Marut

I posted a much longer version of this for my SGmates, but I wanted to bring up a point that I haven't seen yet here that gives me a small semblance of hope for the future.

First, the scope of this is baffling because it's more than just a move that closes a producing revenue stream. It's a move that pulls NCSoft out of an entire MMO market niche, one that they already dominate with an 8 year old product. Keeping that alive is a no-brainer, and closing it is a giant step backwards in market development unless they know something we don't...

The mention of NC Soft trademarking City of Heroes 2 in April 2010 has been thrown all over here. What hasn't been brought up is that NC Soft signed the publishing agreement with Cryptic in early 2002, two years prior to publishing date. Two to two and a half years is a sweet spot for new trademarks: it's about half way through the 5 year duration of protection, enough time to be able to afford keeping quiet about the product, but starting to push the envelope for when you'd need to begin advertising it in order to sell it and KEEP the trademark.

I work for a company that deals with patents and trademarks all over the place - One might think that this was just an attempt to protect the name from infringement, but generally speaking if you're going to hold on to a trademark you actually have to make use of it within a certain period of time or you lose rights to it. In manufacturing that's easy, you make one thing with the name on it and you have precedent, but in software that would be a LOT more difficult I'd think. This leads me to believe that NC Soft wouldn't have gone for the trademark unless they planned on using it.

Further, as much as I hate to point it out... If NC Soft were developing a sequel, they wouldn't be just starting now, they'd have started some time ago with a devoted development team, seperate from the devs we know and love. Which means that if/when they decided to greenlight it... They wouldn't need Paragon Studios unless Paragon Studios was doing the development. Guessing that that's not the case.

In fact, if they launched said hypothetical sequel while CoH was still running, they'd split their playerbase between the old and the new, which might not be desireable with regards to having to employ two seperate groups of developers. It's a pretty cuttthroat and brutal move, but we're talking about the buisness world sadly

I have a feeling that NC Soft might be aiming to avoid competing with itself on a new product... It's also interesting to me that this announcement comes on the heels of the GW2 launch, which must have caused a spike in stock values. Almost like they planned on buffering the predictable downturn from announcing the closing of COH with it.

I'm no more happy about it than anyone else here - probably significantly less so than most. I just wanted to share the idea, that maybe there's a light at the end of the tunnel for the playerbase, at least in terms of something to play.

Thanks for the address; will put it to good use

I'm in, and thanks for stepping up to give us a rallying point.

An announcement I hoped never to see. I'm going to have to try and get as much time in game as possible in the coming weeks I suppose... It'll have to last a lifetime.

To all of you that have made the last 8 years here an unforgettable experience, thank each and every one of you for being my hero.

-M

I'll try and be there as well. Besides, I still need Triple Threat, so might as well just go for the whole thing

Of all the other Praetors, Marauder actually seems to me to be the only one that might have a shot at redemption. The other Praetors are all driven by self-interest, while Marauder had established an area of peace and safety for a large number of people prior to Cole's arrival. Violent and brutal as he is, his background has consistently been one demonstrating order over chaos. He grew up in a lawless environment, where size, strength, and power were the only rules that mattered to anyone - he used his natural gifts to climb to the top of the food chain, and then crushed anyone that threatened not only him, but anyone that followed him as well. Top Dog, Alpha Dog, however you want to put it, he's still a pack leader - he cares for his pack, tries to do what's best for them the only way he knows how. When Cole came over the mountains and offered him a job, he took it because he thought it was what was best for both himself AND the rest.

And now Cole's been revealed to be both a liar and far weaker than he appears, not only putting every other person in Praetoria at risk, but then throwing a temper tantrum that levelled a huge portion of the city with no regard for any other lives present... I could see that driving Marauder to some pretty dramatically different behavior. We can assume that Back Alley Brawler is "better" because he's a hero, but he was also a guy that became a cop to make a difference, and when it wasn't enough, took to vigilantism in a pretty violent way all in the name of making the world a safer place for people. In a lawless, destroyed place, it's quite possible that Michael White did exactly the same thing in reverse, trying to go from a thug to an officer of the peace in the hopes of something better - only to find that the people he'd been trying to make safer had been put at more risk than ever. Maybe now he's trying to find a way to help them again in their new home.

I'm of the opinion that the Corallax and the Shivans of both varieties are the same general type of creature. The old-fashioned Shivans claim that they can no longer hear their mother, while the Corallax lore states that they all of the sudden lost contact with Merulina (presumably when she died). Both are races formed from surrounding materials by some other animating force that the beings themselves refer back to as a creator. Said creators in both cases are extraterrestrial in origin. The new Shivans are the same general idea, just controlled by something new. And, the older Shivans refer to some horrible creature that chased their mother for ages finally catching her and making her one of it's brides, now coming here for the "Blue Maiden". Since there's no real sense of time/scale there, I think that the Blue Maiden is Merulina, a being just like the Shivan's "mother" who created the Corallax in the same way. They simply had more time as a race to become what they are now, rather than the sort of "lost" Shivans.

Course, I also think that the Well might be a sort of "potential" distillery intentionally seeded here by Battalion to consolidate racial potential into one big flavor-packed snack, which means I probably spend too much time with this stuff running through the back of my head.

Oh, I'm aware that they're not the "Great" Old Ones; They're still supposedly the first critters to colonize the planet, and are shown to have been at least capable of creating life and other amazing things. Besides, I would doubt very much that anything would be directly ported from Lovecraft's stuff. It's just something that fit the vague notion of a word of a "greater" being that could have served as the inspiration for the name.

Our sg has congregated at GenCon for a while now, so we'll have around 12 people in the area. I imagine we'll have about 8 people or show showing for the M&G - we missed the last one due to scheduling conflict. See you all there

That was a good time, and that league made it look and feel like it was just another trial - steady, solid and effective. Thanks for having me along

Bit late to the party, but if you'll have me, I'll take a spot on my main

Marut - FF/Rad/PM Defender (Melee,Rebirth,Warworks,Reactive, all T4)

Welcome home Neth

Congratulations to the both of you

Meh. The Well already thinks he's useless.
Going to guess that the death of Statesman is the stripping/sacrifice of his powers, and we'll end up running the Marcus Cole task force soon... After all, States died once already and Numina fixed him, and Positron was killed by the Honoree, and he got better. Even better than he was in the first place, actually...

Team 1
1) @Amygdala
2) @Placta - Elec/elec blaster
3) @Ulysses Dare - Assault Rifle/Devices
4) @Gameboy1234 - Robotics/Force Field
5) @Stray Kitten - Claws/SR scrapper
6) @Captain Drej - Thugs/Pain MM or rad/dark corr
7) @ReDorothy controller Grav/forcefield
8)

Team 2
1)@Photometric
2)@Dollmistress - Dominator(?)
3)@BigMoneyHustla - Ice/Fire Blaster
4)@Anonymos - WP/NRG Tank
5)@ChicagoDoodler - Mind/Psy Dominator
6)@Silas
7)@Koriel - Emp/Psy Defender
8)@Dr Cobalt

Team 3
1)@Marut
2)@Viking Queen
3)@Thorgils
4)@Winter Elf
5)@Ice Ember
6)@Ms. Snazzzy
7)@Scatterpack
8)@Xenadra

Added @Photometric.

Welcome home

Welcome home Neo

@XPP01 and @TiSana: For showing me that from hot blood can spring great things. I may have agreed on very little with them at any given time(to put it lightly), but regardless of that, the things that came from what we did agree on always turned out amazing.

@AceMACE and @Omegaof9: For demonstrating, unequivocably, that progress is less about certain knowledge of the way to go, and more about showing up even when it looks like there's no further to be gone. These two, and the groups they led, accomplished more for the players of this game through sheer heart and faith in each other than most will ever know.

@Biotron and @iltat: These two showed me that doing what you believe in is more important than being everyone's best friend. More alike than I think either would be comfortable with, they both blazed trails for excellence, honor, and ethics in gameplay, but more importantly, they both did so from different stances, which often led to conflict. And yet, when the chips were down, both have been quick to stand up for what's right, even in the face of mass disapproval, and even if it meant standing up for people who'd treated them like dirt. They're both incredible examples that a thick skin isn't just about being able to weather the slings and arrows of others, but about stepping forward to take MORE fire for the right reasons.

And finally, though to my knowledge he's never played CoH, my old QWTF clan leader. Yoarashi[DJedi]. Competetive, exacting, humble, patient, honorable - he demanded excellence from us not through exhortation, or praise, or rewards, but by simply being the example of what he wanted to see. He was the first to sit himself when someone better suited to the job was present, the first to bow out in favor of giving a new player time. He made us want to be not just better players, but better people. From him I learned everything I know about how to treat teammates, let alone lead anyone, and I don't believe I'll ever be a tenth of what he was. Wish I knew where he was.