Thunderfire

As a recovering lawyer, Steve is by default opposed to licensed products, not to mention his experience working on the Star Trek and Lord of the Rings RPGs. Licensed RPG projects can suck a lot depending on the licensor.

[ QUOTE ]
But where is the CoH RPG for the past 3 years?

[/ QUOTE ]
From the To Make You Cry files: Darren Watts* of Hero Games said at one point on their boards that they approached Cryptic/NCsoft about licensing and were rebuffed. Now that the CoH RPG's reputation is in the toilet after 3 years of vaporware from Eden, he said he's no longer interested.

* Might have been Steve Long, but I'm pretty sure it was Darren.

[ QUOTE ]
Those words and even the actions you're describing do nothing to ensure the "long term success" of the City of Heroes game, only the "brand name."

[/ QUOTE ]
I've said my piece on the topic. I think you're being naive if you think a product like an MMO can outlive its brand-success.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
marketecture

[/ QUOTE ]
Please, never use this "word" again. Don't make me leverage your synergy.

[/ QUOTE ]
OW! My benchmark!

Edited to rub it in: Neologisms FTW!

[ QUOTE ]
[...] the possibility of "in-game advertising" OH NOES.

[/ QUOTE ]
I'm probably alone in this, but I would find a modern setting MORE immersive if I saw AT&T billboards and Coke cans at the bar in Pocky D. Just, for the love of the gods, keep it appropriate. Put billboard-style ads on billboards, put product-placement items in the appropriate locations, and so forth.

[ QUOTE ]
I wince at the uses of the words Product Line and IP in reference to the sale [...]

[/ QUOTE ]
I cannot disagree more with this sentiment. A total lack of business and commercial sense, which would be implied if we NEVER heard these terms, has killed a vast array of terrific projects, products, services and concepts. You may want to proceed blissfully through your play experience without imagining that your game is being delivered to you partly by "evil" marketeers, but if I like something, I'd like to see it last. CoH can't survive in the long term without a thoroughgoing understanding of marketecture on the part of its controlling interest; no MMO can.

[ QUOTE ]
Or say SOE, who many in this community equate to the Dr. Doom of the video game world.

[/ QUOTE ]
Don't be dissin' the Doomster. He's far and away smarter than SOE.

[ QUOTE ]
Businesses don't put that kind of investment into things they don't think will be around for much longer.

[/ QUOTE ]
That depends on the company. I've worked for some real stinkers that thought throwing money and people at a poorly conceived project was the cure for all ills. Not that I think that's the case here. Just doing my part in the fight against sweeping generalizations.

[ QUOTE ]
Where's my $165,000 for all the free tech support I've given you over the last three years?!?!!?!

[/ QUOTE ]
As a beneficiary of said tech support, I will cheerfully buy you a beer/coffee/legalbeverageofyourchoice if we ever meet face to face. I expect to be at Dundracon '08 and PAX '08 if you're going to either.

[ QUOTE ]
[...] an update that warps it like the AoS expansion to Ultima Online did.

[/ QUOTE ]
I'm hoping that and the SWG:NGE debacle have put game companies on notice that large scale changes to the playstyle of a popular MMO is not something to be done lightly.

[ QUOTE ]
I frequently rack up debt and work it off for this very reason.

[/ QUOTE ]
That gives me an idea. Let's run it up the flagpole.

Here's a ThankYou that I think more people would appreciate. Maybe it's possible, maybe it's not, Maybe it's easy, maybe it's not. A Debt-Wipe token or clicky temp-power that can be activated at the player's discretion. Even better, make it transferable and sellable at WW/BM for those people who, for one reason or another, would never use such a thing. If they turn out to be at all popular, put a recipe for same into the drop tables like the respec recipe.

[ QUOTE ]
OK, sorry to ask this as I know it kinda a lame question, and sorry if it's been asked before, but there is no way I'm going to wade thru all the whining in this thread...

But when they wipe out character debt, will that debt be applied towards the debt badges (as if you worked it off), or will it simply disappear?

[/ QUOTE ]
Don't feel bad about not wading through the thread, because I'm pretty sure that question hasn't been answered yet.

[ QUOTE ]
That's exactly what I meant to say - and, if you read the rest of my post carefully you will see that the tone of it supports that.

[/ QUOTE ]
Um... [scroll up, read, read] You're right. My bad.

[ QUOTE ]
Wait Tabula Rasa giving gifts it has been out what 4 days shutters. Anyone who had a brian knew auto assualt was a bust before it was ever released heck the concept sounded stupid.

[/ QUOTE ]
I thought the Auto Assault concept sounded pretty cool, in an abstract "Oooh, drive around and shoot stuff" sort of way. But then again, I don't have a Brian, though I do have a pair of perfectly servicable Michaels.

[ QUOTE ]
And I, for one, am not telling BIllZ or anyone else to shut up.

[/ QUOTE ]
I'm not about to go back through this monster to check names, but there has been a certain amount of "Shut up!" and "No! You shut up!" going on in here.

[ QUOTE ]
Just mouthing off with the rest of you on this topic. But I stand by what Ive said. Everytime Ive gotten a "gift for valued X customers" from NCSoft email, that game has been on the way out.

I dont want CoX to be on the way out. I dont want NCSoft to TREAT it like its on the way out. Id have been just fine with this announcement if it HADNT included gifts to valued customers.

But it did include gifts, and those gifts are aimed at just about everyone else who plays CoX. And then I go back and look at my Auto Assault gifts, and my Tabula Rasa gifts, and I shudder.

In the end, I really dont want gifts from NCSoft on a game I love. It just doesnt bode well.

Im happy to be proven wrong.

[/ QUOTE ]
OK, that's a valid concern. I hope you're wrong too.

[ QUOTE ]
Earlier in the thread either Ex or Lighthouse stated that the Mountain View job listings are all for the newly established NorCal CoH/V studio. Also earlier in the thread it was clearly stated that only one person out of the entire Cryptic team assigned to CoH/V had accepted the NCSoft offer and will be moving to the new studio with the game.

[/ QUOTE ]
Read it again. Only one person hasn't accepted. The popular speculation is that that person is Jack Emmert, but we haven't seen anything explicitly stating this AFAIK. It's possible that Jack wasn't offered a job for one reason or another and someone else said no.

[ QUOTE ]
That article was full of stupid.

[/ QUOTE ]
I'm with BillZ on this one, though I wouldn't call it an article; it's an opinion piece, a blog. No publisher of anything that could remotely be described as "articles" would have published that as anything but "From the Mailbag."

Don't get me wrong; the author and others that share his PoV are entitled to their opinion, and they are entitled to state it. The lowering of the barriers to publication and the democratization of public information is hands down the best thing the Internet has done for us as a civilization.

Conversely, others have the same right to reply with a resounding "You're so full of it, your eyes are brown!" I could wish that neither side would resort to Shut Up posts, but given how easily Internet discussions descend into idiots jousting with words they barely understand*, I expect we're a long way from ubiquitous Socratic discourse.


*DISLAIMER: I don't think anyone in this thread has descended to this level. The DOOMCON and overall barbarity of this discussion are remarkably low.

[ QUOTE ]
Business change hands in two situations:

First, cos they are new and extremely, unexpectedly successful and a big company snaps them up.

Second, because the end of the business' lifetime is on the horizin and the original owners want to cut and run so they can pursue better things. The new owner then maintains the products until they naturally wind down.

[/ QUOTE ]
I'm sorry to contradict you, but what you say is simply not accurate. Healthy business units change hands all the time.

Even if the unit is making plenty of money, a commercial entity may feel that it will find greater utility in the goods being offered for the unit that it current gets from said unit. This may be for a variety of reasons: the unit's function may be outside of the current focus of the larger entity; a vendor of a critical supply may have ceased operation; internal restructuring of the larger entity may make supporting the unit untenable... The list goes on and on.

On the flipside, the acquiring entity feels that greater utility can be had from the business unit being acquired than from the goods it offers in exchange. Perhaps the unit's core function would mesh well with the larger entity's focus and overall business plan; maybe the unit creates something that the entity already uses internally (vertical integration). Again, the list goes on and on.

This sort of commercial activity indicates to me that the MMO business is maturing. It still has a long way to go. Heck, MMO companies are still just throwing everything they can think of at the wall to see what sticks. But we've come a long way from MUDs and chatrooms.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Receiving the TR updates filled with language like "let's go soldiers! on your feet marines! attennnnnnSHUN!" just made me cringe and drift off. I didn't wanna be a soldier

[/ QUOTE ]

Heh, this I can agree with. I already did 6 years in the US Navy, and while I'm proud to have served... I don't wanna go through that again.

[/ QUOTE ]
Ditto. Army.

Not feeling so bad now about never getting around to cashing in that beta invite to TR.

[ QUOTE ]
For those interested in gainful gaming employment, check out the NCsoft North America Jobs Listing. Positions for "Mountain View" would be in our newly formed NCsoft NorCal Studio.

[/ QUOTE ]
Dang! The Windows PC Technician/Administrator description could have been cribbed directly off my resume. (End users of varying technical knowledge... I've supported PCs in public school and at Boeing; some of those engineers can't tell a PC from their spleens.)

But no, twice before I've been dissuaded from pursuing a career in computer programming. Not this time. Look for my resume and portfolio to hit your HR department in June.

All in all, this announcement still improves my chances of working on the CoH dev team, since a larger team means more frequent openings. Go ahead, feel like you're being stalked. I'm that obsessive.

If not before, I'll see you at PAX 2008.

[ QUOTE ]
[...] three publishers, three different IP's, three different pies.

[/ QUOTE ]
And I'm gonna play all three because I'm a ravening fanboi of the superheroic genre.

Again, no. NCSoft bought half of CoH/V from Cryptic (already owning the other half). Cryptic is more than just CoH/V.

[ QUOTE ]
okay if you guys are in the carolinas I am so there.

[/ QUOTE ]
Sorry, Washington state here, though once I'm done with my software development classes in June, I'm hoping to have a good reason to move to Mountain View.

Here's to hoping this announcement is DOUBLE good news for me. Staffing up GOOD!

[ QUOTE ]
I thought I was the only that believed such things.

[/ QUOTE ]
Nope. We've got a support group that meets on Wednesday nights, a softball team, and a floating poker night.

The Powers That Be are celebrating a changing of the guard with some freebies to the population. That's nice of them. I don't find any personal utility in any of these freebies. That doesn't change the fact that they're doing a nice thing. I don't have to benefit from everything my neighbor gets.

When someone brings brownies with walnuts to work and brings me one, I say "Thank you!" even though I DESPISE walnuts.

When I was 8, I got upset on my brother's birthday because I didn't get any presents, but I didn't think twice on MY birthday when he got diddly-squat. I'd like to think I've gotten past that.

YMMV