JohnRobey

Re: all the AE babies ruining the game. Maybe they did. I wasnt there at the time (having started under Issue 15) and I played only content the first 2-3 months. I'd play my def during the day, usually soloing unless one of my new MMO friends happened to be on, maybe go up a level, but by evening more were on, and I'd team with friends who had work the next day. Often after they crashed I'd see people advertising for teammates to play AE and in far shorter but often less enjoyable time gained another level. Compared to dev content many of the AE missions were (imo) far less interesting. But of course, that was prior to my understanding that these AE's were often written for max gain (in XP or tickets) for the least amount of travel and effort and most had next to no story, unlike say TALOS VICE.

If that turned off so many veteran players at the time that they left game in sufficient numbers never to return which in turn resulted in the sunsetting of the game EIGHT issues later (almost nine, and I'm counting from Issue 15)... well, I'd be surprised.

As I posted before, one of my earliest friends had gotten into CoH (her first foray into gaming of any type) when her brother and his friends persuaded her to try it and PL'ed her first character to 50, a toon she subsequently rarely played. I met her on a low level tanker, her 2nd toon, "learning to play coh" in her words. As a grassgreen newbie to CoH and all MMORPGs, I often told players I was new and learning. I asked for constructive advice, or sometimes teammates took the time to explain what strategy we were gonna use. I also teamed with other new players so we could learn together. I appreciate that teaching new players (or even taking the time to type chat with us) could feel frustrating to many veteran players. By logical and erroneous extension, I can now assert it was NEWBS who killed CoH!!!! And yes, that's entirely intended as a joke.

Continued Best Wishes to the Dev Team and the CoH Community! For slightly more than 3-1/2 years CoH provided me with great entertainment and enjoyment. I wish it were continuing.

Thank you, Leandro and Golden Girl. Kallisti Wharf is of course beautiful and seeing it is bittersweet, but I'm more heartened than saddened to see this.

I'm already following several threads on Titan Network's forums and will check out Paragon Unleashed in the days again.

Quinch, I like what you wrote. I too would like to see the Paragon Studios team rehired and for CoH to continue into Issue 24 and beyond and it's to our detriment that NCSoft doesn't want to. I don't have enough of a business background to know why NCSoft can't continue publishing CoH but it seems that they've said (at minimum indirectly) that they can get a better return on investment pursuing other ventures. And after all, that IS the goal of most corporations, and NCSoft has a fiduciary responsibility to its stockholders. (I'd say all corporations, but those like Public Broadcast Corporation in the U.S. are an exception.)

Yes, I too really REALLY hope NCSoft will sell the IP and do what it can to facilitate the continuation of City of Heroes, provided it doesn't want to continue publishing this remarkable, award-winning MMORPG. Some people here (or else on Titan Network's forums) with business backgrounds have offered explanations as to complexities, legalities and hence expense (in time and money) of selling the IP.

Some of us fans will remain sorrowful and/or angry about the ending of City of Heroes. Practically all of us posting here have either written about (or simply displayed) classic feelings of Grief and Bereavement which is compounded when the loss is sudden and unexpected. I'm beginning to think NCSoft shouldn't have bothered with a PR statement (which many here found insulting) but instead hired a Bereavement counselor.

I'll confess I'm not feeling as hopeful as I was a few days ago but plan to continue with reasonable community action(s) and hope either that this somehow convinces NCSoft to reevaluate and change its decision OR that this support not only raises the morale of the Dev Team and makes it more likely that these fine individuals will continue as their own studio to produce something even more remarkable than CoH in the near future.

I remain a Fan of CoH and will miss it. I'm lucky enough to be in touch with many of the friends I made thru CoH. If CoH fandom is sufficiently together and persistent we may gain something, though it may take years. (I'm thinking now of Star Trek fandom and how long it took for new Star Trek movies and series to be developed.)

Anyhow, I've wandered far afield from praising your letter. Best wishes and perhaps I'll see you in-game. I for one am playing until the very last moment.

The Radio!!! I'd TURN the Radio ON and listen to music and sweet nothings all night long (as well as the occasional tip as to the next great heist!)

Radio! RADIO!!!! RADIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
(Can you tell I loved the Radio's arc?)

My purpose in starting this thread is for venting all the way to constructive feedback (that may or may not ever be seen; but that's a risk I'll take.)

The proper way to sunset a game of this longevity (imo) would be something on the order of an 6-18 month announcement that the game will be ending, that the development team is of course fully in on it and crafting the conclusion to many a plot. Yes, that might have caused revenues and participation to fall OR advertised correctly it might have caused a huge influx into the game by both new and former players to take part in the grand finale of CoH!

It's true, in that alternate universe those players are also faced with losing all their investment (time, creativity, money), but they'd also have a glorious conclusion to a glorious ride.

And of course there's the alternate universe I hope we eventually find ourselves in where NCSoft facilitates sale of the IP to the dev/entreprenuerial team so CoH can continue with fan-driven subscriptions (or F2P if that's the better business model.)

Wishful thinking, of course. Peace.

I guess I'll have to let all the older veteran players speak to this. I started under Issue 15, so Mission Archetect and many other features were standard for me that you all saw developed. I don't really see how AE/MA could be construed as leading contributor to the decline of CoH player popularity. Every seven and eight year veteran I'm spoken with has taken a break from CoH for some period of time and for a variety of reasons, usually personal and not game related at all. (Yeah I know, some veteran MMO players DO leave to check out every new game, just to see, but many if not most return.)

Some people wrote really GREAT stories using Mission Architect--I'd hoped to do so but never did--and I love those arcs as well as those developed by Paragon Studios. Yeah, there were tons of XP/AE ticket farms/farmers, so what? MA added more options, which I think is good. I was still cutting my teeth on original content and MMO gaming in general when I met one of my oldest friends here. Her brother had gotten her playing and over the course of a couple of days had PLed her Def to 50. When I met her she was solo on a low level tanker, as she put it "learning to play" CoH. Over the course of the next three years we each got several alts to 50, joined active supergroups and rarely missed a day online (prior to 8/31/12). We still played AE when we felt like it. Pardon my digression into reminiscence. I don't think Mission Architect is the smoking gun.

Thanks for the link to: http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Music
That's AWESOME!!!

Is the Paragon Wiki expected to last beyond 11/30/12? (Sorry to bring it up, but is there a likely time limit on this wiki?)

And now you may consider this actually done, Rubberlad: http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.....html#msg58108

Hmmm, I may well stand (or sit) corrected. Please carry on!