Can you tell us a little about who you are, your background and how you came to be Lead Designer on City of Heroes?

I’m Jack ‘Statesman’ Emmert, and I’m Lead Designer of City of Heroes, working for Cryptic Studios in San Jose, California.

As for how I got this job, I had co-authored several pen and paper RPGs with Rick Dakan while I was still in school. Rick’s childhood friend, Michael Lewis, sold his video chip company and, together with Rick, wanted to get one of their ideas off the ground – a massively multiplayer super powered hero game. Michael provided the investment capital, and Rick asked me to join because of my gaming experience and comic book knowledge.

For potential new players, can you explain what City of Heroes is?

City of Heroes is the first, and only, super powered massively multiplayer online roleplaying game. Each player joins thousands of other heroes in the ongoing battle against evil.

Who do you think will enjoy City of Heroes?

Anyone who’s read comic books. Anyone who’s wondered what it’s like to fly. Anyone who loves computer RPGs. Anyone who enjoys just plain old fun.

What makes City of Heroes stand out from other massively multiplayer games?

The obvious answer is heroes! Players can be any hero they imagine - with powers, costumes, the whole works....

But City of Heroes offers much more than simply a unique genre. From the start, we tried to design a massively multiplayer game that didn’t adhere to the same old game features. City of Heroes doesn’t depend upon the old fashioned game mechanics of endless camping and enforced grouping. Instead, City of Heroes offers streamlined play so that everyone can be a hero.

Do you think City of Heroes is accessible to new players, and those who haven’t played massively multiplayer games before?

Absolutely. While designing City of Heroes, I wanted to make sure that we created a game that even someone like me could play. I’m in my mid-thirties and I’m married. Over the past decade, I found that I didn’t have the time that I did when I was a teenager. Sure, I’ve spent several all-nighters playing games, but now I can’t. I’ve got a family, responsibilities – the list goes on.

In City of Heroes, a player can get in and have fun in 15 minutes. The learning curve is quite smooth, so that a new player will learn about the game as time passes. Our major focus is to get the player immersed into the world and gameplay as quickly as possible.

In addition, we knew that the super powered genre would attract many new players to the massively multiplayer genre. For years, massively multiplayer games have been mostly fantasy oriented, which attracted some players, but turned off others. Some of those who wouldn’t be interested in knights and dragons would be interested in City of Heroes. Knowing this, we spent a great deal of effort in making our gameplay and user interface ‘newbie’ friendly.

Why should we be excited that it’s coming to Europe?

Because City of Heroes is a great game. It’s already won numerous awards and garnered terrific reviews. The City of Heroes community in North America is vibrant and growing. City of Heroes is trailblazing an innovative new path in the gaming world.

What is Cryptic doing to localise the game for European players?

The game’s fictional setting, Paragon City, will begin to take on a more cosmopolitan feel. We envision Paragon City to be akin to New York City. Sure, New York is in America, but it’s truly a melting pot of the world’s cultures and peoples. In one sense, New York is the city that represents many nations and not just one. Paragon City will be making strides in this direction, but I want players to know that we believe that the game experience should be shared by every player – so what America gets, Europe gets, and vice-versa.

Will the European version be up to date with the American version on release?

At launch, the two will be completely in sync. In the future, there may be some short delays between the two versions because of the time it takes to localize text.

It’s been over six months since the original US release - how much has the game changed?

We’ve increased the number of zones and missions in the game by approximately 50%. Four new villain groups have made an appearance in Paragon City: the mysterious Malta Group, the macabre Carnival of Shadows, the ruthless minions of Rularuu and the strange Pumicites of the Hollows.

And we’ve added badges to our core gameplay. Players are rewarded with special marks of distinction for accomplishing difficult tasks or finding historical sites in Paragon City.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. We’ve added two new Archetypes, Epic Power Pools, a new Chat system, new mission elements and much, much more. Every few months expands City of Heroes....

What game features are you most pleased with or proud of?

Character Customization is probably the feature that we’re most proud of. I believe that Cryptic Studios has set a new standard for character creation. First of all, a player can choose just about any power that he can imagine. If someone has read or seen a power in a comic book, they can pretty much do it in City of Heroes. We didn’t shy away from anything. Flight. Teleportation. Super Speed. Leaping. You name it, we’ve probably done it.

Secondly, our costume creation is perhaps the best in the industry right now. In most massively multiplayer games, players begin the game looking very generic. Individuality is gained only after grinding through many, many hours of gameplay. Comic book heroes, however, are almost always known for their costume from the very get go. Every hero starts out looking unique. To capture this feeling, City of Heroes has developed a costume creator that allows for trillions of unique combinations. Players can choose a color, texture, geometry and pattern for every part of their avatars’ body. We’ve tried to capture that look and feel of all the hero genres: mystic, inhuman, four color, steam punk, urban vigilante and hi-tech.

What’s next for City of Heroes? Are more new features on the way?

Our coming features are the Arena - where heroes can face off against one another – and the Skills system, which answers the question, “What do heroes do besides fight evil?” Of course, we’ll be adding lots more missions, zones and villains - perhaps even a new Archetype or two.

Can you tell us a little bit about City of Villains?

At the moment, we’re still in the design documentation phase. I can tell you that we hired Dave ‘Zeb’ Cook, author of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and creator of the famous Planescape campaign setting, to be the City of Villains senior designer.

Our design goal is simple: allow players to be the bad guy. We’re focusing more on the megalomania inherent in super villains, rather than simple anarchy. So a lot of gameplay will be focused on joining organizations, forming super groups and gaining power. More importantly, we want the missions to reflect the pro-active nature of villains. Heroes, for the most part, are reactive. They only spring into motion once the villain has tried something. Villains, on the other hand, instigate the adventures. It’s their schemes that initiate the plot. That’s why I hired a RPG expert like Zeb; I want people to feel like they are villains.

Besides the ability to play a bad guy, City of Villains also introduces bases. Super Groups can pool their resources to create customized headquarters. As part of this functionality, villains and heroes can invade each others’ bases in the struggle to obtain items of power....