As I’ve said many times in many an interview and to many people in person, City of Heroes was the reason I joined NCsoft.
In April or May 2004, I can’t recall, I was playing the game (on the US servers, natch) and enjoying it so much that I was considering starting a fansite about it, based around a twinned blog – one character based, one player based. A very good friend of mine said to me: “Instead of making all that effort for nothing, why not go and work for them instead?”
The rest is history. (Funny thing is, I never did get around to that blog idea.)
While I worked for NCsoft I never stopped playing City of Heroes (Well – not altogether), but of course I was privy to a lot of behind the scenes information. Which meant often, very little came as a complete and total surprise. (And if it did, it was often not a good surprise.)
Which is why it’s great, now, to start to look at the game from a genuine, uninformed player’s perspective again. Today the EU site is hosting a Developer Diary focusing on the Day Jobs system from Issue 13, and it makes for a very interesting read. Continue reading
Autumn’s here, and it’s not going to let you forget it.
After a brief respite last weekend, where I lay about on green grass near my house reading Piers Paul Read’s biography of Alec Guinness, the weather since has just gotten progressively worse. To the point where I didn’t even want to leave the house today. The fact that I was supposed to be going to the gym had nothing to do with it, you understand.
I did leave the house though, and I even made it to the gym. If I hadn’t though, I’d probably have stayed in and played games. Which is as good a segue as any, I suppose, to what I’m playing. Continue reading
This week’s been busy, and next week may well be busier.
This week was all “Oh, so that’s how it’s gonna be” and “Well, that won’t work, maybe this will” and “My brain can’t even cope with that” and “Sure, but who’s going to pay for it”.
Next week could be “Do we want taller?” and “Well you should have said so” and “I know, but we’ve got to get it done” and “Don’t bother me, I’m learning”.
This weekend is going to be “I can’t bowl to save my life” and “My booze tolerance is so low these days” and “Man, it feels like a week” and “At least it’s Monday tomorrow”.
In the middle of all this, I played a few games.
Finished (deep breath) Penny Arcade Adventures – On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One, which I did enjoy a lot, but didn’t love, like a long-lost relative or whatever. Continue reading