Lore AMA 2015

[Felderburg]

Felderburg is the extremely dedicated soul behind the Paragon Wiki's AMA reference, among other things.

Well, thanks for that, although I've been busy with work & school, so I am less dedicated these days.

I would suggest that people check out the existing Lore AMA page that Captain Electric posted, but ALSO the "Sorted" Lore AMA page:

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Lore_AMA/Sorted

Yes, it is still a work in progress, but there are four good reasons to take a look:

• It has the content of the Lore AMAs unhidden by spoiler tags and numbered. Which makes it easier to just use ctrl+f or 'find in page' to find questions on a certain topic.
• Because each question has its own section, you can link to a question directly, like so: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Lore_AMA/Sorted#117 (replace the "117" with the number of the question you are directing to as needed, up to 360). I have used this to good effect elsewhere in the forums - it's much easier than directing people to the Lore AMA page proper and having them find a question themselves.
• Over a third of the questions have actually been sorted. I swear I'll get the rest... Soon^TM. But you may be able to find what you're looking for even in the first 130 or so questions (and if not, ctrl+f is your friend!).
• I just added all the unanswered questions in their section, so when we get the official AMA form (or whatever) I (or whoever) can ask them again - last AMAs it didn't seem that they were included by default.

Edit: I forgot to add: we should get some stuff like this posted in the OP, particularly what Captain Electric wrote.

[Blackout]

A couple of quick questions that aren't directed towards lore (so feel free to delete this comment) But is there any kind of limit as to how many questions someone could ask? Obviously I'll keep the amount of questions I have somewhat reasonable, but I have a lot of CoH lore questions and these AMA's only happen once a year. Secondly has there been any kind of confirmation whether Matt Miller and the other developers are doing the AMA this year, for Certain? Just wondering.

Like I said, a little off topic, so feel free to delete this comment later, hopefully once the questions are answered. :)

[Felderburg]

Regarding the nature of the questions, in the last AMA there were indeed limits, as seen here: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Lore_AMA#City_of_Heroes_AMA_3_.282014.29 and below (note that this is NOT a complete list of the rules as they were posted last year):

• Try to limit the number of questions you ask. We only have a limited amount of time to answer questions, but if you monopolized half the document with your questions, we might be forced to skip over questions asked by other people.
• Read the already asked questions, try not to repeat. If you have a similar, but not the same, question as another user add it as a comment in the format described below.
• No questions about [basically anything about ongoing negotiations or the legal situation at the time of the shutdown and] anything non-CoH lore related, really

One would assume that there will be similar rules for this one (but we have no idea!). There have been questions in every AMA about the technical aspects of the game engine itself (which is why Tunnel Rat answered a few, since she was a VFX person, and not all that related to Lore, for example) but the vast majority are about lore. I don't think they mind answering questions that aren't about lore, as long as the right person is available to respond.

As far as number, given that there were 148 questions answered in AMA 1 (pulled from forum comments), 137 in AMA 2 (via google doc) and 75 in the third (via 24 hour google doc - 360 total!) I would say that we should limit ourselves to a few questions per person, and then if the # is less than 100 as we approach the deadline for asking, add a few more. I don't know if every question will be answered (although I do have the original 24 hour doc saved, so I could count the # there and compare) but I'm under the impression that Positron et al. only want to answer a limited amount of questions, since this is a volunteer thing now.

I'm also not sure how many people will be interested. The number of questions that was answered did drop a bit last year, but I'm not sure if that's because of a lack of interest or because of the short 24 hour window given to ask.

Edit: Wanted to add that since the first AMA, we do know that any unreleased art that was created but not shown to the public has to stay that way for contractual reasons. So don't bother asking for it. I'll look and see if there are other similar legal restrictions.

Further edit: I think that posting questions here is a really good idea - that way, people can take a look at stuff here, and if it has been asked, we can sort of as a community weed out duplicates, or things that are even indirectly answered already.



There are three things that I'm thinking about doing, if I have time, for my own questions and others:

• I'm going to make a list of my questions that I didn't put in previous AMAs or that have come up since, and pick a few top tier questions to ask. The ones that keep me up at night. That way I can get them in first, and add more if there's room.
• If it's a Google doc again, I would want to organize the questions by topic. I'm not sure I would have permission to do that, but I suspect as long as I just copy / pasted questions that had been asked as I moved them, or if Positron put in categories beforehand, that would likely go a long way towards making sure people's questions aren't duplicated. If someone had some burning questions about the Shadow Shard, for example, but got to the doc late and saw that they had been asked in the SS section, they could then ask some of their questions on other topics.
• I will likely put in the Google doc all the questions that went unanswered in previous AMAs. There are several that were answered as "Answer hazy, ask again later (Matt because he couldn't find someone to answer this right now)" so I think that they are worth revisiting.

[Felderburg]

As far as I know there were never any actual retcons when Going Rogue went live, and the old lore states that Praetorian Earth did have a Rikti Invasion. A few of the new missions even have war walls in them. So how come the populace doesn't appear to know about the Rikti?

Well, on the Wiki we (ok, I) decided to remove the reference to a Rikti invasion on Portal Corp's page (see the discussion here: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Talk:Portal_Corporation#Praetorians_and_Riktis ). Yes, there was indeed official confirmation that they had suffered an invasion years before GR was released, but given that all the new lore directly contradicts this, we (I) felt it best to remove that reference. There is further discussion of War Walls and the Rikti as well here: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Talk:Praetoria#War_Walls

None of that answers your question in full, though.

At one point during your Incarnate character's multiple lengthy dialogues with Prometheus, he clearly states that Earth's Well was originally a person.  Who the heck was it (and if can get a second question, how did this person wind up as a Well?)  Promie also stated that it was a man at one point, I think, but he wouldn't give any other clues.

Well, we know it isn't Zeus, since he is referred to as a champion of the well, not the well itself, in a previous AMA: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Lore_AMA/Sorted#292 I'm not sure it would be a "person" as such, but more a being of untold power, or something like that.... but I don't know. I still have many questions about the Wells and such.

Finally, was there any gonna' be anything with Eochai and the tuathe? Or were they just the sort of one time note fantasy/Halloween group that were exclusively for Halloween and croatoa?

Just gonna throw it out there that Croatoa was not a "Halloween" zone; it was added to break up the monotony of nothing but city: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Lore_AMA/Sorted#20 That doesn't answer your question, but just noting.

What can you tell us about the Star Sentinels?

What can you tell me about this group? I don't recall hearing that name, and the wiki has nothing, as far as I can tell. I must know!

Who is Black Heart and why are all the hospitals in the Rogue Isles named after him/her/it?

The following quote is from the Canon Fodder threads: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Black_Heart_Memorial_Hospital

Black Heart is an homage to Sacred Heart Hospital. If there is a Black Heart in the Rogue Isles, he or she has yet to make a move.

I suspect "homage" isn't quite correct - perhaps "reference" would have been a better word?

Also a bit more of an out of game question; Was Hero One ever considered as a candidate to replace Statesman after his death? I know Tyrant was considered, but I figured Hero One might have been a quite likely option considering he's established to be (Roughly) on the Statesman's power level (He is an incarnate after all) and in addition to that whilst he is tainted by the Rikti, he is also very much still alive.

If you go to the sorted AMA and ctrl+f "Hero 1" you'll find what I think reasonably answers your question: there's a variety of questions about a redemption arc - Hero 1 would likely be part of a Rikti factions oriented storyline rather than a replacement for Statesman.

[Fescu]

Well, on the Wiki we (ok, I) decided to remove the reference to a Rikti invasion on Portal Corp's page (see the discussion here: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Talk:Portal_Corporation#Praetorians_and_Riktis ). Yes, there was indeed official confirmation that they had suffered an invasion years before GR was released, but given that all the new lore directly contradicts this, we (I) felt it best to remove that reference. There is further discussion of War Walls and the Rikti as well here: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Talk:Praetoria#War_Walls

None of that answers your question in full, though.

I don't think I understand how the new lore contradicts the official confirmation earlier on of a Rikti War. While it's true that there isn't any mention of Rikti in Praetoria, I don't see how that rules out any possibility of them being there. Maybe they didn't immediately trace Nemesis' invasion back to Primal Earth and had to look around for a bit. We know from Serpent Drummer's arc that the Rikti at least know about the existence of the Praetorians, or that they did by the time Issue 10 was released. Maybe the Praetorian government was able to keep the invasion secret. We also know that some of the new lore was built around the lies that the Praetorians promoted, so I'm just not sure. I'm not saying that you're wrong, but I think it's best to wait until we get something from Positron before we make up our minds one way or the other.

Now I have another question. The first mention of the Center's age that I know about was in Viridian's story arc when he said that the Center was "over 90 years old," and that Viridian first became a contact in 2006 with the release of Issue 7. Fast forward to 2015, that would make the Center at least 99 years old now. Were there any plans as to who would succeed him as the leader of the Council if he were to die?

[bmorrison]

OK is Nemesis an Iconian plot? or are the Iconians a Nemesis plot?

[Kaos Arcanna]

OK is Nemesis an Iconian plot? or are the Iconians a Nemesis plot?

All things considered I wouldn't expect Matt Miller to want to say too much about the Iconians at this point.

[bmorrison]

I know but I had to make the joke here at least.

[eabrace]

Matt Miller has now officially announced that the 2015 City of Heroes Loregasm is open for questions.

#CityofHeroes fans! It's that time of year again. #Loregasm. Here's the form to submit your question: http://goo.gl/forms/B3k5ebv5Zy

Instead of a document that everyone can go into and edit, there's a form for submitting your questions this year.

Please be sure to copy your questions from this thread over to the form in order to submit them.

Questions may be submitted no later than 4/28, so you only have a few days to get your questions in.

[Felderburg]

Please be sure to copy your questions from this thread over to the form in order to submit them.

Do note that it is limited to ONE question per submission. I'm sure you could try to game the system, but there's probably a reason for that.

I am disappointed in this though, because it means we can't see if a question is asked already, so we may end up wasting our question on something someone else asked.

[Remaugen]

I would like to know more about the planned redemption of Tyrant.

[Blackout]

I would like to know more about the planned redemption of Tyrant.

I think that was pretty well covered in some of the previous AMA's. From what I remember they were going to set him up as a resurrected Statesman and he'd help spearhead the war against Batallion, thus turning the tide. He'd eventually voluntarily reveal his true identity to the public thus proving that they did not need one singular figure to bind them all together and that they could accomplish great things without any kind of figurehead like him or Statesman. I can't really remember what was planned for him after that though.

[Felderburg]

I would like to know more about the planned redemption of Tyrant.

Then you should submit that as your question in the google doc http://goo.gl/forms/B3k5ebv5Zy

But yes, it was reasonably well covered in previous AMAs http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Lore_AMA/Sorted

[LaughingAlex]

Heres one.  On the topic of good/evil, were there ever plans for plots in which, some decisions may seem like a lesser evil turn out to be unforgivingly evil, or maybe a seemingly heroic choice at first would lead to committing especially evil acts out of necessity?

[Zombie Hustler]

I am disappointed in this though, because it means we can't see if a question is asked already, so we may end up wasting our question on something someone else asked.

I'm also worried we'll get repeat questions from previous years, as has happened before, but I don't know that there's any way to avoid that, save for compiling the questions collectively, reviewing and comparing, and then submitting an edited list of new questions.

In any event, I put in my question. I'm sure I had others that I wanted to have answered over the years, but I've plum forgotten!

[MMODesigner]

Hey everyone, Positron here.

I've closed the form for submitting questions, and am in the process of answering them. A few people seemed concerned about the new format. Here's why I am using Google Forms and not a shared Google Doc:

A few people would monopolize the doc and ask tons of questions. Since I can't get answers to everything, I wanted to give as many individual people as I could a shot at getting their question answered, as opposed to me answering 5 questions from a single person and 0 from you. (I'd be more answering 1 from them and 0 from you, if that makes any sense).

Also, every year I would close the Google Doc at (or later than) the time I had disclosed, and then, for DAYS afterwards, I would get emails from Google of "request from Soandso to edit the doc" over and over and over (I had to make a rule in Gmail to auto-delete them, but the format would change every year). Hopefully this won't happen with the Google Form.

If you were concerned that you were going to "waste" your question asking something someone else asked, a quick glance shows that all the questions are unique in some way.

If you want me to go back and answer every unanswered question from every previous Lore AMA, I am going to be brutally honest with you: it's not going to happen. If I couldn't find the person to answer it in 2013, I can tell you right now they are even LESS inclined to answer it in 2015. All of the people who worked on CoH have moved on to new projects and most simply have no desire to dredge up the past answering questions about Rikti mating habits. There may even come a day where I feel that way (gasp!), but so far that isn't the case.

Now, I did come across a comment that isn't going to make it into the official responses list, but I wanted to comment on here:

Captain Electric contacted me on Steam and asked, back in March, if I was going to be doing a Lore AMA again this year. At the time I had -just- been laid off from Cryptic Studios, so it was seriously the last thing on my mind, and was still a month away (it's not like this is a huge effort for me to set up). I told him as much, and that yes, there would probably be one.

A few days later I saw a tweet from MMORPG.com saying that I was doing another Lore AMA. Again, it was the furthest thing from my mind at the time (finding a job and all was the number one priority), so I replied to my former editor over there with "lol. wut?" as I was confused where the information would have come from, as I never said anything officially to anyone.

I then got more messages from CE on Steam. CE said that I threw him under the bus, that I called him a liar, that the community was basically running his name through the mud and he wanted a word from me to restore his credibility. He "tipped" (his words) MassivelyOP.com about the Lore AMA, and their article mentioned that it would be happening here on the Titan Network forum (I have no idea how they got this idea, it was never the intention as I had always planned on using a Google Form for the 2015 AMA). No one from MassivelyOP contacted me for verification (they should have, I am very active on twitter and would have seen and replied to them).

In the AMA comment Captain Electric added to the Lore AMA doc he mentioned that he had logs of our Steam chats and shared them with Titan Network staff. I am very uncomfortable with this. He asked why I didn't just say "no comment"? It's because I don't feel like I should have to when I am having a one-on-one conversation with a fan. That's what I thought I was doing. If I'd have known I was going to have my words quoted I would have behaved very differently. Yes, I am press trained, and yes, I know that there is no "off the record" even when talking to fans, but I honestly don't know how a simple "yes, there will likely be an AMA this year" got spun into "Matt is definitely doing one, and it's going to be hosted over on the Titan Network" because that's something I'm pretty sure I'd remember saying.

The likely scenario is that MassivelyOP interpreted the fact that there was a forum thread here where people were prepping questions with the fact that I said I would likely do one and assumed that the thread is where it would happen. So when MMORPG.com picked it up (which is where I saw it), I was genuinely befuddled and responded in kind. Never did I say that Captain Electric made everything up and that he is a liar. Could people interpret that from what I did say? Seems that they did.

Now, I didn't see the need to come to these forums at the time and clarify everything as, again, my main focus was to find a job and not defend the honor of Captain Electric who was apparently misquoted. Seeing as Captain Electric has made it clear that he never wants to speak to me again, I guess this is going to fall on deaf ears. CE was overenthusiastic in tipping off MassivelyOP, and in that, communication was cloudy and I was signed up for something I never intended. I wish MassivelyOP had contacted me for verification of the story and things would have been made clear.

Those of you who called Captain Electric a liar were also acting on too-little information. I can see how you could interpret what I said as "ZOMG CE made everything up" but that wasn't the case. I am sorry Captain Electric had to go through this, all because of my flippant tweet.

[Felderburg]

Positron, thanks for the reply!

A few people would monopolize the doc and ask tons of questions. Since I can't get answers to everything, I wanted to give as many individual people as I could a shot at getting their question answered, as opposed to me answering 5 questions from a single person and 0 from you. (I'd be more answering 1 from them and 0 from you, if that makes any sense).

This makes sense. I had thought the effort to limit things was more a result of a lack of time or interest from you / other devs; your motivation of fairness to all people who want to ask questions makes sense. It seems like this may, in the long run, result in lots of questions going unanswered, but I have to learn to temper my "I want all the answers NAO!" mentality with reality :P

If you were concerned that you were going to "waste" your question asking something someone else asked, a quick glance shows that all the questions are unique in some way.

This is super duper awesome and good. Hopefully we'll be more organized next year.... I'd like to see coordination amongst us fans, instead of "hey, so, here are some questions we may get to ask at some point" and then... that's it. We'll do better next year.

If you want me to go back and answer every unanswered question from every previous Lore AMA, I am going to be brutally honest with you: it's not going to happen. If I couldn't find the person to answer it in 2013, I can tell you right now they are even LESS inclined to answer it in 2015. All of the people who worked on CoH have moved on to new projects and most simply have no desire to dredge up the past answering questions about Rikti mating habits. There may even come a day where I feel that way (gasp!), but so far that isn't the case.

...does anyone want to know about Rikti mating habits?

Well shoot, now I'm curious. I am disappointed about the previously unanswered questions staying unanswered; c'est la vie.

I suppose you could just arrange the release of the latest story bible - that would probably answer a lot of questions  ;D

[Captain Electric Bugaloo]

From my personal perspective, having read only what's in this thread initially, I literally had no idea what was going on (it looked like a lot of posts here had been deleted by mods or something - I don't think I ever saw anyone call CE a liar in this thread). Sounds like Massively or MMORPG or whoever went way too far in assuming things, and then people went too far in assuming things about your tweet, which is what I gathered after doing research after CE's latest post here. Personally, I was just very confused.

[Captain Electric]

Positron, and anyone else interested, I'm going to do my best to describe the game of telephone as it occurred from my perspective (bystanders can take it as a lesson in what not to do); but more importantly, this is all framed around an apology. To Matt Miller, to the community, and to the staff members at the Titan Network who tried to keep me level-headed. It may have been a game of telephone, but I started it. After reading Matt's post above, it is clear to me that I misinterpreted him long before MassivelyOP.net and MMORPG.com misreported my tip. Much credit to the Titan Network for trying to convince me of this.

Matt, when I reached out to you for comment about doing another AMA, I remember what you told me very clearly. You said "My job search is my number one priority. I'll probably be using another open document format like last year." That word isn't actually where the game of telephone began, but it's important because of how I interpreted it. It's clear, after your post above, you were saying you were probably going to be answering another AMA, and that's the format you were (at that moment) considering.

What I heard was different: you'd probably be using another open document format like last year, implying vis a vis you'd already decided to do it, but weren't yet sure how. Now, I've run that misinterpretation by a few people in the short time since I read your explanation, and they all agree they'd have taken it the same way I did. I don't think that means I should be off the hook for it, but I'll get back to that in a moment.

The game of telephone began with a non-mutual understanding of the nature of our relationship. Something that actually came out of my narrow-minded mouth in the past few hours was, "Really? Fans really do that? Just contact developers out of the blue for chit chat?" The resounding reply was yes, yes they do. The simplest way to put this is, bluntly, I've never approached any developer for chit-chat, ever. Only when I wanted specific questions answered for the community, or, after a game closed, to express sympathies and thanks. Small-talk occasionally follows, but never by my initiation; my goal is always to show gratitude for their time by wasting as little of it as possible.

...All of which is context, context I should have given you. And, being completely honest, I thought I did give it to you, but I guess I didn't. I don't save chat logs; I took a screenshot of the one chat I shared with Titan staff. (More about that in a moment.)

During last year's lead-up to the AMA, when I passed along your comments to the community, you gave the impression that you're a very to-the-point guy, something I appreciate during a pointed conversation. My naive expectation was that you knew I put you on my Steam friend list for one reason, and one reason only. To contact you once a year, to help give fans a month-long head start on gathering their questions on the Titan forum, so we'd all have a productive AMA when you announced your live document (or whatever you'd decide to use) was going up. I still think there is a good idea in there somewhere, but my approach to it was very clearly terrible, and I'm sorry.

We did this last year and that worked out fine, which led me through my own fault to an assumption about the nature of our communication. But the biggest mistake of all is one I made last year too, despite how that went: I played telephone. A better way to do it would have been to ask you about the event and offer to set up a thread, after you made an official announcement about it.

Your post above is reasonable and clear, but there is one thing that made me uncomfortable too. You did get more messages on Steam; two more I think, practically begging you to clarify your tweet, because it was causing very negative repercussions that neither of us intended. If I were anyone else reading your post, I might think this Captain Electric fella was sending furious buckets of hate mail. That wasn't the case. My goal in contacting you at that point, which I made clear, was not to seek any kind of apology, but to cooperatively deescalate the community's reaction to your tweet.

But my last and supposedly final message to you was incredibly angry. I had no idea that we were on two very different pages from the start, and how that was very much my fault. All I could think was, any time it has ever been brought to my attention that I've inadvertently caused some distress, I've taken, at minimum, thirty seconds, used the keys on my keyboard, and corrected my faux pas. I've done just that, more than once (way more than once). People have always held me to that standard, and rightly so. So I felt indignant, and spent the past few weeks feeling indignant, after you replied, pretty bluntly, that it wasn't going to happen. On that day especially; I was getting flak from Titan about interrupting your job search, while watching you tweet about an 11-hour Pillars of Eternity binge, and I was beginning to assume the worst about you. The one screenshot I took of one of our conversations was just so that somebody would believe me that we had actually talked about the AMA. Only Titan staff ended up with it; my friends all refused, they said they didn't need proof to believe me. Still, my credibility aside, it was embarrassing to see something for the community derailed by all the jokes. Just to keep my conscience clear, I don't think anyone ever actually used the word liar.

I haven't lambasted MassivelyOP or MMORPG here, simply because I don't want to portray them as anything more than additional participants in the game of telephone I started. Yes, MassivelyOP misreported my tip; they later corrected it, but not before MMORPG picked that up and ran with it. Additionally, you are saying you wish they would have verified with you, which sounds rational.

But I'm going to throw myself onto the fire here. I just dug up a copy of the message I sent MassivelyOP. Massively uses a comment form on their website, but I copied the text into a text file, as fate would have it, so that I could later incriminate myself. It is one tremendous piece of crap, and, much like the fish that keeps getting bigger, not at all as detailed as I remember:

I'm giving this annual event a little love to help to get the word out. Two and a half years ago, Positron said he would keep making AMAs every anniversary as long as the questions kept coming. Recently I contacted him, and he's aware a thread has been set up on the Titan Network for people to gather their questions in anticipation of this year's AMA "Loregasm". I'll keep the thread updated. (My post is the fourth from the OP, owing to a thread merge.)

*A moment later, I sent them an "oops" message with just the thread's link.

TonyV swears this was all just a little misunderstanding. But maybe that's letting me off too easy. Would anyone want me doing their PR after reading all of this? I am sorry Positron had to go through this, all because of my terrible communication.

Edit: minor correction, it was two screenshots, it wouldn't fit readable in one shot.

[Captain Electric]

I'm sorry, I think your words were actually, "...I'm thinking of using an open document format." Maybe I should turn on Steam chat logs, but that's always felt kind of icky. And I still misinterpreted your thought process in any case.

[Relitner]

Big hug, warm fuzzies, kumbaya and all that...

Now on the important stuff. Posi... CoH2! Chop-Chop!!  ;D