The Double XP event has now started, and will run through until the end of the weekend. For the duration, all XP, Influence/Infamy and Prestige rewards earned by all characters will be doubled. It’s the perfect opportunity to get that much closer to Level 50, start a new hero or villain, or just have fun playing with your friends.

We hope all our players enjoy themselves!

The members of the City of Heroes Livejournal community have started collecting together hints, tips and advice for newcomers to Paragon City and the fight against evil in all its nefarious forms.

If you’re new to City of Heroes and looking for help, or an experienced veteran who’d like to share their hard-learned lessons, head over to A Beginner’s Guide on the Livejournal site.

We’re pleased to announce that the winner of the Creative Genius competition for December 2006 is Nightsparrow, for the amazing ‘Nightsparrow’s Scrapbook’ and the phenomenal work that’s gone into it. The partial image here doesn’t do it justice, so click here to see the whole thing - but please be aware that the Scrapbook contains occasional references to adult language and mature themes that may not be suitable for younger players.

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

The Creative Genius competition is a monthly contest held on the Creative board. For more details, see the The Creative Board and Creative Genius thread on the official message boards. The Nominations for January’s Creative Genius will be opened on the Creative board at the start of February, so there’s still time to post your submissions!

In the meantime, December’s nominations also included a couple of entries that were worthy of ‘honourable mentions’. Read on to see them…

Last night saw the Arenas of the European Training Room ring with the sounds of battle in the debut Buddy Royale tournament. Well over a hundred heroes and villains from all four European servers flocked to Pocket D to take part, and from the ensuing organised chaos one team emerged triumphant - Lady White and Subconscious!

Congratulations to this heroic Controller duo, and many thanks to everyone who came along - we hope you all had fun.

We’ll be making some changes to the format of the Buddy Royale the next time we hold one, so if you’d like to let us know what you think worked - and what you think could have worked better - you can do so in this thread on the official message boards. If you couldn’t make it, or just want to relive some of the highlights of the evening, you can view footage of the final matches here, courtesy of the eagle-eyed Coin.

The Warcry Network has just revealed the results of its Editor’s Choice Awards for 2006, and we’re pleased to announce the Cryptic Studios, the developer of City of Heroes and City of Villains has been selected as their ‘Studio of the Year’:

In 2006, Cryptic released two new “Issues” for City of Heroes/Villains. These expansions are free to the players and both added a lot of new content to the two games in one.

You can read the full article and see the winners of the other awards over at Warcry now.

It’s been six months since the heroes and villains of Paragon City and the Rogue Isles enjoyed the first ever City of Heroes and City of Villains Double XP Weekend, and now the time has come.

The Double XP weekend will return, beginning on Friday, 26 January and running through until the end of Sunday, 28 January. As before, the rules will be simple - all hero and villain characters will receive double the normal XP for all of their accomplishments in the game. All you have to do is log in and play to take advantage of this opportunity to level up your favourite heroes and villains twice as quickly as normal!

With 2006 well and truly over, MMOSite is launching its first annual Reader’s Choice Awards, where MMO players can vote for the favourite games of the last year in eight categories including Favourite Game, Best Graphics, Best PvP, Best Gameplay, Best Storyline, Best Expansion, Most Anticipated and Favourite Company.

The good news is that between them, City of Heroes, City of Villains and Cryptic Studios have been nominated for all but the Most Anticipated award. Voting is open now, so head on over to the MMOSite Reader’s Choice Awards page and pick your favourite games. We know you’ll make the right decision…

Duos and team-ups are something of a tradition among super-powered heroes and villains, and what better way to spend an evening that to grab a friend and pit your combined skills against the finest pairs of heroes and villains that Paragon City and the Rogue Isles have to offer?

Sound like fun? Then pick your partner and head over to Pocket D on the European Training Room next Thursday (that’s 18 January, date fans) at 8pm GMT for the first ever Buddy Royale!

A friendly PvP contest, the Buddy Royale will pit teams of two characters against each other in a series of ‘Last Man Standing’ Battle Royale Arena matches. The winning duos from each match will then go on to face off in a final, and the winners of that will become the first ever Buddy Royale Champions, earning fame, fortune, bragging rights and, should they choose, automatic entry to the final of the next Buddy Royale.

What, that’s not enough? Well, how about a unique title for the ‘live server’ incarnation of your character and a copy of The Freedom Phalanx, the second City of Heroes novel by Robin D Laws as prizes! Interested now? Then read on for the details of how the Buddy Royale will work…

We’re pleased to announce that a new series of ‘Ask a Dev’ is getting under way in conjunction with the Warcry Network and CoH Warcry.

‘Ask a Dev’ gives players of City of Heroes and City of Villains the chance to submit questions for the developers at Cryptic Studios, and this new series kicks things off with lead designer Matt ‘Positron’ Miller.

You can find out more about Matt on the Warcry Network and CoH Warcry, then head over to the Warcry forums to pose your questions. In a few weeks, Warcry will select the top questions and Matt will answer them in a follow-up article - which will also introduce the next episode of the series, featuring Cryptic Studios’ creative director, Jack ‘Statesman’ Emmert.

You can find the questions and answers from the last series of ‘Ask a Dev’, which took place just over a year ago and featured Statesman, Positron, Geko, Manticore, War Witch and Captain Mako, in the Developer’s Corner section of the official message boards. 

Winter in Paragon City came to a sudden end last Sunday, the sun came out and spring was in the air. Many welcomed the sun with open arms, but for the Heroes and Villains who regularly risk all to save the day, there was a sad reminder that there would be no more presents for another year.

Well it’s time to wipe that glum look from your face and wrap up warm again; a cold front on the horizon suggests that winter will be returning to the streets of Paragon on Monday the 8th of January. The cold weather is expected to last for a week with spring arriving for good on the morning of Tuesday 16th. 

So put on your scarves and gloves and head on back into the icy chill. Old Father Time will be back with presents galore, and there’s plenty of opportunity to collect the winter badges you might have missed! Ho Ho Ho!