With a whopping three superhero MMOs on the market, Senior Staff Writer Chris "Pwyff" Tom went back to revisit City of Heroes, the first game that defined the genre.

When it comes to MMO genres, there's always a 'titan' of the industry that newcomers are aiming to topple. While most would consider Blizzard's World of Warcraft to be the undisputed king of all, there have been a few games that managed to carve out their own niche thrones within specific MMO genres, like EVE Online, with its dominance of the sci-fi and sandbox MMO industry.

Of course, some industry leaders are easier to take on than others, and perhaps the most exciting 'industry battle' that has been taking place over the past few months has been the struggle for dominance of the superhero MMO market. It's between old-time veteran City of Heroes as they hold the line against their brother-in-spirit, Champions Online and, more recently, DC Universe Online. Interestingly, however, while most believed that either CO or DCUO would take the undisputed lead, CoH has done an impressive job of competing. I decided to venture into the world of City of Heroes to see what it is that's kept this 7-year-old game relevant against these two heavyweight challengers.

Before I get to my revisit, however, a little history lesson is in order here. Way back in 2004, before World of Warcraft was set to take the stage, Cryptic Studios released City of Heroes, an innovative action-oriented game that stressed character customization and a unique superhero theme (at the time…). In fact, City of Heroes did so well that developer Cryptic ended up receiving an offer from Marvel and Microsoft to develop a new Marvel-based MMO. Of course, being the sane individuals they were, Cryptic accepted the offer, and they sold the development rights of City of Heroes to their publishing partners, NCsoft, who then set up their own CoH development studios, NorCal NCsoft (in 2009, they renamed themselves Paragon Studios).

From there, owing to some alleged disagreements between Microsoft and Marvel, Marvel Universe Online was canceled in 2008, and Cryptic ended up releasing their new superhero MMO under the rebranded name of Champions Online. Regarding the development of DC Universe Online, and speaking purely from speculation, the development of this third superhero MMO probably began as a result of DC's desire to compete with the upcoming Marvel MMO (as development of DC Universe Online was announced in April, while Marvel Universe was cancelled in February). Thus, while it's easy to be baffled by the sheer number of superhero MMOs in the market (all backed by strong development teams as well), in reality City of Heroes, Champions Online and DC Universe Online are all more related than it would initially seem.

Getting on with my revisit, City of Heroes' character creation process is still deeper than almost any other MMO on the market, with only Cryptic's Champions Online having a slightly more robust system for obvious reasons (since they made both). Either way, as many CoH fans will fondly tell you, it's easy to lose countless hours creating that perfect character, and it's remarkable that this seven year old game has the tools to allow you to do that. I ultimately ended up with my robot-themed "PROTO PWYFF," an obnoxious superhero that could only communicate in capital letters, as she had been created with a permanently toggled caps lock key (go ahead, read my bio). I also decided to go with one of CoH's newest powersets, the Dual Pistols.

I started my life as a superhero in Praetoria, a new low level zone that was introduced in City of Heroes' latest expansion, Going Rogue. Immediately after my first mission, I was given the choice of committing to one of two morally grey factions; the Loyalists, who serve under the "benevolent" dictatorship of Emperor Cole, and the Resistance, a group of insurgents with members who range from your standard justice-loving freedom fighters, all the way to some destructive anarchists who care more about wreaking havoc than doing any proper rebelling. It should be noted that you can change your faction loyalties throughout your adventures in Praetoria, but I was quite impressed with the quality of work that went into creating some of these morally ambiguous situations.

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