MMORPG.com will be featuring former City of Heroes senior lead designer Matt 'Positron' Miller this Thursday, December 21 at 7:30PM EST to discuss the now shutdown superhero MMO as part of a livestream Q&A on our Twitch.TV channel.

Fans of the game are sure to have questions for Matt and we'd like to get you involved in the interview! Simply post any questions you have (as many as you like!) regarding City of Heroes in the comments below and we may select some of them to pose to Matt during our interview this Thursday. 

I loved this game for about 5 years.. playing none stop for about 3 years then leaving and coming back ever once and a while with new builds and content.. But after issue 17 i just quit.. the game went too far away from its roots. with with cash shop and focus to much on gear "enhancements"  the "end game gear" was just to much of a grind with not that much of a reward..

I would love to see a city of heros 2? or a super hero game with alot of the same things city of  heros offerd Is there going to be anything in the works?

I played COH for a number of years and I thought it was great, I was sorry and sad to see it go. All of the developers did a great job of bringing the game to life and making a great community and I thank you all for that.

My question to Matt would be. If the possibility existed to remake COH/COV What parts would you keep, what would you change and what would you omitt fully from the game?

Thank you

wolfneo:

1. You'd have to ask NCSoft that question, but they have absolutely refused to give any answer aside from 'realignment of company focus'. They wanted it dead for reasons they are loathe to give.

2. NCSoft is very possessive of the IPs it controls, even those they shut down. NCSoft has shut down private servers of other games it's closed, so it would likely do that for any CoH private servers. There are groups that are trying to create a successor that would be free of IP issues, however.

3. I wish.  :( But, again, NCSoft owns it, and wants it to be dead.

I could easilly have written any of the posts here... in fact my experience is almost identical to the initial poster.

The thing CoH offered that other MMOs don't is that when I made a superhero... I felt like I had created something and since the name is so important in conveying what that superhero is about and that it is unique to you... you really felt like each hero was a unique creation.

Superhero MMOs using established IPs don't really give you the sense that the world you're in is a blank slate for you to make you mark in... cause Superman is Superman and you're just not gonna be more important or anywhere close to that... in CoH you felt like the world WAS the server population. In that respect... CoH was almost like one of those "social MMOs"...

If there ever was a CoH2 what I'd love to see would be the same level of character creation, unique names to each players (unlike champions)... if they want a cash shop I would make a vectorial logo / emblem / facemask creator and have people pay to get their created logo on their superhero.... but what the game should really focus on should be the communities on each server and letting influence and create their own world.

My two questions (that I think actually can get an answer):

If you manage to come up with investors or lottery money: would you plan creating a new MMO?

Assuming a yes (or assume you were held hostage and forced to do a new MMO): would you decide to make a spiritual successor to City of Heroes, or would you go for something entirely unrelated to super heroes?

Thank you and the Paragon team so much for City of Heroes. I started in 2004, 2 months after beta, and loved playing the game. No matter what was going on in my life, you and CoH were always there for over 8 years.  Thank you most kindly.

My question is: where are the Paragon Studios developers now? I'd like to support the games they are currently creating and supporting. As long as NCsoft is not involved, if you'll forgive me.

My wildest dream is that CoH will somehow arise from its ashes, or a CoH 2 will come from the Paragon team. Just sayin'.

I hadn't played CoX in a long time.  But I still had many fond and wonderful memories of the game.

My question:  Though Paragon Studioes was shut down by NCSoft, has there been any talks of you guys getting back together and doing a Kickstarter MMO/Game based on City of Heroes?  I know it won't BE City of Heroes, but some new Superhero Kickstarter game?  I have a strong feeling you'd have alot of supporters

I played CoH from launch until the final Virtue disconnect August 30th.  I miss it a lot.  Three generations of my family all played it together.

Matt, have you seen the Korea Times article where NCsoft’s Seoul-based spokesman Kim Yo-han said that “nothing had been decided on selling the game or other action afterwards.”

Are you, and/or Melissa and Brian trying to get backers once again to buy the CoH IP from NCSoft since it appears they might be changing their stance on selling CoH?   (Originally they basically said they had exhausted all options and weren't selling it.)

There are a million questions I want to ask, but at the end of the day, that one seems the most important one.

Loved CoH dearly and was sorry to see it go before its time. All the devs and programmers did a great job of keeping it going past its prime and the community made it worth returning to after I'd taken a year off.
In my opinion, CoH reached its prime back in 2010 and with NCsoft's trademarking of City of Heroes 2 it appeared they noticed it too. The shutdown occuring with no CoH2 set to launch, or even announced for development, seems all the more mysterious. As much as I'd like to know why NCsoft chose to shutdown their north american moneymaker I'd really like to know why City of Heroes 2 hadn't been given the greenlight. In 2010 it was time to begin the reboot. NCsoft was proud of CoH and your work.
Q: What happened?

I know efforts have been made to get Disney to look into buying City of Heroes from NCsoft.
Q: In the event that doesn't pan-out, have you and fellow devs/programmers considered approaching Marvel or DC with the proposition of building a new superhero/super-villain MMO?

CoX was unique and with it gone there is a void in the world of superhero gaming that neither of DC's or Marvel's current games can even come close to filling. Genre fans have been making clones and knockoffs of their trademarked characters within City of Heroes since launch day back in 2004, myself included. Lots of gameplayers would love to play alongside their favorite signature heroes and villains. I realize this would be an EXTREEME stretch of the imagination, but I would love to see an MMO joint-effort between the two comic giants. I don't see it happening, but I would certainly buy stock in both companies should they cooperate in such a venture.
Aside from that, should all (or most) of the City of Heroes development team get back together and make a new super-powered MMORPG I would support you all the way. Well . . . just so long as NCsoft isn't involved. The superhero market just isn't their "thing", as evidenced by the sudden shutdown of CoH with no sequel in the works.
Q: What would be your thoughts on beginning an entirely new superhero mmo? Would you address issues in CoH that were present from the beginning? Would you plan-out future content such as storylines, powers/powersets, QoL and new areas so that you have pre-determined goals for the years ahead? And quite importantly: Would you insist on a measure or method of control so you could prevent or delay a free-to-play option which often seems to indicate a game's money troubles?

Thanks for taking the time to listen and thanks for all your hard work on City of Heroes. I wish you all the best for the future.

Q: What did you like most about creating content for the players?

Q:  What issue, post-Freedom, was the most time consiming

Q: How long in planning was City of Heroes: Freedom, as going F2P wasn't an easy decision I'm sure.

Q: What did you like the most about the community and interacting with them?

Q: Of all the former devs that had left/moved on before the shut down, which one did/do you miss the most?

How can we help you (and anyone else remaining) find jobs?  We worry about you guys.

Considering that you used to work for Cryptic Studios, would you and the remaining Paragon Studios staff who are still unemployed like to work for Cryptic Studios hopefully on Champions Online. I've heard that Cryptic wouldn't have the budget to employ more people right now but perhaps with the fact that there are many thousands of us CoH players perhaps some kind of arrangement can be made between us and Cryptic that would cover saleries and expenses for each Paragon dev they employ and bring in some profit besides. Say for example if for every 2000 - 3000 of us who commit to maintain a $15 monthly subscription to Champions Online and keep renewing it for a set amount of time, Cryptic would higher an Unemployed Paragon dev to work on Champions online. There are a good amount of us who are now playing Champions Online and I have seen some of us say that they would pay just to see you working on Champions Online. When Neverwinter is released Cryptic will likely need more devs to properly maintain 3 MMOs and staff from Paragon would bring high quality to the company. I think that if this was possible everyone (Cryptic, Paragon devs and CoH players) would only benefit from it. Do you think there is any way something like this could be negotiated and would you go for such a thing?

After everything that us the CoH players and the Paragon devs have been throguh together (mostly good and recently bad) you guys are practically like family to us and we'd like to have you back with us (ideally in CoH) and this at least could set some things right to a small degree, even if not the way we all want it to be the most.

Q: Is there any particular feature of City of Heroes that you are most proud of?

Q: If you were given the chance to start CoH from scratch, is there anything you'd do differently?