TonyV

The only two people I know other than those mentioned so far are Muad_Dib and Blue Sigma (not sure of that was Blue Sigma's literal forum name, or if it had underscores or whatever). I didn't know Muad_Dib, but he used to haunt the forums pretty regularly. I actually met Blue Sigma in person one time a loooong time ago; he coordinated a meet-and-greet north of Atlanta that I went to. Super nice guy. When I heard he had passed away, it really shocked me. I don't think I have any pictures of him, but I'll dig around and see if I can find any.

Edit: Here we go, this is Blue Sigma. It's a tiny picture, but it's all we have.

This is the one on my mind right now I'm hoping that I can get into contact with someone at NCsoft and we can work it out.

I aim to find out.

A few quick updates:

I've edited the OP with a link at the top to a cross-post to the Titan Network forums.

I'm looking at the Kickstarter web site. It's really important to me to have some kind of plan before jumping in. I absolutely, positively do not want to start taking donations until I can honestly look you in the eye and say, "This is what the money will be used for." In short, I need something more solid than, "It will have something to do with City of Heroes." It's really important to me to have a working plan.

Over this weekend, I'm going to talk to the Titan Network crew and discuss our options. Buy the IP and code outright? License it to run on our own server and obtain the rights to distribute the client? Maybe look into some options around releasing source code, if possible? What to offer people as rewards and incentives to invest in the crowd fund? If we're successful, do we want to carry the game forward as free-to-play, use a similar hybrid model that Paragon Studios has set up now, or charge some nominal subscription fee to cover hosting costs?

Next week, I'm going to start rattling cages at Paragon Studios. I have exactly zero contacts with NCsoft (unless you count Katie, the PR person we met at the Player Summits). I plan on contacting the folks I know and trying to get some kind of meeting set up where I can talk to the powers-that-be who can actually make a deal with us to run the game. I'd also like to start putting feelers out to the devs to gauge interest in continuing to work on the game in some capacity, either on a contract or volunteer basis, whatever we can afford and they're willing to contribute.

Anyway, my head is still swirling, and now I'm going to be up all night. I really appreciate all of your support in this, and I will do my damnedest to make sure I don't let you down.

As I told someone earlier, we've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time. (In fact, I'm thinking that might be our catch phrase.)

Bookmark this. It's a cross-post on the Titan Network forums in case these forums are shut down. I'll post any news and information there in addition to here.

Hey all,

So I'm still in the initial stages of trying to process all of this. Obviously, this comes as a tremendous personal blow considering all of the time, effort, money, and energy we at the Titan Network have poured into making the best fan sites as we can, not just for City of Heroes, but for any gaming community.

And then I can't help but feel selfish about indulging in a little bit of wallowing, because while I feel like a hobby is being yanked away from me, I also feel incredibly sympathetic for the people at Paragon Studios who are being laid off, the people who are going to be out of work and seeking jobs in a tough economy. If City of Heroes dies, I save a bunch of money on hosting costs and get bored at night instead of saving the virtual world. But if you're an employee at Paragon Studios, you now have to worry about making sure your spouse and kid have food on their table in the coming months and years. And while I'm not under any pretense that the folks at Paragon Studios and I are BFFs, I really do respect and admire the crazy sick skills they have, and every time I've interacted with them, they have been mind-blowingly kind and supportive. To all of you at Paragon Studios, past and present, from the uncredited paeans to the senior designers and developers, please know that I'm not just a fan of the game, but a fan of you professionally and yes, even a fan of you personally.

Now, all of that having been said, here's what I'm going to do.

First thing, I'm going to convene with the crew at the Titan Network. We still have a lot of projects in the works, and it's kind of funny, but only for a few minutes did we ponder, "Well, I guess we won't need to finish that..." I haven't talked to all of them, and some of them may actually be reading what I'm about to say for the first time. If so, then please hit me up on Skype (tonyv.paragonwiki) or log into our Big Shindig development channel, 'cause I want to talk to you!

Anyway, what I'm pondering is contacting the powers-that-be at Paragon Studios and NCsoft and find out if there's any way possible that something can be worked out for us to keep the servers on. Whether that be through acquiring the IP and codebase, licensing technologies, releasing their tech specs to us so that we can reverse engineer the server and client, whatever. I just find it really hard to think that NCsoft is going to sit on IP and code and completely shutter a project if there are people willing to pony up cash for it.

Unfortunately, I'm not made of money. I wish I had enough to just buy everything outright, move to Mountain View, hire the entire development and community team, and keep things running just as they are now. I don't, not even close. So what I'm considering is that if I can get a dollar figure from NCsoft for whatever option they're willing to go with, to set up a crowd funding effort to raise the cash. Obviously I'd be willing to throw in whatever I can. If both of those things come through--NCsoft willing to work with us on keeping the game going in some form and funding coming through somehow--I can't promise the kind of breakneck development that the current devs engage in, but I'm hoping that this doesn't have to be The End™.

My goals would start simple, with task #1 being to keep a game server running and having the rights to distribute the client. After that, depending on how things work out, maybe keeping the existing servers intact. Maybe seeing if some of the existing developers want to continue working on the game in some capacity either as a volunteer while they look for another job or, if the funding comes through, even on a contract basis. Perhaps even trying to continue the game on a commercial basis if enough people are interested.

I don't want to get hopes up. Like I said, I'm still processing this, I still have to talk to our crew at the Titan Network, and there are a lot of ifs involved in keeping the game going. Four months from now I might be looking back on this and thinking, "Well, it was a nice try and we made a good run of it." But I just want everyone to know that I for one don't intend to just mope around and let the game die. Although we take donations, I've never begged for money to run the Titan Network. If a deal can be worked out with NCsoft, that might change and I might start actively soliciting pledges for enough money to acquire any purchases and/or licenses required to keep the servers on. (And, oh yeah, some servers to keep on...) If that time comes, I hope that today doesn't mark the end of City of Heroes, but the beginning of a new era of the game we all know and love.

No matter what happens, though, I want you all to know that this game has been the most incredibly fun experience I've had, and this community always has, and always will, rock. Running the Paragon Wiki and then the Titan Network, I have learned so much about web hosting, development, database administration, server administration, and other such skills, it boggles my mind that I knew anything before 2004. And I refuse to say good-bye. No matter what happens, I will figure out some way to stay in touch with the City of Heroes community and the numerous friends, allies, and colleagues I've made over the years.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get to work, talk to some people, and start some planning...

I had a weird real-life CoH experience that was, a bit coincidentally, when I went to the Player Summit back in April. The week before the Summit, I decided to take some vacation and stay in San Francisco to do a bunch of touristy stuff. I kept finding these badge markers...



Presidio, Coit Tower, Angel Island, Fort Point, Bay Bridge, Nob Hill, Berkeley, Alcatraz, a lot of the famous landmarks were accounted for, eight of them in all...



Of course, I had to touch each and every single one of them...



When all was said and done, I managed to get an exploration accolade...



I even managed to pick up a couple of history plaques. Who knows? If I visit a bunch more cities, maybe I'll manage to snag a history badge!

Honestly, the main reason is because a lot of those accounts are years old and owned by folks who are never coming back. There are probably some other settings that we're going to need to collect as well under the new system (not personal information, just stuff like your timezone, possibly a language option, that kind of thing), so I'd like to take the opportunity to clean things up.

Yeah, that's what I meant. Thinking out loud*, for the first month, it would do something like let you import your existing Titan username as your display name when you register. After that, it would still let you use that username if it's available, but it wouldn't stop someone else from using it, which means that you'd have to pick a new one. In any event, we would try to yell from the mountaintops what's going on so that people wouldn't miss out on getting their preferred usernames.

*Metaphorically. I'm not literally saying this as I type.

Hey all, just a quick informal poll to help us with some stuff we're working on at the Titan Network. As some of you know, we're working on revamping a lot of stuff over there, and we're thinking of changing the login mechanism to use your e-mail address instead of a user name, kind of like how sites like Facebook, Hulu, Safari Books Online, and other sites are using these days. The rationale is so that users don't have to remember yet another username for yet another site, as remembering the e-mail address is generally a lot easier.

If we do it, the e-mail address would not be displayed publicly--every user would also pick a unique display name that identifies you to other players, but the display name wouldn't be your login name. The motivation here isn't to spam you (which we won't) or harvest e-mail addresses (which we really won't); we'll still have your e-mail address on file either way from when you register*, and I really don't care if you use a fake address for privacy reasons, unless you're doing it for some malevolent purpose.

So what do you think? Would it be easier and more convenient for you to use your e-mail address to log in? Would it be harder? Do you object to it, and if so, why?

*We have two primary reasons for this. First, to keep people from casually spamming creating accounts for no good reason. Second, we plan on implementing more opt-in social-networky features to the sites. We've also used it on occasions to help validate user's identity when they request something like an account deletion. The point, though, is that having you log in by e-mail address is not some sneaky back-door way to try to get your e-mail address, it's not like we're going to make you validate the address every time you log in. It's purely a convenience feature we're considering.