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I remember when Lady Liberty (Or miss Liberty, don't remember 100%) started accusing people on the Beta Forums about her name being stolen back during the whole name reservation debacle.
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That was actually settled by the forum member Miss Liberty getting word from the devs that she would be "accepting the mantle" from the other Ms. Liberty. Never really did hear much of her once the game was past a few months old.
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Still, it was amusing how many people were screaming about having their names "stolen".
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In case nobody has mentioned it already (I'm still catching up with this thread), there were seperate situations ragarding Ms. Libery and Lady Liberty.
Ms. Liberty was an active, friendly poster on the beta boards. When Cryptic revealed that there would be a trainer by the same name, there was a fair amount of concern for the "original" Ms. Liberty. As it turns out, Cryptic had seen the potential problem, contacted her in advance to discuss it, and came up the idea of letting her character assume the mantle. That said, I don't know if the beta Ms. Liberty actually ever made it into the game.
The story regarding, Lady Liberty, on the other hand, happened after the game went live. She was one of many who posted that her name was supposedly stolen. Since she had been using that on beta boards, and had written backstory, etc. to fit the concept, she felt that nobody should have been able to beat her to the name. Unfortunately for her, name reservation didn't work that way....
Now back to reading the thread--brings back such memories!
I remember when I went to outbreak and looked for 20 minutes before I could find contaminated.
In these times, the contaminated didn't spawn very often.
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I remember when I went to outbreak and looked for 20 minutes before I could find contaminated.
In these times, the contaminated didn't spawn very often.
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Heheh, the way you wrote that makes me think it's because of all the dinosaurs who were roaming around eating them.
I remember Hovering ALL THE WAY across Perez at high altitude, because I was too low level for the place, but my stupid MISSION was in there for some reason.. 
Yeah, before the Hollows showed up, once you finished out your contact in Atlas or Galaxy, you'd have about a level of street hunting (at about level 6), then get sent over to Perez Park for some "Kill 10 of X" mission (usually kill 10 CoT).
I remember getting my butt KICKED in Perez the first time I went in there. That forest maze used to scare the hell out of me.
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Yeah, before the Hollows showed up, once you finished out your contact in Atlas or Galaxy, you'd have about a level of street hunting (at about level 6), then get sent over to Perez Park for some "Kill 10 of X" mission (usually kill 10 CoT).
I remember getting my butt KICKED in Perez the first time I went in there. That forest maze used to scare the hell out of me.
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Oh yes, and all the uber 1337 kiddies were down by the lake hunting hydra.
Getting Hydra parties together was some of the best fun I'd had in this game. It generally went
Level 7-9 Hunt the periphery of the park Skuls!(tm) and Hellions.
Level 9-12 Tackle the maze
Level 12-14 Hydrabashing.
Now it works like this for me with an alt:
Level 7 - Go deafeat the 10x that are required to satisfy your first PP mission. Never come back until a mission that has nothing to do with hunting comes up because trying to find a group is like trying to get blood from a stone.
And actually even better was the AP to Skyway Sewer Run.
Levels 4-7 Could be done in two hours with a team of 5 By running to Skyway via the sewers, and then Sweeping back.
(probably still could if you took the time to snag some people off of the Hollows gate)
I remember the invasion at the end of Beta
I remember a time before the first burn nerf
I remember the day Pie took over the forum.
Ahhh...the good ol' days
I remember bashing penguin heads while waiting for my beta invite on the forums.
I remember making fanta videos until I was blue in the face.
I remember getting it handed to me by a level 40 rikti monkey...
I remember saying goodbye at the last second of beta sitting with everyone else on steps of city hall in ap.
I remember when the city hall flag looked like the flag on the moon. (stiff as a board :P)
Wow...come to think of it....I don't think I've ever had so much fun in a beta before.
I remember the awe of finding a bright purple, level 23 force field generator on a rooftop, which belonged to some group called the Sky Raiders. I gingerly fired a Mental Blast at it, half expecting to be stomped from above. It missed. Nothing happened. I think I was around level 10 at the time.
I remember the sense of wonder and dread as I pondered who the Sky Raiders might be. This indestructible silver device was all they had left behind. What were they? Aliens? Pirates? It seemed like it would be forever before I would find out.
I remember my friend telling me about the greatest MMOrpg ever and buying it even though my hatred for MMo's was huge.
I remember Perez Park was the roughest place for a lowbie
I remember my first boss fight thinking it was the hardest thing I have ever done in the game.
I remember no Hollows.
I remember the positron Tf and how hard it was, and deciding a TF was not for old Hal.
I remember joining a TF on a whim and sticking it out to beat the Clockwork King.
I remember my permanent debt when the respec was introduced.
I remember almost deleting Halistasnar but instead joining the SG known as the Impossibles and they helped a struggling blaster who is now lvl 41 and happy.
I remember my first look at the reactor. I was literally in awe. It had been so built up and so sought after and I struggled so long to see it, and the first time I did, it was everything they said it was and more than I could have imagined.
I remember the first time Hami went down on our server, and the constant screams and cheers going on over teamspeak. Felt like a New Year's Party.
I remember the first time I got hover and spent the next hour just trying to catch that blimp in Atlas!
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I remember when "Jerkhacking" , "Kill Skuls" , and "gone to the Americans" were still inside jokes.
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That would mean they were funny in the first place - which they were not, ever.
I remember buying COH on release day, along with my DAOC guildmates, because we had decided to leave DAOC, and COH looked like a good interrim choice while we waited for WOW.
I remember getting WOW and thinking this was the end of my COH. I returned to COH like a shot when my friee month of WOW was up, such a disappointing game that. COH is far far better than WOW can ever hope to be. Most of my Supergroup has returned from WOW as well - and for the same reasons: grouping sucks in WOW, the game is far too easy, and we missed the challenging and exciting combat of City of Heroes.
I remember the first time I made a character (and managed to drag myself out of the stupendous character generator) and I was amazed at how well the game *felt* to play. It felt heroic and every detail seemed well thought out. I am still completely impressed to this day.
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I remember being the only person in Atlas Park
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That happened to me late one night on the test server. Things seemed awfully empty in Atlas Park, so I did a /whoall and came up with...
Just me!
Very weird feeling.
I remeber crashing SC after the Dev had Updates all over the boards and were doing server broadcasts about not inviting and accepting group invites across zones. (Opps!) 
I remember Seeing my SG in one of the beta screen shots on IGN after grouping with Camera
I Remember Thinking MacAllen was the Man, and Yankee Darring was my personal hero.
And my personal favorite memorys?
Recieving my Beta invite on Dec 25th.
And getting fly with my Dark/Psi defender at lvl 10.
Blacklamb
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grouping sucks in WOW, the game is far too easy, and we missed the challenging and exciting combat of City of Heroes.
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Are you being ironic? Exciting, I'll give you. Not that WoW combat can't be exciting (it can), but it lacks a lot of the "gee-whiz" factor of City of Heroes. But challenging? At lower levels, combat's much easier for everyone than it ever is in WoW. At higher levels, most characters can expect to take on several minions and maybe a lt. at once and not be in any danger. Some can take on pairs of bosses without any risk.
Anyway,
I remember when people knew that the scrapper complaint wasn't that scrappers were gimped, but that they lacked a role on teams.
I remember when the respec trial was not only a death trap, but that there was a good chance that the core would get destroyed before you ever saw it if you did manage to fight your way that far.
I remember Issue 1 going to test and Icon becoming one big dance party. I also remember people copying to test with no influence, going into Icon, and then posting on the forums about how horribly unfair the influence costs for costume changes were.
I remember people logging in their level 40s and getting boosted to 42 right away.
I remember the day Behemoths invaded King's Row - the same day I got my first "Defeat 10 CoT in King's Row" mission.
I remember zooming through office maps by using combat jumping to hit the ceiling and slide.
I remember posting screenshots of fire shield and murky cloud resisting Vahzilok spit because people insisted that the damage was untyped (we were both right - typed vs. resists, untyped vs. defense).
I remember upgrading my video card and discovering all kinds of new shiny textures.
I remember making a rule with my normal teammates that we would always go to the highest numbered instance of Atlas, Perez, King's Row, or Steel...and someone would always go to the first instance anyway...die...and call for help.
I remember teaming with EQ refugees who spent every fight single-pulling minions.
I remember saying that only three MMORPGs could get me to actually play them - and someone else telling me that I was wrong about City of Heroes because it had switched from flexible character design to archetypes, and was super lame because it didn't have capes.
I remember making an event out of my first fight with Dr. Vahzilok (got a team of 8 together and thoroughly pounded him).
I remember loading the updater to see a Very Serious Warning to not play the Task Forces, and also instructions on how to get rid of the Vahzilok Plague.
I remember when Ubelmann was broken.
I remember going into the 5th Column mission with the education officer, and getting a team to take him on anyway (well, team of three) because I had to.
I remember when sleep resistance just plain didn't work.
Elsegame: Champions Online: @BellaStrega ||| Battle.net: Ashleigh#1834 ||| Bioware Social Network: BellaStrega ||| EA Origin: Bella_Strega ||| Steam: BellaStrega ||| The first Guild Wars: Kali Magdalene ||| The Secret World: BelleStarr (Arcadia)
Heh, many of the things SaberCat posted are permantly burned into my memory. SItting there at the computer, 5 minutes after the servers were supposed to come up (6pm - 9pm EST IIRC) smashing on the login button but it wasn't up yet.
I remember leaving work early (well, actually it was "on time" but I always stayed late) so I could be home in time for the beta logins.
I remember the very first time logging in and being astounded how complete the game was, concidering that was the first wave of testers. I remember standing around welcoming the new round of testers.
So many good memories of the beta period, good times indeed.
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.
If the game spit out 20 dollar bills people would complain that they weren't sequentially numbered. If they were sequentially numbered people would complain that they weren't random enough.
Black Pebble is my new hero.
I *can't* remember the last time I've even been in the abandoned sewers other than to visit the kraken; but I *can* remember when I finally managed to get a toon up to around level 14 and thought it might be useful to map the *entire* sewers out one evening.
I remember AP and GC having multiple instances, and then KR and Steel for a bit as well.
I remember running around as a noob excitedly chatting with my friends as we oooh'd and aaah'd each time we saw a higher lvl toon. And I remember the day when I finally saw my first 40th lvl toon!
I remember deleting a 33rd lvl tanker because of how poorly he was slotted and atm there wasn't any way of being able to fix him
I remember finding the forums for the first time and thinking to myself- "Oh god, this addiction just keeps getting worse!"
I remember the day I officially recognize as when I knew I liked this game- saw this defender wandering the streets in AP (I was a big strong lvl 6 tanker!) acting a bit lost so I took some time to try and help her out. Ended up she was actually 9 years old in real life. Her RL mother and father came over about 2 minutes later and the 4 of us (yes, they had 3 accounts- and in fact, they had 4 so their son could play at the same time as well) ended up running around for together for several hours. 
All the graphics and content and such aside- that's what did it for me.
I remember the first time I faked being *sick* so I could stay home from work to play CoH.
I remember the first time I began to think I was addicted.
I remember deleting a 27th lvl toon because he didn't have the isolator badge.
I remember get hit by a sniper for the very first time. I was in the middle of nowhere without a mob in sight and spent a few minutes trying to figure what the the bejeepers was hitting me.
I remember the jealosy and loathing as I watched 14+ toons go leaping/flying off into the sunset while I *painfuly* labored up countless flights of stairs looking for CoT in KR.
I remember the countless times my stone tanker was asked "What the heck are those purple thingys floating around your head?@!"
And I *just* remembered that I need to get to sleep as I need to be up in 4 hours from now!
I remember the Giant Tapeworm and the Anti-Power Gamers Creado threads
I remember seeing the Beta screenshot on IGN that had two very familiar forum members in it.
I remember the excitment I had when I got my Beta invite, downloaded it, and first got into the character creator.
I remember leveling my character to level 4 and, because a new wave of beta invites had just been sent out, there was no crime in AP or GC. I remember the requests for "More crime please" that went out because of this, and forming my first pick-up team with 3 other level 4 players as contacts didn't give missions to you at lvl 4.
I remember trying to figure out how I was going to make Amoeba Man, and thinking that Tenebrous Tentacles might be an amoebic type power. 
I remember seeing the 2003 E3 video and thinking the game was ruined.
I remember seeing the 2003 E3 video and remember Jack's Blaster (Jackalope) taking Super Strength as his secondary set.
I recall 4 slotting Rest...
I remember making my very first character in beta and accidently wandering from Atlas into Skyway via the gate with my very first pickup team and being amazed that the mobs there were so high level.
I remember the beta Rikti invasion - and have it as my Avatar.
I remember The Rikti Killers.
I remember there being so many players in Atlas Park that my group had the rule of always going to the one with the highest number. This was routinely Atlas 4.
~Tri
I remember rushing to the giant Penny in Kings Row before the servers were going down in Beta to take Penny Group Pictures.
I remember the first time I walked into Boomtown, and realized there really had been a war.
-I remember when a high-level character showing up in Atlas Park was an event. All the lowbies would gather round him/her and bombard them with questions and beg them to show off their high-level powers. Nowadays people complain about high-level characters in AP spamming their powers.
-I remember before the animation for Earthquake was nerfed, the screen-shaking was so outrageous it would give you a headache after about 10 minutes. People would kick Earth controllers from teams if they insisted on using it, and there was a character that was server-banned for a few days because he was spamming Earthquake by Ms. Lib and scaring the newbies.
"ouch, you rolled a controller. you know, its not too late to roll up another character".
I also remember tele-griefing. thank god for the teleport prompt.
I remember logging in and being told "the aliens are invading, run for your life" 
I remember the first time we all saw flight. Seven people in complete awe watching a blaster fly around for about 15 minutes.
I saw a link to an old FAQ on page 10 or so, now that is old! good stuff.
I remember Boxheads (awesome) website with all confirmed CoH information, as it trickled from the devs, prior to disclosure.
I remember when there were no contacts.
Beta Rikti invasion - 22 Apr 04
"I'm not normally a praying man, but if you're up there, please save me Superman!" - Homer Simpson
on Freedom
Rummble 50-BS/SR
Beta Green 28-Rad/Rad
Mental Majesty 21-Mind/Kin
Blue Shadach 23-PB
Muata 9 TA/Arch
Minister Sinister 11-Mind/Psy