City of Heroes Preview/Interview

Boomtown has conducted an interview with Cryptic Studios' Al Rivera, asking the designer several questions about the superhero MMORPG. The interview is presented as a preview of the game, with quite a few gameplay aspects revealed, such as the following:
After having watched Rivera play around with the different abilities possessed by his hero, I have to admit that it looked complicated. I asked him if this plethora of possibilities won't deter less experienced players (read: the mass market) from playing the game, but then he told me about a smart feature for that particular breed of players: sidekicking.

You can actually get into the game quite quickly and choose your hero's abilities. Sidekicking also makes your learning curve less steep. It means that a level 1 player can become the sidekick of a player of a much higher level, thus gaining quick access to the cooler aspects of the game. For instance, if you're a sidekick for a level 20 character, you can try level 20 missions and your hero will become stronger temporarily, in order to cope with it, Rivera says, adding that sidekicking is already very popular among the beta testers.