A CoH History: What do you remember?

I remember making my first toon, a blaster, on my hubby's account, with great trepidation, and loving her--and then immediately discarding blasters forever once I found defenders and Tanks.

I remember the first valentine's day event at Pocket D, and the signs that littered the city beforehand.

I remember hopping through the Hollows just after the purple patch, wondering why my baby tank was suddenly less tanky (I really hadn't been playing long at all; it was a while before I cottoned on to that one).

I remember 178 levels of Super Strength (and laughing like a maniac when I got my first Foot Stomp. Foot Stomp is CANDY).

I remember 6 respecs of my dark/darkfender to get her where I wanted her. and I remember running her on the Tyrant mission with that darkfender, a baby empy, and 5 scrappers--the scrappers stood around for a minute asking each other who would be lead tank, and nobody wanted to. I said, fine, I'll be lead tank. They said, but you're a defender! I said, So? And proceeded to tank the mish so that they could all enjoy scrapperlock.

For that matter, I remember tanking Mary MacComber on my darkfender while the tank went AFK, then being told I hadn't been tanking her at all when the tank came back. Well, SOMEONE was holding her aggro and keeping her from killing us all, and it wasn't you.....

I remember all kinds of hard times that were made so much better by having a world where we could be freakin' heroes.

I remember thinking it maybe wouldn't end. seems like only yesterday. <sigh>

I remember the best group of people I ever gamed with.

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--Isus Trikanda

10 50s, a 48, and and better than 100 sub-50 alts... the altitis is strong in this one.

Lets see....

Trying CoH at a friend's, making a midget energy tank, exploring Atlas and getting into fights with enemies far stronger then me and getting regularly saved, which led me to create my own account

I remember trying to get from one end of the Hollows to the other using only Hover, then getting killed when I landed.

Did an all tank and 1 blaster (which was me) Numina TF and me and a friend got separated. We cleared half the map before we found the others again

Seeing those Colossus for the first time in the ITF was quite the sight.

The Elflings, who have scared me for life <_<

Attempting to tank Mako while rest of team dealt with Black Scorpion with an SR scrapper

Team Flamingo (someone swapped the SG colours to yellow and pink)

And most importantly, joining Honourable United

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So how do you want to be done? Medium, Well or Extra Crispy?
@BW. The REAL @BW.... oh alright, @Catheram
Honourable United
ELFLING AMBUSH!!

I remember, as my first character in any online game, trekking about the city and to the nether edges of Talos Island, avoiding any and all mobs because I was LVL 5 at the time.

I remember the joy of travel powers, introduced to me by a kinetic defender at the spritely little LVL of 7.

I remember how everyone got a kick out of a defender named Germopheobe ran about in the sewers.

I remember Steelclaw, the comedian with a spreadsheet.

I remember after so long FINALLY being able to locate the Paragon Dance Party, only for someone else to pop in and tell me that absolutely nobody used it. And much later, the memorial hobos placed there.

I remember working so hard on some measly little badges. It's the only time in-game achievements have actually mattered to me. At last count, I had 300+.

I remember my father introducing me to a very Unique Dragon by reading his post aloud.

I remember the sheer joy I had when a couple of my threads became popular: One involving Nemesis and eventually getting two rednamed posts; the other involving me pointing out Chuck Norris in the background of a GOP event and it spiraling into a political firestorm that ran over a hundred pages.

I remember getting scared the first time I walked into Dark Astoria.

I remember watching my dad as he experienced the first zombie invasion ever.

I remember playing for the first time in the 2nd grade, as a all-lowercase copy of a character from a certain card-based anime.

I remember sharing this account with my family since the first day, and not being told it was against the EULA for quite a long time.

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What I remember most is what every player remembers if they have been here since the beginning or only for days.

In WoW: broadcast that you wandered into a powerful monster and got killed. Response "LOL NOOB!"

In CoH: broadcast the same and instantly get tells "Logging over to my level 50. Be there in just a minute" or "Give location, my team is on the way."

In any other MMO: ask "How can anybody afford this equipment? I have to grind for hours just to get one item." response "Run more dungeons nub."

In CoH: Trade window opens "Randomhero wants to trade you 500,000 influence"

In this community with very few exceptions it's not just the characters that are the heroes. It's the players behind them.

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Don't count your weasels before they pop dink!

I remember putting on Power Slide for the first time and thinking how much I rocked to be surfing through the streets of the city.

I remember how the flag atop City Hall was originally unlit and a forumite at the time called Stateswoman pointed out that "flag rules" require that a flag which flies at night should be lit up. That was the progenitor of the many, many debates over the years between people who cared about details in the presentation of the game and people who thought the devs ought to stick to important tasks, or that it was "just a game, LOL", and the nitpickers should just chill out and play, *laugh*.

I remember Paragon Studios (They were Cryptic Studios back then) watching the debate quietly as it went back and forth, and then when Issue 1 launched, the flag had lights. If the flag debate was the progenitor of many story vs expediency and real world vs pretend world debates to come, that response was the progenitor of a long history of the studio listening to the players and responding to the things they asked for, even if the players didn't always get just what they thought they wanted. What mattered most was that they wanted to be heard and the studio always made it a point to let the players know that they were being heard, even if the players couldn't actually have whatever it was they were asking for.

I remember when weapon customization came and axe tankers got a fireman's axe and one of the rednames (I've forgotten which) posted that "this ought to make that Fire Man guy happy!" The idea that they followed the forums enough to recognize particular people who had consistently lobbied for certain things was an amusing and reassuring idea.

I remember writing a PM to BaBs (whose secret identity was Tik Tok, who knew?) about power customization. I am a software fellow by profession and I labored under the conceit that this gave me insights. He responded to my "couldn't you do this or that?" message with several paragraphs outlining details about the inner workings of game engine and showing that "no, we have this limitation and that limitation and we would have to di that other besides" and I read it and thought, "Wow, that makes perfect sense." That was when I realized that no matter how clever I thought I was, that sitting in my armchair I really just didn't have the first clue about what was actually clever or "easy to do" when it came to programming the game. He and other devs treated everyone's questions like that; with respect and candor, even when they sometimes didn't deserve it.

I remember writing my first AE arc and making it a convoluted time travel story and thinking that I was really pushing this story telling thing to its max. I signed up for Venture's critique thread and he played it and said "I didn't have the first clue what was going on." I asked him, "Really?" He said, "Really." I took a few figurative steps back and looked at it again and realized that he was correct. My clever little time travel story was all in my head. The bits out in the game engine didn't really accomplish what I had intended them to accomplish unless the player happened to be me. I learned then that writing missions is not nearly as easy we players imagine that job to be.

I remember taking my daughter to the Pax 2008 meet and greet, and putting faces to some familiar names and meeting a lot of great people. I remember how cool it was to be able to talk to Hero One and Positron in person and listen to their enthusiasm about the new-fangled mission architect that was coming out soon. I remember my daughter meeting Avatea and saying "THE Avatea?" and Avatea laughing at being treated like a celebrity.

I remember my teen (at the time) daughter having great times making silly themed characters and wandering around doing everything but leveling up. Chip off the old block in some ways, I suppose, heh.

I remember wandering invisibly around Croatoa and stopping on Tuatha island and just watching the NPC's. The Tuatha in that place were not monsters; they were a people with a culture celebrating life and their version of honor. That was literally breathtaking for me; the idea that these beast men were more than the beasts they appeared to be and that the game could depict that in a moving fashion. Later, touring through the far reaches of the zone and seeing the relationships between the Tuatha and the Red Caps just cemented for me the fact that this was something special. There was a whole story being told by the zone itself, independent of any particular mission. Even today, I still hold Croatoa up as an example of some of the game's finest work because of the way it employed what I'd call "environmental storytelling" in a way that I've not seen done in any other game.

I remember being part of a community that had it's ups, downs, friendships and conflicts. It has been one of the best experiences of my life to be a part of that community. I earned the respect of a few. I earned the ire of a few others. I laughed, argued, debated, and shared with many. There were times when I seldom logged into the game and my subscription fee was primarily to "play the forum game", as I put it. The community of this game is and has been the best of any other MMO I've ever played, and I have played many of them over the course of many years.

I made a few friends here who became real life friends. I made some connections that I hope will carry on elsewhere. There will be many that I was not "friends" with but who were old-timers like myself, who I will also miss just because I enjoyed seeing what they had to say and why.

It's been a long, strange trip, and we'll all move on to other things when it ends, but I will take some part of each of you all with me when I go. I thank you all for that, and I thank the folks at Paragon Studios who, for the last eight-plus years, gave us all a place for that to happen.

/em thumbsup; /em akimbo; /em salute;

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