Author Topic: Obsession...  (Read 16912 times)

Beltor

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Re: Obsession...
« Reply #20 on: April 15, 2015, 07:53:29 AM »
I started playing video games when i was 7 or 8 back in the mid-late 70's. I played both of them, Pong and Space Invaders. Back then kids weren't supposed to be better than the adults but i didn't know that :). When I was 17, I was diagnosed with Friedreicks Attaxia, a form of Muscular Dystrophy, and that i'd be unable to walk or do much else by 30. I was already an Arcade Ace and was determined not to lose that skill. My hands eventually got bad and i couldn't hit the buttons as fast as other people but my experience and focusing on using strategy and intelligence kept me ahead of most other players. You'd be surprised at how well that works even on action games. When I couldn't walk anymore, I was still unbeatable at Street Fighter 2, and no they didn't let me win. When MMO's came out, I played them as well, never mentioning my problems and never needing to. Although none were a problem to play, I just couldn't find any that held my interest more than a few months until i tried COH. I played it until it was wrongly shut down, for about 4 years. I was able to keep up with the vets and pro's with literally just one hand. I also enjoyed the creativity of COH and being able to create endless characters that could look and play completely different each. I'm now 45 and i plan to be at the return of COH, whatever form that's in. I suppose my obsession is with gaming in general but City of Heroes is my favorite game.

RGladden

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Re: Obsession...
« Reply #21 on: April 15, 2015, 10:19:46 AM »
I started playing video games when i was 7 or 8 back in the mid-late 70's. I played both of them, Pong and Space Invaders. Back then kids weren't supposed to be better than the adults but i didn't know that :). When I was 17, I was diagnosed with Friedreicks Attaxia, a form of Muscular Dystrophy, and that i'd be unable to walk or do much else by 30. I was already an Arcade Ace and was determined not to lose that skill. My hands eventually got bad and i couldn't hit the buttons as fast as other people but my experience and focusing on using strategy and intelligence kept me ahead of most other players. You'd be surprised at how well that works even on action games. When I couldn't walk anymore, I was still unbeatable at Street Fighter 2, and no they didn't let me win. When MMO's came out, I played them as well, never mentioning my problems and never needing to. Although none were a problem to play, I just couldn't find any that held my interest more than a few months until i tried COH. I played it until it was wrongly shut down, for about 4 years. I was able to keep up with the vets and pro's with literally just one hand. I also enjoyed the creativity of COH and being able to create endless characters that could look and play completely different each. I'm now 45 and i plan to be at the return of COH, whatever form that's in. I suppose my obsession is with gaming in general but City of Heroes is my favorite game.

Wow.  A big "thumbs up."

Regards, Shuckins

LaughingAlex

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Re: Obsession...
« Reply #22 on: April 15, 2015, 04:50:56 PM »
I hate waiting.

This isn't about the kind of waiting we are all doing right now, but waiting for "player with X role", I hate it.  And it's something that caused numerous let downs in guild wars 1.  There would often be times when if I get to a location, the chance of ever, EVER completing said mission was a straight zero.  Because there were so few people in the mission town, that meant the "role required" wasn't likely to be there in the first place, so I was screwed.  There were just some missions I could never beat without some human players with me, especially in the factions campaign.

But that wasn't all that caused me to remain at city of heroes.  There was also the elitism in guild wars 1 and bad attitudes over how to play a specific role.  Once I played that role, the "tank", though it was really just exploiting the AI by holding a gear and then using defensive stances while someone else healed me endlessly(and it was boring mind you).  Well, a stupid minionmancer spent all his time YELLING at me for not doing it perfectly at the very beginning.  I spent 1 second, ONE SECOND, to long moving and he started yelling at me.  Yet I was forced to put up with him.  No option to kick him, couldn't leave as I'd look bad to a friend of mine there.  It was a hallowed experience and I was left a little bitter from it.

And people in general were bigots about how you used your character.  Warrior?  They expected a tank even though tank mechanics didn't work without an exploit like the one above.  Monk?  Nothing but healing.  Necromancer?  Forget the blood spell line even existed.  This was, course, pve I am talking about.  Pvpers knew what the classes were supposed to really do.  But then don't ever expect to get into pvp without having been into it from day 1 because of numerous catch 22's that were in place.

It also left me a bit of a "Play this role perfectly or else!" jerk to.  Because one poor player was often all it took to kill the ENTIRE team.  And often due to the wrong reasons.

Then some good chaps showed me city of heroes.  At first it took me some time to drop the jerk attitude I picked up from guild wars 1.  But, over time as I began to realize how much freedom the game gave you, I found I was becoming far more relaxed yet  was still having fun.  And I was having fun in a way I was becoming unable to from having played guild wars 1.  Didn't have to wait for a healer or a tank all day or some other role, the only time I'd see myself being bothered was ironically when someone did nothing but heal, ignored the buffs and attacks and stole half the credit from the rest of the team.  Which didn't happen all that often and, I wasn't as ticked off over it.

I couldn't go back to guild wars 1 after city of heroes.  And I couldn't bring myself to bother with other mmorpgs, whenever I see people spamming lf healer that I could tell were doing so for 30-40 minutes, it tells me the game would just try to lead me down that dark path of being a stop having fun guy "out of necessity".  MMORPG's are just, bad games when you look at them that way.  They encourage elitistic stop having fun guy attitudes because they force you into having that "perfect holy trinity team", and are boring even when you do have that "perfect holy trinity team". 

It's why I hated the fire and ice rampage of CO so much, it was both boring or unfairly hard, and it just had all the same problems I saw in GW1.  Hybrid role?  Sorry, your "useless" in fire and ice, retcon to a defenseless glass cannon, or defenseless healer, or a claw tank.  I want a game to play, not a "Pander to some overlord who hates you" experience.
Currently; Not doing any streaming, found myself with less time available recently.  Still playing starbound periodically, though I am thinking of trying other games.  Don't tell me to play mmohtg's though please :).  Getting back into participating in VO and the successors again to.

HeatSpike1

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Re: Obsession...
« Reply #23 on: April 15, 2015, 08:37:24 PM »
I think everyone who frequents this board can be categorized as being obsessed with City of Heroes.

agreed

Remaugen

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Re: Obsession...
« Reply #24 on: April 15, 2015, 10:12:47 PM »
Amen.
We're almost there!  ;D

The RNG hates me.

Abraxus

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Re: Obsession...
« Reply #25 on: April 16, 2015, 12:38:15 AM »
Rodger that!
What was no more, is now reborn!

Hagis

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Re: Obsession...
« Reply #26 on: April 17, 2015, 12:02:57 PM »
Not sure if it qualifies as an obsession, but I will share this story. When City of Heroes closed, my wife and I were shocked and numbed.  Then we found out she was pregnant, after several years of trying with and without medical intervention. So life's priorities changed quickly...  Anyway, we had a group of RL friends that played City and we had our own Supergroup of Celtic themed characters on Freedom called the Claymores.  This same group of people is also my pen and paper gaming group. We do have one member who never played City of Heroes. Anyway, a while back, we were running through a particularly grim and gritty Pathfinder module and this friend decided she wanted to bail. Rather than have that happen, I asked if she would mind if we switched to a comic book based RPG. She said sure, and I began casting about for ways to bring COH to the gaming table. What I wound up with is two parts Mutants and Masterminds, one part Red Tomax's City of Data, one part paragonwiki, bound together with HeroLab, and so far it works pretty well. I showed my group the City Of Heroes Unity video from youtube last month, and it started a chorus of stories and memories from the game.  I just had the group take down Frostfire last time, and we are currently working through the Julius the Troll missions. It isn't the same, but everyone is having an awful lot of fun.

Ankhammon

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Re: Obsession...
« Reply #27 on: April 17, 2015, 12:47:39 PM »
"It's only when we are obsessed that we can ever truly be free."
                                         
                                                                        Scrapperlock
Cogito, Ergo... eh?

Tubbius

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Re: Obsession...
« Reply #28 on: April 19, 2015, 08:52:20 PM »
Not sure if it qualifies as an obsession, but I will share this story. When City of Heroes closed, my wife and I were shocked and numbed.  Then we found out she was pregnant, after several years of trying with and without medical intervention. So life's priorities changed quickly...  Anyway, we had a group of RL friends that played City and we had our own Supergroup of Celtic themed characters on Freedom called the Claymores.  This same group of people is also my pen and paper gaming group. We do have one member who never played City of Heroes. Anyway, a while back, we were running through a particularly grim and gritty Pathfinder module and this friend decided she wanted to bail. Rather than have that happen, I asked if she would mind if we switched to a comic book based RPG. She said sure, and I began casting about for ways to bring COH to the gaming table. What I wound up with is two parts Mutants and Masterminds, one part Red Tomax's City of Data, one part paragonwiki, bound together with HeroLab, and so far it works pretty well. I showed my group the City Of Heroes Unity video from youtube last month, and it started a chorus of stories and memories from the game.  I just had the group take down Frostfire last time, and we are currently working through the Julius the Troll missions. It isn't the same, but everyone is having an awful lot of fun.

So awesome :)

I should try something like this.  I'm a huge fan of the TSR 1986 Marvel Super Heroes.  Maybe, with a little work, the Freedom Phalanx can end up with good old FASERIP scores. . . .

Archlight

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Re: Obsession...
« Reply #29 on: June 15, 2015, 05:46:16 PM »
My group played Champions 5th ed and had an option for COH themed characters and one adventure we ran into some Widows.

ukaserex

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Re: Obsession...
« Reply #30 on: June 18, 2015, 05:17:52 PM »
Hope you're on the mend.

As for me, when the game shut down, I started to exercise, found a new job (and now have an even better one) lost about ....50 pounds and am now almost as fit as my avatar was.

In many ways, the demise of the game has led me to a much healthier lifestyle. So, yes, I miss it - but I will never sit behind a computer screen for 14 hours a day again.
Those who have no idea what they are doing genuinely have no idea that they don't know what they're doing. - John Cleese

Sinistar

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Re: Obsession...
« Reply #31 on: June 23, 2015, 06:57:31 PM »
In many ways, the demise of the game has led me to a much healthier lifestyle. So, yes, I miss it - but I will never sit behind a computer screen for 14 hours a day again.

You say that now...but just wait until the day CoH returns and they have DXP weekends.....
In fearful COH-less days
In Raging COH-less nights
With Strong Hearts Full, we shall UNITE!
When all seems lost in the effort to bring CoH back to life,
Look to Cyberspace, where HOPE burns bright!

Abraxus

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Re: Obsession...
« Reply #32 on: June 25, 2015, 12:26:48 AM »
All bets are off if that were to happen!
What was no more, is now reborn!

healix

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Re: Obsession...
« Reply #33 on: June 29, 2015, 12:28:21 AM »
I'd probably be crying so hard, I wouldn't be able to do anything for a while.....
Listen to the 'mustn'ts'. Listen to the 'don'ts'. Listen to the 'shouldn'ts', the 'impossibles', the 'won'ts'. Listen to the 'you'll never haves', then listen close to me... Anything can happen . Anything can be.

Paragon Avenger

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Re: Obsession...
« Reply #34 on: July 28, 2015, 03:31:23 AM »
"It's only when we are totally obsessed that we can ever truly be completely free."
                                         
                                                                        Scrapperlock

And that was well put by a scrapper, at heart at least.
(I added totally and completely ... it needed something.)

Nyghtshade

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Re: Obsession...
« Reply #35 on: July 28, 2015, 02:05:35 PM »
We ran in a Champions Superhero campaign for many years and many wonderful missions.  When CoH opened, I was able to carry many of my characters over, thanks to the awesome costume creator and fantastic powerset combos.  Now, thanks to Paragon Chat, we have the option to bring back our CoH characters and RP again in our wonderful game world again.

Twisted Toon

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Re: Obsession...
« Reply #36 on: July 28, 2015, 10:48:02 PM »
Every time I see this thread, I think Obsession by Calvin Klein.

which leads me to think about Back to the Future.

Which leads me to think about time travel.

Now I want to watch Doctor Who.  :o
Hope never abandons you, you abandon it. - George Weinberg

Hope ... is not a feeling; it is something you do. - Katherine Paterson

Nobody really cares if you're miserable, so you might as well be happy. - Cynthia Nelms

MomentaryGrace

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Re: Obsession...
« Reply #37 on: July 29, 2015, 01:33:07 AM »
True story - I was cleaning out old files from my hard drive today and I ran across a LiveJournal post I did in 2012. Some of it seems relevant to this thread, so I will share:

Quote
A couple of months before election day, I found out that my spiritual home away from reality, the MMORPG City of Heroes, was to be shut down by its parent company, Korean-owned NCSoft. Not because it wasn't profitable, mind you. Officially, it was because the game no longer "fit their direction". I'm not going to try and explain because NO ONE among the loyal player base understand the logic.

The date chosen for the shutdown?

My birthday.

Happy birthday, me, my OTMMORPG (parse that!) where I have gone for refuge for almost 8 years, the place where I can effortlessly be beautiful and strong, where I can be heroic and brave, and the place where I can hit things with a huge broadsword, is going to die.

This is one reason my birthday post is late. I'm still in mourning.

I can't adequately describe all the wonderful things about CoH, but every day it is ever clearer to me that what has been taken is at this point irreplaceable and unmatched in terms of history, mechanics, sheer fun, and perfect fit for me.

I'm going to miss everything.

One day maybe I'll write a post about some of my memorable characters there, and some of the particular things I loved best, but I'm not ready yet.

I'm not really a gamer. I was introduced to CoH by someone else and fell in love with the costume creator, of course, and the fact that I could solo around and have fun all by myself. When I didn't want to be alone, I could answer a call for a PUG. I shared the game with my significant other, and she, like moi, also tends towards soloing, and we didn't really even play with each other much, but we could call on the other for those missions that you just can't solo (or that I couldn't).

I'm not a power player by any means but I loved this game. I loved the zones and the history and the game play and the graphics. I loved creating a six foot plus blond cat girl broadsword regen scrapper which I've heard here and there is not a good build, but I took her all the way to Incarnate. She's vulnerable to the alpha strike but when she goes down, she comes back up and keeps fighting. #^^#

I tried CO after CoH went dark but I really never could get into it. I played Guild Wars eons ago but it never held me. I tried WoW but it also couldn't hold me. I not anti-social, exactly, but I'm... reserved. I like to wander around the edges and dip in now and then, to help when help is needed but to go my own way when I feel like keeping my own company.

It has been said before that CoH was the most solo-friendly of the MMORPGS of its day and I would add at this point, of any day. I don't play console games, they can't keep my attention. I like knowing there are real living people around me, whether I want to mingle or not. You won't know me, but I've been around since Issue 5, on Liberty, Infinity, Justice, Protector, Virtue. Liberty was my "home" server. I hung out (lurked) on the forums like I've been lurking here.

PC brought me out of my cave. Hi yall. :) Thanks for being obsessed, like me, and for keeping this obsession alive.


MomentaryGrace / Liberty's Trixibelle

Scrapperlock in ten... nine...

Paragon Avenger

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Re: Obsession...
« Reply #38 on: July 29, 2015, 08:11:03 PM »
Every time I see this thread, I think Obsession by Calvin Klein.

which leads me to think about Back to the Future.

Which leads me to think about time travel.

Now I want to watch Doctor Who.  :o

Sheldon, is that you?

(It sounded like Dr. Cooper, Phd. from "The Big Bang Theory" except you didn't mention trains.)

Twisted Toon

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Re: Obsession...
« Reply #39 on: July 29, 2015, 11:07:14 PM »
Sheldon, is that you?

(It sounded like Dr. Cooper, Phd. from "The Big Bang Theory" except you didn't mention trains.)

Well, there was that one episode that took place on the Orient Express...in space. I thought that was implied.
Hope never abandons you, you abandon it. - George Weinberg

Hope ... is not a feeling; it is something you do. - Katherine Paterson

Nobody really cares if you're miserable, so you might as well be happy. - Cynthia Nelms