Things I appreciate now.

[Septipheran]

I wanted to fire this thread up to talk a bit about all the things I didn't appreciate while COH was live. I'm sure that for a lot of you my reputation proceeds me- I was TwoHeadedBoy on the official forums. I was often contentious and I like to think I toed the line between hardcore enthusiast and sarcastic unicorn.

While the game was alive and well, I never really appreciated the casual and RP crowds. My primary server was Freedom- I liked to deck my characters out in multi-billion builds and solo ridiculous stuff on max settings. I min/maxed and based my characters on the most advantageous combinations. I collected Master Of trial badges and amassed more t4's on my main than I could count, with a trove full of rare and very rare salvage just to have it.

I was always dismissive of the casuals; in fact, I was condescending to the casual mentality on a regular basis. This whole experience of losing the game has taught me a lot about appreciating the folks who played the game for much different reasons. I loved COH, and I loved how I played the game. It was fun to me. But seeing these forums still alive, and the drastically different reasons for people loving this game has made me wish I could go back and change a lot of my attitude towards these player demographics.

Anyways, /endrant. I just felt like I should post this here.

[Triplash]

You might be surprised to know how many casuals and RPers were dismissive of the hardcore type players. Quietly rather than publicly, more often than not, but just as strongly.

The important point, which I think you're seeing now, is... who cares? I'll play how I like, you play how you like. Nobody's getting hurt so what does it matter?

Bottom line is, every time someone loses an attitude like your old one, everyone around them is better off for it. Congrats on dinging to your next level of enlightenment

[JaguarX]

good stuff. It is admirable for someone to see the need for a change and make it instead of the easy way of seeing the need for a change but keeping the wrong attitude anyways. Props, man.

[Septipheran]

You might be surprised to know how many casuals and RPers were dismissive of the hardcore type players. Quietly rather than publicly, more often than not, but just as strongly.

The important point, which I think you're seeing now, is... who cares? I'll play how I like, you play how you like. Nobody's getting hurt so what does it matter?

Bottom line is, every time someone loses an attitude like your old one, everyone around them is better off for it. Congrats on dinging to your next level of enlightenment

I think the biggest barrier (ba-dum tsh, t4!) to my getting along with the casual types was that when I teamed in PUG's my own efficiency was sometimes hindered by a lack of intuitiveness on their parts. I still get a figurative vein popping in my forehead when I think of people standing in circles and ruining Avoids the Green Stuff runs on Keyes. But now that the dust has settled and the game is gone, I like those people for running Keyes with me.

[Zombie Hustler]

As someone who was a pretty dedicated soloer, I've really come to appreciate the CoH community. It started about a year or two before the game closure, to be sure, with me just actively checking the forums and gradually posting there more (even as I remained primarily a soloer), but with the advent of the closure and in the time subsequent, I've really come to admire how great the community is, and can't help but feel I missed an opportunity to break out of my comfort zone and become more active with it- in and outside of the game- while CoH was still live.

[Menrva Channel]

Things I appreciate now--just being able to /log on/--I took the City for granted. I'd take breaks when needed, always sure it'd be there when I came back, good and ready to fly again. The amazing gift of being able to fly--especially when they let you have it level 4.... Zapping the hell out of Skulls and other misfits--oh, I know! /Mayhem missions!/ Oh man, after a really lousy day at work it was therapy! I appreciated being able to solo when I wanted or, when I finally joined a channel, being able to team and experience the many task forces of the game. (I was so excited to run an infamous Dr. Q--and then realized why I'd never run it again...) I appreciate now the wonderful Devs and their timely response and kindly manner.--And most of all the community. It's amazing all the things you take for granted, until you don't have it any more.

[therain93]

You might be surprised to know how many casuals and RPers were dismissive of the hardcore type players. Quietly rather than publicly, more often than not, but just as strongly.

The important point, which I think you're seeing now, is... who cares? I'll play how I like, you play how you like. Nobody's getting hurt so what does it matter?

Bottom line is, every time someone loses an attitude like your old one, everyone around them is better off for it. Congrats on dinging to your next level of enlightenment

I wasn't dismissive of the Hard Core crowd, but I did not fully appreciate playing that way until after the shutdown notice. 
 
I went from playing maybe a few hours every two weeks or so to practically nightly gaming -- it was a brutal 90 days where I played for probably....75-80 of them.  I embraced ebil marketing for the first time ever and managed to start flipping purples and pvps through late October as people dumped them on the market...until people stopped by them, that is.
 
For the first time ever, I was able to build a full set io'd toon as I leveled up -- an SoA Huntswoman that simply tore everything up with stupid defense.  Until shutdown, I never really bothered with chasing IOs and builds, but was content to play as-is -- ignorance was bliss, so to speak.  I don't regret my past playing practice, but it really opened my eyes to how powerful toons could get and just took fun....wait for it...to the next level.  ( ' :
 
I miss City of Heroes and I miss my toons ) ' :

[Septipheran]

I went from playing maybe a few hours every two weeks or so to practically nightly gaming -- it was a brutal 90 days where I played for probably....75-80 of them.  I embraced ebil marketing for the first time ever and managed to start flipping purples and pvps through late October as people dumped them on the market...until people stopped by them, that is.

Baha, imagine how rewarding it felt flipping 1-2 bil in purples a day back when the market was stiff competition.  I loved all the minigames in COH. The market and buildcraft was a game by itself.
 

[Triplash]

I think the biggest barrier (ba-dum tsh, t4!) ... I still get a figurative vein popping in my forehead when I think of people standing in circles and ruining Avoids the Green Stuff runs on Keyes.

*snrk* I guess not avoiding the Green Stuff is just some people's Destiny (hey-o!)

But now that the dust has settled and the game is gone, I like those people for running Keyes with me.

Heh, yeah it took me a while to finally appreciate that those people out there grinding their days away endlessly farming stuff were actually doing everybody good by keeping the market full of things to buy. It's hard to see things from the other side of the fence most days.

For the first time ever, I was able to build a full set io'd toon as I leveled up -- an SoA Huntswoman that simply tore everything up with stupid defense.  Until shutdown, I never really bothered with chasing IOs and builds, but was content to play as-is -- ignorance was bliss, so to speak.  I don't regret my past playing practice, but it really opened my eyes to how powerful toons could get and just took fun....wait for it...to the next level.  ( ' :

Mmmm... set IOs.... *drools a bit* I remember the first time I sat down and tried figuring those out. I'd heard it was supposed to make leveling faster. I'd already turned 50 on my first character, but it was slooow, and I decided it was time to see what all the fuss was about. Man oh man... the fuss was awesome. You could do some crazy things with set bonuses if you put a bit of effort into planning. A hover-blaster capped for ranged defense... an empathy defender that could solo a +5 boss and its full spawn... I was only starting to enjoy stuff like that when the bomb dropped. But pancake was it ever fun!!

[Cobra Man]

CoH was a great game because it lent itself to being enjoyable to hardcore players and casual players alike.

You could argue that the Incarnate system did change that by creating a gulf in power effectiveness, but players could ignore the Incarnate system if they chose to.

The main thing that I appreciate now is the friendly attitude people had for the most part. I could contact a complete stranger and ask to join their team in the knowledge that I would get a response and that it would be a polite response.