The best MMO community, ever?

[supus71]

I'm not a lifer for CoH. I wish I were. I only have a year in now but I love this game. I gave 3 years of my life to WoW back in the day. (I know. I know...don't hold it against me!) It was my first MMO ever. I made a lot of friends there whom I am still connected with on FB and email and whatever. They and Blizzard enticed me to 'come back' and so I did. It's been less than a month and here is something I noticed, painfully...
      The majority of the 'community' there are jerks. Not my friends obviously but that's the point. Here, on CoH/V, it is as if everyone on the server(s) are 'my friend'. I'm serious. First of all, CoH has a chat channel named 'help' and you know what? People actually help and 99% of the time don't ridicule or give you something like "Hey! Just go wiki it you dumb@$$". Real community like! I've never (repeat: never) gotten guff in a group in CoX for making a mistake with my character/class in CoH. The ultra-ridiculous 12 year olds (actual and at heart) in WoW are not there to have fun. They are there to say 'SEE! LOOK AT MY GEAR! I PWN YOU! RAWR!"...yawn...It is as if everything is a sewers run just to get to the latest 'end game' content...seriously imagine that in CoH: would you stay here????
     I am a game geek; I don't just play but I analyze them from code up through art and music. I yearn for a life in the industry. I've played dozens of MMO's by now. There is no other community like this one. None. If you disagree, point me to the equal and I will happily check it out. THAT is the biggest tragedy of NCsoft's mindless decision. The people, yes *people* and friendships and the whole general attitude built up in CoH will be scattered to the winds. I am glad I met you all, in group or in spirit. I've rambled enough....
                    Best statement: "We are Heroes. This is what we do." (even the villains! which I play mostly. What fun is a villain w/o a hero to torment!)

[DWRoelands]

The community was definitely one of the best things about COH,  It was why I was comfortable letting my autistic son play the game.  I knew he was never going to encounter the awful stuff that goes on in some of the other games that I play.

I will miss COH terribly.

[DrakeGrimm]

I think it's safe to say that everyone here will miss City terribly.

* DrakeGrimm leaves a big stack of hugs for any City resident who wants one

[Lily Barclay]

I've found the SWtOR community to be mostly jerks, too. I'm trying to get as many CoHers as possible to come to my server after the sunset so I still have something to play with nice people.

[Colette]

Can't speak to other MMOs. CoH was my first and will likely be my last. (I tried DCU and CO and hurried back here.)

A good friend showed me the game when it came out. I resisted, because I did not want to invest time in a notorious time-waster like an MMO. But I relented, and followed him to the Victory server with his friends. Soon I found a small team of RPers, but the mood was strangely hostile to us.

Then our team leader told me, "I found out there's a server the RPers like us hang out."

"What's RP mean?" I asked, which shows you all just how new I was to all this MMO stuff.

The two of us rolled up duplicates of our characters and entered Virtue, Galaxy City. Right off we met a funny little automaton called "JoBot." "Follow me," he said cheerily, and led us into Gemini Park.

And that is how, all these years later, I still play CoH. On the last day of this month, I know y'all will be in the D or under Atlas, but take a moment to come visit Sister Colette Valiant in Gemini.

I for one do not believe this is the end. In fact, I'm looking forward to our grand reunion party when Paragon City reopens.

[Globetrotter]

I for one do not believe this is the end. In fact, I'm looking forward to our grand reunion party when Paragon City reopens.

My thoughts exactly! 

I have a dream ....

[eviella]

There were lots of nights when I logged in for an hour or so and didn't do anything but sit in my base or the start of a mission and just talk with friends on various channels.  The line I've used elsewhere is "NCSoft was selling a game.  We were paying for access to a community."  And it's the loss of the community that hurts far more than the loss of the game itself.

[Cinnder]

I definitely agree with you, Sup.  I have never met such a welcoming community in any other MMO.

I believe the design of CoH has a lot to do with it.  The fact that we get to make our characters look the way we want from level 1, the great amount of instancing, and the fact that Enhancements are essentially invisible all contribute to create a game that encourages cooperation rather than competition, and focuses on what you can do rather than which items you have acquired.  I think all this set a foundation that drew in a collection of players that were different from the average MMO player, and why I will miss this game SO much.

If Plan Z is our only path in the future, I hope it takes this all into account.

Still holding out hope CoH will get saved/rezzed though!

[johnrobey]

I'm not a lifer for CoH. I wish I were. I only have a year in now but I love this game. I gave 3 years of my life to WoW back in the day. (I know. I know...don't hold it against me!) It was my first MMO ever. I made a lot of friends there whom I am still connected with on FB and email and whatever. They and Blizzard enticed me to 'come back' and so I did. It's been less than a month and here is something I noticed, painfully...
      The majority of the 'community' there are jerks. Not my friends obviously but that's the point. Here, on CoH/V, it is as if everyone on the server(s) are 'my friend'. I'm serious. First of all, CoH has a chat channel named 'help' and you know what? People actually help and 99% of the time don't ridicule or give you something like "Hey! Just go wiki it you dumb@$$". Real community like! I've never (repeat: never) gotten guff in a group in CoX for making a mistake with my character/class in CoH. The ultra-ridiculous 12 year olds (actual and at heart) in WoW are not there to have fun. They are there to say 'SEE! LOOK AT MY GEAR! I PWN YOU! RAWR!"...yawn...It is as if everything is a sewers run just to get to the latest 'end game' content...seriously imagine that in CoH: would you stay here????
     I am a game geek; I don't just play but I analyze them from code up through art and music. I yearn for a life in the industry. I've played dozens of MMO's by now. There is no other community like this one. None. If you disagree, point me to the equal and I will happily check it out. THAT is the biggest tragedy of NCsoft's mindless decision. The people, yes *people* and friendships and the whole general attitude built up in CoH will be scattered to the winds. I am glad I met you all, in group or in spirit. I've rambled enough....
                    Best statement: "We are Heroes. This is what we do." (even the villains! which I play mostly. What fun is a villain w/o a hero to torment!)

As someone who also rambles when writing, I enjoyed your post.  While my MMORPG experience is limited to but a few games, the CoH community surpassed the others by routinely assisting one another, everything from random buffing in passing to multimillion INF gifts.  Happily some of us are staying in touch via email, facebook, our SG websites on guildportal.com etc.  Best wishes to you and the community.  Happy Thanksgiving Day (U.S.)!  I'm playing until the very end.

[Dollhouse]

Definitely a contender for "best MMO community ever," IMO. This game has always had a markedly lower level of asshattery in-game and on its official forums than most games. Helpful players abound. I have met people in this game that I now consider genuine friends (for all that I may never meet them in the flesh).

Another exemplary game community is (or was...I've been gone a while) Fallen Earth. Even the PvP community there was great (as if no one bothered to tell them that PvP'ers are supposed to be antagonistic jackwagons!).

[JaguarX]

I'm not a lifer for CoH. I wish I were. I only have a year in now but I love this game. I gave 3 years of my life to WoW back in the day. (I know. I know...don't hold it against me!) It was my first MMO ever. I made a lot of friends there whom I am still connected with on FB and email and whatever. They and Blizzard enticed me to 'come back' and so I did. It's been less than a month and here is something I noticed, painfully...
      The majority of the 'community' there are jerks. Not my friends obviously but that's the point. Here, on CoH/V, it is as if everyone on the server(s) are 'my friend'. I'm serious. First of all, CoH has a chat channel named 'help' and you know what? People actually help and 99% of the time don't ridicule or give you something like "Hey! Just go wiki it you dumb@$$". Real community like! I've never (repeat: never) gotten guff in a group in CoX for making a mistake with my character/class in CoH. The ultra-ridiculous 12 year olds (actual and at heart) in WoW are not there to have fun. They are there to say 'SEE! LOOK AT MY GEAR! I PWN YOU! RAWR!"...yawn...It is as if everything is a sewers run just to get to the latest 'end game' content...seriously imagine that in CoH: would you stay here????
     I am a game geek; I don't just play but I analyze them from code up through art and music. I yearn for a life in the industry. I've played dozens of MMO's by now. There is no other community like this one. None. If you disagree, point me to the equal and I will happily check it out. THAT is the biggest tragedy of NCsoft's mindless decision. The people, yes *people* and friendships and the whole general attitude built up in CoH will be scattered to the winds. I am glad I met you all, in group or in spirit. I've rambled enough....
                    Best statement: "We are Heroes. This is what we do." (even the villains! which I play mostly. What fun is a villain w/o a hero to torment!)

Actually I got plenty of "Hey! Just go wiki it you dumb@$$". and it wasnt on freedom. And seen pleny of people get kicked for making a simple mistake with usually a bit of verbal abuse before being kicked. But there is always a few nutcases in every group. Get ten people together one or two is liable to be a nutcase. Overall, yeah the community was pretty friendly in game.

[dwturducken]

I saw a lot of the same stuff as on other games, but there was more good than bad. That's not the case on the other games, and I've tried just about everything that's F2P.

[JediWar]

I'd say I qualify as a lifer. My father's had an account since Beta, I picked one up soon as I could when it went live.

Yeah... I've seen idiots in the game. People who'll grief you. But compared to every other single MMO I've ever played, and that's not a small number, the City of Heroes community is by far superior in terms of helpfulness and friendliness.

I don't team much. Heck, I've only recently, post declaration of the servers closing, hit level 50 with one of my 75+(not counting test server) characters. I don't really level. I've got a few characters that have spent more time with their XP locked(soon as that was implemented, prior I made sure they always had debt) just so I could get the full experience with as much content as possible.

I initially attributed it to the fact that this is a game about Heroes. Sure, other games you play as adventuring heroes, but City of Heroes you're playing as basically a good citizen doing good deeds. After Champions Online and DCUonline. . . well that theory didn't quite hold as much water. Even the Villains side was more heroic than I often saw on those games(Admitted I may not have given DCUonline a fair trial).

I think you're right about the whole thing with the fact that so much is instanced(thus "kill stealing" was quite rare) enhancements being almost completely invisible so bragging rights were purely for your creativity during costume creation. There was nothing that showed someone was better than some one else. PvP was all but non-existent. It also helped, particularly early on, that what your character had, they often had plenty of it. You get frequent drops, good Influence rewards, so if you saw someone without, it didn't hurt you at all to give them something. Your endurance refilled easily. You see someone low on health as you're blasting through the zone towards something, there are very few powersets that didn't at the higher levels have SOME way to help out. Toss a heal, or buff, or debuff, or control, or even a taunt. Heck, even tossing an inspiration their way was easy and cost you practically nothing, but brightened the other players experience.

Plus, City of Heroes encouraged alts, which meant you knew what struggles everyone else was going through, leveling up a controller with only one real damage power for example. Or getting kicked off teams for "not being a healer"(yes I was one of those "Anti-healers").

If you'll forgive me for waxing nostalgic, I remember one time I was puttering around Galaxy City. I can't remember what I was doing even. I think I was badge hunting. Came on this other player who was looking a little confused. Not thinking much about it I stopped, asked in local "You need any help?" and got a halting reply that showed they weren't particularly good at typing. They were lost, not sure where to go with the mission or what to do. So we teamed up and ran some of their missions together. Had a good time, I was a scrapper but I played the tank for their blaster. Got myself over my head once, and was profusely apologized for, but promptly waved it off, Awakened/Breakfree/Catch a Breath and got back into it. I explained that there wasn't much of a penalty for being defeated, at worst I'd get a little debt and go to the hospital, but they were like level three and they had nothing to worry about for some levels, and they'd have the hang of it then. Learning the ropes and all. We went on and picked up a few other people who just looked kinda confused. Each time the new person probably assumed that everyone was old friends playing carefully planned out builds, up until the next person joined when they realized "Hey, maybe I'm not the only newbie here."

When we finished up, my new friends added me to friendslist, but I never heard from them again(not uncommon, I didn't actually team much, nor did I have a regular play scheduel at the time). As the group was breaking apart, the first one I teamed with, who still typed slowly but was starting to play much more confidently seemed to finally check my character out. I got a "Oh... Wow... you're THAT high a level? Wait... you said you get debt at level five, and it amps up with each level after that... how much did you get?" "Couple thousand. No big deal. Was fun teaming with you all." "But you didn't get any rewards from any of these missions, did you?" "Eh, not much. But you had fun right?"

And I was NOT the only one that did that sort of thing. I was one of thousands. I was paying back the karma for people doing that sort of helpfulness with me.

I've NEVER found ANY other MMO that did that. Heck, I tried it a bit in World of Warcraft(gathering crafting materials for grinding) and got nothing but rude comments for lending heals and Power Word Fortitude to starter zone players, answering questions helpfully and truthfully instead of trolling with misdirection or insults. And that was one of the better RP servers according to their forums.

City of Heroes always promoted community, friends, and artists, right from the very ground up. It may NOT be the "best MMO community ever"... but it's got my vote.

[Omega Mark V]

And yet, because of the Titan Forums and others, we can still be together as a community. Not in game at some times, and maybe for a while in the future, but I do not believe that time will be infinite.

I believe City Of Heroes will live again, but under a new studio, who CARES about their player base.

Glad to have you in the community, Supus. :)

[derek]

I've found the SWtOR community to be mostly jerks, too. I'm trying to get as many CoHers as possible to come to my server after the sunset so I still have something to play with nice people.

I think by and large it depends on the server.  There is going to be jerks no matter what game, even COH had their fair share.  I am proud to say that after watching someone jump an obviously newer player asking questions in General Chat on my SWTOR server (Ebon Hawk), that not just one, but at least 4 people came to that player's defense and basically told the offending player to stop being a tool, and this was prior to the F2P launch last week.  Still, nothing will ever replace the sense of community that COH made me feel a part of, through studio interaction, and player launched websites like the very one we're interacting on now.

[LuchRi]

CoH is the best one ever, only one I've ever found that I could put up with. You guys are the absolute best!

[Lily Barclay]

I think by and large it depends on the server.  There is going to be jerks no matter what game, even COH had their fair share.  I am proud to say that after watching someone jump an obviously newer player asking questions in General Chat on my SWTOR server (Ebon Hawk), that not just one, but at least 4 people came to that player's defense and basically told the offending player to stop being a tool, and this was prior to the F2P launch last week.  Still, nothing will ever replace the sense of community that COH made me feel a part of, through studio interaction, and player launched websites like the very one we're interacting on now.

Ebon Hawk is my server.  XD  I've had really bad experiences teaming with mean, jerky players.  I use the ignore button often.

[Manga]

FYI, the SWTOR support staff is very serious about cracking down on bad behavior.  Don't just use the ignore button, send a support ticket if you can, too.

[supus71]

A lot of good points. I must admit, I started life on Freedom and played the majority of my time on there. It was only the last few months that I found the much more 'content' oriented Virtue. It *is* about who you meet, first impressions, and all that. But that's the point: as said above, CoX 'has more good than bad'. In my experiences, MUCH more good than bad. And yes, I am playing to "the end" and I will be on Titan during the hiatus. (reopening with plan-Z?!!!)
     I keep watch on here for anyway I can help out with my meager skills for plan-Z or anything else. I have no doubt the Heroes (and villains ;) of Paragon will survive the evil plot of the "NCsoft organization". They can shut down servers, but they will not stop us! We will find another city to live, thrive, and be heroic in!

[derek]

FYI, the SWTOR support staff is very serious about cracking down on bad behavior.  Don't just use the ignore button, send a support ticket if you can, too.

Support staff is also some of the friendliest I've ever dealt with, in any industry.  I've had to call for a couple of minor issues (getting my security key removed after my phone got reset, and having one character showing up as like on a F2P account on my subbed account), and they were the nicest, most polite and informative Customer Service Reps.

Ebon Hawk is my server.  XD  I've had really bad experiences teaming with mean, jerky players.  I use the ignore button often.

That sucks that you've had bad experiences there.  My guild is mostly RPers so I usually PUG my PVE stuff.  If you're ever looking, I can be found generally on Qorian or Cal'en Pub side, and Ragious or Riftstalker Imp side.