A couple days ago, we had a post detailing some speculation on what City of Heroes: Going Rogue meant for NCsoft West, City of Heroes, and the future of the entire branch of the company. Ryan James, director of corporate communications for NCsoft, took the time to issue a direct response to us regarding that post. We also got an opportunity to ask him a few questions regarding NCsoft's current and future direction, which helps provide some context and some behind-the-scenes information to offset the speculative nature of the aforementioned post.

The official response is as follows:

"We wanted to respond to your post from November 2 on City of Heroes and clarify a few points for you and your readers. In short, the piece offers a rather sensationalist view of NCsoft West and our success thus far.

We're very proud of what we've accomplished here in the West – we have several major MMO franchises, including City of Heroes, Lineage and Guild Wars. And our newest addition to the NCsoft portfolio, Aion, has just seen a very successful launch here in the West. As you point out, we have had to make some tough portfolio decisions, but this is very much par for the course for any major game publisher today. That being said, we remain extremely proud of the Paragon team's accomplishments with the City of Heroes franchise. City of Heroes is still the world's most popular super-powered hero MMO. Even with an increasingly crowded landscape, City of Heroes remains the gold standard for comic book-inspired MMOs – it has stood the test of time and we're excited to be bringing Going Rogue to players next year.

As you note, the author of Vicarious Existence is indeed 'alarmist' in his assessment of NCsoft West and our future. We couldn't agree more. On the contrary, we're optimistic about our future."

Following the statement, Mr. James took the opportunity to answer a few questions about the company's game portfolio and future plans. Take a look at the questions and responses after the break.

At the six-year mark, City of Heroes is still moving forward, with City of Heroes: Going Rogue targeted for release in the second quarter of 2010. It's certainly not the oldest game to receive an expansion, but Vicarious Existence has an interesting point to be made: exactly how much is riding on the success of this expansion? In true heroic sense, it may well be the fate of NCsoft West and of NCsoft's entire western presence in the market.

It's no secret that NCsoft West has had a difficult time in the market, with the first rumbles having been made clear with the sad tale of Auto Assault. And it's hardly necessary to dredge up painful memories about the games that have also gone the way of the dodo. But as the post points out, there's not nearly as much revenue coming in from the western branch of the company as they'd like, even with the success Aion has been having in the marketplace. (If that sounds cynical or as if it's expecting too much money, Adam Martin has an excellent explanation of why NCsoft could and would be so draconic about profits.) To be fair, the post is a bit alarmist, but it does posit that there could be a great deal of trouble on the horizon for City of Heroes -- and perhaps the whole studio -- based on the performance of the expansion. And even if the idle speculation is wrong, it certainly does put you in the right mood for the expansion, doesn't it?

It's a whole new spectrum of experience, like a rainbow! Sorry, we felt the need to say that somewhere in this short article. But to celebrate the release of Issue 16: Power Spectrum to City of Heroes, all accounts are being reactivated and all heroes and villains will be netting themselves double experience this weekend. Plus, if you were a little short on spending money, influence/infamy is doubled this weekend as well.

So, if you were a City of Heroes/Villains subscriber in the past, this weekend is your chance to re-download the game and check out the cool new additions like Architect and Power Spectrum. Customizable power colors! Finally!

The "weekend" begins next Thursday (October 8th) at 12 PM ET (9 AM PT) and will continue until 3 AM ET on Monday (Midnight on Sunday, if you're of the Pacific Time persuasion.)

We've always operated under the assumption that City of Heroes was designed in such a way that power customization would be very difficult. So a recent forum post hinting by lead designer Matt "Positron" Miller showing that it's apparently happening makes this news all the more interesting.

Of course, all we get are a couple screenshots of purple and blue imps to tease us, but then again what else do you really need to know right now? Well okay, we suppose you could know how colorization works and if it's something that's done only during character creation or at any time while playing. It would also be nice to know the extent that powers could be customized, too.

We'll just have to wait until July to hear more about Issue 16. So until then, dream about City of Heroes in whatever color you like -- even made up ones!

Massively mentioned yesterday that City of Heroes Issue 15: Anniversary has gone into open beta testing. Along with that announcement and an overview of the Issue 15 features, Paragon Studios senior designer Bruce Harlick has written a developer diary titled "A Circle of Fifths: Designing the Ultimate Fifth Anniversary Task Force and Strike Force"

Harlick writes that when Paragon Studios was hashing through ideas for the game's strike force and task force for the City of Heroes 5th Anniversary, bringing the 5th Column back to Paragon City seemed the right thing to do. It also lets them bring The Reichsman into the game, leading to some interesting mission arcs. Harlick writes, "I didn't want the two arcs to be simple mirrors of each others, with the villains doing something and the heroes stopping it." He adds, "I wanted the villains to succeed with their plan and to deal with the consequences, and I wanted the heroes to deal with an emerging big problem."

Have a look at Bruce Harlick's developer diary on City of Heroes Issue 15: Anniversary, for more about what he describes as "a story that's worthy of the return of one of the biggest threats to ever hit Paragon City and the Rogue Islands."

This new preview of DC Universe Online over at Kotaku doesn't really have any new information in it for people who've been keeping up on the game. However, it does at least put it all in once place, which makes it a useful article to give to anyone not in the know about SOE's upcoming superhero MMO.

One specific thing the article mentions is that aside from the big superstars of the DC Universe, there's not a whole lot differentiating the game from City of Heroes. We'd like to point out that from what we've seen and experienced with the game, that isn't entirely true. Combat is quite a lot different than NCsoft's original guys-in-capes offering. If anything, a closer comparison would be to Cryptic's upcoming Champions Online, which seems to sit somewhere between City of Heroes and DC Universe Online, overall.

Then again, we really can't make that kind of call until all the games are out to play. But by this time next year, that should likely be the case.

Everyone's favorite superhero MMO, City of Heroes, turns five years old today! And while NCsoft is holding their own celebrations, at Massively we're marking the occasion by giving away three copies of the game's new Architect Edition (worth approximately $20). So for those of you who've not yet gotten in on the fun that is the character creation mini-game (or Mission Architect, the expanded character creation mini-game which allows you to build your own in-game mission arcs), here's your chance!

To enter, just reply to this post with a comment telling us what kind of mission you'd like to make in City of Heroes. Will your mession feature ninjas? Zombies? Velociraptors? [Editor's note: we're not actually sure if missions can feature velociraptors. As mankind's ultimate enemy, they'd obviously be overpowered.] You may enter once per calendar day and all entries must be submitted by 9AM Eastern on Saturday, May 2nd, 2009. So you've the rest of the week to think about it! Three lucky winners will be chosen at random to receive a copy of City of Heroes: Architect Edition. Eligibility is restricted to the legal residents of the 50 United States (including DC) and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 years of age or older. You can find complete rules and restrictions for this giveaway here. And, of course, good luck!

A four day weekend spent largely in the new City of Heroes Mission Architect suite has been something of a startling eye opener for me. Like a great many people, I was always of the opinion that when it comes to User Generated Content, there was basically nothing an MMO could do wrong; the more options the better! Liberate the means of production! We can ALL be game designers, if only we have the tools!

I certainly thought it would be well-received, but less than a week since launch there are at time of writing, a staggering 18,000 new story arcs in the game, and Sente at A Ding World has some fascinating breakdown of the figures so far. I have no idea how many missions were actually in the game prior to Issue 14 but it is a fair bet that the players have created more content in five days than NCSoft have in the last five years. And yet far from feeling liberated by the new system, I'm increasingly finding it confusing and not a bit daunting.

At GDC recently, Joe Morrissey, Senior Designer at NCsoft and Lead Designer for Mission Architect talked to an audience about the challenges of implementing a user generated content system in a 5-year old MMO. Afterwards, we had a chance to sit him down and ask a few questions of our own. But to start with, the basics, for those of you who haven't been following Mission Architect's development: it's a system that allows any City of Heroes or City of Villains player to create their own missions, complete with their own characters and stories. (If the idea of user generated content sounds strange and foreign to you, let Captain Dynamic explain the idea to you.) Currently in beta, this content Godzilla will be released upon the live realms in Issue 14. (For people who haven't yet dived into the City of franchise, there will also be a new game box coming out for Mission Architect: the aptly named Architect Edition.)

Have you ever felt that the character customization options in City of Heroes are just too much? Sometimes they can just be too overwhelming, right? I mean, who wants to sit there and make a character that looks different from everyone else? Seriously, that's such a burden. So NCsoft has solved this problem with their newly announced City of Heroes: Golden Age. We think the premise behind CoH:GA is summed-up best by Lead Artist Ken Morse, "I think City of Heroes: Golden Age brings with it a level of detail that simply can not be accomplished with even the latest advancements in graphics technology."

Of course this is just an April Fools' prank, but it's one of the best! The tricksters at NCsoft NorCal have done a fine job tickling our nostalgia bone while bringing a smile to our faces. Check out the complete "news announcement" on their main site, and be sure to read through the text-based interface screenshots to bring back some memories. Give yourself ten points if you laughed at the Hayes-compatible modem reference, too.

Once a week our writers will give you a glimpse into their lives, to let you get to know them and the characters they play a little better. Click here to read more Meet the Team.

What do you do for Massively.com?

As a news monkey - aka blogger -- I'm responsible for rubbing two neurons together in my head and making posts. In addition to that, I also put together a weekly column, The Digital Continuum. That's my regular thing, but you'll probably see interviews or other forms of one-off features on the site from me as well. And I'm also the fellow who puts together those nifty little images you see along the right of the website.

Massively is more or less a full-time thing for me, and I love every minute of it. Well, expect when we're electroshocked. That part stings.

According to a forum post on f13.net, City of Heroes players have allegedly been receiving Champions Online beta solicitations from Cryptic Studios via NCsoft's official game forums and in-game message system.

Our initial reaction to this claim was to feel highly speculative, considering that phishing scams will try just about anything. However, a news post on the City of Heroes website recently stated, "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..." which gives rise to some concern.

If true, it's a highly unprofessional move compounded by the fact that much of the existing CoH development team are ex-Cryptic staffers. Still, we're going to have to file this one as a rumor. Cryptic has been asked for a comment on the matter. We'll keep this post updated with any new developments.

What's a "WRUP," you ask? Well, in our game-addled brains, it stands for "what are you playing" and it's a chance for you and the Massively staff to chat about the most important subject in MMO gaming today: what you're playing right now. Here's what the Massively team is up to this week, a list dominated by everyone's favorite MMOs.
Of now free-to-play Tabula Rasa, all we have to say is: it's a trap! You'll either enjoy it -- but it's shutting down forever soon -- or you won't enjoy it and it will have been a waste of playtime.

Alexis Kassan: I'll be playing mommy to a sick puppy dog. Hoping to spare a few minutes to level my main in WoW and try to max out Mining and Cooking. Eventually I'll bring my Blacksmithing up to speed too. Major goal is to level from 72 to 73.
Brendan Drain: EVE Online. I don't have much time to play this weekend due to exams so today I just ran a few missions. I might go for some small roaming gang PvP in the faction warfare region Black Rise later or if there's a big fleet going down I'll probably join that.
Colin Brennan: Looks like my guild is doing classic raid content in World of Warcraft. Blackwing Lair, Onyxia, and Kara. Also heavy roleplay. :D
Dan O'Halloran: I'll continue to furiously level my Lore-master in LotRO to get him to Moria. I'll also be participating in the Lunar Festival in WoW to get moving on all the Achievements associated with the seasonal event.
Kyle Horner: Double experience weekend in City of Heroes for me! I'll probably be playing my gravity/empathy controller.
Michael Zenke: Catching up levels in LotRO. I'm 28 pushing on 30, and next week I'll be into Book 3.
Shawn Schuster: I'm on the home stretch for getting my LotRO main to level 60, and my kin and I have Book 2.4.7 scheduled for tonight. Other than that, I've just downloaded City of Heroes and can't wait to try that out for the first time, thanks to that Tabula Rasa "severance package" from NCsoft. If you don't hear from me on Monday, it means I'm drowning in alts. Sweet, sweet CoX character creation.
William Dobson: Giving Vanguard a try for the first time. So far, so good!

So what are you playing this weekend?

We know how busy things can get after the start of the year. Kids head, grumbling, back to school; college is open for another grueling term; work may just seem like a string of meetings about the next year - to the point where you think if you hear the word "budget" one more time, you're going to go medieval on someone. Those guys from Office Space? That fax machine? Yeah, they won't have anything on you when you finally toss the Power Point projector through the window.

The good news is that if you're looking to escape all those worldly frustrations this weekend, City of Heroes has just the treat for you. All the Heroes and Villains of Paragon, recently having taken on Day Jobs of their own, are getting a break in the form of a weekend stuffed full of double experience! So if you've got an alt that you've been considering running up, or just want a break from hanging out in Pocket D or Atlas Park, grab some friends and go get your mission on for tons of sweet, sweet double experience. And hey - you can always imagine some big nasty boss is really that Power Point projector you've come to loathe so much.