News has come out that nine people have been laid off from Paragon Studios, including fan favourite / big forum presence Christopher Bruce, who posted under the name Back Alley Brawler (or BABs). BABs, along with Floyd Grubb aka Castle, had been among the most visible Paragon Studio developers on the forums. CoH/V forumite players … Continue reading
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We Won’t Pay The Cover Charge To Dance, CoH/V
Something interesting happened (and continues to happen) with City of Heroes / Villains recently and it’s something that deserves a bit more attention. No, it isn’t the launch of Going Rogue – it is the announcement of the Party Pack, retailing for $8. To date, CoH/V has generally walked on the favourable side of micro-transactions … Continue reading
Confirmation: CoH/V Trial Accounts Get Access to Praetoria
With the launch of Going Rogue has come confirmation that trial accounts get access to all the new content… up to the standard restrictions. I’ve talked about it before and this is the best option, although that content needs to be good enough to encourage players to pay for a more expensive version of City … Continue reading
CoH/V: Picking The Wrong Side
City of Heroes / Villains first paid expansion in a long while launches next week. Going Rogue is Paragon Studios’ big content update, aimed at getting back players who have left, attracting those who may have never played and locking in existing players as the competition continues to escalate. Unfortunately, I think Paragon has kind … Continue reading
How Many Players Does CoH/V Have in Q1, 2010?
NCsoft has released their financials for Q1 2010. Following up on my earlier post about City of Heroes / Villains’ performance, I’ve had a look. Sadly, results aren’t good. Chartreuse In Q1 2010, CoH/V recorded 3 348 m Won (about US $2.94m) – it’s lowest quarterly revenue to date. Previously, it was the Q4 2009 … Continue reading
Champions Online and the Second System Effect
Having played Champions Online to a middish-level point and based off my 6 odd years of experience in playing City of Heroes / Villains, I’m starting to get a very clear idea of how much the second systems effect burdens ChampO. It’s obvious that when Cryptic tried to improve on CoH/V and add in numerous … Continue reading
CoH/V, Going Rogue and Trial Accounts
It appears fairly clear that Praetoria – being released in the City of Heroes / Villains’ Going Rogue expansion – is going to serve as the ‘new and improved’ starter area for CoH/V. (Older zones won’t be revamped until it is “an event for the game as a whole” according to the same interview). Going … Continue reading
The (Near) Future for Paragon Studios
Given the current state of CoH/V, what does the future hold for Paragon Studios? A few things, but some haven’t been as discussed as others. Not The Sarah Palin Book Or Gay Slang The obvious ones to mention are Issue 17: Dark Mirror and Going Rogue. The Dual Pistols powerset is going through an open … Continue reading
How Many Players Does CoH/V Have Anyway?
The core metric for assessing the size of a MMO is the number of active players. It’s a simple metric that is easy to understand and compare, even if it isn’t perfect (after all, revenue and profitability are probably more important regardless of player base size). It’s power is such that good numbers are trumpeted … Continue reading
Old News Is Still Interesting News
Matt Miller, aka Positron, former lead developer of CoH/V and now free creative element at Paragon Studios, spent a few days in Seoul at the end of last year. Given NCsoft’s headquarters is in Seoul, I don’t think he was going over just for the sights. Speculation to follow.
World Class Villains 