City of Heroes Interview
Posted by Chris Evans on 05.06.2008
411mania speaks to Lead Designer Matt Miller about City of Heroes and its 4-year anniversary.
411Mania.com Q&A w/ City of Heroes Lead Designer Matt Miller
Q: First off congratulations on 4 years of City of Heroes, how does it feel to have had such a successful game last so long?
MM: I love the fact that CoH has been as strong as it is. I live, breathe and sleep “City of” and am very excited about what we’ve done and what we’ve yet to do.
Q: Did you ever have any fears that you wouldn’t last this long?
MM: Of course. So many MMOs are released and don’t make it past a year, it was very scary to hitch my wagon to an MMO company, but in the end I am glad I did because nothing makes you feel better than working on a successful MMO.
Q: Have there been any major in-game celebrations for the 4th Anniversary of the launch?
MM: All the devs have been heads down on finishing up Issue 12: Midnight Hour, so we didn’t have the chance to pop in and say “hi” like we did in years past. I was happy to get the digital calendar out to the players, and of course I spoke to the community in my four year address.
Q: If you could go back and start from scratch what, if anything, would you change about City of Heroes?
MM: Hmm, that’s tough. I think having a system like the Invention system from the start would have been great. We added the system only last year, and we got great responses from our players over it. Having the Inventions system from Day 1 would have allowed us to more fully integrate it into the overall game play. Because we launched it three years into the game, we decided to make it “optional” so that players weren’t forced to change the way that they play the game.
Q: What has surprised you most about how the game has changed since you originally launched it?
MM: I think the most surprising thing is how many Alts players tend to make. I never expected to see players with dozens of characters, each of them an “alt”. I figured players would make one main character and have three or four Alts. I guess that speaks to the diversity of the Archetypes, Character Creator, and Powersets. It’s awesome that players can find so much enjoyment out of making new characters.
Q: In your celebratory message on the website you talk about a new feature that is in the works. Can you reveal more information about this?
MM: I can tell you that we are working hard to bring you this feature as soon as possible. I was surprised that no one picked up on the hint I laid at GDC during the Future of MMOs panel that I was on. I said there that players have stories to tell, and we as MMO developers would be crazy not to let them tell them in some way.
Unfortunately I can not divulge any further information on the feature mentioned, I want to, but I can’t.
Q: What do have planned for Issue 12?
MM: We explore the Midnight Squad, their history and their characters. We also go into a little bit on the “Origin of Origins”, as well as continue on the Time Travel theme from Issue 11 with the Cimeroran Peninsula, a part of the ancient Roman Empire.
Of course the issue has more than just storylines; it’s got new powersets too! Well, not “new” per se, but “new to you.” We took a couple of oft-requested powersets and “proliferated” them onto other Archetypes who didn’t have access to them before. Add that to the Villain Epic Archetypes (the Soldiers of Arachnos) and you can see why we are allowing players to buy more characters slots on their favorite servers. (Of course we’ll give them a couple slots for free, because we’re nice like that!)
Q: Let’s look long-term, where do you City of Heroes/Villains this time next year at the 5th Anniversary?
MM: Actually I don’t look at the 5th Anniversary as “long term”. We already have some solid plans leading through this time next year and are already working on them. What I do see is that by the 5th Anniversary we’ve got a slew of new content as well as a couple new systems to play around with.
Q: Can we expect to hear anything about a City of Heroes 2 anytime soon, or are you keeping your focus firmly on what you have right now?
MM: Good question! We are focused on the short and medium term right now, but we do have one eye to the future.
Q: Do you prefer playing as a Hero, or a Villain?
MM: I prefer playing Villains, but I’ll play whatever my group wants to play that night.
Q: What are your favourite Archetypes and Powers?
MM: I have a Fire/Energy Dominator. I love Teleport as a travel power as well. I take it on all my characters.
Q: How do you see the MMO, or as I like to call it, the MOG (Multiplayer Online Game) scene today. Do you think it is getting ever better, or are there too many World of Warcraft clones?
MM: I think there are a lot of WoW clones because everyone wants a piece of WoW, not surprisingly. A lot of publishers the last couple years have looked at backing MMOs to compete for WoW’s users.
The fact is, though, we don’t need the kind of numbers that WoW reports to make a game that is fun and profitable, and the sooner the industry remembers this the better. Our game is a perfect example. Sure, you always want more people in. But you don’t have to have a customer reach that, say, Lineage and WoW have worldwide to be a success. Let’s just make some really fun and unique games.
Q: Do you think that MOGs are the future of the PC? Will we ever see MOGs become successful on the consoles?
MM: I think that we’ll see MMOs on the consoles, but they will be/feel different than PC MMOs. It’s like RPGs, PC RPGs and Console RPGs are both RPGs, but they can play and feel radically different from one another.
Q: Any last comments regarding the 4th Anniversary of City of Heroes?
MM: I look forward to the next 4 years, and the 4 after that as well.
Q: If you could go back and start from scratch what, if anything, would you change about City of Heroes?
MM: Good question! We are focused on the short and medium term right now, but we do have one eye to the future. 
