Back in 2004, friends of mine convinced me to start playing a new game with them online. It was NCSoft’s massively multiplayer online game called City of Heroes. These friends knew my love for comic books and superheroes. Here was a chance to play a game as a hero of my design.
I played several superhero-based role-playing games back in the day. I was the game master for a few of them. I love trying my hand at being a hero like Spider-Man and creating the story.
City of Heroes took this to a whole new level. I could create my own heroes and play with or against others online. I could join a hero group and fight the big bad guys together.
City of Heroes was extremely popular for a while. But like most of these types of games, the newness fell off. Eventually, NCSoft shut off their servers and retired City of Heroes in 2012.
As with many games, private servers popped up. The game code was released online. Some kept playing City of Heroes secretly but with the constant fear that NCSoft could come in and have them shut down for an illegal use of this game. Homecoming, an unofficial fan-run project of City of Heroes, was one of these sites.
On January 4, NCSoft did something unexpected and to be celebrated. Unlike what other software companies have done in the past, NCSoft did not shut them down. They did the opposite. They provided the developers of Homecoming with an official license for City Of Heroes. This not only allows City of Heroes to continue to live but also allows the developers to further develop the game.
Homecoming version of City of Heroes will continue to remain free to play and will be fully funded by the donation of fans.
Below is a video from Geekanomicon playing City of Heroes in case you haven’t played or seen the action before. You can go to Homecoming to sign up for an account if you would like to play.
Stay Geeky!
