Hello from a long-time player (read: lurker)


Avalar

 

Posted

Hello out there. I'm @Mako, from the virtue server. (Actually @Cap'n Mako now, because, hey, it's the end times and I wanted to see if I could get it. Turns out I could. >_> ) No one here probably knows me, although over the years I've gotten to know the names of a lot of you quite well. (Even *my* jaw dropped when Fire-Man revealed himself as bAss_Ackwards.)
I wouldn't feel right if I didn't say something, didn't throw my voice in with the rest of you awesome, incredible people. I'd like to tell my story, share my sentiments, take what is looking like my last chance to even for a moment be a voice in this amazing community.

I started playing City of Heroes when, at the age of 11, I couldn't run Final Fantasy XI on my computer. For whatever reason, it just kept freezing and freezing on me whenever I tried to play. But shortly after that canceled subscription, I read about City of Heroes in a gaming magazine and was instantly intrigued by the promise of such deep customization. Customization and personalization was, for me, a very interesting and important thing to have in a video game at the time; and now, especially since my time as a player of City of Heroes, always will be.
I started the game playing on the Victory server, around issue 2-- definitely between the addition of capes and the introduction of Kheldians. Heh. Squids and lobsters. I made so many friends there, many of whom came and left without my ever getting to say a proper goodbye. (So Balph, Yoko, Mystic Gale, Nomek... If any of you guys are reading this, and remember me... Just know that I never forgot about any of you.)
Before City of Heroes, I was an atrocious typer. I was just slow. But over the course of my picking up the game and having to keep up with chat, my fingers learned their own momentum and flow over the keyboard that still wows some people to this day.
My namesake character was White Mage Mako, an Emp/Dark defender (Or Dark/Emp? Whatever) with one blast, all of the empathy powers, super jump, super speed, flight and teleport. Needless to say, I started my career as a noob. :P
Eventually I fell in with a group called Faction, an awesome bunch of players who were like a tight-knight family. It was there that I crafted my namesake into a character for the first time, and started to develop his backstory. Faction, unfortunately, fell to a lot of infighting, and I left the group and took a hiatus from the game (this was around the time Super Smash Bros. Melee came out) shortly before, without my knowing, the group disbanded.
When I came back, I was disheartened to learn that the group was disbanded. I wanted to say I was sorry for leaving them. I looked around the internet to see if maybe the group was created on any other servers, or its leader Flex Cool anywhere to be seen. All I could find was an empty Guild Portal page pointing to a group called Faction on the virtue server.
My friends on victory nowhere to be seen, I had no more ties to my original home server and decided to make the jump. It was there that I learned that Virtue was the dedicated RP server, and, eager to give it a try, I jumped in as my namesake, Mako Avalar.
I had quite the strange journey as a fledgeling RPer, starting my journey under the wing of colorful-skinned, fruity smelling aliens with... well, let me say that they had a heightened libido and multiple naughty-parts. (This would also be a good time to mention that I've never ERP'd. :P) However, from them I learned an important lesson in roleplaying and writing in general; your character can't possibly do every single thing ever. To this day, I'll always remember them telling me, "So, when is Mako going to build a space ship?"
From there, I decided to give my character a bit of a challenge to his hero career, implanting him with a demon from his homeworld that lead him to become the villain character Amok Valraa, a boy who was growing shark features and a bloodlust to match.
It was then that Amok joined a group called Arachnos Elite (Hi AC! Do you remember me? ) and I met with the player of a toon called Hasdrabul Skaras. Amok and Hasdrabul became blood brothers as they pulled assassination missions for Arachnos, Hasdrabul cultivating the bloodlust of the demon and increasing its power, all the while secretly giving Mako the tools he needed to wrest control of the demon. After Mako broke free, he turned against Arachnos, leaving Arachnos Elite and eventually locking horns with an Arbiter Death. Little did I know that this interaction would lead me to joining the group called the Shadoow Spiders, who would be like family to me until this day.

I've already written too much nonsense, so let me get back to the point. This game.
This game has given me so much creative inspiration over the years, wowed me with its awesome, varied, and very much open-to-the-players story. I've loved the little rattling Clockwork minions from the start. I can't properly express in words what this game meant to me, and will mean to me for the rest of my life. It was like home to me. It will always be with me in my heart.

To Zwill, Position, and all of the rest of you guys... Thank you so very, very much for all of your hard work and dedication, all of the blood, sweat, and tears you guys put into this game. You don't know me, and I don't know any of you personally, but you've made my life tangibly different in so many ways and I would never have been who I am if it wasn't for your game. I know times right now are tough, definitely tougher than you all than any of us players in this matter, but I know that, if you can put up with this awesome, crazy, hard-to-please yet so very happy community, then you can get through anything-- with flying colors.

To my fellow players... All I can say is, thank all of you for providing voices while players like myself were too shy to speak. We can get through this, I know we can. If City of Heroes is revived in some way, you can bet your underwear-on-the-outside that I'll be back for a slice of the action. And if this is indeed farewell, just know that you were all part of something amazing, and part of that something will never go away.

Our stories, our characters' stories; we might all have been introduced to them in Paragon City, or the Rogue Isles, or even Praetoria, but that's not where their stories began-- not where *our* stories began. Before that fateful step into a tutorial zone, or Atlas Park, or Galaxy City, Mercy Island or Nova Praetoria. And even when the sun sets on November 30th, and we're shut off from that world... It will live on. Their stories, our stories, will continue. I want to urge everyone to never forget their heroes, their villains, and all of their deeds. Keep them alive in your hearts and perhaps even in whatever media you can give life to them in.
Because games come and go... But Good and Evil never sleep.
Thank all of you so much, especially if you took the time to read this messy, disorganized ramble. Peace to all of you in this awful, weird time.