Positron and Statesman have been dropping some hints for a while, and now we have the first official details about the features of Issue #8, the next free content update for City of Heroes and City of Villains.

You can see what’s coming in our Game Guide section.

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Wondering what’s coming next to the world of City of Heroes and City of Villains? Over at GameSpot UK they’ve been asking Cryptic’s Lead Designer, Matt ‘Positron’ Miller exactly the same thing:

Well, first off, we did a major overhaul to the City of Heroes zone Faultline. It includes new contacts and missions, as well as a better street-hunting experience. We also have brought the randomly generated missions that we had in City of Villains (which villain characters got from the newspapers and brokers) to hero characters. The City of Heroes version is called “police band missions”, and these can lead players into safeguard missions where they must protect Paragon City from vandals and stop major crimes in progress.

You can get more information about the upcoming Issue #8: To Protect And Serve by reading the full interview.

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This Thursday, 31 August, will see the 21st birthday of long-term community member Stasis, and in order to celebrate this special occassion, Silver_Weasel and Fire_Guardian are organising a party for her in Pocket D on Union.

Heroes and villains of all stripes (and no stripes at all) are cordially invited to come along to Pocket D on Union from 8pm BST onwards to wish Stasis well and have fun with their fellow players, while listening to FG’s birthday set on Evolution Radio. I’m afraid I won’t be able to stay for the whole event, but I will be popping along.

Remember, if you’re organising an event for City of Heroes or City of Villains and would like to see it mentioned here, drop me a mail to

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We’re pleased to announce that the winner of the Creative Genius competition for July is Coile for for the excellent ‘A for Android’ fiction, including A for Android: Pantheon of Beauty and A for Android: Fragrance of Madness:

There is a faint and familiar scent in the air. I open my eyes in the dark. I know the scent. It is her, her natural musk after a patrol. I sit up in the bed and listen. There are no sounds. I get up and walk to the closed guest room door pulling the trousers on. I open the door. The apartment is silent, there is no one there. Still I can smell her. Sharp, deep pain pierces my chest.

If you enjoy them, be sure to check the other ‘A for Android’ pieces - you can find a list of them, complete with links, in Coile’s post here.

Congratulations to Coile, who is now the proud owner of a ‘Creative Genius’ title on the official message boards and 60 days of free game time!

We’d also like to give a special ‘honourable mention’ to Fire_Guardian for The Insps Don’t Work, which also received several nominations.

The Creative Genius competition is a monthly contest held on the Creative board. For more details of the recently revised competition, see the Creative Genius - A new start thread on the official message boards. The Nominations for August’s Creative Genius will be opened on the Creative board in the first week of September.

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This week will see thousands of gamers descend on Leipzig, Germany for the annual Games Convention, where NCsoft Europe will be showing off our games, hosting the finals of the Guild Wars: Factions World Championship and, together with ShoutedFM throwing a massive Community Party for all our players on Friday night.

If you can’t make it in person, though, you’ll still be able to join us virtually by tuning into the live audio broadcast on ShoutedFM‘s mth.House channel from 8pm BST on Friday 25 August, which will include an epic DJ battle between our very own Amboss and the mth.House Allstars!

We’ll also be offering photo coverage of the entire show on our Flickr-Account.

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You may recall the charity sketch sessions we held at the Brighton and Bristol Comic Expos this year and last, where together with Draw the World Together and EveryChild, we offered you the chance to get your hero or villain sketched by a well known comic artist, for a small donation to charity.

Well those heroic organisers at Draw the World Together are once again blazing the fundraising trail by auctioning off some original artwork from the world famous comic 2000AD. You know you want a piece!

The auction, taking place on eBay, features some incredible artwork from ‘Art Droids’ such as Henry Flint, Mike Collins, Disreali, Christ Weston, Steve Yeowell, Dave Gibbons, Carlos Esquerra and more.

The auctions will last for five days, so go and check out the great art and help support Draw the World Together and EveryChild!

All of the funds raised will go to the EveryChild project in the Prey Veng province of Cambodia.

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The City of Heroes and City of Villains servers have been updated with a new patch. Head over to the Game Guide section of the site to find out about all the changes.

On a side note, we have to inform you that there won’t be any in-game support available today. However none of your tickets will get lost, they will simply be dealt with outside the game world. Support will resume as usual on Saturday morning.

We would like to apologise for any inconvenience this may cause, and thank you for your patience.

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People who have Lineage II accounts, active or inactive, may experience problems logging in to their PlayNC Master Account. If you are having problems logging in, and you think you might be affected, please use the “forgot password” link. You will then be prompted to enter some details, and answer your security question, after which you will be emailed a new password.

If your PlayNC password is the same for any game accounts, you may also have to change these too. If you find you cannot log in to a game, this may be the reason why.

If you experience problems with this system, or have any questions or concerns, please visit the Knowledge Base and click on the Ask a Question tab. Under Department, select Account Support to best direct your enquiry.

If you do have a Lineage II Account, please read this message over on the official Lineage II site.

The forums of City of Heroes and City of Villains are currently down because of a maintenance.

Thank you for your assistance and your continued patience. We remain dedicated to providing the best possible service for our customers and apologise for the inconvenience.

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Rejoice brothers and sisters, City of Villains has once again been recognised for its irrefutable influence in the world of gaming. The World of Roleplayers Radio station recently held their first annual Wing awards, allowing the hapless public to vote for their favourite MMO games across several fiendish categories.

Rumours of these glorious awards were spread from tongue to tongue, whispering their way into the ever listening ears of the mighty Lord Recluse. A plot to steal the awards was born at once, and the minions of Arachnos slunk into the shadows, poised, waiting to strike. As night fell, the orders were given and Arachnos moved out. Those responsible for the chaos that ensued will be caught, mark my words…

Continue reading

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