City of Heroes announces Guest Author Program for Mission Architect
by James Egan 
Sep 6th 2009 at 12:00PM
Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, City of Villains, News items
No doubt it's Champions Online that seems to be getting the superhero MMO headlines of late in the gaming press, both for the new title's release and for some of the issues they've had in relation to that launch. But competition is generally a good thing from a gamer's perspective, and City of Heroes is also stepping up their game, particularly in regards to the Mission Architect.
When the devs introduced the Mission Architect to City of Heroes, it was their first step towards embracing player-generated content and adding new dimensions to the game experience. They've announced that the next step with Mission Architect is to have a Guest Author Program where "comic book notables try their hand at mission design." NCsoft says the program will "invite influential writers and aspiring game or story designers" to collaborate with the City of Heroes devs and bring these missions into the game.
Guest Author Program participants will be announced on a rolling basis, but first up is Rooster Teeth, best known as the people behind Red vs. Blue and Captain Dynamic, and Scott Kurtz from PvPonline. Rooster Teeth will bring Captain Dynamic into actual City of Heroes missions while Kurtz creates missions around the LOLBAT.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Blinky said on 2:08PM 9-06-2009
In your face CO!
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Ultron said on 2:40PM 9-06-2009
So, Paragon Studio's officially run out of ideas and needs to bring in people to develop for them?
Also, does anyone else find that "Lolbat" comic decidedly unfunny?
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Fisty said on 3:41PM 9-06-2009
Wow! cynical much?
When a comicbook features a guest writer, does it mean it runs out of ideas? no!
It's interesting, and marketable, to have authors of renown try their hands at a universe like COH.
Ultron said on 4:04PM 9-06-2009
Comics usually feature "guest writers" because the main writer is too busy or has been kicked off. Both times, it's because the main writer CANNOT fulfill his duties as a writer.
Sam said on 4:24PM 9-06-2009
I'm all for this. Some friends of mine and I have a wish list of writers we'd love to see jump on this! :)
I personally wonder how many writers/novelists are already playing COH, though. That's the thing with online gaming - you could be running with someone famous and not even know it. And, yeah, guest writers are great. All their real writers are busy on Going Rogue, it seems. I'll be glad when GR comes out and the creative team is freed up again!
Wjowski said on 4:59PM 9-06-2009
Kurtz hasn't been funny for years. How do you think he got his comic published in the newspaper?
Pingles said on 3:45PM 9-06-2009
Having guest writers design quests is a fantastic idea.
Perhaps later they will write quests in the style of past writers: Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Dickens...
Be funny if each started with an NPC with a similar name to the targeted writer.
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curiousorange said on 9:13PM 9-06-2009
We'll finally get something besides "go beat up 8 bad guys in the park" ?
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Zen said on 5:44PM 9-08-2009
Thank goodness CO improved on that -- oh.