While it didn't invent the idea of free-to-play, it was also one of the games that first set the standard of what to expect from once-subscription MMORPGs that made the leap. Its Sidekick and Exemplar systems knocked down many barriers between high and low level players. City of Heroes' 24 issues (big patches) weren't without their faults, but they still brought a steady stream of new ideas - time travel, alien invasions, jobs for characters to do while you were off living a less heroic life, an expansion devoted to villainy - albeit not one that made it feel good to be bad, especially when Westin Phipps showed up - and new ways to tell stories. NCSoft looked down and whispered 'No'.Įven if you agree that City of Heroes has had its day though, it's still a loss - not least because it's rare to see a MMORPG so willing to take such risks, and to keep reinventing itself. Publisher NCSoft has never been shy about pulling the switch on games it didn't see a future in though, most notably Ultima creator Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa, and has shown no interest in the petitions and campaigns set up to keep the game alive. City of Heroes' free-to-play switch seemed to go reasonably well, and by all accounts it was still making money. No more will Perez Park confuse the hell out of newcomers, or anything secretly turn out to be a Nemesis plot.Īt least from the outside, it seems like odd timing. Never again will Frostfire glance out of his base and shake his head at the sight of heroes skiing around on his ice-ramps instead of coming to fight him. This Friday, night falls on the City of Heroes for the last time. Unless you'd just copied Batman, obviously. Best of all, with a character creation system no MMORPG has ever beaten, it was your superhero. It let you feel like a superhero, hurling fire, swinging swords, controlling the minds of lesser men and more. It didn't simply let you play as a superhero.
City of Heroes wasn't even close to the first MMORPG I ever played, but it was the first that understood that even Level 1 can feel awesome.
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