TonyV

I've updated the top post with some FAQs I've seen posted and been contacted about. I hope that helps clear up a few areas of confusion.

Hey all, we have BLOWN THE DOORS off the media. It started out as a couple of sites, then a few here and there, and now, more than 50 and counting covering our Save Paragon City! campaign and the efforts of our heroes in making sure that the lights stay on in Paragon City for a long time to come!

I've updated the top post in this thread. I can't keep up with putting links to every article, some of our coordinators updating a Google Docs spreadsheet instead. Bookmark and click the link to see the tangible fruits of our hard labor. (But please be prepared and hold on to your socks before clicking the link. You don't want those hurting someone when they fly off uncontrollably.) I'm telling you, the tide is truly turning in our favor, and with some of the activities we have planned, such as the upcoming Unity Rally / Paragon Appreciation Costume Contest this Saturday (5:00pm Eastern on Virtue, don't forget!), attention is only going to grow.

THANK YOU ALL YET AGAIN for all of your hard work and effort. We really are capable of making the impossible possible. Now let's push onward, because I want us to reach downright likely as quickly as possible!

Cross-posted on the Titan Network forums

Okay, no time for a lot of fanfare and hype, so I'll make this short: Remember me telling you not to delete your characters? Well, here's why. Announcing... Drum roll please...

The Titan Network Sentinel+ Extractor, courtesy of one of the best damn third-party tool developers in any community, Guy Perfect! Keep in mind that this was developed in a very tight time frame, so there might still be some bugs to iron out. But Guy is a very tight coder, it's passed all of our internal testing, so I really kinda doubt it.

Enjoy, and let us know if you have any questions or problems! (Also note that if you lose the link for any reason, there's a link on our main home page at cohtitan.com to the right of our "Save Our City of Heroes" banner.)

Keep up your spirits everyone, and know that we are really pulling out all the stops on ensuring that this game lives on. Don't forget to click the link below if you haven't already. And I can never say it enough times: thanks a TON for all of your support! Okay, less speech and more work. Gotta run!

Quick note: We've had a few people asking where the utility saves the files. It saves them in the same directory that SentinelPlus.exe is run from.


2010-09-08 UPDATE (v1.1):
Guy saw your bug reports and has released a new version of the tool, version 1.1. It's got the same filename and is accessible at the same link posted above. Here's the changelog:

• Fixed a bug that attempted to save files using special characters reserved on Windows file systems. The filename (which includes the global handle and character name) will now convert all of the following characters into underscores: \ / : * ? ' " < > |
• Temporary and Inherent Powers are now exported.
• Builds with zero powers (i.e., have never been selected) are no longer exported.
• Newlines in the output files are now CR/LF rather than only LF. (Primarily benefits people viewing exports in Notepad.)
• The code was reorganized and simlified, and is now slightly smaller.

EDIT:
I've seen some posts and gotten some questions about what the purpose of this utility is, exactly. It is to create a data file that contains enough information about your character's stats and information to recreate it if necessary.

What it does record is your vital stats; inventories (enhancements, inspirations, salvage, vault, recipes); all costumes, including parts, colors, scales, and various options; all build information, including second and third build if they exist, and primary, secondary, pool, epic/patron, and ancillary powersets and temporary and inherent powers, slot counts and slotted enhancements, and Incarnate powers and slotting; and if you open your info window before running the utility, all badges including individual and supergroup badges.

What it does not record is any rendered graphical information, such as screenshots. It contains the data that describes your character, but not any kind of actual picture of your character. It also does not record supergroup information, including membership, base layouts, or storage bin inventories. Also, nothing in your auction house or e-mail inventory is recorded, so if you want this data captured, be sure to pull your items out of the auction house or e-mail before performing the snapshot. Your Paragon Store purchase history and slotting of Paragon Tokens in the reward tree is not recorded, though some things are detectable via other recorded data.

Why would you want this? There are three possible reasons I can think of:

Your own personal record. This would be useful even outside the context of the game possibly shutting down. It's a heck of a lot easier to run this utility and make a snapshot of your character than to write or type or screenshot everything you might want to capture about them. Yes, it's in XML format which, when opened, looks a little wonky, but at least it's human-readable.

Third party utilities. This utility has actually been in the works for a long time. We've had access to this data for, sheez, over a year now I think? We were holding off on final implementation because the intention was to build a bigger, better, kick a** upgraded Sentinel utility that would report all of this information to a bigger, better, kick a** City Info Tracker web site (part of what we've dubbed "Titan 2.0" internally). Obviously, we've nixed those plans for now and Guy grabbed the reins of churning out a useful version in less than five days. If all goes well, we'll still go forward with the plans of turning it into an uber-Sentinel/CIT upgrade. If not, then we'll probably work on releasing a utility that will allow you to see and use the data in a more user-friendly manner. Those of you with development experience who want to, feel free to write utilities to do whatever with the data as well. (But also please be aware that modifying the file will cause the checksum to fail and prevent re-importation, so only modify COPIES of the exported file so that your original can be restored.)

Reimporting your characters. We don't know what the ultimate outcome of this will be. Specifically, there is a chance that City of Heroes might be acquired by another publisher, studio, or organization, but that in the process the account database can't be transferred. If that happens, we will offer whoever acquires the game the algorithm used to generate the checksum that detects whether the file has been modified, which would give them the capability of accepting these files and re-importing the characters onto alternate servers with a moderately high assurance that people haven't, for example, futzed around and made their level 23 blaster a level 50+3 Incarnate. You might not be able to import everything due to the possibility of exploit by shuffling inventory around, but at least you won't have to start over from scratch.

I hope this helps!

I've got two VERY high priority fish to fry, and then I'm going to make a pass at updating this. I have a list right now of over 40 blogs and news sites that are carrying stories about our efforts. But I'm going to update this post ASAHP, because of two reasons: 1) In discussions, it is an extremely handy reference to show what incredible traction we're getting, and 2) I've reached out to some contacts at NCsoft who I believe will probably be keeping a close eye on how far the coverage goes.

Anyway, less posting, more working, I'll be back a little later!

Okay, I have to sheepishly admit that Ten Ton Hammer was just the first site I saw after very briefly checking in this morning. (While on a conference call for my day job, in fact.) Someone forwarded me a long list of blog and news sites that we've hit. I'll post the updates a little later, but...

Mind. Blown.

Sweet!!! Yet another major gaming news site has picked up the press release and run an article on our efforts! Thank you, Ten Ton Hammer!

Fans Rally to Save City of Heroes (also linked in the top post)

Go! Hunt! Spred wordz!

Hey all, couple of notes. First, we have another article in OnRPG, the "Gamers Rally" article I added to the top post of this thread. It even has a link to our Unity Rally coming up on Saturday. We have a friend at OnRPG!

Second, keep your eye out for more, because tonight I sent out a blast of press releases to a ton of gaming, comic book, and tech news sites. We're also bending every ear we can when it comes to bloggers. Tomorrow I'm going to start reaching out to noted personalities we've been collecting from your excellent suggestions.

Thanks again for all of your support. I'm absolutely certain that we have NCsoft's attention, and that's a very, very good thing.

I'm going to crash, I've been up WAY too many hours, but I'll be checking in tomorrow morning as soon as I wrap up some stuff for my day job.

KEEP SPREADING THE WORD!

Hey all, just a quick update. This event is going out in a press blitz as I type this, so PLEASE make every effort to come. We may very well have some incognito press people coming to see what it's about. I doubt they'll announce their presence, but just make sure you represent!

ZWILLINGER!!! This is it! Be there or be a huge male avatar with scales adjusted to be maximally quadrilateral!

Hey all, just added the link to OnRPG added a FANTASTIC article about our efforts! Be sure to check it out and the SHARE IT with the world! We really need you all to shout this great coverage from the rooftops!

Cross-posted at the Titan Network forums

(Note: The following is representative of our efforts at the Titan Network to Save Paragon City!. My intention is not to tread on or speak for any individual or group who is spearheading separate efforts, but I really feel this is helpful for those who are following our campaign and I'm posting it here for visibility. If you want to join, please visit the Save Paragon City! forum at the Titan Network site.)

Hey all, I wanted to expound on our message that we want to convey to various audiences. When you're discussing what we're doing with press, notable personalities, or communicating directly with NCsoft, other players, or just your friends and family, keep the following guidelines in mind. Hopefully it will help put into words and give you ideas of how to express what you're thinking, feeling, and doing in a way that allows us to speak as a community. (Though you are very welcome to add your own thoughts and ideas; after all, we want your message to be personal and accessible, not just a form letter!)

Slogans (or, Our Message in a Nutshell)
I've been using two primary slogans for our effort. The first is intended as a tagline to catch people's interest quickly: "We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time." The second is what I consider our internal rallying cry; not necessarily for outside consumption, though it wouldn't hurt my feelings if it made it out there: "We are heroes. This is what we do." Also, I've unofficially dubbed the name of our efforts here at Titan as "Save Paragon City!" (with an exclamation point, in spite of it being kind of a pain in the *** grammatically, and with all three words in initial capital letters). For example, in communications I'm writing, I refer to the Save Paragon City! effort we are undertaking and on web sites, I'll link the entire phrase, including the exclamation mark.

One semi-official slogan (but not really a "slogan" per se, more like a nutshell explanation) I've been using is that City of Heroes is more than just a game, it is the world in which our community's imagination has lived for eight and half years, a work of art into which we have poured our creative invention. It is our Mona Lisa.

Our goal, stated in a neat and tidy phrase, is to ensure the continued existence of City of Heroes. To expound on a few more thoughts, we want to work with NCsoft to explore whatever options are available to keep the game running and our community that we've worked so hard to build together. Whether this means that NCsoft retains ownership of the game and continues operations of it or allows the property to be sold to a third party who can continue its legacy, we are open and eager to discuss what we can do to save Paragon City.

As a side note, some of you have probably been keeping track of our reverse engineering efforts, and there are also other options available such as working to get a community-funded and/or developed project that would be the spiritual successor to City of Heroes. To be clear, these and others are longer-term goals that are definitely on the table if our initial goal cannot be reached. But as longer-term goals with a much greater time window in which to plan and organize our efforts, I really don't want to get bogged down in the details of those options yet. Please believe me when I say that we will explore those options if the time comes that those are the only options left to us. But right now, we need our full focus and attention on the more immediate goals of working with NCsoft, because the time window in which success in that engagement can be achieved is much, much shorter and it is by far the optimal solution to our situation.

Dealing with other players
Please realize that this news dropped like a sack of bricks on all of us. Different people are reacting in different ways. Some people are having a hard time getting out of the mourning phase. Some people jumped straight to the anger phase. Some are desperately trying to move on as quickly as they can to avoid the emotional burden of having to admit that they love this game and are just as affected as the rest of us. Some, like us, honestly believe that the game can still be saved and are doing all we can.

But the one thing that binds us all together is that we are one community. Please be respectful of people, because if the worst case scenario comes to pass, we don't have much time left, and I don't want to waste it bickering among ourselves, that would be tragic. I've been genuinely touched by posts and messages from people who I've fought vehemently over the years saying stuff like, "I always thought you were a jerk, but I really appreciate what you're doing," or, "I hate your guts, but I really respect your efforts." I've also been communicating with people that I never imagined that I'd want to talk to again because of grievances in the past. The point is, if someone posts or says something you don't agree with, please don't be so quick to jump into a fray with them. Let it go, we have more important things to worry about now.

In particular, when I see posts that boil down to, "This is useless, you all are wasting your time," I try not to be argumentative. I might post something letting them know I think they're wrong and why, but that is in the spirit of trying to keep everyone's morale up and keeping our front line soldiers in our efforts motivated to keep helping us out. Please don't treat anyone--even someone who you think is being dumb or who is peeing on our parade--as if they're stupid. Stay positive. Even when you disagree with someone, throw in a "...but I understand how you feel, I felt that way for a while too. But now I really think..." and say something positive and motivating.

Dealing with the public-at-large
As avid gamers, I'm sure you're familiar with the stereotype of gamers as a bunch of dorks hanging out in their parents' basements wasting their lives away. To some people, spending so much time and effort trying to save a game, getting so worked up about it and acting like it's the end of the world must seem increcibly silly.

To fight this perception, I try to relate how we feel about the game to people's passions in general. No, if the game is permanently shuttered in November, it's not the end of the world. But you have to consider (the public, not you the reader; hopefully you already understand this, even if you haven't expressed it in words--that's my goal here), any hobby that you have poured eight and a half years of your creativity into will mean a lot to you. It's not "just a game," it is the world in which our imaginations live. (See what I did there?)

Whether your passion is cooking, baseball, travel, cars, mountain climbing, the stock market, gardening, model railroading, or any of millions of other hobbies that people lovingly obsess about, to have someone suddenly flip a switch and tell you, "You cannot have this any more except as fond memories" is a gut-wrenching experience that anyone can imagine and hopefully relate to. If you explain our situation in these terms, hopefully the it's-just-a-game crowd will connect and finally "get it."

Dealing with NCsoft
This is a delicate issue because I know that a lot of people are still angry and hurt because of NCsoft's announcement, its suddenness, and how it seemingly makes no sense to us. I know that a lot of people have either given up on the cause because they think it's impossible and are seeking some sort of cathartic release, and directing it at the entity that's most responsible for the predicament we're in is natural and understandable. However, I cannot emphasize this point enough: for now, we need NCsoft. They own City of Heroes, they hold all of the cards. Even if you hate their guts, please at least act civil until we get through this. If we get to the point where I think that all hope is lost and dealing with them is useless, I promise I'll let you know so that we can move on to our next options that don't involve NCsoft and you can go as scorched earth on them as you want (though in the interest of representing our community well in the face of adversity, I personally would prefer you not...).

The next couple of weeks in particular are going to be very delicate. I have contact information for people at the highest levels of the company that I'm using to talk directly to the movers and shakers in the company, and I will be prevailing upon their graciousness. It's imperative that if they actually go looking at and talking to our community, we make them WANT to help us.

So here is the framework in which I am addressing NCsoft in all of my communications: You want to allow City of Heroes to keep running. It will make you look really good to your investors and the gaming community. Framing the issue in this manner, I've come up with two ways in which this is true, but I'm also welcome to other thoughts people might have to reinforce this notion that saving City of Heroes makes NCsoft the good guy:

• Financial: The most obvious way in which letting City of Heroes go benefits NCsoft is the injection of money it would generate for other NCsoft projects. While City of Heroes is sitting on a shelf collecting dust, it's earning exactly zero dollars for the company. But as a property with monetary value, selling it would generate valuable revenue that could be allocated to other projects that NCsoft is currently pursuing. Furthermore, the longer NCsoft waits to sell the property, the less valuable the game is due to loss of interest and erosion of the community through attrition. If they act now, they can get a premium for the game. If they wait until November when a lot of players have moved on, the game will be worth less than it is today.

• Public Relations: Releasing City of Heroes and allowing the game to continue will be a boost for NCsoft's reputation. It would show players in a very tangible way the company's commitment to its games; that even when a game is not in the long term plans for the company, its communities won't be left out in the cold. Right now, a lot of players are pointing out how NCsoft has a string of games that have been abandoned: Auto Assault, Exteel, and of course Tabula Rasa. This hurts NCsoft's reputation and makes players shy away from other games in NCsoft's portfolio, such as the recently launched Guild Wars 2. They are thinking, "But what happens if NCsoft decides in a few years that Guild Wars 2 [for example] does not fit into NCsoft's long term plan?" Players will be more reluctant to invest as much time and energy into the game.
  
  If NCsoft allows City of Heroes to continue though, it is a very tangible and powerful message to players. Even after NCsoft decides that a game does not fit within their business plan, the company is willing to help the community ensure that the hard work and imagination that a player pours into an NCsoft game lives on. Frankly, I find that an extremely shrewd and compelling marketing point, one that I haven't seen from any other company, one that would clearly set NCsoft apart as a noble leader in the industry and encourage players to embrace their games knowing that they are investing in a company that will not abandon them if at all possible.

Dealing with the press
We already have some coverage in various media outlets. In the next couple of days, we're going to be launching an all-out media fury (please keep an eye out for Calls to Action!). There's a very good chance that you're going to start seeing more articles on gaming sites, comic book culture sites, tech news sites, and even some mainstream news media sites. When you see these articles and write-ups, please make yourself visible! Post comments in the comment section. E-mail the writer and editor and let them know that you appreciate his or her coverage of our efforts. Like on Facebook and link it on Twitter.

Most importantly, spread the word. A lot of people don't read the forums, so me posting links here will only reach a small percentage of the player fan base. Tell your supergroup. Tell your teammates. Tell your coalition. Post it on your fan site. "Hey everyone, did you see that article at [name of publication]? You should check it out, it's at [URL of article]!" (Hint: when you post links in-game, you might want to use a service like http://bit.ly to shorten them so that it's easily copied-and-pasted or typed and doesn't overrun people's chat windows.)

When you post comments, or if someone from the press contacts you, please be a good representative of the community. DO NOT be negative, including saying negative things about NCsoft. You know how sometimes things get twisted in the media, how good people sometimes come off sounding like nuts or nuts come off sounding like reputable professors conducting academic research? Try to preclude this happening by staying positive and on focus, no matter how much you want to complain. I don't want to see any article headlines reading something asinine like, "Gaming Community Unites to Threaten International Corporation" because you just couldn't suppress the petty urge to say that you wish that someone would show NCsoft what it's like to have everything they hold valuable taken away from them.

If you want, you can direct anyone who wants more information to me, Tony Vazquez. I'm at tonyv@cohtitan.com, on Skype at tonyv.paragonwiki, and depending on exactly who it is who is asking, I'd be willing to give out my phone number as well.

Thank you all again, and I cannot express the gratitude for your continued support. I really think we can pull this off, and when we do, it will be epic.

Added the Examiner.com article, thanks for the heads-up!

Please edit your OP at the top with the new link. I don't want anyone to miss this. Every player should be required to watch this before logging in again. If you do and you are still ready to give up on saving Paragon City, then I just don't know what to say.

Edit: Shared on my Facebook page. I hope others share it as well.

Cross-posted on the Titan Network forums

Hey all, our efforts are really becoming visible. That's great news, and I really hope that it's the shot in the arm of morale that you all need to continue on!

Our next Call to Action is something fun that will be a display of unity, an opportunity for photo ops for press releases and communications to NCsoft, and that best of all will simultaneously give a shot in the arm of morale to people who probably need it badly and deserve our unwavering support: the programmers, designers, managers, marketers, artists, testers, accountants, community relaters, moderators, administrative assistants, and everyone else with a job title that doesn't fit neatly in the above whose incredible talents and awesome work ethic have built the world in which our imaginations live.

Unity Rally
Saturday, September 8, 5:00pm Eastern (2:00pm Pacific) : Atlas Park, Virtue

Please note, this is not a "Virtue" event. It's just a server I picked pseudo-randomly because it was most populated when I just popped in and looked, and I had to pick somewhere. We need all players from all servers to show up! I want ten instances of Atlas Park going with so many people camping City Hall that you can't even see the stairs. Don't have a character on Virtue? No problem, you'll probably need a new one anyway for the contest below! I'm going to take a bunch of pictures for our press releases and communications, so for Pete's sake, wear something nice.

Paragon Appreciation Costume Contest
Saturday, September 8, 6:00pm Eastern (3:00pm Pacific) : Atlas Park, Virtue

After the photo/video ops, the singalong, and the complimentary snacks and fruit punch, stick around because I want to have the biggest costume contest Paragon City has ever seen! Forget nines, you'd better dress to the ELEVENS for this one. Ah, but you can't just throw on any ol' neutrino powered tuxedo 9000 armor and expect to win this one, because there's a theme.

I want you all dressed... (drumroll please)... as your favorite Paragon Studios employee! That's right, I want ten Atlas Parks filled to Zwillinger's brims with Matt "Positron" Millers, Melissa "War Witch" Biancos, Andy "Zwillinger" Belfords, Hosun "Black Pebble" Lees, Keetsie "Tunnel Rat" Braz da Cunhnas, Arbiter Hawks, TheNets,... whoever strikes your fancy! In fact, what they heck, let's recognize some of the old-timers who got us to where we are today. Let's get some April "CuppaJo" Burbas! Some Avateas! Some Zeb "Lord Recluse" Cooks! Some Jack "Statesman" Emmerts! Some Jill "Ex Libris" Hendersons! Some Christopher "Back Alley Brawler" Bruces!

Remember, I'm not talking about the characters, I'm talking about the people themselves. I don't want this:



I want THIS!



"So how do I know what my favorite Paragon Studios staffer looks like?" Good question! There are a few resources. If you attended any of the Hero-Cons, Player Summits, conventions or Meet-and-Greets, just dig out those old pictures from when you excitedly squeaked like a schoolboy, "Oh!!! C'mere, c'mere, c'mere, c'mere!!! I want my picture with you!!!" (What? Was I really the only one?) Otherwise, you can look them up on the Paragon Wiki, a lot of them have pictures posted there. You can also check out some of the Coffee Talk videos on YouTube, Ustream, and Twitch.tv. After that, I guess you're kind of stuck, unless there were some massive searchable index of pictures that one could try... If you actually have pictures of Paragon staffers from events, post them below and identify who they are so we'll know!

The one thing I ask is please don't be mean, don't use this as an opportunity to grind an ax you have. Let's keep it fun and lighthearted. Endearing caricatures of your favorite Paragonster though? Oh yeah. Posi in a red jacket? Matt Thriller. Zwillinger with a bats aura? Andy Belfry. Be imaginative!

So what are the prizes for the contest? Shoot fire, I don't know. (Put down the Incinitron ZX Glove, it was only a figure of speech.) Fortune and glory, kid, fortune and glory. I'll walk around and give out stuff to people who I think are creative, funny, scarily accurate, or whose jib I find cut particularly well. In fact, It's a BYOP costume contest. Bring a bunch of stuff collecting dust in your base bins and be your own judge. I'll be snapping pictures like mad and taking some videos, though, so your "characters" will probably make their way back to the models they're based on, maybe even seen by the original him- or herself.

So come on out this Saturday and let's party like it's 2009!

Please don't drink and fly. Call a Taxibot.