Reflections of the Last Four Years (LONG)

May 1st, 2004. Four Years ago today that I became a member of this, the best MMORPG of all time. May 1st 2004. WOW! Has it really been this long? Four years has passed like a fast moving river under a bridge. What a wild ride it has been!

I wish I could say that I have the 48 month badge, but life and work took a little time out of my game playing time. Officially, by the numbers on my account page, I am a 3 year, 5 month veteran. Not too bad eh?

So much has happened since those crazy days in BETA.
I remember going through that first tutorial. It is still etched into my mind to this day. I ran around the tutorial zone just to see the sights! When I finally completed it I think I just about had an epiphany! There I was, standing at the base of the steps in Atlas Park and so overexcited at what was to come.

My first character Ms. Thunderbird The Incredible Everpresent Ms. Thunderbird was created in BETA as not only a character to test out all aspects of the game but to give me the satisfaction and sense of the newness of a character that would become the leader and founder (at least as far as my personal storyline goes) of the stable of heroes I soon would create. This ultimate, tiny "paladin" I had created and the story I created for her cemented me firmly into the mythos and atmosphere that is City of Heroes.

I remember the very first fight I had with my new character. I had leaped over the fence at the edge of Atlas Park (it took me three times to get over it) and into the street where some thug was trying to snatch the purse of some lady. Ms. Thunderbird pulled out that stone mallet that was nearly her own size and swung. I think I about jumped for joy hearing the hard "smack" she gave to that street urchin... I had become a "hero".
Boy did I ever feel like one. It was as if I was living right out of the comic books!
I remember my first journey into Kings Row for the mission arcs there. I had heard from a passing hero that if you worked at it, you could climb a building without using the fire escape stairs. So there I went trying to jump window sill to sindow sill to get to the top of buildings so I could find COT. Hehe.. I just can't believe so many of us did that!

The Ritki came, BETA ended, and the 3 day ahead of time gift that was given to us BETA players soon followed. Ms. Thunderbird now was official, as was the severity of my Altitis!! (I can proudly say that of all the characters I created in the first few months of City of Heroes going live. I have only deleted three out of those original twelve I made. Those nine are still rolling good to this day).

The issues began coming "Through the Looking Glass" to of course the now coming "Midnight Hour". I have looked forward to every one of them, and I cannot wait for the future issues.

I guess the greatest thing about this wonderful game is all the great people I have had the priviledge to fight beside. I know many of them have moved on but some remain. Some are even here, on these great Forums still, and I am thankful to them and to everyone here for making this game and this community the best ever.

Even though right now (and for the last eight months) I have not been able to play the game (I am currently caring for my father who was sick in the hospital all this time) I am keeping my membership active and my storylines increasing and my creative writing alive through the RP threads.

I am indeed addicted to this game, loyal to this game and can't wait to be able to play the game again when I finally get home later this year.

How long will I be here you ask? Until they close the last servers down and shut the doors for the last time.
If another version of City of Heroes replaces this one, then I'll migrate that way... nothing will change for me.
Heroes and Villians of my creation will still be added to, their "lives" and stories embellished and told as only I can tell them.

May 1st 2004-May 1st 2008... it really has been 4 years!
It has been and remains the best times of my gaming life. May it never, ever end.

My name is MasonicTemplar, and I most definetely approve this message.

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May 6th, 2004

I missed getting into Paragon City on the day it was released, but I was close. Been here ever since.

I remember my first evening. Going through the tutorial on my tiptoes, not knowing what to expect, not realizing how hard you would have to try to actually die in Outbreak.

Going up a fire escape in Atlas Park and almost getting my butt handed to me by level 5 Hellions. I was just stunned that I could go up at all!

Teaming with a RL friend and doing a 5th Column mission. It was in the warehouse map, and when we got to the final room I looked over the rail and saw a cluster of neo-Nazis below me. I looked around for the stair and then thought "Stairs? Why would I need stairs, I'm a super-hero!" and leaping over the rail, going into a perfect iron cross on the way down, landing and kicking the [censored] out of the Columnists!

Thanks for 4 great years, Paragon City! Looking forward to 4+ more!

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May 6th, 2004


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Wow, me too. (Though I was absent 2 weeks that summer when I moved and was without internet.)

This game has replaced all my other games.

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total kick to the gut

This is like having Ra's Al Ghul show up at your birthday party.

July 18, 2004 for me. I did take a big break for a while during my college tenure. I'm just coming up to my 3 year vet award in just under 2 weeks.
So many good times!

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May 22nd, 2004, though I weigh in at an official 2 years and nine monthes.

The City's been good to me, I shan't be going anywhere, any time soon.

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I remember the night I first "hovered"---at about 0.1mph no less. But...you'd have thought I broke through the dimensional barrier to a reality where such a feat was possible. I was so jazzed-energized, I literally hovered around...just snailing about in the air...for about an hour.

I was a junky from that point forward.

~ Jonathan

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May 6th, 2004


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Wow, me too. (Though I was absent 2 weeks that summer when I moved and was without internet.)

This game has replaced all my other games.

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Wait. There are OTHER games?!!!


Great read MT. Here's looking forward to many more years of players like YOU.

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Thank you Badstorm and to everyone else here on the Forums.. all of you are great. I wish I could get to know all of you because this community is the best and just another reason why I stick around. Great game, great people, great community.

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I remember the night I first "hovered"...

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Yup, I will never forget that feeling. The ability to fly was what attracted me most to CoH, and the first time I defied gravity with Hover was unbelievably cool. I was street-sweeping with a team in Boomtown(?) when I reached level 14 and finally learned how to fly.

Ah, the memories...



My game account was also created on May 6, 2004.

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I've been kicking around since May 12 2004, though I was gone for a few months around the time of Issue 3. So no vet buff pets for me just yet

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Ah, that brings back memories.

Seeing all the new heroes when *everything* was fresh... hordes of heroes in Perez Park, no Hollows yet... running the Valor Bridge with a fire tank...

Seeing some... well, probably "inappropriate" characters like Duke Nukem clones, and one I still remember, The Flulk (Flash-Hulk). It was pretty neat even then to see what the costume creator could do.

That first time with a new travel power. Superspeed's stealth added a whole new aspect of gameplay, Super Jump was just fun, and Fly was... slow. Really, really freaking slow.

The first time on my kin def I hit Siphon Speed, and zipped around Atlas like a kid in a candy store. (Later, realizing that it sucked as a travel power in higher zones... and ONLY added to run speed at that point... made me respec out of it once I could. Then later the +recharge made it a no-brainer to put it back).

Heh. Hovering the entire length of Steel Canyon on a level 8 defender, because I didn't realize the two trams were NOT CONNECTED at all... both north AND south... THAT took a while. Mind you, completely unslotted.

Not understanding how slotting worked ... at all. THAT part, I don't mind that it didn't last that long.

I've had ups and downs... travel power suppression STILL irks me to this day. GDN and ED... meh. Don't like 'em but what can you do. Pre-IOs... I was starting to get REALLY bored with the game... while my sub has been essentially unbroken, there've been months where I didn't log in at all.

Presently... I log in daily, again.

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Currently: 50s (5), 40s (3), 30s (5)
Red and blue side, mostly Infinity, Virtue, and Freedom.

I got 48 month on the 16th.

I remember making my first character and exploring Atlas Park so totally jazzed I could jump as high as a fence! My excitement grew as I got to level 6 and could enter Perez Park -- there to see a high level hero run by me at like MACH 5. I was so floored and envious. I *had* to get that speed!

I still miss the old Whirlwind and zooming around with Whirlwind and Superspeed toggled, zapping things. Ah, the good ol' days of being a robotic tornado of doom.

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@Quantum Evil Rad/Rad Corruptor

Making the world safe for maleficent particles since 2004.

I started April 30th, 2004. I'll soon be a card carrying 4 year vet once the badge is added.

I also remember my first few days of play... and all my noobishness...

Like having no idea we even had a Tram system... and trying to get from Galaxie to Atlas for a mission by running through Kings Row... and dieing ALOT...

Or standing at the wrong end of the tram for 5 mins trying to figure out why i couldn't get on again...

Or hovering accross Preze Park because running was WAY to dangerious... and i could use the time to make a snack...

Finding out Embalumbed Caderver Exploide... the hard way...

Going.Hunting.Killing Skuls. Lots and Lots of skulls.

Discoverying the Speed Boost was AWSOME. Being accually NEEDED and WANTED for once in the game. (my first hero was a Gravity/Kin controller.) This power was the reason i got my first ingame complenint. (Something like, your a GREAT controller buddy.)

Getting HOPLESSLY lost in PP.... crying out in broadcast for someone... ANYONE with TP to save me...

Learning for the first time that FreakShow can Rez... That was awsome... "dude, didn't i just kill you?!?!"

running my first TF (sister) and fighting my first AV (clamor) Why not Dr. V you ask? I completed the mission by clicking the glowies... and then died against him...

My first Eden trial, which, pretty much, was the most awsome expearince i'd EVERY HAD in game. A tank herded the whole bottom room... the WHOLE THING, (no Argo limits and God level defence for invulns at the time..) I FS'ed them... again, no aoe limits... and the blaster, well, he went nova... my computer give me a graphic buffer overload error... nearly crashed my system... then we almost team wiped cause there was 500 angry underlings beating us to death.... good times.... good times...

Ah... 4 years... has it been that long already? Well, i guess i was indeed having fun... cause time flew, thats forsure.

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@KingSnake - Triumph Server
@PrinceSnake
My common sense is tingling... ~ Deadpool
If you can't learn to do something well... learn to enjoy doing it poorly...

I tell ya, when I finally reached level 14 and took flight.. that entire DAY all I did was explore every zone I could. I flew and flew and flew.. I even flew to the top of the tallest building I could, ran off the ledge and let myself fall until I almost hit the ground turning flight on at the last moment and flying at full speed. I was exhilarated. One of my favorite moments ever....

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Man I also remember Ms. Thunderbird standing there against the council in a base with four newbies in tow.. I ran her in there and drew the entire room to me. My newbie hero followers were aghast! Their chats were "You're gonna die!", "What are you doing?", "You wont be able to stay in there", etc. etc. Ms. Thunderbird might be 4' tall and maybe 88lbs soaking wet, but she is a firey aura/stone melee tanker and even those Mechanical monsters that the Council own that were 3 times her size (and probably 100 times her mass) felt the power of her mallet and the burning of her aura.

The newbies behind me couldnt believe it.. this tiny tanker was more than a match for everything the Council threw at her. Soon we had them defeated. I was in the red in my health bar as the last Lt. ran up to engage me.. I consumed his endurance and with one heavy mallet swing I put him into the wall, again making one of the newbies go "Wow!"..

When we finished the mission and my new found newbie hero friends could not stop complimenting my hero.. they were impressed.. that was one of the best teaming experience I ever had...

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I remember the night I first "hovered"---at about 0.1mph no less. But...you'd have thought I broke through the dimensional barrier to a reality where such a feat was possible. I was so jazzed-energized, I literally hovered around...just snailing about in the air...for about an hour.

I was a junky from that point forward.


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Same here.

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Dawnslayer on Virtue.

May 21, 2004

I wish I could have been in this game from beta but alas I did not know the game even existed until after it was out for awhile. I will always remember the day I found out about it. I was in grade 12, standing around "cuss it was a slacker class it was 10 min of work, and 50 min of talking with friends " and a friend told me about this cool game he heard about. You played as this super hero and you ran around a huge city! You could fly, jump really high literally go ever where! It wasn’t just run around a flat world And after another 20-30 mins of describing how cool the game was, and a few weeks to bug my mom enough to buy it for me cuss I was broke I started playing city of heroes!

And there I was. On my first computer I ever owned. I actually got it a few years b4 this because I played Command and conquer on my playstation and found out there were ALOT more on the pc and she was a beast of a computer too!” sarcasm there btw “ a 20 gb Hard drive, Pentium 3 proc. 2x 512mb of ram, a geforce 5200 128mb, and dial up.... man this game was laggy as hell. It took me 1 min 30 sec to load into most missions, longer on the bigger maps. But man o man did I love this game. lol I was such an altaholic it took me over a year b4 I even got a character past level 15

My friends only lasted a month b4 they left for other MMO's and games, but I stayed. Sadly though I only have the 18 month vet reward and I’m 2 months off 21 atm. I didn’t always have the money to keep the game active, but I did my best. I still love the game even to this day. And with what I have seen/heard so far from the coming issues it looks like it’s only going to go up from here!

So here’s to 4 more years and beyond! *swings mug of freshly poured ice cold Molson Canadian!*

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I remember the night I first "hovered"---at about 0.1mph no less. But...you'd have thought I broke through the dimensional barrier to a reality where such a feat was possible. I was so jazzed-energized, I literally hovered around...just snailing about in the air...for about an hour.

I was a junky from that point forward.


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Same here.

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lol ditto 8)

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April 28, 2004: It took me over an hour to create my first hero. I had to go through every single option in the character creator just to see what was there (and that was release, when there were =WAY= fewer choices).

My friend, who had gotten home much earlier than me, called THREE TIMES as he impatiently waited in Atlas Park for me to arrive. (It's his fault I left on the Colors Linked setting and had yellow skin that I had to live with until Icon debuted.)

The most memorable moment of all was, after finishing the amazing tutorial (I CAN SHOOT FIRE FROM MY HANDS!), was standing around Ms Liberty, amazed that all that all these other heroes were played by actual people from all over the place, online at the same time. I admired the ingenuity of the many costumes I saw.

Then my friend and I went off to kick some Hellion butt. Did I mention how awesome it was to SHOOT FIRE FROM MY HANDS?

Thank you, devs past and present, for the best pasttime I've ever had.

--NT

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They all laughed at me when I said I wanted to be a comedian.
But I showed them, and nobody's laughing at me now!

If I became a red name, I would be all "and what would you mere mortals like to entertain me with today, mu hu ha ha ha!" ~Arcanaville

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I remember the night I first "hovered"---at about 0.1mph no less. But...you'd have thought I broke through the dimensional barrier to a reality where such a feat was possible. I was so jazzed-energized, I literally hovered around...just snailing about in the air...for about an hour.

I was a junky from that point forward.


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Same here.

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lol ditto 8)

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I remember when I was around level 28 and finally felt that I had enough disposable Infl saved up to splurge! on an Fly SO for Hover. Man, it seemed so fast! After cruising around Talos for a bit, I decided that maybe it was time to see when I can fit in the Fly power and have a real means to get around besides jogging.

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Teams are the number one killer of soloists.

February 1st, 2006

That's not bad, right? Right?

I disabled my account around Christmas of '06 after taking almost the entire year getting my first character to 50. After a year-long break, returning just a few months ago, I'm fresh and ready for this I12.

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Not sure of exact date, but Ive got the 39month vet reward and my sub hasnt lapsed since I started.

Early memories that stand out....

The tutorial with my first hero, en en blaster. so excited to be playing after lapping up the movies and screenshots for ages.

Getting my first cape! running around making the cape blow around lol.

Seeing The Clockwork king for the first time. 'He's a giant clockwork robot...with a BRAIN IN A JAR for a head!!!' That still blows me away to this day, and i use it whenever I'm trying to convince friends to play - 'Dude, you can fight a giant clockwork robot with a BRAIN IN A JAR for a head!!!'

The final Freakolympics map for the first time, with the dance music gradually getting louder and louder until you get to the final room. Which is a great room.

Going tourist with my first toon to see the 'dangerous' places, like Portal Corp. I think I swam from the ferry all the way round the island to avoid the mobs, and when I stood in front of the stargate for the first time I thought it looked sooo cool. Cos it does.

I remember the excitement of getting to new levels and asking in channels 'I'm level 30 now! Which zones can I go to now?' - then checking them out.

My first visit to Eden, flying across the landscape, seeing the Hive appear in the distance. Man, it looked so high!

Likewise my first sight of the crashed Rikti mothership back in the RCS zone. How cool is that, when you see it with virgin eyes?

My first Frostfire mission. Ice on the floor! weeeee! And then - a proper hardcore supervillain! brilliant fight.

Now I've seen a lot more, it's sometimes easy to forget how fresh and fantastic it all was. Luckily I still love it, and luckily, I still havent seen it all. Last week I went to the Storm palace for the first time, just to have a look, and it's really cool too (If sadly underused storywise). I cant wait to go there for an actual reason. Whatever it is.

I'm not leaving anytime soon. CoH (And CoV, for that matter) rocks.

Eco.

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MArcs:

The Echo, Arc ID 1688 (5mish, easy, drama)
The Audition, Arc ID 221240 (6 mish, complex mech, comedy)
Storming Citadel, Arc ID 379488 (lowbie, 1mish, 10-min timed)

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I tell ya, when I finally reached level 14 and took flight.. that entire DAY all I did was explore every zone I could. I flew and flew and flew.. I even flew to the top of the tallest building I could, ran off the ledge and let myself fall until I almost hit the ground turning flight on at the last moment and flying at full speed. I was exhilarated. One of my favorite moments ever....

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I genuinely share this personal experience you describe above...

The ability to fly high...
Reaching deep to touch the sky...
A coming to life...a personal revelry...
Unfettered, unmoored, unanchored, unchallenged...
...carefree.

The giddiness.
The silliness.
The smile that stretches wide across my face.
The fuel.
The drive.
The energy that possesses me to race.

Streaking past windows
Arcing over buildings
Buzzing round monuments
Swooping low
Then climbing high...
...again...
All to reach the sky.

Disabling the flight
Plummeting madly out of sight
Racing to crash the earth
Gravity's pull for all its worth...
...only to pause suddenly
and dangle my toes pointedly
To flash a smirk and let loose a laugh...

"I didn't crash this time..."

Only to fly off again...
...to reach to touch the sky.

What I truly would not give to be and to live that experience over and over again...in this factual life.

That experience alone primarily...as it is only as virtual as this game provides...is one of the true reasons I appreciate the arts, the talents, and the skills of this game's designers.

Thanks for four years of flight and freedom.

~ Jonathan

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Sometime September 2006

My PC Powerplay demo CD comes with a free two-week trial for this City of Villains game. I remember seeing the box for this and liking the idea, so why not?

Getting a now-deleted Merc/FF Mastermind gradually to 14 or so with a craptastic build later, all I want is more... but there goes the trial. Damn, that went by fast. The forums rock too.

Some time later, I return a pair of headphones that don't seem to work (recently I learned that it was the headphone ports on the front of the computer that are broken...) and trade them for the City of Heroes box and a game time card.

I can't create villains yet? Eh well, Sabre Justice is made, he fights his way through Outbreak and enters a city cloaked in darkness... Halloween event huh? A few levels, a free costume slot and one dead Eochai later the darkness clears.

Severe altitis, a couple respecs, a hiatus of a few months and a lot of changes later, Sabre Justice is level 45, has a long flowing cape and an awesome high-tech sword, and is showing no signs of stopping again.

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February 14th, 2006.

Some people were romancing their significant others. I had had a long day at work, and so went to talk to my friend at a local games shop about this game... I purchased it, and here I am.

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