City clerks office

The story behind Missing Worlds Media and City of Titans is one of true inspiration and dedication. When NCSoft announced that City of Heroes would sunset along with Paragon Studios, members of the community rose up to answer the call to action. By the time City of Heroes shut down for its final maintenance, plans were already underway on several spiritual sequels to fill in the empty void of super hero MMOs. The subject of today’s discussion is City of Titans, code-named The Phoenix Project, under development by Missing Worlds Media. Last year, Missing Worlds Media put their project to the test, via a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to purchase software and license engines. The team is made up of volunteers who initially met up to try and save City of Heroes, and then turned their focus on creating a new home. The Kickstarter was a massive success, bringing in $680,000 compared to the $320,000 goal. I managed to sit down with a few members of the Missing Worlds Media team: … [Read more...] about Missing Worlds Media Talks: City of Titans

I’ve noticed that some people get irritated when others repeatedly bring up long-dead MMORPGs. I think there’s the mentality of, “What’s done is done, let it go, it’s in the past.” Yet memories and relationships ware what we take out of these games, and I’ve always seen it as a great testament to an MMO’s legacy when people honor it years after it has gone offline. City of Heroes shut down on November 30, 2012, after a last-ditch community campaign to change the decision passed down from corporate. Since then, fans have created tributes, gathered together on a yearly basis to quiz its devs on lore, and sponsored several start-up spiritual successors (all of which are still in development). Consider this my contribution to its legacy: a collection of 10 memories from this terrific, quirky, and inspiring superhero MMO that have yet to evaporate in my mind. 1. Day One While I was aware of and had dabbled in MMORPGs prior to City of … [Read more...] about Perfect Ten: My favorite memories from City of Heroes

This week week in MMO crowdfunding, we’ve seen what could be potential setbacks for two larger crowfunding MMORPGs. First, Shroud of the Avatar studio Portalarium announced it has closed its physical office, partly to save money and partly because of lease gouging in Austin. Developers will work remotely for now while studio leads continue scoping out a new physical space for onboarding new developers expected to be hired this year. Second, Ashes of Creation yesterday announced it will be delaying the next phases of alpha one slightly for infrastructure refactoring following its battle royale tests earlier this year. It also won’t be making 2019 for launch, though you probably figured that already. Meanwhile, Ship of Heroes teased street signs, Chronicles of Elyria finally put out a dev blog, Valiance Online posted fresh weekly updates, crowdfunding platform BrightLocker is collapsing, Temtem teased caves, Albion Online announced its Oberon expansion, and … [Read more...] about Make My MMO: Shroud of the Avatar shutters physical office, Ashes of Creation delays next alpha

When you work in video games, you often get asked what new titles you are looking forward to. While experience has been teaching me to temper my enthusiasm, I do have one that I’m excited to play. I first got to experience Dual Universe in-person at PAX West last September, and since then I’ve been eagerly anticipating its release! Why? That title pretty summed it up well: It’s a persistent, seamless, sandbox universe. More than that even, it is a hotbed of creativity thanks to its voxel foundation. So I’ve had a taste of what can happen in a world that customizable, and I hunger for more! That meeting with Jean-Christophe Baillie, the president and founder of NovaQuark, was seven months ago. How has development been coming along since then? How does the game look today? I got to sit down with Baillie for an update on progress and a new tour through the universe a few weeks ago. In my first demo, I saw promise. This time, I saw more of that promise … [Read more...] about Massively OP Interview: Dual Universe demo shows off advances in city building, space travel

Mark this as a record for Massively OP: This is, to my knowledge, the first time we ever had this many staff members show up to play — and stream — an MMO together. Our eight-person crew had been planning for the better part of a week to do a livestream of the resurrected City of Heroes, and last Wednesday we did just that. It’s always tricky coordinating that many people’s schedules, not to mention the fact that a few of the team were completely new to the game itself. Yet it went off almost without a hitch, up to and including functioning as a team during missions. Sure, if we were really professional we would have had a solid tank and a dedicated healer, but we made it work with our slapdash combination of archetypes and powersets. Of course, before the mayhem and carnage could begin, there was a bit of waiting to do — and whenever there’s waiting in City of Heroes, there are IMPROMPTU DANCE PARTIES. Plop that boombox down and get FUNKY, my … [Read more...] about City of Heroes: A Massively OP production