Anniversary Special: Behind the Mask

In the first part of our Anniversary Special we've talked to DCUO "originals" and "long-timers" about their experiences on our blog and in the game itself. We've asked them to give us their views on interacting on our blog and the game's past, present and of course...it's future. ENJOY.




Travis B. - The first article I read was the one surrounding the death of Vicious http://dailyplanetww.blogspot.com/2011/04/was-deadly-force-necessary.html It pulled me in, and I was eventually hooked on the DP Blog. Great site, great stories, for a great game, flaws and all. Not only am I a contributor, but I'm also a fan.

James K. - I think the most relevant, but still entertaining storyline that I remember was about the power-enhancing street drug "Burn" (also known as G.L.I.T.C.H) one of our writers wrote it up at a time when beta players were using the Amazonian Deflection and Fire Power exploit as a way to explain it. No one likes cheaters, and it was a funny but nice plotline that we used to ridicule those kind of cheesy players. It was hilarious when everyone in the comments was talking in character like it was a real drug. haha!

Kendrick W. - "I remember when the G.L.I.T.C.H storyline first hit the blog. It was freaking hilarious! You can always call someone a glitcher but it seems worse if you make them seem like they are a drug fiend too."

"When the Metropolis Federal building was blown up and all of those innocent people died, I felt like the blog's stories had taken a turn down a very dark path, which led to a slew of stories that I loved to read. Everyone definitely stepped up their game when that happened. Each headline that came out seemed like it was better than the last."

"The MFC story arc and all the articles that came out that was associated with it was definitely the cream of the crop but the best one had to be before the VRA actually went into law. Black Falcon made it a point to let everyone know that she wasn't taking that crap lying down and man! Did she make an impact or what?!"

Sarah J. - The one I remember best was the VRA. It split the vigilantes and four-color heroes down the middle. Since it was the law of the land heroes had to support it even though it was unjust. When Superman had to support the law instead of being labeled an outlaw I knew things weren't going to end well.

Kushmir P. - When the Legion of Sin started attacking police stations--no question. Love them or hate them the LOS pioneered the "police station attack" and early on it was awesome and a strike at the very core of your defenses. For villains to be that bold and audacious was telling. There were a few counter-attacks by heroes but you had to give it to them, that kind of blitzkrieg was one of the early tactics of DCUO and they pioneered it.

Bruce H. - I have two of them, the first many will be surprised by and its the PSN Outage. Our blog's hits and overall viewership set records the two previous months and then the outage hit. Its taken until now to gain much of that momentum back. We thought about writing it as a storyline but ended up deciding against it. Everyone just wanted it to be over. User-submitted articles bottomed out for some time after that.

The second was the introduction of Bios. Even people who weren't regular submitters as far as their exploits went like others to see and judge their characters. It gave many of us a chance to see the level of creativity of our peers in DCUO.

Kristin J. - Mine is easy. What about the thing that really got the blog rolling? The DCUO Insiders! Everyone was hungry for closed beta information but no one would talk. We used our "connections" and brought everyone video, impressions, gameplay--you name it. It was hilarious how some of the admins at The Source even labeled us an "outlaw site". Leaking beta info is what sent the first major rush of people to the Daily Planet.

Matt S. - What about when The Original Source died? To many people that was a major hint that DCUO wasn't going to make it. Initial sales died down, the game population was dwindling, there was talk of server merging and then The Source vanished. (though the site went down entirely too much as it was) This was the central place for DCUO talk for over two years and it was gone. The shady way it was done was really tacky too. None of those admins or people involved ever offered an explanation and all the content people had stored on their site was lost forever.

Daniel J. - I really liked stuff like the Fiction and Headline Contests. I was lucky enough to win one of them and prizes like having your character drawn by some of the bests artists in the DCUO Community was really cool and added to the Immersion.