Lore AMA: Difference between revisions

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In a 2012 [http://www.onrpg.com/articles/metas-verse-interview-with-melissa-bianco-and-matt-miller-on-city-of-heroes/ interview] of Positron and [[War Witch (Developer)|War Witch]] at [http://www.onrpg.com OnRPG] discussing the closure of the game, Positron stated that he would do yearly AMAs as long as people had questions:
In a 2012 [http://www.onrpg.com/articles/metas-verse-interview-with-melissa-bianco-and-matt-miller-on-city-of-heroes/ interview] of Positron and [[War Witch (Developer)|War Witch]] at [http://www.onrpg.com OnRPG] discussing the closure of the game, Positron stated that he would do yearly AMAs as long as people had questions:


{{CutsceneText|Text='''MeticulousMeta:''' There are still a lot of questions after the Lore AMA. Is there any chance of getting another?
{|style="background: #F4F4F4; border: 1px solid #4169E1; width:75%; text-align: left; margin: 0.5em;"
 
|- align=left
'''Matt:''' I’ll make a deal: I’ll do AMA’s about CoH lore every April 28th until the questions stop coming in. I’ll give more details as we get closer to that date, and I can’t promise everyone who should be involved will be.}}
|style="width: 45px;" valign=top|[[Image:Balloon.png]]
 
|'''MeticulousMeta:''' There are still a lot of questions after the Lore AMA. Is there any chance of getting another?
'''Matt:''' I’ll make a deal: I’ll do AMA’s about CoH lore every April 28th until the questions stop coming in. I’ll give more details as we get closer to that date, and I can’t promise everyone who should be involved will be.
|}


== AMA by Year ==
== AMA by Year ==
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{{center|Be advised that there are spoilers for existing and future content contained within the AMA documents.}}
{{center|Be advised that there are spoilers for existing and future content contained within the AMA documents.}}


=== AMA: 2012 ===
=== <div style="font-weight:bold;text-align:center;border-top:1px solid #5555FF;border-bottom:1px solid #5555FF;background-color:#ffffff;margin:1em;padding:0.2em;font-size:1.2em">'''AMA: 2012'''</div> ===
 
The first Lore AMA was linked in a forum post by Positron titled "Loregasm" and includes a key of the answering developers' initials:
The first Lore AMA was linked in a forum post by Positron titled "Loregasm" and includes a key of the answering developers' initials:


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STM: This was one of the first stories I wrote after being hired. The idea was that the power of invulnerability is super powerful and has its own kind of will to choose its owner. The goal of the power was that the user of the power help save the world and themselves, so it had a knack for choosing people who were not so heroic. The previous Ajax had done all that he could for himself and the world. It was time for him to move on to the afterlife and help someone else change. He knew that going into the fight with the new Ajax. The invulnerability power left the original Ajax and granted themselves to our Ajax to help change his life and the people around him.|bg1=#ccccff}}
STM: This was one of the first stories I wrote after being hired. The idea was that the power of invulnerability is super powerful and has its own kind of will to choose its owner. The goal of the power was that the user of the power help save the world and themselves, so it had a knack for choosing people who were not so heroic. The previous Ajax had done all that he could for himself and the world. It was time for him to move on to the afterlife and help someone else change. He knew that going into the fight with the new Ajax. The invulnerability power left the original Ajax and granted themselves to our Ajax to help change his life and the people around him.|bg1=#ccccff}}


=== AMA: 2013 ===
=== <div style="font-weight:bold;text-align:center;border-top:1px solid #5555FF;border-bottom:1px solid #5555FF;background-color:#ffffff;margin:1em;padding:0.2em;font-size:1.2em">'''AMA: 2013'''</div> ===
After taking questions in an open Google Doc, the first of the yearly AMAs was [http://www.onrpg.com/articles/editorial/city-of-heroes-9th-anniversary-loregasm/ announced at OnRPG] on May 3rd, 2013, and released as a closed [https://docs.google.com/document/d/11bjjR2rdP9Kbe8baODElUQGRxNTTlj_b5PVqCdNXJ8o/edit Google Doc]. In most cases, the name of the dev giving an answer is listed after the answer. The devs that answered are:
After taking questions in an open Google Doc, the first of the yearly AMAs was [http://www.onrpg.com/articles/editorial/city-of-heroes-9th-anniversary-loregasm/ announced at OnRPG] on May 3rd, 2013, and released as a closed [https://docs.google.com/document/d/11bjjR2rdP9Kbe8baODElUQGRxNTTlj_b5PVqCdNXJ8o/edit Google Doc]. In most cases, the name of the dev giving an answer is listed after the answer. The devs that answered are:


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A) We hadn’t gotten to that part of the story development yet, but 5th Column definitely had a foothold on the Moon. (Matt)|bg1=#ccccff}}
A) We hadn’t gotten to that part of the story development yet, but 5th Column definitely had a foothold on the Moon. (Matt)|bg1=#ccccff}}


=== AMA: 2014 ===
=== <div style="font-weight:bold;text-align:center;border-top:1px solid #5555FF;border-bottom:1px solid #5555FF;background-color:#ffffff;margin:1em;padding:0.2em;font-size:1.2em">'''AMA: 2014'''</div> ===
An [http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/topic,9602.0.html unofficial thread] was started on the Titan Network forums for gathering questions. Positron was contacted and said: "I plan on doing it a bit differently this year. Doc will only be up for a short window." On April 17, 2014, at 8:45 AM PDT, Positron posted [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ocOo69mXIQ8HthabNe1F4X1EcZcSDwZFEE9sT8WSBc4/edit# a Google Doc] that he left open for only 24 hours. Positron also put in some general rules for asking questions, largely prohibiting questions not related to the game's lore:
An [http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/topic,9602.0.html unofficial thread] was started on the Titan Network forums for gathering questions. Positron was contacted and said: "I plan on doing it a bit differently this year. Doc will only be up for a short window." On April 17, 2014, at 8:45 AM PDT, Positron posted [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ocOo69mXIQ8HthabNe1F4X1EcZcSDwZFEE9sT8WSBc4/edit# a Google Doc] that he left open for only 24 hours. Positron also put in some general rules for asking questions, largely prohibiting questions not related to the game's lore:


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I mean, they were our own versions with their own stories and uniqueness about them, but we wanted players to find familiar footing when they played CoH.
I mean, they were our own versions with their own stories and uniqueness about them, but we wanted players to find familiar footing when they played CoH.


'''Q) What were the ultimate Magic origin and Technology origin threats that were conceived of by time of the sunset announcement, and what made them scarier than what we’d fought before? (Tim Compton, AKA @Draeth Darkstar)'''
'''Q) What were the ultimate Magic origin and Technology origin threats that were conceived of by time of the sunset announcement, and what made them scarier than what we’d fought before? (@Draeth Darkstar)'''


A) Chris Behrens (Baryonyx) - I don’t know that these were specific to an origin, but the “ultimate” threats included:
A) Chris Behrens (Baryonyx) - I don’t know that these were specific to an origin, but the “ultimate” threats included:
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But first you need to survive a civil war tearing the Dimensionless and their Primordial leadership apart, fraying the whole infrastructure keeping it all going.
But first you need to survive a civil war tearing the Dimensionless and their Primordial leadership apart, fraying the whole infrastructure keeping it all going.


'''Q) What tabletop RPG system do you feel best fits the power scale, game style, and themes of City of Heroes? Have any of the developers designed any unofficial homebrew City of Heroes pen and paper material? (Tim Compton, AKA @Draeth Darkstar)'''
'''Q) What tabletop RPG system do you feel best fits the power scale, game style, and themes of City of Heroes? Have any of the developers designed any unofficial homebrew City of Heroes pen and paper material? (@Draeth Darkstar)'''


A) Matt Miller (Positron) Jeff Hamiliton and I were just talking about this the other day. IMO, the best “system” for conveying a comic-book game would be something akin to Fantasy Flight’s Star Wars RPG system. Extremely narrative storytelling, less emphasis on making numbers into bigger numbers.
A) Matt Miller (Positron) Jeff Hamiliton and I were just talking about this the other day. IMO, the best “system” for conveying a comic-book game would be something akin to Fantasy Flight’s Star Wars RPG system. Extremely narrative storytelling, less emphasis on making numbers into bigger numbers.
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A) Matt Miller (Positron) Weird, I don’t recall that. I mean, the 5th Column base was on the moon, why would they claim otherwise?}}
A) Matt Miller (Positron) Weird, I don’t recall that. I mean, the 5th Column base was on the moon, why would they claim otherwise?}}


=== AMA: 2015 ===
=== <div style="font-weight:bold;text-align:center;border-top:1px solid #5555FF;border-bottom:1px solid #5555FF;background-color:#ffffff;margin:1em;padding:0.2em;font-size:1.2em">'''AMA: 2015'''</div> ===
On April 24th, 2015, Positron released a [https://twitter.com/MMODesigner/status/591725359634075648 tweet] with a link to a [http://goo.gl/forms/B3k5ebv5Zy Google Docs form] for submitting questions. The form was open until April 28th, and players were limited to one "lore related (not business, development, or systems / powers)" question. Upon submitting a question, the form noted that answers would be "made available sometime the week of May 3rd." After the form was closed, it told players that it was not accepting further submissions, but to "Try again next year!"
On April 24th, 2015, Positron released a [https://twitter.com/MMODesigner/status/591725359634075648 tweet] with a link to a [http://goo.gl/forms/B3k5ebv5Zy Google Docs form] for submitting questions. The form was open until April 28th, and players were limited to one "lore related (not business, development, or systems / powers)" question. Upon submitting a question, the form noted that answers would be "made available sometime the week of May 3rd." After the form was closed, it told players that it was not accepting further submissions, but to "Try again next year!"


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{{center|<gallery heights=200px caption="Images linked in AMA question (Click for full size images)">
{{center|<gallery heights=200px caption="Images linked in AMA question (Click for full size images)">
File:20120825164449!Ms. Liberty.jpg|Miss Liberty in game
File:Ms. Liberty old.jpg|Miss Liberty in game
File:Hero1Glory.jpg|An unused model of Hero 1
File:Hero1Glory.jpg|An unused model of Hero 1
</gallery>}}
</gallery>}}
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Positron: We retconned stuff out all the time. Players hated it whenever we did it though.}}
Positron: We retconned stuff out all the time. Players hated it whenever we did it though.}}


=== AMA: 2016 ===
=== <div style="font-weight:bold;text-align:center;border-top:1px solid #5555FF;border-bottom:1px solid #5555FF;background-color:#ffffff;margin:1em;padding:0.2em;font-size:1.2em">'''AMA: 2016'''</div> ===
 
Positron posted a [http://goo.gl/forms/PrD6STRXIA Google Doc form] in an [http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php?topic=11829 unofficial thread] on the Titan Network forums.
Positron posted a [http://goo.gl/forms/PrD6STRXIA Google Doc form] in an [http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php?topic=11829 unofficial thread] on the Titan Network forums.


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Game canon was that Synapse was a scientist, not an accountant. While we usually tried to come up with some cockamamie answer to smooth over canon mistakes like this without dreadedly "ret-conning" stuff, some stuff is just too contradictory. Terrible answer I know, but you get what you pay for.}}
Game canon was that Synapse was a scientist, not an accountant. While we usually tried to come up with some cockamamie answer to smooth over canon mistakes like this without dreadedly "ret-conning" stuff, some stuff is just too contradictory. Terrible answer I know, but you get what you pay for.}}


=== Back Alley Brawler reddit AMA ===
=== <div style="font-weight:bold;text-align:center;border-top:1px solid #5555FF;border-bottom:1px solid #5555FF;background-color:#ffffff;margin:1em;padding:0.2em;font-size:1.2em">'''Back Alley Brawler reddit AMA'''</div> ===
 
On 2016-04-29 [[Back Alley Brawler (Developer)|Back Alley Brawler]] began [http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/4gv8xl/final_moments_before_city_of_heroes_shut_down_for/d2lkkqd answering questions about City of Heroes in an informal AMA]. Although he framed it as an AMA, some of the responses are more conversational in nature, but still reveal interesting information about the game and the culture of Paragon Studio. {{EdNote|note=When looking at the original reddit thread, the answers may sometimes be hard to find when the threads grow larger. CTRL+F (and keep tapping F3 thereafter) to find the phrase "load more comments" and click those to view his answers; you can also F3 cycle through the phrase "CBruce" once all comments are loaded.}}
On 2016-04-29 [[Back Alley Brawler (Developer)|Back Alley Brawler]] began [http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/4gv8xl/final_moments_before_city_of_heroes_shut_down_for/d2lkkqd answering questions about City of Heroes in an informal AMA]. Although he framed it as an AMA, some of the responses are more conversational in nature, but still reveal interesting information about the game and the culture of Paragon Studio. {{EdNote|note=When lookin at the original reddit thread, the answers may sometimes be hard to find when the threads grow larger. CTRL+F (and keep tapping F3 thereafter) to find the phrase "load more comments" and click those to view his answers; you can also F3 cycle through the phrase "CBruce" once all comments are loaded.}}


The questions he has answered as of August 8, 2018 are:  
The questions he has answered as of August 8, 2018 are:  
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*'''Second, do YOU believe the chatter that there are STILL on-going negotiations from a group of folks willing to license/buy the CoH IP from NCSoft or do you think it's just wishful thinking/unrealistic hype?
*'''Second, do YOU believe the chatter that there are STILL on-going negotiations from a group of folks willing to license/buy the CoH IP from NCSoft or do you think it's just wishful thinking/unrealistic hype?


Honestly, I haven't followed it that much. I've no idea what kind of negotiatins any third party has had with NCSoft. I know that Matt Miller once confided that Paragon tried to acquire the franchise from NCSoft and go at it on their own, but the big hangup was the liability of active accounts and how all of that got transferred from one owner to another. Like acquiring CoH a year after it had shut down would have been more likely, but by then it would be too late to matter. Pretty sure Cryptic approached NCSoft about re-acquiring City of Heroes when they shuttered Paragon as well. I have no specifics about it, but clearly nothing came of that.
Honestly, I haven't followed it that much. I've no idea what kind of negotiations any third party has had with NCSoft. I know that Matt Miller once confided that Paragon tried to acquire the franchise from NCSoft and go at it on their own, but the big hangup was the liability of active accounts and how all of that got transferred from one owner to another. Like acquiring CoH a year after it had shut down would have been more likely, but by then it would be too late to matter. Pretty sure Cryptic approached NCSoft about re-acquiring City of Heroes when they shuttered Paragon as well. I have no specifics about it, but clearly nothing came of that.


This was the second MMO I worked on that was shut down by NCSoft, and NetDevil did a similiar thing where they tried to assume all operational costs in order to keep Auto Assault live. At the time, NCSoft seemed to have this 'go big, or go home' attitude about their franchises. They would have rather completely shut down prematurely than let it linger on, even it if was profitable.
This was the second MMO I worked on that was shut down by NCSoft, and NetDevil did a similiar thing where they tried to assume all operational costs in order to keep Auto Assault live. At the time, NCSoft seemed to have this 'go big, or go home' attitude about their franchises. They would have rather completely shut down prematurely than let it linger on, even it if was profitable.
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:'''Q) implicitlyimplying
:'''Q) implicitlyimplying


:Wow, I don't think I've ever felt this level of nostalgia. CoH was a major part of my adolescence. I started playing on the Justice server in 2004 when I was 12 years old. As someone who had a difficult time making friends as a child, CoH was a game changer. The game was so user-friendly and had so many community-building tools that made it so easy to build long-lasting friendships. I played the game for countless hours and I've never felt that connected with any game since.
:'''Wow, I don't think I've ever felt this level of nostalgia. CoH was a major part of my adolescence. I started playing on the Justice server in 2004 when I was 12 years old. As someone who had a difficult time making friends as a child, CoH was a game changer. The game was so user-friendly and had so many community-building tools that made it so easy to build long-lasting friendships. I played the game for countless hours and I've never felt that connected with any game since.


:A) BABs
:A) BABs
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'''Dunno if you're still taking questions, but I thought I'd mention that I really appreciated your work and your willingness to engage with the player community. Sorry to hear you were called on the carpet about it. The day I wrote you with a suggestion that, "Wouldn't it be easy to just do X?" and you not only replied but you wrote back, "No, because our server works like this:" and you gave me some technical insight into how the game actually operated, that pretty much spoiled me for interacting with the devs of every game I've played since then.
'''Dunno if you're still taking questions, but I thought I'd mention that I really appreciated your work and your willingness to engage with the player community. Sorry to hear you were called on the carpet about it. The day I wrote you with a suggestion that, "Wouldn't it be easy to just do X?" and you not only replied but you wrote back, "No, because our server works like this:" and you gave me some technical insight into how the game actually operated, that pretty much spoiled me for interacting with the devs of every game I've played since then.


''What was your favorite powerset or costume set to work on or the one you felt the most attachment to?
'''What was your favorite powerset or costume set to work on or the one you felt the most attachment to?


A) BABs
A) BABs
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I really liked doing things no one else had figured out. Weapon customization, power customization, costume change emotes/FX...that sort of thing. I remember animating a sail on a ship one of the ancient wood ships because that was something I'd never done before.}}
I really liked doing things no one else had figured out. Weapon customization, power customization, costume change emotes/FX...that sort of thing. I remember animating a sail on a ship one of the ancient wood ships because that was something I'd never done before.}}
== AMA by Homecoming ==
'''An AMA hosted by Homecoming June 4th, 2024 featuring 15 [[Paragon]]/[[Cryptic Studios|Cryptic]] Studios Devs'''
''Todo: Insert Q&A from link below. Likely sorted by Question rather then by Dev.''
{{missing}}


== See Also ==
== See Also ==
* [[Canon Fodder]]
* [[Canon Fodder]]
* [[Story Bible]]
* [[Story Bible]]
* [https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/52119-20th-anniversary-qa-responses/ Dev AMA (2024)]


== External Links ==
== External Links ==

Latest revision as of 05:40, 16 September 2024

Overview

The Lore AMA (Ask Me Anything), or "Loregasm", is a series of documents created by Positron to answer questions City of Heroes players had about the game's story following the Sunset announcement.

In the thread announcing its creation, Positron stated that anything it contains "SHOULD be considered canon when concerning anything to do with Issue 24 and previous. Anything after that is speculative and should be treated as such. We'll note in the answer if it's anything different." On September 18th, 2012, Positron posted a link to the first Lore AMA as a Google Doc in a City of Heroes forums thread.

In a 2012 interview of Positron and War Witch at OnRPG discussing the closure of the game, Positron stated that he would do yearly AMAs as long as people had questions:

Balloon.png MeticulousMeta: There are still a lot of questions after the Lore AMA. Is there any chance of getting another?

Matt: I’ll make a deal: I’ll do AMA’s about CoH lore every April 28th until the questions stop coming in. I’ll give more details as we get closer to that date, and I can’t promise everyone who should be involved will be.

AMA by Year

Editor's Note:

This page contains the text of the documents as they appeared at release. A list of the questions linked to by topic and developer can be found here: Lore AMA/Sorted.

Be advised that there are spoilers for existing and future content contained within the AMA documents.

AMA: 2012

The first Lore AMA was linked in a forum post by Positron titled "Loregasm" and includes a key of the answering developers' initials:

Positron (Developer) (From the initial post from the forum thread announcing the AMA)

City of Heroes AMA 2012

That's a link to the doc, in case these boards get shut down, and because I don't want to clean it up for our forum posting format (if someone ELSE does, feel free to pad your postcount).

Some answers are not satisfying. Some answers are made up, and that answer only exists in that doc. I tried to get everyone who was involved in the stuff at the end to answer the questions as best they could.

MM: Matt Miller (Positron)
JH: John Hegner (Protean)
JAH: Jeff Hamilton (Arbiter Hawk)
SM: Sean McCann (Dr. Aeon)
RG: Ryan Greene (Viridian)
TS: Tim Sweeney (Black Scorpion)

If there is a miracle and somehow CoH is saved, we reserve the right to change any and all answers given in the doc, to maintain suspense and surprise.

The Lore AMA itself at its time of release (September 18th, 2012) is as follows:

AMA: 2013

After taking questions in an open Google Doc, the first of the yearly AMAs was announced at OnRPG on May 3rd, 2013, and released as a closed Google Doc. In most cases, the name of the dev giving an answer is listed after the answer. The devs that answered are:

Editor's Note:

This is the most likely list of developers who answered AMA 2, as there are multiple devs with some of those first names. Some questions do not have a dev name, and it can be assumed that they were answered by Positron unless the context indicates otherwise. Several questions were unable to be answered, and are marked as "Answer hazy, ask again later (Matt because he couldn’t find someone to answer this right now)."

The second Lore AMA at its time of last revision (May 7, 2013) is as follows:

AMA: 2014

An unofficial thread was started on the Titan Network forums for gathering questions. Positron was contacted and said: "I plan on doing it a bit differently this year. Doc will only be up for a short window." On April 17, 2014, at 8:45 AM PDT, Positron posted a Google Doc that he left open for only 24 hours. Positron also put in some general rules for asking questions, largely prohibiting questions not related to the game's lore:

Following the initial 24 hour period, there were 76 questions. A copy of the document seven minutes before its takedown for answering can be found in a Google Doc. Positron noted in a tweet on April 23rd, 2104, that all questions for the 2014 AMA had answers.

On April 28th, 2014, the tenth anniversary of City of Heroes, Positron released the answered questions as a Google doc. The devs that answered are:


The third Lore AMA at its time of last revision (April 28th, 2014) is as follows:

AMA: 2015

On April 24th, 2015, Positron released a tweet with a link to a Google Docs form for submitting questions. The form was open until April 28th, and players were limited to one "lore related (not business, development, or systems / powers)" question. Upon submitting a question, the form noted that answers would be "made available sometime the week of May 3rd." After the form was closed, it told players that it was not accepting further submissions, but to "Try again next year!"

On May 17th, 2015 Positron released a Google Doc with the 2015 AMA answers. The devs that answered are:

The fourth Lore AMA at its time of release (May 17th, 2015) is as follows:

AMA: 2016

Positron posted a Google Doc form in an unofficial thread on the Titan Network forums.

On April 28th, 2016, Positron released a Google Doc with the 2016 AMA answers. The devs that answered are:

The fifth Lore AMA at its time of release (April 28th, 2016) is as follows:

Back Alley Brawler reddit AMA

On 2016-04-29 Back Alley Brawler began answering questions about City of Heroes in an informal AMA. Although he framed it as an AMA, some of the responses are more conversational in nature, but still reveal interesting information about the game and the culture of Paragon Studio.

Editor's Note:

When looking at the original reddit thread, the answers may sometimes be hard to find when the threads grow larger. CTRL+F (and keep tapping F3 thereafter) to find the phrase "load more comments" and click those to view his answers; you can also F3 cycle through the phrase "CBruce" once all comments are loaded.

The questions he has answered as of August 8, 2018 are:

AMA by Homecoming

An AMA hosted by Homecoming June 4th, 2024 featuring 15 Paragon/Cryptic Studios Devs

Todo: Insert Q&A from link below. Likely sorted by Question rather then by Dev.

+++ Missing Information +++

See Also

External Links