Discontinued City of Heroes MMO Private Server Gets Official Status From NCsoft

 

Some gamers, especially fans of superhero comics, will remember the "City of Heroes" MMO. It got attention partially for it's genre, being a superhero game when most MMOs at the time were science-fiction or Medieval fantasy, and partially for being the subject of a lawsuit by Marvel Comics, saying players were creating characters that infringed on it's copyrights. In 2012, it was shut down despite pleas from it's fans that NCSoft keep the game running. 

 

So what were the players to do? Many went to private servers where the game was kept running for those who wanted to keep heroing. Among these was one called Homecoming. One thing that was different about it was instead of trying to avoid attention from the game's corporate owners, from the start it was making an effort to negotiate with them. Finally on January 4, Homecoming made the following announcement in it's forums:

We’d like to thank you all for your patience over the past few years, and we’re incredibly thrilled to announce that it’s paid off: NCSOFT® has officially granted Homecoming a license to host City of Heroes™.

They went on to say that this meant the player and character accounts were now officially safe, there will continue to be more game content, and the game will continue to be free to those who want to play, "We will continue to be funded entirely through donations."

At a time in which corporations are quick to go to their lawyers, this is certainly a welcome development in the gaming world.

Sources: Wikipedia, Homecoming, Massively, Kotaku, Videogames.SI.com   

Bixyl Shuftan

Reader Submitted : World of Warcraft Winterveil Sleigh Ride

From Jasmine Dawn. In World of Warcraft, it's the "Feast of Winter Veil." This year, there's a new activity in the cities Ironforge and Orgrimar: a flying sleigh pulled by reindeer that players can hop on.

And Jazzy's Worgen character decided to ride it for a bit, before she was "off for a little Winter Slaying."

Anthropomorphic Influences

It's well known that fans of anthropomorphic characters, aka "Furries" have been a part of Second Life about since it started. But they're also a part of many games. "World of Warcraft," the old powerhouse of MMOs, had a few anthro races. "Skyrim" has two. And more. Mods of popular games allow you more options at playing a nonhuman character. Nydia Tungsten recently had a few things to say about the issue.

Read Nydia's story in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

April Fool's In and Out of Second Life

Last Saturday was April Fools Day, a day which is noted for people, and occasionally media and other businesses, playing jokes and harmless pranks. Second Life would see a few as Furry Fashion, Grendel's Children, Bay City, and the Newser itself got in the act. Online games have also played some fun jokes in the past few years, including some special games that were up for just a day. But this year, there was a surprising lack of foolery in online gaming.

Read more in Events.

World of Warcraft Drops to 5.5 Million Active Players, Blizzard Will No Longer Report Numbers

Shortly after the release of the total subscription numbers of "Guild Wars 2" put into question if "World of Warcraft" was still the top MMO, on November 2, Activision/Blizzard announced in it's quarterly report that it's subscriptions "remained relatively stable, ending the quarter at 5.5 million subscribers." Although a slight drop compared to it's earlier plummet from ten million to 5.6 in several months, it was another sign that the game's best days are long behind it.

As it turns out, this will likely be the last time World of Warcraft's current numbers will be given out. Blizzard stated it will do so no more, "this is the last quarter that we plan to provide subscriber numbers," the company stated. "There are other metrics that are better indicators of the overall Blizzard business performance."

It seems even Blizzard has concluded "World of Warcraft" will no longer have draw it once had.

For years since it was released in 2003, "World of Warcraft" was more than just a game. It wasn't just the leader in the Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game genere, it was seen as *the* game. It became a part of pop-culture, characters in TV shows playing the game, stories of people playing the game until falling unconscious from exhaustion, and more. Many of it's features, such as players being divided into two opposing factions, talent trees, quests and quest giving NPCs, became more or less standard in MMOs as a whole. With over 12 million at it's peak, companies tried and failed to come up with a "WoW killer," and instead settled into nich markets, such as based on popular sci-fi franchises like Star Trek and Star Wars, and developed along the "Free to Play" model instead of requiring a montly subcription.

Of the news, Hamlet Au commented "The King is dead." That's a bit of an exaggeration as the game is still number one in it's genre. "World of Warcraft" isn't entirely done in popular culture. In June 2016, Legendary Pictures will be showing a movie based on the game "Warcraft" in theaters nationwide. And there is another expansion of the game in the works, "Legion." But Blizzard's announcement is clearly a turning point for the once unmatched MMO that will be seen less and less for what's going on with it now, and more and more as a historic game like "Doom," "Pac Man," and "Space Invaders" were the games of their times.

Sources: Gamespot,  Breitbart,

Bixyl Shuftan

Guild Wars 2's Numbers Raise Questions about World of Warcraft's Status

For more than twelve years, the genre of Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games was dominated by "World of Warcraft." But lately it's been crashing in numbers. And something happened recently that put it's status as the champion of MMOs in doubt.

Since shooting up from 6.8 million subscribers to 10 million in November 2014, World of Warcraft's numbers have plummeted, down to 5.6 million in August with no sign of slowing down. And while the MMO that once was *the* game in its genre has been shrinking in numbers, others have been growing. One, Guild Wars 2, recently announced it had reached 7 million accounts, up from 5 million in August. The growth is attributed in part to it's new expansion "Heart of Thorns."

So does this mean Guild Wars 2 is now the number one MORPG? Not necessarily. World of Warcraft's numbers are of active accounts while those of Guild Wars 2 are of all of it's accounts, active or not. Over time, World of Warcraft has had a total of over 100 million accounts.

So it looks like World Of Warcraft is still the Champion MMO, at least for now. That it was in doubt is a reminder with it's dropping numbers, the best known of MMOs just doesn't have the draw it used to. While this isn't the end of it's days as the champion, it seems just a matter of time.


Sources: Gamespot, IGN

Bixyl Shuftan

Massivley, WoW Insider, And Other Joystiq.com Websites To Close

Among other online newsletters, those at Joystiq.com, notably Massively and WoW Insider will be closing and soon be no more. After more than a decade of covering computers and computer gaming, including Second Life, these publications are shutting down. So why after a decade are these gaming news sites closing?

Read more in Extra.