Fire_Away

Gee, I read your post. What does that make me? Can I get a guide on who are the truth tellers versus who is a troll?

It's no real secret that there were some (how many I can't tell ya) that did not buy into what Titan was selling. And that does NOT make their (our) actions boderlining on cowardice (so again, how about laying off that term?... second request). I'm not afraid to say this with TonyV himself in the house. Actually, my take on what Titan was selling changed over time. If you review the bidding on all this, the equivalent of a thermonuclear device was dropped on the game and the community and the official Titan reaction was that it was "a good thing". I could not believe it!!!! The expectation was this leopard known as NCSoft was going to change its spots... and take actions like they have never done before with any other game and CoH was going to be better for it. This went on even after NCSoft said officially said they were not going to play ball. I did a facepalm.

Next came the attitude that the players were going to save the game. The bigger you could make your signature block or the more outrageous claim you could make that you personally were not going to let this happen, the more admiration you received from Titan. The chest beating drowned out whatever small voice of reason that existed otherwise and people who felt differently were immediately branded as "trolls". So who really showed some courage under these circumstances (regardless if you agree with my position or if you don't)? I felt sorry for what the community had become. I never recall it being this divided or vicious.

Next came the lynch mob when things (inevitably and predictably) came crashing down for Plans A through Y. And people reacted in true mob fashion. Evil had a name and it was... NCSoft. People were spinning each other into a froth at Titan. If TonyV wasn't around for a couple days people would get nervous because individual thought and expression outside "the program" (calls to action) was out the window at this point.

Look, I did not shut down this game. And you have the right to disagree and praise everything Titan did. I have tried to give as much courtesy and respect as I could to those with a different opinion than my own. But I will not apologize for not joining the Titan thing and I resent the idea that I am a troll or don't care about the game or acted in a borderline cowardice manner because I did not climb aboard this bandwagon to nowhere.

Whoa, personal foul. I don't know you but let's make a deal. As a seven and a half year player and a 26 year US military man I will not imply you are delusional if you refrain from the implication that I am a coward.


And now back to forum pvp

Touche

Right-o. Here I am right on cue . You most certainly have a right to mourn, hope and fight. I say do whatever it takes to feel better. But do eventually feel better ok? I mean I'm sure the metaphors about "family" and "paranormals" and all that are heartfelt. But please keep in mind that in the end this is a game and you are a human being. If that sounds patronizing or simplistic or belittling your true feelings I sincerely apologize as this was not my intent

My guess is 99.9% of us (the community) are going to come out of this ok regardless of what happens in the future (and regardless if we join Titan or not and the outcome of umpteen other variables). Can we count on you to be in that crowd? Why do I care? Because you are a fellow CoH devotee and to me that's reason enough.

I'm a retired old guy with no real life to speak of who has played CoH for hours at a time nearly every day for over seven and a half years. Know what I regret? It certainly isn't playing the game as much as I did (2000 hours on a main equals a casual gamer ) or having the honor to meet all the wonderful people I did (player and dev alike) in the process. It's simply that I did not learn the lesson soon enough that my personal sphere of influence in determining what happens with City of Heroes is very limited. I tried for years to influence one small aspect of this game in a positive direction with next to nothing in terms of success. My disappointment, sorrow and frustration reached the stage where it actually jepordized my health. Now how stupid is that? So you do what you do... and let the chips fall where they may... but regardless of what happens... come out of it like a real hero. Ok?

I bought him breakfast once (no kidding). It was an honor.

The entire argument seems to boil down to this one point of selling the IP (and/or the entire game) just about every single time. If you were given a logical, rational and cost based or legal based explanation why this did not happen would you feel better? I'm not saying I have such an explanation that would convince you... but if one existed...

Total shock? Snap decison? No question about it from the player or hard working on the floor developer perspective. What about from the executive level? No communications between NCSoft and PS? Hard to believe. How about this strategy and outcome as a guess from me: When product X is on a slow but sure downward spiral develop new and improved product Z through a secret project to convince the mothership you have what it takes to deliver the profits they are looking for. Mothership is unimpressed with product Z, see a total waste of resources in product Z (a secret project that they knew about or worse, one they did not know about in advance thinking you were improving product X). Exit studio stage right. The end.

You are always a class act Hyperstrike, even when I'm on the other side of the fence on some issues. If everyone had their head screwed on as well as you I would not have worried so much about the save CoH movement. Maybe I should not have cared at all about what other people do that I find futile but the game and the community has been great to me for a number of years and the fact is I do care quite a bit.

I have to honest with you, the certainty that some people expressed that they personally were going to save the game and the (lynch) mob mentality that sometimes prevailed with the save CoH movement had/has me a liitle concerned. But the cause was noble, and the actions were unselfish and by and large understandable (if not IMHO effective).

So yeah, nothing to be ashamed about. Now I'm just hoping nobody got disillusioned or scarred too badly from the result. It does happen you know... even with video games... to tell ya the truth... it has happened before to me.

Who's "we", who's "us" and who owns the game? I'm starting to fear a little on the effect "things not working out" may be having on you personally.

Ok, I get it. You're angry (still) because the time is near when you can't play CoH any longer. You are emotional and said so (and there's nothing wrong with that right?) because you have been "wronged". And it's perfectly clear in your head who deserves to be blamed for it. No need for anyone to restate the obvious (PS isn't perfect, pfft) or cloud the issue with hard data or well founded speculation developed over years. You have it all down pat... the profitability picture, the community make-up, subscription data and projections, the internal "politics", what was tried and what wasn't and how this whole thing on that fateful Friday should have never happened... and how once it did happen, the best way to "turn it around" (We are heroes! This is what we do!). Congrats! Me?... well I'm a little angry too... just not as smart... or at least not as presumptive in either the fault or recovery department.

Couple of other random thoughts FWIW. (1) If one person influences thousands (and I'm not disputing that for the purpose of this question). Why wasn't this "great" community able to force multiply the subscription numbers so that there would be no question of CoH's survivability? and (2) A bomb was dropped on the players on that fateful Friday; no question about it. But given the player demographics and trends, the way the devs (understandably and necessarily to put food on the table) jumped ship, the way many players jumped ship, and dozens of other factors wasn't the fate of CoH pretty much sealed at that point (all emotion aside)?

This a powerful paragraph and I agree completely. To truthfully answer the question of why the best MMO on the planet is biting the dust, it is my firm belief is you have to go to a place where many people do not want to visit. It means, to some extent, speaking ill of the dead. As a seven and a half year near daily player of CoH, I'm very reluctant to go there myself.

But if you are really interested in a post mortem for CoH you have to examine more than the day when the final nail was pounded into the coffin. You have to enter a world where Paragon Studios isn't divine, NCSoft isn't the devil, and our community is a mixed bag of the good, the bad and the ugly (that's where you will find me ). IMHO, and I'll put this as delicately as I can, you have to talk about things like... and this is just three things off the top of my head: (a) the lack of CoH marketing, (b) that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to put resources into secret projects (which certainly gives the impression if not the reality that somebody "bet the studio and lost") and (c) that slowly but surely people were becoming disinterested (even disenfranchised!) with the product.

I'm pretty sure that most of the die hard people who are left that make up the core of support associated with this game don't want to "go there". I understand that finding a scapegoat to blame everything on is easier... that doesn't make it right. And I admire the courage that people have expressing this often unpopular opinion.

I hope you get a response. Wonder if it's for something snotty like maybe he doesn't want to completely turn this forum over to passive aggresive cyber bullies (you know like somewhere else). Or maybe he has an agenda he's trying to convince others of like he may not like an outcome, but he gets that when it comes to things out of his control he can accept a "no" answer. Or maybe he has compassion for his fellow players and wants to facilitate the grieving and healing process. Or maybe he is search of viable alternatives in a bad situation. Or maybe he is just as tried of people braying over and over to no avail as much as you are of downer messages.

I hope you get a response. I'm pretty sure my shut up and go away reply will follow in short order.

Heh, me too... but when I noticed there was no celebration by others I suspected it was something else