Introduce EverQuest 2

Developer(s)	Sony Online Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Sony Online Entertainment (US/EU/JP), Gamania (CN/TW/KR) (closed), Akella (RU), Square Enix (JP) (previous publisher), UbiSoft (EU)
Platform(s)	Windows
Release date(s)	8 November 2004
Genre(s)	MMORPG
Mode(s)	Multiplayer
Rating(s)	Teen (T)
Media	CD, DVD, Download
System requirements	Minimum requirements OS: Windows 98/2000/ME/XP/Vista CPU: 1.5 GHz RAM: 1 GB HDD: 6 GB free space Video: DirectX 9 compatible; pixel shader and vertex shader compatible hardware with 128 MB of texture memory Sound: DirectSound compatible audio hardware Recommended requirements OS: Windows 98/2000/ME/XP/Vista CPU: 2 GHz dual core or higher RAM: 2 GB HDD: 15 GB free space Video: DirectX 9 compatible; pixel shader and vertex shader compatible hardware with 256 MB or more of texture memory Sound: DirectSound compatible audio hardware
Input methods	Keyboard, Mouse

EverQuest II (EQ2), based upon the popular EverQuest, is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) and shipped on 8 November 2004. It features graphics and gameplay vastly updated from its predecessor.

Story
EverQuest II is set on the fictional world of Norrath five hundred years after the The Planes of Power storyline of the original EverQuest game. The gods withdrew from the world in retaliation for mortal incursions into their planes. On Norrath itself, Dark Elves and the Orcs destroyed much of Faydwer; while the Ogres, Goblins, Orcs, and Giants ravaged Antonica. Transport and communication to the moon Luclin were cut off.

The storyline says that 100 years ago, the continent of Antonica was ripped apart into smaller islands, which are now called the Shattered Lands. The oceans became impassible, preventing contact between the continents of Norrath. Fifteen years ago, the moon Luclin exploded and parts of the Shattered moon remain in the sky.

EverQuest II takes place in what is called the Age of Destiny. In this setting, Queen Antonia Bayle of Qeynos is a benevolent sorceress who welcomes all goodly races to her city to help rebuild Norrath. The Overlord of Freeport, Lucan D'Lere, a centuries-old fallen paladin, rules the evil races in his plans of conquest.

Gameplay
Within EverQuest II, each player creates a character to interact in the 3-D fictional world of Norrath. Within the game, the character can adventure (complete quests, explore the world, kill monsters and gain treasures and experience) and socialize with other players. The game also has a 'tradeskill' system that allows players to create items for in-game use.

In the creation of a character, the player may choose the character's race and class. Various classes have specialized abilities that are complementary to their class. (Monks will get mainly melee combat abilities that use their fists or fist weapons, or a Warlock will get mainly spell abilities that do large amounts of spike damage but cost a lot of mana.) EverQuest II enables social interaction with other players through grouping and through the creation of guilds. Like players, guilds can gain experience and levels, partially from players completing special tasks called Heritage quests, but primarily from guild-oriented quests and tasks called "writs," and gaining guild experience by killing epic monsters. Higher guild levels open up special rewards unavailable to non-guilded characters, and cause certain other rewards to cost less. These rewards include housing options, mounts, house items, apparel, and special titles.

Although EverQuest II focuses on player versus environment (PvE), dedicated player versus player (PvP) servers were added in February 2006.
One of the available mounts that can be purchased with status points

The Everquest II feature set has expanded since its release in 2004.


Character development

Everquest II is a class-based MMO. At character creation, players choose one of 19 races and 24 adventure classes. Any race can be any class (with some conditions). Five starting cities are provided, each with its own beginner experience. Hair and facial features are chosen during character creation, but can be changed later by visiting a Barber Shop in the game world.

Each character may advance through 80 levels of experience in his chosen adventure class, and 80 levels in a tradeskill class that is chosen after creation. Characters are customized by earning up to 200 Achievement Points during the course of gameplay, which are used to purchase achievement abilities. Each adventure class has three trees of achievement abilities to invest in.

Each adventure class accumulates more than 20 distinct abilities. A common mechanic is used for physical combat (Combat Arts) and spellcasting (Spells) - all such abilities draw from the character's Power resource, which must be recharged between battles. Most spells and combat arts can be upgraded through eight tiers of improvement, with the lowest tier granted automatically upon gaining each adventure level. Spell upgrades are obtained just like equipment upgrades - as loot, quest rewards, or produced through crafting. An optional system called Heroic Opportunities grants bonus effects when players combine their abilities in specific ways.

Every character can have a Tradeskill Class in addition to their Adventuring Class. The player specializes in one of 9 Tradeskill Classes as his character advances in tradeskill levels. When crafting an item, the player reacts to unanticipated crafting events by using crafting skills, such that the crafting process is superficially similar to combat.

Game content

Everquest II has a heavy focus on quests. More than 6000 quests have been discovered by players as of January 2009.[1] Game rewards are biased toward quests. The Achievement Point system is mainly advanced by completing quests. Much of the game lore is presented through quests, using an interactive dialogue system.

Acquisition of equipment is a major focus of progression. Character inventory consists of 8 armor slots, 8 accessory slots, and 4 weapons-related slots. Most equipment has a minimum adventure level requirement to equip it, and must be permanently attuned to the character before using it. Equipment can be enhanced by applying "augmentations" on a per-item basis.

Equipment and treasure are classified into broad tiers such as "Fabled", "Legendary", and "Treasured". Each quest generally gives an item reward of a tier that reflects its difficulty. Almost all creatures have separate lists of potential loot for each tier, with reduced chances of winning the best (Fabled). Player-crafted items are also divided into tiers, based on the rarity of materials.

Everquest II has no experience loss, corpse runs on death, or lost levels from dying. Upon death, characters respawn with their gear intact at specific revival locations, with a minor experience debt to be repaid. Gear is fully functional until its condition runs out after 10 consecutive deaths, and is repaired to 100% for a fee.

Starting at level 20, players can wear any clothing that's allowed by their class in "appearance slots", overriding the appearance of their functional gear. A Dressing Room feature allows players to see what their character would look like wearing equipment that they do not possess.

Differences from the original
Many gameplay choices were made in order to stop old, sometimes undesirable, tactics that emerged in EQ; a major difference is the concept of "locked encounters". Currently a group or a solo player can set an option to lock encounters. When encounters are locked, only the player or group who becomes linked to that encounter is involved, which stops kill stealing. Other players cannot assist in the encounter unless the player who locked it uses a special "/yell" command for help, after which the encounter rewards neither loot nor experience.

"Trains" (encounters pursuing fleeing players to a zone line, and then attack uninvolved players), a problem in Everquest, are no longer a problem in EQ2. Encounters will not aggro on (attack) uninvolved players until they first return to their original location. Encounters returning to their spawn point are also immune to attack until they return there.

To stop kiting, players in combat lose all their movement speed enhancements except the special "sprint" ability, which costs a considerable amount of power to use, although some classes have speed debuffs that slow the enemy, thus making kiting a viable option. Because certain player classes such as Rangers and Mages have limited effectiveness in close melee range, many of these players have discovered another method of pseudo-kiting by running backwards and firing a missile weapon at the enemy. The enemy lands fewer attacks, but can take significant damage depending on the type of ammunition or missile weapon used, and the skill level of the user.

The penalization of death has been heavily reduced, instead of a corpse run to regain your items and lessen the experience loss, in EQ2 you will only have slight damage on your equipped items which will require mending after 10 deaths, but there are player made items which you can carry with you to mend the items.

Business
SOE is marketing EverQuest II not as a direct sequel, but as a "parallel universe" to the original EverQuest. It is set in an alternate future of the original game's setting, having diverged at the conclusion of the Planes of Power expansion (the lore is explained in an in-game book). This allows both development teams to pursue whatever direction they want to take without impacting the other, and allows players of the original EverQuest to continue receiving updates without forcing players down a specific path. In that sense, they are two completely separate games bound together by name only. Players of the old EQ will find many familiar places and characters, as well as "heritage items" that are similar in name and function to items known from EQ and can be gained via heritage quests.

Like the original and other commercial MMORPGs, EQ2 requires a monthly fee (as of January 2008, US$14.99/month) to play the game. A free play period of 30 days are included with the purchase price of the game. Subscribers can opt to pay an additional monthly fee for extended services, such as an online item database or hosting of guild websites. Players can also download and play the game for free as part of a free trial. Prior free trial programs, known as the Trial of the Isle and Play the Fae, allowed players to experience the beginning steps of the game for free before dedicating themselves to a monthly subscription fee. The current free trial allows players full use of the game environment, but it is limited to 14 days and prevents characters from exceeding level 20.

In Europe, the game is published by KOCH Media.
Advertisement of the Pizza Hut and EverQuest II promotion.

In February 2005, EverQuest II began allowing players to place an order for pizza delivery from within the game, with a simple and easy command typed into the chat bar, "/pizza". This promotion has since ended, but generated significant press for the game.

In June 2005, SOE introduced Station Exchange to EverQuest II. Station Exchange is an official auction system—only on designated servers—allowing real money to be transferred for in-game money, items or characters.

In March 2006, SOE announced that it would end its Chinese/Korean operations for EverQuest II, which were being supported in the region by Gamania. The beta period for the game in China/Korea ended on 29 March, and on 30 March, all Chinese/Korean accounts were moved to the US servers of the game.

In July 2007, SOE introduced magazine EQuinox, which is the official magazine of EverQuest II. The release date of this magazine was 9 August 2007.

In December 2008, SOE introduced Station Cash, a real-money trading (RMT) feature.[citation needed]

in January 2009, SOE together with Valve made Everquest II available on Steam.

Introduce EverQuest

Developer(s)	Sony Online Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Sony Online Entertainment
Platform(s)	Windows, Mac OS X
Release date(s)	16 March 1999
Genre(s)	Fantasy MMORPG
Mode(s)	Multiplayer Online
Rating(s)	ESRB: T (Teen)
Media	CD-ROM,DVD-ROM, Digital Download
Input methods	Keyboard, Mouse

EverQuest, often shortened to EQ, is a 3D fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that was released on the 16th of March, 1999. The original design is credited to Brad McQuaid, Steve Clover, and Bill Trost. It was developed by Sony's 989 Studios and its early-1999 spin-off Verant Interactive. It was published by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE). Since its acquisition of Verant in late 1999, SOE develops, runs and distributes EverQuest.
EverQuest has earned numerous awards, including 1999 GameSpot Game of the Year and a 2008 Technology & Engineering Emmy Award.
EverQuest's development is ongoing, and the 16th expansion, "The Underfoot," was announced at the 2009 Las Vegas Fan Faire.EverQuest II was released in late 2004. Set in an alternate universe similar to that of the original EverQuest, this "sequel" takes place 500 years after the awakening of The Sleeper. The game has also inspired a number of other spinoffs.

Business model
The game's business model includes:

• Sale of an account key which allows a new account to be created, or a trial account to be made permanent.
• Sale of keys which allow accounts to be upgraded to access the content in expansions. Some keys allow access to only an individual expansion, others to all expansions up to a certain point in time. The newest expansion, Seeds of Destruction, includes access to all current content including the original game.
• Subscription (by the month, quarter, single year, or 2-years) that allow a specific account to be active.

A game client allows any player with an active membership to connect to the game content and other players on the game servers of SOE.
As of December 2007, SOE offers free 14-day trial accounts which do not require a credit card.

Gameplay
In EverQuest, players create a character (also known as an avatar, or colloquially as char or toon) by selecting one of 16 "races" in the game, which range from elves, dwarves and ogres of fantasy, to cat-people (Vah Shir), lizard-people (Iksar), and dragon-people (Drakkin). At creation, players also select each characters adventuring occupation (such as a wizard, ranger, or cleric - called a class--see below for particulars), a patron deity, and starting city. Customization to the character facial appearance is also available at creation (hair, hair color, face style, facial hair, facial hair color, eye color, etc)

A Sand Giant engaging a group in the Oasis of Marr, a desert zone
Players use their character to explore the fantasy world of Norrath, fight monsters and enemies for treasure and experience points, and master trade skills. As they progress, players advance in level, gaining power, prestige, spells, and abilities through actions such as defeating capable opponents, looting the remains of defeated enemies and completing quests (tasks and adventures given by non-player characters (NPCs).
EverQuest also allows players to interact with other people through role-play, joining player guilds, and dueling other players (in restricted situations--EQ only allows Player versus Player (PVP) combat on the PvP-specific server).
The geography of the game universe consists of nearly four hundred zones.
Multiple instances of the world exist on various servers. In the past, game server populations were visible during log-in, and showed peaks of more than 3000 players per server.
EverQuest is loaded with features that promote, even demand, collaboration among players. Fighting alongside someone makes combat much more interesting. Chatting with that person passes the time during 'downtime'. When working together you are much less likely to perish. Healers must back up the fighters, fighters must back up the magic users, and the magic users can keep the healers safe from harm.

Sale of in-game objects/real world economics
EverQuest has been the subject of various criticisms. One example involves the sale of in-game objects for real currency (often through eBay). The developers of EQ have always forbidden the practice and in January 2001 asked eBay to stop listing such auctions. For a time, such auctions were immediately removed, which changed market conditions and allowed a number of specialized auction sites to utilize this new virtual economy.

Because items can be traded within the game and also because of illegal online trading on websites, virtual currency to real currency exchange rates have been calculated. The BBC reported that in 2002 work done by Edward Castronova showed that Everquest was the 77th richest country in the world, sandwiched between Russia and Bulgaria and its GDP per capita was higher than that of the People's Republic of China and India. In 2004, a follow-up analysis of the entire online gaming industry indicated that the combined GDP of the online "worlds" populated by the two million players was approximately the same as that of Namibia.
The East Commonlands tunnel was a commonly used area for trading, circa 1999

Companies created characters, leveled them to make them powerful, and then resold the characters or specialized in exchanging money between games. A player could exchange a house in The Sims Online for EverQuest platinum pieces, depending solely on market laws of supply and demand.

Sony officially discourages the payment of real-world money for online goods, except on certain "Station Exchange" servers in EQ2, launched in July 2005. The program facilitates buying in-game items for real money from fellow players for a nominal fee. At this point this system only applies to select EverQuest II servers; none of the pre-Station Exchange EverQuest II or EverQuest servers are affected.

Due to the difficulty in learning the role a specific class plays within a group, and of learning the best way to fulfill this role, individuals who purchase high level characters without prior playing experience are stereotypically sub-par to those who have developed characters normally through gaining experience on-line. Referring to a character in EverQuest as an eBay character or to an individual as an "eBayer" are derogatory comments used to suggest both that an individual did not develop his own character and that he does not know how to play it well.

The 14-day, no-credit-card-required trial accounts have produced a new set of problems in this area. Since the sellers of in-game items and platinum can create new accounts at will, without cost, the quantity of in-game spam from some sellers has become a widely discussed source of annoyance.

Introduce EVE

Developer(s)	CCP Games
Publisher(s)	SSI (expired) CCP Games
Distributor(s)	Atari (Retail Version, from March 2009) Valve Corporation Mobius Games
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X
Release date(s)	May 6, 2003 May 6, 2003 May 23, 2003
Genre(s)	MMORPG Space simulation
Mode(s)	Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: T

Eve Online (officially capitalized EVE Online) is a video game by CCP Games. It is a player-driven persistent-world massively multiplayer online role-playing game set in a science fiction space setting. Players pilot customizable ships through a universe comprising over 7,500 star systems. Most star systems are connected to one or more other star systems by means of stargates. The star systems can contain several phenomena including, but not limited to: moons, planets, stations, wormholes, asteroid belts and complexes.

Players of Eve Online are able to participate in a number of in-game professions and activities, including mining, manufacturing, trade, exploration and combat (both player versus environment and player versus player). The range of activities available to the player is facilitated by a character advancement system based upon training skills in real time, even while not logged into the game.
It is developed and maintained by the Icelandic company CCP Games. First released in North America and Europe in May 2003, it was published from May to December 2003 by Simon & Schuster Interactive,after which CCP purchased the rights back and began to self-publish via a digital distribution scheme. On January 22, 2008 it was announced that Eve will be distributed via Steam. The current version of Eve Online is dubbed Apocrypha. On March 10, 2009 the game was made available in boxed form in stores, released by Atari.

 story

 Taking place 21,000 years in the future, the fictional background story of Eve Online explains that humanity, having used up most of Earth's resources, began colonizing the rest of the Milky Way. This expansion led to competition and fighting over available resources. Everything changed with the discovery of a natural wormhole leading to an unexplored galaxy dubbed 'New Eden'. Dozens of colonies were founded and a structure was built to stabilise the wormhole, a giant gateway bearing the name "EVE". However, when the natural wormhole collapsed it destroyed the gate. Cut off from Earth and its much-needed supplies, the colonists of New Eden starved. Five colonies managed to return to prominence, each eventually rebuilding their own society. These colonies make up the five major empires in Eve: the Amarr Empire, the Caldari State, the Gallente Federation, the Jove Empire and the Minmatar Republic.

Races
The Amarr, a monotheistic theocratic empire, were the first of the playable races to rediscover faster-than-light travel. Armed with this new technology and the strength of their faith in their god, the Amarr expanded their empire by conquering and enslaving several races, including the primitive tribal Minmatar race, who had only just invented space flight for themselves.Generations later during the battle between the Amarr Empire and the Jove Empire, many Minmatar took the opportunity to escape and successfully rebelled against their enslavers, and formed their own government in the Eve universe. However, much of their populace remains enslaved by the Amarr.

The Gallente and the Caldari homeworlds are situated in the same star system.The Gallente homeworld was originally settled by descendants of French colonists; Caldari Prime was purchased by a mega-corporation that began to terraform it. The terraforming of Caldari Prime was incomplete at the time of the wormhole's collapse, however, and the planet remained environmentally inhospitable for millennia. The Gallente restored a working civilization some hundred years before the Caldari, building the first democratic republic of the new era. Animosity between the two races broke into war during which the Caldari seceded from the Gallente Federation to found their own Caldari State. The war lasted 93 years, with neither party able to overwhelm the other. The planet Caldari Prime was retained by the Gallente Federation during the war, and did not become part of the new Caldari State. Much more recently, a new Caldari offensive managed to recapture their lost homeworld. Both the Gallente and Caldari are business oriented peoples, however, the Gallente value free markets and entrepreneurship whereas the Caldari practice a form of corporatism or state capitalism.

The Jovians (currently a non-playable race) were colonists, too. Unlike the other races of EVE, they maintained use of their technology after the collapse of the wormhole and did not need to spend millennia rediscovering it, and while the other four major races were still grounded, Jovian history saw two periods of empire.They expanded outward and eventually turned to genetic engineering in order to mold themselves into a people more suited for deep-space life and long-range interstellar exploration. Genetic experimentation, however, eventually led to the deadly "Jovian Disease", which, despite their extremely advanced technology, crippled their civilization. They now inhabit a region of space supposedly inaccessible to outsiders.

In addition to different backgrounds and histories, each of the races have characteristic philosophies of starship design. Minmatar ships tend to be fast and use crude projectile weapons; Amarr ships are usually slow, heavily armored, and use powerful lasers; Gallente ships are often well-armored and use short-ranged particle blasters and drones; and Caldari ships are typically poorly armored but very well-shielded, and use missiles and railguns.

Ships
Ships in Eve Online are organized into classes, varying from tiny frigates to gigantic capital ships. Ships fill different roles and vary in characteristics such as size, speed, hull strength and their potential firepower. Roles and characteristics aside, the concept of ships in Eve Online is different from other massively multiplayer online games in that ships represent players in-game. While Eve Online introduces the players to the idea of avatars, a player's avatar remains a two-dimensional portrait. Players move in-game within their ships and as such are represented by the ship type they choose. CCP is currently developing a feature that will allow players to move freely outside of their ships in space stations, represented by three-dimensional avatars. See the Planned future developments section.

Each of the four races has their own unique ship design preferences and varied strengths and weaknesses, although all races have ships that are meant for the same basic roles and are balanced for play against each other. This means that there is no "best ship" in EVE-Online. According to your preferred style of play, you might want to fly a ship with a huge cargo hold, one that is suited for mining, one that has a powerful array of weapons or a ship that moves quickly through space (among other capabilities); but the fluid, ever-changing nature of EVE-Online means that no ship will be perfect at all of these tasks, nor is there any guarantee that the "best ship for a job" today will continue to be the best tomorrow.

Each spaceship within the EVE universe has a different set of characteristics and can be fitted with different combinations of modules subject to their fitting requirements. Ships have a wide variety of characteristics, including (but not limited to) power grid, CPU, capacitor size and recharge rate, shields, armor, maximum velocity, agility, locking range and maximum number of lockable targets. Ships also receive bonuses to performance depending on the level of various appropriate skills that have been trained by the ship's pilot. These bonuses usually correspond closely to the particular role that the ship has been designed for, and thus vary as widely as the roles of the ships.

One of the most important characteristics of a ship is the slots it has available for fitting modules. Each ship has a number of slots available, ranging from a handful to twenty or more. Slots and modules come in three variants: high, mid, and low power slots, with high power modules fitting in a corresponding high power slot and so on. Examples of high slot modules include weapons such as turrets and missile launchers, as well as cloaking devices, tractor beams, and other tools for mining and salvaging. Mid slot items include modules to improve shields or propulsion, repair hull damage, engage in electronic warfare, "tackle" other ships to slow or stop movement, and the like. Low slot items include armor enhancements and repair, increased cargo space, improved speed, agility, computers, or power supply, and similar utilitarian functions. Different-sized ships have different numbers of module slots, with the larger ships generally having more slots than the smaller ones.

Corporations and alliances
Players can organize themselves into corporations (similar to guilds or clans in other MMOs). Corporations are run by one chief executive officer (CEO) who controls the corporation's assets. The CEO assigns roles to corporation members such as director, accountant and personnel manager. Corporations may also band together to form alliances. Corporations and alliances come in different shapes and sizes. Some player groups write press releases about new business openings and send out IPO information to potential in-game venture capital investors. Alliances can control enough star systems that their territory can be plotted on the Eve game map.[23] Alliances based in lawless space often form unofficial political power blocs with other alliances. These power blocs are typically referred to as "coalitions".

Corporations take up numerous business models such as mining, manufacturing or "ratting" (hunting NPC pirates for their bounties and loot). Corporations can levy income taxes on their members, which skim off a percentage of every member's earnings. Many corporations offer a variety of benefits to their members, such as free or discounted ships, equipment, formal training, and organized corporate group operations.

Among the many activities that corporations can organize is piracy. Actions considered piracy generally involve breaking the in-game law, and can come in a variety of forms. Pirates may camp stargates waiting for other players to arrive, attack players operating in asteroid belts or hunt for players carrying out an NPC agent-assigned mission. Because these activities are considered to be "illegal" within the game mechanics, pirate players often will have low security status and may even be branded as outlaws by CONCORD. Likewise, victims of overt piracy may retaliate without intervention from CONCORD, often via an expressed right to destroy the pirate ship (i.e. "kill right"). It should be noted, however, that although these activities are "illegal" they are not against the rules of the game, i.e. there will only be in-game retaliation and punishment for them.

Illegally attacking another player in secure space will result in a loss of security standing; CONCORD, the interstellar NPC police, will arrive shortly to destroy the aggressor's ship. There are, however, legal ways to attack other players in high-security space.

Whole corporations and whole alliances can officially declare war on (or "war-dec") other corporations or alliances for a weekly fee, permitting all members of the involved corporations or alliances to attack each other without loss of security status or the intervention of CONCORD.[24] The weekly fee can be eliminated if the war declaration is reciprocated. War declarations will clearly flag a player's enemies, so the player can determine who can legally attack and be attacked.

Introduce Darkfall Online

Developer(s)	Aventurine SA
Publisher(s)	Audiovisual Enterprises SA
Designer(s)	Claus Grovdal, Henning Ludvigsen, Ricki Sickenger, Kjetil Helland, Erik Sperling Johansen
Engine	Darkfall Proprietary Engine
Version	1.0.37
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release date(s)	July 13, 2009 February 26, 2009
Genre(s)	MMORPG, Online RPG, MMOFPS
Mode(s)	Open PvP Multiplayer
Media	DVD disc and a downloadable package
System requirements	Windows XP/Vista, Pentium 4 2.5GHz, 1 GB RAM, 12 GB hard disk space, PixelShader 2.0 compatible 128 MB graphics card
Input methods	Keyboard, mouse, gamepad

Darkfall is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Aventurine SA that combines real-time action and strategy in a fantasy setting. The game features unrestricted PvP, full looting, a huge, dynamic game world, and a player skill dependent combat system free of the class and level systems that typify most MMORPGs.


Skills
Darkfall departs from the conventional MMORPG paradigm of character levels as the main form of character progression, favouring instead a broad skill-based system[4], similar to that found in games such as RuneScape, Ultima online, EVE online and Asheron's Call. Skills and skill proficiency determine a wide range of a character's capability in the game, including weapons and weapon skills, a few special attacks, spells, and archery, all aspects of player crafting, as well as more basic facets of gameplay, such as the ability to swim, craft various items types, and to ride and control mounts.

Skills may be learned from NPC trainers in the game, however certain skills will require other skills as prerequisites. Without exception however, skills are improved (raised in power) through actual usage in game.

Playable races

There are six playable races in Darkfall, divided into 3 factions. Unlike other MMORPGs, racial choice does not heavily influence character choices or progression options. Each race begins play in their own homeland, and have their own unique storylines, histories, and racial alliances/enemies. It is possible to form mixed-race clans of opposing factions, however racial alignment adjustments (see 'Alignment') are always in effect.
While certain races have friendships and hatreds with other races in Darkfall, these are not strictly enforced upon the players, and it is possible for allied clans to declare war upon both their own race and their racial allies. Declaring war against a clan will prevent players of the declaring clan from sustaining alignment penalties associated with attacking and killing players of the opposing clan, regardless of race.
The races, organised by faction, are:

• Alfar (dark elves)
• Orks, Mahirim (wolf men)
• Humans, Mirdain (forest elves), Dwarves

Attributes

• Str: Increases damage dealt with melee weapons,and moderately affects max health.
• Vit: Grants a bonus to max health and moderate bonus to stamina. A high vitality may slightly reduce the effects of poison and bleeding.
• Dex: Increases archery damage and may reduce damage taken from area effects.
• Quick: Slightly increases melee and archer speed and may reduce damage taken from such attacks. Also Grants a moderate bonus to max stamina.
• Int: Increases the power of spells and greatly affects max mana. It also improves resistance against mental attacks.
• Wis: Grants a bonus to all crafting and harvesting skills. Also moderately affects max mana, and grants a slight resist bonus against curses.

As with other MMORPGs, player characters have a set of semi-static attributes, which determine their in-game physical and mental prowess. These attributes are: strength, vitality, dexterity, wisdom, intelligence, and quickness . These attributes improve over time in response to player activity, for example, repeated use of a melee weapon will result in a gradual improvement in that player's strength statistic over time, which in turn will allow him/her to deal greater melee damage. There are also three dynamic attributes: hitpoints, mana, and stamina, which determine a player's overall vitality and capacity for physical activity and/or magic, which fluctuate in response to performing actions and receiving damage.
Receiving physical or magical damage from other players, NPCs or other objects cause the loss of hitpoints until that player is incapacitated, at which point there is a certain amount of time during which that player can choose to declare themselves dead and return to their last "bind point", or they may be "finished off" by force, or revived by another player. Unless revived, the player dies at the expiration of the incapacitation timer.
Likewise, the casting of magical spells requires and expends mana points, and the execution of various physical activities, such as sprinting, the swinging of weapons, and casting of spells expend stamina. All three of these statistics are regained over time at varying rates, and may be rapidly regained through the use of healing and other restorative spells, potions and items.
In terms of racial differences, the order of races with respect to the strength statistic is: ork > dwarf > mahirim > human > mirdain (elf) > alfar (dark-elf), while for intelligence, the order is the exact reverse: alfar > mirdain > human > mahirim > dwarf > ork.

PVP
Darkfall has been designed from the outset as a full-loot PVP game, meaning on death players are able to fully loot other players of their gear and gold on their person. The ability to fully loot other players has been factored into the game as an important facet of the RTS-like logistical meta-game between warring clans.

The ability to fully loot other players is a significant departure from other, contemporary MMORPGs, such as World of Warcraft and EverQuest II, in which the quest for better gear is the primary driving force for of player character improvement once maximum level has been attained. In Darkfall, character skills are the primary driver of character improvement, and gear also plays a large role in determining a player character's overall power. In some respects the looting system of Darkfall resembles that of EVE Online, which allows players to loot much of a destroyed ship's gear from the wreckage.

Friendly fire and collision detection are always in effect in Darkfall. Combined with a real-time combat system, Darkfall's combat is anticipated to provide a more realistic combat experience than other fantasy MMORPGs. The developers have opined that historically successful battle formations and tactics will be widely adopted and adapted for use in Darkfall. Likewise, area-effect spells and abilities affect enemies and allies equally, and so must be used with caution and discretion.


City building and conquest
The goal of Darkfall is its support for large-scale territorial conflict between player clans. To this end, empire building through the conquering of pre-made cities is expected to be a major part of the game. To promote such conflict, the developers have stated that there is a finite number of pre-made cities (97 locations-44 Clanstones, 53 Hamlets) within the world. The potential pre-made city and hamlet sites are marked in-game by structures known as clanstones.

These pre-made city sites are spread across the entirety of the world, and vary greatly in location, surrounding terrain, access to nearby resource nodes, and consequently, their ability to be defended by the owning clan. The developers expect certain sites, such as underground cave sites hidden by a waterfall, or a precipitous mountain-side location with a precarious one-way approach to be more highly coveted than other sites, adding to the potential for territorial conflict.

Player clans have full diplomatic control over their relationship with other player clans, and can declare war on other clans unilaterally. Clans that are at war with each other may kill each other freely without alignment penalties. Player-owned cities can be freely attacked and then sieged. Sieges last for 4 hours. In the first two hours the defenders may launch an attack on the enemy's shard holder or city. If the defenders are victorious, the siege ends. The attackers may attempt to capture the defender's city after two hours have passed. They only have two hours to destroy the clanstone. To this end, Darkfall contains a variety of different siege weapons such as cannons and siege hammers, all of which are player-crafted. There is a limit on the rate of destruction of a captured city of 1 building per day, however any number of buildings may be disabled at any time by bringing their structural integrity to zero.

The Darkfall world
Darkfall claims to feature one of the largest online worlds of any MMORPG created to date. The Darkfall world is comprised of a large, central continent named Agon, on which all 6 racial capitals are found, surrounded by 4 smaller continents to the north-east, north-west, south-east and south-west. In addition, there are numerous small islands and archipelagos. It was estimated by one of the developers before release that it would take roughly 8 hours for a human to run from one end to the other. In reality, the time to cross the main continent is closer to 4 hours, stretching the time to cross the map on a diagonal up to around six. (For comparison, Blizzard's World of Warcraft continent of Eastern Kingdoms is 3 hours from north to south.)

The world includes a wide range of diverse terrain types, including forest, plain, desert, ice, jungle/tropical, swamp, and wasteland areas. Every part of the Darkfall world has been handmade by the developers and not computer generated. Darkfall developers have stated that any/all terrain can be accessed and traversed by characters possessing the appropriate skills, e.g. mountains may be climbed by those who possess the ability to walk; islands may be reached by swimming.

Introduce Dark Age of Camelot

Developer(s)	Mythic Entertainment EA
Publisher(s)	Mythic Entertainment (US), Wanadoo (DE/FR/UK/SP/IT)
Designer(s)	Mark Jacobs
Engine	Gamebryo Engine Foliage - SpeedTree
Platform(s)	Windows
Release date(s)	October 10, 2001
Genre(s)	MMORPG
Mode(s)	Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: Teen (T)
Media	CD or Public Download

Dark Age of Camelot is a 3D medieval fantasy MMORPG that revolves around war between three realms following King Arthur's rule.

DAoC includes both Player vs Environment and Realm vs Realm combat. Players can choose to adventure alone or join groups. Players may also join battlegroups, which are formed so all members can get completion credit in large scale PvE encounters and for communication purposes in RvR.

Player vs player combat takes the form of Realm vs Realm. RvR restricted to a limited number of zones where action ranges from massive battles to one vs one fights. Players are awarded points, which are used to purchase additional abilities, by killing enemy players. Participating in RvR combat is strictly voluntary in DAoC and free for all PvP only exists on a dedicated server.

PvE focuses on defeating monsters found in dungeons, the open world, and RvR zones. Players earn experience points towards obtaining levels by killing both monsters and enemy players. Gaining levels yields new skills, abilities, and access to expansion areas. The current maximum level is 50. Expansions to the game offer alternative advancement type levels that grant additional abilities to level 50 players.

The decision to develop Dark Age of Camelot was made in late 1999. The game was released in October 2001.


Spells and effects
DAoC includes a diverse range of spell types and effects, which include:

• Heal The target is healed for a random amount of damage within a certain value range.
• Heal over Time (HoT) The target is healed for small amounts at intervals for a set duration; the total healed is usually high when compared with healing spells of similar casting cost.
• Heal rate increase During combat, the natural healing rate is reduced. Therefore Heal rate increase spells are most effective out of combat.
• Concentration Enhancements The most common form of 'buff' in DAoC. Concentration spells have two limiting factors: In practice, the caster will usually hit the 20-buff 'cap' first, but there is also a cost value for each buff cast, and a set limit determined by the caster's level of specialization.
• Timed Enhancements A few 'buffs', often buffs that can only be cast on the caster themselves, expire after a certain period, usually 20 minutes.
• Tethered Enhancements Buffs with a large radius around the caster within which the buff is in effect on its target.
• Summons 'Pet' spells summon a NPC ally under the control of the caster.
• Charm Cast on an NPC enemy, converts it to a 'pet' ally.
• Concentration spells Requires the caster to stand in one place and take no other action during the duration of the spell. The most common form is the Damage Shield.
• Damage shield When attacked, a character with a damage shield does damage to the attacker.
• Timers are used on some spells, such as 'bolts' and 'instants', to limit their use. After use, the timer prevents re-use for a set amount of time, with a visual representation to show the remaining time until re-use.
• Instants or 'instas' are ranged, and are usually 'debuffs', although there are many damage instas.
• Debuffs Lower primary, such as Strength, or derived, such as attack speed or even the comprehensive 'Effectiveness' statistics, or lower resistance to a particular elemental damage.
• Direct Damage (DD). Ranged damage, instantaneous effect once casting time is complete.
• Bolt. DD with longer range, medium to long casting time, higher damage, and 'timers' before re-use. Eldritch, Runemaster, Wizard.
• Area (of) Effect (AE, AoE) DD with a radius around the target. All enemies within the radius take the listed range of damage.
• Point Blank Area (of) Effect (PBAE, PBAoE) AE of usually markedly high damage, with a radius centered on the caster.
• Ground Targeted Area (of) Effect (GTAE, GTAoE) The caster can move a ground target cursor with arrow buttons or the mouse; when the spell is cast, enemies in the area of effect take damage. Is less affected by damage reduction against high level targets than other spells. Eldritch, Runemaster, Wizard.
• Damage over Time (DoT) An successful casting of a DoT on an enemy causes them to take small amounts of damage at intervals for a set duration; the total damage is usually high when compared with DD spells.
• Life tap/Lifedrain Usually slightly lower damage than DDs, life drains heal the caster for a set percentage of damage dealt.
• Power drain The Necromancer does a DD spell that returns a set percentage of power to the caster.
• Life bestow The Cabalist and Spiritmaster can drain their own life to heal a target.
• Root The target's run speed is reduced by 99% for the duration of the spell, or until the target takes damage.
• Snare The target's run speed is reduced for the duration of the spell or effect; in some cases, damage does not break the snare.
• Mesmerization (Mez) The target can take no action for the duration of the spell, or until the target takes damage.
• Stun Short duration; the target can take no action for the duration of the spell. Does not break if the target takes damage.
• Bladeturn All casters and Wardens have access to the 'BT' that nullifies one attack and is then dispelled.
• Chants Similar to Tethered enhancements in that the buffs only are in effect within a radius of the caster, chants do not require targeting, and are continuous until replaced by another chant or dispelled by the caster. Notable chants include: Heal, AC bonus, Damage increase,
• Pulsing spells Very similar to chants; pulsing spells do PBAE damage, or PBAE debuff, or bladeturn, called Pulsing Blade Turn or PBT; a new bladeturn is given or an old replaced, with each pulse.
• Cone spells AE spells with a radius centered on the caster; the area of effect is narrow near the caster and widens as it approaches maximum range.
• Bomber Glowing sphere follows the target and does damage on impact. Similar to bolt in damage and that it follows target; slower to close to target, lower (DD) range. Animist.
• Turret Pet cast in a fixed position determined with ground targeting cursor. Limited but long duration. Typically does ranged damage. Set, but very high, maximum limit of turrets castable by each Animist, and in total by multiple Animists in one area.
• Elementals Pets with a limited, short duration that run to the target, or in range of it in the case of the ranged damage Ice pets. Theurge.

Notable combinations of the above spells available in DAoC include:

• Instant debuff Many casters have these as part of their baseline list of spells, and often in one or more of their specialization lines as well.
• Instant DD Bards, Bonedancers, Champions, Minstrels, Nightshades, Skalds, Thanes, and Valkyries can do damage with instas on timers.
• Instant PBAE Thanes can cast this for small damage, on a timer.
• Instant DoT Reavers and Valewalkers.
• Instant Lifetap Bonedancers, Reavers.
• Instant Mesmerization Bards and Healers.
• Instant Stun Minstrels and Healers, and earlier in the game's history, Skald.
• Damage/debuff Slightly lower damage, and a debuff to resistance to that element type. E.g. Wizard.

Realms
Dark Age of Camelot offers players a choice of three realms to choose from: Albion, Hibernia, and Midgard.

Albion is based on Arthurian legend, with such notable real-world places as Hadrian's Wall, Stonehenge, and other locations in Great Britain. The races and classes of Albion, in the original game and early expansions, tended to be more professions and peoples of European history and mythology than inventions of the gamemakers.

Hibernia is based on Celtic folklore and the landscape includes lush green rolling hills typical of Ireland. Although the quest storylines, placenames, and numerous game elements are firmly fixed in Celtic mythology, Hibernian races and classes are typically the creation of the gamemakers.

Midgard is based on Norse mythology and its landscape includes misty fjords and pine forests. Somewhere between Albion and Hibernia in its mix of Norse historical figures and mythology, and inventions of Mythic Entertainment. The adherence of the architecture to the forms and design of medieval and pre-medieval Norse architecture is notable.

Classes

Although each realm's classes differ in specific abilities, DAoC's classes are broken down into the four common RPG archetypes: warrior 'tanks', spell casters, rogues that use stealth, and healing priests. Hybrid classes, which combine skills from any two of the archetypes, also exist in all 3 realms. DAoC's classes are balanced at the RvR level instead of in direct comparison to the other realms' equivalent classes. DAoC classes are very rigid with specific roles, play styles, and specialization point allocations.
Albion: Armsman, Cabalist, Cleric, Friar, Heretic, Infiltrator, Mauler, Mercenary, Minstrel, Necromancer, Paladin, Reaver, Scout, Sorcerer, Theurgist, and Wizard.
Hibernia: Animist, Bainshee, Bard, Blademaster, Champion, Druid, Eldritch, Enchanter, Hero, Mauler, Mentalist, Nightshade, Ranger, Warden, Valewalker, and Vampiir.
Midgard: Berserker, Bonedancer, Healer, Hunter, Mauler, Runemaster, Savage, Shadowblade, Shaman, Skald, Spiritmaster, Thane, Valkyrie, Warlock, and Warrior.
The tank classes are pure close ranged fighters and have virtually no ability to deal ranged damage, but they wear the heaviest armor and have abilities to reduce the effectiveness of crowd control spells used on them. Melee classes in DAoC are divided into heavy and light tanks. Heavy tanks wear the heaviest armor in the game and often specialize in high damage two handed weapons for RvR or the one handed weapons and shield for PvE. Light tanks have higher damage output, dual wield weapons, and wear the second heaviest type of armor. Light tanks also have extra abilities to avoid crowd control in RvR. Heavy tanks include the Armsman, Hero, and Warrior. Light tanks are the Blademaster, Berserker, Mercenary, and Savage.
Casting classes have the highest damage output in DAoC. Casters have the lowest hit points and lowest level of armor in the game, but almost all casters have a form of crowd control spell to restrain enemies. Their spells can be easily interrupted and they are targeted quickly in RvR. Casters usually specialize in the control of 'pet' allies, and/or Damage over Time spells (DoTs), ranged 'direct damage' spells, or point blank area affect spells(PBAE). Although the majority of classes can cast spells of one kind or another, the caster classes are the Animist, Bainshee, Bonedancer, Cabalist, Eldritch, Enchanter, Mentalist, Necromancer, Runemaster, Sorcerer, Spiritmaster, Theurge, Warlock, and Wizard.
Stealth classes are capable of rendering themselves invisible to the enemy; this offers an advantage in intelligence gatherering in RvR, and allows them to choose when to attack. DAoC's rogues are divided into archer and assassin subclasses. Although the Minstrel hybrid class can train Stealth, the primary stealth classes are the Hunter, Infiltrator, Nightshade, Ranger, Scout, and Shadowblade.
Healing classes in DAoC heal and enhance the combat effectiveness of group members. Although a handful of hybrid classes can cast healing spells, the primary healing classes are Clerics, Druids, Healers, Bards, and Shamans.

Hybrids are a combination of 2 archetypes and range from warrior/caster to priest/caster. Hybrids offer a level of versatility not available to the other classes. The hybrid classes are Champions, Friars, Heretics, Maulers, Minstrels, Paladins, Reavers, Skalds, Thanes, Valewalkers, Valkyries, Wardens, and Vampiirs.

Alternative advancement
Many powerful abilities become available through points obtained by killing enemy players in RvR. Abilities can range from a full self-heal to uninterruptable spell casting for a brief time. Ability points become progressively more difficult to obtain as the character gains ranks in RvR. However, the difference between a high rank and low rank player can be immense even when they have equal equipment and are the same level.
The Trials of Atlantis Expansion brought a new depth to DAoC's PvE game. A wide range of ability lines are learned by completing a long series of quests. These quests often require several hours and large groups to complete. This expansion also introduced the most powerful items, which often require a large number of players and a high degree of organization to obtain, in the game.
The Darkness Rising expansion allows players to learn some of the basic abilities previously only available to other class archetypes. For example, a Warrior can learn a rudimentary healing spell or a ranged direct damage spell. These are the weakest type of post-50 advancement abilities.

Introduce City of Heroes

Developer(s)	Cryptic Studios Paragon Studios
Publisher(s)	NCsoft Level Up! Games Interactive Brazil
Version	1600.20090902.4T2 (September 15, 2009)
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X
Release date(s)	April 28, 2004
Genre(s)	Superhero MMORPG
Mode(s)	Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: Teen PEGI: 16+
Media	2 CDs, or 1 DVD, Or available for download.
System requirements	Windows 2000/XP, Intel Pentium III 800 MHz or AMD Athlon 800MHz, 512 MB RAM, 2 GB Available HDD Space, nVidia 2 series or ATI Radeon 8500 Video Card, 16X CD-ROM Drive, 16-bit Sound Card, 56K Modem connection, Keyboard and mouse. Mac OS X 10.5.5 Leopard or higher, Intel Core Duo Processor, 1024 MB RAM, 2.9 GB Available HDD Space, ATI X1600, NVidia 7300 GT, or X3100 Intel integrated graphics chip (Intel GMA950 not supported)

City of Heroes (CoH) is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game based on the superhero comic book genre, developed by Cryptic Studios and published by NCsoft. The game was launched in North America on April 28, 2004 and in Europe (by NCsoft Europe) on 4 February 2005 with English, German and French language servers. Fifteen free major updates (Issues) for City of Heroes have been released since its launch. The newest update, "Power Spectrum", was released on September 15, 2009.

In the game, players create super-powered player characters that can team up with others to complete missions and fight criminals belonging to various gangs and organizations in the fictional Paragon City.

On October 31, 2005, the game's first sequel, City of Villains (CoV), was launched, allowing players to play as supervillains. Initially dubbed as an "Expanshalone" by the developers (a portmanteau of expansion pack and stand-alone), the game did not require CoH to run, but if the user had both games, content was added to the CoH side of game play. On July 16, 2008, NCSoft merged the two games' content together, thus a player who only owned City of Heroes could now play City of Villains, and vice versa. Prior to this, a purchase was required to access either game's content, but they were linked by one account and subscription fee.

On November 6, 2007, NCsoft announced their purchase of the CoH/CoV intellectual property and transitioned the staff from Cryptic Studios to a new location in Mountain View, CA to continue development of the game. The new studio on April 14, 2009, became Paragon Studios, which shares credit with Cryptic Studios for the development work. This then led to City of Heroes becoming available for download on the Steam software, along with other NCSoft titles, on April 22, 2009.
On October 30, 2008, NCSoft announced a partnership with Transgaming Technologies in order to bring both City of Heroes and City of Villains and all 13 expansions to Mac OS X.
City of Heroes: Going Rogue was announced on May 11, 2009. Labeled as an expansion, the game centers around the alternate reality of Praetoria and features a new alignment system allowing player characters to shift allegiances between Heroes and Villains, giving characters access to both the Paragon City of CoH and the Rogue Isles of CoV. Paragon Studios describes this as "[exploring] the shades of gray that lie between Heroes and Villains".

Overview

Players begin by using the game's extensive character creation system to first select an archetype, then primary and secondary power sets, then design a unique costume. In the final character creation screen, players can optionally write a backstory or description and battle cry for their hero as well as choose a name. The name may be changed at a later time for a one time charge, and the description and battle cry may be changed at any time. There is an automatic check to make certain the name has not been used by any other player on that server.
Characters may begin in an isolated tutorial zone, or skip the tutorial and begin in an open low level zone.
A character's level increases by earning experience points from defeating foes, completing missions, and exploring zones, then returning to a trainer. Benefits for rising in level include more health, more powers, more slots to allocate enhancements to powers, and larger inventories.
The game's hero side primary setting, Paragon City, is divided into different zones by giant energy "war walls." Especially dangerous zones called hazard or trial zones, which teem with large groups of enemies, are restricted to heroes with a minimum security level. The game's villain side setting, the Rogue Isles, consists of islands connected by a network of ferries. A few zones are accessible to both heroes and villains; some are cooperative zones, while others are player versus player zones.

Players initially move around the zones by slowly jogging or using a minor speed increasing power such as Sprint. As heroes grow in level and accumulate more powers, they may choose among four higher speed traveling powers: Teleportation, Super Speed, Super Leaping, and Flight.
As characters level, players may choose new powers from the character's primary and secondary power sets, as set during creation, or from shared power pools. The power pools contain the four travel powers, as well as other generic, usually utilitarian powers falling under categories such as Fitness, Concealment, and Leadership. In addition, as characters level up, they gain access to new costume features, including the ability to change between up to five costumes and unlockable costume parts such as capes and auras.
Missions are obtained through various channels. Missions are typically staged on private instances accessible only to the mission holder's team by entering a door in a zone, and may require defeating a boss, escorting NPCs, or finding a particular clue or item. The level of enemies, and number of enemies per spawn, are set according to the team size, level of the mission holder, and difficulty setting of the mission holder. Amid the missions, some story arcs will emerge. These are mission sequences which form a larger story. Once outside of a mission, a player reappears at a door or location in a zone which is accessible to any player on the server.
For players who can devote a block of several hours to the game, other types of activities are available—task forces for heroes, strike forces for villains, and trials. These activities disallow adding new members to the team once started, and so consist of a series of linked missions that must be run to completion by the same team. Certain trials reward players with an opportunity to respecify their characters by choosing a different complement of superpowers within their selected power sets, and reallocating enhancement slots. Two types of Raids are available to Heroes and Villains: Rikti Mothership (in a shared zone for both Hero and Villain participants), and Hamidon (separate Hero and Villain locations), which encourage teamwork across multiple teams of players.
Teamwork is a large part of City of Heroes. Players can form supergroups reminiscent of classic comic book groups such as the X-Men or Justice League of America. Additionally, City of Heroes has a system known as sidekicking or lackeying whereby a character can temporarily increase his level while playing with a higher level character. Similarly, the system known as exemplaring or malefactoring allows a character to temporarily reduce his level while playing with a lower level character. Characters may also make leveling pacts under which the characters receive experience points equally whether online or offline, which keeps the characters at the same level.

Other game features include auction houses, crafting inventions. The Architect release gives players the ability to construct custom mission arcs, with customized villains and layouts that can then be played by other players on that server.

Character creation

In character creation, the player first selects a character's origin and archetype, then primary and secondary power sets. Next, the actual avatar with its costume is created. Lastly, the player chooses a name and can optionally write a background story to add some flavor to the character as well as creating an individual battle cry.
There are five origins a player can choose for his/her character that dictate what type of enhancements the character may use, affect which single short-ranged power they begin with (in addition to powers obtained from their primary and secondary power sets), and can influence the various villain groups that the character goes up against; these origins are Natural, Magic, Science, Mutation, and Technology.
There are five basic hero archetypes, which affect a character's power choices and team role throughout the game. Blasters are versatile damage dealers, capable of fighting at short or long range against one or many opponents. Controllers are adept at preventing enemies from moving or acting. Defenders turn the tide of battle with weakening attacks (debuffs) and ally strengthening powers (buffs). Scrappers are melee fighters with a greater chance of critical hits against tough opponents such as bosses. Tankers possess great defenses and the ability to take hits for the team.

There are also five basic villain archetypes. Brutes deal increasing damage as they attack or are themselves attacked. Corruptors deal damage at range, with critical hit chances against wounded targets. Dominators assail enemies with status effects and direct damage. Masterminds summon, upgrade, and control combat pets. Stalkers are stealthy fighters, dealing critical hits when hidden or when accompanied by a team.
There are two shapeshifting hero archetypes which are unlocked after attaining level 50 with a hero on a server. Peacebringers are peaceful symbiotic aliens that have light based powers. Warshades are warlike symbiotes that are normally enemies to the Peacebringers but have reformed their evil ways. Both archetypes are capable of shapeshifting into a more offensive or more defensive form.
There are also two branching villain archetypes which are unlocked after attaining level 50 with a villain on a server. Arachnos Soldiers can branch into either a Bane Spider or Crab Spider. Arachnos Widows can branch into either a Night Widow or Fortunata.

Items

Like other MMORPGs, City of Heroes/Villains has various items that are rewarded within the game. However, many of these items are described as intangible or other-worldly; such as "inspirations" (temporary powerups) or "influence" (used instead of money), which are abstract ideas in the real world. "Enhancements"—slottable attribute boosts—also cover a range of ideas and items from magic enchantments to technological gadgets to training techniques. With the release of Issue 6, while in supergroup mode, a setting that can be toggled on and off, players accumulate prestige points which are used to improve the supergroup base.

Issue 9 brought the Invention system to the game, which allows characters to combine salvage and recipes to create various goods. Invented enhancements can provide better bonuses than normal enhancements, including set bonuses for slotting invented enhancements from the same set into the same power. Costume pieces and limited-use temporary powers can also be invented.
In addition to these, there are also collectible badges for players to obtain. Gained for performing various actions in game such as moving over specific places in each zone, defeating certain numbers of enemies, healing allies, and taking damage, most serve no functional purpose for players, except to provide characters with tag lines under their character names. However, some few, called "Accolades" give players access to temporary powers and permanent bonuses to health and endurance (the game's equivalent to mana or magic points) and are gained by collecting other badges.
Players also have the option of purchasing (outside of the game) additional items known as Booster Packs, which currently include a permanent Wedding-themed expansion for costumes and emotes (actions), a 30 day Jet Pack temporary power, valkyrie themed costume items, and regular Booster Pack releases based on Player Origins available in-game (See "Updates and history" below).

Enemies
n City of Heroes there are multiple NPC groups that players fight as part of random encounters. Many enemies are found on the streets of Paragon City, whereas others are found in specific instances or areas. There are also Giant Monsters and similar events that take place in parts of the city that are even rarer, such as Lusca the Giant Octopus in the waters of the Independence Port zone or the Ghost Ship that spawns ghostly enemies in the Talos Island and Independence Port zones.