How did you first start playing CoH? What do you love the most?

[Mr_Enigma]

Back in early '04 I had just bought my first gaming computer (first-gen Athlon 64 and an ATI Radeon 9800! Swanky!).  I didn't know much about PC games, but had been reading some gaming mags for a few months to get familiar with stuff.  I bought the computer primarily for Half-Life 2 and Doom 3, but was very pleasantly surprised by a lesser-known FPS that came out at the same time:  Far Cry.  I had never really played online games so I took a chance and bought two MMOs:  EverQuest 2 and City of Heroes.  I played EQ2 for maybe a week before I dropped it for City of Heroes. 

 

I had no idea what I was doing and didn't know any online gaming etiquette, so I just kind of blundered my way through it.  I distinctly remember playing my first character, an invuln/war mace tank and not knowing that I was expected to hold the aggro for the team.  The team kept wiping while I survived and I kept expressing my disbelief that I was still standing.  Fortunately someone on that team sent me a discreet tell that clued me in a little.  I set that character aside until respecs were introduced, where I added taunt to my build.  I'm grateful to that anonymous teammate who pointed me in the right direction rather than yell at me or kick me, lol.

 

And that attitude was commonplace in early CoH, the idea that we were all working together, that helping others was just what one does in Paragon City.  It helped me overcome my initial anxiety and introversion and I was hooked.  And I am so grateful that the same approach has survived more than 21 years later!

 

Huzzah to the best online gaming community!

[Chance Jackson]

Store i worked at the time like 02-04 sold the game & a bunch of coworkers were playing it but by the time i finally got to it they fell off it 😅 but 1 of them gave me their inf as a parting gift IIRC.

 

 

I love creating characters the most.

Edited September 25 by Chance Jackson

[Austen.E]

It's very much in the fuzzy past, but I am pretty sure I got CoH as a Christmas gift end of 2004, and absolutely loved it. Played exclusively on Virtue, and first cape was Titanium Tiger (Katana/Regen Scrapper). Played a ton of alts, and never got any of them above level 30. Absolutely LOVED CoV when it came out, and my main became Savage Instinct (Dark/Regen Brute, reborn as a Savage/Regen Brute in Homecoming). Ended my subscription when I went to college in 2006, though picked it up again over summer holidays a few times and always had a blast. Was keen to dive back in again after I moved to Australia end of 2012, and was gutted to find out the game had just been sunset (seriously, I could not have had worse timing).

I actually found out about Homecoming from a comment on a Youtube video, of all places - was listening to the CoH main theme and saw someone posting that the game was playable again! It was surprisingly but wildly emotional to boot up the game again and walking into Atlas Park for the first time in over a decade - my current main is Motive Power (Energy/Energy Blaspper), and I play on Everlasting with too many alts.

 

Ironically for a player who solos 99% of the time, I think the thing I love most about the game is the community. There is a special sauce vibe to the way that players in the game interact that I find just delightful. I still remember the high level cape that dumped a bunch of inspiration on an alt of mine just because they liked my backstory and costume. Every time I have teamed it's been a blast, and the fact that the game even still exists at all still warms my heart in a way I find hard to put into words.

City of Heroes is a special game... it has that je ne sais quoi, and it keeps me coming back 21 years later.

 

 

 

[Ukase]

I started first playing this just a bit after Issue 3. It was a nice time sink that helped me recover from a habit of playing video poker 14 hours a day. I was in the casinos, and using the AOL dial up disk on my computer that I'd bought with winnings from a jackpot. I never got AoL, but the disk would give you a connection to enter your credit card info. (I didn't discover credit cards until grad school, much later) While that screen was up, I would launch the game and play for hours - anything to try and avoid giving the winnings back to the casinos. 

I could go on and say more, but nobody cares about all those words. 

[kanga]

Oh, I started with a 14 day trial. remember those😄 . Every evening when I'd ask a friend of mine online what he was playing, it was always 'City of Heroes' Now, I had always played first person shooters and strategy games, never looked at an mmo, eventually I got curious, friend sent me a free trial. This was around issue 5, issue 6

I've never been one for the super hero genre, but he found it interesting. I sucked at naming and costuming, and I still do, but when playing I was just tickled at the interactions between all the other powers people had and watching crazy stuff go down in front of me. one of the first characters I created, Radical Raptor, inv/axe melee tanker, finding it hilarious that i was surrounded by enemies to the point I could only see the top of my head, then hitting whirling axe and watching every mob around me flip over like fish in a pan. I laughed, and I was hooked. Humor will go a long way with me 🙂

Edited September 28 by kanga

[High_Beam]

1.  I had just transferred back to the states from Naples, Italy in April of 2004.  After getting settled into work I was looking for a distraction and saw some ad somewhere about the game, maybe at CompUSA.  I had played the pen and paper RPGs of Champions, Marvel Super Heroes and Villains and Vigilantes for years before joining the Navy and my brother and I created these super crappy comic books to go with the adventures (this was like 1985-87 time frame) so a super hero game was so for me.

 

2. I love the fun I still have in playing.  I tried other games when CoH shut down, Champions Online to start (meh), Eve Online, Star Trek Online, the wretched D&D Online, none got it done for me.  So I literally devolved into playing toilet time games on my iPaq (yes Compaq had the lower case i thing first) like Yahtzee and Battleship and later iPad tappy tap games (no phones thought, Machete don't play on phones).  Anyway it was steam revisits of the Sims and Mechwarrior until I found out about Homecoming.  It is like grilled cheese and tomato soup on a crappy day, its comforting and it makes me feel good.  I am stunned how well its held up, but also not surprised.  It was a lightning in a bottle thing and I was just glad I was there to enjoy it then and now.