Champions Online is running a poll that lets users decide which new costumes come to the Champions Online universe. From the looks of the poll options, it seems like the new costumes will probably have a historical flair. You can choose from 8 different options: Tesla Coil Electric Armor, Epic Egyptian, Lich Bone Armor, Viking, Gladiator, Sports, Ninja and Pirate.  

With so many great options, why not give us multiple, Cryptic? Our guess is that depending on the number of responses or how widely varied the responses are, Champions Online may very well produce costumes from many of the poll options.  How can one choose between a Ninja costume and Tesla Coil Electric Armor anyway?  Go here to take the poll.

A new interview with Champions Online's Bill Roper was conducted by a Portuguese video game site, VideoJogos, or "Video Games." The translation is a little iffy but it's good enough to get Roper's response to the free-to-play switch that Dungeons and Dragons made as well as his thoughts about Champions Online coming from the Marvel Universe MMORPG.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the interview are the Portuguese journalist's questions. It may be due to the sketchy translation by Google Translate but it really does seem like he's out for blood. There's lots of "why isn't your MMO cheaper" and "why isn't your MMO as appealing as Lord of the Rings Online?" Kudos to Roper who takes his questions in stride and answers professionally. Click here to read the Google translated version.

Another month, another "State of the Game" address from Champions Online's Executive Producer, Shannon Posniewski! For this month, "Poz," as she is known in-game, noted that there was a dev event planned for April 30th, 2010 from 4-7 PM PDT, where the dev team is planning to play through Therakiel's Lair, and they're inviting everyone to come along. As well, of great interest is Champions Online's planned update schedule for the coming months, where Poz notes that they will be trying to make a "significant update" at least once every four to six weeks. As well, for every other month (so every two months or so, give or take half a month), the team plans to release an Adventure Pack or other new content, while the other updates will focus on mini-updates, power revisions and system upgrades. If you're thinking this update system sounds familiar, it's actually what Turbine's Dungeons & Dragons Online team has been employing to great success with DDO - so more content ahoy for Champions Online!

Finally, Poz also sheds some light on the upcoming two updates, noting that April will see the "Supernatural Punch Pack," which will see melee and supernatural power updates, as well as an offensive passives update and some hefty improvements to the "feel of teaming in the game." In other words, more UI support for groups - specifically, more quest UI support so that groups can see their teammates' quests, primary missions, and much more. It certainly does sound like the Champions Online team is really picking up steam! You can also read the full "state of the game" address after the jump.

Champions Online Executive Producer Bill "Chronomancer" Roper said in his recent State of the Game address that the official Revelation page was going to launch this week, and he was right! The informational page for the free expansion is now live, and players can expect to try out the new level 37-40 content in mid-March.

Revelation will let you venture into Vibora Bay and try out six new Tier 4 meta-powers, fight through the Therakiel's Temple lair, battle five new enemy groups, and enjoy more than 30 new perks. You can read all the details after the jump.

Executive Producer Bill "Chronomancer" Roper has written a new State of the Game address for Champions Online, and a big chunk of it is devoted to the upcoming free Revelation expansion. Roper said some exciting things are going to happen this week; the official Revelation page is going to launch, and the expansion will be put up for first testing.

In addition, Roper mentioned that the team's focus in the near term will be on creating adventure packs that can be experienced by heroes at nearly any level. More monthly in-game events are also planned for the future. You can read Roper's letter after the jump.

And the gauntlet has been thrown down! Just yesterday, the Champions Online Development Team announced on their website that on Friday, February 26th, from 4 PM to 7 PM PST, they will be in-game on the Liver server and ready to whoop some superhero PvP butt. The team notes that at 4 PM they will announce which queue they will be joining, and then they will continue to queue for that map until they announce a change. As well, all members of the development team will be playing at Level 40.

So if you think that you have what it takes to smash the guys who made the game, then start getting prepared for Friday, February 26th! As well, for players who have been grumbling about overpowered (or underpowered) abilities, maybe you should suit yourself up with them and show the devs what you're talking about! Good luck everyone!

GM Maruader, the director of Champions Online customer service, has brought back the GM Blog in an attempt to ehance communication with the game's community. The purpose of the blog is to fill players in on the state of of issues that they've submitted to customer service.

The first issue of the GM Blog lists seven fixes that are planned for the PTS that are are a direct result of player input. GM Marauder also encourages players "to use the search function within the in-game ticketing system and use the 'subscribe' button if you see your issue listed." This will help give these issues top priority when the customer service team brings them up to the developers.

You can read the entire blog entry after the jump.

When Cryptic announced that players would have to pay for the upcoming Champions Online expansion, the backlash from the community was noticeable. It was so noticeable, in fact, that Executive Director Bill Roper revealed in this week's State of the Game address that the expansion will now be free for all players.

Champions Online: Revelation, which was formerly known as Vibora Bay, is scheduled to launch in mid-March. Roper said it is designed for levels 37–40 and will have a new level 40 repeatable Lair with all new high-end rewards for experienced players.

Roper admits in his letter that Cryptic has "had a real failure with communicating to our community over the past couple of months." He lists a number of ways the company plans to fix this problem, and one of them is the return of bi-weekly Ask Cryptic segments. The newest one contains answers to some hard-hitting questions, such as how the game can succeed considering its "current lackluster performance."

Roper's State of the Game address and the Ask Cryptic segment are posted after the jump.

Do you have what it takes to defeat members of the Cryptic team in Champions Online? The Cryptic Corps will be queuing for PvP in-game on Friday, Feb. 5, from 3-5 p.m. PST, and they're asking you to bring your best level 40 characters for a shot at a special forum title.

Cryptic is also reaching out to the community by relaunching its regular Ask Cryptic feature. There are only two rules: any topic is fair game and questions must be written in a respectful tone. Head over to this thread to submit your queries to the Champions Online team.

Executive Director Bill Roper revealed in his first State of the Game address of 2010 that the first Champions Online expansion will focus on the city of Vibora Bay. "The apocalypse has come, and it rides upon the half angelic / half demonic wings of Therakiel," Roper said. The mega-adventure pack will feature content for levels 37-40, and a Web page full of details is currently in the works.

As far as other Champions Online updates are concerned, the Blood Moon Halloween event will be making a return appearance every month around the real-world full moon. Cryptic is introducing new difficulty levels for both individual heroes and teams, and players will get the ability to travel back in time to moments in their characters' history.

The rest of the letter focuses on the "kitchen sink" patch that went live today and features over two months worth of fixes and changes to the game. You can read the full State of the Game address after the jump.