Why are you playing this game?

[Neiska]

A few reasons -

 

1. Ultimate freedom of character creation, from looks to powers to costume etc. To date no other game I know of comes this close to pretty much every aspect of your character.

2. I love pet classes in games, and CoH has some of the best pet mechanics I have seen. They are more than just a summon/pet, and there are even many ways to build them. So this game doesn't just have pet builds, but has different ways to build them which most other games don't compare to.

3. Most of the people ingame are pretty chill and enjoyable to be around.

4. Strong solo presence. You can play the whole game entirely solo and still eventually end up with the best things. Unlike other mmos where you might raid for years and still not get what you want.

5. The game "doesn't begin" at level cap like some MMOs seem to these days.

[EnigmaBlack]

I first played during the initial closed beta all those moons ago, came to Homecoming then left for a few years. I always loved this game, but I won't lie, I'm anxious and nervous coming back. I know so much has changed (new powersets! Yah!), and I don't expect anyone I used to play with on Victory to be around. It is a bit overwhelming after all this time but I can't wait to get my bearings back! And it looks like just about all (if not all) of my toons are still there!

[biostem]

On 7/8/2025 at 5:13 PM, Seed22 said:

Lean into CoH’s movement more. We have a lot of travel powers here that do a number of cool things, but outside of skips in mishes and zone travel, they dont get much use in combat

Champions, and even CoH here, tried implementing events or encounters where you *need* flight, and in order to get around and/or to accommodate people who didn't take it, they had to give out temporary versions of the power;  This basically eliminates the opportunity cost one must pay to take the power in the first place, and just, IMO, strips some agency away from the player;  Oh you didn't take a travel power with 3D movement?  Here, let me force one upon you, instead of creating the encounter to account for varied movement powers in the first place...

 

As to the OP's question, I play CoH because it allows me to realize my characters, and outside of a few glaring examples, allows me to play them how I see fit, (even if that means making "mistakes" in their build and resulting performance).  I'm not stuck with someone else's overly flamboyant or overly buttoned-up avatar, and my character's appearance isn't reliant upon them having obtained some piece of uber gear...

Edited July 11 by biostem

[1mirg]

because it's better then most mmos out on the market despite it's age plus the fact that homecoming got the official license to the product shows a promising future on the growth of the game as they can officially and legally make new content and changes when and how they please.

[Fire Chief]

Comic books loved em still do but anywho, some of my co-workers back in the day knew that and couldn't wait to tell me about this superhero game NCsoft was coming out with and they were gonna check out the beta and agreed I should too. But they were gonna just use CoH as a to do thing till WoW came out and when it did, they left CoH but guess who stayed for the live launch (pre-order code) and brought my beloved characters live and now Home. I love this game HC you're the best!

[FrauleinMental]

"I have always been here." -Kosh

[Psyonico]

3 hours ago, EnigmaBlack said:

I first played during the initial closed beta all those moons ago, came to Homecoming then left for a few years. I always loved this game, but I won't lie, I'm anxious and nervous coming back. I know so much has changed (new powersets! Yah!), and I don't expect anyone I used to play with on Victory to be around. It is a bit overwhelming after all this time but I can't wait to get my bearings back! And it looks like just about all (if not all) of my toons are still there!

Welcome back!

 

You'll likely find everything overwhelming, but the community is very helpful.

[Techwright]

 

I'm just here for the potential Snarky sightings.

 

 

 

Well, okay, there are other things, too. 

• The nostalgia, certainly, but after 6 years of newer experiences, I've moved beyond that.
• There's a better illusion to rooted attacks in this game.  It makes me feel like the team's attacks are more fluid than they actually are.  That rooted experience always annoyed me in other MMOs, especially WoW.  (Firefall was a lot more fluid, but it didn't make it and has never returned.)
• PUG experience is...usually...a lot better in this MMO than others of my experience. 
• While we do have changes to powers and power sets at times, they're generally not the sweeping changes I ran into in other MMOs.  I lost track of how many "from the ground up" changes were done to archetypes I was playing in other games, not just tweaking the powers, but wiping them out and replacing them, forcing me to completely relearn the character or worse, end it because it was so different it was not the same character I'd enjoyed playing.
• There's a lot more flexibility in how the character can be crafted.  In other MMOs (yes, WoW was one) I was informed that there was only one way (possibly two) that a character could be trained and enhanced, or it was considered a gimped character.  

 

[Snarky]

1 hour ago, Techwright said:

 

I'm just here for the potential Snarky sightings.

 

 

 

Well, okay, there are other things, too. 

• The nostalgia, certainly, but after 6 years of newer experiences, I've moved beyond that.
• There's a better illusion to rooted attacks in this game.  It makes me feel like the team's attacks are more fluid than they actually are.  That rooted experience always annoyed me in other MMOs, especially WoW.  (Firefall was a lot more fluid, but it didn't make it and has never returned.)
• PUG experience is...usually...a lot better in this MMO than others of my experience. 
• While we do have changes to powers and power sets at times, they're generally not the sweeping changes I ran into in other MMOs.  I lost track of how many "from the ground up" changes were done to archetypes I was playing in other games, not just tweaking the powers, but wiping them out and replacing them, forcing me to completely relearn the character or worse, end it because it was so different it was not the same character I'd enjoyed playing.
• There's a lot more flexibility in how the character can be crafted.  In other MMOs (yes, WoW was one) I was informed that there was only one way (possibly two) that a character could be trained and enhanced, or it was considered a gimped character.  

 

and every donation to @Snarky receives a personal Thank You.  Handcrafted.  Donate today, and change the world!

[DoctorDitko]

 

I spent much of my college years playing TTRPGs: Champions, Call of Cthulhu, Fantasy Trip, RuneQuest, Traveler.

Do I miss Champions' ala carte power picks? Where you could gimp your character if you wanted to. Some of my favorite characters were deliberately powerful in one area and gimped in others. Captain Federal was almost entirely indestructible, but he couldn't dish out damage to save his soul. (Kind of a proto-Tick character, if I'm honest.)

 

CoH is the only game that has let me re-create those favorite characters, to one degree or another.

[Bionic_Flea]

Why am I playing this game?

1. I've loved super-heroes since the 60s.  I grew up on live action Superman and Batman on TV, Spider-man cartoons, and comic books.
2. It's the first and only MMO I've ever played and I made friends all over the world!  I've even met a few of them in person.
3. I can come up with a concept for a character and run with it.  Sometimes my inspiration is just a word or phrase -- what would a Bionic Flea look like and what powers would he have?  Sometimes I want to try a new powerset, so I made Psionic Flea to try the new Psionic Armor. 
4. Game play is super easy.  Make a character and press a button to punch or shoot things.  You can just do that and your character will grow and progress.  But then you get into slotting and grow into min-maxing and Mids.  You can just buy stuff from the influence that you get from playing or play the market and become a billionaire.  You can build a functional base for free just to store your stuff and use as a transport hub or you can create something amazing --  a castle, a spaceship, a speakeasy, a small town, or anything else you can dream of . . . if you have the patience.
5. You can play 90+% of the game solo and just have the chat as background or team up to do that content faster and complete the remaining few things that require a team.
6. Habit.  After playing this game for almost 20 years I just keep coming back to it even if I take a few days or a few months off.  It feels like home.

[Snarky]

1 hour ago, DoctorDitko said:

 

I spent much of my college years playing TTRPGs: Champions, Call of Cthulhu, Fantasy Trip, RuneQuest, Traveler.

Do I miss Champions' ala carte power picks? Where you could gimp your character if you wanted to. Some of my favorite characters were deliberately powerful in one area and gimped in others. Captain Federal was almost entirely indestructible, but he couldn't dish out damage to save his soul. (Kind of a proto-Tick character, if I'm honest.)

 

CoH is the only game that has let me re-create those favorite characters, to one degree or another.

[Cobalt Arachne]

It's funny to think about how different my life would have been had I not played City of Heroes.
I grew up in a religious environment in the 90's that caused many in the community to regard video games as 'bad juju'. (Especially online games exposing you to strangers.)
Fortunately, my dad was a gamer, and introduced me to MMO's when I was very young, and I had no problem finding friends in MMO's since it'd be pretty silly to judge somebody for playing a video game inside a video game.

 

Specific to City of Heroes, I fell in love with its ability to bring your creative visions to life.
Between the character creator, Architect Entertainment, and the SG base editor, if a player has an idea they want to write out the fantasy for, they have so many tools available to build their creations. Back during the retail days, I spent so many of hours just playing by myself in AE making new story arcs for my characters to run after exhausting the game's regular content.
In hindsight, ending up involved in development feels like a no-brainer based on how I played the game.

As an adult, my priority is making sure the game thrives as much as possible so it can be around the same way for others as it was for me as a teenager.
Ensuring the game is tons of fun, accessible to all, and a powerful creative tool to bring ideas to life.

[arcane]

I’ve met some deeply important people to me on Homecoming. To that one guy who wishes Homecoming never existed, kindly go f thineself 🙂

[High_Beam]

Growing up it was cartoons and comics then it was Dungeons and Dragons.  A creative spark was lit.  I could create characters, even worlds.  I tired all of the RPGs back then, including Marvel Superheores, Villains and Vigilantes and yes, Champions.  The campaigns that we had and then the shitty, poorly drawn comic we drew afterward were fun.

 

Then I suddenly become an adult, join the Navy and that had to be left behind to a degree, at least initially.  But computer games arrived and SSI put out the gold box D&D adventures.  Now I didn't have to try and scrape together friends I could play.  First online MMO was in fact Neverwinter Nights on AOL.  Then really serious adulthood occurred as well as locations precluding access.  Then I return to the states and its right when CoH arrives, so I pick up up along with EVE online.  And I fell in love.

 

Everything was amazing then and most are still amazing now.  The fact that you can actually record movies of your heroes doing stuff, in game without a third party program is crazy; they built that in game.  I still have a video of the Babes of War from back in like 2008 after doing a Shard TF.  The costume creator, all of those things are amazing.

 

But really, for me it boils down to pure escapism, the military demanded absolute focus when on so when off you absolutely need to do the opposite.  Even after my military retirement I still work full time in support of our country and that required the same focus.  So when We lost CoH I was hard pressed to find my decompression space.  When it came back, life was good.  My spouse used to complain about the time I spent on the game when it was live, now she has straight up said I am a lot more mellow since it came back.

 

Edited Saturday at 03:39 PM by High_Beam
Checked metadata on video and it was 2008 not 6

[lacush]

just playing out of habit, I guess.

[skoryy]

I'm having fun throwing hands (and sparkles) and being a goshdarn hero.

[Snarky]

Corruptors twist the forces of the universe to do their bidding. As a corruptor, you curse your foes with pure darkness. As your foes are weakened, your scourge ability kicks in, increasing your damage to an enemy as their hit points drop. 

 

and they had me at "twist the forces of the universe..."

[starro]

I do not log the hours I used to but I still check in for updates.  I simply love this game and eternally grateful for the friends in real life I have made all over the world.   For those that moved on I wish them fondly wherever they may be.

 

I believe there is still gas in this game's tank to innovate, engage players of all ages with positive family friendlier content and be a source of inspiration and creativity.  I have always liked the Mission creator, the super group base system improvements introduced by Homecoming or even simply fan art.

 

Regardless of disagreements of the day this community still comes together.   I like to think this is one place that can do more to bring people together and not divide us. 

[tom76]

On 12.07.2025 at 15:36, Bionic_Flea said:

Why am I playing this game?

1. I've loved super-heroes since the 60s.  I grew up on live action Superman and Batman on TV, Spider-man cartoons, and comic books.
2. It's the first and only MMO I've ever played and I made friends all over the world!  I've even met a few of them in person.
3. I can come up with a concept for a character and run with it.  Sometimes my inspiration is just a word or phrase -- what would a Bionic Flea look like and what powers would he have?  Sometimes I want to try a new powerset, so I made Psionic Flea to try the new Psionic Armor. 
4. Game play is super easy.  Make a character and press a button to punch or shoot things.  You can just do that and your character will grow and progress.  But then you get into slotting and grow into min-maxing and Mids.  You can just buy stuff from the influence that you get from playing or play the market and become a billionaire.  You can build a functional base for free just to store your stuff and use as a transport hub or you can create something amazing --  a castle, a spaceship, a speakeasy, a small town, or anything else you can dream of . . . if you have the patience.
5. You can play 90+% of the game solo and just have the chat as background or team up to do that content faster and complete the remaining few things that require a team.
6. Habit.  After playing this game for almost 20 years I just keep coming back to it even if I take a few days or a few months off.  It feels like home.

Thank you for sharing your experience - it motivates me to try something new and interesting too!

[Zombra]

Still the best character creator of all time.  Not just the looks, but what they can actually do!  Top it off with a description section to share my writing of their backstories and you have a system second to none.

 

I've made lots of characters in other RPGs with worse gameplay ... then asked myself, "What if I remade them in COH?" and had far more fun with them.  Even games in different genres - fantasy characters, sci-fi characters - they can all have a home here (with liberal use of Portal Corporation in their backstories).

 

Combine my characters my way with actually good MMO combat.  So much action, so much movement.  Knockback.  Line of sight.  Cone positioning.  Even party formation.  Is my character so powerful that combat is getting boring?  Crank up the difficulty and now I have to learn how to use their powers all over again, smarter, better.  Every other MMO I've played, you stand there and click powers, and watch HP bars go down; there's no reason to move.  Here it's ALL about movement.

 

So many factions with mixed enemy types and things to learn.  Knock down the Engineer first so he doesn't summon a force field.  Ignore the giant mechs - kill the Sappers before they drain your endurance.  And lock down those goddamn Nerva Spectral Demon Lords before ANYTHING else.  Of course eventually you learn everything, but still, one mission to the next things are going to be different.  Keeps me awake and focused.

 

Great teaming, with friends or randoms.  Of course my friends also love making intricate characters to their exact concept and specifications, so it's fun to see their dreams realized.  Even random strangers in Atlas Park can be fascinating to examine.  I've never been in another MMO where I wanted to stop and stare at someone, read their bio, take photos of their costume, and see how they married the whole idea to their power sets.  Start talking in character and a decent amount of the time others will join in!  Total strangers!  Wanting to role-play in an RPG!  Amazing stuff.

 

 

Edited yesterday at 09:53 PM by Zombra

[Luminara]

[Major_Decoy]

Oh, I'm not playing the game, I just play the forum these days.

[Xalon]

The first time I played CoH, it was a few weeks after I started playing Champions Online. So immediately, the graphics bothered me. But as we all know, once you play a bit, you adjust to the style and its not really that bad at all. The first 10-20 levels, I started getting sick of door missions and big open areas I didn't feel were that great. But as I played, more and more, everything is quite robust and I saw how each zone had sooooo much to offer, on top of the different door mission and maps and Tfs and more! I think a lot of new players think that the game is just door instances and open maps with just random mobs. And they leave before things really get good. Imo, that is when you are level 16-22+, when you have a decent set of powers, can run a trial or two or even a taskforce, and have more than just the first couple of zones. I was playing other games so I stopped after a couple of months on and off and that was a year or so before it shut down. 

 

Then I came back a few weeks ago, started over with a few characters I spent more time building and by taking my time, I saw how everything was different. I am different. And its such an amazing game that just gets bigger and deeper the further you go. I love that. It really is like the superhero WoW because its massive!! Tons of repeatable missions, 100+ story arcs, dozens of taskforces, strike forces, trials and more. I do want to get base attacks/defenses going again, and wish more would try the PVP zones and the Arena matches. I like how many are not teenagers and are people who have played other mmos and love CoH for everything it does and doesn't have. Imagination is key. A sense of fun is a must. I'm really glad I came back to CoH and now I'll never leave. 

 

So the reason I'm here is all the devs and all the amazing players who support the devs - because without Homecoming. there would be no true CoH anymore. And I'm super thankful to be able to play! 

 

Xalon - Arachnos Crab Soldier

XalonMG - Kheldian Peacebringer

Xalonus - Praetorian Tanker (loyalist)

 

And with these three characters, I get to experience everything blue, red and gold has to offer, all for the very first time! *well, now that my characters are past a certain level

 

FUN. That is the main reason I play. I haven't been able to play anything else since I've been back lol. And I'm loving it!  Shout out to all my Excelsior friends! See you in the city! S!

[Forager]

On 7/10/2025 at 11:00 PM, UltraAlt said:

 

How hard it it to understand that the people playing City of Heroes are playing it because they enjoy playing it?

 

What I must ask is "why bother asking why people are playing this game" if you think there is no reason for people to be playing it?

... and ... "why bother posting here at all?"

 

Are you alright?