Until we meet again!

I am going to miss this game and the truly amazing people involved at every level. Thank you so very much.

Thank you for keeping us entertained all these years. I may not have always agreed with the plot twists but it was one hell of a campaign.

All the best for the future.

Wow. Damn.

Thank you.

For everything you helped make come true for us. If we complained about it, it truly was because we have loved this game.

I think where you guys were going, what I know of it, was awesome. Losing CoH was always going to be painful, but losing it on its current high made it worse.

Best of luck. Please take what you did with this game wherever you go, even if it's not as a game designer.

Gonna miss it, man, let's do it again.

I will happily join, subscribe, play anything you make that I can (being on the wrong side of the planet). Keep us posted.

FP
FPa
fparrrrrrrrrr
gaaah
N.

Thank you, Positron.

Thanks for everything! Looking forward to running around in your next big thing!

Back at PAX2010, while at the meet 'n greet at the Elephant And Castle, there were raffle tickets handed out to all the attendees. I didn't think much of the little blue slip as the night got rolling, because I was really there to just enjoy hanging out with other players and be lucky enough to be in the same room as the devs. So when the raffling started, I figured I'd go and listen and see who got what.

So imagine my surprise and shock when, during the drawing for one of two hours total of in-game time with you, my number came up. I was shaking for the next several minutes--people thought DR/SK would win, what're they going to do to me? How many people are going to be jealous to the point of being awful about it? Just what did I do to get this?--and by the time the night was done, I had barely shaken off the shock.

My in-game hour with you happened in late September, early October of that year. I felt extra lucky because the weather in my area was being crazy and the day after the in-game hour, the power was out for the whole afternoon and I couldn't stop thinking how glad I was that the power hadn't been lost on the day I was supposed to be in-game.

There aren't enough words. I'd end up repeating myself and dissolving into a gibbering pile of goo. I've cried so much since I saw the news. Hells, I'm crying again now while I try to type this up.

I will always be proud and honoured to have been a part of this community of players, as well as being part of an amazing game. You and the crew have made the last 8 years of my life more interesting and fun, and I can't thank you enough for it.

I'd be honoured to run through stuff in-game with you again, Matt, before it gets shut down.

-- @Tygenco

Great, I thought I was all cried out after this morning and the bloody light just got into my eyes and the dusty air irritated them and there it goes: salt water running down my cheeks again.

Thank you, sir.

You're still Positron, You did damn good work, i tried World of Warcraft, Star Trek on line, i tried all of them and i came to City of Heroes and found a home...Simple in its complexities and subtleties from You, to War Witch, to the Ghost Widow...all of You designers will be missed. Breaks my heart it really does to see my characters, this world, and you all go.

But remember....when You hit a wall Design wise and otherwise....You're F*#king Positron *Hugs* ok sorry...many blessings...i truly mean that

Hi we're all a bit puzzled why even the devs seem to be so final about all of this. Is there no path to follow to split off from NCsoft, acquire some/all of the IP, buy out some rights, go indie, anything? Even if it's just to keep the servers and billing website going until longer-term plans can be made? Is there a gag order, what's really going on?

I've been trying to figure out how to say what I'm feeling. Half of it, well, wouldn't be allowed.

But the far bigger half is thank you. Thanks to everyone for 8 years of the greatest entertainment I've ever had.

My friend -- a fellow early-adopter of CoH -- and I were talking about MOGs recently, as we often do. I've been more active in the past few years playing CoH than he has, but the loss is hitting us both. We're both feeling skeptical of other MMOs, and we miss the promise of Neverwinter 1; a game where the servers are or at least can be hosted locally and even if the official support shuts down -- when the official support inevitably shuts down -- you can go back to worlds you've loved and keep them going.

There's something to be said for the MMO aspect, though. There are a lot of practical problems with the other style; piracy is a big one. Another is monetizing them; you are selling the client, not renting server access.

But I think there is a hybrid model possible. And I think you can run a cash shop; we've proven here and many other games have proven that players will (sometimes grudgingly) buy modular content. And I think you can run premium servers; the ROI on those is actually decent, although it would be a scale-up question (particularly in the question of how many content/story designers you need for those things).

Anyway. Just some random thoughts. I'm gonna miss you, Posi (no matter how many times Rikti or zombies killed me at your uncaring feet). I hope not for very long.

Matt, thank you for all that you have done for us! I loved badges. It appalled to the collector in me. I am sad that I'll never be able to catch them all. I just don't ave he time any more. Not in 3 months - I always figured I would be able to after I finished my degrees.

I loved incarnates. Oth the lore and the powers. I find it said that we will never see the final three. Maybe you could tell us what the plan fo them would have been?

Thank you again for helping to create the best MMO and community ever. I'm sorry this happened to everyone at Paragon. You deserve better. I look forward to playing in your next RPG if we cannot save this one. We will try our best.

--Rad

When will the tears stop... my god, i'm physically drain from this....

I remember being on the closed beta running Keyes with you. You kept faceplanting. That was rather amusing. I did enjoy attempting to hammer out the strategy with you.

To return some of the thanks...

Bear with me for this, because like you, I have to back up a bit to explain it.

Back in 2007, when I was a tech writer for GoDaddy, I was a prolific fiction/short story writer in my spare time. I never understood the concept of writers' block, because ideas just flowed. (Not necessarily GOOD ones, but even bad stories make for good practice if I learn from them.) But I had a supervisor there who belittled everything I did - my work, my attitude, my goals... and eventually, my writing. Both my tech work and my fiction. She was the only person who did it, but because she was my boss, her opinion carried a lot more weight. And slowly, inevitably, I lost confidence in my writing, until I couldn't write anymore. Because every time I'd start, I would catch myself looking over my shoulder for her, waiting for her to appear out of nowhere and start yelling at me.

I didn't write fiction for over a year and a half.

At about the same time, I started playing City of Heroes on my husband's account to see if I liked it, and once I was able to play more than five minutes without getting motion sickness, I got my own account. And fell in love with the game. It inspired me to make teasers and trailers, and a whole new creative world opened up to me. But in the back of my mind, I still missed writing, even though I was afraid to do it anymore.

Then one day in June 2008, I helped an SG mate fight Anti-Matter (he was playing an invuln/energy tank, I was on Tava, my grav/kin controller), and after a knockdown, dragout fight, we finally beat him. As we exit the mission, being a casual RPer, I had Tava whip out her cell phone and call Positron, being a fellow scientist and hero and whatnot. (Before now, her only interaction with him was his TF.)

"This is Agent Tavarisch... da, we just finished fighting your Praetorian counterpart... I was able to scan his armor, do you want a copy of the report? Good... yes, coffee would be terrific. Tonight? Fine. Da, don't worry, you're still better looking. Goodbye."

Talyn was howling at this, and as soon as the rest of the SG logged in, he immediately told everyone how Tava was secretly in love with Positron.

And thus a new story idea was born. I wanted to write it... my SG mates wanted me to... But could I write it? So I stalled by PMing you and Hero 1 and asking a few questions about the character and whether it'd be okay if I did, so that I'd have an excuse not to write it if you said no.

You said yes, and Hero 1 (after checking with you) sent me answers to all my questions. There went that excuse. I was no longer at GoDaddy by that point - in fact, my new boss at my new job was amazingly supportive about me writing in my spare time (and had no objections to me writing at work when we were between projects). No excuse there either.

So... on October 8th, 2008... I posted a little story, told from Positron's POV, about an upcoming date. That became the first chapter of THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE: A TALE OF NERD FLIRTING.

Over the course of writing TCOSR, Tava and another character of mine (the irrepressible Andrea Blake) took on lives of their own, their character backstories becoming much more layered and complicated. In-game lore was expanded upon, and new ideas created within it. By May 17th, 2009, the story clocked in at 44 chapters and something like 183,000 words. Somewhere in there, I realized it was going to be a trilogy, so on July 17th, 2009, TCOSR II: COURTSHIP AND CRIME FIGHTING was begun. That book is now up to nine chapters, 27k words (and chapter 10 is in the works). It's taken longer thanks to job changes, schedule changes...

... a major crisis of confidence when the official lore now stated that Positron and Numina were a couple...

I was paranoid enough to wonder if that had been done on purpose, as a way to get me stop writing. Thankfully, my more level-headed friends pointed out that if you hadn't told me to stop after the first few chapters of Book I, this could hardly be directed at me. So, with the help of a couple other lore fanatics, I figured that my books were set approximately one year prior to current in-game events, which would then allow for Posi and Tava to split in some fashion, freeing him up for Numina by the end of Book III.

And so I kept writing. I had art done for the series. It became part of our SG lore. And it spawned several video ideas (one of which actually got made just for them).

So... thank you. For not only creating a character and then generously allowing me to turn him into a romantic leading man, but for giving me back the confidence and inspiration to write again. I have it on VERY good authority that other rednames (both past and present) love giving you a hard time for this, but for what it's worth... consider it one more testament to a game that we both love.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

Hello darkness my old friend...I've come to talk to you again...

This is hard on all of us.And for once we're all agreeing with Golden Girl.

Let us know if there is anything that can be possibly be done to save this. I know people are mass emailing everyone and their dog, mass mailing NCSoft, signing petitions...and just fighting to survive.

These are bare facts:

I started playing City of Heroes in April 2005, at the recommendation of a friend. I kept an active subscription up until two months ago, when I left the United States to marry a UK national. I kept up with the game though, and had planned to resume my VIP status on the first of September.

This is what it meant:

I worked a difficult, thankless job, working with teenagers who had hard, cruel lives and few options. I did what I could to help them, but it was never easy, or quick, and I never felt like a hero. I was able to feel like a hero when I logged into Victory, or Virtue, or a villain if I had a bad day and needed to blow off some steam. Or a silly concept character whose powers were granted by extra-caffeine. I could fly, or teleport, or run faster than an automobile, and take down people who abuse their power or got in my way with a lightning bolt, or an army of mechanical minions. I argued with people. I made friends. I raged, I laughed, I bragged about the first time I soloed an Archvillain. It was everyday, ordinary, magic, and it enriched my life in subtle but indelible ways. I'm going to miss playing in that world, and while I have other realms to explore, including the ones in my head, the memory of this one will always remain special to me.


Thank you, Paragon Studios for giving me a world I could retreat to again and again. Thank you for working hard to create stories and images we could inhabit. Thank you for letting us use tools that let us create our own worlds and stories others could share. Thank you for spending your time, and energy, and talents into helping us experience ordinary, everyday magic.

Almost eight years, and I've made three posts in this forum...and all of them were in reply to good byes. That hurts. That stings. So many regrets, so many could've/would've/should've floating about.


Positron...and yes, I am still calling you that, because BY GODS you are Positron and that will never change regardless of what some corporate monkey in a suit says...you and your team are--were, oh, how that stings to type--one of the most prolific developmental forces in City history. Previous leads brought different things to the table, but I think it was you who really started to polish this diamond until it glowed like a small sun.

How do you thank someone for that? I don't think you can. I don't think there are enough words in every language on Earth to properly convey the levels of deep gratitude we all have for you and the team.

You guys aren't just developers. You aren't just artists, writers, and code monkeys. Each and every one of you are family to us. The game may be going away, but I don't think the bonds we've forged will break so easily. This community has done great things together, and will continue to do so long after the lights have gone dark in Paragon, the Rogue Isles, and all points in between.

YOU CREATED THAT! Walk tall. Stand proud. You are all gods amongst men...and wherever you go, whatever you do next, we will stand with you.

-Hawthorne Grimm