General_CoH

The other thread about this was (as expected) filled with NCsoft hatred. But even looking at that, it was clear that people had to shift their argument from "NCsoft will never offer the IP for sale" to "NCsoft is deliberately trying to fail in selling the IP".

The thing is, up to this point we had no idea if any of the rumours concerning an attempted buyout were true, but now we know that the studio was not only for sale but also the IP was up for sale. This means that there's a chance, even if very slim, to be able to buy that IP. I hope that TonyV is on top of this and has some idea what it costs.

Thanks, Cende. I might end up installing the beta server and transfer characters to it if the character capture tool works with that. It would be a way to preserve them.

Tenzhi, that's kind of the experience I had when I tried to get back to Conan. Didn't have that problem with Aion, but since I'm not dedicating a lot of time to gaming, I'd rather put it towards CoH for now, since there's still enough content I haven't experienced in it. After that, I'll probably try SWTOR. I heard it has good story.

The short answer is no. The long answer is: I haven't been a subscriber for a while (well, I do have a VIP account now, but that's because of the occasion and because I had a code for it), and I'm not planning to be a regular subscriber. If a Kickstarter style project is started then I'm willing to pay, how much would depend on what I get (although I'll pay a little bit even if I don't get anything). In any case it will not be close to $1000 or even $500.

Thinking about it in Kickstarter terms, I think that a $1000 lifetime subscription is reasonable, although in practice a lower price will likely bring in more money. $250-$500 seems to be a sweet spot for Kickstarter backers who are willing to pay a lot.

Heh, I'm still Tier 1 on my VIP account, but I got 400 PP. It's a free account I activated after the announcement. I guess I'll be brought to Tier 2 at the end of the month.

If they didn't like me, why would they come to my funeral? Why would they go up and say something about it? Sure, talk to others who share your opinions all you want: "oh, that jerk's finally dead, good riddance." But what's the point in making it public?

I want people to be completely honest at my funeral. I want them to say that I was a good guy and that they miss me. Not that I'd really care at that point, but I'm sure my family will be insulted to hear someone start saying how he didn't like me.

I won't go into little niggles in the game. The one thing I really won't miss is the complex F2P system. I will miss F2P, but I wish it was like other games did it (in particular EQ2, as I mentioned on another thread).

I liked what SOE did with Everquest II when it went F2P. It created a new game, Everquest II Extended, with its own server, and left the old subscription based game with its servers as before. That meant that there was no shortage of low level characters for F2P players and no high level ones, no existing guilds, no veteran rewards, ... It was a clean slate, and I think this allowed the free game to grow naturally.

It also meant that as a returning player I had to start from scratch. That was good. I needed to create new characters, but that was okay, because everyone else did too. I was constrained by the new F2P rules, but I didn't have anything crippled because of these rules. I could just use what I was given, although I quickly decided that it would be worth paying a little to improve what I had.

When the original EQ2 was made F2P about 2 years later, I got access to my old characters, with some constraints I was expecting (and some things were better than I expected, I could play old characters even if their class and race weren't the ones available for free), but I was already more attached to the new characters than the old ones.

With CoH the main characters on my main account were crippled (due to disabled IOs) and the main characters on my secondary account were inaccessible due to not having Mastermind and Controller unlocked (I had two main characters there, a Mastermind and a Controller), which I have to say was off-putting. I started a new character and played a little, but I think that if everyone had to do that to play using the F2P rules it would have felt better.

Best of luck, Zwill.

Haven't seen people on Protected when I logged on (but didn't search), but at least for me the death of CoH was an incentive to play a little more. Not that much to make a difference to the server population, but still better than nothing. I played the two first contacts of Who Will Die, though unfortunately I only have one VIP account now with a level 20 character so I can't continue. But there's still stuff to be played.

I also plan to enter the game to save whatever characters I can using the tool, when the end is closer.

Thanks for the detailed response, Arcanaville. I think that won't work for me. I prefer to solo, and if I wasn't put in an environment with others I'm likely to never join a community. My view of a chat system is pointless noise that I'd never read.

On the other hand, seeing others in game draws me in. Getting to Atlas Park and seeing a few heroes chatting together, I might stop and check them out, listen to what they say, check their costumes, see if they have interesting bios.

I like to check out others I encounter, and I also very much enjoy things like having someone pass near me and buff me. I love zone events where I can help without having to team first. This is my experience in both City of Heroes and Everquest 2. In both games I was part of a SG/Guild because someone asked me, and I teamed mostly because I was asked to, and I enjoyed that. I don't like to socialise, but I like to help.

In a single player game I would probably end up feeling like I did in two games which were given as examples here, Neverwinter Nights and Guild Wars. I loved NWN, played it a couple of times, downloaded and played a few user created adventures. Never thought of multiplayer. In Guild Wars the only interaction with others is in the player hubs, which meant that most of the time the world felt empty and lifeless and therefore less attractive to play, and I felt no real incentive to team or even look at other players.

For me the best game would be a game where I could informally group. Where I could see people around me and help someone in need without hurting their game experience and without having to go through a UI for formal teaming.

My feeling is that the reason for Arcanaville's suggestion is the wish to solve the problem of what's happening now, i.e., the death of CoH. If this suggestion was applied to CoH, I would gladly support it. It's a decent way to keep the game alive.

But for CoH2 I don't think I would like it this way. Sure, I've always thought that single player CoH would have been great, but part of the fun in an MMO is to see an active world with people in it, to help others you don't know, to team without expecting to, and to put touches on your character because maybe some random stranger will appreciate them.

This will go away if there are no central servers. Those who typically play solo will play offline -- they will not find new friends. Those who want to play with their friends will play with their friends -- they will not find new friends. Those who want to play with their SG will play that way -- they will not get new members. Sure, some people will try to get into closed communities, and some communities will actively try to get new people, but on the whole there will be nothing to encourage interaction, and I think that will be a big loss.

First thing, I'm pretty happy about F2P. It lets me try games that I wouldn't try otherwise. I always hated the limited time MMO trials, and being able to have an infinite trial is great. Let me pay what I'm willing to pay. Give me stuff that I'd want to pay for.

As for the gaming industry, I'm a big Kickstarter fan, and I think that's becoming a big part of where the gaming industry is. Games and genres that you think are long gone are making a comeback, and small developers with neat ideas are getting the money to finish implementing them. I expect to own quite a few great games next year.

That's a good question. I'd rather send stuff to where it matters. I don't want to flood the GW2 studio with capes or something like that.

CoH makes a lot more than this in a year. But that's revenue, not profit. Besides, it's not that much money which is why it's easy to cut it off.

Edit: That_Ninja, while I agree about the effectiveness of some of the campaigns, they're not the major campaigns, so what's the point of discussing them further? Yes, people are trying to save the game, and that would also be good for the developers, while saying "we had a great run" will do nothing for them.

I like the idea, but having just browsed Amazon I'm sorely tempted to send them this.

Some of the group content is just artificially group. Remove the entry barrier to task forces or the need for simultaneous clicks and it would be fine.

I think that sidekicks would still be necessary for some content if the game is limited to single player. I won't necessarily want that balanced, it's okay to leave it feeling that without several heroes working together there's little chance for success.

It's a pity we're not getting points, because I used a 3 month subscription key to be able to play as VIP these last days and it would have been cool to be able to use this to my advantage at the store.

I've always wanted to be able to run CoH offline, and at one point I thought of a design for a limited single player mobile game (which I called Scrapper's Challenge). So I'd definitely go with this.

There's an interesting article at Kotaku which collect from Glassdoor employee opinions on gaming companies. Here's what NCsoft gets:

NCSoft

Company Overview
Average Rating: 2.5 ("Dissatisfied")
25% approve of CEO Kim Tack-Jin
"Terrible environment, unorganized, lack of leadership and absolutely no support," written by a former employee on March 9, 2011.
"I could not wish this company to my enemy."

Cons – There is not enough words to explain how terrible this place is. There were people who would last one day, on average employees would leave every 3 months, just enough time to realize how messed-up the company was. No leadership, complete chaos caused by the HQ and the lack of professionalism in the Seattle office. I could not wish this company to my enemy. The joke at the end of every week was how many emails we would get from HR informing us that people were leaving (though usually, [NCSoft executives request] HR send an email 3-4 weeks after the employees had left). The exec. team tries to hide everything. Employees are treated like idiots. No support, no recognition, no raise.

Edit: Just got to SOE where "19% approve of President John Smedley". So it could be worse.

I'd love to make this a poll, but can't find how, so I'll just ask.

If all your characters were deleted, your veteran status, everything (even forum posts), and you had to start from scratch, would you still continue to play this game, or would it be too much of a setback?

What I'd like to see in a spiritual successor to CoH is mainly an engine that's flexible and easy to maintain and expand. Dr. Aeon's example of Lua scripting is the kind of thing I think will be good.

What I mean to say is, I don't think there's need to change a lot. A new 3D engine is needed, but I feel that even if it didn't provide all the features of other games, even if it just looked more detailed (models and textures), it could still be enough.

Thanks. That put a smile on my face.