City of Heroes: Mission Architect Feature Review

 City of Heroes is the massive multi-player online game that allows subscribers to build unique heroes and villains in a fantasy setting of Paragon City, Rhode Island, USA. This fictitious city has become the unintended intersection of super powers, aliens, and giant robots. Throw in some dinosaurs and Will Ferrel and you've almost got Land of the Lost. This unfortunate city has been the target of dozens of alien invasions including being the epicenter of a world invasion, inter-dimensional invasions, a bizarre cast of villains vying for control of the city, and if that isn't enough this place has ghosts, witches, and zombies every Halloween. This rich tapestry of characters has been woven by both the players, designing their own heroes who participate in this menagerie of menace, and the developers who provide the backdrop, city, tapestry of villains, and more. Recently, the developers of CoH realized that their talents might not be enough to keep it's denizens entertained, so they have unleashed a first in the MMO-world: Player-generated content.

 

Mission Architect is part of the Issue 14 update and it allows players to create their own NPCs, missions, dialogue, story, and more. Essentially, the developers have taken their own mission creation tools and refined them into end-user class tools that players can leverage to create their own stories and content. The process is as easy as Choosing Your First Archetype. The player activates one of the Architect Entertainment terminals, click new story, and start filling in the blanks! Everything is driven either with fill in the blanks for things like dialogue, story title, and more; or it utilizes simple drop down boxes with choices. This makes building a mission a snap. You can make your very own in less than five minutes.

As with any new feature to an established game, there has been some mixed reaction and, as new features go, it has it's share of issues while bringing a surprisingly fun element to the game. Let's first tackle the good parts, then the bad parts, and lastly some analysis.