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Part 1: Heroes EmergeThe history of Paragon City, Rhode Island, is woven closely to the history of superheroes themselves. The city itself was founded in 1823, combining a number of small villages established during the Colonial period. It became an important port city, and grew quickly, becoming one of the largest cities in the world by the turn of the 20th century.However, it was not until after World War I that Paragon City began to truly set itself apart. Marcus Cole left Paragon City a young man, just one of many who went to aid in the fight for Europe’s freedom against the Hun and his mysterious Prussian ally known only as ‘Nemesis.’ Years of fighting finally broke the German assaults, and Nemesis had vanished. And while most Americans chose to return home at the end of the hostilities, Cole chose instead to travel eastward, to see the world.
When he did return to his home in 1931, he found a city very different from the one he had left – the effects of Prohibition, the stock market crash, and the Great Depression had left Paragon full of corruption and violence. Organized crime had the city in its grips; crime bosses had the politicians on their payroll. Corporate front companies hid corruption and illegal trafficking in alcohol and weapons.Cole’s journeys were not uneventful, however he returned as much more than he left. And so it was that the Statesman, one man with the values and ideals of truth and justice and amazing powers beyond those of mortal men, took on the power hungry manipulators who had tarnished Paragon City. Soon, following the Stateman’s example, more mystery men and women began to appear – with aliases such as The Dark Watcher, The Dream Doctor, Maiden Justice – to fight alongside this Statesman. These heroes banded together, forming the Freedom Phalanx, and started turned the tide.
Player Guides. Category page. Classic editor History Talk (3) This category contains extended articles and player-written guides. Trending pages. The Players' Guide to the Cities/Creating a Character; The Players' Guide to the Cities/User Interface/Options Window. City of Heroes Wiki is a FANDOM Games Community. View Mobile Site. The Skulls are an antagonistic gang in City of Heroes that are midway between a street-gang and a death-cult, members tend to be nihilistic and misanthropic with an obsession with death and destruction: higher-ups in the gang also harness necromantic powers and the general belief of.
These heroes found their real test in 1935, however.The Phalanx began following the trail of money from various bosses and finally traced them back to the Southern United Manufacturing Company, headquartered in Steel Canyon. Statesman learned of a much greater threat Southern United was a front for the engineer of the World War Nemesis. He made this information public, causing an uproar and collapse of the corporation.
In retaliation, the Prussian Prince of Automatons unleashed his armies in Paragon City. Statesman fought his way through these mechanical troops, finally confronting the evil genius himself. However, the villain escaped, vowing to strike again.This national exposure of masked crime-fighters made a huge difference in the public minds. In 1936, a group of reform candidates swept the city elections; in 1937, these officials passed laws making acts of “vigilante justice” such as those of the Freedom Phalanx legal, as long as standard police procedures were followed. Similar laws were enacted in most major cities nationwide.
Part 2: Heroes at WarAnd yet, even as the Heroes rose in the ‘thirties, so did the forces they fought. Hitler’s regime in Germany had launched its assaults on France and England, strengthened by a group of super-powered shock troopers known as Storm Korps. The English heroes, Dawn Patrol, fought to hold back the Nazi onslaught.
In the East, the Japanese Army and the forces of their Imperial Wind had conquered large sections of the Pacific. America began gearing up for war, shipping weapons and ammunition to the British, and recruiting and training both regular and superpowered soldiers. However, the U.S. Had stayed out of direct involvement in the war until December 7th, 1941. The Axis launched a two-pronged attack on the United States that day. The Japanese Navy launched an air strike on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, decimating the Naval fleet in dock there. Simultaneously, the Storm Korps attacked Paragon City, destroying the largest single fleet of lend/lease transports ever assembled.
The Storm Korps laid waste to Liberty Harbor, and attempted to push further inland, only to be met by Atlas, the first hero on the scene of the attacks. Atlas fought bravely, despite being mortally wounded, and held the Nazis at bay until the Freedom Phalanx arrived. Statesman and his allies joined the fight, only to see the Germans retreating back to the Atlantic, their mission successful. Thousands of sailors and dockworkers lost their lives that evening.By morning, Congress declared war on both Axis powers. The first Americans to see combat were the members of the Freedom Phalanx, who set out to support the besieged British Isles.
Back at home, Paragon City had become the primary recruiting and training center for U.S. Superpowered soldiers. Early in 1942, the First Hero Brigade ended up proving its value early.
As they prepared to shop off to England, a second onslaught of Nazi troops attacked America, this time wearing the black and red uniforms of the Fifth Column. The young heroes held off the attackers this time, and proved themselves more than up to the occasion. The Fifth Column troops pulled back from this offensive, but continued to pop up during the war, always trying to find ways to sabotage our support for the troops abroad.Both sides found superhuman troops most effective as special operations forces, using them to hit enemy supply lines, attack factories, and perform surgical strikes against enemy leadership. The American Sand Kings worked totally behind the lines in North Africa, kidnapping Nazi officers and delivering them to Allied intelligence.
The Nazi Storm Korps kidnapped the British King, but were stopped in Scotland by the Dawn Patrol. In the Pacific, Captain Volcano lead American heroes in strikes against the Imperial Wind, lead by the Japanese baron The Lord of Frosts.The Freedom Phalanx and Dawn Patrol heroes were the first to land in Normandy during the D-Day Invasion. Heroes fought in the sky against jetpack-equipped Storm Korps, while soldiers crawled up the beaches to the German strongholds. Both sides took terrible losses that day – Stateman himself was critically wounded – but the Allied forces finally pushed the Nazis back, and nearly completely destroyed the Storm Korps.The following year was full of bloody battles on both fronts. Nazi forces were pushed back, and finally Berlin fell to the American, British, and Russian troops.
The last Nazi stronghold, the underground labyrinth of the Storm Korps, was finally stormed and taken. In the East, America unleashed two atomic bombs, forcing Japan to a surrender. However, the superpowered forces of Imperial Wind refused to accept this, and our heroes continued battling for months afterwards. In a final epic battle on the small island of New Ireland, the Imperial Wind was crushed, but not before the Lord of Frosts managed to kill Captain Volcano and escape.
Part 3: Villainy and Cold WarYet, even as America celebrated the defeat of the Axis powers, another shadow loomed. Nemesis, unseen since the end of the first World War, launched a strike on Washington D.C. The Prussian’s mechanical troops stormed the Capital and Supreme Court; President Truman only escaped the villain’s grasp with the aid of a teleporting hero assigned to guard him. Nemesis quickly claimed control of the government, forcing the Chief Justice to swear him in as “Emperor of the Americas.” The Freedom Phalanx rushed back to America, only to find that Nemesis had detonated gas bombs in twenty cities, releasing a toxin that killed in 24 hours.
Statesman lead the Phalanx into Washington; the heroes were forced back, but in the midst of the fight, Sister Psyche managed to rip the antidote from the evil genius’ mind. Psyche and Dr.
Mnemonic worked together to develop an antidote and coordinate its airborne release, while the rest of the Freedom Phalanx converged and rejoined the battle against Nemesis. This time, they pushed through, only to find that the man had escaped, leaving behind a robotic double. Though unsuccessful, Nemesis became a guidepost for many would-be conquerors; supervillains began to appear across the country most notably in Paragon City. The Fifties and Sixties saw heroes dealing with more of these villainous threats. The Fifth Column still lurked, the Family secured their grip over the Independence Port, and a number of new villains made their appearances.
The 300 foot tall hero Talos appeared many times over the fifties, defending the city against a series of monstrous threats. These climaxed with an epic battle against the Chimera in the seas of Paragon Bay. So mighty was the fight that the ocean floor itself was torn open. Both Talos and the Chimera were lost in the flood of lava and earth that burst forth, forming a new island in the bay.
The city officially christened this new raw land Talos Island, after their lost defender.Even with this chaos, Paragon continued to grow rapidly; to support this growth, the city fathers invested in the construction of a power plant that they estimated would last until the turn of the next century. The Terra Volta power plant began construction in 1955, and fired up for the first time in 1959. It was under assault in less than a day, and has been a near constant target for attack by one group or another.The fifties also saw the rise of tensions between the U.S. And the Soviet Union. The Cold War became an arms race not just of bombs and missiles, but of superpowered operatives as well. Congress passed the Might for Right act in 1956, which made superpowered individuals eligible for draft without notice.
With this law in place, heroes were often pressed into service against the Warsaw Pact. During this Cold War, there were a large number of unpublicized battles in Eastern Europe, the jungles of Central America and Southeast Asia. Many proclaimed abuse of these draft powers – outspoken opponents of government policy and minorities seemed to get the longest, most dangerous assignments. Finally, when evidence of these abuses became public, three Africa-American heroes brought a case to the Supreme Court, which declared the law unconstitutional.The Cold War reached its head in 1976, when an American spy plane was shot down over Russia by one of the Soviet Defenders of the Motherland. The plane carried Captain Gerald Mynor, a phenomenal code-breaker and psionicist. Mynor disabled the Soviet hero, but was trapped with only hours before the Soviets closed in on his position.
At the request of the Air Force, Statesman used experimental technology to teleport to the crash site and get the plane’s crew out. Furious at this invasion and their apparent loss of intelligence, a Soviet general ordered a tactical nuclear missile launched at the retreating Statesman. The missile reached its target over Finland; the airmen were vaporized instantly, and Statesman barely survived. As both nations went on full alert, the U.S.
Quickly readied the launch of a space-based anti-missile platform. Soviet clairvoyants learned of the launch, and the Soviets launched a limited nuclear strike to destroy the satellite before it left the launch pad.Organized by the Freedom Phalanx and Dawn Patrol, a group of twenty-four international heroes took matters into their own hands. After disabling both the satellite launch and the missile strike, they informed both nations such actions would not be tolerated. Britain’s foremost defender, Hero One, stepped forward to negotiate a peaceful solution. And while the involved governments were quite resentful of these actions, the public saw these heroes as true saviors. After this incident, most governments began to shy away from the direct use and recruitment of heroes; the heroes began seeing themselves as protectors that answered to the world as a whole, rather than one political entity. Part 4: New ThreatsThe late 70s saw the U.S.
Fall into a deep recession. With prices and poverty on the rise, the crime rates followed. The use of illicit drugs became more common, and drug-related crime became a focus of national attention. In Paragon City, the Back Alley Brawler and his Regulators became involved in a long war against the drug cartels bringing their goods into the U.S. The Regulators went so far as to launch attacks in South America and Central Asia, burning the fields and destroying the factories of the drug kingpins. This generated a backlash of resentment against the U.S.
Heroes, and while it did curb the heroin and cocaine traffic, chemists in the States began researching new ways to fill the void. The ‘big thing’ on the streets suddenly became Supes – a drug based on WWII “Super-Soldier” research, which gave short-term feelings of pleasure and confidence, enhanced strength, and long-term mutational changes in users.
Despite the Regulator’s efforts, Supes effectively replaced the previous drugs, and spread faster than they could control. Their efforts did turn up a surprising result – the heroes discovered evidence of an organization that was researching Supes addiction, kidnapping and addicting thousands of teens for research purposes.
Reviewing the notes found in the hidden lab, there was a clear conclusion in very rare cases, it seemed the drug allowed these addicts to see, and in a few cases even travel to alternate realities. The Regulators and Freedom Phalanx met, and agreed that this information could never be released, due to the horrid methods used to in its discovery.However, this Pandora’s Box could not stay locked away forever. Brian Webb, disagreeing with the idea of banning knowledge, left his job supporting the Phalanx.
He was determined to find and master the physics behind these dimensional viewing and shifting abilities. After years of clandestine research, Webb’s company, Portal Corp, demonstrated his discovery to the press in 1988. He proved his claims by taking a group of reporters through his Dimensional Portal to a number of parallel worlds.Even as the world reeled from the impact of this discovery, Portal Corporation began exploring these alternate dimensions, searching for ways of making a profit – in trade with other dimensions, in new technologies undiscovered in our world, or even in tourism. However, it wasn’t long before the investigators stumbled across a hostile world. They stumbled into a world later nicknamed ‘Axis America’ – one in which Nazi Germany ruled over America, thanks to their great hero, Reichsman.Reichsman captured Dr. Webb and his research team, forcing them to explain their origins.
After extracting what he needed, the Nazi murdered them, then crossed through the Portal to Paragon City with his own strike force. Soon, the Freedom Phalanx found themselves battling their dimensional twins. After a long battle in which most of the Portal Corp facility was destroyed, the Freedom Phalanx managed to gain the upper hand, subduing Reichsman, and locking him in a state of suspended animation at their headquarters.
.: April 28, 2004.: February 4, 2005Mode(s)City of Heroes ( CoH) is a which was developed by and published. The game was launched in North America on April 28, 2004, and in Europe by NCsoft Europe on February 4, 2005, with English, German and French servers. In the game, players created super-powered that could team up with others to complete missions and fight criminals belonging to various gangs and organizations in the fictional Paragon City.Twenty-three free major updates for City of Heroes were released before its shutdown. The final live update, 'Where Shadows Lie', was released on May 31, 2012. On August 31, 2012, NCsoft terminated its development team, ending all production on City of Heroes with the last day of services on November 30, 2012.In April 2019, source code capable of running a City of Heroes server was distributed widely.
This made it possible to create City of Heroes servers outside the direct purview of NCSoft and revived interest in the game, which by then had been out of development for more than six years. As of April 2020, NCSoft has not moved to have servers based on this source code shut down. Contents.Production history On October 31, 2005, the game's first sequel, City of Villains ( CoV), was launched, allowing players to play as. The did not require City of Heroes to run, but if the user had both games, content was added to the City of Heroes side of game play. On July 16, 2008, NCsoft merged the two games' content together. Thus, a player who only owned City of Heroes could now play City of Villains, and vice versa.
Prior to this, a purchase was required to access either game's content, but they were linked by one account and subscription fee.On November 6, 2007, NCsoft announced their purchase of the City of Heroes/ City of Villains and transitioned the staff from Cryptic Studios to a new location in Mountain View, California, to continue development of the game. The new studio on April 14, 2009, became, which shared credit with Cryptic Studios for the development work. This then led to City of Heroes becoming available for download on, along with other NCsoft titles, on April 22, 2009.On October 30, 2008, NCsoft announced a partnership with in order to bring both City of Heroes and City of Villains and all 13 expansions to.The City of Heroes: Going Rogue expansion's release was announced on May 11, 2009. This part of the game centered on the alternate reality of Praetoria and featured a new alignment system allowing players characters to shift allegiances between Heroes and Villains, giving characters access to both Paragon City of City of Heroes and the Rogue Isles of City of Villains. Paragon Studios described this as 'exploring the shades of gray that lay between Heroes and Villains'. Going Rogue was released on August 17, 2010, with pre-purchasers able to play on August 16.On June 20, 2011, Paragon Studios announced that they were going to switch to a hybrid subscription model called City of Heroes: Freedom, adding in a free-to-play game model.
Special models for former subscribers would be termed Premium Players, and current subscribers would become VIP players, who would gain access to all the content in the various upcoming game updates.On August 31, 2012, Paragon Studios announced that it was being closed, and City of Heroes would cease all billing immediately and begin the process of shutting down the service. The stated explanation for this move was a 'realignment of company focus and publishing support'. November 30, 2012, was listed as the official shutdown date of the game and the servers were turned off at midnight. Many players arrived to express their continued protest, support, and fond farewells, including messages of gratitude from the developers and moderators thanking their fans for their support and passion for the game.
A variety of efforts got underway, led by players of the game, to keep the game operating past the announced date of closure. Ultimately, their efforts were unsuccessful, and the game shut down as scheduled.Missing Worlds Media's president Nate Downes announced in September 2014 that he introduced an interest party who wanted to make a deal in reviving the game's intellectual property with NCSoft staff, which might enable the final version of the game to be released. No additional info was released as the involved parties were under an NDA. The effort did not succeed, due to reuse of Statesman and Ghost Widow in.On April 15, 2019, news broke that a private server based on City of Heroes at the time of its shutdown had been running in secret for years. Three days later, source code relating to the server had been widely distributed, and a publicly accessible server based on the code was quickly spun up. While perceived threats, legal or otherwise, saw this server shut down by April 22, multiple public servers by various teams have since been set up based on the leaked code.
As of the end of December 2019, NCSoft has not made a move to terminate the operation of any of the servers. They have, however, objected to the distribution of City of Heroes content binaries themselves.Gameplay. A tanker (foreground) confronts one of the game's arch villains, the Dr. Vahzilok, in City of Heroes.After and selecting a name (the game would check if the name was already taken on the server), players could either begin play in an isolated zone, or skip the tutorial and begin in an open low-level zone. A character's level increased by earning experience points from defeating foes, completing Missions, and exploring Zones, then returning to an NPC known as a Trainer.
Benefits for rising in level included more Health, more Powers to choose for the character, more slots to allocate Enhancements to Powers, and larger inventories for Inspirations (quick use items) and Salvage (crafting materials). If a player loses all of their Health, they could be revived through use of an item, by an ally's powers, or in one of the Hospitals on the map; reviving in a Hospital after a certain level incurred Experience Debt, which made gaining additional experience more difficult.The setting of the game, Paragon City for Heroes, was divided into different Zones (essentially neighborhoods) by giant energy 'War Walls', which were justified in the back story.
Especially dangerous zones called 'Hazard' or 'Trial' zones, which teemed with larger groups of enemies, were marked in red on the in-game map and were much more dangerous than normal zones. The Villains' setting, the Rogue Isles, consisted of islands connected by a network of ferries and helicopters. A few zones were accessible to both heroes and villains; some were cooperative zones, while others were player versus player (PvP) zones.
Praetoria, for characters created in the Going Rogue update, lacked War Walls, allowing more or less free movement between areas.Players initially moved around the zones by jogging or using a minor speed-increasing power such as 'Sprint'. As heroes grew in level and accumulated more powers, they could choose among four higher speed traveling powers: Teleportation, Super Speed, Super Jumping, and Flight.As characters leveled-up, players could choose new powers from the character's primary and secondary power sets, as set during creation, or from shared power pools.
The power pools contained the four travel powers and other generic, usually utilitarian, powers that fell under categories such as Fitness, Concealment, and Leadership. In addition, as characters leveled up, they gained access to new costume features, including the ability to change between up to five costumes and unlockable costume parts such as capes and auras (unlocked after missions).in the game were known as missions, and were obtained through various channels, generally from various NPCs the player met in the game. Although missions could be completed alone, the player had the option to form Teams with other player characters to play off of each other's characters' strengths and abilities. The level of the characters used, size of the team, and a separate difficulty scale chosen by the player called Notoriety, all affected the difficulty of the mission. Missions could take the form of an where the player(s) must defeat a, save NPC characters held hostage (sometimes taking the form of ), or search the instance for a certain object or number of objects (such as clues or defusing bombs), while other Missions required that players defeat a certain number and type of, possibly in a defined area of the game.
Some missions are part of that involve the player in a larger narrative that tells some of the back story of the setting. Task Forces ( City of Heroes), Strike Forces ( City of Villains), and Trials (both) were particular missions that could be completed multiple times, but only as part of a team, and had to be completed in entirety to earn particular rewards for completion, such as the ability to a character's chosen Powers and Enhancements.Cooperative play also took the form of larger called Supergroups, reminiscent of comic book groups such as the, the, or the. Players part of Supergroups could team up together or convene in Bases (introduced with City of Villains). Bases were used for social meeting or housing special items used in crafting Inventions, serving as a collective item vault, or to recover after losing all Health in the overworld. Supergroups in turn could form Coalitions with each other for increased collaborations.
Coalitions were generally formed for the featured in the game.Another form of cooperative play was the Sidekick feature, which allowed for characters of disparate experience levels to participate in the game together. A Sidekick's experience level would be temporarily risen to be close to their partner's level, and their Health and strength would be scaled to their artificial level, while any experience or Influence they gained was scaled to their original level.
A reverse feature known as Exemplar was added later, which artificially lowered the level of a higher level character (also removing access to powers unavailable at their new level), but they earn experience at their original level, which is useful in removing Debt, or gains Influence rather than Experience. For the release of City of Villains, these features are Lackey and Malefactor. Issue 16 overhauled the system such that it was automatically scaled to the 'Anchor', which was either the player on the team whose mission the team was set to perform or the team's leader.Players could also set 'leveling pacts' which allowed two players to sync up the experience their characters gained, although this was disabled in a later update.Other game features included auction houses and crafting inventions to make characters more powerful or unlock further costume options. The Architect release gave players the ability to construct custom mission arcs, with customized enemies and layouts that could then be played by all other players. The Going Rogue expansion allowed players to switch their alignment using Tip Missions collected from defeated enemies.Character creation In character creation, the player first selected a character's origin and archetype, then primary and secondary power sets. Next, the actual avatar with its costume was created. Then the player had a choice of customizing the colors of his/her powers.
Lastly, the player chose a name and could optionally write a background story to add some flavor to the character, as well as creating an individual battle cry.There were five origins a player could choose for his/her character that dictated what type of enhancements the character may use, affected which single short-ranged power they begin with (in addition to powers obtained from their primary and secondary power sets), and influenced the various enemy groups that the character went up against. See also:The setting of City of Heroes was the fictional Paragon City, located in in the. The city was divided into several smaller neighborhoods that had varying enemies and progressively higher levels of enemies within them. The arbitrary divisions between zones are explained in game by the presence of 'War Walls', powerful force fields derived from alien technology which were used to defend various areas of the city. Heroes set out by dealing with low-powered street gangs in the initial zones, working their way up to fighting increasingly dangerous threats — such as organized crime, corrupt corporations, hostile aliens, and supernatural terrors — even eventually entering other dimensions to fight supremely powerful enemies.The setting of City of Villains was the Rogue Isles, a fictitious group of islands off the eastern coast of the United States.
There, under the watchful gaze of Lord Recluse and the Arachnos organization, prospective villains fought to make a name for themselves, seizing any opportunity that presented itself.The setting of the Going Rogue expansion was Praetoria, a parallel dimension version of Paragon City where the world was ravaged by Hamidon and his Devouring Earth legions and only Emperor Marcus Cole managed to bring stability to a world ravaged by the Hamidon Wars. Superpowered individuals living in Praetoria begin as Praetors, working for Emperor Cole, but decide to either join the Loyalist faction and remain a member of the Praetorian armed police force or join the Resistance and attempt to reveal the corruption of Emperor Cole (otherwise known as Tyrant) and free humanity from his rule.Updates and history The Development Team continually expanded City of Heroes with free downloadable patches/updates as well as free game expansions dubbed 'Issues'. Main article:To tie in with the game, NCsoft released two original comic book series that featured various characters from within the games themselves. The original series by publisher Blue King featured the heroes/roommates Apex and War Witch with their neighbor Horus. The later series from publisher Top Cow featured signature heroes and villains from both City of Heroes and City of Villains such as Statesman, Positron, Lord Recluse, and Ghost Widow, along with scripts by well-known comic book creators Mark Waid, Troy Hickman, and Dan Jurgens. Both series were originally free for subscribers to the games, but later they were provided for an extra subscription fee with the game and for free in digital format afterwards on the official City of Heroes website.
The Blue King series ran for 12 issues, after which the Top Cow series ran for an additional 20 issues, ending in July 2007.Collectible card game. Main article:also worked with CoH to create a featuring characters from the game, as well as several original characters. The game's website also allowed players to create a game-compliant card for their own online character.Role-playing game The City of Heroes team worked with to create a based on the game. While a free preview version of the game was released, the game was due to the cancellation license with on their and role-playing games. Eden owner later made a statement in 2008 that they were waiting on information from the copyright holders, but no news arose after this date.
Heroclix The various collector's editions of City of Heroes and City of Villains included exclusive figures of signature characters from the game. These included Statesman (without a cape), Manticore, Ghost Widow, Lord Recluse, Positron, Black Scorpion and Mako. There was also a separate, Limited Edition version of Statesman wearing a cape.Film and television In June 2007, it was announced that the producer for the film, had acquired the option to make movies and television shows based on the City of Heroes franchise. In February 2008, it was announced that DeSanto had indeed begun preparations for the film. A plot summary had been released detailing that the movie itself takes place during the first Rikti War.
Lawsuit In November, 2004, filed a against City of Heroes developer Cryptic Studios, publisher NCsoft, and game administrator NC Interactive (NCI), alleging that the game not only allowed, but actively promoted, the creation of characters who infringe copyrights and trademarks owned by Marvel. The suit sought unspecified damages and an injunction halting further sales and shutting down the game.The game included in its strong language against such activity, however. It forbade the creation of potentially infringing characters, and NCI had been known to rename or 'genericize' such characters.
The User Agreement additionally held players accountable to indemnify (reimburse) NCI and its affiliates against third-party infringement claims, and demanded either a granting of sole ownership in player created content, including characters, to NCI, or a warranty that a third party owner of the rights in player created content had made such a grant. It was unclear whether this grant was an exclusive or a non-exclusive, however.The defendants replied that the lawsuit was frivolous, and while many analysts agreed, others noted that trademark law is structured such that, if Marvel believed their marks were being infringed upon, they had little choice but to file a lawsuit, regardless of its outcome, to preserve the strength of the marks. At least one noted similarities to Fonovisa, Inc. Cherry Auction, Inc., a case in which a company that ran a was successfully sued over because a vendor had been selling records at that flea market. Although Cherry Auction had not been directly selling the infringing items, the court found that it was vicariously or contributorially liable for the infringement.
Marvel subsequently admitted that some of the allegedly infringing characters cited in the had been created by Marvel's own investigators. In March 2005, the court struck those exhibits from the complaint. The court also dismissed with prejudice some of Marvel's claims. The dismissed claims included all indirect counts, because Marvel had not commercial use of Marvel's marks by the game's players. Commercial use is a required element of infringement under American trademark statutes.On December 12, 2005, all remaining claims were settled under undisclosed terms. The game's operators asserted that the settlement did not require changes to the character creation engine.Despite the litigation, in October 2006, selected Cryptic Studios to develop its own superhero MMORPG for and, titled. The alliance surprised players, but developer Matt 'Positron' Miller assured fans on Cryptic's official website that development and maintenance would continue separately on both games , proved later by the complete split between City of Heroes and Cryptic Studios.
Marvel Universe Online was eventually cancelled by Microsoft.Acquisition and new studio On November 6, 2007, NCsoft announced that it would assume ownership of both City of Heroes and City of Villains. As part of a push to further develop City of Heroes, the company also announced the formation of a new development studio dedicated to new titles as well as their interest in distributing and administering their future works once launched. This new team was centered on key members of the Cryptic and NCsoft City of Heroes/Villains teams who accepted the NCsoft offer to join their new studio in Northern California. The sale of the City of Heroes IP granted Cryptic Studios the freedom to work on its new superhero MMORPG (at this time, an RPG/Action hybrid) without concerns of conflict of interest.Shortly after having acquired full ownership of the property, NCsoft granted all existing and former City of Heroes account holders access to both games ( City of Heroes and City of Villains). This allowed all Hero players access to Superbases, which initially required a CoV purchase from its release in Issue 7 until Issue 10, and was no longer required as of Issue 11. Before the purchase, NCsoft allowed players with a subscription or a time card for City of Heroes to have the same access to City of Villains as well (at its lowest price point, $14.99 covered access to both titles for a month), whether or not they had purchased the other title.
This was still being honored after all accounts who had only City of Heroes received access to City of Villains for free. In a July 2008 press release, NCsoft announced the successful completion of allowing all copies of City of Heroes or City of Villains to access the other game (it claimed that Single Title Retail Boxes recently purchased did not successfully unlock the other game when activated).On April 14, 2009, NCsoft NorCal formally changed its name to to become a fully owned developer subsidiary of (similar to and ) dedicated to City of Heroes. Paragon Studios was credited alongside Cryptic Studios on the website and NCsoft websites for development of the game.References. Retrieved 2012-08-31.
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