City of Choices

I've been here the whole 7+ years, and even back to 2001, when City of Heroes was just a forum with future hopeful players. I rarely post and it's extremely rare for me to start a thread, so indulge me a bit. Normally, around the anniversary, I've posted memories from Beta and the various "uphill in snow both ways" list of what the game had back at launch, and how much is added.

For the 7th Anniversary, I want to list what makes CoH/V unique or important to me, and why I have subscribed the entire time, while newer MMOs have either lost or not gotten my interest.

1) Sidekick/exemplar system: Hands down, a great game mechanic. You can play with your friends who have joined at a different time than you, or with any new alt. Everyone has challenge and rewards, nobody needs to be left out anymore.

2) Dynamic and Scaling systems: Want your missions harder? With more mobs? No problem, you can choose from a number of settings. What most players may not know is that the zones also scale, based on how many players are in an area and how many teams there are, and what size the teams are. So, if you're all alone in Steel Canyon, you'll mostly see groups of minions and Lts, but if there's a lot of teams, you'll start seeing boss groups. I consider that a wonderful mechanic that few MMOs seem to have.

3) Customizing: It was the first MMO, I believe, where you could choose from so much variety in the look of your character. Even the few with customization that have since come out still don't match how much you can do here.

4) Character Power/Skill Variety: I love that no two of any archetype is entirely the same here. Every decision we make can be truly our own and still be viable. The amount of choices from the Primary and Secondary Pools, the four Power Pools, the Epic Pools, the choices in using Enhancements in them.. all of these can allow for individuality that doesn't exist on other MMOs. You can really create a character that you are envisioning.

5) Freedom of Story: Although the more recent additions don't follow this, up until the last two years or so, my character's origin, background and story was up to me. While there was a lore and a backstory to the game, it was so all-encompassing that just about every concept could fit. There seems to be a new trend among MMOs these days, to present a story on-rails as if the game were single player. Please keep things more sandboxy. Let ME decide who and what my character is, thank you.

6) Mission Architect: I don't care how many players used it for power leveling. The ability for players to write their own missions is absolutely wonderful and incredible. As a player, I can customize my game experience even further! As an RPer, I can actually make what I used to only write in my head. I'm not sure what the number is up to now, but I know it's somewhere around 400,000 arcs/missions that players have added there. Even if only one percent of those are story-based, and only ten percent of those are any good, that's 400 decent stories. That's more quests than some MMOs start with!

The key here seems to be the freedom to make and play your character how you want to, make it look and act exactly as you want, and to play with whoever you want to, at any time. CoH/V gives me this, and is quite unique in doing so. Please keep it up, devs! Thanks for 7 years and here's to hopefully 7 more.

I totally agree.

I've been subscribed on and off for about 5 years total and no MMO has the choices this one has.

Every time i resubscribe its like a totally new experience based on what i choose to concentrate on.

Everytime i resubscribe i always find myself experiencing a game mechanic that i didnt play through before.

Congrats on 7 years.

Hey, been there since around september of 2001 too, when CoH was scheduled for 2002 I believe

Everything you list makes CoH a great game, and with its old age, still better than "the others MMO" around.

Long live CoX.