(Warning: The absolute geekery of this post might be too much for many to bear. Proceed warily.)

City of Heroes. I’ve written about this game a few times (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), but if you weren’t paying attention, the idea is remarkably simple. There’s this city and it is full of heroes. You’re one of them. You determine your hero’s origin, powers and appearance. Since the game is online, you’re sharing this virtual comic book world with tens of thousands of people from around the globe. If you want, you can join up to eight of those other players to fight evil together. And if they’re really cool, you can form your own supergroup — the X-Men or Justice League kind, not the Boston or Grand Funk Railroad kind.

As you play, you gain levels of experience. With each level comes greater challenges and better powers. The highest level of experience is 50.

So last night, The Suspicion — a hero I started playing fourteen months ago — hit level 50. Finally.

Some Statistics about The Suspicion —

• What Is He? An Electric/Energy Blaster
• What’s With The Name? It’s a EULA violation — and rather lame — to name your City of Heroes character after an existing comicbook hero, so coming up with a name takes some inspiration. When I played Star Wars Galaxies, I went with randomly chosen ingredients from the back of a Diet Coke can — Benz Oate was a favorite. For COH, I leaned over from my chair and read some of our shelved book titles. I tried The Alienist. That was taken. For some reason, the next possible name that rolled to the front of my head was The Suspicion. It wasn’t taken.
• Number of Hours Played? 607 (about fifteen 40-hour weeks, give-or-take).
• Is That A Long Time? Probably. There have been many players that were level 50 in under a month, but …
  1. I don’t play every single day.
  2. I have seven other characters that are just as fun.
  3. I have a real-job and a life.
• Number of Supergroups Joined? Two.
• Number of Friends Made? More than I can count without taking off my shoes.

If this sounds the least bit interesting, maybe you’d like to give it a try. I have in my possession, not one, but two 14-day trials that I would be happy to share. They expire in about three weeks, so if you want to try out a life of fighting crime, let me know quickly.

And if you think that online gaming can be a deterrent to a healthy relationship, go check Nikki’s blog … she made 50 last night too.