The MMORPG City of Heroes was shut down in 2012. However, secretly some fans continued playing on private servers. When these came to light, the online game regained popularity. The special thing is: The fans are even continuing to develop the MMORPG.
What is City of Heroes? Between 2004 and 2012, players experienced adventures in City of Heroes in the role of superheroes. Anyone could create their own hero and then protect the city from villains. With the expansion City of Villains, it was even possible to play as the foes.
Like a Phoenix from the Ashes
When was City of Heroes discontinued? In December 2012, the doors of the MMORPG closed because, according to NCSoft, it simply was no longer worth it to keep the servers running.
Why is it a topic again? In April, it was revealed that City of Heroes has been running for quite some time. This is on a secret, private server, which only certain players were invited to.
This led to considerable criticism of the operators because they had excluded the majority of the fans.
What is the situation like now? After the criticism, the game data was released, allowing other private servers to be created. This resulted in an active community forming around the MMORPG again.
Currently, there are nine such servers. The largest of them, “Homecoming,” currently hosts around 100,000 registered players across five shards, into which the servers are divided.
The Game is Being Further Developed
Which version is being played? Most of the servers are based on “Issue 24.” This was the version that was in development just before the MMORPG’s end in December 2012. However, Homecoming has now reached “Issue 25.”
Issue 25 is based on expansions, adjustments, and new content being worked on by the operators of the first private server, “SCORE”. This includes the new class of Sentinel, which is based on ideas from the original developers of City of Heroes. As you can see, the game is gradually being further developed by the fans themselves.
Are there “Classic” versions? No. Private servers can only use Issue 24 or higher. According to the operators, the chance of going back is zero.
What do the players fear? The private servers of City of Heroes are currently being operated without NCSoft’s permission. Therefore, there is a risk that the company will demand the shutdown of the servers. Especially Homecoming, with its around 100,000 players, could become the first target. Since the operators accept donations from the players, in May almost 7,000 dollars were raised in just 20 minutes.
So far, however, NCSoft has not reacted.
This is how you can join in: If you want to play City of Heroes on the Homecoming server, you can find an installation guide on the official website and can create an account there.
