My story is like so many others that have been posted here, how this was my favorite MMO, the shock and loss I felt when I first saw the news we were losing our game, the tears, being online right up until the moment the servers were taken offline, the hope that it would somehow come back all those years ago, the attempts to find other games to fill the void left behind. I used to check online regularly on the different forums dedicated to either bringing it back or creating a "spiritual successor", but as the years went by my hope began dwindling and I began checking less and less. Finally, about a month ago I was cleaning out a closet and found some old detailed notes I had made about my CoX characters - specs, builds, choices made during leveling, etc. I sadly got rid of them because I thought if a similar game ever came along it would be different enough that I would be starting over anyway. It was like the final acceptance that the "REAL" CoX was never going to be coming back.
Yesterday, I don't know what made me Google "City of Heroes". I think I just felt it was time to check in again after a long while to see if any more progress was being made on the successors. When "City of Heroes 2019" popped up in my search bar, I thought, "That's odd." When Google listed YouTube videos talking about how to "download and install the game in 2019" I thought "What?!?" One article popped up about how there's allegedly been servers up and running for a long time that are just being made public, and there were videos of people describing what the game is like to play now in 2019, and...and...well, you all know the rest.
Everyone else has already said what CoX being back means to them. It means all of that to me too. It's like a part of me had never gotten over the loss of everything that CoX was to me all those many years ago. It was like coming home when you didn't ever think you could again. I was even able to load up saved costume files from my original characters! I'm so mad at myself that I didn't save all of them back then, but so grateful for the ones I did save. I have a folder of screenshots that can help me with the ones I don't have. I don't think I have it in me now to invest the time it would take to bring all of them back, but we'll see! I was a completionist when I played before - I had to have all the badges, I hated outleveling contacts, and just always wanted to do everything. Now, I just want to play and enjoy the game and not care if I miss something because I've missed it all for so very long. I want to just enjoy what I'm doing in the moment, without worrying if my characters have every accolade or have the best builds.
There is no way to ever say "Thank you!" enough to the people that have made this happen. I pray that the future holds many, many more days of adventures in Paragon City, but no matter what happens I will be always and forever grateful what is happening right now and those that made it possible by never giving up hope.
