Howdy all.
Truth be told I rarely post here and rarely posted on the CoH boards but I was known as thedarkeone and was mostly on Freedom playing DarkebeDamned (spines/darke), Darke Orion (dark/shield scrapper), or my ill/rad troller Radical Darke. I can say I was devastated when the news hit; I was in New York on vacation with my wife and we had just returned from a day at the US Open when I was laying in bed and read the news on the forums. My wife came out of the shower and looked at me and asked what happened. I told her and she couldnt help but laugh (she is not a gamer) but I have been a little "less" ever since that moment.
2012 was an awful year for me. I started the year off with shoulder surgery and had about half an inch of bone cut out of my arm. Not the best situation since I make a living as a tennis pro. Anyways, 3 months after surgery I was cleared to return to work and the first day back I stepped on a ball and ruptured the connective tissue to my achilles. I was out of work another 6 weeks, in a boot for 6 weeks after that, and limited to teaching to about 4 hours a day for another 2 months. About 2 months after that my mom was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer.
Now in the midst of all that I did have my moments. My mom came through surgery and chemo fairly well (still an on going process 6 months later but the old woman is tough as nails); my department managed to post its best year ever even with my limited teaching due to numerous programs I implemented; I was selected as employee of the year after limping my way through 6 months and still working through almost all of my injuries; I won manager of the year. . . And then to top off my year, I was promptly fired because my boss of 5 years decided that he wanted a yes man instead of a manager. I was replaced by someone who still types with 2 fingers and has no idea how to run spreadsheets.
So, how does CoH fit into all this. . . Like so many of you it was my escape. I had been playing for 8 years and it brought me back to being a kid, reading comics, and dreaming I could fly. And it has been gone for 3 months and I miss it horribly. I still game but nothing has held my interest longer than 3 months now. I miss my characters, I miss the character creator, and I miss reading the forums. I definitely miss my escape from the sometimes depressing flow of reality and I still have my computer wallpaper from CoH that I just cant seem to change.
And yes, as a 38 year old, I still find it strange that I miss a game and community so much.