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Massively has posted a new developer diary from Going Rogue designer and mission lead, John Hegner. The developer discussed the process of designing Praetoria and creating its signature characters.

The upcoming expansion to NCSoft and Paragon Studios's super hero themed MMO, City of Heroes, will feature a new alignment system which will allow heroes and villains the chance to switch sides, two new primary fictional characters, and the new threat of the parallel universe known as Praetoria.

What we knew going in was that we wanted Praetoria to be a world where the players playing the content would constantly be questioning who was right and who was wrong. This was a critical component. Praetoria isn't necessarily about good vs. evil or right and wrong, it is about order and chaos; freedom and oppression. Then we started looking at dystopian future stories and analyzing the logical method for how other authors explained downward spirals of civilization, either morally or culturally, in their worlds. That's when we settled on the catch phrase; Utopia at a cost.

About half way through the process of writing up Tyrant and the world's background, we hit on the pulse of what we wanted. Tyrant needed to be someone that people could empathize with, despite the fact that he was a villain. We made Tyrant into a version of Statesman who believed a little less in the inherent good in people, and a little more in his own. This minute change was all it took for Primal Earth's greatest hero to become Praetoria Earth's greatest villain. The people didn't fear him, they loved him, and he ruled over the world from a throne that he didn't take from humanity, but one that they gave to him willingly.

Massively: Going Rogue Dev Diary

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