Logged in Nov 30th?

[Atlantea]

I will pick places for as many of my toons as I can figure out where they would be. I haven't decided for all of them.

My original 50 and first COH character, Lora Doubet, oddly enough, is in the ORIGINAL Galaxy City. Not the echo. She's been "retired" for at least 3 years now, and I've only brought her out on the anniversary events to get her the yearly badges. 

I'm considering leaving her there. I always did prefer Galaxy City to start in back when you could choose. And maybe it's fitting.

Lily the Diamond - my main redsider 50 I should have over to Rogue status by then so she'll be able to get to the Shadow Shard. I think logging her out in the Storm Palace would be a good place.

I'm not sure where Kara Skye should be logged out. Perhaps Peregrine Island right at one of the Portals or hovering high above Atlas Park.

Cyberman 8 has become truly my signature character. And I'll be there shoulder to shoulder on the steps with everyone else on Virtue.

[Lily Barclay]

I want to be playing at the end. Nothing at all wrong with standing vigil, but personally, I want to be fighting when the servers shut down. Preferably fighting an AV or on an ITF.

[Catwhoorg]

I'll be online with Cat. (as will Mags)

In Founders Falls, where our in game wedding was held. Don't know about any specific emotes, but we will leave the game together, just as we have been together in the many many hours of playing it

[dior]

I will be online, will video the shut down on my mobile phone and posting it to CNN's iReport with the statement "NCSoft just flicked the switch on a community the size of (insert town name here) - is that fair?"

By the way, does anybody actually know how many people played the game and how many characters were created - would like to get the town name right for the population number.

[Jetfire99]

It's a hard choice I know it will be AP 33 but... do I send my beloved yellow side alt or my first alt my badger

[WildFire15]

this was posted back in April last year. it's a start
Seven years of City of Heroes statistics

[steve1967]

Virtue, logged in as Morlena Starkiller, my Warshade and favorite toon...

[dior]

This is going to be hard without you specifying *exactly* want you want.

Number of active subscribers?
Number of active accounts?
Number of characters created from the start of the game?

I do know that there was an image around that Paragon Studios did for one of the player summits, that relayed some of this information. It might have been for the 7 year anniversary i *think*.

I'm trying to get a figure of how many characters (not accounts) were created IN TOTAL since launch, or failing that a rough figure of how many characters were in the data banks (subscribed/f2p etc) when "the announcement" was made. From that a fast wiki search for town populations (cencus figures or the like) - then, use a Town name with a similar population to bring the impact home - hell, if real people were being terminated in ONE town the size of the character community in COH, even the UN would be sitting up and taking notice - and YES I know there is no real comparison.
I know it isnt like for like in real terms, as we are only talking computer generated characters, but a video with the title "with one bad decision and the flick of a switch, NCSoft have "killed off" more characters in City of Heroes than the population of Birmingham - is this fair?" for example, would certainly bring the point home and give an idea of perspective to people who seem to think we are a small group of "nerdies" with nothing better to do than sit in from of a PC, and should be ignored.

[dior]

and here as a taster is the first draft of what will eventually be sent in to CNN iReport with the disconnection video!

http://www.roycoker.co.uk/sunset.html

try not to cry!

[Rotten Luck]

Tried and failed.  Not sure about the type text thought a fade in and out of the lines might work better.

[Segev]

As a word of warning, it is probably best to try to determine the number of real, breathing people behind the characters, not the number of characters. This is best approximated by counting numbers of active accounts. People with multiple accounts will hopefully even out with people who share accounts.

Measuring the number of characters greatly inflates the population for a more impressive number (considering that we've people on this very forum with 100+ characters!), but will come across as deceptive hype in the media when the only actual people with real feelings and real efforts put in are the living, breathing ones who sit at the computer and use the characters as avatars for interacting with this virtual world.

[dior]

As a word of warning, it is probably best to try to determine the number of real, breathing people behind the characters, not the number of characters. This is best approximated by counting numbers of active accounts. People with multiple accounts will hopefully even out with people who share accounts.

Measuring the number of characters greatly inflates the population for a more impressive number (considering that we've people on this very forum with 100+ characters!), but will come across as deceptive hype in the media when the only actual people with real feelings and real efforts put in are the living, breathing ones who sit at the computer and use the characters as avatars for interacting with this virtual world.

Hmm - this is a poser - yes real people own the accounts, but, if they have 100 toons that they played, every single one was a creation that took time and effort, maybe the compramise would be to quote both accounts AND characters. I for example play regularly with a female colleague who has 82 toons, and EVERY single one was taken to level 50 before a new one was rolled, and, conversely, many people also create toons solely for maybe a costume comp etc.

[GuapoMendez]

I want to have my 50 dark/dark/power defender be smack-dab in the middle of an 8-player group, fighting enemies so purple they're redefining the color, with the sounds of powers going off in all directions and grinning madly while I wait for my powers to recover and I'm aiming Tenebrous Tentacles at the mob, trying to get as much of them as I can in the cone.

That's what being a hero is all about.

[Dollhouse]

I had a pretty serious system meltdown on my gaming laptop, so I'm going to have to time it right. Because it won't run on AC power (but, bizarrely, WILL charge the battery when it's powered off), I'm going to have to be running on battery. Running a game depletes the battery pretty fast, so while I'll have a couple of 'em fully charged for the end, I'll still have to get the timing just right.  Unless I replace the machine by then (and mount the broken system's hard drive, where the game is installed, in the new one)...may or may not be able to afford it by then.

But we adapt and overcome. We're heroes, right? 

I haven't decided who it will be...but probably either Mirka or Luna Faraday, on Pinnacle.

[dior]

Thanks for the link!

From the stats link - as at 28/4/2011 - 42 million characters.
Seems over 100k subscribers - http://www.gamespot.com/city-of-heroes/forum/how-many-people-play-this-game-44132777/ - but that was in 2008.

Whichever way, its a lot!

I guess a common rule of thumb would be to take something from the turnover report - monthly income divided by monthly subscription sum - but thats risky because the figures would also include micro-transactions etc, and the NCSoft figures are in won!

I reckon using "approximately" in any text I write should cover all sins!

[chasearcanum]

[Sapphire Jane]

I still have not decided which character I will be fading out with on November 30th.  My first toon and namesake, Sapphire Jane, is a Mercenary/Dark Mastermind on Freedom server and has yet to level to 50.  The only excuse I have for that is I found a new home on Virtue. 

The second Sapphire Jane is an ice/rad controller on Virtue whom I've been working on feverishly to get her badge count to 1250.  At this writing, I'm not exactly sure where she stands.. maybe somewhere around 1160 or so.

And my most sentimental and all-time favorite toon is Lamera Long on Virtue.  My second dual blade/regen scrapper that I have played a lot and most people considered my main.  She is my main badger, and I've logged a lot of hours with her until I found my true calling as a support player.

I love all of my characters, but the 3 listed above are at the top of my list.  Once I speak with my longtime CoH friend and teammate, Colbolt Avenger, we may have Colbolt and Lamera in for the final sunset.  Colbolt and I have been playing together since Valentine's Day 2008, with both only having played for a couple of months prior to that event.  Colbolt and Lamera joined forces when they were in their lower teens and getting their arses handed to them in The Hollows, and continued on until they leveled to 50 on the same mission.  We worked hard to keep their level as close as possible so they would level to 50 at near the same time.  Ahh.. good times.

The decision really isn't going to be an easy one but I will be logged in when the sun sets and I'm disconnected from the server one last time. 

[dior]

Thanks all who help with numbers etc. I will include some numbers in the video, but as I previously posted, I will use the word "approximately" with links to sources.

[CFIndustries]

Stygian Kitten, who was Stygian Cat back around I3, will be there on Virtue until the very end. I have a soft spot for Claws/DA, which I've played now three times to 50. Back when the end drain was horrid, the sounds looped, and when any other Claws/DA you met would greet you like a member of a secret brotherhood.

No torches, just hanging out with friends, doing missions, radios, task forces, whatever and beating the tar out of whatever we can find when the lights go out. I know many of my long time Global Friends will be along with me.

One idea from that group of friends is we'll run BAFs so more of us can all team together at once. The idea of pulling Nightstar's eartenna off just as the lights go out is appealing.

I have the 29th and 30th off to be sure I'm there for BOTH midnights, just in case they pull a fast one (thankfully, I live in California). The pizza, Monster, Foosh, and Oomph! will be there to help me spend those last precious hours, minutes, and seconds beating up villains on the only game of it's kind. My first, my only, my last MMO.

65+ alts, 12+ 50s, among them:
Stygian Kitten, Polly's Revenge, Porvata, That's Bull, Jeff Spicer, CFI-MEDIC911, Polly Shock, QTR Nevermoore, Schroedinger-Pavlov, Archon Abrasax, Alpha Antares, Traitorous Bedrock, Stygian Cat, Chitraka, Nocent Portent, Chaos' Plague, Longbow Sapper, Gryphus Contego, A. Leo Gryphus, Light Fairy, Dark Fairy Outcast, Rhus Summack, Serval Blades, Gluskabi, SHARPS Firewall, Unshakable, Schwarzschild Effect, and just too many more to remember right now...

[Quinch]

Quinch will be there, in all his pink-bootied, grumpy-puss glory.