I am not really surprised, the game have lost a lot of players the last few years and it didnt exactly age with grace either.

Still, really sad for the players still around, it was a good game when it came out (even though I just played it a little, I realized that superhero MMOs just aint my thing).

As possibly one of the most adamant supporters of CoH here on mmorpg.com, I'm truly dying on the inside.  The game has been a part of my life for 8 years now and sadly, I still haven't seen it all (I am working on a bucket list). The forums are in a sad state of shock, diasppointment, anger, (false) hope, and resignation. 

City Of Heroes is an mmo truly unlike any other and it polarized people. 

• It has superheroes;
• it has heavy instancing;
• it encourages alts over mains;
• it's mostly PvE;
• it has one of the most robust costume/character creators ever;
• it isn't itemized in the traditional sense;
• crafting is stricly optional
• marketing is strictly optional
• it has the greatest team-up system of any mmo (super-sidekicking!)
• it has flight
• it has physics
• it doesn't rely on the holy trinity
• it emphasizes story with a tight lore
• it has an amazing community and the best relationship between developers and that community

Originally posted by therain93

As possibly one of the most adamant supporters of CoH here on mmorpg.com, I'm truly dying on the inside.  The game has been a part of my life for 8 years now and sadly, I still haven't seen it all (I am working on a bucket list). The forums are in a sad state of shock, diasppointment, anger, (false) hope, and resignation. 

City Of Heroes is an mmo truly unlike any other and it polarized people. 

• It has superheroes;
• it has heavy instancing;
• it encourages alts over mains;
• it's mostly PvE;
• it has one of the most robust costume/character creators ever;
• it isn't itemized in the traditional sense;
• crafting is stricly optional
• marketing is strictly optional
• it has the greatest team-up system of any mmo (super-sidekicking!)
• it has flight
• it has physics
• it doesn't rely on the holy trinity
• it emphasizes story with a tight lore
• it has an amazing community and the best relationship between developers and that community

For those who loved the game, they really loved it.  It will be a shame when City of Heroes shuts down and I don't expect I will play another mmo again when the plug is pulled.  It has been an amazing 8 years and I will be there at the end.

I understand many people loved this game. Heck I even sunk 180 hours into it in the summer of 2010. The fact remains however, just as in nature, only the strong survive. In this case we have to add profitablity to Darwins theory too. It's not a good idea to put all your emotional eggs in one basket. One thing that always killed me in CoH was the rooting effect in combat. Thankfully, GW2 has made that a thing of the past. EIther way, you won't quit mmos. These addictive games are in our blood and you can't and won't give them up!

Originally posted by Sovrath

Originally posted by Rednecksith

[mod edit]

Yeah, that's classic NC Soft.

So let's see...

Lineage in the west

Auto Assault

Tabula Rasa

Dungeon Runners

Edit: Exteel

and now CoX

Dungeon Runners! Oh how I miss the humor in that game.

Originally posted by jpnole

Originally posted by therain93

As possibly one of the most adamant supporters of CoH here on mmorpg.com, I'm truly dying on the inside.  The game has been a part of my life for 8 years now and sadly, I still haven't seen it all (I am working on a bucket list). The forums are in a sad state of shock, diasppointment, anger, (false) hope, and resignation. 

City Of Heroes is an mmo truly unlike any other and it polarized people. 

• It has superheroes;
• it has heavy instancing;
• it encourages alts over mains;
• it's mostly PvE;
• it has one of the most robust costume/character creators ever;
• it isn't itemized in the traditional sense;
• crafting is stricly optional
• marketing is strictly optional
• it has the greatest team-up system of any mmo (super-sidekicking!)
• it has flight
• it has physics
• it doesn't rely on the holy trinity
• it emphasizes story with a tight lore
• it has an amazing community and the best relationship between developers and that community

For those who loved the game, they really loved it.  It will be a shame when City of Heroes shuts down and I don't expect I will play another mmo again when the plug is pulled.  It has been an amazing 8 years and I will be there at the end.

I understand many people loved this game. Heck I even sunk 180 hours into it in the summer of 2010. The fact remains however, just as in nature, only the strong survive. In this case we have to add profitablity to Darwins theory too. It's not a good idea to put all your emotional eggs in one basket. One thing that always killed me in CoH was the rooting effect in combat. Thankfully, GW2 has made that a thing of the past. EIther way, you won't quit mmos. These addictive games are in our blood and you can't and won't give them up!

---

Originally posted by therain93
As possibly one of the most adamant supporters of CoH here on mmorpg.com, I'm truly dying on the inside.  The game has been a part of my life for 8 years now and sadly, I still haven't seen it all (I am working on a bucket list). The forums are in a sad state of shock, diasppointment, anger, (false) hope, and resignation. 

City Of Heroes is an mmo truly unlike any other and it polarized people. 

• It has superheroes;
• it has heavy instancing;
• it encourages alts over mains;
• it's mostly PvE;
• it has one of the most robust costume/character creators ever;
• it isn't itemized in the traditional sense;
• crafting is stricly optional marketing is strictly optional it has the greatest team-up system of any mmo (super-sidekicking!) it has flight it has physics it doesn't rely on the holy trinity it emphasizes story with a tight lore it has an amazing community and the best relationship between developers and that community

For those who loved the game, they really loved it.  It will be a shame when City of Heroes shuts down and I don't expect I will play another mmo again when the plug is pulled.  It has been an amazing 8 years and I will be there at the end.

---

I feel like for all its strengths, Cryptic / NCSoft never really understood the CoH players. Every big new development they thought would bring a brand new base (PvP, Architect, the Incarnate tiers) ended up being very hard to absorb. Even the Invention System, which was actually ingenious in several ways, was also pretty inscrutable for a casual user trying to get into IOs.

What I loved about CoH was the inherent complexity. How dramatically different ATs and powersets within one could be. How teams could function without the holy trinity, often better than with it. How open-ended the concept of enhancements was.

And yet, those same things can make mass adoption quite difficult. As limiting as "the trinity" may be, it does make automated team building quite easy. And it's a lot easier to figure out a +5dps weapon is an upgrade, than a piece of a set that gives 5 bonuses all different than the 5 you currently have. Not all MMO audiences want to run HeroBuilder on the side. (I like to optimize, but doing so can take away from actual play.)

I think the lesson from CoH's success is that designers shouldn't be afraid to be different. It's OK to scale challenges to team size. Maybe there are more options than heal/tank/dps. And if you want players to love the game, let them build characters they love starting with the look.

But let's also learn from City's demise. MMOs are social networks, and it should be a continual goal to make interaction easy and fun. When populations are split up and teaming requires an hour of broadcasting and /tell begging, you're hurting what's right by attaching all this work to it.

I just tried DCUO for the first time this summer, and although it's a much more simplistic game in a lot of ways, I'm impressed at how the complexities have been pushed back to subtleties to take a lot of the confusion and busywork out. And (not surprising given its development history) I can see a lot of CoH influence in it. Not to suggest that DC would be a substitute to homeless CoH players - nothing will. But I am happy to see that some things - like the concept of a Controller alongside the classic trinity - are going to live on.

Originally posted by GeezerGamer
I wonder how this Bodes for Aion

The game which experienced 'disappointing performance' due to a lower than expected number of microtransactions? Apparently even the 'C.U.B.E' pay-to-win setup wasn't enough to rescue it.

A few weeks ago on Freedom there were about ~200 on the Villain side, I don't remember the Hero side but I logged in today and there were only 43-50 people on each side. Looks like the news of closing down ran off the remaining players.

Originally posted by sookster54

A few weeks ago on Freedom there were about ~200 on the Villain side, I don't remember the Hero side but I logged in today and there were only 43-50 people on each side. Looks like the news of closing down ran off the remaining players.

That is what happened with SWG. Before the closure announcement there was 4 FULL servers, then the day after the closure announcement all servers were dead.

People just do not spend time playing a soon to be dead game, and the free (non VIP) accounts are useless as can not buy points to progress, which makes the game virtually unplayable. Either they need to allow people to buy subs or points again, or make everything in the shop cost 0 points.

With the game being F2P and GW2 being released there is more reason not to have a sub, and play both for free, and with GW2 just beinbg released, people would be spending more time on that. Now when they get tired of GW2, they now no longer have their favourite game to come back to. The timing of the closure stinks

Better yet, abort the closure, and resume things back to normal/

rest in peace paragon city and rogue isles.   I have very fond memories of this game, played it for five years and the only bad thing I can ever say is Jack Emmert screwed the game up in issue 5 or 6 in my not so humble opinion.  maybe it was better for the balance but quite frankly it sucked what was done to the playerbase.

 

i love superheroes and the game but imo it never recovered from that horrible blunder.  the best thing they did was get rid of jack and cryptic but by then it was too late.  maybe we will see a rebirth with city of heroes 2.  updated graphics and for them to actually implement a endgame from the start.  I know I will be there if it happens to resume fighting evil in paragon city.

---

Originally posted by hardicon
rest in peace paragon city and rogue isles.   I have very fond memories of this game, played it for five years and the only bad thing I can ever say is Jack Emmert screwed the game up in issue 5 or 6 in my not so humble opinion.  maybe it was better for the balance but quite frankly it sucked what was done to the playerbase.

 

i love superheroes and the game but imo it never recovered from that horrible blunder.  the best thing they did was get rid of jack and cryptic but by then it was too late.  maybe we will see a rebirth with city of heroes 2.  updated graphics and for them to actually implement a endgame from the start.  I know I will be there if it happens to resume fighting evil in paragon city.

---

No I think issue 5 was needed, pre issue 5 it was fun but it was also dumb to see Defenders dominate you even damage-wise and whatnot, post issue 5 the challenge was there and made stuff like Scrappers fun and made you think rather than spam and zerg.

Issue 11 however was uncalled for, Lighthouse publicy admitting they changed pvp to cater to the nubs that can't stand players superspeeding/flying away and hopping around (hence why they changed it to snare on every attack/heal cast), that single handidly killed active pvp, Siren's Call and Recluse's Victory became ghost towns.

oh i agree in hindsight it was probably needed.  just the way jack handled it was poor imo.  wholesale nerfing of every character class from superheroes to barely heroes, then saying there will be no more nerfs and very next patch enhancement diversification which was essentially another nerf.  the game had a ton of players back then and was very alive but after those two patches and with wow gaining alot of steam at the time, game lost alot of players over those two patches.  pvp always felt tacked on because jack thought the game needed it, which it might have but it needed it done right.  it was a great game imo ruined by the company.  the arrogance of jack emmert is amazing, i think he believes he should be worshipped as a GOD for allowing us to play his games. 

Originally posted by Sovrath

Originally posted by Rednecksith

[mod edit]

Yeah, that's classic NC Soft.

So let's see...

Lineage in the west

Auto Assault

Tabula Rasa

Dungeon Runners

Edit: Exteel

and now CoX

I was actually pist at the plug pulling of a such a short lived game as Tabula Rasa was. I had literally started the night before they pulled it and came back the next day cause I was enjoying it just come back to >GONE<.

i think of how awesome CoX was the last one to survive them all though. Such a great game that I thought I was gonna die playing it. 

 

F U N C Soft

Very sad to see CoX shutting down.  This comes as a shock, as recent posts have all seemed to indicate things are going well.  I really feel that this is a mistake on the part of the parent company, and like many others, I will think two or three times before even considering another game from these guys.  I've been in CoX since I3 and I really consider it my favorite game.  Ah well, more to for Everquest, I guess.  I'll miss this terribly, though.

Ahh man I played COH religiously for years and years, So many good times in COH, the game has been around so long its like one of those games that started what we know today as themepark.   Theres not a day that goes by that I dont think about all the good times I had in game. You know we've always shared things, COH and me, its like Iv played alot of new mmos and It was always fun chating with COH people about all the cool new mmos and stuff and other COH players would do the same with me.  ITs like a part of my heart is taken and just pulled out.