Seven years of City of Heroes statistics

Three long-standing NCsoft MMOs - Guild Wars, City of Heroes and Lineage II - all share the same anniversary: today.

That's what NCsoft says, but actually the US version of City of Heroes and Lineage II launched seven and six years ago yesterday, respectively.

It was only Guild Wars: Prophecies - the first GW release - that happened six years ago today.

To mark the occasion, NCsoft has gone City of Heroes statistic mad.

Did you know that since COH launch, more than 42 million characters have been created? Sadly, 60 per cent of those are Heroes, the remainder Villains. Scrappers are the most popular Fallen Hero archetypes and Brutes are the preferred Redeemed Villain archetypes.

The top five most played archetypes are Blaster, Scrapper, Tanker, Mastermind and Controller, respectively. The most popular character origin is Mutant.

The statistics show that the community mission-making tools have been an overwhelming success. Developers Cryptic Studios and now Paragon Studios have made a total of 46 Trials, Task Forces and Raids, as well as more than 1600 single or group missions. The City of Heroes community, however, has made more than 375,000 missions. Kapow!

Today, City of Heroes characters hold a combined currency total of 56 billion Influence. The richest characters are Scrappers.

Since that 2004 launch, City of Heroes has offered 20 free content releases.

City of Heroes anniversary celebrations run from today throughout May. Up until 2nd May, Booster Packs and Account Services will be halved in price. There's even some wedding attire on offer so you can celebrate with Will and Kate this weekend. You can join friends on other servers if you like. Plus, there are anniversary badges, a Vanguard pack and loyalty player emotes to mark the occasion.

Account reactivation will happen for from 3rd May to 10th May to all people who left "in good standing". Developer Paragon will host a live Ustream chat tomorrow morning/tonight at 2am UK time to sneak preview the upcoming Booster pack. Don't pretend you won't still be awake.

Guild Wars will celebrate by hosting an all-weekend party in the Shing Jea Monastery. Up until 6th May there will be games, contests, races and all sorts to entertain you. There's also to be six weeks of Guild Wars content price promotions (announced via the Guild Wars website).

There'll be additional content on offer, too, via Fluxes. These will mix-up PVP and encourage experimental character builds. Also coming: the option to use high-resolution textures in town, hard mode quests, mutual friends lists and 30 new tonics.

Lineage II celebrations weren't detailed.