I was 24 I think when Beta testing started. I saw rumbling of the City of Heroes being made in magazines for a couple years before then. So when I saw they was chance get into the beta testing, I jumped on it. I was playing the MMO prior to that Dark Age of Camelot. (a game that all died a few years ago.) I was burnt out from a couple years of playing and being a guild leader, and was needing something else. I was done with wizards, dragons and elves oh my. I started playing City of Heroes, and everyone was so much faster, more interesting and user friendly for most part. In Dark Age, you need ride a horse for like 30 mins to get to areas. (I tried go back after the Atlantis expansion came out, but the extreme slowish was such a turn off. Your characters jump like they have cement blocks on their feet and run much slower than a lvl 1 character in CoH..the travel powers just make getting places so much faster.) Then groups would break up by time you got there....like was such a brutal time sink.
I founded Eternal Vigilance again on Justice. I had a good following for a bit since I recruited quite a few bodies from Beta. (I wish more of my former guild had come with me.) When Wow hit, a lot of people jumped ship. The game was still rough around the edges, and I can understand why people didn't stick around. End game was lacking, and there was little do with your mountains of influence. The game rapidly improved, but the game never seemed to get the following it deserved. It chugged on steadily though, continually improving. I wish I could send the final version of the game back to cryptic, and had that been the launched version. I think it would blown away so many people, and it would gotten a massive following.
I played majority of the time since Beta. I took breaks here and there. I made a ton of characters (I wish they'd made more server slots earlier. I'd never needed make villains on a different server.) I was on a break when the end came, which my only real regret , as I couldn't post on the forums at all then. I just had sit back and watch it come silently. A friend of mine that I gamed with wasn't talking to me, but we both put our differences aside to play City Of Heroes till last day we could together. It was like having someone we both knew on their deathbed.
I've mostly had my fill of MMOs these days. I generally have too much going on to really dive into them the way I used to. (I'd play games like a second job.) Especially after the CoX went down, I stopped caring if I cut corners in games, or do everything, since it can all be so fleeting. When City Of titans gets going, I might give it a whirl, but I'm in no hurry put my cape back on. I had a good run and I am at peace with it as I sit here at age 34. (Almost 35.)
