Shadowe
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Posts
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Joined
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Quote:Hehehehe...Originally Posted by Slaunyeh
I don't see how you can make that claim, considering that the only NCSoft employee you've ever met has done all of the above.
*tinfoils*
The rebuttal, though, is (not an exhaustive list):
Rockjaw
Bridger
Kerensky
Ghost Raptor
Aero
Avatea
War Witch
Noble Savage -
Quote:Same here.Originally Posted by mereman
I will also confirm that Gangrel is not a NCSoft mole. The idea that anyone would think he was made me laugh.
Things NCsoft employees generally aren't known for doing:
1) Going to official player meets, getting tanked up, and requiring copious amounts of coffee to be able to function in their role as unpaid Sidekick to NCsoft employees.
2) Scab cigarettes off me.
3) Organising and attending unofficial EU player meets.
4) Send me personal tweets and PMs.
5) Chat on the Union Roleplayers channel in-game.
Things that Gangrel is known to do:
All of the above. -
Quote:Nah, I'm a lazy part-timer, these days, only work Mon-Wed. This week, though, Pix has taken Baby Shad to visit his grandparents while she goes to a hen party (that's a bachelorette party to our US fellows), so I'm hosting a whole-weekend roleplaying session at our house.Originally Posted by Gangrel_EU
Indeed... it would explain a lot of things (Golden Girl for one
)
*edit* And what are you doing up so late Shadowe? Surely you have work tomorrow... -
Why do I suddenly have the feeling that City of Heroes was never actually a game, but a carefully orchestrated, long-term social experiment, to see what happens if you foster a community for several years, then suddenly shut off the unifying factor, and remove all moderation from the forum?
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My take on the whole "Is Mercedes Lackey a credible source?" issue is pretty much this:
She is human. She is prone to human mistakes. Heck, just yesterday I had a professional financial adviser completely misinterpret my words that "your client's income year starts on 2 October" as "if you ask us, we will pay your client on 2 October" (we couldn't. Our bank sends payments out on the 1st, 7th, 14th and 21st of each month). When she is relaying any information that is more detailed than "things are happening" and "so-and-so told me", I bear in mind that she is just as capable of misinterpretation as that financial adviser was. Her words are not gospel truth.
I believe that she has chosen to lay her professional name on the line for City of Heroes. I believe that she is a personal friend of one or more of the development team for City of Heroes. I believe that she is in personal contact with one or more people who are currently engaged in negotiations with NCsoft. Why do I believe these things? Interestingly, because I trust the Paragon Studios team to call "bull" if she's lying.
Statements regarding PS's financial strength are treated by me as "well, she's not seen the figures and is relaying information second- or third-hand, so pinch of salt on the precise numbers and meaning".
Statements regarding NCsoft's treatment of refunds for previous games are treated as "well, since I doubt she was actually playing those games, she could be guessing or relaying a hyperbolic anecdote from someone else".
Statements regarding the negotiations, which so far have amounted to the grand total of "they're still happening" are so vague and non-definitive that I'm actually willing to take them at face value until someone can show me otherwise. I do this because it is reasonable that she will have contact with members of the dev team. It is reasonable that said contacts are providing her with vague and non-definitive assurances regarding the negotiations. It is not reasonable to expect her to deeply understand the precise nature of financial reporting or to know the small print from previous sunset exercises by NCsoft.
I do not have limitless faith in her ability to get specific detail. I do not believe that she is the one true path to knowledge. I believe that right this minute she is the only reasonably credible source we have regarding the negotiations, and everything she has said "as fact" about those is extremely tenuous.
And, lest we forget, humans are notoriously bad at objectively relaying information. She is as passionate about this game as any of us. Everything she offers is at least coloured by her opinions. She wants us to be hopeful, she wants us to feel positive, to keep on battling to save City of Heroes. And her words reflect that, her relayed information reflects that, and even the things she's flat-out gotten wrong reflect that.
Therefore, I have chosen to apply my knowledge of her and her position, plus my interpolation of the veracity of that position, and I am treating her statements as I covered above.
That's my stand, that's my personal feelings and position. Take it or leave it, it's up to you. -
To be honest there are so many that I couldn't nail down the best...
But one of the most memorable was the "follow circle" around the dome of City Hall in Atlas Park.
Everyone lines up in a circle, targets the player in front of them, and on command from the guy running the event, everyone hits follow.
The most start-stop circle I've ever seen, but we proved it could work. -
Thank you for your time.
Thank you for your care.
Thank you for the memories.
Thank you for the memes.
We'll miss you, Andy. See you in the skies sometime. -
Quote:KillerKitty.Originally Posted by Killerkitty
...snip...
1) Union Roleplayers isn't in some way "out to get you" or some sort of cliquish elitist channel. It serves a different purpose to the Roleplayers channel, and when you were asked to stop trying to persuade people to actively leave URP to join the Roleplayers channel, you not only refused, but you went out of your way to use the channel's player list for recruitment purposes. That was rude. But you couldn't accept that. So you take every opportunity to continue what comes across as a crusade anywhere you can. Also rude.
That is what put many people on URP off joining the Roleplayers channel.
2) You do not have the singular "one true way" to save CoH. There are many avenues being explored. If you can contribute, fine. But if all you're going to do is tell people how wrong they are to try any means available, there's no point in you entering the discussion. Seriously. No point at all, since all it does is add clutter to an already complex situation.
3) Be respectful. You come across as supremely arrogant, both here and in-game. There's no need to take a massive dump all over other people just because (as far as I can tell) they are not immediately acknowledging your opinion as the gospel truth.
So, please, stop your silly childish crusade to make the residents of the URP channel out to be some sort of demons. Stop pointlessly trying to refute every idea that people explore to try to save CoH. Stop spouting useless "facts" which are nothing of the sort.
We're trying to make a difference, here. You've failed to think outside the box.
[/end polite]
And I find it hilarious that the only two links in that enormous post of yours that actually work are you circle-jerking with someone else and a description of how to use chat channels. -
Looks like I'll have to go and give my Training Day arc a look to make sure it's not glitching too badly. Once the servers are back up, at least.
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We're in the standard weekly server maintenance window. No need to be concerned right now.
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All the usual caveats about "whenever, however, whoever"...
But...
1) Subscribe for a 12 month stretch on my main account. Maybe the same on my second.
2) Write to NCsoft to say thank you for allowing it.
3) Get Hybrid unlocked on my main.
4) Level my main villain to 50 (finally) and incarnate him. -
My wife put this in an interesting way:
The announcement for closure of the game has required players to "pull" the information. In other words, it requires effort from the players to actually go looking for it. NCsoft have done very little (the copy on the launcher stays up for maybe 3 seconds with the right settings and is vastly overshadowed by the Nature Affinity advert) to "push" the information to us.
"We put it somewhere that you can find" is not a valid means of communicating with customers. "We sent you an email" is. Sure, there are people who disable emails on their Master Account, but that is not NCsoft's fault. Not even trying to send an email is. -
Quote:let's try an analogy (useless though they are).Originally Posted by JayboH
That said, why is it magically the publisher's job to personally tell you anything all of a sudden, instead of the development team? Why are the people who worked on the game mean nothing to you whatsoever now - and their news of the game shutting down something you choose to ignore? Did you go and thank NCSoft for the issue releases instead of Paragon/Cryptic all these years?.
I bank with a particular bank. It's called NatWest, and it is a subsidiary of the Royal Bank of Scotland. What if, one day, RBS decided to completely close NatWest, and NatWest decided to communicate this via a post on a message board, and a press release sent to a banking news website? Would it be unreasonable of me, a paying customer for a number of years, to expect one or the other group to communicate that information directly to me? And, since NatWest gets shut down immediately with only a skeleton crew available to wrap up things, would it not fall on RBS to be the ones to tell me? Ignoring terms and conditions that say they can, isn't it polite to actually inform your paying customers - all of them - that you are stripping a service? As business practices go, failing to do so actually stinks.
My wife eagerly awaits Paragon Studios or NCsoft actually telling her that they are removing a service for which she pays. Because so far they have not. -
Quote:Heh.Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
Let me tell you about a long-time subscriber I know, who isn't me.
This subscriber has been paying NCsoft for over 6 years to access CoH. NCsoft (and Paragon Studios, actually) have done nothing to inform this subscriber that their subscription is no longer due. Nothing to inform them that the game is being closed. This subscriber does not frequent the forums, and does not look at MMO news sites. In fact, the only source this subscriber has that the game is due to close is me.
NCsoft have this subscriber's email address, their physical address, their credit card billing address, and quite possibly their cell phone number. All of these are valid means for a company to make their customers aware of a change in service. NCsoft have chosen to use none of them.
This subscriber is my wife.
So while I trust what we have been told here, and I believe the reports of the game's closure, it represents reprehensible customer service to fail to inform your paying customers of the loss of a service, and from the perspective of the person I know better than anyone else in the world, NCsoft have failed to do so.
Call that trolling if you like, but unless you can prove that my wife has been told by anyone associated with NCsoft that CoH is closing, you won't change my mind. -
Quote:Technically, no, it hasn't.Originally Posted by Deacon_NA
Jay is right. It has been communicated to us, uniquivocally, that the game is shutting down.
NCsoft have not once communicated with me, their customer, to inform me that the service they are providing is ending.
A customer service staff member who works for a subsidiary of the company I am actually paying money to has told me this. It appears (though there is no proof) that the company I am paying money to has informed a news website that this is happening.
But I have had nothing from NCsoft to tell me. -
The point is that they have several thousand customers around here who want more information. Any business whose standard business practice is to stonewall existing customers is a business that is asking for those customers to a) never buy from them again and b) tell all their friends about it.
Right now, NCsoft have completely ignored any attempt to open a dialogue between their customers (us) and themselves. Even a one line "we understand, but it isn't going to happen" would be better from a customer relations perspective than complete and utter silence.
This may be a cultural issue, I have no idea, but I work in the customer service industry, and there are two things you NEVER do: Lie to a customer, and ignore a customer on purpose.
That's just asking for trouble. -
Sir, I applaud you.
Well done.
#SaveCoH -
Not sure how much of a conflict of interests it would represent, but can Zwillinger provide that information? Certainly the server logs will have it recorded, and Redname accounts still seem to be active, but it's not something that would normally be revealed, so it might not be a feasible route to access the information.
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/em waits for a thread to pop up from some guy about the weird girl who mistakenly gave him her global, not her phone number.
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The game is just code and can be remade, perhaps better than before.
The studio is the legacy that has fostered this, our community. Without the people behind the scenes, this community would never have existed.
Save the studio. -
I'd like to be able to say "up to double", but I jut can't afford that right now. But definitely "more".
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{Some poetic license is in place in this post, but it's as close as I can make it to the reality}
September 3, 2005, Cheltenham, England, approx 12.30pm
I've been married for 3 weeks, and I've just had another haircut. If she manages to keep this up, I'll spend a fortune getting my head trimmed. Might have to just shave it all off. Ah, well.
Huh. I bought an hour of parking up the road, and I've used all of half of it... may as well wander into Game and see if there's anything worth getting on the PC Gaming shelves. Fat chance, really. They only cater to consoles, these days. Still, there might be something worth getting, and I'm a bit flush right now - I got paid last week, after all.
It's been a while since I've been in this store. At least the PC games haven't moved, so let's take a peek... Nah. Nope. Not interested. Huh? City of Heroes? Didn't I take a look at that, oh, a few months back? That's one of those online pay-to-play things, isn't it? Cool pic on the cover. Let's have a read of the blurb... Yada, yada, superhero, yada, yada, hype, yada, yada, monthly fee - well, that's a serious point against it - yada, yada, 30-day subscription included. Hmm. So. I buy this, set up a subscription, play for 30 days - and when was the last time I played a game for more than 30 days? - cancel it, and I haven't lost anything! Awesome. I need a new game to get my teeth into, since I'm getting bored with NWN, now.
I can afford this, and I'm newly financially stable. Let's give it a whirl. Worst-case, I've wasted the purchase price.
Over to the desk, hand over the game and my loyalty card - may as well get money off, if I can - answer the usual about can my computer run it and yes, I understand there's a monthly fee to play, thanks, g'bye.
* * * * *
Later, at home, in the spare bedroom/study
"So, did I see you've bought something from Game?"
"Uh, yeah. It's a game I've seen a few times, thought I'd give it a go. It's one of those Massively Multiplayer Online things - there's a monthly fee, but I get a month free with the box, so I can cancel if I want."
"Oh. Okay. You're going to be installing that for a while, then, huh?"
"Uh, yeah. If that's okay?"
"Alright. I'll just do a load of washing."
"Sure. See you in a bit!"
I extract the box from the wrapping and prise it open - why do these things have to be so difficult? - and a wadge of documents flies out into my lap. Wow, there's a lot in this box! Umm... manual. Okay, good place to start... disk 1 of 4... okay, this game isn't small! Right. Disk in. Let's kick it off, read the manual, and see what happens.
* * * * *
Later
Heh. That guy in the red/orange/yellow flamey outfit on the install screen looks like a total idiot. Still, Blaster seems to be the "Archetype" I'm looking for, if I want to recreate that character I made a few years ago. Shadow. Richard Huntington. Or was it Huntingdon? Nah, that's a place in Cambridgeshire. I'll go with Huntington. And his sister, going to have to pull out that box and find her name - she was psychic, wasn't she? And keeping it a secret from her brother. And their arch-nemesis whatever-his-name-was. I hope the powers I can pick will let me do something with "energy".
* * * * *
Later
Disk 4, 95% complete. Awesome. I'm ready to rumble... 97%... 99%... 100%... Why is it that whenever you run something on a computer, it gets to 100% and then takes an absolute age to complete that LAST LITTLE BIT?
Huh? UPDATES?! Yeesh. Dear Lord, I don't know if I have the patience for this - these downloads are almost as big as what I've already installed! Right, this is going to take a while... better go downstairs and keep the wife happy. I'll pop in and see how it's going every twenty minutes or so. I wanna play! Patience. Yeah, I've not bought this game for months, so rushing now is a bit pointless.
* * * * *
Later
Right, server... umm... not French or German, so Union or Defiant. Huh. What's the difference? Probably none at all. Union's the one at the top of the list, so we'll go for that.
Character creation! Eeeexcellent. Let me see... Blaster, I already knew that... Ooh, Energy Blast! YES! HE SHOOTS, HE SCORES! Pick one of the Primary powers... right. Umm... Secondary Powerset? Bwuh? Umm... Oh, what the heck, Energy Manipulation. That fits the theme. Character build? Male. Average. Make him a smidgeon under 6 feet by that height guide. I seriously hope he's not swirly and green in the game. Costume. Well, it's me, so... black. Black spandex. All over. Covering the face, too... masks, masks... wow, there's a lot of options, here. Umm... none of them are full-face masks! Dagnabbit! Okay, grab the one that covers the most face, make the skin colour black, too, and put on something to cover the eyes and mouth... sunglasses and this funny cloth-thing. Huh. Okay, the all-spandex look is... kinda like a giant black condom. That is NOT cool. Needs to be cool. So... boots... yeah... and a belt... okay... that's good enough.
Right. Next screen... Enter Hero Name. Awesome. Shadow. Unavailable. WHAT?! ARGH! But it's the ENTIRE CONCEPT! Okay, okay, you're not an idiot. You can change this. It's not the end of the world. Hmm. Stick an "E" on the end. It'll technically be pronounced the same - I bet some people say it "Shadowy", though - and that's good enough for me. Enter Tutorial! WOOHOO!
Loading... loading... loading...
And here I am! Look out world, Shadow(e) is here!
Okay, movement controls, standard WASD, hold-right for mouse-look and... WARGH! INVERT AXIS! NOW! Phew.
* * * * *
Later
Wow, this is... actually... awesome. And all I'm doing is running around hitting things a bit! But this city looks so great! And these enemies are interesting, and the stories are cool, and... I'm getting to play this superhero that I made all those years ago while I was horribly depressed and had left home abandoning everything I knew and loved and... don't dwell. This is a different time. You're a different person. The memories are dark, but Shadow(e) isn't. He's a SUPERHERO.
Later
<Enter> "Umm... how do I change from chatting in local to chatting in Team?"
<Random player whose name I've fogotten but was the first person to team with me in the game> "See just above the chat-entry box? There's these little tiny buttons. The... third one along is for team."
<Team> "Cool. Thanks. Wow, that's easy. Right, where are we going?"
<Random Player> "Got a fight with Frostfire. You met him yet?"
<Team> "Uh... no. Don't want to get too far ahead of myself, though. This won't screw up my own missions, will it?"
<Random Player> "Nope. Doesn't change anything for you. You're just helping me."
<Team> "Cool."
* * * * *
7 years later
I have continually subscribed to this game from day one. At times I've paid for multiple accounts. I even paid for a friend's account when he was having money trouble, then took it over when he left for WoW. Yeah, I'm a dirty cheat. My wife has her own account. The only times I've not played have been when I've gone on holiday, otherwise I've logged in pretty much EVERY SINGLE DAY. I've racked up well over 7,000 hours (nearly 300 days) on my main character alone. I've made friends, lost friends, made an enemy or two. I've lived and breathed this game for SEVEN YEARS. I've been involved with roleplay on Union server for most of that time. Shadowe lived up to everything I hoped. His sister, Luminescence, came to be in 2006. And Psychonova, their arch-nemesis, followed shortly thereafter. I never did get Psychonova to 50. He's languishing in the early 40s. I bought EVERYTHING for the game up until the Party Pack. That's when I started cherry-picking. I have several professional sketches of my characters, done by the brilliant Draw The World Together artists at various shows and conventions. And I own some ORIGINAL artwork of Manticore and Sister Psyche that were done for a limited run sketchbook.
This is not "just a game". Not to me. It's a whole experience. And I've loved it. Not every minute, but on the whole, I've loved it. Thank you, all. Developers, Community Staff, QA, and my fellow players. Thank you for letting Shadow(e) exist as more than a thought in my head.
I will be here until the servers die. But Paragon City won't. It's in my heart, my memories, and it's in ME. You all are.
Thank you. -
Haven't managed to quit just yet, so yeah, if you need one, you can scab a (colloquial English word for cigarette that is censored), as always.
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Looks like I'll be able to show my face on Saturday for at least a few hours. As always, I'll be there with my laptop and an inordinate number of photographs of Baby Shad.
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I've said a few things a lot over the years, regarding how utterly fantastic this game is - I've persuaded friends to play it, and spent an inordinate amount of time here since September 3 2005 (7186 hours on my main, according to a nurse named Marguerite that I just spoke to on Peregrine Island).
But one of the things that's always made this game great is the direct interaction between the developers and the players. And one thing illustrates that, for me, more than anything else:
Omega Sektor, Birmingham, UK, March 2008.
Melissa "War Witch" Bianco was over for the most insane weekend imaginable, and there was the MOTHER of all Easter Eggs added to the game afterwards.
My surname is that of the poor soldier in the Shadow Shard who is busy doing his exercises in the screenshot below.
That is ME. Added to the game. There because War Witch is one cool lady, and because the CoH devs are so open and generous and brilliant.
Thank you. Thank you all for allowing us to have this brilliant game, and this brilliant community.
Thank you for making ME a part of it. Thank you for letting me be a part of it.
Even after they switch the servers off, Shadowe will still be protecting Paragon City.