_Wyll_

Well, I am not one of the First 100.... But I was part of the second wave. Been here ever since. Still have me first toon, a Ss/Inv tanker.

With Flame's love of first person shooters growing by the month, I think it is safe to say we will be in Planetside 2. Tyrol or Wyll will be my handle. I imagine Flamester will have something recognizable.

Sister Flame read all your responses and thanks you all very much. She always walks a little higher after reading the forums posts.

She wanted me to leave you all with a few more random thoughs.

- Her favorite superhero is the scarlet speedster, but prefers watching/reading about the other brand of comics.
- She is a big Doctor Who fan and hopes everyone is watching the new season.
- Takes Care Of Pets is still her all time favorite names for toons.
- She hopes all the CoX "makers" can still have jobs to make money.
- She is really going to miss the ski hills.

Regards

Wyll

Greetings folks:

Sister Flame just got the news about City Of Heroes and we decided we should toss out one more message before the lights go out.

First off, thank you to everyone for giving my daughters (Jemgirl, Sister Flame and Princess Rose) a wonderful, safe place to play and grow up. This sandbox we call CoX allowed by girls to play make believe with others and taught them it is great to love superheroes.

Second, thank you to the devs for making Sister Flame feel special, especially War Witch. She still talks about the time she got to visit with War Witch (the real one) and all the little things the devs have done over the years to make Sister Flame smile.

Also, a special thanks to the Klickity Klak Posse.

As I look back over the last seven years, it is hard for me to just call CoX another game. It helped to teach Sister Flame to read, make strategic choices and gave her a bit of comfort when she needed it. To sum it up, CoX was not just a game, but an experience.

It's hard not for me to smile as I look over at the 11 year old as she blasts people on a first person shooter. I can still remember the little 4 and a half old girl climbing into my lap to steer my toons around. I can still hear her yelling to get those "Klickity Klaks".

In closing, no need to worry about Sister Flame. She is a little sad, but she understands that all good things come to an end. She has her momentos in her treasure box (signed comic books, custom action figure) and she has the luxury of telling people that "I am kind of popular in City Of Heroes".

From my family to yours, many thanks I offer. If you see a Sister Flame or some variant of it on the net, don't be afraid to ask if it is the one from CoX. She gets around...

My best to all

Wyll

P.S. if you want to drop a line to sister flame, feel free to drop me a line at gutshotclown@gmail.com. I will make sure she gets it.

Time for another update, folks.

Sister Flame is still playing, but not as much as she use to. She's got a taste for FPS and she has been trying to master them as of late. One of her better characteristics is that she loves a challenge and will keep trying to master it, no longer how it takes.

Still, Sister Flame is enjoying for life as a 50+ incarnate. Being the nice father I am, I helped her buff up and we rolled through some of the new content of i23 together. As Arcanaville pointed out, Sister Flame loves the challenge of the higher mobs in Dark Astoria. Of course, with her Dad's SS/INV tanker in tow, most of the challenges are manageable.

Sister Flame still has a bit of an ego and it is nice to see her face lighten up when she gets a tell in game. It is cute to hear her slowly read them outloud and then respond with a simple 'yes' or 'no'. I reallty want to get her a shirt that reads "I'm Kind Of A Big Deal", but she wouldn't wear it.

Flame and I talked about me writing a story about Sister Flame and Brother Frost. We kicked around a few ideas that would be fun, but the big one she keeps coming back to is a re-telling of her AE mission with a twist. Maybe if I get some free time, I will work on it.

One thing that is hard to keep in persepctive is that CoX has been around for 8 years and Sister Flame has been playing it 'seriously' for 6 of them (I don't count when she started at 4 because all she did was swim, but I deigress). Eleven years old she is now and it is kind of cool to think she has "grown up with" CoX. It has helped her wit her reading difficulty, taught her teamwork and strategies and been a wonderful, safe sandbox for her to play in.

Now, as much as Sister Flame has slowed down her CoX playing, her little sister Princess Rose (her handle, not mine) has taken her love for CoX up quite a few notches. She's eight going on eighteen and it is stunning to watch her play CoX. Wher Sister Flame types slowly and read slowly, Rose fires off a reply like a machine gun and has a knack for rounding up teams of eight players to find trouble. She is in a few supergroups and I swear none of them know how old she realy it. It is amazing to watch her run missions. She knows how her toons work and she let's people know what to do and whrere to go. Flame and Rose make a good duo: Flame knows the game much better than Rose and Rose let's the team know what Flame wants to do quickly with her quick little fingers.

One humourous thing that I love about Rose is how she names her toons. Instead of coming up with really clever names, she will sometimees slap down a name that describes their look. Some of the ones I have seen that she has used are "Barbed Wire Lady", "Hero With A Cowboy Hat", "Bubble Lady" and my current favorite "Not A Hero"... a close second to "Criminal Girl". These names do not last long; she is addicted to rerolling.

Anyways, I hope people enjoy this little update. I am blessed with three geek daughters. They all love comics. They all love Doctor Who. Most of them love boardgames.

If you see Sister Flame in game or Holiday, give a quick shout out.

Regards

Wyll

P.S. For those that are wondering, Wonder Woman is all my daughters favorite superhero with Captain America running a close second.

Thank you all for you kind replies. Normally, I like to keep the updates to nice a month, but lots has happened in the last week to warrant an update.

Flame is still getting the hang of Trials. She has run Slams and Bafs (she gets nervous about where to go), but leaves it up to Dad to run them at night while she is in bed to slot her Alpha. She was pretty disappointed to find out that you cannot go past 50. When she is on, you can either find her in Pocket D or Recluse Victory. She has been going Redside lately with her villain, Takes Care Of Pets, trying to get her to 50 so she has a mastermind to PVP with.

One thing I never expected from either of my children was their love of PVP. Flame and her sister (Holaiday) get some strange thrill out of taking down other players in RV. It doesn't matter if they die ten times in a row: as long as they defeat one hero, they are cheering. They both know e location of most of the heavies in RV, have a strategy for taking out pillboxes and know what areas villains tend to frequent. I watched the other night as Flame took a pillbox and waited for a villain to come. She knows that curiosity killed the cat and I almost felt sorry when she opened up on the villain with her heavy, the pillbox and her powers with her sister coming out of hiding to lend a hand.

Are they min/maxers? Nope. Do they run from a losing fight? Nope. Do they gloat on broadcast?... Well Holaiday does, but only because she is ten times the typer that Flame is.

Not sure what is next for Sister Flame. She has worked hard to hit level 50 and now that she has hit it, she is not quite sure what to do next. She likes song the odd task force. I watched her do Sara Moore last Saturday morning and her sister did Moonfire. They were pretty proud when I told them that not even I have done those.

Thanks for reading.

Regards

Wyll

It would have ended with Colonel Mustard in the drawing room with the candlestick.

I kid, I kid.

I thought about it and I would have spun the arc in such a way that the players would have to stop Statesman (maybe even permanently). Have Wade take over Statesman's mind and slowly twist him into doing nasty things. Very covertly at first and then make it obvious by the last act.

Another idea would have been to have Statesman "see the future" and realize that your toon may turn out to be something 100 timed worse than Recluse. Wade could have stirred the pot a bit and put you into a confrontation with Statesman... a final confrontation.

Just a few thoughts.

SISTER FLAME
Lvl 50 Blaster, Fire/Fire (dinged January 2012)

Send congrats e-mails ingame to @Sister Flame . She is over the moon.

Thanks for teaming up with her Melacton. She just couldn't wait until tomorrow to do it and was glad someone came on short notice to see her. You really made her night.

Also. thanks to all for the congrats. Sister Flame reads each one of them and loves to see what people write.

Greetings:

Sister Flame cannot wait to level up to 50, so she asked me to tell her friends that if they want to share in the moment, please come to Atlas Park on Freedom at 8 p.m. EST (GMT -5:00) to share in the moment.

To be 11 again...

Also, she has ventured into Recluse's Victory and found it kind of fun, especially when she is putting down villains. I may have a PVPer on my hands.

Kindest Regards

Wyll

Well, CoX has brought a lot of Christmas joy to one little girl today!

SuperOz, a wonderful person from downunder, has been working hard on a custom figure for Sister Flame. Instead of delivering any old time, Mr. Oz made sure it would arrive this week and I went to pick it this package.

When I brought it home, Sister Flame found a lovely wrapped package (presents are big with ten year olds), a nice Christmas card and a wonderful letter that Sister Flame had a hoot reading! To know that someone 2000 miles away sent her something and that they were having Christmas without snow just blew her away.

However, what really made her day was the figure inside. She was so excited and proud to have it! It is sitting on her bookcase with her other treasures and she refused to take it out so I can get a better shot of it (Best I can do is a grainy iPod shot for now). She is all ready making plans to bring it to school for a Show and Tell in the new year.

So SuperOz, what can I say? You've made Sister Flame's day and she gives you a hearty thumbs up!

Hi all:

Sister Flame wanted me to post that she likes the comments and thanks you all for following her antics. She also wanted me to report that she is proudly level 42 thanks to some great teams over the past week. I have not mention that she is now able to enter Recluse Victory yet; she's been distracted with doing the Manticore TF.

Princess Rose also wanted tell me that her Storm Defender is now 22 and she did it all be herself. She's getting better at playing a support toon (once I showed her where the heal button was and what it did), but she has developed a dislike to Founder's Falls (her teams have been taking her there lately). Mostly, the sniper attacks really whiz her off.

As for me, I took advantage of the .99 offer and bought a third account. So, now I can play as well. Unfortunately, instead of my two daughters playing on it, I have been relegated to using it. Without access to 7 years of Vet Rewards, it makes me feel like I am sitting at the kid's table... so to speak.

I did mention to Mrs. Wyll about having a few more kids so I could make a full team of 8 for trials and TFs. I was given "the look" and no more need to be said.

It is nice to hear everyone's elses stories about sharing CoX with their kids. I think it is one of the more unique aspects that keeps me drawn to the game: I can honestly say it is a true family experience.

Cheers

Wyll

Greetings folks.

I know it has been a while since my last update, but Sister Flame was playing competing soccer all summer and that was her pure focus. I spent more time outside on the pitch this summer than I did in front of a laptop, let me tell you....

The good news is that Sister Flame and her seven year old sister have been back at CoX totally hardcore most weekends for the last few weeks. As a true father of daughters, but role has been relegated to "minivan driver": I get to take the girls to the mall, drop them off and wait for them, but under no circumstances am I allow to let any of their friends know we are related. This translates to me watching the girls play CoX on my two laptops while I ponder why I, the payee and fund earner of the house, is watching from the backseat.

Anyways, on to Sister Flame. Last time I checked, Sister Flame was closing in on level 35. She has been teaming a lot in Brickstown lately ("couldn't wait to get out of IP" was her words) and she is enjoying the missions she is finding. She also really likes the Rikti War Zone. Something about whupping aliens really appeals to her.

I also found Flame has a wonderful sense of humor that she loves to share with her teammates. One recent example is a teammate went AFK to make tea, so Sister Flame proceeded to do the teacup emote in response. If someone says "taking the dog out", Flame takes out her German Shepard.

I also discovered that Sister Flame has become a bit of a helper lately. She has been encounting a fair number of new players and when asked a question on Local, Flame answers them politely (if slowly. She's not a good typer or speller). I am pretty proud of that aspect of her online persona. She has even teamed with a few lobbies to run some of their missions with them and lead for awhile. I would love to see the other person's reaction if they knew the strategic flame blasting toon they were following was a ten year girl.

I need to take some time to mention her seven year old who has no handle, but I will call her Princess Rose. I thought Flame's progression on CoX was incredible, but I was truly shocked by Rose's performance. She has only been playing CoX seriously for about six months, but here is what she shown me she can do:

- type and spell like a 15 year old
- annoy people at Miss Liberty by asking to team with them (I showed her how to use the Team Reaquest panel)
- master the F keys as well as most emotes AND channels
- lead teams to victory on missions

If that wasn't enough, I also learned she knows how to "game the game". This weekend, I noticed some of her missions looked familiar and repetitive. I took a closer look and boggled at what a saw on her screen:

Hydra from the Sewer Trial....

I asked my little rose what missions she was doing. In her high pitched, little girl voice she told me the following:

"Some kind of sewer thing. We go in, fight our way to the big monster, beat it and gain a level. I did it eight times so far. You get some kind of reward too, but I just click anything. It is pretty easy now I know what to do."

As it turns out, my little Rose had been doing the Sewer trial over and over to gain levels for the last few weekends. She even had a few people on her friend list that team up with her to do it when online.

7 years old, knows how to ace the Sewer trial. Wow.

So, in closing, we are all doing find and the ladies still blow through Pocket D to see War Witch. They are wondering what all the 50s are doing there and think it is some kind of party.

Regards

Wyll

P.S. the girls long term goal is to hit a high enough level to enter the Recluse Victory's portal in Atlas Park. It has been teasing them since the low levels and they are convinced something awesome is there.

All I could think of when I ran this arc was The Bowler from Mystery Men.

"You put your father's skull in a bowling ball?"

"The guy at the pro shop did it."

I'll be 40 next year and the first 10 years of CoX just flew by. I remember reading about it "Coming In A Few Years" in a gaming magazine many many moons ago and I followed it ever since. I may not post much, but I have been around a long time.

To put it in another perspective, Sister Flame has been truly playing this game for half her life. Not counting her moving a toon around at the age of 4, SF started "really" playing Cox at 5 1/2 years old and she will be 11 on a few months. I do find it cute when I tell her she got to grow up with CoX.

Heres to another 10.

Disco troll Statesman?

I'm not a female IRL, but I play one on the Internet.

Even though our play time is no where near where it use to be, I would be shot by Sister Flame if I thought about opting to move to Free Play.

But, if I had to choose two, it would be Sister Flame and Brother Frost, followed by Takes Care Of Pets (Flame's MM) and Nun Chucks (My 50 Scrapper).

Veep

I hope people are in the mood for an update….


Yes, it has been a while since I have written, but rest assured that Sister Flame and I are still playing. Not as much as we use to, but we are still playing.


How amusing is it that as I write this, my dear Sister Flame is now ten years old. I looked back over this thread and realized that she has been playing City of Heroes for five years. I don’t know many things that a child under the age of thirteen would do for five years straight willingly, but I can assure you that playing CoX is at the top of Sister Flame’s list.


Sister Flame is still holding at a steady level 27 with her hero. She is starting to read the mission text more and wants to know the story behind the arcs. Instead of just mindless plowing through mission and mission, Sister Flame takes the time to read the clues and tries to figure out what may happen next. From what I can understand, rescue missions are probably her favorite next to any mission where an NPC fights along side of her. We have fought her evil double (I think she had Dark / Dark powers) and Flame made sure to cut her down in style. “No posers” was her comment.


I will have to admit that she does have a bit of an ego, albeit a little one. She makes me use her remote AE power (I stress the word “hers” and not “mine” since I am not even close to earning it) to check her AE mission rating and the number of comments. She’s closing in on 450 now and still has no desire to make a sequel. She keeps saying that “the story has been told. No need for more”. She has promised me that I could use the Disco Trolls myself in my own AE arc if I wanted to so I could “ride her fame”. *oh geez*


Sister Flame has also taken on the role of CoX Mentor with her younger sister, now a fresh 7 years old. It is amusing to watch them play together and hear Sister Flame call out the targets. Most times, names work but with the more complicated ones, Sister Flame usually just says “The one that looks like a punk with dark blasts” or something to that effect. The two of them usually get a nice team going with their lowbies and run all over Atlas Park doing the same arcs over and over again. Plus, Sister Flame always honors her sister’s request to take time out and go for a swim in the big pool.


Outside of CoX, Sister Flame is turning into a subtle comic geek. Recently, she has adopted The Flash as her hero of choice (mine is Captain Marvel) and has slowly began to collect items with the Flash’s emblem on it. She is also very proud to tell her friends she loves comics, enjoys watching superhero movies and also plays one on the Internet. She is not embarrassed by her hobby and is proud to flash her “geek badge” when she can.


She is also turning into a true hero at school. She’s come of her shell, so to speak, over the last year. She has no problem getting on stage to act or try out for a talent show. When she sees someone being treated unfairly, she’s the first one to step in and try to make things right. All in all, she is my little geek that I am very proud of.


I also most forgot. We still make it a point to stop in and see War Witch in Pocket D whenever we pass through as we travel the zones. War Witch is still Sister Flame’s favorite “maker” (her term for developer) and she still talks about the time she got to interact with good old WW. Maybe one day we’ll make the trek to a CoX meet and greet, but with two other sisters, it means I would have to take everybody and not everybody in the house is into CoX. (I know. Blasphemy!)



Anyways, we are still playing. I know that the plan is to have Sister Flame level to 50 in Atlas park and when they day does come, I’ll give you all lots of notice.


Keep Fighting The Good Fight

Wyll