For all things, there is an end, and last night, it was the ending of City of Heroes.
It was a wild and difficult night. I sit here, and try to think of how to describe the emotions of the night, but really, I can't. There just aren't really words for it. A joy and sadness mixed together. The joy of one last run with friends, the joy of playing a well loved game... but the inescapable sadness born of the fact that it was truly the last time.
The little things. Knowing that never again will there be another epic propel-created junkpile. Knowing that you'll never get to gut another spawn with a blaster's nuke. (At least in the stuff I've played, there really is not single spasm of joyous destruction that quite matches Build Up-Aim-Nuke).
Yet, and as much as I hate it, the last emotion, and the one that built up since then... anger.
In many ways, I get the decision. I know that despite how much City of Heroes has been improving the last few years (better writing, better gameplay and the like), the income of the game has not been holding up. Even the change to the promised land of free to play only arrested the decline. I get all that, understand it, and truly, can accept it.
What has upset me though is the way that NCSoft has truly devalued what the things they had. They did it when they suddenly put everyone on a 90 day notice, including all the staff who had built the game. These people had done good work, impressive work and yet there they were on the chopping block. They weren't moved to new products, where they could take their skill, passion and experience. They were simply let go. Yes, I'm sure the got a generous severence package, but even at that, it was only a beginning.
I watched the attempts to save the game with a fair bit of cynicism. I didn't figure it world work, but the wall of utter silence that came from NCSoft was truly disheartening. At one point, their only real statement was "please don't use this email address."
Last night though was the bit that really pushed me over the top. We got notices of the impending end (Virtue crashed shortly after the 10 minute warning in fact), but what I didn't hear was "thanks for everything" from NCSoft.
That's the thing, the Devs, CMs and the like? Positron, War Witch and Hit Streak and all the others? They said thank you to the fans many times in the last three months (and the fans said it to them). They were truly a part of the CoH community. They were there to the end, despite not being "official" any more.
Corporate NCSoft though? They showed no real appreciation for the community, or of the value of the community. Once their decision was made, they didn't engage the people who didn't want to see the game die. They didn't try to engage the crowds who were in game for one last memory.
The final blow though? Literally within 5 minutes of the servers going down... the CoH Community Forms... gone. The CoH Twitter... gone. The CoH facebook... gone. There could not be even a spare moment for people to use those places to enjoy their last memories, to connect and meet. To try to hold one last little moment. Everything that was CoH had to be sent to a dark oblivion, forgotten. Almost as if NCSoft was ashamed of the game.
All MMOs will come to an end sooner or later. The communities that have built around them will have to face this day. I can only hope that when those times come, the companies involved show more respect for those communities, and make it clear that they value those communities.
I'm sure the momentary anger will pass, and in time, the good memories will be dominate. CoH was truly a good run in so many ways, I cannot list them all.
Farewell CoH.
