6-Year Anniversary Address from War Witch

Hello everyone!

This is War Witch and we’re six-years strong today, but can you believe it - this is my very first Anniversary address. How exciting! (Seriously. It's a thrill for me!)

I am so proud to be working on a game that, year after year, provides enjoyment for its players and is a project that is near and dear not only to my heart, but my fellow Paragonians as well.

How cool is it that Issue 17 is coming out TODAY on our Anniversary? New storyarcs, updated Positron Task Force (can I get a “yeah, baby!”??), animated tails (which you have been clamouring for!), Auction House UI/performance upgrades, Global Mail attachments (I like to call it “GleeMail”, not sure if it’ll stick), and more Mission Architect upgrades, new emotes, Level 20 access to Epic Archetypes, and (as the marketing guys like to say)…much more!

I’m also extremely excited about the City of Heroes Going Rogue Expansion this summer! Everyone here at Paragon Studios has put their hearts into it and it’s going to be a lot of fun! This is our premier expansion and we’re very excited to see all our hard work over the last year make it to you guys!

So there is a lot in store for you with new Power Sets, new zones (in the awesomeness that is Praetoria), more missions, and the Going Rogue system (with has lots of missions, too). Not only that, but familiar characters that you met in Paragon City or the Rogue Isles make a re-appearance in this alternate universe, and a teensy tinsy introduction to the Incarnate System should keep you level 50s busy for some time!

Plus, we have more costumes and emotes so you can truly experience what it is like to be a Praetorian. You may have already chosen your side before ever having seen the content, but you will definitely learn that in the world of Praetoria, everything is shades of gray; no one is a true villain, or hero, for that matter.

It has been an amazing time for me, especially in this last year, and I want to thank all of you for being the wonderful and loyal players that you are. I especially want to thank you for taking our game and making it richer and deeper by infusing your own stories, your own lives and friendships, and your own experiences into it. I say this loudly and proudly; I believe that we have the best community in the entire MMO space – loyal and passionate, caring and sincere, respectful and creative.

Happy Anniversary!

War Witch

P.S. Last year, I made an unofficial “Happy Anniversary” post and gave you my big long list of things I fondly remember about City of Heroes. This year, I’m putting the ball in your court.

What is your favourite memory over the last 6 years playing City of Heroes?

Mine is probably listening to Ascendant standing next to a phone booth talking to his agent, Saul, about the Ascendant-O’s cereal issue. Yes, it was me who put in the atmospheric dialogue, “Ascendant who? Sorry, you have the wrong number,” as an homage to his comedic brilliance.

Yeah, baby!

My favorite memory has to be actually outside the game: pre-HeroCon, the first year I went up to San Jose and got to meet and greet with you devs. To have such a family-feel of people, a marvelous bunch of folks that I trust implicitly to do what's best for their game.

Also, talking with the Big Guy Clayton at San Diego at the wonderful party that was thrown there.

It makes me cringe any time some newcomer or old bitter player comes along and complains that the devs "aren't doing enough" - they're doing it all right, and they're doing it far and away better than pretty much every other dev team in the MMO industry. (And I say that knowing that several of my friends work for Blizzard and others.)

In the game... Well there's this story I have.

I am on Retail Retali8r, my emp/dark defender. On a mostly pickup group doing some AV's, and we were working on the outdoor Mother Mayhem mission. We're going along pretty well, we find the AV and bunch up around a corner. I assert that I can pull nicely, with Moonbeam. Okay, so we do that once or twice, works like a charm.

And then as I'm going to snipe and pull another, I hit AUTORUN and run directly into the main mob! Everyone appears to misunderstand my lack of typing (and presumably the wwwwwwaaaaaaanooo no no no aaaaieee! after) and jumps in. We faceplant, but still, it was the most hilarious oops moment - we did eventually get our AV, after a bit of collecting ourselves.

That, and any of Badge's Robot Rampage events. They're freaking sweet.

Favorite memory: On test back after CoV went live, a developer under the guise of Lord Recluse teamed with me and gave me the yellow title "Right Hand of Lord Recluse." Was an awesome experience to team with the one and only Lord Recluse

Favorite Memory: reaching the shadow shard and realizing just how ludicrous it's size and scope was.

My favorite memory:

The 6 year Anniversary event on Liberty.

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.

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yes, I have a short memory.

My favorite memory has to do with what War Witch refered to as "the best community in the entire MMO space."

CoH was my first online gaming experience, and Man, was I lost. Got giggled at for not being able to figure out you had to click on the security guard to pass through the door to the Hollows (among other goofs).

But then a player on a high-level 'troller named Orion Arms took pity on me, took me under their wing, and very patiently, over the course of a few sessions, taught me the ins-and-outs of MMO gaming in general, and CoH gaming specifically.

I've never forgot how relieved I felt having met her (after some early frustration), and how knowing she would be there to help me, made me that much MORE anxious to log in and play.

I've been trying to pay that kindness and consideration forward for years now...hope I'm living up to the example Orion Arms set for me in those early days.

The First time I Won a Costume Contest...

what a rush.

my favorite memory from the past 6 years of playing was a few years ago when a beloved hero and friend passed away. all of you on the triumph server knew him as Macron. Funny thing is, way back when, i saw him solo hamidon.. yes it was possible, with his elec/elec blaster. but back to my favorite memory. my favorite memory wasnt when he passed, but the big hero gathering in King's Row shortly after he passed and word got around. KR was packed to the fullest and everyone lit the torch emote and gathered in remembrance of an awesome player, hero, and friend.

Favorite memory? Too tough to choose just one, so I'll make a short list(in no particular order)

-First time I got to experience the pure awesome that is Stygian Circle. It is still my favorite power in the game. Really the entire Warshade experience from levels 22 to 50 is some of the most fun I've ever had in this game. Maybe I should make another one...

-Finally getting my first 50. It was a long process, I spent levels 32-39 in debt the entire time. You darn kids got it easy these days!!!

-Realizing that I'm a Scrapper at heart. I play other ATs(sometimes), but nothing brings me joy in this game like listening to some Disturbed, zoning out, and killing endless streams of baddies.

-

The People. You Know Who You Are.

Damn, six years? That's not an MMO, that's a relationship.

My favorite memory...that's a tough one.

The first one that comes to mind happened my very first day playing CoH five years ago. I was a lost little nooblet standing under Atlas on Infinity and a lvl 50 came up to me and gifted me with 150K influence. Totally blew me away. About 5 minutes after that, I joined a PuG that eventually became the 5th Element. I love you guys!

The second is a bit of an offshoot of this first snippet of charity and that is how many incredible players participated in the first run of the RealWorldHero.com charity drive and how much amazing support we received from the devs. You all never cease to amaze me.

There's tons more...HeroCon 2008 and our staff of uber pwnage, the wonderful folks I work with at The Cape Radio, attending HeroCon 2009 as the Wentworths and having PirateCashoo kill us...it's all been a blast.

Here's to a happy 6 years! May there be many more to come!

xoxo,
Sultry Siren

First one for me would be Halloween 2006 on Virtue. Yes, that title in my signature? It's the truth. A bit of unintended hilarity. Several devs showed up to a halloween party in Salamanca, Manticore being one of them. I don't think anyone knew that they would be coming, much less Manticore. Redwinged being my Archery/Fire/Fire Blaster, going as Manticore was kind of a gimme. So I spent ... I don't know how many hours getting the costume just right. There were three or four other Manticores there as well, but somehow I got first place - despite being the wrong gender.

And I gotta share the second, because I know one of you out there is going to remember what event it was - I can't for the life of me. Anyway. There was an unbelievably massive crowd in Pocket D, everyone screaming out for yellow titles. It was chaos, and Manticore brought order to it by having everyone line up on the ramp to the southwest portal. Even that was fairly chaotic, and they asked for volunteers to help maintain some order. Well, for better or worse (I'd like to think better) I raised my hand and got picked to help maintain some semblance of sanity. Manticore wasn't feeling well and Arctic Sun took over dispensing titles, going well, well past the scheduled stop time. I think the Devs were there till about 1AM Pacific. Just a fantastic event.

But I think the biggest thing is probably the fact that I came back to CoX. I've played a number of MMOs; UO, EQ, WoW (yeahyeah,) the list goes on. I've quit all of them, including CoX. But CoX was the only one I ever came back to again, and the only one that ever felt like a home.

Thanks for 6 years folks. Sure, I missed 2 of 'em, but I'll find some way to make up for lost time.

Favourite memories?

- Hitting 50 with my SG (who also dinged) all within the same weekend. DXP, ITF and the Final RWZ arc made it particularly epic.

- The Omega Sektor Hero Con a couple of years back in the UK. No sleep, lots of good friends, flashing security guards and getting a 'WHOOP' from War Witch when I mentioned that my character was Canadian.

- The first time the Rikti invasions hit. Standing on top of the Talos Island hill blasting, buffing and just fighting wave after wave of invaders... that was truly epic and really felt like a community event.


I'm sure there'll be many more to come. Here's to the future!

HeroCon 2009.

Receiving one of the 5 ever given participation awards, and a free year of service, for embracing what this game is about and trying to spread the joy as best as I can.

Before that was my tenure on the City Scoop, and interacting with, what is the best player base in the entire history of games.

Every day is an adventure with this game, it's players and it's development team. It has been an honor and a privilege to be a part of and recognized by all three.

Sincerely Yours,

Arbiter Fabulous

I miss the burrito/magic enhancement stores

I guess my fondest memory is meeting some good friends.

Wow! Just wow! My fave moments... Let's see....

-Joining the All-Star Sentinels [Shameless SG plug]
-Mission Architect! Talk about a story telling platform.
-Oroborus! Can we pleeeease get Mayhem/Safeguard into here as miniarcs?
-Dual Blades for my homage to my late cousin's old EQ character.
-Kinetic Melee! I know it's not out yet, but I have a name, background, and AE arc planned for our SG the day it is.
-Croatoa! Most dislike the zone, but I feel it is one of the best XP bumps in the game.
-Annnnd the Rikti Warzone revamp! I lub mothership raids!

And finally, all the great players I have teamed with over the years! Here's to six more years everyone!

- Discovering that AE does wonders for overcoming writer's block.
- Finding out that when I team with other Canadians, there's a complete change in attitude and personality.
- The gleeful sensation of overkill that comes with Warburg Nukes
- Dying 76 times in a single Old Posi Task Force, run entirely by blasters.
- Most of all, finding that no matter what stresses, or difficulties I might come into the game with, there's always people who will encourage you, and brighten your day.

My favorite moment was getting a petless Mastermind to 50 and decking it out with IOs.

Video here

Here's to another 6 years of quirky builds!

Gratz again on getting your current job, WW.

My favorite memory? I'm torn between soloing my first AV and having Castle joke about creating specific nerfs for me.

It's been a hoot watching this game evolve over the years and I look forward to all the new stuff that will be added in the years to come. <cough>offlinesg/vginvites<cough>

Oh, wow... favorite memory?

It sounds stupid, but I'd say the support of the players I've gotten in the almost-four-years I've been making fan videos for this game (and even from some of the rednames, past and present). The CoH community has some of the most awesomest people.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

Favorite memory:

Flying through Steel Canyon for the first time. "Oh my.... someone has made a game where I can FLY!"

Other favorites:

My first night in game, getting invited to a team in Perez Park, running through the maze fighting everything in sight. So much lag (my computer at the time barely met the minimum requirements).

Attacking Jurassik with my scrapper, a tanker, and no one else. The battle was abrupt. That car's bumper STILL has pieces of my scrapper's liver stuck on it.

Seeing someone's lvl 30 Devouring Earth ambush running through Kings Row. "Woah, those are trees, and they're walking. I'm going to be high enough level to fight those some day."

So many great teams, with so many great people.

Entering the Hive and seeing a Hami Raid for the first time. All those people... all that lag.

What a game!

Thanks War Witch! Very excited about the future.

I can share the 2 fondest memories I have of this game.

1.) The first (although cliche) would be the first day of playing this game. I read about it in a computer magazine before it was released, and was so hyped about it. It finally came out, and I got it. This was my first ever online game period, and I couldn't play it because I didn't have a graphics card. After getting together some money, I finally bought a new computer and was able to play.

First character was my dream fire/fire blaster. I was listening to trustCompany's "Hover" when the game finished updating and I loaded into outbreak.

2.) The first day I got fly on my fire/fire blaster. I had been looking so forward to fly, that this moment just blew my mind. I flew around Steel Canyon for HOURS. I remember it storming outside IRL too. :P

But the past 6 years have been great. Here's to 6 more!