New efforts!

[Felderburg]

We know weather is chaotic in the famous "butterfly effect" example -- so go back in time 100 years, take a single breath, and all the weather patterns from a year later onwards are different than they would have been if you hadn't gone back in time.

Hurricanes: actually "coincidentally" named after the time travelers that caused them?

[SilverAgeFan]

Via Facebook this morning, I learned that a former regular teammate from my CoH days passed away Saturday. We never met in person though we maintained a nearly 10 year online friendship. We teamed together regularly on Triumph from halfway through year one till year 5. After that, while I remained a fairly avid player till the announcement of closure, he was exploring other game worlds. But he always came back, reporting how much more he enjoyed CoH. Checking in every release or so, we'd catch up with a few missions together followed by lots of chat about life outside of game. He was 44.

Until today, I ranked amongst those many unregistered former CoH players who frequent this thread anonymously hoping for news of resurrection. I began playing CoH within the first few weeks of release. I was finishing grad school and in severe need of something fun. I had no idea that little blue box at Best Buy would stay in my life 5 times longer than my masters program had.

I too am now in my 40's. While this tease of a deal stretches, first into months and now into years, my own life experiences with business leave me unable to believe that CoH will ever return.

Most nights, I'm good with this realization. My life is robust. I have a career, a home, a spiritual practice, and physical hobbies. I still game now and then, though no where near as much as when CoH was around. Its closure changed my relationship to gaming in general and MMOs in particular.

Regardless, I want to take an opportunity to express how very much I miss this game, more than a grown person with a full life should miss an amusement. I miss the space it provided and the delight I felt at so many corners--realizing the groundbreaking depth of the character maker even at issue 0; the rollout of issue 2 and seeing a first cape flapping in the wind, discovering the easter eggs buried in neighborhood naming schemes, getting my first tier 7, 8 or 9 powers; hitting 50 for the first time, several years after game launch as a chronic roleplaying altaholic; visiting the ski chalet every damn year; breaking 750+ badges for the first time; even the item shop and the new powers, including the pools we never got; playing original arcs in the old Atlas with new alts prior to its destruction; partaking in the farewell to BaBs torch event upon his departure; trick or treating year after year with strangers; I miss organizing and participating in incarnate raids, even if I sucked at them at first; I miss ship raids; I miss the rare random pickup RP that could still happen now and then even on a server like Triumph; I even miss the stupid Arachnos centered feel of the Rogue Isles that persisted until that last year when villain content started to diversify.

I miss my many "mains" from Ashen Princess to Big Zoot to Amethyst Avenger to Dr Fantastico. I miss my second-line mains from Gata Blanca to Greywolf to Lady Intrigue. I miss my third and fourth string alts. I miss my rogue's gallery of villains on Virtue. I miss my Praetorian born Rogues and Vigilantes.

Most importantly, I miss experiencing all this with friends--those I only knew within the game, those I stayed in touch with beyond and after, and those who have since passed away.

Paragon may never come back. At this point, I sincerely think it won't. And I may never find a gamespace that inspires and moves me the way CoH was able to. But tonight, I offer a belated thank you to the original team that gave me 8 great years, a heartfelt I miss you to all those I encountered inside this wonderful world, and a fond farewell to those who are now gone from my life.

I'm sure I'll continue to check this thread regularly. The kid in me wouldn't have it any other way. I thank those of you who keep vigil here. It's nice to see old forum names, even if we never interacted directly. Many of you are familiar. Whatever the future may hold, remember that we all really had something once in Paragon, whether we knew it at the time or not.

[brothermutant]

As a player analog, I think Mind/Electric dominator is a reasonably close match.  As an NPC, he wouldn't be any particular player archetype.  I'd probably make him with some kind of Katana-based melee attacks for light saber, electric blast attacks for range, super reflexes-based defense, and a few extra utility powers (power push for force pushes, and probably a confuse for the Jedi mind trick and just the fact he's a manipulative bastard).

I had a Mind/Elec dom padewan (sure I spelled that wrong) that was fun yet terrible. She could control a group like no other and did meh dmg. But she was sure fun. I used to sleep/hold/confuse etc groups when we got into the hairy parts of things. Man that toon was fun to bust out periodically.

[Surelle]

What a great post, Silver (except I am so sorry to hear about your CoX friend).

Welcome to the boards, at least un-stealthed, hehe, and yeah, most of us have a die-hard little glimmer of hope for i23 zombie mode to get a wakie or we wouldn't be here either.   ;D

[Azrael]

SilverAgeFan.  Spot on.  Pretty much sums how I feel about Coh.

No game has captured my interest since.  In fact, the more I see of other MMOs...I'm bemused at how 'average' they seem compared to the seminal CoH which was true to itself and different.  It seems unjust somehow.

I don't mind the '1.5' effort.  I wish Heroes and Villains and City of Titans all the best. 

But I want the deal for the original servers to go through.

1st re-roll is an Elec/Elec Dominator.

As an aside, I still think one of the strategic mistakes made in CoH was CoV's duplication of content.  CoV pvp could have been put in the 'red tram lines' of each zone's large and relatively empty maps.  The 'new' archetypes could have been brought to the table in CoH (and eventually were as part of diversification....)  But all that effort in terms of zones and missions could have gone into making the zones more densely packed with new content and further CoH zones developed.  I didn't like the Arachnos centric nature of CoV either.  A bit 'meh' over it.  It seemed like a massive sidestep that saw it lose ground after people realised it was 'more of the same.'  All that energy in CoV could have boosted and extended CoH forward...instead of sideways...

In the end, thanks to the NC Soft buyout, CoH was developed far beyond its CoV era anyway.  We got colours in powers, the ITF, IOs, Incarnate content (which I didn't really like...), Going Rogue, Diversification of powers etc, more zones.  It's just a shame it ran out of 'time.'  Another year and we could have been on the Battalion and Moonbase stuff?  Issue 24 was shaping up to be the full turn of the circle release to finally polish all those 'little' areas.  And then a push to mega issues later.  Cruel.  So cruel to be taken out so abruptly.

Nothing else 'plays' like CoH.

I'd settle for just having issue 23 back.  It's all I really want.

Azrael.

PS.  I'd really like an offline mode too.  Part of the 'sting' of losing CoH isn't even the lack of 'online' MMO community.  It's that the game itself I can't even play in offline mode.  I'd like to be able to run the servers content on my computer and sync it to the game client.  Although Unreal Tourney isn't an MMO, you can still Lan or internet with other gamers on the net.  And that game is even older than CoH.  Meh.  Rental software...  It's great until the cord gets cut.  Then yer kinda stuffed.  Is it technically possible to have a local server client for solo or Lan or peer to peer play?

I'd settle for being able to set up a duo mode peer to peer or local Lan in a house.  That way, I can still use the client I have and it's not 'out there' in NC Soft's face.

So, I guess I'm wondering if the new team are successful they will consider this 'offline' mode should the worst ever rear its ugly head again...

[Solitaire]

Via Facebook this morning, I learned that a former regular teammate from my CoH days passed away Saturday. We never met in person though we maintained a nearly 10 year online friendship. We teamed together regularly on Triumph from halfway through year one till year 5. After that, while I remained a fairly avid player till the announcement of closure, he was exploring other game worlds. But he always came back, reporting how much more he enjoyed CoH. Checking in every release or so, we'd catch up with a few missions together followed by lots of chat about life outside of game. He was 44.

Until today, I ranked amongst those many unregistered former CoH players who frequent this thread anonymously hoping for news of resurrection. I began playing CoH within the first few weeks of release. I was finishing grad school and in severe need of something fun. I had no idea that little blue box at Best Buy would stay in my life 5 times longer than my masters program had.

I too am now in my 40's. While this tease of a deal stretches, first into months and now into years, my own life experiences with business leave me unable to believe that CoH will ever return.

Most nights, I'm good with this realization. My life is robust. I have a career, a home, a spiritual practice, and physical hobbies. I still game now and then, though no where near as much as when CoH was around. Its closure changed my relationship to gaming in general and MMOs in particular.

Regardless, I want to take an opportunity to express how very much I miss this game, more than a grown person with a full life should miss an amusement. I miss the space it provided and the delight I felt at so many corners--realizing the groundbreaking depth of the character maker even at issue 0; the rollout of issue 2 and seeing a first cape flapping in the wind, discovering the easter eggs buried in neighborhood naming schemes, getting my first tier 7, 8 or 9 powers; hitting 50 for the first time, several years after game launch as a chronic roleplaying altaholic; visiting the ski chalet every damn year; breaking 750+ badges for the first time; even the item shop and the new powers, including the pools we never got; playing original arcs in the old Atlas with new alts prior to its destruction; partaking in the farewell to BaBs torch event upon his departure; trick or treating year after year with strangers; I miss organizing and participating in incarnate raids, even if I sucked at them at first; I miss ship raids; I miss the rare random pickup RP that could still happen now and then even on a server like Triumph; I even miss the stupid Arachnos centered feel of the Rogue Isles that persisted until that last year when villain content started to diversify.

I miss my many "mains" from Ashen Princess to Big Zoot to Amethyst Avenger to Dr Fantastico. I miss my second-line mains from Gata Blanca to Greywolf to Lady Intrigue. I miss my third and fourth string alts. I miss my rogue's gallery of villains on Virtue. I miss my Praetorian born Rogues and Vigilantes.

Most importantly, I miss experiencing all this with friends--those I only knew within the game, those I stayed in touch with beyond and after, and those who have since passed away.

Paragon may never come back. At this point, I sincerely think it won't. And I may never find a gamespace that inspires and moves me the way CoH was able to. But tonight, I offer a belated thank you to the original team that gave me 8 great years, a heartfelt I miss you to all those I encountered inside this wonderful world, and a fond farewell to those who are now gone from my life.

I'm sure I'll continue to check this thread regularly. The kid in me wouldn't have it any other way. I thank those of you who keep vigil here. It's nice to see old forum names, even if we never interacted directly. Many of you are familiar. Whatever the future may hold, remember that we all really had something once in Paragon, whether we knew it at the time or not.

Best post I've read in a long time, everything said is true for a majority of us I believe. Thank you for putting in to words what I never could.

[MGLZadok]

I had a Mind/Elec dom padewan (sure I spelled that wrong) that was fun yet terrible. She could control a group like no other and did meh dmg. But she was sure fun. I used to sleep/hold/confuse etc groups when we got into the hairy parts of things. Man that toon was fun to bust out periodically.

My first 50 was an Mind/Elec dom specifically designed to be a Sith.  Fortunately, I was running with a SG of real life friends, including a Robo/Traps MM, an Dark/Elec Brute and a Dual Sword/Fire Brute, so I never had to solo it.  Not the greatest group, but we were Quantity over Quality.  And Confuse is, hands down, my favorite CC in any form of video game ever.  There's just something about the group stopping so you can Mass Confuse a group because they know it's going to be easier to kill the group when they're all focused on killing each other.

[duane]

I liked silveragefan's post.  I thought I was reading my own biography on the subject.

Sorry for loss

[Ironwolf]

Silveragefan, great post. I know it must have felt better to share your sense of loss of a friend and the game.

We aren't done yet. There is a reason my title is stubborn as an Elite Boss. It will happen. The folks are still working with NCSoft they are just slightly delayed by something called a hostile company takeover bid. NCSoft put themselves in the position to be bought out. Due to poor decisions (are any of us surprised?) they have to fend off a company that was supposed to help them by growing toward the mobile market.

This slows things down until the drama is resolved. Reminds me of the ancient Chinese curse: May you live in interesting times.

[Azrael]

It will happen. The folks are still working with NCSoft they are just slightly delayed by something called a hostile company takeover bid. NCSoft put themselves in the position to be bought out. Due to poor decisions (are any of us surprised?) they have to fend off a company that was supposed to help them

Karma and all that...

I share your optimism.  I think a deal will happen.

Azrael.

[TheRoosta]

Hi,

Today was a reflective day. One of my old friends from my old CoV SG on Protector left me a message on my Facebook page.
The message was an invitation to meet up with the core group of friends I used to play with from the game on TeamSpeak.
It was great to hear everyone's voices again. We quickly idled a lil with small chat, then after a minute or so we couldn't stop talking about the fantastic times we had on the game. The memories that instantly made us laugh. It made us think of all the pet names we'd give each other over teamspeak like "Martha Stuart" for the guy who spent way too much time sprucing up the base, or my own nickname "The Angry Bear" because I spent way to many consecutive hours without sleep badge hunting or grinding. Even though I've always known it, it really hit home that it wasn't about the game or the leveling or having the best power leveling flavor of the month. It was about the community and the fun I'd had with my friends playing the game. Every memory about the game had been a good one. I could spend hours in this game just simply looking at my character. Simply taking screenshots of my characters in some awesome perched position on a building was great fun. The creativity that flooded my veins whilst I wrote up a bio for my characters was truly an expression of how much I cared for them and the work I'd done to make these characters feel like they were part of a world to escape to. That's exactly what it was. A world to escape to. Where all kinds of people could create something to be proud of and share it with friends.

I truly miss the entity that was CoH/CoV.

Hope.

[LaughingAlex]

To SilverAgeFan:  I think I may have seen that post on facebook and I am sorry for your loss.

I'm optimistic to.  I saw, the day of the shutdown, that there was "no way this game could stay shut down forever".  I was reminded of the fallout series in that the game series went dark for a while before re-emerging.  In fact it re-emerged true to form after fallout 3 in the form of new vegas, from everything I'd seen.  Granted, I've never gotten to play fallout 1 or 2, I am just using the series as an example.  Likewise, we've seen other franchises enter dark times and also re-emerge into success since.

There is no way city of heroes can remain "dead" forever.  And my beliefs it shouldn't remain dead forever and that it won't were kind of reinforced by the treatment I had from various CO players.  Some had a curious "whats the big deal about this game.  Wait it had tons more zones and I never tried it out?" kind of attitude that kind of tells me that they'd love to play the game if it made a come back.  Others course say the mean things about it, but those players are the fools who also believe their game is the best in the world(when it's certainly not).  Those same players even gave bad ideas that caused the game to recently become a total ghost town with most players having left, karma, in so many ways in action.

The fact that many mmorpg developers also believe the game should not have been shut down is also very telling to me.  Not to mention I heard throughout this thread multiple studios had shown interest in these efforts.  I guess it boils down the fact that, as a game, city of heroes was the only mmorpg that actually felt like a super hero game.  It had depth and it had the kind of variety of powers you'd see in the comic books, both in existence and in mechanics.  It was the creative/democracy in the face of numerous feudal/uncreatives(anyone who played master of orion 2 would know what I mean).

Most mmorpgs are still trapped in the 1990s and the same old same old can be said, grinds and holy trinity tactics are the only tactics in them.  City of heroes was a total change of the game, because so many different strategies worked and it was also explained by someone here that half the reason so many abilities in CO were so weak as to force repetitive tactics in that game was a total incapability to understand there that the CoH community had.

City of heroes players understood that powers doing things other than damage or healing could be, well, powerful, and that it was ok for that as it resulted in a level of variety not seen in mmorpgs.  It gave city of heroes that comic book feeling to it, even though it's graphics weren't comic-book like the powers made it that way.  Most mmorpg players on the other hand, have a severe lack of creativity thats actually out-right crippling, so when they become mmorpg developers later, they end up making a WoW clone or some other imitation.  Heck,  this even leads them to making bad suggestions in forums that eventually kill their own game(I saw this happen with CO).

I am loving the city of titans and valiance online developers, because both are more focused on inspiration and also on not being just another mmorpg.

And the reason I've not given up hope is because, it's a candle in the darkness to me.  To me, city of heroes was never run into the ground, it was just shut down for the wrong reasons.  It was like NcSoft over-estimated the competition.  CO was ran into the ground and DCUO is made for consoles first.  CO ran itself further into the ground after CoH shut down(even more aggressively to since the shutdown).  City of heroes deserves a comeback.

[FloatingFatMan]

Via Facebook this morning, I learned that a former regular teammate from my CoH days passed away Saturday. We never met in person though we maintained a nearly 10 year online friendship. We teamed together regularly on Triumph from halfway through year one till year 5. After that, while I remained a fairly avid player till the announcement of closure, he was exploring other game worlds. But he always came back, reporting how much more he enjoyed CoH. Checking in every release or so, we'd catch up with a few missions together followed by lots of chat about life outside of game. He was 44.

Wow... All I can really say to that is... Quick AFK... Something in my eye...

[Ohioknight]

Wow... All I can really say to that is... Quick AFK... Something in my eye...

Yeah.  Another fallen.

[Surelle]

Hi,

Today was a reflective day. One of my old friends from my old CoV SG on Protector left me a message on my Facebook page.
The message was an invitation to meet up with the core group of friends I used to play with from the game on TeamSpeak.
It was great to hear everyone's voices again. We quickly idled a lil with small chat, then after a minute or so we couldn't stop talking about the fantastic times we had on the game. The memories that instantly made us laugh. It made us think of all the pet names we'd give each other over teamspeak like "Martha Stuart" for the guy who spent way too much time sprucing up the base, or my own nickname "The Angry Bear" because I spent way to many consecutive hours without sleep badge hunting or grinding. Even though I've always known it, it really hit home that it wasn't about the game or the leveling or having the best power leveling flavor of the month. It was about the community and the fun I'd had with my friends playing the game. Every memory about the game had been a good one. I could spend hours in this game just simply looking at my character. Simply taking screenshots of my characters in some awesome perched position on a building was great fun. The creativity that flooded my veins whilst I wrote up a bio for my characters was truly an expression of how much I cared for them and the work I'd done to make these characters feel like they were part of a world to escape to. That's exactly what it was. A world to escape to. Where all kinds of people could create something to be proud of and share it with friends.

I truly miss the entity that was CoH/CoV.

Hope.

Hi TheRoosta, and welcome aboard too!

The overall level of maturity and helpfulness of the CoX player base was unmatched, and believe me, I've played most other MMOs at one point or another over the years.  CoX was the only MMO I ever felt comfortable joining pickup groups in, not to mention allowing my kids to play along in.  I'm glad you got to meet up with some of your former supergroup mates on voice chat.  May it not be the last time you ever talk to them.   :)

All we can do is keep our fingers crossed.  Like Ironwolf says, if not this time, then the next.  And like Tony V says:  We can get a thousand "no's," but we only need one "yes."

[Mooties]

So a while back, a couple of the CoX developers/team members joined Riot Games and since then LoL has been improving tremendously. From development manager to community relations.
Anyways, I thought the newish login screen theme had a familiar ring to it... Anyone think it has a CoX vibe/influence behind it? :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEme8oy1ZZU

[ukaserex]

Regardless, I want to take an opportunity to express how very much I miss this game, more than a grown person with a full life should miss an amusement. I miss the space it provided and the delight I felt at so many corners--realizing the groundbreaking depth of the character maker even at issue 0; the rollout of issue 2 and seeing a first cape flapping in the wind, discovering the easter eggs buried in neighborhood naming schemes, getting my first tier 7, 8 or 9 powers; hitting 50 for the first time, several years after game launch as a chronic roleplaying altaholic; visiting the ski chalet every damn year; breaking 750+ badges for the first time; even the item shop and the new powers, including the pools we never got; playing original arcs in the old Atlas with new alts prior to its destruction; partaking in the farewell to BaBs torch event upon his departure; trick or treating year after year with strangers; I miss organizing and participating in incarnate raids, even if I sucked at them at first; I miss ship raids; I miss the rare random pickup RP that could still happen now and then even on a server like Triumph; I even miss the stupid Arachnos centered feel of the Rogue Isles that persisted until that last year when villain content started to diversify.

Most importantly, I miss experiencing all this with friends--those I only knew within the game, those I stayed in touch with beyond and after, and those who have since passed away.

I cut a lot out for brevity's sake - but very well spoken. Sorry for the loss of your friend - and of course, the world we all played in.

[Arcana]

I miss my many "mains" from Ashen Princess to Big Zoot to Amethyst Avenger to Dr Fantastico. I miss my second-line mains from Gata Blanca to Greywolf to Lady Intrigue. I miss my third and fourth string alts. I miss my rogue's gallery of villains on Virtue. I miss my Praetorian born Rogues and Vigilantes.

Sorry to hear about your loss.  I'm sure you're echoing the feelings of a lot of CoH players, in more ways than one.

Amethyst Avenger and Greywolf sound familiar.  i have a feeling we ran across each other on Triumph, maybe in the old days.

[Abraxus]

I'd say SilverAgeFan captured what most all of us who come here feel. 

Probably because we are mainly the die-hards who refuse to give up, who lived exactly as you did in this game.  We all have a lot in common, and your summation stated in eloquent terms things we have all felt, but could not quite articulate.  We have all told similar stories of camaraderie with our regular teams, the generally friendly atmosphere that convinced us that we could jump into PUGs and not regret it.  To jump on for a few minutes to do some buying/selling/crafting, or for a few hours if we happened to see a fellow Super Group member about who wanted to run missions. 

My younger son got interested in the game when he was only 6, starting with a couple of characters he made on a server separate from mine, but using my account when I was not.  Eventually, he got his own account, paying for it with his allowance, and played until the day it went off line when he was 14!  By that time, he knew more about the game than I did!  He misses it every bit as much as I do, even though he has spent a lot of time in other MMOs since. It was his first MMO, and it took some time to teach him the difference between first person shooters, and other games with scripted endings, and this world that just went on for as long as you wanted to be a part of the story.  Once he grasped the concept, there was no turning back!  Talking with him about all things CoH was some of our more treasured bonding moments. 

I have played three other games since CoH shut down (SWTOR, CO, and DCUO), but they were only placeholders, and sad substitutions for the place where friends from far away places could meet, and save the world every day!

[LadyVamp]

Sorry to hear about your loss, SilverAgeFan.  We are the same age and for me coh was an 8 year journey.  It's something each of us will cherrish for the rest of our lives.  I believe we all feel the same way.  Welcome aboard.

I had a thought, would the spiritual successors consider making a zone or at least part of a zone for our fallen brothers and sisters?  No enemies and perhaps civies who speak well of fallen players.