Members in the Service that played City of Heroes

[MakoMako]

After a friend of mine posted up his experiences in Iraq and how City of Heroes had assisted him in overcoming his PTSD issues, I got to thinking about this.

I've only just recently become a member of the US military, but I can personally say that City of Heroes certainly helped me overcome the separation anxiety in being so far away from home. The community was really helpful, and the familiar terrain of the City made harder days that much easier to cope with.

I'm wondering how many others are on this forum that are members of the United States, or any other country's, military. Did you play City of Heroes during your duty assignments? While deployed? Or hell, even if you were off in some bumfuck base with nothing else to do, did it keep you on the level at least?

If there's enough of us on here, with stories as great as Sergeant Morris, or even just the fact that it kept you from feeling too homesick while overseas, I'm wondering if we could get together and make something to send off to Disney or just smear NCSoft in general. Like a sort of "Vets for Paragon" initiative. I dunno what help it could do -exactly-, but if anything make NCSoft feel (or just look) shamed that it's pissed off a few good people in uniform.

[Colette]

I was out long out before CoH came along. But I'll happily throw my hat in.

1LT Nolan, MP, USAR activated for the Storm and Boz. :: salutes. ::

Violent games with realistic gunfire and gore, and murky morality like Counterstrike are not my idea of entertainment. High fantasy where you're flying over your city with your cape flapping in the wind, and good 'n evil are clear cut? Sign me up!

[Sarge Morris]

SGT Morris, MOS 11B, Infantry, United States Army, OIF 07-08.

For once, I agree with an officer. This must be a first.

Haha, nothin' but love, sir, you know how it is. I'm waiting 'till you've got your hands full so I can salute you.

Airman, you know you've got my support.  I'm writing a more in depth piece to share at a later date. I'll be honest, its a lot more painful to write than I thought, but I'll suck it up and drive on.

[SARobb]

Like the LT above, I was out long before CoH.  But I will ALWAYS throw my hat in for my brothers and sisters in arms.
IS2 Robb, USN Ret.

[dwturducken]

ET2/SS (Nuke) 1993-99

I qualify for VFW, but "why" is classified. ;)

[Dr Shadow]

I was out also before City of Heroes.

Em3 USN

[maxxrpg]

ET2/SS (Nuke) 1993-99

I qualify for VFW, but "why" is classified. ;)

Nice seeing a fellow Nuke EMCS 1974-1994

[Ezuka]

My best friend is stationed in Korea right now, and I was really wanting to get him into CoH, but he never had the money for it or a computer capable of gaming. Now that he has both, he can't. And since he's near the source of our discontent too! Maybe he could go picket for us. 

[Inkitgee]

I joined the Navy a year after CoH came out.  I wrote a testimonial before and it's something I don't want to think about.  CoH did help me a bunch though and I'm still heartbroken to see it go.

[dwturducken]

Nice seeing a fellow Nuke EMCS 1974-1994

PLEASE tell me you had a toon with ram horns!  :P

[wrkidd]

Like a number of you I was out way before COH or online gaming existed.

LT USNR
Surface Warfare

[Victoria Victrix]

I'll reply for my father in law since he doesn't do boards.

Sgt. Major Jim Dixon, Special Forces, Ret.

Played 99% Blueside.  The closing hit him hard.  Mother in law is completely shut-in now, and requires a lot of tending to.  Short of going to The Most Dangerous Job In The World (teaching elementary school kids, award winning teacher) and grocery shopping he doesn't get out.  But in City we could team up almost every night, chat while we played, and he never felt like he was trapped in the house.

[eviella]

USAF, 1995-1999.  So well before the game came out.

[Samuraiko]

Hubby was in from 85-95 USAF, Civil Engineering.
Roommate was in USAF for 14 years (airplane mechanic), and I think was out by the time he started playing COH.

But I highly suspect that both would have played HEAVILY during their tours if they'd had the option.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

[MakoMako]

It's great to see so many fellow members of the service current and former, here. No bull.

Though my intention was to gather personal accounts of how City of Heroes positively affected us, in one form or another. As much as I'd love to have the support of long retired members, can we think of how this affected us afterwards?

What I'd like to do is for each of us to compile personally written letters, possibly complete with pictures of us holding the game in uniform, or while wearing some other article, like a "Retired Navy" cap, to be sent to Disney.

If you've long since been retired, has the game still affected you positively? Was it a pass time that helped you overcome a world class case of PTSD, as it did another member here? What else could say in relation to it?

If necessary, I can send my address to necessary parties, and personally put the package together and send it off, if that's our move. I just need personally written messages, with photographs preferred, that someone high up in there will feel patriotic about making buying up this small niche-game. Just so long as we -all- remember to keep things as kosher as possible.

[dwturducken]

You folks are way better company than the old frats down at the VFW post...   :P

[SARobb]

Anything you need.

You see, I really do believe that even our Heroes need Heroes.  During World War 2, as we were just coming out of a depression and war was afoot, Superman (1938) and a bevy of other heroes stepped up to bolster the morale of the troops over seas.  And now,  times are tough and trouble is afoot overseas what do we see happening more and more? Superhero movies.  If CoH even helps one of my 'Shipmates', no matter the service, I'm all in when it comes to getting them their Heroes back (all selfish reasons aside).  Superheroes signify hope more than anything else, and hope, is something that doesn't come in spades when your worried about if the next turn in the road will have an IED with your name on it or not.

I'm not nearly as eloquent as some of the other posters on this board so I won't rant on, but yes, I'll happily stand tall and pen a letter.

[chasearcanum]

Not a current servicemember, but a veteran here.  My time online kinda predates MMO's- heck, when I was deployed in the first gulf war, making a telephone call home required 6 hours round-trip bouncing around in the back of a 5-ton and the newspapers we got as padding in our "any soldier" packages were often more up-to-date than the news we'd get through official channels.

When people talk about their experiences now...   man, I feel old.

EDIT: with more info:


12B (I believe the nomenclature has changed, that was a combat engineer when I was in)
and Airborne.  Yes, I know that "only two things fall from the sky- birdshit and idiots."  No, I won't say which I was.

90-93, 20th Engineers, Fort Bragg, with multi-month vacations in the Persian Gulf, Ft. Lewis, Wa, Panama, Bolivia, and some splotch of white wasteland in Alaska
93-04, 2nd Engineers, 2nd Infantry Division, South Korea (Camps Casey and Castle, although more time was spent sleeping on frozen rice paddies than in either of those places)

[SARobb]

Not a current servicemember, but a veteran here.  My time online kinda predates MMO's- heck, when I was deployed in the first gulf war, making a telephone call home required 6 hours round-trip bouncing around in the back of a 5-ton and the newspapers we got as padding in our "any soldier" packages were often more up-to-date than the news we'd get through official channels.

When people talk about their experiences now...   man, I feel old.

lol ... I read the newspapers too!

[chasearcanum]

lol ... I read the newspapers too!

yeah, I can't imagine the connectedness of many soldiers today.

I still recall driving out to one of the phone centers on a particularly bad, bumpy route, only to find that the only person answering the phone was my Dad, who isn't the type of person to hold long conversations on the phone.  Nobody else was there and I could hear CNN in the background (I sometimes think he experienced more of the war through CNN than I did while eating sand in the desert.)

Trying to extend the call beyond the 3 minutes we'd already spent, I asked about what was going on stateside.  He said, "umm.. well, did you hear about the earthquake?  In West Virginia?"

  Now, as implausible as that sounds, you have to remember that I've heard NOTHING from the states that wasn't a week old, so I ignored the fact that WVA is frequently a punchline for neighboring states, that my dad was notorious for bad jokes, and that something like that would surely have reached us more quickly.  "No! Really?  Anyone hurt? How big was it? Did you feel it?" I bought into it way too quickly.

"Yeah, it did ten million dollars worth of improvement."

I nearly put my head through the wall of the portable booth punishing myself.  I tried to interrupt him, but he kept going "... burnt the governor's mansion down to the axle..."


So, yeah, the connectedness of today's troops really fascinates me.