Just logged off for the last time I'm guessing..


Another_Fan

 

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Just logged off for the last time, first time I have logged on in a week and it was just too depressing. No chatter on the usual channels to smile and laugh at, even the epic smart alecs of Help were mostly silent, and Cape Radio also was quiet. The streets were near empty, as well as every place I went, The D, the Ski Chalet, a lot of others with fun memories.

I'm going to miss Virtue, CoH, the community, and Paragon staff a lot. But logging in now, going to play, I feel like I am in some strange other MMO. The spirit of CoH isn't dead or gone, but it just doesn't feel like it resides in this game that is left anymore. And that just doesn't a City of Heroes make.

Even if I never met you in game, pointlessly argued with you in chat, or enjoyed a moment of mutual laughing from some smart *** commentary or video bombing during Zwill's community coffee talk, I'm gonna miss you. Cause all of us together, that is what made this place the MMO for me. Goodbye, and good luck to all of you.

P.S., I've decided to punish myself by going back to the land of spreadsheets and internet spaceships being serious business till I find a new game I actually enjoyed as much as here. So hopefully I might gank, or be ganked, by some of you there.


 

Posted

No matter what happens, you should still log on on November 30th - and if the worst does happen, then there will be a spiritual successor to CoH in the works.


@Golden Girl

City of Heroes comics and artwork

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dethos_Zahrim View Post
P.S., I've decided to punish myself by going back to the land of spreadsheets and internet spaceships being serious business till I find a new game I actually enjoyed as much as here. So hopefully I might gank, or be ganked, by some of you there.
Hit me up under Darth Khasei there. Maybe we can do some business as I am a marketeer.


The development team and this community deserved better than this from NC Soft. Best wishes on your search.

 

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Golden Girl View Post
No matter what happens, you should still log on on November 30th - and if the worst does happen, then there will be a spiritual successor to CoH in the works.
You keep mentioning that spiritual successor, but what is it? A flash game for iPhonies? A card game? A tabletop set? Champions Online? A whole new game in the early stages of development?

If it's a secret spiritual successor, do we need some special invitation to access?


 

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dethos_Zahrim View Post
Just logged off for the last time, first time I have logged on in a week and it was just too depressing. No chatter on the usual channels to smile and laugh at, even the epic smart alecs of Help were mostly silent, and Cape Radio also was quiet. The streets were near empty, as well as every place I went, The D, the Ski Chalet, a lot of others with fun memories.
Yeah, I'm starting to wonder if people are playing anywhere besides Virtue these days. A couple days ago I was on Triumph and did a search, and found a grand total of six characters logged in blueside. Last night (Friday!) on Defiant there were eight ... and at level 20 mine was the second-highest-level character logged in. There was a lvl 50, me, and six others at 19 or lower.

It didn't change the way I played — I'm a soloist, not a group/team player — but it was still a bummer seeing so few people on.


 

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Originally Posted by Zemblanity View Post
You keep mentioning that spiritual successor, but what is it? A flash game for iPhonies? A card game? A tabletop set? Champions Online? A whole new game in the early stages of development?

If it's a secret spiritual successor, do we need some special invitation to access?
The answers are no, no, no, never, yes, no.


@Golden Girl

City of Heroes comics and artwork

 

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Originally Posted by Mister Rik View Post
Yeah, I'm starting to wonder if people are playing anywhere besides Virtue these days. A couple days ago I was on Triumph and did a search, and found a grand total of six characters logged in blueside. Last night (Friday!) on Defiant there were eight ... and at level 20 mine was the second-highest-level character logged in. There was a lvl 50, me, and six others at 19 or lower.

It didn't change the way I played — I'm a soloist, not a group/team player — but it was still a bummer seeing so few people on.
I think a lot of players have the same mentality that I do. That is, why play and invest so much time into this game if it's going to be shut down in two months? I've been a moderate to hardcore City Of Heroes gamer myself, but I simply don't see the point. I'm sure I'll log in to mess around and I'll be in game on November 30th, but there's no real point in playing in the meantime.

I noticed only a week or two in after the closure announcement that Virtue was looking a bit less populated. It seems that once people heard the news that was it for them.


 

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Originally Posted by End Sinister View Post
I think a lot of players have the same mentality that I do. That is, why play and invest so much time into this game if it's going to be shut down in two months? I've been a moderate to hardcore City Of Heroes gamer myself, but I simply don't see the point. I'm sure I'll log in to mess around and I'll be in game on November 30th, but there's no real point in playing in the meantime.

I noticed only a week or two in after the closure announcement that Virtue was looking a bit less populated. It seems that once people heard the news that was it for them.
I'm the same way. I log in and it's like... what's the point? What am I doing there? None of it matters.

I've saved my character with the Titan Sentinel logger. I've got my Mid's builds. If someone saves the game, or puts up an Emu, I'm ready. But I just can't make myself play right now when I know that it's all being erased soon.

Besides, RP-wise, I've already moved my character off of that dimension. They're hoping something "saves the universe" so they can move back, but realistically, yeah. I've got no reason to log in anymore


 

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mister Rik View Post
Yeah, I'm starting to wonder if people are playing anywhere besides Virtue these days. A couple days ago I was on Triumph and did a search, and found a grand total of six characters logged in blueside. Last night (Friday!) on Defiant there were eight ... and at level 20 mine was the second-highest-level character logged in. There was a lvl 50, me, and six others at 19 or lower.

It didn't change the way I played — I'm a soloist, not a group/team player — but it was still a bummer seeing so few people on.
There is a handful of us keeping the faith on Triumph. I have contact with some old server regulars out of game and off the forums. I've heard from several that they are just a bit too bummed out each time they log in.

Everyone is mourning in their own manner. I was similarly depressed. Now I've gotten defiantly stubborn about playing as much as I can within the time that is left and having fun and hitting all sorts of little goals.

It's worth it so far. But every so often I do get down again when I realize "damn, this is a pretty great game with quite a wide range of content and options." I will be sad to see it go.

Too bad NC Soft doesn't do maintenance mode. Makes me never want to buy another title they distribute since it means once a game gets over the hill the plug will be pulled as company policy. I like getting attached to my characters and my character roster.


 

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I know a lot of people who have taken to playing on the Beta server, so they can experience sommething from Issue 24 that will never be released, or to buy something that they might not otherwise have the points for. It's likely that the same thing is happening to the population of other servers too.


@Roderick

 

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That's interesting considering Virtue always seems to show Yellow whenever I login. Granted I dont' have active toons on Virtue to check, but I look to see anyway.


 

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Justice is noticeably quieter, but not dead. This evening we ran iTrials for about three hours. Yesterday we had full teams running Magisterium for the Really Hard Way badge. (We've gotten it once a night on four separate nights now.) We still run Hamidon on Monday and Wednesday, and RWZ raids after.

There seems to be a fairly sharp divide of players into two broad camps of people.

On one side are those who, as already mentioned, don't see the point in playing more - future accomplishments are going to be gone soon, so why bother playing?

On the other side are players who view accomplishments with their characters as something they will cherish even if the game ceases to be available. They are often seeking to do more things they had not previously done (usually because they thought they had more time). I'm one of those people. If I have to, I'll be cramming in badges and whatnot on Nov 30. (Well, I hope I'm done with badges way before then, but if I had to, I would.)

There's a bit more involved. Some folks also are keeping playing because they have friends playing (sometimes for the reasons directly above), and some just really love playing CoH, and are filling as much time with it as they can while it's still here. For these folks, goals per-se aren't the point, but rather the experience itself.

Those who seem most prone to leave seem more loosely attached to the combination of the game world, their characters, or friends who aren't leaving yet. If you feel your characters can be ported to another game, or don't really get attached to characters at all, if your friends all left, or you mostly just played in PuGs on active servers, you probably are more prone to leave.

Me, I'm attached to my characters and want to round out their accomplishments, I want to play the game until I can't any more, and I have friends who are staying for the kinds of reasons given above. Justice seems to have a nice core of players like me who plan to stick it out till the end. While player counts may continue to decline, I bet I know the names of Justice community of players who will be logged in on Nov 30. I'm sure other servers have their equivalents.


Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA

 

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Haven't seen people on Protected when I logged on (but didn't search), but at least for me the death of CoH was an incentive to play a little more. Not that much to make a difference to the server population, but still better than nothing. I played the two first contacts of Who Will Die, though unfortunately I only have one VIP account now with a level 20 character so I can't continue. But there's still stuff to be played.

I also plan to enter the game to save whatever characters I can using the tool, when the end is closer.


 

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Zemblanity View Post
You keep mentioning that spiritual successor, but what is it? A flash game for iPhonies? A card game? A tabletop set? Champions Online? A whole new game in the early stages of development?

If it's a secret spiritual successor, do we need some special invitation to access?
She's probably talking out of her backside, like usual.


@FloatingFatMan

Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

 

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Originally Posted by WanderingAries View Post
That's interesting considering Virtue always seems to show Yellow whenever I login. Granted I dont' have active toons on Virtue to check, but I look to see anyway.
At this point, Virtue seems consistently more loaded than Freedom, whereas leading up to the announcement, they were more balanced, perhaps with a slight bias towards Virtue being more loaded, more often.

We have always needed to be careful about drawing overly strong conclusions from those load indicators. If the Freedom shard had beefier hardware allocated to it than Virtue, it would be less likely to show the same load even for the same on-line player counts. And the three-dot scale isn't very granular.

All that said, I can't help but wonder if the stereotypes frequently applied to Freedom and Virtue wouldn't suggest that Freedom would empty out more than Virtue under the circumstances. My stereotype of Freedom is as a place that had a lot of players with sort of shallow views of the game - more into "following the herd" in terms of FotM characters, farming, PL-ing, etc. Virtue's stereotype is, of course, of role play, which suggests (but does not guarantee) a greater attachment to characters, SGs or other social groups, and possibly to other players.

Comparing my perception of those two stereotypes, it seems natural to me that the emotional investment of role-players could be stronger, on average, compared to folks who often were just interested on playing on the server with the most other players.

I know I just painted two whole server populations with immensely broad brushes. I'm 100% positive that everyone on Freedom wasn't a farming, PL-ing hack who didn't care about the game, or that every Virtue player is a role player, or even that every role player is emotionally invested in their characters. But I do think there may be something to the idea that those stereotypes really applied sufficiently to affect how the two servers populations reacted to the sunset announcement.

Or I could be completely wrong, and other factors might be at play. I have no good evidence, only theories based on stereotypes that may not really apply the way I think they do.


Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA

 

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Quote:
Originally Posted by SilverAgeFan View Post
There is a handful of us keeping the faith on Triumph. I have contact with some old server regulars out of game and off the forums. I've heard from several that they are just a bit too bummed out each time they log in.
While my only level 50 is on Justice (I found 50 players logged in there last night), I've found that my favorite characters are some of those that I created on Triumph and Defiant ( *sigh* 2 people, including myself, on Defiant last night, though granted, it was midnight Pacific time).

I'm mourning the fact that, by Nov. 30, I will have had only 13-1/2 months to play the game. Still managed to roll 89+ characters (probably close to 100 - there have been a number that just didn't work or I just didn't like that got deleted). So right now I've been trying to get as many of them as I can to at least level 20 to get that second costume slot, and moving them around trying to collect as many Day Job badges as possible. I'll "archive" all of them when the final shutdown date approaches.


 

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mister Rik View Post
While my only level 50 is on Justice (I found 50 players logged in there last night), I've found that my favorite characters are some of those that I created on Triumph and Defiant ( *sigh* 2 people, including myself, on Defiant last night, though granted, it was midnight Pacific time).

I'm mourning the fact that, by Nov. 30, I will have had only 13-1/2 months to play the game. Still managed to roll 89+ characters (probably close to 100 - there have been a number that just didn't work or I just didn't like that got deleted). So right now I've been trying to get as many of them as I can to at least level 20 to get that second costume slot, and moving them around trying to collect as many Day Job badges as possible. I'll "archive" all of them when the final shutdown date approaches.
If you're not a member of Triumph Watch 2.0, join the channel, make a tab for it and when an admin (several still play--they have a star when viewing the channel members) ask to be unsilenced.

Say hello when you drop in. Things still form there. Though it can take admittedly longer. I am finding though that the vets and the LFG channel people in general have a much more congenial attitude overall, taking teams when they find them even if it is not specifically what they were after.

There is a pallor over the community, kind of like being at someone's wake. The circumstances, as Uber Guy has articulated, have sensitized some of us to "seize life" (albeit digital life) while it lasts.


 

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dethos_Zahrim View Post
P.S., I've decided to punish myself by going back to the land of spreadsheets and internet spaceships being serious business till I find a new game I actually enjoyed as much as here. So hopefully I might gank, or be ganked, by some of you there.
o7


 

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I normally played on Champion, but I've more or less moved to Virtue since the Atlas 33 gathering.


 

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I log on and occasionally do things but I find it hard to actually play in earnest. It just depresses me.


 

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Quote:
Originally Posted by UberGuy View Post
At this point, Virtue seems consistently more loaded than Freedom, whereas leading up to the announcement, they were more balanced, perhaps with a slight bias towards Virtue being more loaded, more often.

We have always needed to be careful about drawing overly strong conclusions from those load indicators. If the Freedom shard had beefier hardware allocated to it than Virtue, it would be less likely to show the same load even for the same on-line player counts. And the three-dot scale isn't very granular.

All that said, I can't help but wonder if the stereotypes frequently applied to Freedom and Virtue wouldn't suggest that Freedom would empty out more than Virtue under the circumstances. My stereotype of Freedom is as a place that had a lot of players with sort of shallow views of the game - more into "following the herd" in terms of FotM characters, farming, PL-ing, etc. Virtue's stereotype is, of course, of role play, which suggests (but does not guarantee) a greater attachment to characters, SGs or other social groups, and possibly to other players.

Comparing my perception of those two stereotypes, it seems natural to me that the emotional investment of role-players could be stronger, on average, compared to folks who often were just interested on playing on the server with the most other players.

I know I just painted two whole server populations with immensely broad brushes. I'm 100% positive that everyone on Freedom wasn't a farming, PL-ing hack who didn't care about the game, or that every Virtue player is a role player, or even that every role player is emotionally invested in their characters. But I do think there may be something to the idea that those stereotypes really applied sufficiently to affect how the two servers populations reacted to the sunset announcement.

Or I could be completely wrong, and other factors might be at play. I have no good evidence, only theories based on stereotypes that may not really apply the way I think they do.
As someone who plays exclusively on Virtue and Freedom, I agree completely with your assessment. Although I still see people on Freedom, I think that a lot of the server's demographic were likely to jump ship immediately after the announcement. And I think you were spot on regarding the level of attachment that roleplayers likely have to their characters. Virtue is also the more mature of the game's two largest servers, and therefore would see less immediate attrition.

Contrary to this thread's general tone, there are people like me that will be playing frantically until they pull the plug. I will never be able to play my favorite game ever again, so I'm going to make every second I have left count. I lead TFs and SFs(!!!) almost nightly on Virtue. Transfer a character or two over and join us.


 

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Originally Posted by FloatingFatMan View Post
She's probably talking out of her backside, like usual.
Now I dont agree with GG on much or anything, but really as crazy as she is sometimes to me, there is really a spiritual successor to the game in the works. There is group right now throwing around ideas and looking at the options of which path is the best path to go to. GG seems determined to save this game with all the effort she can put forth.
Think there is more info on it on the Titan network site. Or what ever it's called. The hardest part of doing something is starting and they already started.

Off topic-But man only if the Atlas 33 thing was a normal occurance aka, that many people played at the same time on a day to day basis.


-Female Player-
Quote:
Originally Posted by mauk2 View Post
Evil_Legacy became one of my favorite posters with two words.
"Kick Rocks."
I laffed so hard. Never change, E_L!

 

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I have 6 alts to go before I have a 50 of each AT. I'll be there when the lights go out.


 

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Originally Posted by FloatingFatMan View Post
She's probably talking out of her backside, like usual.

No she not. I may having differences with her in past but this not time for that. She telling truth and though it very sketchy and very plain it is in progression stages. It not being ready for little time but I can assuring you it is honestly there.

Secrecy is for good reason, please be patient and kind to her. She knowing what she spoke of this time.


Soon�

 

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Evil_Legacy View Post
Off topic-But man only if the Atlas 33 thing was a normal occurance aka, that many people played at the same time on a day to day basis.
For what it's worth, I think even at its heyday(s), CoH usually ran at something more like 5-7 Atlas instances. Not that that sucks at all. Thirty odd is just an immense number. And of course, back then, people could start in Galaxy, too. (I'm sure it was a minority who did so, but some people chose Galaxy specifically to avoid the crowds in Atlas. I know, I was one of them. )


Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA