Across the internet, there exist countless online communities, some bustling, some only held together for a tight niche of people that find their time in their digital community very worth the time to be part of. Having been a player of MMO's (Massively Multiplayer Online games) for nearly 15 years myself, I can vouche for people from online games, as well as forum based communities, twitter, and facebook and many more. I know how powerful these communities can be. I met my fiance off of Yahoo messenger, not to mention I met two Japanese friends off Yahoo messenger face to face. Through other games such as World of Warcraft, I began a guild where I met one man, who enjoyed his time enough with me that he invited someone else, and someone else, and so on, until we had nearly half a dozen people who all lived near each other and worked at the same factory, people that I would never have met if it wasn't for the time I took to delve into the MMO and invite people to spend time with me. The times we laughed are unforgettable, and it's memories like these that remind me of how valuable an online community can really be.

  NCSoft recently took City of Heroes offline for good. Many lost positions working on the game they loved and perhaps their jobs altogether, and many more players lost the online friends, perhaps even family members, that they were able to connect with and play with in the game. City of Heroes has been, up until November 2012, an online game that many have played, and many have stuck with for it's long life of over 8 1/2 years. While there are countless online communities, it's downright unethical to rip a community offline that is not just profitable, but filled with dedicated players who love nothing more than to play their game with the people they enjoy playing with.

  In the history of gaming, from Mario to Skyrim, people can buy a game, sink dozens, hundreds, or thousands of hours into it over a long period of time and keep the game to play again and again. Never will it be taken offline with all hope of the game disappearing from existence, with only a faint memory to let it live on, and all their memory spent simply so they can reminisce down the road and not replay their hard earned investment and revel in all the time they've spent playing what they enjoy.

  "Sunsetting", as the term is for MMO's taken offline, needs to change, and it's time to start with City of Heroes, a game that still has a very devoted community, and which is sorely hurt by their favorite game being taken away from them.

  Let this petition be signed and sent to a publisher who would be willing to relaunch City of Heroes, and prove to them that, without a doubt, having this game removed from the internet was a very bad decision, but that there's enough of a following to make the game a solid success. Rights may have to be bought, but if it's worth it, the right publisher may just do so!

   Rumors say that there have been some talks from publishers to buy these rights, but let this petition speed up the process. This petition will be sent to as many notable publishers as it can, in hopes that one will buy the rights sooner than later.

  Live on, city of heroes!