So Long and Thanks for all the Heroes?

[Bob Schroeck]

Well, that's a helluva thing to find on the forums after posting DW8-2...

I think it behooves us to determine which of the remaining superhero games suits the majority of us best, and move en masse to it if at all possible.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Terrenceknight]

I'd only suggest Champions because I have the game installed and have a tiny bit of experience with the game *grin*

[Dragonflight]

Fan loyalties aside, which of the two hero games left is worth looking at more? Champions Online, or DC?
If we set up another group on one of them, like I said before, I'll be there. With Sunspot, and Silhouette, and all my other characters, in one incarnation or another.
I'm sorting through how I feel still, and I keep coming back to a letter a bunch of us got from a long-time gamer at that time. Storm Angyl was an SG leader, and a dear friend to a lot of us on Protector server. She always had time for us, and always made us feel like the massive difficulties of learning the ropes were not so difficult.
Storm Angyl also had a real-world secret: She had cancer. It was borderline-operable, but there was a chance she wouldn't make it. So she wrote a letter, to be released to all of us, if the unthinkable happened.
I've had that letter for several years now, and I think it sums up how I feel about the game the most. So I'm going to post it here.
===============
Hello my
dear friends.

If my
brother is sending u this its because the worst has happened and i have lost a
fight for the first time in my life.

 What a
crappy fight to lose eh? Oh well I guess I cant win em all. Dammit.

 Theres so
many things I still wanted to do in life. So many people iI wanted to meet. I
realize now how silly I was to have put up so many walls in my life. It has
made me lose out on many experiences that I never knew that could have been
good, instead of bad like I thought they would be.

 I do
regret terribly not meeting any of you. I wish I had won the lottery and then
come out to visit each and every one of you, no matter where you are. Hindsight
is always 20/20 they say and i guess they are right.

 Instead
of dwelling on what could have been Id like to say this : I loved every minute
of my time with all of you over the past year. I wouldn’t have traded it for
anything. You all mean so much to me.

 In RL I
have friends sure but not like you guys. Somehow you all were different. I cant
explain it. Anytime I had troubles in RL - and most of u know what they were -
I could always log into CoH and find any one of you and things would get better
fast. Not sure how and not sure why but I gave up trying to figure it out and
just accepted it. I have come to love you guys like any other friends Ive ever
had. Even the few of you that I met in the latter half of my CoH adventures.

 Enough
squishy stuff. Not fitting for a tank

 On a more
serious note, Id like to impart some words upon you all. Im sure you've heard
them before but Im gonna say them anyways.

 Stop.

 Take time
to look around you.

 See the
people in your life and what they mean to you. Call them more. See them more.
Tell your loved ones how you feel about them.

 Yes they
may know you love them but everyone needs to hear it more.

 Do things
in your life that you want to do. Make time to make yourself happy. remeber
that life is what happens while you sit and wait for things to happen.

 Remeber
that only you have the power to make yourself truly happy in life. (and only
you can prevent forest fires but that’s something else Okay okay. Had to have a
little humor there

 I will
leave you now with this final thought. Please take care of yourselves and know
that I have missed you all very much these last few weeks. Im sorry I couldnt
win this one but please believe I tried my very hardest.

 I will
see you all again one day in Heaven but you all had better keep me waiting a
long long time . Besides, it may take me a bit to work my way up there.

 I love
you all very much,

 Heather
(Angel) Hoffman
---
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.

[Sofaspud]

I'm currently patching Champions (I should probably just download the entire thing, because, uh... yeeaaaah), based on two factors:

1) Acyl's description of (and my demo-test run of) the character creation system; and
2) MD's experience with DCUO.  About which the less said, the better.

I played the Champs intro sequence, and... bleeerggh.  I can't say I'm impressed *at all* with the storyline.  If anyone's interested, Shamus Young documented his adventures as Star On Chest, and pretty much everything he says, I experienced and did not like, compared to CoH.  CoH simply has (had...) better storytelling.  Better writing.

But we've long surpassed most of the in-game story content in CoH anyway.  We've been making our *own* stories for a while.  Given that... maybe.  I dunno.

I will recon and let everyone know what I think.  We do have some time, yet.  September, at least.

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs

[OpMegs]

My thoughts on this situation are not particularly eloquent, regardless of what my writing might lead you to believe. Mostly a lot of very inarticulate wordless sounds of annoyance and sorrow.

Also, I've always been cynical about online petitions. Rarely, if ever, have I seen one work.

It says something about how I feel about this that I'm linking to this one:

http://www.change.org/petitions/ncsoft- ... -of-heroes#

Even if it doesn't work. Even if the world ends and Paragon passes into the night....this game changed my life in more ways than I can count. I'm going to miss it.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."

[Acyl]

Dragonflight: It's probably not enough of a response - but thanks for sharing. Seriously. Thank you.

Regarding superhero games, my opinion is, briefly -

CHAMPIONS ONLINE
Pros: Excellent character creation system, equal or better (in a few ways) than City of Heroes. Solid existing RP community, with very active RP global channels. Good chat system. 
Cons: You do need to pay to get the most out of the combat system. There's not a lot of content, and it's generally not that well written. Most quests are pretty cheesy and more bad humour than drama. Some of the newer content is okay, but far from CoH-standard in terms of lore.

DC UNIVERSE ONLINE
Pros: Good combat system, smoother than Champions. Better graphics. Ties in to DC universe. More content, with high production quality, and writing is decent. Again, plot content and stories aren't equal to CoH, but there's stuff like voice acting and the like.
Cons: The character customisation is TERRIBLE. There are very few options, the colour palette system is limited (Choose three colours for your entire costume - period. No more), and the UI is extremely clunky. The chat system is bad. There's not much of an RP community.

My vote is for Champions, but I'm biased.
-- Acyl

[Terrenceknight]

Man we really got spoiled rotten by the Paragon Studio's crew...it'll really take somethin amazing to make me want to play a game any wheres near as much as I did CoH.

[Sweno]

It's too late and I still haven't internalized everything that has happened. So I can't post anything that would do justice to what all of you have said.

So I will say this instead:

I got into CoH because of the community here, and you all proved to me time and again why that will never be a mistake.

So I'll be perfectly happy to try CO or DCU (or whatever else people recommend).

Cause it's the people you play with that can make or break a game. And I am very hesitant to give up on the community we have built over the years.
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy

[Matrix Dragon]

I... what?

I suppose I should say something, talk about everyone I met here, or got to know better here... but right now, I'm in no shape for it.

I'm just gonna wander Paragon City for a while.

[dark seraph]

From Zwill

[Admin] NCsoft_Zwillinger: Love you guys.

[Logan Darklighter]

My god.... My god my god my god my god...
I'm just... forgive me... I'm processing this later than you guys. I'm STUNNED... I'm heartbroken...
I've been with the game, off and on, (mostly on) since October 2004 (which means... Issue 2 in the parlance of the game.)
I'm processing this later because I only noticed this about an hour ago. I had been taking one of my extended "Burn out" breaks from the game. But I always knew it would be there for me to return to...
Except this time I'm wrong. HORRIBLY WRONG.
It's there for now... But it won't be, soon.
My god... So many friends made... All of you...
I wish I could meet all of you in person at least once. I feel like I need it right now. Badly.
The base... oh god... the BASE. So much work put in... going away soon... *sob*
I haven't even STARTED on Night Ward.
So many stories on the Architect that I never did.
I think I did maybe 85% of the content overall. But there was still stuff to do... So much stuff redside I hadn't seen yet. Had yet to complete all four of the major character arcs in Praetoria (though I pretty much know about that).
But... so many people I know through the game. I keep coming back to that. So many.
Forgive me... this is incoherent... Thought burst format.
Games to migrate to -
Champions Online is really the only real alternative for our play style.
I LIKE DCUO a lot. I really do. But it's not set up for us. Not really. It is CERTAINLY NOT set up for Role-playing. Not yet. Maybe they'll improve it someday in that regard. But it's a casual play game.
I already have versions of Cyberman 8 and Kara Skye and Stalnoy Volk over in CO. And some other characters that are unique over there that really couldn't make the transition back to City of Heroes.
My god...
Sorry... I'll have to continue this later. Sudden urge to weep...

[Rod.H]

....bugger, that's all.......

[Baseload]

Well, like a lot of people on the boards, I'm still a bit stunned and saddened by this unfortunate and sudden turn of events. I have come to love the community I have become a part of for the last 5+ years. I'm not one for extensive speeches on my feelings over this as what many have said, I mirror.

I will, though, be spending a bit more time on Rift instead as I have no further intentions of providing NCSoft with any of my money. Maybe I'll see some of you there (?). Otherwise, I'll still be lurking about here on the forums.

[Logan Darklighter]

And City of Heroes was the very first MMO I ever played...

[Star Ranger4]

IF I say in the mmo community at all, (and that is a DAMN big if at the moment) it will be in champions cause its the only other superhero MMO that comes close
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

[Shader]

This has been a month marked by absolute pain, heartache and grief. And this announcement was the real capper you know?

I'm numb... this is the 4th attempt to write this reply.

The thing that really gets me is I was ready to really come back into the game, boots and all... Yes, Life sucked at the moment, Yes, I was hurt, and Yes I was in mourning again, but for the first time in ages all the many characters I had, even the ones that I hadn't shown or rolled were buzzing around my head again. I had stories to tell! It was So Good! I was looking forward to coming home and finally logging in again.

Then I see this announcement.

I've had a day to process it and I'm still numb.

Either this is a poor April Fool's Joke, Labor Day Joke, or Father's Day Gift..... it just can't be right.

CoH has seen me through the worse of times.

What else is out there?

= WoW. NO! Do Not Even Think Of It!

= DC

= Champions

= Rift

= Aion - please... don't get me started. Just re-name it Hacker's Kingdom and kill it already.

= Star Wars: The Old Republic

= Guild Wars

= Guild Wars 2

= Eve

= The Secret World

plus a whole bunch on Steam labeled coming soon.

And

[Logan Darklighter]

Really tired and all at the moment. But MIcro - I wanted to respond to you before I head off for a few hours of rest.
*Hugs*
(Don't know if you're male or female IRL - at this point, doesn't matter.)
We'll get through it together somehow. There are options. And you've made -friends- here already. THIS community isn't going away. Neither, I think are the folks at Cape-Radio. Or Live-Journal. Several COH communities are in shock.
But we'll do something. Even if it's reroll character concepts over at Champions Online or DCUO.
You're not alone.

[Dragonflight]

It's hard to see this as anything else, but to me, this marks the twilight of the MMO game environment.
The future of online MMO's looks like the browser games and social networking games. Easy to make, last for a year or two, and are as easily abandoned. Micro-transactions for every minor benefit, and milked for maximum profit. The proof of that is what happened to Star Wars. A major release, anticipated by the whole gaming market, forced to go free to play in less than a year, and with a total userbase so low, they're talking minimum life support, now.
Guild Wars 2 is just a bigger example of the same monster. It's all about the microtransactions. And as for their "refocus", I'm betting that means they're abandoning most of their worldwide market and concentrating exclusively on the South Korean market. I expect Aion will vanish soon as a result of this, as well.
I find myself wishing someone would cobble together a standalone server. We've got the whole game on our drives. All it would take is something to string all the pieces together. It would be a nice way to remember the game, to have a way to visit occasionally.
But if that doesn't, or can't happen, I'll keep playing until they turn off the lights. Then I'll find a way to keep playing wherever we decide to open up another door. Because like I said before, it's really not about the game client. It's about our friends.
---
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.

[Shader]

Thanks Logan. And to everyone else here, even though I basically just lurked for a bit, it was a great source of comfort.

I won't deride the thread, but when Life, Fate, Murphy, call it what you will, deals you a long series of medical issues, hiccups and other stress agents and then caps it off with the death of several close family members (2 within a fortnight) you start to look for outs and outlets.

CoH was going to be one. I was going to write a few low quality snippets and thump some mobs. I was really looking forward to it.

Is it wrong to want sic the nastier characters of my roster on whoever in NCSoft pulled the pin on Paragon Studios? They only need a few moments... a minute tops if they were being gentle (... and that's the ones on the Blue side... )

I need to go and sleep and process this some more... maybe this is all a bad joke. If/when the gang moves to another system, I'll be there.

Oh there are petitions if you are into that sorta thing: http://boards.cityofheroe...hp?p=4368096#post4368096

Jelidan always whispered in my ear that they would be there at the end of days... in one shape or another. They may not be the fastest or the strongest, but They would be there, holding the line. Funny how its worked out.

We'll wake up Dec 1 and there will be CoH 2 game from Paragon Studios under a new name.... please Santa.... I won't kill anyone.... except maybe Nemesis, but then there's dozens of him.

[Niteflier]

Decide to take the day off the internet, and look what happens.

Just read through the thread here, and while I can't really say what I'm feeling, know that I am in agreement with all of you here. I've been playing the game off and on since little after "Through the Looking Glass" (I was actually on a TF when they patched I2!) so this is... a blow. I've played other MMOs since, but this was the first. First one I found after I got out of the house and on my 'own'. Was sucked in because a friend of a friend showed me the character creator... and I was lost to it then.

I don't think any game since has had as good a Creator as CoH. Its doubtful that anyone will, going on.

As for choosing a new way to get together, if (WHEN!) it is decided, you'll likely see me pop in every once in a while, like I do now.

[Foxboy]

Je suis desole. And Nogi is livid.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[Shader]

I really should be in bed... but check this thread out on the forum... someone else is trying to keep the game alive: http://boards.cityofheroe...hp?p=4366458#post4366458

Well have to see how they go.

[Dragonflight]

Some have discussed Champions Online. I threw it on the PC and had a quick look at some of the details.
It's not bad.
it's not CoH, mind you. Nothing is. But it has potential to serve as a stand-in. The plotlines seem kind of lame, but as someone pointed out elsewhere, we really haven't been grinding plotlines in ages, anyway. We do our own things.
I *do* like the personal bases. At least, I *think* it's a personal base, if I'm reading it right. I've wanted that for CoH for ages. I'm assuming it handles Supergroups in one form or another. The lack of 48 characters per server will probably hurt, but then again, I only barely used half of the slots possible on Virtue server, and it's my most heavily populated one. I can probably pare down my *actual* gamed characters to maybe 10, or less. And the FAQ said something about another character slot opening once your current one hits 40. Even if they only do that a few times, that's going to really increase what I could work with.
Characters I'd probably develop: Silhouette, Sunspot, and Foxfire are all mandatory. The rest I'd figure out.
So yes, I'm considering life after CoH. It'll hurt, but I'll get along. And when we decide to move over to the other game, I'll be there.
---
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.

[Ransan]

Part of the issue I have now is that this announcement has shaken my faith in things.

All that time and effort, all the grinding done, the hours in Mid's maximizing a build, the billions and billions of influence spent...it all will amount to NOTHING after three months.

Once bitten, twice shy.

I don't know if I have it in me to invest that much effort again into making a new Nam or Patriot on Champions or elsewhere.

[Wiregeek]

And of course they locked the servers in 'non permissive' mode.

Can't reactivate my old account. Can't go VIP in the new account.

Momma Val's asking how sofaspud is taking it, and I have to answer "I don't know"

I feel sick.
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies