at rats in order to gain enough levels to whack at more rats. From day one you are fighting crime and saving the lives of innocent civilians. This mechanic wouldn't work nearly as well as it does if it wasn't for one simple thing: They thank you when you save them. No xp reward or enhancement can match the simple human touch that a "Thank you" represents. Meaningful interactions with the game world and a clear mission statement gives new players the ability to slip seamlessly into the ranks of Paragon's defenders. The number of new MMOG players in City of Heroes is said to be quite high, and who can blame them?

After all, who wouldn't want to be a hero?