I remember alot of things.

First off, I want to apologize ahead of time this may end up rather lengthy. I'm not sure if this is a proper thank you, or just a humble story of some of my adventures through various MMOs and how I eventually found, and returned to, City of Heroes.

Second, I'd like to apologize if this reading has it's ups and downs. I'm not exactly a novelist, and I'm writing most of this as I remember everything.

Third, if i make a mistake on a name you have my most sincere apology.

I remember my first MMO. I was partway through high school when Final Fantasy XI came out, and I remember first arriving in the city of San D'oria, home of the Elvaan and the City from which heroes of old legends were born. I remember wondering around in awe at how huge everything was. I remember the towering Stone walls of the Castle, the hustle and bustle of the Auction house as players from all the different nations sold things out of their personal shops while others raided the auction houses looking for the best new/old deal.

I also remember punching out rabbits because I didn't know I was given a free sword at character creation. Heh, some memories are sillier then others. And even to today I can still recall the feeling of unrestrained WONDER when my highest leveled friend took me and another low level buddy to the Federation of Windurst, seeing the grasslands surrounding the city as we came down the mountains for first time right as the setting sun lit up the area for the final moments before night. Paints a pretty picture doesn't it?

Of course, for every good memory there is always a bad one. Hours standing around in the Valkurm Dunes, doing nothing but listening to my CD player hoping I'd get picked to join a party so I can get high enough level to help my friends instead of having to ask for their help. Dealing with team leaders who couldn't lead their way out of a paper bag. A dry one mind you, not a wet one. And of course having to be in a full team in order to do anything that was above level 10.

My second MMO, was the juggernaut WoW. Here I learned what it was like to be a monster, a glorious backstabbing troll, running deep into the Alliances lands for little more then a chance to raise hell and havoc. And of course chasing down any Alliance punk who would dare to do that same to the Horde controlled areas. Heh, more then anything else I remember the hunt.

I remember Undercity being attacked by a entire guild of characters in the most powerful gear in the game at the time. They made it all the way to our queen before we managed to fight them off, but instead of celebrating in our victory we instead wanted nothing but revenge and in no time at all we managed to gather most of the horde on our server to gather for a single massive assault on Stormwind. I almost made it the Dwarven capital city via the little underground railroad connecting the two before I was finally put down for good.

And of course one of my favorite memories was finding the memorial in the game, dedicated to the developer who had passed away before the game could be released. I visited it often.

But with the good, must come the bad. I remember discovering the community as a whole was... less then pleasant, causing me to keep a death grip on what few friends I could find. I remember watching my beloved Guild see a change of Leadership, and watched as said leadership decided that a Guild built entirely on Role Playing should become a Raiding guild, and the divide that arose between the common members and those in charge. I remember friends leaving and never coming back. And finally, leaving the game in disgust, not towards the game itself, but directed squarely at the people who'd shattered my little slice of warcraft crazyness.

My third MMO, should nearly go without saying. When I first bought City of Heroes, my computer couldn't take it, I could create a costume but that was about it. And for awhile that was enough. But of course that alone wasn't worth the $14.95 price tag so I let my subscription lapse. It'd be a a full year, and an upgraded computer, later before I'd get another chance to cause chaos and havoc.

Of course by this time I'd forgotten my old account info so I started anew with City of Villains, and as luck would have it my brand new Necromancer broke out of the Zig and found himself in Mercy just in time for my first Double EXP weekend. I think the bank employees knew my necro by name by the end of that Saturday. From there I remember buying city of heroes again so I could Scrap my way through Paragon. And meeting up with my very first supergroup.

We had the usual fun, story driven arcs,group crazyness most RP based super groups have. Then something happened that would drastically change how I viewed the game and the Dev team. One of our members backstory was that she was ex-arachnos, a lab made child prodigy that Ghost Widow had acted (in her own ghostly way) as sort of a half mother to. Well, I had thought nothing of this until one night in Pocket D Ghost Widow herself stopped by and started RPing with us treating the characters backstory as if it was as canon as anything, even attempting to sway said character back to Arachnos. There's not an image in Zwils reaction image folder that could accurately show how much that blew my mind. (Yes Zwil, that is a challenge).

From then on everything in the game just seemed that much closer to home. The Rikti weren't invading paragon city. They were invading MY city, and I'd only let them have it once my corpse was room temperature. The Coming Storm was approaching, I would race to the end of time itself to make sure it wouldn't come to pass.

Then, against all logic I ventured into the forums. And while I was expecting nothing but trolls and rage instead I found everyone in polite conversation about the game. People offering help to others in how to build their characters, Red Names actually talking with everyone, and of course who could forget that different forum celebrities that never fail to entertain. From Golden Girls constant crusade against the Praetorian Loyalists, to Steelclaws many many lists. And who could possibly forget Dark Respite/Samuraiko's videos, and the City Of Comics creators?

All of this inspired me to say the least. For a time I made a lot of promises to myself that in the end I sadly never kept. I took a Welding class so I could send make a couple to scale Primal Clockworks to terrorize Paragon Studios, but never managed to get the metal needed. I decided to make a comic, but could never get my hand to draw a straight line, much less the drawings needed to do the setting justice in my own eyes. I promised to get involved in the forum community but never found the courage to do more than lurk. Heh, and currently I'm trying to plan out how to make a couple 28mm models of Arachnos Soldiers, enough for a small army, so that they can lay siege to the Studio. This one though, I'm going to force myself to complete, even if the models end up looking more like Wretch then a Wolf Spider.

Well, like I said at the beginning, I'm not sure if this all counts as a proper thank you or as just a humble telling of what got me here today. But either way I look towards the future of the game with hope filled eyes. I've been here now for four and a half years, and I have no intention of leaving.

Thanks again for all the inspiration.

-RedSpine

The acceptance and support is one of the fantastic standard-setting points of the City of Heroes community. Thanks for sharing you story that makes up part of why it is so great!

Now, get working on those 28mm models of Arachnos Soldiers. I want to see pictures, please!

Speaking of the community, I've always found that if you approach it politely, people will queue in line to help you in whatever way they can. This is part of what makes it so awesome

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

I couldn't resist.

Seriously though. Here's to many more years of enjoying the game!