A farewell to my second home

I've seen several threads along similar lines appear in the days since the unfortuante announcement and I decided to post one of my own. I made this decision largely for my own catharsis, but for those of you I've come to know over the years perhaps it'll provide some small amount of closure as well.

Once I decided to post a thread like this of my own, I pondered where to post it. As some of you may know, I don't play on one single server as many others do. I have dozens of active and semi-active characters across nearly all the NA servers, so for a while I thought about posting this in the City Life section... but no other server's community welcomed me the way that Triumph's has. I've become good friends with several people in the Justice, Victory, Protector and Pinnacle server communities to name but a few, but this server was always more home to me than any other, so ultimately there was no other place to post than here.

I want to say thank you, first and foremost, to the server and everyone on it. I want to thank Sayaki, Taryn, Snow Globe, Arcanaville, Emerald Fusion, Kay Parfait, Magenta Bolt, Blondeshell, B. Samson, Seethe, Jakara, Jack Virgo, Accelerator Ray, Tyrus, Ultrabatz, Pine, Dawun, Otelo, frost-kid, Banebritch, Plothammer, Pheonix of Syrinx, Knight Hawk, Tahquitz, Ventus vis Vires, to name just a few of the people I've met on this server over the years. I know there are many more.

I also want to thank the many people on this forum who've been part of the ongoing effort to make this the most helpful and welcoming community of any MMO I've ever seen or heard of. Specifically I want to thank TonyV for everything he's done to support the game (and continues to do), I want to thank LadySadako for making me interested in being part of the forums in the first place. I want to thank Arcanaville for, well, everything. I want to thank Stalemate for NPC. I want to thank Dechs Kaison for introducing me to my favorite powerset and directly contributing to me making my favorite character of all time. I want to thank Madame_Pistachio for inviting me into PERC, and thank everyone who has contributed to making that great organization what it is. I want to thank Masque for encouraging me to try PvP in this game after I had written it off, and giving me some great times as a result. I want to thank Bambi, Elegost, Bug, Gris, Arky, IceKnight,Philly and Smallz and everyone else in PvP Boot Camp for helping to teach me the ropes in that arena. I want to thank Malachite Green for helping me when I was just starting out in the game. I want to thank my first SG leader, Morrigan of Morrigan's Ravens on Infinity, who has long since moved on from the game. I want to thank Violet_Samurai who kept that SG going and inspired me to found my own. I want to thank @Boresight who kept that SG going even after my work schedule forced me to step aside.

I'm going on rather at length here, I realize, but there's a bit more I want to say. I want to thank @Easter Bunny and @Crashmonkie, who stopped playing a while back to have a baby but were some of the earliest recruits into the regular static team group Gray Accord that I still participate in today. I want to thank @MTS, who has been instrumental in keeping the group going. I want to thank UG - for reasons those in GA will already know. I want to thank those who've joined the group in latter years - Jakara, MagentaBolt, Jack Virgo, StoneJaguar, Shockabilly, CrimsonCapacitor, Valkayre, Nekoran (aka Pur), Rebarbed, Roach and Moon.

Last but certainly not least, thanks to @Nemorin, the love of my life. I was partially responsible for getting her into the game and it's meant at least as much to her as it has to me. All of us are crushed at this news.. well, I don't have to tell any of you reading this how that feels. While we're not together any longer, I know she feels the same way I do about this. We may move on to other games, we may not, but nothing will ever be what City of Heroes has been for us.

This post has mostly been for me, to try and express some of what's been weighing on my mind since I got this news. I'm hanging around right up until the end and fortunately my VIP status will be current well past that point. I plan to enjoy this game as much as I can in the time we have remaining. There will never be anything quite like this experience for me. While my work leaves me little time to pick up and try new MMOs, those I play with most have been discussing where we go from here. We all plan to keep playing CoH until they shut down the lights, but thereafter it's an uncertain future. We're considering Secret World, so perhaps you may see me and some of the rest of us there, time will tell.

I hope this hasn't been too self-indulgent. I've always tried to keep my discourse on these forums civil and in the spirit of good community, so I hope you'll excuse this exercise in sentiment. As if that wasn't maudlin enough, I'd like to close with a bit of verse that's been much on my mind in recent days.

May your path of the morrows ever be no more troubled by worse than butterflies, my friend. I will miss you.

-Michael: Ill/Storm Troller <><><><><><> Slide-Show Base-Tour: Its a London Thing

I have found a summary of how I feel about the end of the CoX era.

I wish I could word it so well.. I will miss you too my friend.