NCsoft rep says bringing City of Heroes toons to Master x Master was his ‘passion project’

March 24, 2017 11:00 AM

We’ve been speaking with NCsoft West off the record this week, agitating for publicly printable answers on the Master X Master decision to implement City of Heroes characters (to the loud outrage of disgruntled City of Heroes players). But apparently we won’t have to, as some of the answers have been published today.

Lorehound quotes NCsoft MXM Brand Manager Sean Orlikowski as saying that adding Statesman to the MOBA was his personal “passion project for the last two years.”

“I saw it as a way to incorporate a character from a beloved title into our universe. Myself and the producer for MXM were both big fans of City of Heroes (I was more on the CoV side, myself) and we worked together to make sure we got his skills, look, and even his VO right since he’d only ever been voiced for a single sentence of a single trailer in the past. The bottom line for me was that nearly all of NCSOFT’s properties were being represented in the game; Aion, Blade & Soul, Lineage II, WildStar, Guild Wars 2, even Death Knight from the original Lineage MMO are in the game. I wanted the West to have proper representation, so we started brainstorming ideas for Western characters to add to Rytlock and Mondo Zax who were already in development. I made the argument for Statesman because the MXM universe offered a way he could be prominent again, and the rest is history.”

Orlikowski says he understands why players are pissed off but hopes people understand Statesman wasn’t added out of “malice” and that he has worked hard to ensure the character was done properly and with respect — as a “tribute.”

“People didn’t love City of Heroes because of the Statesman,” he acknowledges. “They loved it because of their own characters, their own stories, the amazing roleplay community, and the friendships that many of us still hold today. I can’t personally give any of that back to you, but I can pay homage to a character who acts in some ways as a symbol for those things.”

And yes, eXteel mechs, Auto Assault cars, and Tabula Rasa characters could indeed someday wind up in the game.

Source: Lorehound