5 Years later...

I've told this story before, but here goes one more time.

I haven't read comics in years, and always disliked video games - terrible waste of time! Then one day my roomie, who was a seriously avid gamer, came home with CoH and I kept looking over his shoulder while he played it, "say, that looks sort of... fun..."

Still here 3 years later. :P

Lisa hops into the thread smiling broadly.

I am probably the most unlikely of COH players. As well as being female, I am probably old enough to be a granny to a lot of you

Growing up I never bothered a lot with games. I have a poor short term memory, meaning it takes several tries for me to get stuff loaded into long term memory, and I am a clutz, and, what's worse, I am an emotional type of person.

Sooooo....Being an emotional clutz who doesn't catch on to things lickedly split..gaming never held any sort of appeal to me.

45 months ago, my better half bought himself an early Christmas present. It was City Of Heroes. He was hooked on it. I would enjoy looking over his shoulder and watch the fights, but, when he asked me if I wanted to play I would look at all the violence, shudder, think about doing what he was doing, but with my clutziness, and I would shudder again.

I tried to make up for it. I encouraged his talking about it, I would bring him snacks and meals to his computer when he was in a taskforce or something, I would perch over his shoulder, and discuss with him about what he was doing.

Finally, a couple of months later, Mark thought it was time. He bought another copy of the game, and despite my very loud protests, he installed it on my computer. He then paid for a year's subscription and even bought me a new video card and power supply.

He was soo sure I would love the game if only I would try.

I vividly recalll making my first toon.

It was Friday and I had the day off. I stood in Outbreak scared to my very toes..you see I had read the forums in an attempt to understand things, and I read a thread about how the more experienced players disliked noobs, and kicked them off of teams..being kicked off a team sounded horrible.

Anyways, I was a clutz, and had never played a video game before, and was, thanks to my forum reading, convinced that all the other players would see I was a noob and make disdainful comments to me, and, and, and,I was emotional about the whole thing...I was in Outbreak the whole darn day.

I couldn't run in a straight line, nor could I jump over a car....and when I saw other players I froze. My fingers were frozen on the keyboard, my eyes staring intently at whatever player crossed my path...Oh mee.

Mark came home from work, and when he finished laughing his head off, he made a toon,went into Outbreak and dragged my toon by the ear into Atlas Park.

I am now quite addicted. I still cannot run in a straight line, but I can leap over cars in a single bound, and I am not at all afraid to send a tell to another player and engage in conversation

I love this game

I think THIS: ftp://ftp.coh.com/movies/coh_720x405.wmv) was my first awareness of COH. I fell in love instantly.

I followed the development of CoH starting during it's Alpha stage. Followed the development as it went from Alpha to Beta. Remember sadly the change from the free power selection to Archetypes (a decision now vindicated as we see that other game failing).

Started playing during the pre-order phase of beta. I'd played MMO's before, but my first 5 minutes in CoH were a revelation. The graphics, the movement, the way the powers worked, it was amazing. Played for a good long while. Took a break or two (the most notable being when CoV launched and Regen got it's IH non-toggle nerf. Like many I raged against ED, but in the end came to love the new system. I came back for i11 (Dual Blades!) and haven't left since.

I'm just about to receive my 60 month vet badge.

It's been a rocky road, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. I love this game.

Oh, and a tip of the hat to Boxhead (Boxhed?) A few of you might remember who I mean.

**Edit** I notice, with some amusement, that I've got the earliest Join Date so far in this thread.

Join Date: Mar 2004

Welp, if we're sharing memories...

First I heard of the game was reading a thread about it in the games forum on somethingawful. I forget why, probably was just bored. But anyway, I thought it looked cool and hey, they had a link for a free trial. So I thought, why not. I was getting bored of WoW at the time so yeah. So I made an account, waited while the game took some 20 hours to download. (My parents' internet connection was and often still is a steaming pile of crud)

I remember thinking at the end that the game better have been worth all the time it took to download, especially since due to the aforementioned not very good internet it basically locked me out of doing anything else online for all that time. But eventually I got in and made if I remember rightly, a spines/regen scrapper. (Before you ask, no at the time I didn't know it was a popular build at all) And the costume... oh god, the costume. In three years of playing this game, I'm pretty sure I haven't come across a costume more unintentionally eyebleeding than that one. But whatever, in I went. Started in Galaxy City, wandered around stabbing stuff for a bit, found the guy I was supposed to talk to, got his missions and did them. Usual newbie stuff.

Then, this guy tells me he wants to introduce me to another contact. So it gives me a guy in Kings Row, the one on a roof near the train station. I forget his name. However at the time I didn't know the game had trains. I was used to WoW with its having to go everywhere at least once. So off I went to the marker at the edge of the map labelled 'Kings Row'. Loading in and running down the road a bit, I find myself suddenly stomped flat by a giant robot. I just sort of sat there going 'wtf?' for a bit, before realising that yes, a giant robot did indeed just kick my *** with no warning.

Ended up on a team to kill that robot and all, if I remember rightly. But anyway. Pretty much right about then I decided I wanted this game. Though I didn't actually get it until some six months later, when I had some money left over after buying textbooks for university. So I figured I'd shoot down to the mall and buy a new game to pass the time when not studying, and when I get there I notice a single CoH box and a single CoV box on the shelf. I bought both, plus the two 60 day cards they had. I remember they were $30 each, which was kickass since that's New Zealand dollars. WoW cards here were and still are $50 each.

Sadly I don't have that scrapper still, as I for reasons I don't remember deleted all my characters leftover from the trial when I bought the game. No, that doesn't make sense to me either. I do however have the first character I made after that, which was also a spines/regen scrapper. Though with a far less eyebleeding costume. She was my first 50.

And I even managed to pass most of my courses that year too. Was the next year that I didn't, after discovering roleplaying and getting more obsessed than is healthy.

Kind of amusing though that after all the time I've put into this game, both parts of the reason I got it at all were more or less pure random chance.

Apologies for the wall of possibly nonsensical text.

I can't remember how I came into it. I know I was coming off of NWN, I applied for beta and got in. Only thing that sticks in my mind is that I thought I was so damn cool when I got hover. Take 10 mins and hover to the top of that building lol

Good times!...

ehh, why not, I'll tell my story.

Sometime in June '04, a bit after COH launched, I was 19 in college, in another state away from "home" one of my roommates worked at the local CompUSA. So, me being a huge computer nerd, I would hang out at that CompUSA. however, I was a broke kid back then, struggling to make rent, bills, college, etc. my computer at the time was an old throw away from a company I worked for back then, wasn't a great machine, but hey, they said if I could fix the computer, I could have it. (Pro tip, never tell a real computer nerd that, he will fix it, and he will end up with a free PC) but I had been saving up money to actually build a rig. So, one day while I was putting it together, my roommate gets back from work, and he has a new game. COH.

with nothing better to do, and no money to actually do anything myself, I just watched him play, he teamed up with a few coworkers who had picked it up as well, I watched him get to level 10, and I was like "I want to play this"

So, with my "new" rig finally finished, I got a trial key. And played that trial to the very last day, I got to level 15. I knew then that I could not afford to actually purchase the game, much less hold the subscription. Other issues were going on in my life, I would eventually be leaving that area to go back home to try another college, meaning employment changes and etc.
So, as a symbol of hope, I took my level 15 energy/ice blaster, and flew him up to the bald headed statue in Steel Canyon. And logged out.

2 years later, I’m married, have a job. And am getting very bored with other non-mmo games, so think back to when I was in college, and then I remember COH. So, in August of 06, I break out my old box, run the installer. Spend a few hours downloading new updates, checking the site out. And made the purchase to subscribe.

once I log in, I thought it was going to crash, in the 2 years I had been out, from issue 0 to issue 7, quite a few new things, like badges for example, all those new things loading on my character caused the game to freeze for about 30 seconds. My first thought was like, "well crap, this is going so well...." but, when it was done, I flew off that bald headed statue, shot a few things, and went on. Had fun.

My wife got interest and sat beside me, and watched me play. I let her use one of the character slots to make a claw/regen scrap. She had so much fun, she purchased the game. Her experience into the game was much like my initial experience.

I may not have had an active account the entire time; some of the issues were, frankly, IMHO very blah. But, I keep coming back. Year after year.

Had it not been for my old roommate back in college, I would have never picked up on MMOs, I would probably still be playing Quake or something, nah, right now I would probably be finishing up Fallout new Vegas or w/e. but, since then MMO's are my preferred game type.


And that’s my story.

My brother played it before I did, and was kind enough to let me make my own character. That guy was probably the reason my first char and first 50 was a tanker.
I read about it again in a games mag, reading and re-reading the article.

Finally, I managed to win the war with my parents to let me play an MMO.
And nearly three years on, and here we are. No more conscripted hours for ME!
Stay classy, Paragon

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

I actually bought this as a way to save money. I figured that one month of CoH was cheaper than one night at the bar, which is now reserved for the weekends (mostly). If i stayed in a few extra nights a month it'd add up over time. Well, a few extra nights became more than a few and my liver thanks me.

What I didn't truly expect was how great the community is. Much closer knit than EQ was, and a much more casual friendly game. Now with i19 on the way and 72+ (i think) months under my belt, I have no regrets.

Thanks to the OP for a nice, inspirational post.

*ahem*

@TURGENEV - Freedom Server / IRON / B.A.N.E / HORDE

Turg Fiction: Ghost in the Machine Acts III & IV coming 2012!
Turg Fiction: IX is now LIVE on Architect Entertainment!

Two years and two months into the game.

I've played every MMO around, but this is the one that stuck with me, being a huge comic book fan.

I was just browsing IGN and saw the review and was like "Superhero MMO? Hell yes!"

Back in march of 2007 my husband bought the game home, wasn't even aware he bought the game in the first place. I thought the game was stupid at first, I honestly don't remember why, maybe I thought it was for nerds. Well hubby said you should try it, so I reluctantly did and OMG how much I love this game now, ok so I am a nerd so what. Thanks hubby for introducing me and getting me hooked on this wonderful game.

I first heard about this game from a preview in PC Gamer. I was playing SWG at the time, which I wasn't going to get into until I found I was making excuses to jump on my brother's computer to play. I really didn't buy into the whole "MMO" idea at first, but it grew on me. I finally broke down and bought my own copy of the game, and a few months later started seeing info about City of Heroes. When I saw the preorder box in Best Buy, I thought "Well, there's a chance for beta access, at the very least if I don't like it I can cancel, or I can play SWG and CoH." ^_^ Sure.

So, after entering the preorder key, I waited...and I waited...I found out that a round of Beta had started; still no email. So, I waited. Eventually I found out that another wave of Beta invites were being issued, so, that night, I played SWG with one eye on my email. Around 11, maybe midnight, I see an email from Cryptic with my Beta access and a link to download the game. I was wandering around the dune sea with my rifleman, and not doing anything really important, so I logged out to download CoH and give it a try.

My poor Wookiee Rifleman was marooned in the dune sea for days. ^_^

I was hooked from the moment I started up the game. I've kept my subscription up ever since, through a brief stint with WoW and Aion, and have been in many a beta since then, including CoV and GR.

So, now 6 years and what is it? 7 months, give or take, I'm still here, and not planning on going anywhere.

Speaking for myself, I played a number of RPG's, since 5th grade or so (just so you know, I am old enough to have played D&D out of the Blue Box... sheesh...), and one of the ones that most enchanted me was Champions. Geeky as it seems, I loved going over and over the character creation system, trying to get a few more points out here and there or trying to figure out how to simulate a given exotic power.
It may not be news to anyone here, but Champions was almost made into a computer game at least twice, way, way back when (I believe one of the versions was slated to run on the Commodore 64), but always had the rug yanked out from under it at the last second. The game seemed to be cursed.

Then came my exposure to EQ - I never actually played, but I had had years of exposure to MUD's and similar systems in college (AniMUCK FTW!), and the idea that one could actually create a 3D multiplayer interactive world blew me away. My spouse and I spent more hours than I care to really watching a friend play.

Then, I heard - I have no idea where - that someone was creating a superhero game - an MMORPG, with customizable superbeings. I was ecstatic.
Once the game actually came out, I couldn't talk myself into buying a game that had a subscription at first... I think it was the videos that someone made of the dancing in Atlas, when that was added to the game (Purple Patch, I think? Issue 1?) that finally did it.

I've been here since then, playing more or playing less, but always having fun.

Ironically, of course, Champions was finally actually made into a video game... only without the one thing that truly made it an amazing game, the Hero System character creation rules.
Given recent events, one might say that the Champions Curse is alive and well, that it's just gotten craftier with age...