You Californians get all the fun. First BlizzCon in SoCal, and then the Bay Area gets Hero-Con just a week later for all you City of Heroes/Villians players out there..

Hero-Con '08 will take place October 18th at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Santa Clara, California. The festivities include, but are not limited to:

• Attend the 2nd Annual Community Address from Lead Designer, Matt "Positron" Miller, and Executive Producer, Brian Clayton.
• Attend the banquet dinner, with entertainment and exclusive upcoming announcements.
• Attend Q&A, Round Table Discussions, and Workshop sessions provided by "City of Heroes" game creators and players.
• Participate in a live mission event with a team of 8 other players to see who can heroically or relentlessly beat out other teams for the grand prize.
• Shop at our Community store to get just released collectibles for City of Heroes and City of Villains.
• Receive free gifts and in game rewards.
• Enter to win in some of our fabulous contests hosted by a panel of celebrity judges: costume, emote, & dance your way to fame.

Sound like your cup of tea? Head over here for more information, and to sign up.

Ever regret the way you've specced your character, but feel that you've come way too far to start over? City of Heroes feels your pain, and is now offering purchasable character respecs.

City of Heroes has expanded their suite of available purchasable services to include Character Respecs (short for Respecifications). Over the course of leveling up, there are many powers that a character can choose from. A Character Respec allows the character to re-select their powers from their chosen primary and secondary powers, along with any other pools of powers they have access to. To be clear, this optional purchasable Respec does not allow the primary or secondary powerset to be reselected; it functions like existing respecs currently available in game.

Optional Character Respecs are available via the in-game store found at the character select screen for the per transaction price of $9.99 USD. There are already multiple in-game methods that players can obtain a Respec. Now, if the convenience of purchasing a Respec is desired, it is available. Having a purchasable option has been an often heard desire from the game's customers. Once players purchase a Respec, they must then visit a Respec Contact in-game to use it, in the same manner as the in-game obtainable respecs are done. The Respec Contacts include: Jack Wolf in Galaxy City and Arbiter Lupin in Nerva.

 

Saturday, October 18, 2008, join the CoX teams in celebrating Hero-Con '08!

Join the City of Heroes & City of Villains Development team and other super heroes and super villains for a "Freem" filled day and night of activities.

This year promises to raise the roof of the exclusive Hyatt Regency Hotel in Santa Clara, California on Saturday, October 18, 2008. We have arranged special pricing at this beautiful hotel for our event attendees, if you wish to book a room for the event please enter this code G-NCSO to unlock or book directly from this page to get our special pricing for rooms. This special rate can be applied on dates prior and after the event as well.

For details on events going on during Hero-Con, read on!

NCsoft has combined the worlds of City of Heroes and City of Villains , making both subscriptions valid for both games, and all content!

There is a reason for the rejoicing in Paragon CityTM and the Rogue IslesTM. It is official - NCsoft® has completely merged the two games into one game universe. All current subscribers who only had one of the games (City of Heroes® or City of Villains®) now have access to the features of both games. Additionally, all City of Heroes and City of Villains games for sale at retail or online will grant access to both games.

This is the final step needed in preparing the IP for future projects, to be announced later this year. Paragon City and the Rogue Isles have always been a part of the same game universe. When City of Villains launched in 2005 as a stand-alone game, it did not launch with an extra subscription fee, so there has always been this feeling that they are closely related. What's different here is that NCsoft has taken down the barrier where players had to have a City of Villains serial code to make a villain, and vice versa. Now, it doesn't matter if you bought Heroes or Villains, you can make characters from either faction you want and experience their unique game content. Additionally, Heroes now have access to base building, which was previously only available if you had purchased City of Villains.

Read on for the rest of the press release! There's no word on a name change, or the new IP that's hinted at!

The folks from CoX as well as GameTrailers.com and Toyota have joined together for an awesome contest!

On behalf of Toyota and GameTrailers.com we are proud to present the Matrix Machinima Contest: Get In Touch With Your Dark Side!

Make a Machinima video with City of Heroes / City of Villains and have the chance to win the grandprize of a 2009 Model year Toyota Matrix S filled with good stuff! Act now! Submissions can only be uploaded to GameTrailers.com from July 1st through August 10th. Winners will be announced on Spike's GTTV on September 12th.

Click here for the contest details and rules!

So get your minions, sidekicks and henchmen ready, load up on hard drive space and make a Machinima masterpiece!!!

Good luck to everyone that enters!

The folks over at City of Heroes just announced that they'll be joining in the fun at Comic Con in San Diego next month. Just another reason to join in the fun!

July 23-July 27th members of the City of Heroes team will be at Comic Con to share in the fun. Stop by the NCsoft booth # 5209 to meet up with Lighthouse, Ex Libris, Blue Steel, and others from the City of Heroes & City of Villains team.

 

Be sure to ask for your Pocket D VIP Pass to gain access to the Pocket D Jubilee event scheduled for Saturday July 26th. The VIP Pass will also unlock a special in game item that was selected for this show only.

Read more details and join the discussion on our Official Forums.

Read the official announcement here.

Played City of Heroes/Villains in the past, and thinking about making a comeback? Now's your chance to take a look at everything that's been added, all gratis!

Just in time to try out all the new features included in Issue 12: Midnight Hour, it’s a free Reactivation Weekend! From Thursday, May 22nd starting at 11 AM Pacific (1 PM Eastern) and continuing through Sunday, May 25th at 8:59 PM Pacific (11:59 PM Eastern) all inactive accounts in good standing have free access to City of Heroes and/or City of Villains!

If you haven’t played in a while, be sure to read through the press release for the launch of Issue 12: Midnight Hour: “NCsoft Covers New Ground in City of Heroes” and visit the Official Message Forums for a wealth of information about Issue 12.

We’ll see you in game and have a great “City of” weekend!

Stratics sat down with Matt Miller, Lead Designer for CoX.

Matt Miller, Lead Designer for the City of Heroes/Villains (CoX) franchise briefly stepped out of his neon-colored superhero tights and donned his secret disguise for a Q & A with Stratics Central's
Managing Editor, Tricia "Seridove" Bennon on their recent content update, Issue 12: Midnight Hour, which entered Open Beta today.  The interview can be found here.

City of Heroes is going through some tough times this weekend, because the Rikti Invasion is returning, and the world needs your help to overcome!

The looming threat of the Rikti Invasion Force still hangs like a dark pall over Earth. Despite the best efforts of humanity, aggressive Rikti incursions still plague the planet. Advance warning systems indicate the Rikti are massing for attacks on the following dates throughout the year.

Prepare for a desperate battle to save Earth from the Rikti Invasion Force! Aggressive Rikti forces will attack Paragon City and Rogue Isle with increased frequency at any time during the above dates! Some important items to remember about Rikti Invasions:

• When Zones within the cities are under attack, a world-wide alert will be issued by Vanguard. This alert will show up in your Chat window on the System channel, warning you in which zone attack is imminent.
  
• While the invasion is occurring, players do not receive debt while outdoors in an invaded zone.
  
• Those in that zone that do not wish to be at risk of Rikti attack are asked to take shelter immediately. They can do so by leaving the zone, or moving inside buildings or under cover (overpasses, parking garages, etc.).
  
• The combative inhabitants in a zone will move off the streets and to safer locations when a Rikti Invasion takes place.

Read on for the dates the event will be available, and check out the official page for more information

Details have come out of the NCsoft's Norcal studios regarding the new character slot micro-pay options!

As we previously announced, we heard the request for a system to allow more characters on a single server and this is our answer. City of Heroes is a unique game that offers many playstyle options; options that are growing in a large way due to Powerset Proliferation and the addition of the Villain Epic Archetypes in the next free expansion, Issue 12: Midnight Hour. To accommodate playing more characters on your favorite server, we will be including the following features in Issue 12:

• All current subscribers will receive 2 free character slots, each of which can be used on the specific server of their choice. This is to help you make new characters to take advantage of the new features of Issue 12, even if you already have maxed out your “home” server’s character slots.

• Additional Optional Character Slots will be available on a purchasable basis. These are one-time fees, not an addition to your monthly subscription rate. The additional slots can be had at the following price points:

  • 1 Optional Character Slot for a one-time fee of $5.99
  • 2 Optional Character Slots for a one-time fee of $9.99
  • 5 Optional Character Slots for a one-time fee of $19.99

It's not a bad system, though one we're all going to have to get used to!  Here's the place to go for more details!