Top 50 Reaction: City of Heroes/Villains Interview

Eurogamer: This past year's seen the launch or improvement of a lot of competing games, including the seemingly indomitable World of Warcraft. Given that you're all competing for subscriptions, do you consider it a good thing to have so much competition, or is the MMO space one area of gaming the benefits from having just a few titles fighting over it?

Jack Emmert: I believe that every new massively multiplayer game increases the market size rather than cannibalises from a base set of subscribers. Certainly, some players of City of Heroes left in order to play World of Warcraft, but WoW brought in a slew of players who'd never experienced a massively multiplayer before. Those players inevitably will try out new games, like City of Villains! I also believe that each successive massively multiplayer game raises the quality level of games. City of Heroes introduces a lot of popular new features, WoW built on that, and then City of Villains learned some lessons from WoW. I'm sure this trend won't stop anytime soon.

This isn't a picture of Jack, obviously. Or is it? Or is it?

Eurogamer: CoH/V stand out for their immediate, arcade action, rather than opting for the 'second life' elements in other MMOs. How much was this an inevitability of the design, and how much a conscious decision to offer something different?

Jack Emmert: Superheroes and villains are all about action and combat - so yes, it was a conscious decision! We knew that part of our game had to come first and foremost. Players don't want to role-play a normal life in City of Heroes/Villains - they can already do that when they're not at their keyboards. I'll quibble a little with your assertion, if only because City of Villains introduced base building in the franchise. Super Groups building bases are about as "second life" as you can get in a game that's all about comic book heroes and villains.

Eurogamer: What's the most satisfying thing about effectively being the Grand Poobah of an entire world? Apart from any admin-level privileges you might use to slay the unkind, obviously.

Jack Emmert: Being able to change something that's annoying in the game. In City of Villains, I play-tested a particular Strike Force (a long series of adventures) and I could get the things I didn't like changed immediately.

Eurogamer: If you were a superhero or a supervillain, what would you spend your time doing? Apart from making MMORPGs, obviously.

Jack Emmert: Probably trying to ensure that the wealthy and powerful didn't end up manipulating the rest of the populace.

Eurogamer: Finally, we're asking everyone this - with the slight condition that you can't put your own games, what was your favourite game of 2005, and why was it special to you?

Jack Emmert: Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction.

Eurogamer: Actually, this is the final question: where can we get one of those capes?

Jack Emmert: Just need to steal one, of course! Super Villains can't just buy one...