"You talk about laws? I AM THE LAW!"

I’m not at GDC this week, which means I missed this fine talk.

 In 2005, City of Heroes saw its European launch, soon followed by City of Villains. But, Emmert said, “What I really delivered was a City of Heroes experience with a slightly evil twist.”

I’m sure the rest of the City of team at Cryptic were glad that Jack Emmert was able to deliver City of Villains by himself, emerging Athena-like from his pristine forehead. This is always one of my irritations with the gaming media – the assumption that games are created by one person, usually the one the media likes to talk to, and people who know better shouldn’t play into that. It’s the sign of a rampaging ego. Hell, next thing you know, he’ll start up a blog!

Emmert goes on to contradict what most people on live teams are well aware of through constant beatings. No, really, players don’t mind nerfs!

Despite the forum raging and conflict, however, Emmert stressed: “No nerf ever, ever caused a statistical drop in subscription base, ever. I tracked every single one, and never, in that particular day, week or month, did more people drop the game than in any other particular month. Fascinating.”

Yes, fascinating:

 “There is one nerf that I did that we lost a couple thousand people on,” he admits. “It was called enhancement diversification… and that really did make people mad.”

I think on that point, the City of team is quite willing to let Emmert take sole credit on.

I am picking on Jack Emmert somewhat – most of his talk seems to have been accurate, if suffused with the hubris he’s known and loved for. You do have to dance with the horse that brought you.