What's old is new, stale is fresh

[Pixie_Knight]

You know, back when I first started playing City of Heroes everything was new, fresh, and exciting. I was experiencing the dream. I was getting a chance to be a "real" superhero. I had a lot of free time, and devoted it to this new amazing game because it was fresh and fun. Because it let me live a dream. And part of this was that I would frequently have chat output set to Local and banter with the villains during missions. Solo or in a team, it didn't matter. I'd take the time to type out witty banter, threats, or Hero Speeches in response to what the enemies were saying. It was fun, it was immersive, and yes I realized it probably came across as weird when I bantered with Clockwork King during the Positron Task Force.

 

But over time playing because it was fun morphed into playing CoH because I was addicted. I stopped paying attention to every mission briefing and reading every clue that dropped. I stopped jumping in to save a mugging victim or stop a group of carjackers. I stopped role-playing, by and large. Instead I just rushed through accepting a mission, and ran to the next way point while ignoring any mobs I came across on the way. Oh sure, I still did some role-playing. But it was mostly just using a specific speech pattern in team chat or hitting a macro saying "Out of arrows" when my archer's endurance bar runs dry. And even that was rare.

 

I played City of Heroes and City of Villains for most of the game's life. I might not have subscribed every single month, but it was usually one of the 2 (out of 10 at one point) MMOs I had active. It was generally the 2nd game which would be cycled out. I was addicted, badly. Not to the point of not eating, sleeping, or doing other important things such as going to work. But it was impacting my life. If I wasn't at work or sleeping, I would probably be signed into City of Heroes or posting on the forums. Often both at the same time. Even after I suffered burnout due to a year and a half of obsessively playing City of Heroes I didn't abandon the game. I played it less, but still played at least for an hour most days. But towards the end even the minor role-playing I did such as using a "out of arrows" chat bind stopped. The game wasn't even a hobby by then. It was fun, but I was treating it like work. I wanted to progress my Incarnate abilities, so I turned the game into a job. In the last few months leading up to the server shutdown, I couldn't honestly tell you if I was enjoying my time playing City of Heroes or not. But it was still a big part of my life. The server shutdown affected me a great deal, although to an outsider this wasn't obvious.

 

But now it's back. And I already am seeing early signs that I might be becoming addicted yet again. Once more I'm spending most of my time either awake, at work, or playing CoH (or browsing the forum). This kind of has me alarmed, but at the same time it feels like I've returned home. It's a good feeling, and not one I've ever experienced from a video game before. Then last night I found myself doing something I hadn't done in years. Not since a few months after I first started playing CoH. While running the Destruction of Galaxy City aftermath arc on a new Willpower/War Mace tanker I found myself bantering with the enemies. And as I delivered a sorrowful speech about the price of giving up hope to a Vahzilok low level mission boss it hit me. I've come full circle. Not only have I returned to the city that dominated much of my adult life so far, but I've regained that sense of wide eyed wonder that I first felt upon stepping into Paragon City all those years ago.

 

I'll have to take care to not become too obsessed. Try to find a better balance between my time in Paragon and the real world this time around. But having that innocent wide eyed wonder returned, experiencing the simple joy of being a bold Hero or dastardly Villain... Even if the servers get shut down tomorrow you've brought this happiness to me.

 

Thank you for this. It's good to be home.

[_NOPE_]

<3

[Plug Nickel]

Good read and I can relate to a lot of it.  I too used to fire off macro-banter with villains both on teams and solo.  Over the years though, I stopped for a lot of the same reasons you did.  Coming back, I still find myself running around trying to knock out objectives and ignoring a lot of the role playing I used to amuse myself with.  It's still like coming home, but I do wish I could recapture that old sense of wonder I had back then.  Of course that was 15 years ago and I'm pushing 50 now.  Maybe I finally grew up.  God I hope not.  Maybe your post will inspire me to slow down and enjoy just being a super hero again.

[MrAxe]

Back in 2005 I played my first year almost every day until around 3am. Left to go to work around 7:30 and spent the time at work before I started my day looking up which powers to take. Then I set off, filing the papers while thinking about my build.

 

Couldn't do that now, that was my 24 year old body. Today that would bloody kill me.:P

 

You combine a ton of awesome features and great community and it makes CoH feel like a comfortable home. I think that's what draws us all in. I can obviously relate and I too am finding a fresh start great. Being mindful of not burning myself out too.

[GamerKate]

I feel like I’ve been reborn tbh. My old lvl 50 main is now lvl 7 again and his badge count is 5 not near the badge cap as it was, and I’m overjoyed to only vaguely remember the amazing content I can now experience all over again.

 

Love this game.

 

MCM

[MacguyverBond]

Hear hear!  There’re so many mission arcs I never fully experienced and I was sad when I realized I had to go looking for the Hollows because none of my starting contacts across 4-5 characters referred me to the officer there.  Still kicking myself for outleveling my main past the Hollows entirely doing other stuff.  I’m very carefully running a reimagined old alt through the Hollows just to see it all again, only this time with Ninja Run haha.

[MetaVileTerror]

As much as City of Heroes (or more to the point, City of Villains) was / is The Dream . . . there's always been that sense that's there was something just over the horizon to make the experience truly Complete for me.  I've largely had a similar experience to you, Pixie_Knight, but there's a little sense of foreboding I get in that I've always wanted to bring a piece of myself in to the game's lore and have it be truly meaningful. 

That's probably one of the largest reasons I was so dedicated in the past.  This imagined feeling that if I was just playing /hard/ enough, that maybe I could make a lasting impression.  That I could inform and influence the narrative. 

Those dreams came crashing to a halt during Going Rogue Beta when I spoke directly with one of the Devs about Knockback, and it helped me to realize my fantasy was very much that:  Fantasy.

 

Now that the game's back and being run by people who aren't under the thumb of a major corporate system of stocks and profit margins, I admit that the dream of my fantasy has roused itself.  I think I'm a little more sensible now, and I realize that my odds of fulfilling that dream are still pretty much just as slim, but what's a roleplaying game if not a space to indulge in a little fantasy for one reason or another?

[_NOPE_]

As much as City of Heroes (or more to the point, City of Villains) was / is The Dream . . . there's always been that sense that's there was something just over the horizon to make the experience truly Complete for me.  I've largely had a similar experience to you, Pixie_Knight, but there's a little sense of foreboding I get in that I've always wanted to bring a piece of myself in to the game's lore and have it be truly meaningful. 

That's probably one of the largest reasons I was so dedicated in the past.  This imagined feeling that if I was just playing /hard/ enough, that maybe I could make a lasting impression.  That I could inform and influence the narrative. 

Those dreams came crashing to a halt during Going Rogue Beta when I spoke directly with one of the Devs about Knockback, and it helped me to realize my fantasy was very much that:  Fantasy.

 

I would LOVE to hear more about this...

[MetaVileTerror]

Which part?

[Solvernia]

Which part?

 

the knockback part

[justicebeliever]

Pixie Knight - I feel the same way.  When I first started playing - it was magical, and I got into a SG with a bunch of people interested in role-playing similar to me.  We supported each other.  I would either be working, or working and playing, or playing, or playing and eating, and occasional breaks for sleeping.  If I wasn't in the game, I would be scanning the forums.

 

Now I am back, and I'm more excited about a game than I have been since I first started playing CoH in 2004.  But in some ways, the magic just isn't quite the same - maybe it's because I have more responsibilities...I dunno, but I'm confounded by the level excitement and familiarity I am feeling.

 

Maybe it's because I haven't really found a group to team regularly and role-play with.  But that's on me - I need to try harder...

 

Pretty stream of consciousness here, but mostly just wanted to share that your post really resonated with me!  +1 Inf

[jack_nomind]

The Vahzilok haven't given up hope.  They believe in a world free from disease, from suffering -- from death itself!  You're not so different, you know...

[GamerKate]

As much as City of Heroes (or more to the point, City of Villains) was / is The Dream . . . there's always been that sense that's there was something just over the horizon to make the experience truly Complete for me.  I've largely had a similar experience to you, Pixie_Knight, but there's a little sense of foreboding I get in that I've always wanted to bring a piece of myself in to the game's lore and have it be truly meaningful. 

That's probably one of the largest reasons I was so dedicated in the past.  This imagined feeling that if I was just playing /hard/ enough, that maybe I could make a lasting impression.  That I could inform and influence the narrative. 

Those dreams came crashing to a halt during Going Rogue Beta when I spoke directly with one of the Devs about Knockback, and it helped me to realize my fantasy was very much that:  Fantasy.

 

Now that the game's back and being run by people who aren't under the thumb of a major corporate system of stocks and profit margins, I admit that the dream of my fantasy has roused itself.  I think I'm a little more sensible now, and I realize that my odds of fulfilling that dream are still pretty much just as slim, but what's a roleplaying game if not a space to indulge in a little fantasy for one reason or another?

 

You mean you want to create content?

 

Er, like we can in the AE system?

 

MCM

[_NOPE_]

Which part?

 

the knockback part

[VanCorp]

Pixie Knight - I feel the same way.  When I first started playing - it was magical, and I got into a SG with a bunch of people interested in role-playing similar to me.  We supported each other.  I would either be working, or working and playing, or playing, or playing and eating, and occasional breaks for sleeping.  If I wasn't in the game, I would be scanning the forums.

 

Now I am back, and I'm more excited about a game than I have been since I first started playing CoH in 2004.  But in some ways, the magic just isn't quite the same - maybe it's because I have more responsibilities...I dunno, but I'm confounded by the level excitement and familiarity I am feeling.

 

Maybe it's because I haven't really found a group to team regularly and role-play with.  But that's on me - I need to try harder...

 

Pretty stream of consciousness here, but mostly just wanted to share that your post really resonated with me!  +1 Inf

 

I can relate. Back when CoH was in retail, while I was still an author (have been for over two-decades) I worked in the table-top RPG industry. And at that time, I was licensing Mutants & Masterminds 2e for my super-hero setting, so I had a lot of my fans from that table-top game in CoH with me, in my super-group, and so forth. The social aspects were fantastic.

 

Fast forward to Homecoming, and while it's fun to play again, it isn't the same by any stretch for me. You simply can't recapture that past magic, and nostalgia is only going so far for me. Now, I've since retired from the RPG industry and returned to full-time fiction writing. Although three of my four kids are grown adults and on their own, I yet find myself with very little MMO time due to my career. I left MMOs back in 2016 due to that and moved on to focus on games that I can play more effectively in bite-sized chunks, such as Overwatch, Paladins, and Realm Royale. I'm finding my game-time hasn't changed in 2019, and committing to an MMO, even CoH again, just isn't as fun as it once was for me.

 

All in all, I love CoH and will always love CoH, but like I suspect will happen for many with Classic WoW this August, you simply cannot go back in time. And even for CoH, I also think my real interest in MMOs might be a thing of the past, too.

[Pixie_Knight]

I just think it's amazing that this revival of the first MMO I ever played managed to reawaken that long lost sense of wonder and excitement. I can't wait to sign back in not because I have a daily mission or six I need to complete or to grind faction rep so I can enter a town and get more (bland and uninteresting) quests, but because I get to be a Superhero (or Supervillain)! It's nothing I haven't done a million times before. Just street sweeping, entering mission maps and clearing out all enemies, or clearing out all enemies then clicking noisy glowing objects. Not solving any puzzles, not trying to navigate my way through a complex web of deceit, just 'mindless fighting' with a bit of text to try explaining why I'm doing it this time. And yet, I'm excited again. I feel like I'm accomplishing something beyond "gaining xp/in-game currency/crafting materials. By the end of the game's official life, I'd lost that sense of wonder. It had been ground away by years of obsession and addiction.

 

But it's back, and I treasure it's return. I've played MMOs that felt more cinematic. I've played MMOs that felt more epic. But City of Heroes was my first MMO, and arguably the one I've always loved the most. Warts and all, I'd consider it the best one to have come out. A fantasy MMO is a fantasy MMO is a fantasy MMO. They don't really vary that much. They either model them self after Everquest, or they model them self after World of Warcraft. Very few manage to stand out from the crowd. And non-fantasy MMOs are kind of rare. Of all the ones that have come out over the years, I think only 4 or 5 are still around officially. And while two of them are also superhero games (Champions Online and DC Universe Online), they either come across as incredibly shallow (Champions Online) or have very few things you can do on a given day, and actively discourage you from playing much once at the level cap (DC Universe Online).

 

No, seriously. My main in DCUO currently has 2 solo missions and 2 group missions they qualify for and can get rewards for. But I can only get those rewards one time per day. And to be honest, I'm sick and tired of running all 4 of them, but am only half way towards the next tier of content... which will have a grand total of six missions (solo and group combined) that I can run for rewards a day. The game actively discourages me from playing more then maybe an hour a day. At most. And one of the things I'll be able to do once I hit the next tier... I can only get rewards once a week. City of Heroes never penalized me like that for wanting to play the game. Sure some content such as ITF might have a daily cooldown timer (as I recall), but there was always plenty of things I could do beside street sweeping. Well, after the update that integrated City of Villains into the mix anyway.

[Aerous77]

"This kind of has me alarmed"

Man up. (Or woman...up I guess)

 

Homecoming is a bloody miracle. Appreciate it. Play it! Get addicted! We're all lucky to have the chance yet again. I mean, gone are the days of having to log out to play the TF again the next day to finish it. Posi TF was cut in two parts back in 2012. Most things can be done in under two hours. All the perks and game changes make me feel like we're playing in an expansion (That took years to make :/ ) City of Heroes / Villains is more casual friendly than ever before, and just in time!

[Pixie_Knight]

"This kind of has me alarmed"

Man up. (Or woman...up I guess)

 

Homecoming is a bloody miracle. Appreciate it. Play it! Get addicted! We're all lucky to have the chance yet again. I mean, gone are the days of having to log out to play the TF again the next day to finish it. Posi TF was cut in two parts back in 2012. Most things can be done in under two hours. All the perks and game changes make me feel like we're playing in an expansion (That took years to make :/ ) City of Heroes / Villains is more casual friendly than ever before, and just in time!

 

Last time I got addicted to City of Heroes, it was really bad. As in "blow off friends and family" bad. As in "ignore my sister's wedding because it's not City of Heroes" bad. I'd pull 20 hour days (or longer) because I'd get off work, and immediately sign into City of Heroes, then continue playing it until I had to be at work in a few hours. Or until I needed to head off to work. I don't want to reach that level of addiction again, because it was wrecking my life.

[OEM61]

CoH was the first MMO that I played.

 

There were other MMOs out there, of course, and friends were playing so I thought about those, but I didn't even own a PC at the time.

 

When CoH was announced I really started paying attention, following the game, and signed up on the forums as soon as I found them.

I bought a PC in order to be able to play CoH when it came out.

 

There have, of course, been other games, but none of them could reproduce the magic of CoH.

 

So yeah, CoH is back?  Even if just for a while?  Then I will be here, even if just for a while.