Thursday 22 April 2004

Pic of the day: The giant spaceship over Paragon City. (Screenshot from City of Heroes.)

Virtual farewell

It was the end of the world as we knew it. More exactly, the end of the City of Heroes beta. Time to delete the characters we had played for weeks, or for months in a few cases. We all knew this day would come. Yet, it was kinda sad. I went through my list and deleted the characters one by one, taking screenshots if necessary. I knew them so well ... it was sad to see them vanish without a trace. But at least they live on in their creator's memory, and that is no small thing.

Itland the were-porcupine remained to take part in the final event: The alien invasion! Being rather considerate aliens this time, the spaceships appeared one over each zone and beamed down enemies of a suitable level for the population of that zone. Even so, there was a lot of different enemies, some of them quite formidable. All the heroes banded together. In the newbie zones, it was rather poorly organized, but there was a lot of enthusiasm. Heroes who had never met before fought shoulder by shoulder, and those who could heal would do so indiscriminately. Those who went to the hospital ran back immediately to run once more into the breach, or something.

There was no need to level any longer, no need to collect enhancements for our powers. There was only the battle itself, for tomorrow would never come. Strange rumors abounded: Some said the developers were personally controlling some of the aliens, some thought players might be "bumped" to level 40, and evidently quite a few thought Statesman would show up to destroy the spaceships in the end. In the zone where I was, there were people chanting "Statesman, Statesman" but I never saw him myself. I looked up and the giant spaceships were gone. We had won.

***

The city was saved. But we were not, well except for our names, one name per server. I don't really think anyone would call their character Itland if I didn't reserve it, but I did anyway.

And that's the end of the beta. The characters wiped, the beta boards wiped, the servers down for some days. On the 28th the retail version of the game will start. At that point, I may move to Paragon City permanently. I will most decidedly play this game again.