Lore AMA: Difference between revisions

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Positron posted a [http://goo.gl/forms/PrD6STRXIA Google Doc form] in an [http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php?topic=11829 unofficial thread] on the Titan Network forums.
Positron posted a [http://goo.gl/forms/PrD6STRXIA Google Doc form] in an [http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php?topic=11829 unofficial thread] on the Titan Network forums.
On April 28th, 2016, Positron released a [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YjnwmdqnU-W5neQ-JGrfPtX9pysGZuetyvmHtdSbjs0/edit Google Doc] with the 2016 AMA answers. The devs that answered are:
* Matt Miller, a.k.a. [[Positron (Developer)|Positron]]
* Sean McCann, a.k.a. [[Dr. Aeon (Developer)|Dr. Aeon]]
The fifth Lore AMA at its time of release (April 28th, 2016) is as follows:
{{hidden|City of Heroes Loregasm 2016|bg1=#ccccff|content=
'''''I'd like to take a moment to thank Sean "Dr. Aeon" McCann, without whom this Loregasm would not have been possible (or very much more boring at any rate). Honestly I'd forgotten pretty much everything Sean added to this Q&A until he wrote it down. My old age and distance from the project has forced me to make room in my head for other stuff. While I'd like to keep doing these, I will tell you that if Sean's not here to save my bacon next year, these are going to get a lot more boring.'''''
'''Samuraiko: What, if any, was your favorite 'lore conspiracy theory' that the playerbase had going? Something that the players were going nuts trying to figure out, and were probably WAY off base. ("Such-and-such is a spy," "this is a Nemesis plot," that kind of thing.)'''
Dr. Aeon: The really annoying thing was when the lore conspiracy theories were true. I think people had mentioned before Dark Astoria that they thought the Dream Doctor was the Letter Writer, and I remember thinking, "How the heck would you think that?" We also used to joke that anyone could tell what we were planning if they knew the IP of the studio, because then they could see all the pages we were looking at on paragonwiki for reference, since it had all the details of everything we ever did in the game more than we did.
Positron: Most players were really good about just enjoying the game we served them, but a few players (even some devs in the studio) never really could accept a GOOD version of Nemesis, Mender Silos, and kept picking at and digging for a future betrayal that would never come.
I like to believe that people can change, and that a version of Nemesis forced to live and see the world he tried to conquer, conquered by someone else due to his actions, and forced to work for those new conquerors... he had to change. Silos would never go against the modern version of himself (Paradox and all that), but Ouroboros had no ulterior motives. The Letter Writer's warnings were just that, cautions against what COULD be, not what was GOING to be.
'''@Placta: Which Council AVs returned to the 5th Column when it resurfaced?'''
Dr. Aeon: If I recall correctly, Arakhn and Nosferatu rejoined Requiem, who had also recruited Reichsman during the events of Dark Astoria. I think Vandal was sticking with the Council due to their technology, and Archon Burkholder would've flipped at the moment it looked like the 5th Column was winning... but of course Requiem wouldn't have allowed him back. Protean is Protean, and was loyal to no one. Maestro continued to serve with the Council.
'''Fink: Is it all a Nemesis plot?'''
Positron: People ask us all the time "why did you never finish x or y plotline?" Well, the answer is two-fold. First, player fatigue. Praetorian Earth was SUPER fun to visit, but after a while, the players wanted something NEW. We still had a ton of stories to tell there, but we made the decision to leave it alone and move along the main (Coming Storm) storyline of the game.
Second, that plotline was likely shepherded and nurtured through to life by a designer that no longer worked on the game. Just like plotlines in comic books, writers aren't (and frankly shouldn't) be asked to pick up and finish something started by someone else. Hopefully then have their OWN ideas and can take a plot from start to fruition, and leave just enough lore and plot hooks for another writer to, ''if they wanted'', pick up and make their own.
'''AJ: What are other "Elseworlds" you could have envisioned exploring eventually?'''
Positron: All the different Statesmen/Stateswomen from the various universes was something I really wanted to see happen. Also exploring what happened to the Omega Team on the Rikti Homeworld (and Ruin's takeover of their version of Australia) was something I was super into.
'''Not the Gamester: Did the Gamester have an actual identity and backstory or was he just an excuse to have a winter holiday event?'''
Positron: He absolutely did. Manticore (Sean Dornan-Fish) did a backstory for him. He was basically the City of Heroes version of Arcade/The Trickster, and a convenient go-to for holiday events in-game. What it was, I have no idea.
'''Cobalt Azurean: Would Statesman ever have returned?'''
Dr. Aeon: After I went through all the trouble of killing him, someone in the studio mentioned they wanted to bring him back eventually. I don't know if they were serious or trying to get a rise out of me, but I always got really angry because I worked so hard to kill him in the first place.
Positron: As you can see Sean never liked the idea of him returning, but he was 100% coming back (on my watch anyway). First let's make something super clear: Primal Statesman was dead-dead. Sean did go through a ton of work to kill him, and he did successfully do so.
But there is more than one Statesman in the multiverse, and you end up capturing one in an Incarnate Trial: Tyrant. The plan was, in a couple years, have Statesman "mysteriously return," but in reality it was Marcus Cole from Praetoria, now reformed (for now anyway). The Phalanx would know the truth, but the general populace would see it as a miracle in a time of desperate need.
'''Felderburg: What ideas for Signature Story Arcs beyond the two that were released were being floated around?'''
Dr. Aeon: I was working on a 3rd sig arc when we shut down. It was going to be a combo of a personal story and a sig story where the player played from the POV of Scirocco defecting to Paragon w/Ice Mistral, trying to become a hero with Serafina guiding him. He'd unlock his Incarnate powers, which was become a dual-wielder (because it's awesome) and earning the mantle of Scirocco. Ice Mistral would defect back to Arachnos because being the good guy was too hard. Scirocco would go back to try to rescue her, facing Mako in the Golden Giza and Black Scorpion in Grandville square. He'd be defeated by Ghost Widow, and in that moment he'd realize for everything he felt about Ghost Widow, she'd never betray Arachnos, not even for him. Lord Recluse orders Ghost Widow to finish him off, but Ms. Liberty and her team breaks in to save Scirocco. He and Ice Mistral escape through the tunnels beneath Grandville, where they'd have a final showdown with Lord Recluse. They beat him and retreat back to Paragon. The plan was an issue later to replace Scirocco with the Mu we introduced in Dark Astoria.
'''Blue Battler: In the Freedom Phalanx Novel, Positron and Synapse are long time friends before they got their powers and Synapse is an accountant. I remember an in-game plaque that implied Synapse was also a scientist like Positron and they don't get along very well. What was game canon? Was Synapse a scientist or accountant? Were he and Posi childhood friends who just liked to give each other a hard time?'''
Positron: Ah, the backstory paradox. I wrote the plaque based on what Sean Dornan-Fish and I came up with for Synapse and Positron's backstories when we launched City of Heroes.
Then we work-for-hired out the novel and Sean forgot all about that dumb plaque when giving the writer the backstories to work into the story.
Game canon was that Synapse was a scientist, not an accountant. While we usually tried to come up with some cockamamie answer to smooth over canon mistakes like this without dreadedly "ret-conning" stuff, some stuff is just too contradictory. Terrible answer I know, but you get what you pay for.}}


== See Also ==
== See Also ==

Revision as of 21:22, 28 April 2016

Overview

The Lore AMA (Ask Me Anything), or "Loregasm", is a series of documents created by Positron to answer questions City of Heroes players had about the game's story following the Sunset announcement.

In the thread announcing its creation, Positron stated that anything it contains "SHOULD be considered canon when concerning anything to do with Issue 24 and previous. Anything after that is speculative and should be treated as such. We'll note in the answer if it's anything different." On September 18th, 2012, Positron posted a link to the first Lore AMA as a Google Doc in a City of Heroes forums thread.

In a 2012 interview of Positron and War Witch at OnRPG discussing the closure of the game, Positron stated that he would do yearly AMAs as long as people had questions:

MeticulousMeta: There are still a lot of questions after the Lore AMA. Is there any chance of getting another?

Matt: I’ll make a deal: I’ll do AMA’s about CoH lore every April 28th until the questions stop coming in. I’ll give more details as we get closer to that date, and I can’t promise everyone who should be involved will be.


AMA by Year

Editor's Note:

This page contains the text of the documents as they appeared at release. A list of the questions linked to by topic and developer can be found here: Lore AMA/Sorted.

Be advised that there are spoilers for existing and future content contained within the AMA documents.

AMA: 2012

The first Lore AMA was linked in a forum post by Positron titled "Loregasm" and includes a key of the answering developers' initials:

Positron (Developer) (From the initial post from the forum thread announcing the AMA)

City of Heroes AMA 2012

That's a link to the doc, in case these boards get shut down, and because I don't want to clean it up for our forum posting format (if someone ELSE does, feel free to pad your postcount).

Some answers are not satisfying. Some answers are made up, and that answer only exists in that doc. I tried to get everyone who was involved in the stuff at the end to answer the questions as best they could.

MM: Matt Miller (Positron)
JH: John Hegner (Protean)
JAH: Jeff Hamilton (Arbiter Hawk)
SM: Sean McCann (Dr. Aeon)
RG: Ryan Greene (Viridian)
TS: Tim Sweeney (Black Scorpion)

If there is a miracle and somehow CoH is saved, we reserve the right to change any and all answers given in the doc, to maintain suspense and surprise.

The Lore AMA itself at its time of release (September 18th, 2012) is as follows:

AMA: 2013

After taking questions in an open Google Doc, the first of the yearly AMAs was announced at OnRPG on May 3rd, 2013, and released as a closed Google Doc. In most cases, the name of the dev giving an answer is listed after the answer. The devs that answered are:

Editor's Note:

This is the most likely list of developers who answered AMA 2, as there are multiple devs with some of those first names. Some questions do not have a dev name, and it can be assumed that they were answered by Positron unless the context indicates otherwise. Several questions were unable to be answered, and are marked as "Answer hazy, ask again later (Matt because he couldn’t find someone to answer this right now)."

The second Lore AMA at its time of last revision (May 7, 2013) is as follows:

AMA: 2014

An unofficial thread was started on the Titan Network forums for gathering questions. Positron was contacted and said: "I plan on doing it a bit differently this year. Doc will only be up for a short window." On April 17, 2014, at 8:45 AM PDT, Positron posted a Google Doc that he left open for only 24 hours. Positron also put in some general rules for asking questions, largely prohibiting questions not related to the game's lore:

Following the initial 24 hour period, there were 76 questions. A copy of the document seven minutes before its takedown for answering can be found in a Google Doc. Positron noted in a tweet on April 23rd, 2104, that all questions for the 2014 AMA had answers.

On April 28th, 2014, the tenth anniversary of City of Heroes, Positron released the answered questions as a Google doc. The devs that answered are:


The third Lore AMA at its time of last revision (April 28th, 2014) is as follows:

AMA: 2015

On April 24th, 2015, Positron released a tweet with a link to a Google Docs form for submitting questions. The form was open until April 28th, and players were limited to one "lore related (not business, development, or systems / powers)" question. Upon submitting a question, the form noted that answers would be "made available sometime the week of May 3rd." After the form was closed, it told players that it was not accepting further submissions, but to "Try again next year!"

On May 17th, 2015 Positron released a Google Doc with the 2015 AMA answers. The devs that answered are:

The fourth Lore AMA at its time of release (May 17th, 2015) is as follows:

AMA: 2016

Positron posted a Google Doc form in an unofficial thread on the Titan Network forums.

On April 28th, 2016, Positron released a Google Doc with the 2016 AMA answers. The devs that answered are:

The fifth Lore AMA at its time of release (April 28th, 2016) is as follows:

See Also

External Links