Last week was the twelfth anniversary of the start of City of Heroes , a Massively Multiplayer Online game that let you create and become your favorite superhero. COH was my first video game love; I devoted my childhood to flying around Paragon City and being the best super hero, or villain, I could be.
I remember the first time I ever heard about COH . In 2004, World of Warcraft was the most popular thing in gaming and every game was heralded in as the next “ WOW Killer,” a game that would usurp the fantasy MMO’s throne. A few friends were talking on the playground about their love for WOW and one kid mentioned he’d been playing a game where you get to make a super-hero and fight using laser beams and super strength. I knew this kid meant serious business; he was 12 and had a PalmPilot. I decided to give the game a try and installed the game that night. I was hooked instantly.
My first hero’s name was “Egyptian Scarab” which I now realize is a horrible name for a crime fighter. His costume was bright teal and covered in head to toe spandex except for an Egyptian Pharaoh headpiece with bug antennae. Loading into Atlas Park, seeing all the bright colors, and hearing that iconic soundtrack for the first time transformed me from a nerdy, white suburban kid to an energy blasting, ice manipulating Blaster.
I would spend hours fighting all the different villains stationed around Paragon City. Starting with the Outcasts, a group of mutant thugs with elemental powers, I worked my way up through the ranks to fight true evil. All the superhero tropes were there, from the Fifth Column (Nazis) to the Rikti (aliens) to the ultimate end game boss, the Hamidon (which was just a giant bacterium).
The world NCSoft created was beautiful and the missions kept me hooked. It’s the only game where I actually read and followed all the dialogue in the missions. I even read the actual books The Web Of Arachnos and The Freedom Phalanx. There was supposed to be a third, but it never came out (R.I.P. Rikti War ).
City of Heroes started to become more important than school, which quickly turned it into the bane of my mother’s existence. I’d spend all day glued to my computer, which her self-help books deemed “bad for my health.” To stop me from turning into a delinquent, Seduction of the Innocent -style, she tried to limit my gaming time to half an hour a day.
Her plan didn’t go very well; I’d do anything I could to log back in to City of Heroes. I would pretend to be sick, just so I could spend eight hours playing through all of the “super group” missions. When she would walk in the door, I’d say I just started playing and still had a half hour left. This went on for around a year until she gave up, realizing that I’m sneakier than her.
When City Of Villains , the evil expansion that let you finally play as a bad guy, came out in 2005 I played even more. My villain’s name was Robo-Shredder (I know how much I sucked at names) and was a robotic werewolf who controlled darkness and his robot lackeys. The Rogue Isles became my stomping ground, clearing waves of bad guys in the name of Lord Recluse, the spider kingpin.
As I grew older, my City of Heroes obsession started to fade. I started playing games less, realizing that women were more fun to play with. My dad paid for an account for five years, until I told him to cancel my subscription. City of Heroes shut down in 2012 and I wasn’t there. I let the game that raised me die cold and alone; I didn’t find out they pulled the plug until months after the servers went down.
Paragon City will forever live on in the hearts of fans all over the world. No matter if you were just learning how to fly or were best bros with Statesman, COH had a place for you. I will never forget Back Alley Brawler, Synapse, Sister Psyche, Ghost Widow or the countless other comic book characters that populated my early days.
