Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Before the release of City of Heroes, the massively multiplayer online game market was made up of two different types of genres of games - science fiction and high fantasy. LIke the two party system in the United States, it seemed like everyone was set to continue developing these particular types of games without fail. But like the Bull Moose party of the early 20th century, a new hope sprang up led by Cryptic Studios and their super hero MMOG, City of Heroes.

Issue 13 of City of Heroes has been named Power and Responsibility. Ben Parker would be proud.

Built as a different sort of MMO from the start, City of Heroes quickly found a warm place in the hearts of comic book fans everywhere. Even with the eventual transition from Cryptic Studios to be owned wholly by NCsoft, players still regularly flood into the massive game to play as versions of their favorite super heroes. Yet ever since the game was wholly purchased by NCsoft, the team seems to have been making the most out of their newfound closeness with their publisher. Like any of the famous character duos - Han and Chewbacca, Abbott and Costello, Beavis and Butthead - these two entities have truly excelled together.

The last several Issues that have been created by the recently dubbed NCsoft NorCal team have been quite expansive in their scope, and its no surprise that the players have taken interest in the overall extension of their world.  To learn about their process and the future of City of Heroes, the staff at Ten Ton Hammer tracked down NC NorCal's Senior Lead Designer, Matt "Positron" Miller, and grilled him on a number of topics concerning CoH. From the impending threats of DC Universe and Champions Online to the aging graphics in the game, we tried to cover as much ground as possible in the shot time we had with Matt.

The last few Issues - 11, 12 and soon 13 - have been extremely large in scope.

To start, we wanted to know why the last few Issues that have been added to City of Heroes have seemed so large. Even without the Architect coming into the next Issue, the developers seemed to have made an extra effort to build bucket loads of new missions, powers, and options for the players to enjoy.

"We always have very ambitious designs in the beginning of an issue, then we schedule things out, looking at manpower allocations," Matt said. "More times than not, some things need to get cut in order to hit target dates and schedules. Now with the studio more than doubling in size, we’re able to put more into each issue. That, coupled with the fact that everyone working on the game is passionate about it, is resulting in a lot more content each issue than we had been doing previous to this last year or so."

Even with the ambition and drive that seems apparent with the CoH developers, it certainly has seemed like an interesting ride for anyone working at NCsoft. From the gossip-mongering from the news driven sites to the actual job cuts to the eventual emergence of a new entity in NC West, its definitely been a roller coaster ride of emotions for anyone watching the industry. With the formation of NCsoft West and the refocus on AAA games, City of Heroes must have received a welcome boost of attention. But has it really been working out for the City of Heroes team?

NC West has been vital at getting the right amount of resources directed towards City of Heroes.

According to Matt, NC West has been vital in allocating them the resources they need to build the game "in ways that we had been unable to do when it served two masters. The new website is simply one of many efforts that will hopefully make our commitment (and NCsoft West’s commitment) to City of Heroes very clear."

Even with the addition of extra resources, the developers at City of Heroes face a tough task in the months and years ahead. Several other large companies - namely SOE and the previously mentioned Cryptic Studios - have set their sites on the super hero genre and are set to challenge CoH for dominance in that field. Like heavy weight fighters, these three companies are destined for a grueling multi-opponent brawl, and only the best warrior will win. With these two games on the horizon, we though it was pertinent to ask Matt how City of Heroes' playerbase might be affected and how the team plans to keep CoH in the public eye.

"Honestly, I have no idea what these games might do to our playerbase," Miller stated. "Both are coming out on consoles, so they will be available to players there that City of Heroes can’t reach, but in the PC market, we’ve got 5 years of content, systems, and established game lore that players have been living and breathing. Our plan is to keep giving our players more, more, more as well. When I couple that with the fact that our game will be running on Intel-based Macs this year, then I see a very strong future for the franchise in lieu of these two new titles."