Not sure if I heard about it solely from friends, but some were in beta and I wound up joining as well. Played Champions Tabletop for years and was a tester on their first try at a PC game (Only Heromaker came of that), so a superhero game was welcome.
Customization, etc... was what got me to stay. I couldn't build my old RPG chars exactly, but the spirit was there. Played thru sunset, though I did take breaks here and there, once while concentrating on developing a different game. One of my breaks was just before sunset. (I think I came back, bought a sub for a bit and then sunset got announced.)
Knew about the secret server fairly early via a friend's son, but didn't bother looking into it. RL was a bit busy. When HC got announced and I noticed how much easier it was to get it to play with WINE, welp, here I am.