Virtual Superheroes Raise Thousands For Sick Children

SOMERSET, UK, October 24, 2012 (Press-News.org) A group of virtual superheroes helped to raise over $8,500 in a 24-hour gaming marathon over the weekend.

Dedicated gamers from the soon-to-be-sunsetted City of Heroes community took to their PCs to raise funds for a variety of hospitals and charities aimed at supporting very ill children.

By Monday morning the 49-strong team from City of Heroes had raised $8,618 as part of the Extra Life charity drive.

Each member raised money for their local Children's Miracle Network Hospital where thousands of children are treated each year, regardless of their family's ability to pay.

Those who were unable to take part in the gameathon made sure they were in game to support their allies, supporting them by joining teams, running task-forces and occasionally shouting at them to keep them awake as tiredness started to kick in. There was also support from the games many in-server radiostations, including The Cape and AFK Radio.

Although hugely successful, it was a bitter sweet event for the community who are still reeling from NC Soft's decision to close the game on November 30.

Despite a spirited campaign to dissuade NC Soft from wiping out eight years of history and creativity, their pleas have fallen on deaf ears.

At the end of the 24 hour gaming session, many of the players met on the steps of the virtual City Hall in Paragon City's Atlas park to raise torches in support of the game and their community.

One of those who took part in the event, one player DrakeGrimm said: "It is events like this that make me honored to stand up and be a part of this community. We are heroes, and this is what we do."

The City of Heroes franchise is scheduled for 'sunset' on November 30. You can find out more about the Save City of Heroes campaign at http://www.savecoh.com. To sign the petition calling for NC Soft to change their minds about the games closure, visit tinyurl.com/savecoh.

"City of Heroes" was the first MMORPG based not only on superheroes, but heavily on comics books, pre-dating Sony Online "DC Universe Online" by nearly 7 years. The free downloadable updates for the game were known as "Issues," with actual titles that added new content to the popular MMO.

Paid expansions included "City of Villains" in 2005 and "City of Heroes: Going Rogue" in 2010. The lore and backstory of the game was so popular that there were many tie-in projects in other media, including novels, a collectible card game and -- not surprisingly -- a comic book series from publishers Blue King and Top Cow.

"City of Heroes" had over 120,000 subscribers in the US and Europe as of September 2008 and added a free-to-play subscription model in June 2011.

On August 31, NC Soft announced it was closing the game due to a 'realignment of company focus'. Of all of the MMOs that have been closed down, NC Soft are now responsible for killing a third of them - Auto Assault, Exteel, Dungeon Runners, Tabula Rasa and now City of Heroes.

The huge campaign won the support of best-selling author Mercedes Lackey and Twitter support from Neil Gaiman, Lord of the Rings star Sean Austin, author John C Wright, The Guild's Felicia Day, Tara Strong, Adam Warren, and Adam Hewitt Wolfe, amongst others.

For more information on the Save City of Heroes Campaign, visit http://www.savecoh.com/.

The full text of Tony Vazquez's response to NC Soft can be found at http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/topic,5467.0.html

For further reading, a spreadsheet of all media coverage of the Save City of Heroes campaign can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/8hhn5xv

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