Nine reasons City of Heroes was an innovator in the industry

Day one of celebrating City of Heroes’ nine year anniversary – nine reasons City of Heroes was an innovator in the industry. Here is my part of the action called by the Titan Network:

Flexible character creator

City of Heroes had a very flexible character creator, that gave players far greater freedom in character design than in any other game. Even today, very few games can challenge City of Heroes in this matter.

First superhero MMO

While an majority of the MMO games are furry/fantasy themed, City of Heroes was the first superhero MMO.

Player-created content

From Issue 14, players are able to create custom story arcs in Mission Architect. A story arc can consist of up to five missions, and the player can use existing characters as well as create new ones in the same way as creating a character. The Mission Achitect system have advanced since its launch, allowing more space for custom characters, more option for game mechanics and more maps to choose from.

Laissez-faire free market

From Issue 9, players are allowed to conveniently trade any item on the market. Statistics about the most recent trades provided the buyers and sellers with vital information.

Invention system

A good crafting system is in my opinion vital to a lasting gaming experience. The invention system, which was also released in Issue 9, gave the players more ways to fine-tune their characters.

Supergroup bases

Supergroups were the City of Heroes equivalence to ”guilds” in other games. Every supergroup had its own base, which the leader and privileged members where able to build at their hearts desire.

Fun and useful travel powers

Yes, other games had travel powers, a few as early as when City of Heroes launched. I remember the cars from early Rose Online. But no other game allowed us to choose between flight, superjump, superspeed and teleport. And the level requirement in City of Heroes was far lower than in other games.

Praetoria

Preatoria was a parallel world, which was ruled by Emperor Cole. The Praetorian world consisted of two factions: Loyalists who supported the totalitarian rule of Cole, and the Resistance.

Power customization

From Issue 16 and up, City of Heroes allowed great freedom to fine-tune the appearance of powers, in addition to the power tweaks you were able to do thanks to the invention system.