How do you tell your family goodbye?

Yes, I consider the players on Justice my family, even the ones that I didn't always get along with.

You people have meant so much to me over the years and have been with me through some pretty tough changes in my life.

When it was in the early days of the game and reading about Team Awesome while I was at work, LaserJudas dropping from the ceiling to snap someone's neck Steven Seagal style, Kadmon crashing spaceships, Amrien Talfrey's art, Katfood's amazing art collection, or just laughing hysterically at the Dupin' Rares thread.

In later years getting more active on the forums, starting to try to be a more social person, getting to meet some of the players in person at the Austin NCSoft events for Auto Assault and Tabula Rasa, meeting even more of the players at the Bay Area M&G's, the HeroCon's, or the Pummits.

You folks helped me mourn and get through the loss of my dad who was also my best friend. If it hadn't been for the support from the Justice players, the words of encouragement and camaraderie things would likely have taken a much darker turn in my life.

When I behaved like a total ****** at HeroCon after getting blitzed on Jager, my Justice friends and family again took care of me. Most of you didn't judge me because you saw through some of the facade and the role I was trying to play. It turns out I didn't need to try to play that role to be liked by you, but I was too insecure to realize it. Thank you for taking care of me that night and since then. Thank you for standing up for me and letting people know that wasn't the real me, just someone over-compensating for perceived shortcomings.

Thank you for being there for me through life's ups and downs. I have a feeling this will be the end of my gaming. I played one other MMO for the first free month and didn't care for it. I played another MMO after it went F2P and didn't like it at all. But CoH held me here for over 8 years and a big part of that is due to the Justice players.

I want to thank you all for being such an important part of my life for over 8 years.

In closing, I'm going to paste a piece that I wrote for my blog a few years ago.

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Why do I play this game?


I intended to post this back in October, but things stayed busy so I kept putting it off. After my trip to California in November I had other things I wanted to say but felt this needed to be said first and it's been easy to just keep putting it off. Now I'm ready to talk about some other things, but this has to be done first, so here it goes.

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“Anyone that pays a monthly fee to play a computer game needs to have their head examined.”
“I’ll never play a game that charges a monthly fee in addition to the cost of the game itself.”

Yes, I made both of those statements at various times sometime during 2002 and possibly during 2003. And I meant them. I had friends and coworkers playing various online games and I thought they were wasting money paying a monthly fee to be able to play a game they had already paid for. I had little to no interest in any of the games they were playing, mostly because the genres of the game held little interest for me aside from some books I’d read. A very casual interest at that.

Then I heard about a game being designed that was based on superheroes. My interest was piqued but I still didn’t think any game would be worth paying a monthly fee to be able to play. I followed along on the original forums for City of Heroes, watched the initial E3 2002 gameplay demo, discussed the game on the forums with others looking forward to the game and with Jack “Statesman” Emmert himself. I was already a forum member when “Aura Manning” was hired as our first Community Rep. I read the announcement of the delay in releasing the game as they redesigned it and wondered if this would be the next vaporware. But I was still intrigued as I’d grown up reading comics, and still read them at times, so superheroes definitely piqued my interest.

I kept up with the development of the game, although not much new information was being released. I watched the 2003 E3 cinematic trailer and my interest rose higher as 2003 progressed and the game seemed like it was actually going to be released. Toward the end of the year things got really quiet as the game prepared to enter Beta testing. I wasn’t really expecting to be able to Beta test the game and thought I’d have to wait until the game was released to be able to try it. Imagine my surprise at getting an email inviting me to help Beta test this game. Not only was I getting to Beta test it, I got into Beta before a co-worker that had previous Beta testing experience. He got in within a month, but it was nice to be able to be the one that could show HIM around inside a game for once.

I met some really good people during that Beta, some that continued to play after release and some that were only playing until the end of Beta. I was hooked on the game and gladly signed up and paid for a one year subscription. I justified it by the savings over a monthly or even 3 month subscription. According to my earlier statements, I needed to have my head examined, but I just saw how much fun I was having playing this game. The first time I activated Fly, I soared around for about a half hour, just enjoying the feeling of flying. I was thoroughly hooked on the game.

My buddy Art and I spent the first morning of the 3 day headstart quickly leveling up our mains to get to the level to create a SuperGroup. I still have that group to this day and now all of my characters are members of the South Texas Knights. Art and I soon joined up with some other players we had teamed with at times during the Beta and moved most of our characters to their SuperGroup named The Legends of Texas. I kept a couple of my players in my main SG and Art had one or two there as well, but mostly we played with the new SG which was soon renamed to The Legends of Paragon. We talked a few coworkers into getting the game and one stayed with us for quite a while. Marty, Art and I teamed regularly although the other 2 quickly went to WoW when it launched in November. The three of us teamed as a trio and in larger groups with The Six Dollar Man, Spoon and other members of The Legends of Paragon. Eventually, most of the original members left and the group withered.

I soloed for a while but occasionally teamed up with members of various SG’s. I teamed a few times with members of the Police Drones and had a lot of fun. That was my first introduction to a real RP group. The only time they ever said anything out of character was through tells to let me know what was going on. I enjoyed teaming at times but preferred to solo for various reasons. Then one day I teamed with some of the members of The Magnus Institute. I enjoyed playing with Shrapnel, Cybored and the other members of the group so gladly accepted the invitation to join the SG when they offered. Sadly, it wasn’t long before they too went off to other games, mostly WoW, and I was one of the few that ever logged in.

I decided to stay solo for a while but ran across other players that I teamed with a few times. Some I recognized from the forums and some I recognized the SG name from the forums but not the character names. I teamed with Major Decoy, Doctor Why and Pippy one afternoon and had a really good time. All were members of The Core, which I’d seen in the signatures of several people on the forums. I started looking for members of this SG when I was online and eventually got in contact with TheDeepBlue about joining the group. After teaming with DB and Platinum Arsenal for a while, they invited me to join so I found a new home for a while. When CoV came out, I joined The Ring as it was the villain-side equivalent to The Core. Sadly, members kept disappearing or not playing their Core or Ring characters much and I eventually decided to just leave the group entirely before it died like the previous groups. With a little help I got all of my characters into the South Texas Knights SG I’d formed during the 3 day head start and I’ve decided to just stay as a solo group for the duration of my playtime.

As to why I prefer to play solo instead of teaming, well, that’s a story for another day.

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So long, take care, and know that you will always be family to me.

-Curtis

TJ,

In an ever changing world, both inside the game and out, you have been a constant. Thanks for helping to make this game a home to me and so many others.

I met you at a meet and greet in Austin, back in like 2006 or 2007, the Tabula Rasa launch. We will all miss each other, and the thing that brought us together. Best of luck TJ.

TJ - I said those same things - i too am going to miss everyone. All the best and know you have made a difference just by being you

You do not saying goodbye.

Find the next place to gather in, push forward and continue on a different path.
But not yet..
Continue hope, place it on Tony. Give him support as well as good friends and family here.

Together there is a chance for good morning, not goodnight.

TJ, you are a cool guy. I always respected your opinions and thoughts. When I think of Justice, I think of specific people you are always high on this list. I am going to miss this virtual place we call home. At some point I am going to post something but I cannot put my feelings into words right now. Be well TJ

It is sad that we never got to meet IRL for most of the players here but like you I have been hit by a loved one lost and the ppl here helped me to get by better then my actual family. I have never known more supportive ppl in any community then here on Justice. Like when I lost my mother due to cancer, or when my dog had Pavel it was you guys that helped me make it through it all. I just wished there was some way i can show my appreciation to all those out there on Justice, other then to say Thank You all for being there.