As part of its New Year's Resolution to keep City of Heroes players informed, Paragon Studios has kicked of a new series of monthly producer's letters. Senior Producer Jesse "Ghost Falcon" Caceres announced today that he is stepping into a new role at Paragon on the business team, although he will still be working on City of Heroes. He then introduced Producer Nate "Second Measure" Birkholz as the author of these new monthly letters.

Birkholz covers a lot of ground in his letter. He looks ahead toward Issues 20-21 and announces that a double XP event will be held from Jan. 27-31. He also emphasizes that the City of Heroes team will be even more active within the community via the forums, Facebook, dev diaries, Q&As and more.

You can read Birkholz's full letter after the jump.

January 2011 Producer's Letter to the Community

2011 is upon us and at Paragon Studios we can’t be more excited about what we’re working on; I’d love to tell you all of the amazing stuff we have coming up, but I wouldn’t want to spoil all the surprises. Suffice it to say that this is some of the best content we have yet put into the game. I am looking forward to using these Producer Letters to give you a sense of where we are and where we are going--as a team and as a game, for this year and beyond.

Unparalleled Content: Over the past couple of years, we have really challenged ourselves at Paragon Studios to develop better and better content. We want to give everyone the chance to try new things and use their powers in new ways. We want you to see the game world and your character from new dramatic angles. With the upcoming Incarnate Trials, you’re going to be able to take your characters to power levels undreamt (Power! I tell you! muahahaha) and really see some of the most exciting gameplay we’ve ever been able to create. We’ve also dramatically improved the art, with some of the best animations, effects, audio, characters, and environments we’ve ever produced; early this year, we’re going to be giving you a pretty “wild” new look, and later this year we’ll turn up the pressure.

The Future Is Now: The features we have brought you in the game over the last year are just the first steps on a voyage to bigger, better, shinier, much more exciting things in 2011 and beyond. Going Rogue set up the world of Praetoria. Issue 19 introduced the Incarnate system and some of our most challenging content to date. Issue 20 will unleash the Incarnate Trials that bring you even more raw power courtesy of the next levels of Incarnate abilities. Issue 21 will continue to develop these storylines and features in new and thrilling ways. All the great things we are producing take you steps, leaps, and superleaps closer to the resolution of an epic storyline, and we want your characters to help lead that journey.

End Game for All: We have always wanted to provide a game that was open to everyone. We want you to feel powerful when you visit our world, and the Incarnate Trials will be inclusive, accessible, and easy to participate in. Not to say that it isn’t some of the most challenging and exciting content we have ever provided, but we want to make it possible for you to participate in easily, without the need to belong to an elitist “raiding guild” and without surrendering your weekends for a small chance at rolling on a random reward. Now that many of you have begun your ascension to Incarnate, we’ll be releasing the Rare and Very Rare tiers of the Alpha Slot in just a few short weeks to help you get a leg up on the launch of Issue 20.

Service with a Smile: In recent years we’ve worked hard to not just give you all ever-more-engaging content, but also to continue to improve everyone’s overall experience playing City of Heroes and Villains. Often this comes from updating old content but also in improvements to the way you interact with the game. For example, we are currently working to integrate City of Heroes into the NCsoft Launcher, which will bring with it a significant improvement to the process of downloading and updating the game for all NA and EU (Mac and PC) customers. One of the immediate benefits is that all of our customers will finally benefit from the same launcher and the most up-to-date information; this is the first step in bringing our communities together.

We Love You, Man: I want to make it clear that you, the players, are the most important aspect of City Of…, and we want you guys to know this. I am committed to giving you insight into where we are going, what we are doing, and how AWESOME it’s going to be (to steal a favorite word from War Witch). With the pure ambition of Issues 18, 19, 20, and 21, I know we’ve been focused on development and a little quieter than usual on the forums, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been listening. We want you to have an active voice in where we are going--you wanted the Incarnate System to be more epic, and thus was Issue 19 born. You wanted more info on the Praetorian incarnation of Hamidon, and we’ll be giving you more, starting at PAX East this year.

No, I Mean It: As the development team’s New Year’s Resolution, we are going to be even more active with all of you through the forums, Facebook, dev diaries, and Q&As about the Incarnate Trials, Lore, and all the great features we have in development. You’ll see more interaction with the old hands like Dark Watcher and The Television, as well as from some of the fantastic new talent you may not have met yet. We’ll also be bringing you some rewards for your continued loyalty, like Double XP “Weekend” from January 27-31, and keep your eyes peeled for an announcement next week on plans for our seventh anniversary this spring.

Thanks for your continued support, your continued participation, and for being the best gaming community in this dimension. As a long-time player of City of Heroes before I joined Paragon, I know how fantastic the people are who play this game. I want to use these producer’s letters to stay in touch with you, so please feel free to respond with topics you’d like for me to address in the future.