This is part of a series in which I try to write a post every day on silly video game topics. For the list of topics, click here.
And I am now finally caught up, doing three posts in one day. (There it is again.) I have not yet read TFG’s answer on this one yet, but knowing her, it’s either WOW or Pokemon, or probably both, from what I’ve heard about Mists of Pandaria. (Really, it’s called Pandaria? Is their city called Panda Town? The Panda Palace? Grumble.)
That’s not really an aside, is it? That is the topic, after all. Azeroth, for all its faults, was a great place to inhabit. The artwork was really well done, even considering Warcraft’s comic-influenced art style. Khaz Modan, Ashenvale, Thunder Bluff, some of my favorite locations in any video game. But, as an actual place, it just doesn’t work, and no, I’m not talking about obviously magical effects. “Lost” continents being discovered conveniently when the narrative demands it is a big part of what is so goofy about Azeroth and the writing thereof.
I think it’s a fitting tribute then that I suggest that fabled Rhode Island metropolis, Paragon City. The City of Heroes.
City of Heroes recently was shut down and with it, a universe that I came back to time and time again, a word I revisited more often than any other MMO combined. Hundreds of lives were created and wiped clean, as I endlessly dreamed of new heroes and villains that would do battle along the streets of Steel Canyon, in the slums of King’s Row, and the ruins of Overbrook. Heroes such as the Emerald Mask, Jason Black, Post Meridian, Red Jacket and the Crimson Vespa would fight epic battles against the Clockwork King, Dr. Vhazilok and the endless minions of Arachnos. Villains like Sadim, The Dallas Has-Been, Witch-Killer Wren and Duvant planned and schemed, looking to take down Paragon and Rogue Isles for their own gain.
