Excellent suggestions. I havn't quite 'won' yet, but I've been getting terribly bored with rerolling new alts every two hours and grinding my currents out of debt. I was trying to figure out what to do, and this post helps! 
Clever post!
I'm not tired of the grind yet, still new to CoV. But a great idea to post this for those that are or when I might be 
.
I'm not in the habit of bumping my own threads but I saw a recent conversation related to this topic in the General Discussion forum, and I also wanted to add a couple of things.
First of all, I can't edit the guide. It seems that after a period of time, it won't let you edit your posts any more. Bummer.
Also, in the vein of the "Host a Contest" suggestion, a bunch of Taxibots and I got together a week or so ago and played a game of Taxibot Yahtzee on Virtue using ourselves with the dice and score# emotes, and wow, was it fun for both players and 'bots! I don't think it's ever been done before in the game, and it went really well. I even got a few pictures of the event.
My point is that you shouldn't limit yourself to the same old stuff that everyone else does. Try to use a little imagination and creativity and do something that no one else has ever done! Who knows, you may be the next great trendsetter that everyone else follows! (Now if I can just get Taxibot Yahtzee to catch on and become wildly popular. I want a TonyV statue! 
)
We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.
(If you love this game as much as I do, please read that post.)
Taxibot Yahtzee has got to be the coolest thing I've ever seen. I'm rolling a taxibot.
Hey all, just thought I'd take a few minutes to post a few updates.
First of all, some of the links need to be corrected. The Paragon Wiki has, for a while now, had its own domain name instead of just being a sub-site of the PC Free Press. The old link still works and will eventually get you there through redirects, but the new one using it's native domain name is much faster.
Speaking of the PC Free Press, it's dormant and hasn't been updated in over a year. I still harbor a desire to come back and make it exciting again, but while I was writing for it, I just never got a very good response from the community. If you're interested in writing for it, or you just really like reading it, let me know.
The Kings Row Taxi Service site has changed URLs. The Taxibots also have their own domain now also, though the old one still works too.
There are also a couple of CoH-related radio stations that I'd be remiss if I left out: w00t Radio and Split Infinity
As for hosting space, I've actually moved my sites from PeopleHost to DreamHost. They have a lot more space and goodies for less. 
If you use a referral code of PARAGON, they'll waive the setup fee. Again, I've found them to be a really good hosting provider with tons of space, bandwidth, and features; your mileage may vary.
Since I posted this guide, they've also released the next City of Heroes novel, The Freedom Phalanx. Learn about the first adventures of Synapse, Positron, Sister Psyche, and more, as they try to reform history's greatest hero team!
I think that's about it, feel free to add your comments and additions!
We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.
(If you love this game as much as I do, please read that post.)
[ QUOTE ]
Also, in the vein of the "Host a Contest" suggestion, a bunch of Taxibots and I got together a week or so ago and played a game of Taxibot Yahtzee on Virtue using ourselves with the dice and score# emotes, and wow, was it fun for both players and 'bots!
[/ QUOTE ]
It LOOKS fun! One quick question, though. Why didn't you just use the ingame dice? Are they not sufficiently random (that can happen with "random" coding)? Or was it just presentation/style?
Dec out.
[ QUOTE ]
Why didn't you just use the ingame dice?
[/ QUOTE ]
Oh, we do. The problem, though, is that the graphic of the die goes away after a second or two. So the process is that we roll our dice, then quickly hold up a card with whatever the number was so that the player doesn't have to instantly memorize what everyone had.
We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.
(If you love this game as much as I do, please read that post.)
...or, "What do I do now that I've won?"
Feel free to add your thoughts below. If I see some good ideas, I'll add them to the guide.
The following is a list of things to do when you inevitably get sick of "the grind." Feel free to add more ideas as you see fit!
Roleplay!
One of my standard MMORPG gripes is that too many people, especially young people who never knew how cool pencil-and-paper RPGs were, just play them as MMOGs and completely forget about the RP. Try running a few missions speaking only as your character would. Go to one of the lower-level zones and broadcast some complaints about how bad Recluse's treatment of his minions are. Or answer newbies' questions in imaginative in-game ways. Stop feeling so silly and get crazy!
Write a story
This is one of my favorite suggestions because I host an online CoH RP newspaper called the Paragon City Free Press. If you've got some imagination, make up some stories to report from in and around the city and submit them online or e-mail them to me (tonyv@pcfreepress.com). Don't like the reporter idea? Try the CoH Writer's Guild. (No affiliation) Need some kind of official recognition? Write something in the Roleplaying Forum right here. Or submit something to the comic book. Or just make some stuff up for your own personal fulfillment. At the very least, make sure all of your characters have interesting bios!
Document the game
Not into fiction? How about showing off your extensive knowledge of the game? Write or edit some articles in the CoH/CoV Wiki. Contribute some helpful comments here in the Player Questions and/or Player Guides forums.
Help the Newbies
Hang out in a low-level zone and exemplar/malefactor for some low-level characters. You'll be amazed at how fun it is to rehash some of your old missions, get gobs of prestige or influence/infamy, challenge yourself to succeed again without all of your fancy powers, and help out another player in the process. One nice thing about it is that although you only have the first few powers you started with, you will probably have them highly slotted with enhancements so that unlike when you first started out, you'll actually be able to hit stuff now!
Roll up an alt
Yes, it's cliché, but it's a good idea. Playing the game as a defender is almost an entirely different experience than playing as a scrapper. Even within an archetype, there are vast differences in strategies. There are lots of differences between playing as a Kinetics defender and playing as an Empath defender. Take some odd powers that you've never tried before just for fun. Have you ever actually tried Group Fly?
Volunteer
Roll up a Taxibot or a RIGS 'bot (the CoV Taxibots) and cast off your grinding ways forever. Or try the Paragon City Search and Rescue. Or the Kings Row Taxi Service. Or start your own volunteer service group. (Anyone I left out, feel free to reply below.) Sure, you won't reach level 50 with the character anytime soon, but if you enjoy people grovelling with appreciation, you'll really enjoy hanging out in the Hollows and dancing between teleport requests.
Host a contest
So your cup runneth over with influence or infamy. What to do with all of it? Give it away as prizes! Host a costume contest. Or a trivia contest. Or the the Paragon City/Rogue Isle Olympics. Or make up a totally new and original contest. For a unique challenge, be sure to do it in-character. (I.e. think of some evil motivations behind villains needing to have a sharp-looking costume.) What else do you think all that loot from robbing banks is good for?
Lights, camera...
Learn how to DemoRecord files and make a cool movie that we can all enjoy. Since you know they'll be running another movie contest at some point, the more work you can put into it all along, the more likely it will be that you may score some sweet real world swag! If nothing else, you can snap some awesome screenshots that can't be taken any other way.
Become a Talk Show Host
Record a 30-minute old-timey radio detective show podcast about your hero's exploits. Or a villainous stand-up comedy show. In a supergroup? Record an interview talk show with some of your members. Don't like the fictional stuff? You're an überplayer, record your commentary on the game. When you're done, send your audio file to The Cape Radio or MMORadio (not affiliated) and see if they'll broadcast it.
Fight in the PvP zones and the arena
Try PvP in Siren's Call. 95% of the time, it's in the hands of the heroes. Where are you when Arachnos needs your services? Lord Recluse is not pleased with your lack of progress in helping his incursion into Paragon City. Or help your fellow heroes take over firebases and earn their Shivan Shards. Don't like the crowd there? Try the arenas. Gladiator matches are a hoot.
See what other fans are doing
Browse some of the Fan sites that are out there. A lot of them are really cool. Are you more motivated than that? Create your own. A simple hero's or villain's blog can be set up using Google's free Blogspot service. More motivated than that? Do what a lot of us have done: Get yourself some cheap hosting space, register a domain name, and put out a full-fledged fansite. (Those services have been good for me, your mileage may vary.) Be sure to read the guidelines and submit it as an official fan site on the portal when you're done.
Read a book
There is now a City of Heroes novel out called Web of Arachnos. Not to sound like a commercial, but it's not bad, and it's got some good background of the people and places you see in Paragon City. After reading it, you'll have a better sense of Paragon City as a place and not just a bunch of polygons.
Take a break
NCsoft will probably hate me for suggesting this, but sometimes absense makes the heart grow fonder. Around the beginning of last year, I had played so much that I got rather burned out. I didn't cancel my account, but I did go around a month without touching the game. When I came back, everything seemed a little new and fresh again. I had regained what I thought made the game really good and shed some of the monotony that caused me to just be ho-hum about taking out yet another mission. Just make sure you come back after your respite, of course!
That's a baker's dozen suggestions to get you started. By the time you get done with all of that, you should be just about ready to start playing the new Issue 37 that will be out by then.
And be sure to remember the most important suggestion of all:
Have fun!
Whatever you decide to do, make sure you have fun doing it! (Unless you're a griefer, in which case, stay miserable...) See ya in the city!
We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.
(If you love this game as much as I do, please read that post.)