Vague Patch Notes: Who owns the eras of an MMO?

June 26, 2026 - 04:29

I have written before about my fondness for City of Heroes. Anyone who reads my work regularly probably knows that I enjoy that game. But I also think it is important to admit that this is not the full truth. City of Heroes is a game I bought right after it launched, and I disliked it so much that I barely made it past the free month. I found it clunky, confusing, and not very fun. So when I say I like City of Heroes now, I am talking about a different game. I am talking about the game it became years later, after updates, expansions, and a community that reshaped it. That raises a messy question. Who actually owns those later eras of an MMO? The developers who built the original code? The players who stuck around and made the culture? Or the new team that took over and fixed the problems? The answer is never clean. An MMO is not a static product. It is a living thing that changes hands, not just in terms of corporate ownership, but in terms of memory and meaning. The game I hated in 2004 is not the game I love today. And that means the "real" City of Heroes is different for every person who played it.