Hey Other Multi-Year Vets

Been here since May 9th, 2004.

No breaks.

14 level 50s.

As my reg date shows, I'm not an "old timer" here.
Up until a couple years ago, I was still in school and scratching along on a 6+ year old computer.
That and I had a massive chip on my shoulder against "rent to pwn".
Still, I'd seen it around and thought it was interesting.

I wish I could say that it was CoH that knocked that chip off, but it wasn't.
I played Pirates of the Carribean Online for a couple months. What eventually drove me away there was the single leveling path.

Still, eventually I DID upgrade my computer and stumbled across CoH again while waltzing through my local Frys. I figured "what the hell".
Well, it was only about 2 days later that I started "collecting" all the rest of the editions of CoH/CoV and after all the "free" time expired, I started paying.

It's cheaper than dinner and a movie. It lasts longer. And best of all, it's a HELL of a lot more interactive.

That and I'm a community junkie to some degree (kinda how I got into the gaming industry in the first place).

Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.

This is the first MMO I ever played, the computer game I've spent the most time with and I recently re-upped for another year.

So, yeah. Looking forward to GR. No real complaints other than the dev's obtuseness about merged markets.

Been here for 5 and a bit years, made some virtual friends who became real life friends, I love every bit of CoH .........the bugs, the mistakes, the new people, the old people, it's like a lovely second family nothings perfect

While the community and devs are great, to be sure, I continue to launch the COH icon because it's the only game I've ever played that I've never gotten bored of. (Unless you count Bejeweled on my iPhone...)

--NT

Blue_Battler really said it best, for me. I bought/installed the game on April 28th, 2004 and have played without interruption ever since. My very first toon was Healix, my little healer. She is still with me...This game has seen me through a lot of changes in my personal life over 6 years...it is certainly the cheapest therapy I could ever afford LOL. I have made friends here that I will have for the rest of my life. I have laughed myself silly sometimes, shared in saddness for the person behind the toon and rejoiced as well. There is a rich history for me with this game...and as long as CoH goes on, I want to be there for the ride.

(*nibbles on Miss Healix's toes*)

My otherworldly counterpart has been following this game since late 2004, but, due to technical difficulties, was not able to manifest on Primal Earth until December 2008.

Yesterday was our 18-month anniversary here.

I cannot imagine spending time on any other world as much as I have spent (and will spend) protecting innocents from naughty spawns (and rescuing Statesman when he gets entangled in trees). I shall be here until the heat death of the omniverse (or the servers get shut off -- whichever comes first).

Even if DCUO has state-of-the-art full-holographic VR, and I get to be Catwoman's kitten-modeled sidekick, I still cannot imagine abandoning *THIS* world!

I have met so many wonderful and caring people (particularly in my SG) and some of you on the Forums have taken this (admittedly adorable) wandering little stray into your hearts. Thanks muchly for that.

(*SUPA-KITTEH GROUP HUGGLE!!!*)

I was dragged into City Of Heroes kicking and screaming.

My better half bought the game and noticed that I had gotten into the habit of peering over his shoulder while he played. Everytime he asked me if I wanted to play, I would look at all the violence and shudder. "No thanks" said I.

Well, he felt in his bones that I would really enjoy the game so he went out and bought a copy for me, installed it on my computer, and paid for a year's subscription.

To my fiendish glee, when he fired the game up he noticed my Video card was not up to snuff...when I chose my computer gaming was not on my short list

I was whipping out my checkbook, all set to write him a check for all the moneys he spent, when he whipped out his car keys and off we went to Best Buy.

When we got there, Mark told the employee what he wanted the card for, and asked him which card/power supply combo he would recommend to his mom if she were to take to playing City Of Heroes.

Sooo...with all the money he spent, I felt I had to play....besides it would be something we could do together

My last vet reward was the Boxing outfit, so that tells you how long ago that was

And hmmmm...all of you guys who wish your wives would start playing City Of Heroes...it has a lot of pluses, but there are cons.

If she plays as avidly as you, you will find the house is not squeaky clean, Laundry piles up, you will find yourself eating more frozen dinners or take out especially on double XP weekends and when a new issue starts. Some nights she will poke you awake to tell you about a simply wonderful idea for a new toon she thought of....

Your cats will start meowing at you to pet them because they no longer get all the attention they once did....and when a cat wants attention...Oy Vay

Lisa-Smiling at the memories

While I can't say it's the community that keeps me here (I know of better, but this one is well above average), I do have 66+ months on my main account (57ish on the second account). I guess I just don't see why I'd have to choose one game. I'm active in up to 8 (including multiple accounts in many of them) because I don't always feel like dealing with CoH, so I don't.

Joined in May of '04 at the behest of a guildmate's (in EQ) wife who knew how prodigious my comic collection is. But at that time, I was raiding daily and an officer so I didn't have time to devote to more than two games (I was also playing Earth & Beyond at the time). So I'd pop in every once in a while and play with her and the kids only to later find out said guildmate had also started playing (fire/fire tanker, to pair with the wife's fire/something controller). Then they quit as a result of the purple patch and the burn nerf and at some point, I forgot to cancel my account so kept getting hit every month (despite the fact that we had all jumped to WoW as of the last phase of closed and the stress test). Came back at Issue 4's release and been here since, opened a second account May of '05. What's funny is, I finally became sure enough of the game to sub for a full year and did so in May or June of 05 just weeks before the details of Issue 5 (and the wonderful Global Defense Nerf) hit the Training Room. Boy I felt like a rube and didn't feel confident enough to go with annual billing again until last June.

But I don't have to choose one or the other, so I don't. I have my two accounts here, four in EVE, one in WoW, an undisclosed number in EQ1 (though in my defense, they were subbed for 2 years each and don't expire until late this year and I was really into the game when I reactivated them), lifetime in Champions and LOTRO, Runes of Magic, A Tale in the Desert, and so on. Sometimes, I don't feel like dealing with CoH or its various idiosyncrasies. So I play something else. I'm not 'going steady' with any MMO.

I was terribly uninterested in this game, since I wanted a new Freedom Force instead, and the thought of an MMO, with thousands of superheroes in just one city, seemed kinda silly to me. Even Marvel spreads out their characters, instead of all of them in NYC. <_<

After the NDA was lifted, and the mass of pics, details, and explanations from other players started to flood forums I visited, I really wanted to play this game, and thus, I picked it up on Launch Day.

I've played other MMOs (Champions and STO, beta'd Aion as well), but CoH is the only game I've stuck with all these years. =^_^=

I've been playing since August of '04.

I won my copy of CoH at Gen Con Indy 2004. NCSoft/Cryptic had a booth there, and they were doing daily trivia contests with the game as prizes. All the questions were about comics and superheroes.

The question when I visited the booth: Who played Spawn in the movie?

The answer: Michael Jai White. I was the first person to get it right and won my copy. It was even signed by Statesman (aka Jack). He handed it to me himself. I still have the box.

Been playing ever since.

I picked up the game after my brother started playing. At the time, for some bizarre reason I was playing the horrifying grindfest that is Lineage II. He showed me how new characters start out fighting gang members instead of rats and work their way up from there. I created my first character on his account, an Elec/Elec Blaster named Crimson Thunder. I got him to level 6 and knew I had to have my own account.

A few days later I traded in some games at EBGames and picked up my own copy. I started May 27, 2004, and though I've taken a few breaks here and there, CoH remains my favorite MMO.

Part of why I continue subscribing is because of the introduction to the costume creator I got, when a friend (who left the game) showed me the customization options. This was back in Issue 2.

"How well can it make a Magical Girl?" I asked.

As it turned out, the answer was not very well. But I figured that maybe I should try the game out anyway.

Issue 4 brought some hope, but not all the costume pieces fit that well. Issue 6 with CoV was a little too skulls-and-spiky, but at least it had more options. More costumes, booster packs, so on and so forth.

I still can't make the magical girl characters I want to make, but it always seems to be getting there with every other costume update. So I subscribe to be able to post on the official forums for More Frills, More Lace, More Skirts.

Also, the global chat system. I play this game now as a single-player game with an inbuilt IRC client, just the way I wanted.

I started in June '04 and got my husband hooked for a little bit, but his interest lays with first-person shooters so the kids took over his account. Besides the Sims, it's the only computer game that's held my interest for any length of time

I was on the boards pre-beta, within the first month they were opened up as I recall. I would have been in the game from the start, but when beta started up they increased the minimum system requirements *just* over what I had and my beta invite was wasted. It took me a bit to upgrade.

I've left twice since I started, I think, once from general apathy and the second time because I was hoping ChO would be more to my liking (it simultaneously came very close and fell far short).

And while the community is certainly one of the main reasons I return, the other draw is that I love to create and play superheroes and this is the most palatable attempt at a game that allows me to do so that I've found thus far. I'm certainly prepared to move on the moment something better comes along, but at this point I don't expect it'll be happening.

Been here for a while. Stayed because the animations and art direction are top notch. The people are friendly and helpful, more often than not. Myself excepted

After playing CoV for a year, I missed the sunshine so much that getting CoH was a must! And it doesn't matter if the office buildings make no sense or that I've memorized every spawn point. It's all the unexpected, wonderful things that happen in teams that makes this the game I never leave

Thanks for years of great fun!

Been here since summer 07. Was looking for a new home after the NGE ravaged SWG, and found it in Paragon City. While I've had to take multiple breaks since then, I always find myself back here.

One thing here is that it's its own universe, and your character(s) is/are YOUR creation. With SWG, STO, WoW I feel like I'm just one of many and that my story is written for me, I just have to act (or play, rather) it out. Here, I made my character's story. I already have a 30-some page MS Word fanfic on him, and am working on a second. I've tried doing the same with my SWG and STO characters, but it just doesn't seem to work as well.

I also love how there's no grinding (despite what many of the haters/uninformed say). I've never once gone out and beat up a bunch of Skulls to get to the next level. There is so much "story" content out there, there's really no need. The only reason I've done the above is because of role play reasons (I'm a hero, I should be beating the snot out of purse snatchers ). And of course the history and lore of the game is amazing.

After basically 3 years (about 2 in terms of play time) I'm still not at the level cap, and am in no rush. CoH is what made me a fan of games/MMOs (the few that are like this) where it's more about the journey, than the destination. And while I'm not known in the community, the people I've seen here on the forums, and the few I've talked to in-game have for the most part been some pretty cool people. Much better than the $h!thole that is the STO forums and Zone chat.

I haven't been on in quite a while, but yesterday when I got back in I noticed Protector was practically a ghost town. In maybe two hours worth of gameplay, I saw two heroes. That actually made me rather sad; to see such a well built, well balanced game so empty. Especially when you've got half-*****, half-destroyed games like CO, STO, and SWG still kicking (granted the first two are still rather new). I pray this game gets back to its former glory and continues into the near future, as it's become my second MMO home.

I have been here longer than my Avatar suggests..

Originally got the game on import when it came out and played maybe for 6 months but left as due to the odd times i worked there was maybe 2 teams in all that time.Left to play neocron until EU beta came out and have been here ever since.

Now working shifts which mean combined with family i get 2 weeks a month where i get no where near the game,considering canceling sub if the EU servers get any worse for teams.

Joined around the time I2 hit live and though I have always wandered away I always come back to CoH. It's my first and most loved MMO.

Quite simply:
At 15$/Mo., this game has given me a Fun/$Cost ratio that is quite satifactory.

And it has the elements that I enjoy in a game.

I've been here since Day 1 and this game keeps getting better. Yeah its seen some ups and downs, but it has always remained fun. I enjoy coming up with original concepts and characters, and I really enjoy some of the time and effort others put into their heroes/villains. The biggest reason I stick around...customization. I like the fact at Lvl 50 my Mind/Storm Controller will look and play different than another.