Last Dance

As others have said, thank you for being you.

You have enriched this game immeasurably, and I've always valued and enjoyed your posts.

Back in 2004 when I joined, the Devs were very frequent posters on the forums. At the time, iirc, there wasn't a dev tracker yet so we had to search on their names to find their posts among the different threads.

Eventually that changed and the Dev Tracker became one of my common stopping points each morning as I got caught up on what was going on in the game. I think I've probably spent more time reading the forums in the last 8+ years than I have playing the game, and there were stretches when I'd play ever night for 4-5 hours or so.

Reading about the game wasn't usually quite as much fun as playing it, but it was nice to stay connected to CoH like that when I was at work or away from my gaming computer. To read what the devs were thinking, to plan for how to setup this new blaster or that new defender, or hear what new content and bug fixes were on the way.

Over time a big part of that enjoyment became reading what other players were thinking about the game. From the early Brawl Index measurements for powers, to Red's City of Data to this really eloquent poster who laid out exactly how Defense worked.

My first alt was a Super Reflexes scrapper, so the inner workings of Defense was more than a little interesting to me, especially since early on my poor MA/SR scrapper was failing to live up to my hopes for him in a spectacularly debt-errific fashion.

The years rolled on, and while I've played a lot of other MMOs, I've always followed the forums, especially that one particularly eloquent poster. To be fair of course there've been a LOT of other great posters too. Ones who explained the Market forum and made me Rich, Rich, Rich! One who showed how to go from 0 to Awesome in 30 days. Ones who've written guides and ones who've posted hilarious lists. It's been a rare day that there hasn't been something that caught my eye, made me think or just made me laugh.

With the game coming to end on Friday, I'm going to miss all of the Task Forces and Trials, all of the street hunts and mission doors, but I think what I'm going to miss the most is three clicks and a bit of typing each day:
<Search>
<Advanced Search>
Arcanaville
<Search Now>

In 8 years, I've never said "thanks" for all of your amazing posts. It never seemed appropriate before, you don't need fanboys, you posts stand on their own. The work you've done for the game and the players speaks for itself.

And yet that doesn't seem enough. So I offer my gratitude and these words to let you know that you've brought a lot enjoyment into my life and that you, as Arcanaville, will be missed.

Godspeed and good wishes for you always!

Thanks to all the well-wishers. I really appreciate it.

I have never been very active on the forums, and while I think I may have only posted where I got a response for you once, I have always enjoyed reading your posts. When I returned to the game this summer after 3 years away, seeing you were still here posting was like returning home.

I think you're right about the lack of balance being a selling point. CoX let you be grotesquely overpowered, but it let everyone be that way, including some of the NPCs (hi Malta stuns and quartz crystals); and more importantly, it let you adjust your own difficulty to keep the game as challenging as you wanted it to be.

The ability to adjust difficulty combined with the sidekicking/exemplaring system lets you play with any of your friends with as much challenge as you want, and has absolutely ruined me for MMOs without these features. I was drawn back to CoH this summer after playing SWTOR for a few months because I just couldn't play with friends without leveling exactly in sync with them, and even done that way most missions were trivially easy when done with more than one person. It just made me miss everything from CoH until I came back.

I will miss your posts Arcanaville. They were always a delight.

Take care in where ever you go, Arcanaville. Count me as one of those recommending The Secret World. It's definitely a worthy diversion--though, in fact I might be getting tired of it after 5 months of play. Not enough Alt options!

And a nerdy math joke, which you've probably already heard:

An infinitely long line of physicists leads into a bar. The first physicist asks the bartender for a pint of beer. The second physicist asks for half a pint of beer. The third physicist asks for a quarter pint of beer. At this point the bartender puts two beers on the bar and says, "There, now all of you get the hell out of here!"

I hadn't actually intended to post anymore on these forums after my previous post,
but when the Mistress of Mathematics posts, I've always found it worthwhile to read
and pay attention.

Arcanaville,

Though we've not always been in agreement throughout the years, yours has been
one of the very few voices I've always respected on these forums.

Your analytics have always been thorough, well presented, and frequently very
compelling. I've lost count of the many things I've learned as a result of your
postings, and I sincerely thank you for those insights.

Even in cases where we've disagreed, your opinions always caused me to carefully
consider things in more detail, knowing full well the scrutiny you'd give them.

More surprising (to me, at least) is your great sense of humour in those posts
where you allow your wittiness to shine. In addition to all the great information
you've shared, you've made me laugh (in very good ways) much more than I
ever expected (The Syndicate Bureacracy joke thread is just one example)
and for that, I'm also grateful.

Going forward, I wish you nothing but the best wherever you end up, and you'll
be one of the forum folks that'll I'll always remember respectfully.


Best Wishes,
4


PS> Your Immortal Game thread is also very intriguing. I'm not sure I'll be able
to attend the event (Wednesdays are busy for me), but I definitely look forward
to hearing about it and reading the remainder of the tale.

Sorry, but when is the Beta event? Can I please get a date or time?

Goodbye, Arcanaville, and thank you for your contributions to the community and the game itself. Whenever I really get into a game, I tend to obsessively attempt to learn everything I can about the mechanics of it, and if it weren't for you, I think we wouldn't have known many, many details, and that knowledge enabled you and the community to campaign for many beneficial changes.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to make your Beta Server event, as my supergroup has already planned a get-together on our home server, Virtue. I will read your stories, however, and hope that any followups will be posted on the Titan Network forums after these boards are gone.

I also wanted to let you know that, a few years ago, Zombie Man once asked me in-game if I was you, due to some information I shared over a public channel (I don't remember what, but I'd guess it was probably about Taunt mechanics). I hope that isn't too embarrassing for either of you, but I was certainly amused.

Edit: wait, Wednesday? Maybe I can make it! I assumed it would be Friday.

Thanks for backing me up at times Arcana. Also thank you for not tearing me down when I was wrong about something.

I will always think of you as my big sister of COH . Godspeed and I will see you on Beta!

It's like saying goodbye to the house you grew up in.

Goodbye, my friends. We had lots of fun, I don't regret one second of it, and I'd do it all over again without a second thought.

I loved you all, and I'll never forget you. Thanks for everything.

It's been a genuine pleasure.

Learning about the game mechanics, and discussing them on the forums, has been a huge part of this game for me. I'm normally fairly analytical, even when I game, but nowhere has this gone to such extremes as in CoH (and I doubt it will ever do so for any other game again, but who knows - when I got CoH I certainly never expected to be around for this long). I attribute much of this to the sheer scope of things to learn (seriously, sometimes it's felt like we've been exploring laws of nature), and to the nature of the community. Starting (for me) with the Scrapper forum, and to a degree the Tanker forum, there's always been a large number of players interested in discussing the game mechanics, learning from each other, and encouraging each other to learn more. Without that kind of community, I don't think we would have known half as much about the game as we now do. For almost as long as I can remember, you have stood out among that community. You're the one I've learned the most about the game from, and I've enjoyed our discussions. You have my utmost respect.

For the past few years, I have not been very active on the forums. For various reasons I had to cut down on the time I spent here. I have a thing about wanting to be relatively certain of the things I post about, and since I have not had the same amount of time to do proper "research", "keep current", and "verify my data", I've chosen to step back rather than continuing to post with a lower degree of certainty. I never lost interest in the game mechanics though, and instead reverted back to my natural lurker state, keeping track of you and others discussing such things as time permitted.

And now it seems like time is running out for all of us, and that it's time to say goodbye. So, I would like to thank you, and all the others that have helped out with learning about how the game works. You've helped make this game (and meta-game) very enjoyable for me, and I wish you all the best in the future - wherever you may end up. Until we meet again, be well.

'Nuff said

Quote:
Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
Except through Dreamspace. I'm a hopeless romantic.

Exactly what I thought, felt.

Thanks for everything, Arcanaville! I've not played COH in quite some time (had our SG sendoff on Sunday), but the quality of people on the forums here has always endeared me to the game. Thanks for all the help, the great attitude, and more ^_^

If you're ever on Maui, let me know! Guri Guri is good, but my friends swear by Ulu Lanis now

http://ululanisshaveice.com/

The attendance is bein awesome!!!

@Arda

I always loved your posts Arcanaville.

I rarely understood them. I couldn't fault them (probably for the same reason). But those times I made the effort to understand it was eye-opening for my enjoyment of the game. Or else it was just delicious to see how thoroughly and committedly the game was studied, always trying to improve it, or improve someone else's understanding of it. Developing from without. I pictured you to look like Marvel's "Leader", big brained and all, but I don't mean that unkindly

I do hope to come across you again, when we all find that friendly place for heroes to be as much of themselves as technology permits. More than a forum, perhaps not an MMO, and maybe it'll take a decade. Whatever it is I suspect you'll be developing from within .You'd make an awesome game soul.

Milan Dare

Arc: 379017: Outbroken See all your old friends in the Outbreak Tutorial sequel!
Arc: Coming Soon: The Incarnate Shadow Shard of Fire and Ice Mender Rednem needs you!
Massively.com opinion poll: Please Help Save CoH!

That event tonight was awesome fun and memorable. A fitting way to head to the 'final sunset'...Until the city reopens. Thank you for all you've done and what you did to get this organized.