_eeek_

Chill, please don't let this get to you.

Their re-announcement is spin-control. A week ago, in the media we were the plucky underdogs, fighting the greedy mega-corporation. Now we're getting feedback from that latest announcement that we're crying, game-addicted children who can't accept reality.

What changed?

NCSoft PR department changed who was making the latest news, that's what.

They have never sold the rights to any game they own, and they own a bunch. Thus, from the track record, they never wanted to sell this one, either. We always knew that. What we CAN do, is make this a PR nightmare for them. We have been successful at that, and we know this, because they were forced to make this latest announcement.

Nothing at all has actually changed, only which side the media is reporting on. Nothing more!

This is what I posted in the Titan forums...


Here are my thoughts on negotiations to sell CoH were exhausted:

Potential Buyer: Can we buy CoH from you?

NCSoft: No

Other Potential Buyer: Hey, I'd like to buy CoH!

NCSoft: No

Still Other Potential Buyer: We would like to bu...

NCSoft: No

NCSoft: Man, this stupid phone keeps ringing. I'm exhausted!

When I read their statement, my first thought (after I could think after the blind fury of being so obviously patronized) was that all the negative publicity they're getting is starting to have a real effect on them.

They didn't HAVE to make this statement. They made their views known loud and clear on Aug. 31st.

If they're still repeating this exact same message, but with warm and fuzzy words, then something's getting to them.

If the above is true (and by their own actions, it's the only thing that makes any sense), then this is NOT the time to sit down and cry about how we've lost. Now is the time to kick up the heat and MAKE MORE NOISE!

But... but... he keeps taking off before you finish!

Tonight, Arbiter Hawk showed up in the middle of the night on Virtue, and took a couple leagues-worth of players to the old D, and let us fight 16 (!) Statesmans. (It was Virtue, because he said it was the only server he had access to, from an old costume contest) His avatar was a big, gold car and someone dubbed him Carbiter Hawk. He said (before and afterward) "just remember we love you guys!"

The night before, also in the wee-small hours, Freitag showed up, saying "I just stopped in to tell you guys we love you!" (and also that he was doing laundry.)

So, these guys have their livelihoods in jeopardy, watch their friends become unemployed, and they're showing up on their own time to cheer US up?

Tell me, how do we give up on this?

I think the quality of writing is SO much better than it was, that I'm boggled anyone would think otherwise. The old, old arcs are all "oh, dear! Bad guys! Go zone 3 times and fight them somewhere far away!" "Go see David Wincott" "Oh, you're done! Wait! More bad guys, go zone differently, fight them!" "Go see the longbow liaison." "Good job! Oh, wait. Still more bad guys. Better hurry and zone 5 times and fight them!" "Good job. Have some enhancements! Meet your new contact!"

Now there are, like... plots and stuff.

I think perhaps we are talking at cross-purposes. You may be of the Sam Tow School of Good Writing, which says (if I am paraphrasing properly) if the story doesn't mesh coherently with past stories, then it's bad writing? I don't know, I'm guessing here.


(Tangent below...)


I look at this (and most arguments in the forums) as that there are 2 major ways of thinking about the game, which clash on a regular basis. One way of thinking of the game is what I (very erroneously, and chock full o' flaws) think of as "Math/Science/Tech Majors" and the other is "Liberal Arts Majors". The Math/Science/Techie guys want immutable facts, upon which to base everything else that follows. Two plus two needs to equal four, and when you start changing this, our rockets don't work, plus our computers blow up, and well, this is very, very bad for space-time continuum reasons I don't get because I am a Liberal Arts Major. So, this way of thinking wants Lore to be written in stone, and reserved as Canon. Period (This guy is ALSO thinking "if it's chock full o' flaws, why are you posting it - SHUT UP!).

Liberal Arts people view "lore" as a verbal tradition passed down from generation to generation, and has some fact, but also a lot of nebulous other not-so-factual stuff, which is why it's "lore" and not "history." "Canon" is reserved for the Bible, which is also a place the tech-minded can argue about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, and leave the rest of us in peace. Liberal Arts sorts tend to view "lore" in game terms as a good place to start, and if the new stuff isn't quite fitting with the older stuff, just go back and fix the older stuff if there is time, *shrug* who cares? And if anyone brings up Canon, they sputter about "CANON?! But..but... it's a made up GAME!" and eventually, after much arguing, go beat their heads against a wall because who on earth thinks it matters, and what happened to the whole pin argument that was supposed to keep these people occupied? (But some of these people might see what I'm trying to get at, even if it's inept, and despite being poorly worded, might have something interesting to at least think about.... Maybe. We're liberal arts people, after all, and aren't into absolutes.)

Obviously, my particular categorization doesn't even work in this one single thread, since Sam is a writer, which is as liberal arts as it's possible to be (But doggone it, I will maintain until the end that he is a TECHNICALLY MINDED writer!). It seems apparent that, at this point, the writers/devs are at more of a "Liberal Arts" state of mind (um, despite the fact that they're mostly, um, Techies) when writing the game.

It might be (I don't know) more efficient to ask the devs to please pay attention to story continuity, because it's an important part of the game for many players. That's a completely reasonable request. And if enough people are saying this same thing, then it's likely that it would be taken more seriously as something that is important to a significant portion of the player base.

Getting hot under the collar and complaining about "bad writing" (when it's clearly much improved), "but...but... THE CANON, man, the CANON!" is probably less effective, and might actually muddy the message. Not because the message is wrong, but because they may not be hearing what it is you're actually trying to say.

Anyway, the purists are gonna clash with the generalists, just like the min/maxers will clash with the conceptualists, unless, or until, we realize there are some different, very basic schools of thought going on behind the opinions being stated. At least, this is my operating theory, until a better one presents itself.

(End tangent)

(EDIT: This was written before Xzero45 clarified his statements, so apologies for not understanding what he designated "bad writing." In any case, the tangential comments were not to him in particular, in case that was not clear.)

...you've just informed us that they're no longer the South, and that we have apparently just invaded Russia. And I don't think Elba even HAS a hockey team!

I think you do yourself a disservice, Organica! I especially enjoyed getting a visual of Talos Hill being overrun with hippies, imagining how the next Rikti invasion was going to look with daisies being stuck in the barrel of their weapons and the Heavies plastered with bumperstickers reading "make love not war."

Yeah, I like the Club hair on these guys, too. With the mask, it fits their heads properly, unlike how it looks on a PC (like it's a wig affixed on a large afro, or something). In fact, with her mask, the female Skull with the shoulder length hair kind of looks like the top of her hair is too flat, as if she hadn't washed her hair in far too long (I don't mean that as a nit-pick, but as a means of comparison).

Then again, I loved the Doofus hair. Just playing females, I didn't know it was a hairstyle available to PC's - I saw it on the Skull guy and laughed and thought, "OMG, he has HITLER HAIR!" Brought to mind all sorts of 30's movies with Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff, which may be fitting if we're going for a gang associated with old horror movie genres. Granted, no Slavic youth has probably worn hair like that since the outbreak of WWII, I still enjoyed seeing that hair a lot.

I like the new looks, but I would agree with the other posters that having all the gang members speaking with an accent too much. I'd suggest going Sopranos-style - have the old guys speaking with an accent, and have the younger gang members tossing in the occasional foreign words, and maybe even having the writers make up some slang specific to the gang. Ba da boom, it could work!