Paragon

Why not a Rad/Cold Corr (or Cold/Rad Def, if you prefer)?

While the official rules are still weeks away from being posted, I am working under the assumption that a player will have to have already established their character's place in CoH lore (its background/biography) in order to enter the contest. Unless this is just an overinflated costume contest, your coders will be doing all the work of adding the character wherever it appears in the game. Other than the creation of a few lines of generic F10-type text, the writers are basically getting a free pass.

But I could be wrong. Regardless, neither of us can say whether they've "earned their salaries" or not until after we experience the writing itself. If recent examples are to be used as a basis for judgment...well, YMMV.

Exactly, they allowed a beta character to become a NPC, a character that would otherwise have been wiped from the game entirely before release. Unless they plan to eventually replace all of the Phalanx (not just Jack's characters) with PCs, all doing this now does is give a single player a massive ego boost.

The phrase was "high school popularity contest". You know, like a homecoming/prom queen/king thing. Vote for Pedro!

And yes, I'm a grump. It's hard to be an optimist in today's society. Again, YMMV.

...

So City of is devolving into a high school popularity contest? Happy happy, joy joy.

If you really feel like you need the community to pick a replacement (and not just have one of your paid writing staff do his or her job), then I implore you to simply pick 4 or 5 NPCs that are long overdue for a promotion and the character development it brings. Say, Back Alley Brawler, Ms. Liberty, Moonfire, Infernal, and someone else, like Rose Star from the canceled City of Hero. Blue Steel or Castle would be a good choice too.

So the writer is Mother Mayhem's plastic surgeon?

You sure it isn't T3h S00p4rFr34k!?

Interesting theory, but I'm afraid several facts about Praetoria make it an impossibility. Spoilers follow.

- Praetorian Stefan Richter was killed before (possibly from the mustard gas in the Great War) or immediately following (the gas was the reason they looked for the Well, after all) his and Cole's empowerment by the Well of the Furies. Regardless, he never became Lord Recluse, never usurped Arachnos from The Weaver, and never conquered the Etoile Islands/Rogue Isles.
- The Carnival of Light has never been known as the Carnival of Shadows. Vanessa DeVore was never corrupted by Giovanna Scaldi's soul, nor is she the all-controlling, central figure of the Carnival of Light like her Primal counterpart is.
- The Praetorian version of the Midnighter Club was destroyed from within when Diabolique decided to enslave a majority of its members souls for her own use, including her father's. Several members of Croatoan society, including Percy Winkley and the War Witch, have alternate persona and were never known as heroes.
- Primal Penelope Yin spends her days convincing up-and-coming heroes to save her daddy, while being rescued from the Rikti by Heroes of the City. Praetorian Penelope Yin is a broken girl, spending her days convincing rising members within the Resistance to save all the people and teddy bears in Mirror Kingdom, while her father plays the opposite role in attempting to free her from Tilman's control. Yet both characters are, at least visually, the same age.
- Lord Nemesis doesn't exist, nor ever existed, in Praetorian history. As a result, the Rikti War does not exist in Praetorian history either. Interestingly enough, neither does the Lady Grey.

There are plenty of other contradictions, but you get the point. Praetoria is and always has been an alternate reality. Where the timeline deviation first occurred between the Primal and Praetorian Earths is more difficult to pin down, however.

I'm late to the party, so I'll just leave this here.

Fear the killer c[rock].

December 20, 2005; Champion and Protector servers. The hacker was reportedly a minor, so the legal results were probably light.

They made the Technical Issues/Bugs, Player Questions, General Discussions, and Suggestions forums open to everyone; all the other ones are still VIP-only.

Final Update:
Hatake Hayate - Kinetic Melee/Energy Aura Stalker
Hatake Yukiko - Electrical Blast/Fire Manipulation Blaster
Krystal Cerinia - Dual Pistols/Dark Miasma Corruptor
Paragon's Wrath - Earth Control/Earth Assault Dominator