I discovered CoH on August 7, 2012. I wish I'd known about it sooner. While there are elements of fantasy and sci-fi that I love, I'm not really that interested in playing games based strictly on them. However, having been a boy growing up in the '70s and ingesting all the Bronze Age superhero comic goodness I could get my hands on, I instantly fell in love with CoH. I tried to invest my characters with as much of that vibe as I could. I played the ftp, and was considering a subscription when the bad news hit. Had an absolute blast playing on the beta server while awaiting shut down.
What I loved was the lower graphics (I could play on my old pc w/out too much of a problem), the game play (perfect for an older fella who isn't a gamer), and the community. While I was a solo player, everyone I seemed to meet in game was friendly and helpful, and there was a sense of togetherness in the CoH universe.
I've been lurking on the Save Paragon forum since I heard the news. Don't post much (hardly at all), but am looking forward to some sort of resolution to the problem (whether emulator, sale of ip, spiritual successor, whatever). I don't have the history that most of you have with this game, but I fell in love with it rather quickly and really love to see it make a comeback!