How City of Heroes Changes Real Lives

I wrote this for the City Scoop in 2009 and I wanted to repost it now because...well, because there will never be a better time, will there? Thank you, Paragon Studios, for all your hard work. Thank you, CoX community, for being you. Just...thank you.

How City of Heroes Changes Real Lives
Presented by Kyo-chan


I have to tell you how this article started. I was in the grocery store with my mentor, Steampunk Charlie, and an older woman with a walker accidentally bumped a display and sent a lot of oranges rolling to the floor. Without thinking about it, I helped her out and picked them up for her. Afterwards, we talked about it-and I realized, a year ago, I would never have helped a stranger like that. It’s not something I like to admit to myself, but it’s true. Charlie said, “It’s because you’re a Hero of the City!”


That got me thinking. I realized that for many people, City of Heroes is not just a game. To some, it’s a very large part of their real, everyday lives-not just because they play it, but because playing it has somehow changed their lives. To celebrate the upcoming City of Heroes anniversary, I asked readers of my Get Involved! series to send me the ways in which City of Heroes had changed their lives, be they great or small. Only three brave souls replied.
These are their stories.


CelticTitan said: “How has CoH changed my life? Well, most of all, I met my wife on CoH. We started out as friends of course, but our conversations went quickly from small talk to real life situations, past relationships, etc. One day, she blurted out “We should totally date!” and it went from there. Since then, I’ve moved 1700 miles across the country to be with her and May 31st will be our first anniversary. Goes to show, ya never know where love will pop up.


And then there’s how CoH helped me. Before I found CoH, I was really ADD and OCD. I’d been able to keep them under control through school just by slamming my head into my books the whole way through college. Consuming one book after another. But after that, I didn’t really have anything left to focus myself on. So, I became all kinds of a pain in the butt at work, either spacing out or being way too much of a control freak. Always going to either extreme. Thankfully, I got involved with 2 different SGs. One was full of original beta testers who were MAJOR min/maxers. They showed me how to build my characters so they’d be the fastest and most powerful. That plus my first 50 was an empathy defender. It was so great for my OCD to have to stare at the team box, watching health and buffs, for hours on end. I’d be meticulously watching for buffs to wear off, keeping an eye on team mates’ activities. I had a blast.


My other SG was an RP SG. They were VERY active and VERY creative. We’d be running our story lines in SG chat so we could interact with each other make our stories have more depth. So, I used my ADD productively. I found that I could focus on the stories in SG chat, the team box, team chat, various Global channels (for GM spawns, TFs, etc.) all at the same time! And, seriously, who doesn’t want an emp defender who can pay attention to a hundred things at once. I even had time to watch how everyone else played their characters. I saw their strong points and weaknesses, which was extremely helpful when it came time to find other toons to make.


Handling, and darn near curing OCD and ADD all at once is one heck of a trick! They should really put CoH in the pharmacies! “


From Sister Flame, a young Heroine of the City, as told to her dad, _Wyll_: ““My name is Sister Flame, I am eight years old and I am a super hero.

My dad tells me that I began my heroic career as a crime fighter when I was four and a half years old. Dad was playing City of Heroes and I asked if I could play. He picked me up, put me on his lap, and he showed me how to move his hero around Atlas Park. Once I had the hang of it, Dad sat back and let me play. I’d only walk around for about fifteen minutes before I wanted to Dad to play again and I liked curling up on his lap to watch him fight evil. I think Dad liked having company when he played his game.

When I turned five, my Dad decided we would get a second account so we could play at the same time. I would sit beside my dad and use his laptop to play. He told me it was important he could keep an eye on me in the game and he taught me proper game manners as well as some safety rules. I all ready knew that rules are important and I like to tell my friends that rules are there to keep us safe, especially when grown-ups are not around. It was good lesson I learned from my dad.

A lot of great things have happened to me because I play City of Heroes. The game has given me a lot of practice with my reading when I started looking at the words the contacts were saying to me. My Grade One teacher was really impressed at how well I could read and I told her it was because I play this really cool super hero game. I don’t think she understood what I was talking about, but she told me to keep doing whatever I was doing. It was kind of cool to have your teacher tell you to play a computer game because it was good for you.

One of the best things that ever happened to me in my life was when I met War Witch in Pocket D. Dad told me that she sent a message saying she wanted to meet me in the game, so we logged in and I led the way to where she was in Pocket D. When we got there, War Witch started moving around and talking to me. I was so excited! I ran and got my family to show them War Witch. She talked to me for a little while and I showed her my other costumes I made. She had to get going, but she wrote me a real letter later and sent me her autograph. I took them to school for show and tell and I am proud to tell everyone I meet that I am special friend of War Witch, one of the “makers” of City of Heroes.

It sounds kind of weird to say, but I have been playing City of Heroes for half of my life. I have had so much fun with the game and I have learned so much. I hope the game goes on for a long time so that I can play with my dad for a long time. We have had so many adventures together and we have our own little City Of Heroes jokes that we say to each other that no one else gets. All of my friends have something special they do with their dads and I am happy to say that playing City of Heroes is the special thing I do with my dad.”


And last, but not least, from Timothy2day: “My wife and daughter refer to CoH as “daddy's game.” To me, however, CoH is much more than than just a game. It is part of my therapy. My name is Tim, I'm 43 and I think I am one of the few severely disabled people in the player-base. I have a severe degenerative neurological disease. I won't say which one because it is both complex and very rare. Suffice to say the disease has slowly robbed me of my ability to walk and speak clearly, and has all but eliminated my fine motor control. I don't tell you this to get sympathy - I don't need that. Rather, I say it so you'll understand some of my play-style if you ever encounter me in-game.

I have a BS degree in journalism from Northern Arizona University. In the past, I have been a newspaper reporter; a teacher; and a computer help desk analyst – all jobs that require an active mind and good speaking skills. Since I had to stop working, I needed to find something to fill the void. I saw the game at Wal-mart, and thought I would give it a try. I found I didn't always need lightning reflexes to play. I spent a lot of time remapping keys and figured out how to play about 90 percent with the keyboard. Things were going well until Issue 13 hit. I nearly quit, but it had nothing to do with PvP. I had to fast-click to do anything – closing dialogs, selecting items, selling, buying, etc. Prior to I13, I could click slow and leisurely and was ok. After going several rounds with support, I found the solution in Windows. I maxed the double-click speed and remapped my 5-button ergo-mouse.

I get my 36-month badge on May 3. I started playing right before Issue 7 went live. I started on Liberty and my very first toon, an elec/elec blaster, is still there. He hit 46 last 2XP weekend. My first 50, an arch/emp, also is on Liberty and four more 50s live on Triumph. Currently, my focus is on Infinity where my main, Magic Taxi, participates in the Paragon Taxi Service. Even though I play a lot, I'm not interested too much in the underlying mechanics of the game. I play to have fun. Just by playing, I am exercising my hands and my mind.

Ok, my game play. I bring this up because it was a sore spot when I started with a SG a while ago before they knew about me. I don't type very well and other than binds and macros, I am sort of quiet on a mish – especially when I play an emp and spend time buffing and healing. I'm not being anti-social. If the team is moving really fast, sometimes I follow – I'm not afk, I'm just trying to keep up. If I do something particularly egregious, please let me know. My old group used Vent and that was good. It allowed me to speak. I talk slowly but after awhile, people understand me with little difficulty. My old group mostly left to play Diablo, so meh!

CoH is important to me. It not only provides me with a source of awesome fun, it gives me therapy on skills many people take for granted. My board name is Timothy2day, my global is @paramed. Look me up. Chances are I'll be on with a ranged toon. I would love to find another patient Vent group. My playtime is during weekdays and weekend days and evenings, EDT.”


There you have it, readers-City of Heroes is more than just a game. Think about it-has playing the game changed your life somehow? Have you made friends you wouldn’t have made, learned something about yourself, tried something different, or helped someone you wouldn’t normally have helped because of it? And while you’re thinking about it, say thank you to the developers of City of Heroes.


After all, the change wouldn’t have happened without them.

Not much to add, but without CoH to give me an outlet and chance to socialise (I am cripplingly shy, to be honest, CoH is the first outlet I found where I could really be myself), I'd have never gotten my PhD in statistical modelling. I made friends, even got a minor failed romance out of it... Went to Hero-con, met some of the players, some of the Devs (War Witch and Aveatea were particularly nice) and even hugged Arbiter Fabulous (who throws awesome parties).