This morning at 12:04am PST, City of Heroes shut down its servers for the final time.
I was there with my gaming group, the same folks I’ve been playing CoH with since it came out in April 2004. We haven’t played together consistently, but it was great to come together in the final days and document an era in gaming that has seen many changes. For the record, City of Heroes came out half a year before World of Warcraft. Maybe that can help put into perspective how influential and inveterate City of Heroes has been in the online gaming world.
I have to admit, aside from the character creation and the existence of the Pixie Patrol Supergroup, I wasn’t that into City of Heroes. It wasn’t until the release of City of Villains expansion in October 2005 that I began playing the game in earnest. I put aside Final Fantasy XI Online, which I loved and still remember fondly, and World of Warcraft in order to consolidate my social gaming into City of Villains. With the two different versions of the game, the moniker CoX became the common way to refer to the duality of gameplay. Villains gave it the push I needed to choose that universe over the others. How can you say no to being a bad guy?
After a while, our gaming group splintered to other games but a few of us managed to keep playing Villains weekly since 2006. We also “went Rogue” with an additional expansion in 2010. Stories have been added to enrich the gameplay, costumes have been created, friends have been made, and there’s never been a dull moment. Until the announcement in late August this year that NCSoft was disbanding the development team, Paragon Studios, and shutting down the servers in November.
This hit the community hard and several groups sprang up in opposition. Unfortunately, efforts to Save Our City have failed. The harsh reality is that NCSoft stopped caring about the game, instead focusing on mega “grinding” games similar to what’s currently available on the market. In the end, CoX just didn’t fit into their portfolio. The family friendly, highbrow nature of City of Heroes/Villains just wasn’t their cup of tea. NCSoft stock has fallen, their other game ventures are shaky, and they’ve been getting negative press on a ginormous scale. A pox upon them!
While there are plans in the works to resurrect the spirit of the game, it is unlikely that CoX will ever be restored to its full glory unless NCSoft sells off the Intellectual Property rights or some legal maneuvering is used after a bankruptcy of the company. Time will tell. In the meantime, if you are a fan of the game, there are still many active forums and sites to support our displaced community. Stay strong, heroes! Stay scheming, villains!
My fellow gamer and longtime friend, Amerist over at MMO Anthropology, has been kind enough to document the game before the end. We’ve live streamed several Hero and Villain missions and events to preserve some of the flavor of the game for posterity. Since new accounts were disabled after the announcement, this is the only way for others not familiar with the game to experience the CoX universe. Our final live stream was last night, November 30, 2012. We decided our last run would be as heroes to commiserate with players in Atlas Park, the place that started it all.
"The party's in the rear (of Atlas)"
Before playing, we took some time to extract and back up our characters via the Sentinel + Extractor. Just in case.
The CoX servers filled quickly. The Virtue server crashed. Our home server, Champion, is where we played for the final hours. Our group gathered and explored the heroes area, doing some low-level missions as well as some to showcase the level 50 powers of some of the group. My level 20-something character, Pixie Frost, got to train for the last time. Enhancement slots. For those interested in our adventures, with a bit of historical perspective on the game, check out our recorded live stream videos on YouTube.
Lots of players gathered in Atlas Park, and as the night progressed, multiple instances of Atlas spawned to accommodate the vast number of players. We spent time looking at all the costumes and characters that people have spent the last 8 years defining and perfecting. Very bittersweet, as it was all to end at midnight. Check out our videos to reminisce and experience the torchlight farewell.
The remaining game moderators were kind enough to bring in a bunch of monsters & villains for folks to fight, right there in Atlas. Rikti drop ships, Rulaaru, the Hamidan, Lord Recluse. The giant statue of Atlas was host to dancing, drumming, and camaraderie. As the time ticked down to 10 minutes until sunset, we gathered at Paragon City Hall for our vigil. For the end of an era. For the heroes’ last stand.
*/e holdtorch*
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