Ah memories.
I remember a friend telling me about this new super-hero game being developed and getting the shivers.
I remember going to the website and reading about the game and getting shivers.
I remember being utterly disappointed that this would be an MMO, which I had refused to take part in due to having to pay a monthly fee, but still having shivers.
I remember deciding that it wouldn't hurt to join the forums and read about the game, even though I'd never pay a monthly fee to pay a game.
I remember the responses to my first post on those forums and the warm friendly welcomes from the forum regulars, and getting the shivers.
I remember deciding that I MIGHT be willing to spend the money each month because this game seemed really cool and the forum regulars were so nice. And getting a different kind of shiver at that thought.
I remember a really long silence from Statesman and anyone else official.
I remember Statesman's post explaining the changes to the game and why they were being made. And crying.
I remember the uproar following that post, and some of the cooler heads reminding us to wait until we could get more information to find out how it would work out.
I remember those same boards beginning to degenerate and only going there once in a while to see if there were any new posts worth actually reading.
I remember hearing about the Beta invites going out, and deciding to post once a month just in case.
I remember getting my email inviting me to Beta and jumping up and down excitedly at work.
I remember waving my Beta invite in my friends face at work, then running as fast as I could.
I remember formatting and reloading my laptop and desktop so I wouldn't have to worry about any existing system issues giving me inaccuracies during "testing".
I remember my first log-in, and nearly being unable to get out of the Character Creation screen due to the sheer joy of playing with it.
I remember finally getting into Outbreak after updating my video card drivers on the laptop with the OmegaDrivers. Curse you Dell, you still have the same 2 year old drivers on your site.
I remember finishing Outbreak and heading to AP, being amazed by all the heroes that were there.
I remember having absolutely no clue where I was going or what I was doing once I got to AP.
I remember finally finding my contact in AP after giving up on finding Ms. Liberty.
I remember levelling up to 3, and wandering in circles for 30 minutes trying desperately to find Ms. Liberty, and the relief when I finally found her.
I remember not being able to get to Ms. Liberty when I found her due to the crowd of heroes around her and not being able to click on her to train up.
I remember wondering how to talk to people in the game. I knew you could do it since I could see several people talking in the chat window.
I remember logging in during work hours from my laptop and playing during phone calls on the few days that the servers were up.
I remember closing the lid of my laptop when my friend would come near my cubicle, just so he didn't see the game.
I remember not knowing any better and wandering through the Steel Canyon gate at level 4, promptly getting smashed by the first Outcast that saw me.
I remember my first hospital trip (same occaision), stepping out of the Hospital and thinking "Holy S--t!!!" seeing my first villains above level 14. And trying to find some way to get to the tram or the AP gate without getting killed again. And failing. Repeatedly.
I remember some very helpful players yelling at me on Broadcast to stay put in the Hospital until they got there, and finally figuring out how to answer them. Texas Red had a voice finally!!!
I remember those same level 12 to 15 heroes clearing a path from the SC Hospital to the AP Gate for me and kindly shepherding me to safety. They had already figured out I had no clue how the Tram worked, so didn't even bother, although they gave me instructions I could later use.
I remember trying to enter the AP Tram through the Exit. Repeatedly.
I remember running the loop from the Exit to the Entrance on the Tram to get to the zone I needed.
I remember my first trip to Perez Park and taking forever to hover over the trees to find a spot I could snipe a few CoT's from.
I remember dying on top of the trees trying to snipe CoT's with a Fire/Devices Blaster with no snipe attack. Repeatedly. And having to hover back after going to the hospital.
I remember finally being able to go to SC somewhat safely, having missions there, and learning to HATE Shockers.
I remember not realizing that my web-grenade would drop those Shockers from the air so I could hover away to lick my wounds.
I remember the really great Beta board community, and how helpful and friendly most everyone was. Thanks SlayRide1, Fedifensor (yep, I still remember that name), PigLick, and all the early Beta testers, for the great advice, suggestions for strategy, and all-around helpful information. And for not treating the new folk like idiots until we'd had enough time to learn to use Search and get the hang of the boards.
I remember my friend finally getting his Beta invite, and getting to show him around a game instead of the other way around.
I remember the puzzled questions from other players in Perez Park about my robot friend? After a while I realized they were talking about my Targetting Drone, which they had never seen.
I remember hover-sniping Hydra in perfect safety, even though my longest range attack was still a Fire Blast.
I remember meeting a female toon (that worked for a game publisher out of Austin, hmmmm) while hover-sniping. She politely asked if I'd mind if she took down some of the little ones I had aggro'd under me from a Fire Ball, and telling her to help herself since there around 20 down there below. She was a Defender, and some obnoxious soul had run in to the few she had whittled down to almost nothing on HP and KS'd her, then gotten rude when she said something to him, and started following her for a bit repeating the same bad behavior. I had a really nice chat with "her", and wish we'd kept in touch since "she" seemed really nice and was very pleasant to talk to. It never occurred to me that "she" might really have been a "he" even though I had created one female toon myself. How much more can you prove you are new to the world of MMO's.
I remember teaming with my friend and SK'ing him to run several missions with me to help him level up a little quicker, which worked out nicely since he was an Empathy Defender.
I remember my first Rad/Dark Defender, and trying to play him like a Blaster.
I remember sitting on the War Walls in SC with EF on a level 19 Family member, watching him run around unable to attack me with his health slowly ticking off, aggroing everything he came near and taking health from them. Watching them all standing at the base of the wall trying to attack, then finally wandering off, only to be aggro'd again when the Family anchor came near them. I remember laughing so hard I spit coke on my monitor when the Family anchor finally died from the EF damage.
I remember crying when the EF DoT was removed from the power,
I remember taking a shot from the edge of my Fire Blast range, and aggroing 3 groups from around 2 different corners plus the group with the one I hit.
I remember thinking the Devs must be laughing their @$$es off at all the whining on the boards from that over-tweaking to see what would happen. Then being extremely grateful when they toned it back down to a reasonable level.
I remember my first fight with Doc Vahz in Beta, dying several times, and finally running out of the mission door screaming like a liitle schoolgirl asking for help on Broadcast. I remember Tinkerbelle and friends coming to help me out. That was my first taste of joining a real group. Not just teaming with my RL friend as a duo, but a real group experience. All around fun, and a nice group of "gals". Yeah, I know by this time that they probably aren't really female players, but they looked good and were a lot of fun, so I still think of Jill, DKupp, Tink, and company as "gals".
I remember the giddy feeling of being invited to team up with some lower 20 level heroes running their missions while I was around 18.
i remember the night before Beta ended and the fun with the mini-Invasion. Rikti everywhere, death and debt everywhere, but still a lot of fun with so many heroes in Talos. Getting ported to a ledge so a teammate could rez me and back into the fight I'd go. Finally realizing I'd never hit 20 on my Blaster before Beta ended.
I remember being sick as a dog on the last day of Beta, missing work, and missing the Invasion. I didn't even get to the computer until after it was over. The depression that set in was real. Everyone at work thought I'd skipped out to "test" on the last day of Beta, then laughed themselves silly when they found out I was really sick and couldn't "test" during the Invasion and missed all the fun.
I remember going to GameStop on release day to buy the game because EB Games online information was still showing that mine hadn't shipped and I didn't want to wait any longer to get my 3 Day headstart going.
I remember going for the 12-month pre-pay option so it would actually come out to a lower monthly average cost, and thinking, I'll be playing the whole year.
I remember when the box showed up the next day from EB deciding to send it to my nephew with a game card, then having to hunt for a week to find someone that had one in stock.
I remember the first day of Pre-Launch spending hours fiddling around and levelling up with my friend.
I remember crying at work when I read of the death of Kiyotee. The CoH community lost a good friend when Matthew died.
I remember the folks we wound up playing with often, and eventually joining their SG, even though they had the wrong Star as the chest emblem.
I remember chipping in to buy the game and a game card for another friend at work, and getting him hooked on the game.
I remember shelving my Blaster until some of the mid-20's and up issues were fixed such as Ubelmann. I finally found a melee character that I liked due to that, and have been having fun with my Dark/Regen Scrapper ever since.
I remember the IT department at our Califonia office shutting down our access to the CoH servers on the corporate T1, stating that it was eating too much bandwidth. How bad could it have been with only the three of us playing all the time at work? The few others that played at work only did it occaisionally.
I remember re-creating that same SG with a slightly different name, and getting MY Star as the chest symbol.
I remember the sadness as some of the ones I enjoyed playing so much with leaving the SG, and then never seeing them online after that.
I remember meeting a RL couple that played together, running the Synapse TF with them, and then getting to show one of them where the Mutant store in Talos was shortly afterward with my main, and getting to play with them often with my various toons.
I remember when they too vanished from the game, as well as most of the members of my SG.
I remember testing the Regen changes on Test, yelling my head off in the Forums, and then finally getting tweaked back to a workable level. Thanks Devs.
I remember my RL friends cancelling their accounts and going over to WoW. They knew I wasn't switching games, so didn't really try too hard to persuade me.
I remember meeting some really nice players one night, who had also lost several SG members to WoW and EQ2, and running a few missions with them and liking their playstyle. Evidently they liked mine as well since they decided to invite me to join their SG. Or maybe they just felt pity on the homeless Blaster. Nah. They wouldn't do that to me.
I finally remembered that I don't know when to shut up or stop typing. I'll end this now, even though there are many memories I haven't shared.
... that has to count for something 