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Browsing through the MMOs these days, I fail to find anythng which interested me as much as my first MMO. I'm sure there are many great new MMOs out there which has high quality of graphics, mechanics and all that. Still, I will always look back to the times of City of Heroes fondly. To be able to soar over the cityscape or stand around the main square looking at other superheroes zoom by. Those were great days.

Anybody else here feel the same way as well? It was a sad day when I found out that CoH servers were closing down. It was a place where I had shared lots of fun times with my friends. Although it was digital in nature and probably classified as "unreal", the memories of getting together for missions are real. For me it wasn't about the grinding or the maximum loot of the top builds. I guess many I've met in CoH also did not share in the best/most effective gear/build belief. It was more the game and the story that mattered.

Are there any like minded ex-CoH players out there? Or is this too dated for everyone else?

I got into that game to late and missed it mostly. Though I'd bet you can find private servers of that game still.

CoH did a lot of things right.

The sidekick/exemplar system let you play with your friends, regardless of level.

Missions scaled with the size of the group. And you didn’t need some holy trinity to form a group. Pretty much get some people together and go kick some mooks around.

Replayability. Overlapping zones at diferent levels, so you could try something new. And completly diferent gameplay between classes. And within the classes, there was a TON of variability.

Character and costume creator. ‘Nuff said.

It wasn’t my first MMO, or the last. But it was a very good one. I stopped playing before the end due to financial reasons, needed to cut my subscriptions down. Never got back to it before they closed up.

I had a lot of fun with CoH (and CoV) and have fond memories of it. Closest thing I can think of is Champions Online.

I played this game for eight years, was pretty bummed when they shut it down. It's still my favorite MMO.

I actually missed the last day as I was having computer problems that time. I tried to run it on an old laptop and it had too many problems. I know, my bad, but I didn't have a better computer that time.

So the next best thing was to just watch the youtube video on the last moments of CoH. It was sad, almost like a funeral.

Hmmmm am I sounding psychotic? Hehe maybe it was just the fond memories of playing an MMO with close friends.

I played for about three years before I ran out of steam with . This was before it went free to play. I used to love making new characters and seeing all the crazy characters and back stories other people would come up with. I could never stick with one for too long though and I don't think I got past level 40 before it got too much of a grind and I'd just make another one.

I used to have an electric/energy blaster called Loveshock. He wore a bright pink costume with white underwear on the outside and gold plated cyborg arms. He would run around shocking people with pink lightning bolts and powerpunching them off of roof tops. Good times!

This game was the best of its kind. It was so sad to see it go.

I played it for a while. All I remember was swearing profusely at the fething XP debt system.

I remember this scene happening. I might have gotten the words wrong but the gist should be correct.

Me: hey man, sorry this must be boring for you. Playing lower levels with Exemplar.

Good friend: nah don't worry about it. I've got so much debt that it doesn't really matter. But it's still fun beating up 5th Column. Lets go!

Fun times....

When your first MMO was EQ, where death meant you lost XP, and could de-level, anything else is EZ-mode.

Well, not hard-core, one death and re-roll games, but they are crazy...

It's funny to see that many of the things we took for granted with City of Heroes still aren't present in many of the MMOs being produced today. Extensive character customization. The ability to actually add a damn SPACE to your name. Pets that actually contribute in a significant way (I've yet to see another pet class in any MMO to match the Mastermind).

City of Heroes was unique among MMOs, because it wasn't about the loot grind. It wasn't about the level grind. It wasn't about the nebulous concept of "end game." It was about actually playing and enjoying the journey from Level 1 and up.

It was also about simple joys. I used to spend about a 10-15 minutes sliding around on the ice at the end of the Frostfire mission, for sheer fun. Flying around the city, seeing the sights. Faceplanting in a mission, and not caring because, hey, debt gets you badges!

I used that program they put out near the end to do a copy of my characters just in case... but sadly it seems unlikely we'll ever see its like again.

Sadly Champions Online just doesn't match up for me.. no idea why, its graphics are slightly better, they went along with a lot of the key elements, but it just doesn't give a good enough alternative to CoH for me.

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
It's funny to see that many of the things we took for granted with City of Heroes still aren't present in many of the MMOs being produced today. Extensive character customization. The ability to actually add a damn SPACE to your name. Pets that actually contribute in a significant way (I've yet to see another pet class in any MMO to match the Mastermind).

City of Heroes was unique among MMOs, because it wasn't about the loot grind. It wasn't about the level grind. It wasn't about the nebulous concept of "end game." It was about actually playing and enjoying the journey from Level 1 and up.

It was also about simple joys. I used to spend about a 10-15 minutes sliding around on the ice at the end of the Frostfire mission, for sheer fun. Flying around the city, seeing the sights. Faceplanting in a mission, and not caring because, hey, debt gets you badges!

The closest I've seen is Guild War's necromancers, but even then it's not as streamlined or good as the Mastermind was.

City of Heroes/Villains was ahead of its time. It still is in many ways, even after its death.

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
It's funny to see that many of the things we took for granted with City of Heroes still aren't present in many of the MMOs being produced today. Extensive character customization. The ability to actually add a damn SPACE to your name. Pets that actually contribute in a significant way (I've yet to see another pet class in any MMO to match the Mastermind).

City of Heroes was unique among MMOs, because it wasn't about the loot grind. It wasn't about the level grind. It wasn't about the nebulous concept of "end game." It was about actually playing and enjoying the journey from Level 1 and up.

It was also about simple joys. I used to spend about a 10-15 minutes sliding around on the ice at the end of the Frostfire mission, for sheer fun. Flying around the city, seeing the sights. Faceplanting in a mission, and not caring because, hey, debt gets you badges!

This, so much this. I still miss the game. Combat that wasn't rooted, the ability to save the team with some zany crap when things went southward was awesome. I fondly remember doing things like having a running fights and healing team members all over the place. Shoot enemy, hit flight, fly to team member, heal, shoot, shoot, fly to team member, heal, so much fun, so awesome.

Also the community was awesome, nothing like being abused by some kid and taking the piss out of them then getting 4 tells from people all congratulating you. I really hate that in most MMos you look ike the gear you have. That said I'm about to start DCUO again (I just wish I could play twitch style :( ) because i like the gear in that. The ability to create cool costumes in that is limited but still individual.

I love just standing around reading back stories. Especially while waiting for the whole group to gather at the mission entrance. You see some really great ones and the amount of effort put into each one is amazing. The quest stories are also epic in their own way.

And my favorite zany power? Unstoppable! I remember facing the final boss in the Nemesis arc. I was a Fire/Invuln Tank but I couldn't damage him at all. I was only alive because of my toggles, enhancements and a kinetic Defender doing Speed Boost on me continuously. And my whole team kept blasting, dying, rushing back to blast again. It was hilarious. We still couldn't kill him in the end and racked up so much debt. But it was a blast and we all had a good laugh about it after.

Another point about CoX. I remember starting in a prison and crashing. Every other launch.

 thedarkavenger wrote:
Another point about CoX. I remember starting in a prison and crashing. Every other launch.

Weird. It rarely crashed for me...

 Melissia wrote:

 thedarkavenger wrote:
Another point about CoX. I remember starting in a prison and crashing. Every other launch.

Weird. It rarely crashed for me...

It's probably my system.