If City of Heroes hadn't closed, it would've been 10 years old.

There’s no doubt, it would’ve been an incredible celebration - the devs would’ve done something amazing, and we’d have been fighting Evil Birthday Cakes, or trying to take over the world using a Popper gun - and it would’ve been ridiculous amounts of fun.

Sadly, City of Heroes didn’t get to see it’s 10th birthday. We won’t get to hold costume parties beneath the statue of Atlas, or do that weird money-dance in Pocket D, hosted by DJs from some of the community radio stations like Cape Radio and Justice Radio.

We may have lost a home, but we still have our memories - the friendships we made, the people we fell out with, the inspiration for the characters we created, the stories we wrote together. Like any other community, we made friends, fell in love, built houses and burned bridges.

We were good guys, we were bad guys. There were people we loved, people we hated, and people we’d argue with, even if we weren’t sure why. We were a community - with all the good and all the bad that came with it. And it was /our/ community.

The sun may have set on Paragon City, but the community remains.

Thanks to the Titan Network we have Icon, which allows you to visit Paragon City, Praetoria and the Rogue Isles, and recreate your characters.

There are dozens of Facebook groups set up to help keep the community together, places where you can share memories, find old friends, and remember the good times, the frustrating times, and the bad times.

There is absolutely no doubt that City of Heroes was something very special, an MMO that hit the nail bang on the head in just about every way possible. But it was the devs, and the community that made it perfect.

And it’s the community who is working to create a new home for the the villains, rogues and heroes who once populated a virtual world - or those who never got the chance to.

So reach out today. Mark what would have been it’s 10th birthday by catching up with your old friends, sharing memories, or by thanking the devs for their years of hard work and commitment.

And if you see the chance, be someone's hero. Do the right thing. Even if it's just letting them go ahead of you in a line, make someone's day just a bit better. Because you can.

But even as you’re looking back, don’t take your eye off the future. City of Titans is now wrapping-up pre-production, and there’s a whole new world being created - and as you can see from this video, after every sunset, comes a new dawn.

Happy birthday, City of Heroes

Nate 'Doctor Tyche' Downes, Chris 'Warcabbit' Hare, Jen 'Petalstorm' Bolack, Sara 'Firefairy' Quinn, Cameron 'Segev' Johnson, and everyone at Missing Worlds Media

Written by Lauren 'Rae' O'Neill

Official discussion thread: http://cityoftitans.com/forum/discuss-happy-10th-birthday-city-heroes