Following the recent Issue 15 release, NCsoft released a new City of Heroes trailer promising the return of old foes with new powers and a mysterious villain you thought you'd never see!

City of Heroes Issue 15: Anniversary is now officially released, according to an announcement on the official site. Find out more after the jump.

This week on The MMO Report, Casey's back to bring you news about Aion's upcoming launch, how an MMO site paid a Russian porn star to tattoo their web address on her breasts, and another edition of WTF Second Life.

How much of an MMO is button smashing and how much involves actual skill? This installment is an investigation of how armor choices and shield employment can yield more combat decisions.

I like stats as much as the next person (probably more), but when warfare is boiled down to raw probabilities, battlefield skill disappears. The building of the best stat base becomes much more important than any sort of tactical competency. Instead of seeking a skill based work-around, games come up with new statistical probabilities.

Korean MMO giant NCsoft released today its first quarter earning results for 2009, showing significant profit increases in the Asian market, while the North American figures are still spiraling down from 17% market share in 2006 to the current 8%. The report also noted Aion's upcoming Western market release and beta tests for new titles: Punch Monster, Dragonica, Steel Dog and Metal Black "within the year". Full report after the jump

In this installment, Jonathan Steinhauer looks at the last MMO class archetypes, the Healer, and why this role at least is solidly developed.

The Gamerzines blog hosts this contemplative piece about How to make the perfect MMO - Part 1, specifically looking at City of Heroes and World of Warcraft.

The next generation of MMOs is bound to have a huge number of new features, but I think there are four or five that can break new ground and create a completely new level of game.

All NCSoft MMOs, including the soon-to-be-released Aion, will now be available via Steam download. City of Heroes, Guild Wars, and Lineage/Lineage II are now available and Aion will become available when released. Read the press notice after clicking below.