Tag: City of Heroes

2024 has been good to City of Heroes and private server fans alike. Earlier this month, the Homecoming rogue server announced that they’d come to an operating agreement with the game’s publisher, NCSoft, and are now licensed to operate the game without ownership.

This is a major victory for game preservationists and City of Heroes fans, who have been unable to legally play the game since NCSoft shut down the official servers in 2012 citing meager profits. But it’s also highly unusual. And highly strange.

Firstly, the City of Heroes private server development story is strange on its own. Within years of the game’s shutdown, rumors of a working rogue server began circulating among fans. These rumors were soon validated as the server’s existence was confirmed, and soon after, the game’s source code was released by fan developers. From that point on, anyone with the means could run their own City of Heroes server.

I’m not a developer. But generally speaking, I think it’s fair to say that private server development isn’t easy. Much of MMO content is stored server-side, not client side. So getting a massive online game back up isn’t usually as simple as reverse-engineering the game’s installation directory on your PC. It can take significant resources and time for part-time fan development to make any strides as a result.

But with City of Heroes, the private server development didn’t take long — and now I know why. Someone released the game’s source code around the time NCSoft shut down the official servers. And that source code has been circulating ever since. See the video below:

This lends credence to my theory that City of Heroes has benefited from an “inside man” developer, who, knowing of the game’s imminent demise, took strides to preserve it for later resurrection. From a corporate and legal perspective, this is generally highly frowned upon and illegal. But City of Heroes had a highly passionate development team and fanbase, so I wouldn’t be surprised if one or few stubborn, original devs couldn’t let the game go.

The licensing itself is strange too and also supports this theory. How often does a fan development team have such leverage and sway with a game’s publisher? Almost never, with MMO private servers only ever drawing the ire of their creators. And how does NCSoft benefit from other non-profit developers operating their multi-million dollar games? If NCSoft wasn’t happy with City of Heroes’ profits before, I can’t imagine they’re any happier now. But once again, if Homecoming has connections with original devs or NCSoft staff — and it sounds like they do given the speedy private server development — the story checks out.

So there you have it. I believe City of Heroes has benefited from one or more “guardian” developers: Original staff who have spent countless hours protecting their labor of love. And in the context of a super-hero video game, nothing could be more heroic.

Since diving back into City of Heroes/Villains via the Homecoming server, I’ve found that the game mostly holds up. The user interface and sound design have aged well, but the gameplay feels slow-paced. However, as always, I find the most fun in CoH’s character creator. There are a dizzying amount of options and costume pieces, meaning you can really let your imagination run wild.

So I thought I’d share three characters I created this weekend. Note that they’re all “Rogue” characters and have yet to become either Hero or Villain.

“Greenus”

“Greenus” is a gothic dark energy-wielding character inspired by Tim Burton and old renditions of the Joker.

“Infernus”

One of my stronger character creations and certainly the one that took the longest. I spent many hours deliberating over one costume piece versus another.

He’s a Fiery Mastermind who wields a flame whip and summons hellish beasties to do his bidding.

“Insectus”

I hit the “randomize costume” button and got a monstrous ninja-looking girl with a face ventilator. I dug her Mortal Kombat vibes so I polished/honed the costume and got this. She’s a “Stalker” (stealth) character who uses a staff and ninjitsu to defeat her foes.

Have you toyed around with CoH’s character creator at all? If so, feel free to share your creations in the comments!

With NCSoft recently issuing a license to the Homecoming private server, I’ve been sinking my teeth into all things City of Heroes/Villains. And I stumbled across Villains’ menu theme, which instantly remined me of its greatness.

The dramatic strings, devilish brass, and glitching synths all cascade to create a shifting, pulsing, malignant main theme that sounds convincingly villainous. The track doesn’t seem to have a name, but I think “The Heart of Evil” would be apt.