What does City of Heroes mean to you?

[StarseedWarrior]

It means allot to me, back on live allot of peoples back stories really opened me up to allot of concepts, before I was mostly into fantasy mmos, and being an eq1 vet city of heroes was allot more casual friendly which I loved, I was done with super grindy time consuming mmos and still managed to have as deep team mechanics as everquest. then I made friends and was in a big sg and the community was amazing.

 

Today its alright we have allot of new people coming in because its a free mmo and did not really come here to experience city of heroes. City of heroes compares to allot of games today no matter how clunky it may seem, graphics on powers can use an update but beyond that it beats the hek out of allot older even moodern mmos in my opinion. Not to mention you know who is updating the game and know they are not manipulting anything for money or even downgrading like most mmos. I could go on and on all day about the reasons but these are my main reasons for sticking with it.

[KITANYA]

Nostalgia.

 

Memories.

 

Remembering the people i played with back then and the things that happened outside the game.

 

A special time!

[Timeshadow]

So, so much.

I first started playing CoH when I was a senior in high school in 2007. Growing up a superhero fan, this game was an outlet for fantasies I'd only been able to write about until then. Seeing them "come to life" and being able to experience them alongside other players doing the same thing was absolutely incredible.

The next year, I went away to college. New school in a new state with all the new people and things that came along with moving. CoH was a link to the place I'd come from and a familiar comfort when adjusting was just too much to handle.

I played off and on until the sunset in 2012. That was a hard day. It felt like losing the home I'd grown up in. Even now, I'm getting emotional just remembering it. I tried Champions Online, DC Universe, anything that might give me the feeling CoH did but nothing worked. The games themselves had merit but they just couldn't match that X-factor that made CoH the game I loved and looked forward to playing. 

Homecoming going public was, quite frankly, a miracle for me. Finding out that my game, my home, was still out there and I could go back to it? Man, I can't begin to tell you how happy I was to log in and see Paragon again in all its stylized glory. Coming back to the forums and seeing all the old names I'd bantered with over the years? If you'd told me I was dreaming then I probably would've believed you.

Edited February 20 by Timeshadow

[ThreedddHero]

Fun memory.  The first time I loaded it, my graphics card couldn't handle it. I'd get in game in Atlas and see a pair of glasses and a book floating down the sidewalk Me having a 1960's Casper flashback: "G.. g.. ghost!" One excuse is as good an another to upgrade computers, right? My wife, "Wait, you're buying a new $1200 computer to play a $30 game?" "No, no... not at all. I'm buying the computer because that's where the graphics card I need lives... and, uh, it's $1299."

[Perfidy]

This is really the only MMO I've ever played. After shut down, I tried every other game I ever heard of. Some games seemed interesting, but the inability to use the arrow keys to move limited my enjoyment. I know for many of you, the WASD and mouse are vastly superior for reasons that just weren't obvious to me when I began. The arrow keys just made sense - want to go forward - look at the keyboard - hey, that key is pointing forward! Makes sense to me to use that. But, I digress. 

If you'd asked me a couple of years ago, well, the game was just something to do during the lockdown. I played back in live, but not a lot, except during unemployed times when I had more time to play. Served 4 years in the Army and couldn't play at all during that time. 

Now, the game has some things that I really have to be in a certain mood to enjoy. Other things are a bit peevish. Like forming a TF or SF and taking more than 5 minutes to fill it. So bothersome! I'm so impatient sometimes! If it weren't for the 4 people I already have on the team, I would just log out! Fortunately, the content doesn't typically require any specific set of powers or ATs for successful completion. 

If, for some reason the game shut down and I couldn't play again, part of my brain would regret the countless hours and effort putting into getting ALL of the badges on multiple characters. In fact, I kind of regret that now. It was rewarding in the moment, but looking back...the juice wasn't worth the squeeze. 
The other part of my brain would miss the ability to get to the highest point in a zone, and simply step off and feel that sinking feeling in my gut. It's so crazy how my body thinks I'm really falling! Flight in this game is a hoot. And so are the rest of the travel powers. The various characters the rest of you create with certain looks and themes - I only rarely make such attempts, but some of your efforts I marvel at, really impressed. Some of you..I just shake my head and wonder what your reality is like to come up with names like "4 angry inches". (to be transparent, I've never seen that name in THIS game) 

 

[ThreedddHero]

Huh, I got in the original game earlier than I thought, I had thought it was 2006 or 7-ish. I definitely remember when City of Villains hit and running to the store to get it. That's 2005-ish, but also I think I remember when Peacebringer's  first came out and everyone rushing to make one. A little more iffy is I think I may remember the switch from 5th column to Council and that Pocket D was bugged at one point and people could teleport you and PvP. I may have actually been playing as early Issue 2. Maybe I wasn't as late to the game as I originally thought.

[Agent Canada]

I don't consider myself a gamer or at least I didn't at the time. All my friends were saying I should join them in "whatever game they were currently playing" and I usually deferred the request but this one time I said maybe if there was a Superhero MMO I might jump in. Now I had heard a little bit about CoH but not from someone I would want to game with regularly but a girl I know picked me up a second hand copy of the original game, one that still had the free time in it, and I would've been stupid not to try it out. I got wrongly busted during the trial run but was hooked and purchase a new copy of CoX went the free run ran out. I consider it "my game", I have played other MMOs at this point but I always come home. A big part of it is that I joined up late in the game's life so i never got bored or jaded and when it ended there was still so much I wanted to do.

[Triumphant]

On 2/1/2024 at 4:01 PM, Coyotedancer said:

It's alternately a thing that I enjoy a lot and a thing that sometimes annoys the heck out of me... And I accept that conflicting nature.

This really says it for me, too.  You could possibly apply this to any MMO or even pen and paper RPG that I've ever played.

Apart from that, when I want to imagine myself as a comic book super hero in a video game, this is really the only game besides Freedom Force that has ever properly scratched that itch for me.

[Sanguinesun]

On 2/2/2024 at 6:28 AM, Skyhawke said:

So, with the big influx of new folks, the group of old guard and all points in between we have a wide spectrum of players. Each of us has a reason we’re here. I think it’d be kinda cool to see what all brings and keeps us in the City. Devs and GMS are encouraged to reply as well. 

 

For me, this game is comfort food for the soul. It was my first real foray into MMOs. I played with people I knew and got to know the others in our SG (go Hrafn Warband!) and climbed out of my shell a lot.

 

I’m a huge story buff and this game’s chock full of stories. Before COH, I really only played single player RPGs and would digest lore like there was no tomorrow. Getting to know this game’s world and it’s ever adapting story was and is still a treat.

 

Then there’s the superhero slant. Huuuuuge comic book nerd that I am, this game was like a dream come true. I remember before getting into beta just hanging on the boards, shooting the breeze, swapping character concepts and Hero Machine pics. Sky-Hawke started in Hero Machine and grew from there. Such a great memory.

 

When the game sunset, it sucked. A lot. When I found out about Homecoming, I was so excited I was telling everyone! So now, I’m here for all that I mentioned, the nostalgia, the warm fuzzy feeling of a comfortable blanket and to be a part of this community as the game marches on.

 

In short, this is one of my happy places.

 

Wasnt my first MMO.  MUDs were then UO then CoH.   Biggest draw for me was playing different combos of power sets, making my own character themes, and grouping with others when possible.

 

But over time as live devs sought to extend through various means the time sink that took away from the fun of the game for me, I stopped, then would come back on a off as CoV, then Rogue launched.

 

When it sunsetting I didnt even play but felt it was a shame but at the same time, due to the live service intended time sinks and costs, I accepted its demise.   

 

Later when it was learned of HC and how there'd be a private segment playing (keeping it unknown like a secret club) I was happy to see it back but didnt like others had enjoyed it for years unbeknownst to the rest of us.   When I got on and saw that all the vet rewards were now free and exp boosts and more to essentially undo much of the live service time sinks associated with maintaining a sub,  I was pleasantly surprised.  

 

Its part comfort food, part character creativity, and part ease of access/play that keeps me interested..... as well as helping new players get into playing and stick with it as we've segments of the player base hellbent on elitism to discourage some new players at times.  

 

I hope things will maintain a good direction but there are concerns.

[Clave Dark 5]

This is the only MMO I play, and the only video game I play.  I often get bored of it and yet, still here!  I still enjoy making a new story for the AE, at least once I've finished wrestling with that janky thing, and I'm still susceptible to that happy confluence of events when character concept, name and costume all somehow come together and make the game seem fun all over again.  I always enjoy the sense of camaraderie on a good fun-minded team, but those sadly seem to be fewer and fewer between.

[Zect]

I don't play coh for the story, the comic book theme, the community, the missions, the pvp, etc. While all of these are pretty good in coh, I contend that they are common in the modern gaming landscape. There's lots of good story games out there, for example, if you know where to look (hint: not anything from a major, especially AAA publisher).

 

What really strikes me about coh is the degree of agency it affords players over character builds.

 

Modern games, especially MMO's where people can be ostracized for suboptimal or just non-meta character choices, are very afraid to let players make terrible builds. You can't screw up a build in most games, because the game systems will not allow you to. Stats are assigned automatically, key powers are given by default, and at most the player might have a minor choice between different equipment pieces, talent trees, or stances.

 

On the other hand, coh is unusually willing to let players do things that in most MMO's would be considered self-defeating. Coh will allow you to theoretically make a toon that will run out of end and detoggle itself, for example. It will allow you to skip all your best attacks and strongest powers. There are some very basic guardrails: the game won't let you play a toon with 0 damaging powers. At least one of your level 0 power choices must do damage, even if you are a controller or mastermind. But in general the character creator is happy to let you do what you like, even if it's not optimal, even if it's objectively a bad idea, even if it won't actually work - and equally important, to try again for minimal cost. You can play a 0 def 0 res blapper and try to survive. You can try to solo the ITF with a petless MM or empath fender. Have you tried a high-dps, procbombing invuln tanker using unstoppable to cap res and unrelenting and ageless to mitigate the crash? Pointlessly high-effort, but startlingly effective.

 

The game is still terrified of letting its players fail in general. The pve is laughably easy, and you can't actually fail missions, for example. "Failed" missions are just successfully completed missions with a different narrative ending. And the build design landscape isn't as varied and interesting as it could be: IO set choice still boils down to the big 5 potential build goals (rech, def, res, procs and enhancement values). But it masks these behind the illusion of choice presented by 24 power choices and 67 enhancement slots to assign.

 

So, to me, coh is the game that still dares to offer players real agency in build design, comparable to what you might get in a tabletop game of Pathfinder or D&D. The only other comparable games I have found are Dungeons & Dragons online, and EVE Online where you get to design your own ship.

[Saiyajinzoningen]

It's rare to read such a moving heartfelt thread. 

I agree with all the reasons posted here already

At this point its difficult for me to come up with a unique reason that has not already been stated

but I will try.

When I was a teenager I had an Uncle. He was the only family member who understood my gaming mania. 

He encouraged me to participate in the blockbuster tournament of old (yes that was a thing)

but the only game he played was street fighter 2

no matter what new game came out he only wanted Street fighter 2

not alpha, not marvelvscapcom or darkstalkers just street fighter 2

I asked him one day Uncle Matt, there are so many games out there why do you only want to play street fighter 2?

he told me

This is my game. Everyone has a game. For some its football or baseball for others its chess or dominos

It isn't perfect or new or flashy but I know how to play. sometimes I win sometimes I lose but I'll never give it up.

at the time I thought this was just another life lesson bundled into an answer but.........

I get it now

this is my game.

 

[bAss_ackwards]

👋

 

CoH was a home for me since its beta. Played it for years and eventually got hired onto the Paragon Studios team, which then helped me kickstart my 10+ year career in the games industry. 🥳

 

It means the world to me! I'm glad to be back Home. 🌆

 

Definitely seeing some names that I recognized from way back when. Been mostly lurking, but it is good to see both old and new faces here. 🦸‍♂️

Edited April 15 by bAss_ackwards

[Glacier Peak]

1 hour ago, bAss_ackwards said:

👋

 

CoH was a home for me since its beta. Played it for years and eventually got hired onto the Paragon Studios team, which then helped me kickstart my 10+ year career in the games industry. 🥳

 

It means the world to me! I'm glad to be back Home. 🌆

 

Definitely seeing some names that I recognized from way back when. Been mostly lurking, but it is good to see both old and new faces here. 🦸‍♂️

Welcome to the community again!

[Jack Power]

There's a lot to say about why I love our City, but I think most have already been said. I'd answer a modified question: Why do I still play? Or why did I come back? 

 

I came back for nostaglia since I from 2012 to 2019 kept searching for the same sense of home and not really finding it in any other game. When I got back to CoH it felt so familiar and welcoming. This time I brought my two boys with me. And since last weekend we all talked their mom into joining us! This is a woman that thinks Minecraft is difficult :). 

 

It was very cool to play the four of us at once around the same table. 

 

In the broader view of things I take this as a sign that this game has someting for everyone, and even if you take a break now and then you usually drift back to Paragon City or the Isles or even Praetoria for that matter. 

 

//Jack

[Ukase]

The game is strange. In one moment, the game can be a place of great humor and amusement. In the next, it can be a source of frustration. 

I actually wrote about 8 paragraphs, describing in too much detail different interactions that led to many different feelings. But, nobody needs to read all that junk. 
Right now, this instant, the game is a distraction, and an unwelcome one. I have rowing to do...rowing I was supposed to do 90 minutes ago. But who's going to look forward to a 10k time trial on an indoor rower? A blistering 1:50 pace can get me in the top 10 for my age. Or it could kill me. I'll find out too soon. 
 

 

[Seed22]

It ranges from a convenient entertainment source to a second opportunity. 
 

Basically in between RL shenanigans CoH serves as a kind of entertainment layover to me. Not hanging with friends this weekend or waiting on friends to pop by? Boot up CoH and run some radios or an ITF with the fam. 
 

As far as a second chance? I get to make builds I never made preshutdown(or made without the ease of IO’ing that we have now) and experience being a broken god which is fun! But whats recently got me was the AE system. I was around from i6 till shutdown and never once did I make an AE arc. I’m making arcs now, with 2 out currently in my sig. AE is also a great tool for aspiring screenwriters in that it lets you kind of get the skeleton  of an episode that you can write out later.

[Crystal Dragon]

This is going to be a bit of a read so buckle in.

 

When I first came across city of heroes I was in a pretty deep depression and switching between wow and a couple other games. And I was struggling, I was living with a military boyfriend at the time who was deployed overseas and was an absolute fanatic about this game too. He introduced me to the game guided me through the character creation and everything and I made my first iteration of Crystal Dragon. I played the hell out of her. I loved the way that she looked and the variety of costumes really blew my mind. Eventually I ended up becoming more of a frequent sight at costume contest player held, and GM held. It was because of those costume contests that I actually fell in love with the game.

 

When I separated from that boyfriend, we're still friends by the way, I ended up moving several states away and had to deal with a mental health crisis that basically put me in the hospital shortly. I ended up discovering at that time that I was dealing with Long-Term depression and anxiety but was not given any supports or guidance on how to deal with it at that time. This was about 2 years after the game was shut down. At that point in time I was really struggling and trying to just keep my head above the dark waters. I had a number of friends from wow that kept recommending me to play on private servers and then later on on their servers on the retail servers and I vested I think about 15 years into that game.

 

We all have our stories about World of Warcraft, but my own is riddled with a lot of harassment, stalking and abuse that led me to basically a complete mental breakdown. I ended up with a lot of lifelong friends from that game but eventually I had to leave it behind for my own mental and emotional well-being. I had heard some whispers from random different sources that there was a private server for City of heroes around, but I wasn't sure if it was a real deal so I just kept my feelers out there looking for any kind of details. At the time I was playing City of heroes, I was very private and very much a solo player. I didn't have any guild or group that I was involved with and not very many people knew me. I didn't talk to too many people cuz I was just very singularly focused on venting about the world and everything that was going on around me in a very melee fashion I guess I could say.

 

I wasn't known on the servers that I played but I played on two that were on live. I don't exactly recall old details of the different characters that I had, but I had at least four and only one that had reached level 49 on the day of the shutdown. I did play with my now husband on the live servers with my main character Crystal Dragon here and we both really enjoyed the game. We really wanted to continue playing but when news got around the shutdown was happening, we both grieved the loss.

 

He invited me to play on the server that he played on on world of Warcraft and we just kept playing together, teaming up together, raiding together, we even role played together for quite a few years. This was about I would say roughly 8 years before he and I got together face-to-face.

 

When I learned about homecoming, I about damn well lost my mind in excitement because I so wanted to play and really get back into it again. And it's back. It's back and it's real! I signed up on my birthday in 2019 and I actively play, Short of computer issues of course. Everlasting is my home, away from the world away from the grief, the suffering and the hate. When spazzy and I started talking about creating a helper program for new role players, it was groundbreaking for the both of us, We had never seen anything like this kind of community come together in the way that it had and we wanted to foster a stronger bond within the community to keep it going to keep it alive and keep it healthy. When I told my husband about the idea he looked at me like I was losing my damn mind, "why would you want to teach newbies?" When I explained to him that with the complexity of the UI and some of the hidden emotes and other things about the game that he actually did not know anything about, he was like "You know I think you might be on to something."

 

I got my first taste of teaching on this server on this game and I wouldn't give it up for the world. I enjoy engaging with the new players and learning about them and helping them actually bridge their own issues with the games systems and finding their connections in the games community. I can actually understand how teachers feel when dealing with conflicting students and issues that come up in educating. And I'm very pleased to say that we're still around.

 

Becoming part of Chaos United was actually a highlight that I never expected to last as long as it has. I ended up finding myself a family among them, sbloyd bearzerker, grey-ghost, krow Just to name a few. We look out for one another support each other and I've never had any kind of guild connection like that on wow.
 
This is a completely different animal compared to other MMOs. I will say that. But it's worth learning the system. It's worth figuring things out and finding your own niche. And it sounds absolutely worth every minute of time.

[Scarlet Shocker]

to me, it means more than just a game should.

 

much more.

[Hyperstrike]

Not losing my shit between 2008 and 2024...

[Black Tangent]

I am not a gamer.  

 

I'll say it again - I am NOT a gamer. 

 

...But COH is my game. 

 

I am way too busy with real life most times to spend much recreation time, and can truthfully say that there are two games I ever played with any regularity - COH and Subspace.   Subspace is basically "I have 10 minutes to spare, let's fly a ship and kill things with others", whereas COH is how I can unwind.  Have fun.  Forget whatever might need forgetting for a while.   That said, at sunset, I was bummed, but not devastated.   I moved on and accepted the shutdown, but part of me missed my bots, so I grabbed the client, ripped out the sound effects, and installed the shield sound effect as my text message tone.  🙂

When I got an invite to the Server That Shall Not Be Named, I was beyond excited and happy, and remain grateful to those who started it.  Now I'm here, and it's the same as it ever was, but I am very happy to see the hard work being put into the game here at Homecoming.   I'm on a playing kick now; will it last?  We shall see.   Like I said - life is pretty damned busy.   Outside of that, all I can say is that I'm drawn in by the gameplay, not so much the storylines, costumes, or minutiae like how much a level 35 SO enhancement augments damage versus a level 40 DO enhancement.   The game is gorgeous and plays well, and has enough variety to keep it interesting, and that's enough for me. 

 

- BT

 

 

 

[MrAxe]

It's very important due to the fact its about the only game my wife can play that I also play. She's bloody terrible at just about everything else. Watching her 'play' Left 4 Dead was hilarious.

[Krimson]

It's a pretty clunky chat client without any sort of spell checking but it doesn't take a lot of space and is nice to look at. While it's not easy to make new friends, this chat app lets me stay in contact with the old ones. There's no voice option which is a big plus for me. Way better than Skype unless you want to transfer files. 

[StarseedWarrior]

20 hours ago, Krimson said:

It's a pretty clunky chat client without any sort of spell checking but it doesn't take a lot of space and is nice to look at. While it's not easy to make new friends, this chat app lets me stay in contact with the old ones. There's no voice option which is a big plus for me. Way better than Skype unless you want to transfer files. 

Wait there is an app for this?

[BjorJlen]

   For me, this is simply... my home away from home. Coming from live as well, I may tend to leave from time to time to go walkabout lol, but in the end, CoH has been, and always will be... Home!

   With the weirdest, best, most unique family of crazies that have ever walked this green Earth of ours. 😁 So to underline this, I present you all with this video link that never ceases to bring both a sad and joyest tear to my eye...

 

Home sweet home...