Rust

CoX was where my childhood stable of heroes and villains came to life, so mostly it's me revisiting old friends. A few CoX creations I also remade, though the part about not being the same person I was in 2012 is very much the truth. Maybe I should experiment a bit with builds and power sets.

It really is quite simple. When I went over to Champions after CoH was murdered, first thing I thought of in the tutorial was "This is the bloody Rikti Invasion."

*Happily playing on Excelsior* What? We're on Everlasting now? Ah well, my highest guy was Level 10 so it's not that much of a loss I suppose...

Before the game had its throat slit, I'd only managed to get one Level 50. Even after all these years, I know Kings Row like the back of my hand. Since logging in again yesterday, I have five characters thus far and have forced myself to back out of the character creation screen twice over. Incidentally, I've not recreated my Level 50 so far.

I get the frustration, I feel it too. I've got a pile of other games to play, but since returning to City of Heroes nothing else matters. It's just a lesson in patience, is all.

I for one think Mender Silos is a fine individual.

The game has aged remarkably well. Enhancements feel good. Combat is pretty engaging for a early-aughts MMO title, the community feels like it never left... I hope these servers remain active. It's so good being home again.

So I waited in the queue, got into the game. Recreated my "essential" cadre, ran a few missions with one...logged out for the evening to let others play. Even if tomorrow the servers are gone forever, I just wanted to say thank you. It was great being back in Paragon City for a little while. Hopefully I can play for some time to come, but if I can't...know that your efforts have made a middle aged man's craptastic week end on a remarkably high note.

Vanilla WoW was also a professional business server set up, in which keeping the customers happy was paramount to remaining fiscally solvent with a brand new game. This is a volunteer/fan effort to revive a game 6+ years gone.

At least there's a couple of people that are desperate enough to wait 3 hours just to crash. Some people can't be that big of a fanboy. Then go play something else then. Nobody's holding a gun to your head and demanding you stay.

I'm perfectly happy to wait in line for even a moment back in Paragon City. If certain parties decide to axe the whole project when I'm at 5 in line, then that's the balliwick. At the end of the day, the fact the game is even briefly back is astounding.

I mean, there comes a point when diminishing returns happen - when the game isn't netting enough profit to justify keeping it functional. And back in 2012, the idea of legacy servers keeping a game afloat also wasn't really a thing. But then you look at Champions, and you honestly wonder what Perfect World's revenue stream for loot boxes and a handful of cheap costume pieces looks like to justify keeping the mummified corpse alive.

*raises hand* You have my sword.

Not sure how many consecutive players can be on the servers at a given time, but seeing as both servers have significant queues (Around 3000+ combined), I figured I'd look into how that compares to other Super Hero MMOs. According to Steam Charts, Champions Online is averaging close to 300 players a month getting into the game via Steam. DC Universe Online is fairing a bit better, averaging close to 900 players a month. There are 3000 people lined up, waiting patiently to play a shuttered 6+ year old game. I definitely hope certain parties are paying attention to those numbers.

Were it legal (Which I'm not sure it would be, given its not their intellectual property), I'd gladly throw $15 a month once more.