According to MMORPG.com, it seems as though City of Heroes developer Paragon Studios has laid off a number of its employees, possibly including Senior Animator / VFX Lead Christopher "Back Alley Brawler" Bruce. Now, these layoffs could be attributed to the fact that Paragon Studios is probably just trying to trim the fat after the release of their recent expansion, Going Rogue, but it's never good news to hear that a company is making space on their roster.

MMORPG.com did manage to get a quote out of NCsoft, but it doesn't really shed much light on the recent layoffs and the future for City of Heroes:

"In an effort to put a greater focus on the City of Heroes franchise, Paragon Studios is shifting resources within the studio. In order to optimize the refocus, there has been a reduction in force that has impacted a small amount of people. Paragon Studios is an integral part of the NCsoft West family and will continue to prosper, delivering the world’s most popular superpowered hero MMO game, City of Heroes, to fans around the world."

Paragon Studios just published the overview page for Issue 19: Alpha Strike, and it looks like this upcoming update will bring a lot of new content to City of Heroes. Issue 19 unveils the Alpha Slot, which is the first part of the new Incarnate system that gives high-level characters access to new powers and challenges.

Issue 19 also introduces two new Task Forces, two free customizable auras, new Praetoria zone live events, alternate power animations, and more. Also, the Fitness power pool will become an inherent power pool available to all new and existing characters starting from Level 1.

Paragon Studios just announced that another Reactivation Weekend will be held in City of Heroes from Oct. 7-10, but this one's a bit different. Not only can former players come back for free for a few days, but old and new players alike get to preview the new content from the Going Rogue expansion!

The fun starts on Oct. 7 at 8 a.m. PDT and runs through Oct. 10 at 11:59 p.m. PDT. There is one catch: all active or reactivated accounts that gain temporary access to Going Rogue will only have access to the Praetorian content up to level 14. Regardless, this is a perfect opportunity to see what you've been missing in City of Heroes.

Who knew changing your morality could be this much work! In the latest developer blog from Shawn "Pit" Pitman, he discusses some of the behind-the-scenes concepts that went into making City of Heroes' Going Rogue expansion what it is today. Specifically, Pitman touches on the thought process that lead the team to creating the "Hero's shadow," the Vigilante, and the "Villain's less ambitious cousin," the Rogue, two moral categories that almost every writer (comic book or not) struggles with on a daily basis.

From a character development point of view, it's easy as pie to create the true Paragon of Justice and the absolutely evil Villain, but where things start getting difficult (and interesting!) is when you make the move to more greyer waters of morality. Pitman and the team over at Paragon Studios really understood this, and so they really wanted to create the journey from good to evil, or vice versa, as well as why they didn't want to give players that "Im naow teh evilz" (his words, not mine) button.

Either way, it's a great developer post and gives some keen insight into how the team had to re-do massive portions of City of Heroes to incorporate the Rogue and Vigilante moralities, including preventing NPCs from killing everyone on sight, editing six year's worth of missions, merging markets and more.

For those of you attending the New York City Comic Con, taking place October 8th to the 10th, ArenaNet is inviting you to come hang out with them on Friday night, October 8, at the NCsoft Meet and Greet! The team promises that the party will showcase the East Coast premiere of the Guild Wars 2 demo, and you'll be able to meet some of the great minds behind this highly anticipated MMORPG. According to this City of Heroes post, the NCsoft Meet and Greet will be held from 7-11 p.m. in the Hudson Hotel at 356 W. 58th Street.

On Saturday, October 9th at 1:30 PM, lead ArenaNet designers Eric Flannum and Colin Johanson will be presenting a panel discussion, "Guild Wars 2: Building a Better MMO," where they will discuss the design process that went into GW2. Finally, at 5:15 PM, ArenaNet will be participating in MMORPG.com's panel discussion, "The Future of Online Gaming." Both events will be taking place in Panel Room 6, so if you want to attend, get on it!

Seems like everyone's in a partying mood these days! Just today, NCsoft and Paragon Studios announced that they have released their City of Heroes 'Party Pack,' a micro-transaction emote bundle that comes with dance, nightlife and sports emotes, all for $7.99. The following moves will be included in this party pack: 

• Pop Dance (/em popdance)
• Karate Dance /em karatedance)
• Disco Dance /em discodance)
• Air Guitar (/em airguitar)
• Basketball  (/em basketball)
• Soccer (/em soccer)
• Pool (/em pool)
• Open Gift (/em opengift)

We received a bunch of cool entries for our City of Heroes: Going Rogue contest. To enter, you had submit a character of your own creation (not a screenshot). What we found is we have some very talented people amongst our readership. We chose our Grand Prize winner, as well as some deserving runners-up.

Our winner gets:

• A Dell Alienware M11X laptop
• A Cyborg R.A.T. 7 gaming mouse
• A pair of Gunnar gamer glasses
• A plaque declaring the heroic (or villainous) deeds of your character.

Runners-up don't go away empty handed, either. We have decided to offer those lucky artists a three-month subscription to ZAM Premium.

Congratulations to everyone. Go below the fold to find out who the winner is and get a look at the winning submission.

Update: We're working on a solution to the free jetpack codes that were promised to our readers. The response we received was more than we anticipated, so please bear with us as we figure out how to distribute the codes. Thanks for your patience, and I hope we can get you your jetpack codes soon.

Note: Posting for the jetpack codes is now over. Further posts will not enter you as a chance to get a key.

When Paragon Studios and NCsoft announced that they would be releasing a new expansion for City of Heroes (CoH), we were intrigued. When it was revealed that this expansion was called "Going Rogue" and it featured the ability for Superheroes and Villains alike to tread all those morally grey waters between "good" and "evil," we became downright excited. After all, when was the last time you had a character that could change their very morality during the course of the game? Probably never!

Either way, we were so excited about CoH's latest expansion, we decided to reach out to Paragon Studios to have a little chat with Matt Miller, lead systems designer, about this upcoming expansion. They were also kind enough to throw in some free jetpack codes for our readers! So maybe you were a fan of City of Heroes and have since taken a break, or perhaps you've always been that massive CoH enthusiast all your life, so why not go rogue with an awesome jetpack? Just make a post in the comments section of this interview about what part of Going Rogue you're looking forward to most (it can be anything!), and you'll have the chance to get a snazzy Jetpack! Enjoy!

ZAM is sponsoring a character creation contest for the new City of Heroes: Going Rogue expansion. Everyone that enters the contest gets a shot at an Alienware laptop and a gaming mouse, but if entrants can create a truly unique hero or villain and submit a drawn picture, they have a chance at the grand prize:

• A Dell Alienware M11X laptop
• A Cyborg R.A.T. 7 gaming mouse
• A pair of Gunnar gamer glasses
• A plaque declaring the heroic (or villainous) deeds of your character

City of Heroes forthcoming expansion, Going Rogue, introduces two new alignments, Vigilante and Rogue and introduces characters who walk the line between good and evil. Mother Mayhem is the most recently introduced, and one of the most interesting.

Mother Mayhem was a gifted psychic killed in battle, but like all true super heroes, she lived again. Her friend and fellow psychic, Aurora Borealis, took her consciousness into her own, and now two powerful psychics inhabit the body. Two female personalities in one body, and she can read your mind? Sounds intimidating right?

Mother Mayhem founded the Seers who, very much like the movie Minority Report, are network of psychics who detect evil thoughts and dispatch law enforcement before crime happens. This expansion has a sense of morality that is much greyer than the black and white City of Heroes and City of Villains games that came before it. For more, go here.