The second expansion to City of Heroes, "Going Rogue," was announced today by developer NCsoft.

The update will add the world of "Praetoria," a parallel universe where players can switch the alignment of their characters. As players complete "clearly marked missions," a new alignment system will track a hero or villain's morality, which will eventually change the character's moral status.

"For years, players could choose between playing as a hero or a villain," said Paragon Studios general manager Brian Clayton. "Now we will present a third, malleable path where players can be affected by the results of their actions, enabling them to further develop, unveil new perspectives, and overcome new challenges."

Click through to view a teaser trailer for the update.... Read more

To celebrate City of Heroes' fifth anniversary, NCSoft has reactivated all expired retail and trial City of Heroes and City of Villains accounts for free until 11:59pm EST Sunday.

Retired heroes and villains have five days to uphold/crush justice in Paragon City and check out all the updates they've missed--first and foremost a swanky mission editor.

No anniversary is complete without celebrations and NCSoft promises a full utility belt of festivities and special events, with in-game commemorative badges for all party-goers.

Thanks to Shacker ch4ot1c0n3 for the tip.

Expanding Steam's catalog of massively multiplayer online games, publisher NCsoft has announced that its various MMOs will soon hit Valve's digital distribution platform.

NCsoft's City of Heroes, Guild Wars and Lineage series are now available through Steam, with NCsoft's next MMO, Aion: The Tower of Eternity, due on it this fall.

"NCsoft is a clear leader in the MMO industry, and we believe our player community will be very excited to have access to the diverse catalog NCsoft has to offer our members," said Valve business development director Jason Holtman.

In celebration, various "special offers" on NCsoft-published titles are said to be hitting Steam across the coming weeks.

Cryptic Studios has confirmed that it recruited players for the now-underway Champions Online closed beta from super-powered rival City of Heroes and other PC MMOs.

Rumors of such practices emerged via Massively earlier this week, after the official City of Heroes website warned players and forum-goers of solicitations from "another game company trying to lure you to their competing product."

While Cryptic Studios was initially involved in the creation and upkeep of City of Heroes, the company later sold its stake in the franchise to publisher NCsoft. Cryptic then revealed Champions Online a few months later, and was later bought by Atari.

"I'm certain this wasn't meant to be a malicious attack on a competing product, nor did anyone intend to steal players, violate user agreements, kill babies... Read more

In a post celebrating the four year anniversary of the game, City of Heroes community manager Lighthouse has announced a new feature that will "very soon" have players creating their own storylines within the superhero MMO.

"Similar in concept to our character creator, [the new feature] allows you, the players, to create missions and story arcs for your characters and others to participate in," said NCSoft's Lighthouse. "You'll be able to pick the map, villain group, and objectives, as well as write the dialog and any clues needed for the missions."

The custom mission creator will also feature some type of community-based sharing and rating system.

"When you are satisfied with it, you can upload it and have other players across all servers play it and rate it," he added. "Fame will come to the players whose stories rate the best overall."

Original City of Heroes developer Cryptic Studios is currently working on a highly customizable superhero MMO titled Champions Online, set for release next spring.

MMO developer NCsoft today announced a new partnership with Double Fusion to supply in-game advertising for City of Heroes, releasing several images of the game world before and after ad integration.

The companies say that the real world ads will lend a sense of realism to the super-powered world of City of Heroes, with players able to opt out of the advertising if they so choose. Additionally, NCsoft plans to make use of the technology to display player-created content within the game.

"We are pleased to work with Double Fusion on City of Heroes," said NCsoft general manager Brian Clayton. "[T]hey have demonstrated sensitivity to the needs of our community and fundamentally understand how advertising can bring value to the players when executed gracefully, and in the appropriate context."

NCsoft acquired complete ownership of City of Heroes last year from original developer Cryptic Studios.

Double Fusion recently signed a similar deal with developer Gearbox Software, which plans to use Double Fusion's technology to bring in-game advertising to an undisclosed roster of upcoming titles.

MMO publisher NCsoft has obtained complete ownership of the City of Heroes intellectual property for an undisclosed sum and is opening a new development studio staffed by members of the game's original team in Mountain View, CA.

The company's plans for the superhero PC MMO include new expansions and sequels. NCsoft claims it acquired "key members" of the City of Heroes team--including lead designer Matt Miller, lead engineer Aaron Brady, and lead artist Ken Morse--from Cryptic Studios, which originally developed the game and previously split ownership of the IP with NCsoft. All members of the City of Heroes team have been offered jobs at NCsoft, according to Cryptic's FAQ on the sale.

"We're happy to announce that NCsoft has acquired full ownership of the City of Heroes IP," said NCsoft executive producer and new studio manager Brian Clayton. "Our plans are clear. We are now in a position to make a major reinvestment in the City of Heroes product line."

The new office represents the second studio NCsoft has formally... Read more

A City of Heroes / Villains community Q&A can be found at WarCry. Art director Jay Doherty answers reader questions about costumes in the game.

How do you keep a successful genre booming with a finite amount of comic book material? License a franchise that is based on the creation of thousands of characters.

Producer Tom DeSanto (Transformers, X-Men 2) has acquired the film rights to NCSoft and Cryptic Studio's MMORPG City of Heroes. DeSanto's long-term plan reportedly includes a live-action feature film, with the series eventually transitioning to television.

The franchise has already been fleshed out by several City of ... Read more

Independent developer Cryptic Studios, the company behind MMOs such as City of Heroes (PC) and the upcoming Marvel Universe Online (X360, PC), has released its internal animation tool to the public as a free download. Made available via the GNU General Public License, the Cryptic Animation Rig is a 1.82 MB plugin for Autodesk's 3d Studio Max software.

"Our goal is to foster a community of animators by providing them the power to generate animations without having to worry about supporting a toolset. Since we were already developing the rig for our core technology team, we decided to ... Read more

As expected, a new update is now available for City of Heroes / Villains that adds a crafting system to the game along with auction houses. Crafting (or, "invention system") allows people to create high-powered enhancements as well as costume pieces and temporary powers using loot found after defeating enemies or completing missions. The Issue 9 update also features new high-level missions.

According to this story on Eurogamer, an "Invention System" is coming to City of Heroes / Villains before too long (the release is said to be "imminent"). With this crafting update, players can collect ingredients and recipes to make items. The game update will also add 10 new wings to the game.

There's a brief GDC interview with Jack Emmert of Crytic Studios on WarCry, chatting with the designer about City of Heroes / Villains.

Post-show GDC coverage continues on FiringSquad, where there are City Of Heroes/Villains Issue 9 impressions this morning. The article touches on new features found in the upcoming update for both games. Update: WarCry also has impressions.

MMORPG has a new City of Heroes/Villains Q&A posted today, asking lead designer Mat Miller about the upcoming Issue 9 update for the two games. There are somew screenshots here.

The guys at the WarCry have posted a new City of Heroes/Villains Q&A. Lead designer Matt Miller is asked about plans for new lower level content, opening up the Villain Patron Power Pools, new epic archetypes, custom power colors, and server transfer among other things.

Computer Games Online has posted a Q&A with Matt Miller, lead designer of City of Villains and Heroes. The questions focus on the new Issue 8 update. MMORPG.com has a related developer journal about the new Veteran Rewards Program.

MMORPG.com has posted a City of Villains Q&A sent out by publisher NCSoft. Lead designer Matt Miller talks about the game's one year anniversary, which is tomorrow.

There's a City of Villains/Heroes interview on Boomtown, asking Cryptic Studios designer Melissa Bianco about the super hero/villain MMORPG.

TotalVideoGames has a City of Villains/Heroes Q&A posted, asking lead designer Matthew Miller about the two games and the upcoming Issue 8 update.