Heroic Thank You to the AP33 Crew

[Jetfire99]

You kept hope alive for months tying up you connections for if only the cause of hope. To everyone I saw there thank you for all you did. I wasn't around as much as I should have been but? I was glad to say I was there.

Huge thanks to Mr.Davis, Mrs. Davis, Davis' kid and the one the only CAPTAIN BACON! Seriously if anyone can get word to them or got a way to give them some more kudos they should get it.

[Surelle]

You kept hope alive for months tying up you connections for if only the cause of hope. To everyone I saw there thank you for all you did. I wasn't around as much as I should have been but? I was glad to say I was there.

Huge thanks to Mr.Davis, Mrs. Davis, Davis' kid and the one the only CAPTAIN BACON! Seriously if anyone can get word to them or got a way to give them some more kudos they should get it.

I agree!  Last night on Virtue I tried to log into AP 33 but it was already full when I got on.  And then I kept getting flung off from AP1 and finally washed up in AP3.  At least I managed to hang on there for a while, and War Witch even stopped in for quite a long stretch.

[Cinnder]

Let's also extend our thanks to the employee(s?) who kept rezzing AP33 after server maintenance so our brave heroes could continue their vigils.

I think I heard it was Hit_Streak(?).

[Nafaustu]

HitStreak was amazing.   He was streaming live while he was running from place to place running 'events' as our only Admin, answering questions on twitch, and twitter, and facebook..if I knew where to send it i'd send him a thank you card.

[Colette]

Yes. For the record, Hit_Streak was awesome and we all appreciate him for hanging on until the last. I picture him as a final lonely figure tending to the servers by lamplight, with armed and hostile Korean guards looming over him and watching his every move, in an otherwise empty building full of crickets. I wonder how accurate that description is.

I kinda look forward to hearing accounts of the last days from the employees' perspectives. Doesn't help us, of course.

[Triplash]

HitStreak was amazing.

Amen to that. He's been showing his awesome side for the last couple months.

He really stepped up for us, even going outside his comfort zone with the whole live streaming thing. And he did it just because he felt we deserved it. He could have stuck with moderating the forums and left it at that, but nope, he ran Coffee Talks week after week with nothing to talk about. He toughed out what the official forums later turned into. He also, perhaps not singlehandedly but largely, kept AP33 running when there was absolutely no technical need of it. He did all of this knowing his job was ending soon, and he did all of it with a smile. That man deserves some serious respect.

In fact, now that he's officially on the hunt for a new job too, maybe we should start up a thread or something that potential employers can be pointed to. I'm sure we could give them some glowing character references from the customers' point of view. Dedication, respect, friendliness, professionalism, above-and-beyond-ness.

Out of the park, Jessie, man. You knocked this one out of the park.

[blackjak]

Probably didn't see, but Dynamo Jr. always made it a point to stop by and salute the AP33 crew. I salute you again here.
/e miltarysalute

[Megajoule]

My thanks to Hit Streak and to everyone who kept vigil in Atlas Park 33.

[emu265]

Indeed, thanks to everyone.  Especially those that reopened AP33 after each server reset.

[Lily Barclay]

Hitstreak does have an account here on Titan. Hopefully he will see this thread.

[eabrace]

He popped in here briefly one day to post a reminder about something (I think it was a coffee talk).  His account was deleted within 12 hours after that.  We could probably speculate all day about why, but he deleted it himself.

[TonyV]

Yes, a HUGE "Thank you!!!" to everyone who maintained vigil in Atlas Park 33.  I popped in many times just to see what it was like, and there were consistently always  a handful of heroes there on the steps holding torches.  The persistence of you guys is not only touching, it really is a tangible sign of how much this game means to people.  Again, THANK YOU!

I picture him as a final lonely figure tending to the servers by lamplight, with armed and hostile Korean guards looming over him and watching his every move, in an otherwise empty building full of crickets. I wonder how accurate that description is.

For what it's worth, while I think that Paragon Studios people had access to shut down or restart servers, I'd be very surprised if Hit Streak did it himself.  I'm almost certain that personnel from NCsoft most likely working out of Austin, possibly Seattle, logged in and shut the servers down.  Not that we should be mad at the person who physically shut off the servers (or for that matter, the crew out at Austin; GM_Lloyd has been an awesome force for helpfulness and good over the years, and even logged in to say his heart-felt goodbyes to everyone).  If you're going to be angry, make sure you're angry only at the people who are responsible for the decision to shut the servers down in the first place: The executive management of NCsoft in Korea.

[AlienOne]

For what it's worth, while I think that Paragon Studios people had access to shut down or restart servers, I'd be very surprised if Hit Streak did it himself.  I'm almost certain that personnel from NCsoft most likely working out of Austin, possibly Seattle, logged in and shut the servers down.  Not that we should be mad at the person who physically shut off the servers (or for that matter, the crew out at Austin; GM_Lloyd has been an awesome force for helpfulness and good over the years, and even logged in to say his heart-felt goodbyes to everyone).  If you're going to be angry, make sure you're angry only at the people who are responsible for the decision to shut the servers down in the first place: The executive management of NCsoft in Korea.

I believe that is correct. There is a YouTube video of Hit Streak streaming during the last day of the game, and it does not appear that he shut them down himself in that video, due to the fact that it appears he was in his house... It seems he was merely acting as a "live moderator" of sorts, making announcements, handing out titles, spawning monsters, and generally thanking everyone for showing up.

Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm_rQxQ6oPQ

[Johnny Joy Bringer]

Thanks for the kind words. I am proud to say I was parked there almost every single day, barring any technical problems, or the kids wanting to play their characters.

How I game to play...

I started in mid 2006, and come from a life long interest in pen and paper games, but has long since become too busy and moved too far from my original crowd, or any crowd that played RPGs. I used to to to every single game con on the west coast from the mid 80's until 2000. Champions was my game back then.

Flash forward to 2006 when my best friend talked endlessly of City of Heroes. I explained over and over and over that I do not play computer games. I work at a computer all day. I don't need to spend any more time at the monitor. Or so I thought. After doing some research and missing the old days I thought about trying it out. I had to overcome two different hurdles. I needed the wife's approval, which was easy since our kids were young enough that they were no trouble. Then I need to get the game working on Linux under wine. After getting a copy of COV at the local Wal-Mart I was able to get it running and was off.

I was planning a trip out to the west coast form the east to visit family and friends, and was going to surprise my friend, Brit, and explain that he had teamed with me many times. It was to be an unmasking. The day before my surprise visit I received a phone call from one of our other gaming friends, who said Brit had been killed by a drunk driver near Oakland CA the night before.

I didn't know if I would play again. I stopped. But others from our old gaming group urged me to, and slowly I started. I met old friends and new. But it was the new people I met that kept me going and coming back.

The the kids got older...

I used to escape sometimes when the kids would sleep for 12 hours a day, and rob a bank or run a mission with friends. I could schedule events and run maybe a TF now and again. As the kids got older more demand was placed on my time and I would play only when there was an opportunity. I didn't schedule my time and jumped on when I could.

But, over time the kids wanted to see me play more and more. My youngest having been born a few months after I started playing was about 4, and the others 6 & 8. They only had a watch a few times to know they wanted to build a hero or villain and have some adventures. At first I did not think this was a good idea, but then I reasoned that my 8yr old would have to read and write to communicate and understand the game. This worked perfectly. He's reading skills took a huge jump, but what surprised me was the 4yr old who learned to read on her own using the game. Something I had not expected. When I checked on her progress she had created her own super group and progressed from level 1 to 16 without ever having visited at trainer.

Then there was the middle child, Robbie. He loved the game the most, but couldn't play as often because his school was not up to par. In pre-school Robbie never spoke and word. Something the staff never told me until they had called for a government evaluation. He had always been an out going person, but appears to have become complete withdrawn when we moved from Florida to the north east. We were not made aware by the pre-school staff, which is something that angers me greatly to this day.

When Robbie entered school he was not social, or social to a minimal degree, and refused to speak. His education took a hit. His reading, writing, and basically everything other than math was well bellow average. So, being desperate, I took a chance and gave him time on COH even if his school work was not up to par. He was a social butterfly, and blossomed in reading and writing after that. What amazed me was how open he was with other people and how he  could find a team so easily. I swear that he could find a team on an empty server.

The changes in him where amazing. His confidence grew, walked upright with pride, looked everyone in the eye, and talked to everyone about Paragon City, Pretoria, and First Ward. He set a goal of creating his own MMO by the time he gets out of High School. And the confidence in which he stated that goal could leave the listener no doubt that it was a certainty.

Then a miracle happened ...

I would have regular meeting with the school and the special teachers that work with Robbie about his progress. The first thing they told me was that he would no longer need to be regarded as a special needs student. He had made significant progress in a very short time, the kind they described as never happening , as a miracle. Kids similar to him often require special education to help with socializing for the entire time they are in school. They said he is now well within the normal range. He does need to do more work on his reading. His writing and spelling has become far better. In game he had to use chat to communicate, which required him to write and spell. He also writes about his characters all the time, at home and in school. He has a million stories about them, and about the people he teamed up with, and of course the Paragon Punishers(best SG according to Robbie).

Then the end of everything ...

When the announcement came I hooked my powerful laptop to the TV and allowed the kids to play and stay up late. This was Friday Aug 31st. I said lets give Paragon City a good send off. I didn't agree with the shutdown, but was somewhat accepting and thought we should just party it up until the end. Then later as I put a very sleepy Robbie to bed he was me "What will happen to the heroes when they world ends?" I hadn't thought about the world as ending, or a question like that. While I was stunned and thinking of an answer he asked "Will you save them?" with a look I will never ever forget. I made a promise "I will do everything I can."

Saving the world...

I'd been playing heroes for a long time, and here I was being asked to "Save the world." My job is very demanding and September is the worst. So I created a character I intended to use as to inspire others. At first this character was only to exist until I could find one to represent the cause much better. I had been planing a character for my wife, so the plan was to create a character for her, come up with a name to inspire, protest, and team now and again. Later I would rename the character for her.

This plan didn't work. My wife was put off the closure, disgusted, and would not play often or at all as time went on.

What I ended up with was a character based on my wife called "Save City of Heroes" a blaster with water and fire. I started with a sexy, but quickly came up with a better set of costumes and back story.

I got the character from 1 to 50 with almost 2 weeks to spare. Adventured rarely and always remained in AP33 next to the famous Davis family with CAPTAIN BACON, Detra, Pogoman, Creepy Cookie, Creepy Candy, Wonder Who, and so many others, day after day, night after night. When AP33 would disappear either BACON, Pogo, or I would get there ASAP. We were the most sick of obsessed.

At one point I left my post in the normal AP, AP33 having been reset away, to make a level in RV using a heavy to do my fighting(hey, 1.5hrs per level from 45-50). When I was in RV my screen changed from RV to the AP zone loading screen. I found myself in AP33 at the base of the steps with Hitstreak hovering in front of me. I thanked him in chat, but tried to throw snowball at him at the same time. But he couldn't be targeted sadly.

And each night Robbie would ask again and again for me to save Paragon City, to save his heroes, which was mainly players like all of you. You were the heroes he was asking me to save. We printed masks, wrote messages on them, sent emails, letters, and phone calls.

In the end ...

I haven't been successful, I haven't saved his characters, or your's his heroes. The heroes on the screen that made him feel like the most amazing person in the world. You were his Superman, but not in a comic, you talked to him and invited him to join your Justice League. You made him walk on air and build up his confidence. You restored him to life. He misses you and tells me at least 3-4 times a day.

The last day ...

When the last day came, last Friday, the kids all took turns and stayed up late. They were at a loss as to what to do. Molly(6yrs) made a new character, Harry(10yrs) took old ones for a ride around, and Robbie played his latest favorite Praetorian Gold, teamed with others and kicked butt.

After they went to best, late, and sleepy, we told stories about adventures. It was a laugh riot and there was crying. We had all lost something together. Was asked again to save their heroes, and the world. I again promised to do my best.

Robbie, even had a message he wanted to sent to Positron and asked me to send it to him. I asked Positron for an email address, but he didn't want to give any out. Can't blame him, but I promised I'd ask. Robbie's likes Positron far more than Stateman, and includes him in most of his stories.

I then went to get online myself. It was very hard to think of what to do. So many things I wanted to do. So many thing left undone. I took more shots of the kids characters. I then made an angelic costume for Save City of Heroes, and said not enough goodbyes, and spent some time frozen in Ouroboros, demorecording all those that passed through. After that I went back to those steps. It was as if I knew of nothing else that I could do to save all those I'd seen so sad that night. Virtue died, I was map served right there at my post. Right there at those steps.

Sure, I logged into a different server for the official remaining few minutes. It felt like it was 1 minute until midnight and the governer had gone to bed. We were executed. But, I can't think that way. I can't afford to. I'm still on those steps. There is more to be done before mourning. There are heroes to be saved, Robbies heroes, heroes like you.

PS: Please forgive any errors. I had little time to type this. Back to work.

[dwturducken]

I have nothing but respect and admiration for the GMs, particularly Lloyd. I put in a trouble ticket the morning of the 30th, because the Market was down. They were evidently too busy to get to me until the next day, when another GM directed me to the forums for help. My morbid sense of humor kicked in when framing my reply, and I got a pretty touching "thanks for being a hero" reply from Lloyd.  I told 'em not to be in too big a hurry freeing up server space. :)

[srmalloy]

PS: Please forgive any errors. I had little time to type this. Back to work.

Copy that out verbatim and send it to the Disney execs.

[blackjak]

Save City of Heroes was always on post when I would pop into AP33 (every time I logged on). I have stood the steps by you, but never even a tenth the time you did. I consider the list you made the diehard torchbearers. As he did before, Dynamo Jr. dons his American Legion uniform and salutes you and your entire family of heroes.
/e military salute