Thank You for An Amazing Ride!

So many have been thanked, and so many have been thanked a lot.

Why not one more?

Thanks, Melissa. Thanks Paragon Studios, current and past members. Co* is the best, only, and likely last MMO I'm playin'. I have no desire to go through another breakup that is going to happen to all others, if this happens to Co*.

What a ride it has been. It is sad to see it come to the final curtain call.

Mike

Melissa, I can't thank you and your team enough.

I fight an ongoing battle with mental health. I'm not always on the winning side. This game has been a stabilizing factor for over 8 years now. Due to some truly wonderful folks who refused to give up on me even when I'd given up on myself, I'm still alive today. I owe this game my life. Without you and Matt and Jack and everybody else, I probably wouldn't be around today. Please remember that when you move on to other projects, or talk to people who think something like this is "just a game." Thank you again, everyone.

Thank you for everything, I've played a long time and been part of this family by lurking on the Forums and playing on Freedom. I will miss it all.

Good luck with all you do!

Give em Hell!

To Melissa and the rest of the staff (past and present) of Paragon Studios and Cryptic Studios when they were still part of the game, thank you for the past 8+ years.

Words alone cannot express my feelings towards you all.

Nothing will ever be able to give me what CoH did, so when the servers shut down I'll be hanging up my gaming hat.

Thanks for everything, and may God richly bless you all.

- Curtis (aka Texas Justice, TJ, that drunk idiot, etc)

You know, I was sitting in Kohl's today waiting for my husband to come out of the fitting room when I saw this thread on my smartphone and started reading. I thought "oh thank god, she's alright" which makes absolutely no sense because I don't even know you! But I do recall a beta in Steel Canyon we did so many years ago and you took the time to say hello and share a brief word. Its always been that sort of kindness that's made you so endearing to me, to others and just so many players you don't even know exist.

And then I read down to this ---

Quote:

Originally Posted by War Witch Behind these keyboards, we're all people and all we ever wanted was the best for City of Heroes. So I am humbled and really touched by the outpouring of love (and concern - I saw that thread and yes, I'm doing okay) from not only you guys, but everyone at the studio as well.

--- and I just lost it in the store. This bewildered clerk with frizzy orange hair came over and asked if I was alright, and I was like, yeah I'm fine, sorry I just lost one of my best friends last night and she gave me hug. Its really funny how this game keeps catching me off guard.


Melissa, you are a wonderful talent, a great leader and just a damn good soul. I apologize if I ever gave you or any of the devs a rough time over the years. I blame immaturity and creative differences but damn never in a million years did I think logging out even for a month could somehow lead to this. I'm so sorry if anything I said or did helped to put you guys out of a job. I'm a firm believer that every little bit counts and I'm glad to see I was a right (although I'm so damn sorry I didn't do more to help).

****, I'm crying again. Somebody get me a damn tissue, huh?

I am so sad, really sad. I did not think that I would ever cry over a game. But I just did. I will miss you all so much!

Melissa, and everybody at Paragon Studios, thank you so very much for all your hard work. You made this game really shine. Needless to say any future project I see your names on is going to get my attention immediately. I really hope to see your work again soon!

Thank you all! City of Heroes was my first and remains my favorite MMO, and I've played pretty much daily for the past 3+ years. Both City of Heroes/Villains and the CoX communities are amazing! I'm so surprised and like many saddened at this sudden ending! I wish everyone there well, and will continue to hope that City of Heroes can continue, or barring that relaunch without NCSoft. Best wishes to you all, and wishing success in future endeavors. Thanks again for giving us a truly fun and remarkable experience.

It's so hard to believe CoH will be gone. This is such a cool game.

I started playing in the beta so many years ago and have been a VIP since it went live. My family and friends joined the game (VIPs don't you know) as one way to have fun and keep in touch (I am West Coast and they are East Coast).

My 9 year old daughter was crushed to find out CoH is going away. She and I played the game since she was a toddler. By "play”, I mean she would sit on my lap and watch me and our friends and family run missions. Their Heroes would wave to her and say hi. She finally started to play as her own character this summer and we talked about getting her an account of her own.

While “only a game”, it was a great way to be part of something with others who shared the same interests.

Thanks for all the great times.

I know I speak for most of us when I say we, as fans and customers of the game will do everything in our power to attempt to fight this in the best way we can. I hope we can convince NCsoft to reverse their decision. This is really the only NC soft game I play and I have never had a huge desire to try any of the others. You Devs all made a great game and I know none of us want it to end.

War Witch, Positron, Manticore, Synapse, Sister Psyche, Back Alley Brawler...

WE LOVE YOU!!!

Thank you War Witch. It was a great game. Even though I complained about it every now and then, I loved City Of Heroes to death. You were such a great team and I hope all of you find new jobs in the industry soon. Good luck to all of you and thank you again!

I need to say thank you to War Witch one more time, for helping me propose to my then-girlfriend-now-fiance Maria back in 2010.

If you don't recall, this is a pretty good summary:
http://www.mmofisher.com/cov/news/a_...of_heroes.html

There were a lot of middle of the night emails and phone calls exchanged between me and the community and dev team to get that going, and keep it secret from Maria. But it all worked out--more amazingly than I could've wanted! And War Witch even took the time to send us a handwritten congratulatory card, which we still have--framed.

Of course, now the game is going down, it's as if I had proposed to Maria (Gaia) in a park, and just found out that the park is being turned into a strip mall. Which sucks.

I wish you nothing but the best, Melissa.

Paragon Studio is a studio that has Paragons working inside it and for me has a lot of potential to give with the right amount of investment.

I just wanted to chime in and thank Paragon, and especially Mel and Matt, for doing such great stuff with City of Heroes. Back when it was launched, no one had any idea how long a single MMORPG could go on, or even if the whole genre was a fad! Let us not mention that "no one likes superheroes" and that the games were cursed! Well, naysayers be damned, Cities has been a fantastic achievement, thanks to you.

Cheers!
poz

(Shannon Posniewski, Mr. Bunny on Freedom, CoH ex-developer, and one of the many proud parents of City of Heroes)

The ride was only as amazing as the drivers - we were the passengers.

The Good Fight: you fought it.
The Honorable Fight: you have proved it.

The Standup, Awesomesauce: you allowed our currently inactive folks to come back and say "hey" to us once again?! Haha!

Whatever passes for brains, hearts, and other organs in NCSoft, know you have the actuality.

May you and yours never have concern for worry. Until the next time, /salute War Witch.

I want to thank you and the devs (I hope they are all reading the forums) for the many years of enjoyment they gave us. For a few hours each day they allowed us to be heroes or villians.

I hope each each of you is able to land on your feet quickly because you deserve it.

Thank you, Melissa, for all the love you've poured into this game. Stopping by Bianco's in Faultline got my imagination running. I loved the Night Ward arc with War Witch's glorious return.

Thank you for giving us your farewell words. I don't want to see these devs all go their separate ways. I'll still follow everyone on Twitter and see what projects come your way in the future. Having the longest-running most successful and most fun superhero MMORPG on one's resume is fantastic to have.

Thanks for your dedication to the game, War Witch and for your funny and positive forum presence all these years.

I remember once sending you a PM asking if the SG teleporter in Talos, which had been long-stuck in the bus shelter, could be fixed. And a short time later, it was fixed. It was a small thing but I was just so dang pleased to have my input listened to and acted on.

Best dev team evar.

Thank you for creating a world that could be filled with not only orcs and elves but robots, cyborgs, pirates, ninjas, time travelers, creatures of myth, aliens and anything I'm forgetting and have them fight the good (or evil) fight.

Thank you for giving us a costume creator that could not only nearly duplicate looks of our favorite heroes and villains of comics, TV, anime, movies; but come up with so many truly unique looks. We were all individuals, not yet another Level X Male Human Wizard look 4 who has all the purple items from the current expansion.

Thank you for writing missions that were loaded with in jokes from various geek fandom (not all of us simply click by it). Honestly how many people have heard of Firesign Theatre or remember Buckaroo Banzai or know where a Wave Motion Gun is a reference from? It was a lovely acknowledgment that your target customer was the kind of person you would meet at a con or comic shop or at a cult movie festival. In a world where it seems that media caters to people who actually care about Snooki or the Kardashian sisters or teeth whitening strips your team made us geeks comfortable, one among friends.

I thank you and your team.

Since I wasn't vip when things were cut off, I can't post in the big announcment thread, so I'm going to post here.

This is terribly sad.

I've played a broad spectrum of MMOs, and I have confidence when I say this; CoH was my favorite. It was the one I kept comming back too time and time again. When the big game got tiring, when the space ecnomic sim got too hostile, I could always count on CoH to renew my faith in online games.

I will miss this game, I will miss my characters, the costumes, the base builder, the zones, the enemies, the Nemisis plots. But most of all I'll miss the community and the Devs.

So, Thankyou; War Witch, and Positron, and Dink, and Synapse, & Castle, and Arcanville, and Sam Tow, and Nethergoat, and Golden Girl and all the others. You don't know me, but I will miss you all.

- Pendix