City of Heroes returns and is shut down again by NCsoft

City of Heroes was my favorite game for years. It was the first superhero-themed MMORPG, developed by Cryptic Studios (later Paragon Studios) and published in 2004 by NCsoft. I joined just as it launched, initially learning about it through my brother and using his account briefly (maybe for a single weekend) before I bought the game and subscribed. It was my first MMO, and they say you never forget your first.

The game did so many things right – it was different from other online games in that it featured a modern setting and did away with the “holy trinity” of having a damage dealer, tank and healer as vital components of a team. Instead, it introduced characters with primary and secondary powersets and “pool” powers, which were available to all. A character’s archetype determined what combinations of these powersets were available – by readily doing away with the standard pattern of relying on the aforementioned trinity, players could come up with other combinations that worked well in solo play, on teams, or in both situations. Who said that healers couldn’t also fight? As a matter of fact, “healers” didn’t even necessarily need to heal! “Defenders,” as they were known could utilize other types of specializations instead, to protect themselves and their teammates, as needed – from force fields to radiation or darkness debuffs to manipulating kinetic energy or even weather control. And that was just some of the Defender primary powersets at launch. The list almost tripled by the game’s end. It even allowed multiple builds that could be toggled, per character, so a player could optimize a character for solo play, team play, PVP and whatever else was desired.