Image via Doc Leo on Twitter- @leandrotlz
I've been AFK from gaming for a while now.I meant to commemorate all my CoH characters with screenshots and elaborate 'closing ceremonies' for each over the last few months the doors were open, but couldn't bring myself to log in. It was like someone had condemned my home, I had nowhere to move and no way to transport my belongings anyway. I took a few screens, but that's about it. The whole scene was too disheartening to contemplate.
I made a legitimate effort to like CO. It was far superior to DCUO, which is a compliment in the same way Cheez Whiz is a food. To extend the food metaphor, if CoH was filet mignon then CO was a cello wrapped microwave hamburger from a truck stop snack bar. They had some good ideas and some fun implementations, but the foundation of the game was built from flawed materials.
Old time vets all say it with me- "Jack's idea of fun."
Even though he'd skipped off to the next project, as ever one step ahead of the consequences of his mistakes, the game was shaped by his 'vision'. With CO that vision was a hybrid console/PC MMO, save they never managed to iron out the 'console' part. The result was a PC game that felt & played like a console port...call it 'the worst of both worlds'.
They'd made some strides at repairing those flaws by the time I came back (I played it a bit near launch and found it entirely repellent), but there's only so much you can do when the very structure of the game is working against you.
Aside from that abortive foray and playing a bit of the original Torchlight (which was quite fun, but never became an obsession) I've been out of gaming since the shutdown. Some of it is practical (I have a family, I run my own business, either of which can take up all your time unless you take steps), some of it is that nothing is even vaguely like CoH, but most of it, I think, is the result of an existential crisis. Bigtime MMO gaming is a corporate endeavor and the callous, eminently preventable way CoH was destroyed instantly clarified the value said companies place on the playerbase- zero.
I can't play an MMO I don't have an emotional attachment to, and I'm not going to let myself become emotionally attached to a game world that can be turned off as casually as I power down my computer every night. It's been years since single player games held any interest for me, and I haven't got the time (or, tbh, the reflexes) to get back into the FPS pool. CoH over the years became more than just a game to play, it was a place to go, a virtual home where I was assured of finding like-minded souls to spend some time with. Yes, there was fun stuff to do, but the real attraction for me was hanging out in global channels chatting with my pals, cruising around seeing everyone's cool characters, running a few missions with some folks, tending my marketeering schemes.
Anyway.
Seeing all the Ninth Anniversary stuff on twitter got me back to thinking about CoH. It's been long enough now that I can look at screenshots without getting depressed. I'm keeping track of both the Plan Z dev teams because it's become clear to me the only way I'm going to get attached to another game is if it's a player-driven situation unbeholden to corporate whims & corporate control. And I'm hanging out on a couple of CoH expatriate Facebook pages commiserating with my fellow exiles.
And, I'm going to be updating this blog again, telling the stories of my favorite characters and reiminscing about things that made CoH such a standout experience.
/em salute
