Treees

Originally Posted by TonyV

This is exactly right, and why I have been very careful to make sure in all of my communications to avoid saying things like NCsoft "made a mistake" or implying by saying they should reverse course.

They made a decision, one that I feel like we're going to have to respect: that City of Heroes is not in their long term goals as a company. As far as I'm concerned, we're not asking them to change their mind about that; if I decide that skydiving isn't in my personal long term goals, I don't want people protesting and trying to make me feel like I've made the wrong decision.

My communications have focused on a way out of this in which we all win, which is NCsoft allowing the game to be sold to another company. That way, we get to celebrate winning the battle to save City of Heroes, and NCsoft gets to tell its customers and investors that even when a game isn't in the long term goals of its company, it still cares so deeply about the community that it is willing to do something that is very rare in the industry: let its property go to someone to whom City of Heroes is in their long term goals; that it works very hard to build incredible communities like ours, and even when it gets to the point where it can no longer support that community, it takes necessary steps to ensure that the community continues. That's a PR and marketing win, and in no way does it reflect badly on their decision to divest City of Heroes from NCsoft's portfolio of games.

Please remember our message, because it is very important: Our goal is not to sink NCsoft. It is to save City of Heroes. I know that some of you disagree with this and I understand completely, but to me personally, if NCsoft works to ensure that City of Heroes continues in the hands of someone who is interested, that really makes them a damn cool company in my eyes. No, I'm not happy about it deciding to shed itself of Paragon Studios and City of Heroes, but at least in the end, they will have done the right thing.

As for Paragon Studios, when you see me referring to the really short time window of opportunity in which we're working on our immediate goals, this is the time window I'm talking about. In my mind, IF Paragon Studios is interested in re-forming under its own banner, that would be the optimal solution. However, I'm keenly aware of three facts killing us on the clock: 1) These people have a proven track record of developing a profitable game, 2) they have a lot of friends and contacts within the industry who can get them in the door, and 3) they need to put food on their table. I am under no illusion whatsoever that 80+ people are pounding the pavement right now looking for jobs. I'm guessing that the total number waiting around to see how this all plays out before looking for other work is exactly zero.

IF Paragon Studios is interested in re-forming under its own banner, time is of the essence. It's only a matter of time before we start losing Matt Millers, Melissa Biancos, or other key members of the team that would be difficult (and frankly, a bit demoralizing to the community) to replace. That's why I've been so insistent on us keeping longer-term goals with larger time windows out beyond our laser-focused efforts so far in communicating with the press and NCsoft what our optimal goal is.

I haven't heard back yet from NCsoft, but I hope to. If not directly, then through the media or even through a third party. And yes, I also subscribe to the notion that at least for now, no news is good news. I'm optimistic that it means that they are putting their heads together within the halls of the company and asking, "How are we going to get out of this?" and that's a good thing. I want them thinking that.

Originally Posted by ChrisMoses

Also... Scott Kurtz didn't actually say anything negative about City of Heroes in that quote... He offers condolences and says it's time to move on. He doesn't support "the fight," or whatever, but he did support the game at one time (I believe he did some comic strips about it, right?). So I don't think he's deserving of the bit of venom in this thread.

Originally Posted by Starsman

Hate-reads and how for-profit sites work

Read this link. Once you do you will see why you shoudl not visit that site ever again.

Originally Posted by Llydia

Leandro has a calendar of events related to #SaveCOH. He asks that everyone PM him for any events that need to be added.

Originally Posted by Obsidius

One thing I forgot to list is that Zwill mentioned that NCSoft is actively helping the staff look for new employment. Just FYI.

Originally Posted by Necrotech_Master

Tonight after watching some TV i realized that there was an excellent opportunity for some possible TV coverage

this sunday august 9th adult swim is airing the Robot Chicken DC comics special

i figured whats the best way to get noticed than promote the save coh campaign (video game about comics) in some of their [bumps] while they are airing a comic book special

so i have submitted an email response and i have some other listed links in my post on the titan forums

Originally Posted by Arcanaville

Yep. Also, some inventions still have %s8347593747459 gibberish that is due to broken format strings (i.e.: %s).

Originally Posted by NukeTheLag

I do find it kind of amusing that the CEO of a company that has nothing to do with CoX is capable of giving an upfront and honest answer, unlike anyone at NCSoft.

Originally Posted by Adelie

Switching to the confusing "free to play" model is what killed the game. That and taking focus off of what initially made the game great, encouraging lower level team play. They turned everybody into tankmages and put way too much emphasis on the incarnate stuff. My interest waned more than once due to this. Now the game is going down and I am partly to blame, as I let my subscription lapse, which was easy to do with the "free to play" system.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

I don't think that's a good position to take. I've already been vocal about dismissing the militant "Boycott NCsoft! Tank ArenaNet for their affiliation!" positions, but that doesn't mean I support sucking up to NCsoft. Yes, we need them, but we need to appeal to their sense of good business and love of money. I'm more than convinced there's nothing we can do to appeal to their kindness and generosity. Even if I believed corporations were capable of that, that kind of went out the window with the foreclosure.

I don't support trying to ruin NCsoft as a business because all attacking a publisher financially does is hurt the legitimate developers that rely on that publisher. But if said publisher treats employees badly, then I'm not going to look the other way and try to be nice. NCsoft pull the strings, and so we need to be diplomatic if we want anything to come out of this. But "diplomatic" is not the same as "timid."

Originally Posted by Lost Ninja

On a different note I think more should be said about the speed in which everything happened. That - admittedly as a non-exec type - strikes me as portentous. Whether or not that has anything to do with licensing of the engine or IP or is more about preventing people from making a fuss (as I have seen suggested elsewhere) it strikes me as a very fast shut down.

I haven't looked at the actual time-line, but 3 months is what 12 weeks(?) but as the announcement was on a US holiday w/e, which would hinder the press getting hold of the story and realistically probably kills the first week, making it 11 weeks.

Assuming any meetings can be arranged between people wanting to take over IP (should they exist (Hypothetically. I know about Titan Network's work.)) and NCSoft or a potential (hypothetical) management buyout of PS. That would kill at least another two weeks.

Then even if NCSoft say yeah here you go IP and code base for CoH 1 billion KW (or whatever), that leaves very little time for anyone to get any resources together to achieve any sort of cash. Crowd Sourcing may well work but it's not at all realistic to expect the sort of cash needed to be found in what 9 weeks?

And lets be honest here even if TN get the cash and restart the servers they're going to lose a large number of players who don't know any of this and just want a game to play. (Because I bet there are people still playing who have no clue as to what is going on.) They'll also lose people who think that as an unproven games producer they aren't trust worthy.

So even if the players do pull a rabbit from their metaphorical hat the game is pretty much doomed.

At least in such a short space of time.

Now if NCSoft had announced that they were looking for a buyer a year ago, and that failure to find one would lead to the game shutting down...

So I think the speed is also a significant point to note, especially if you discount sudden changes in licensing.

Originally Posted by Thirty-Seven

Let's assume for a moment that through one event or another, CoH is snatched from the abyss at the last moment AND development on the game is able to continue.

Issue 24's title is/was Resurgence!


Let that sink in a bit. The title would galvanize our efforts, and be perhaps the biggest resurgence possible for an MMO. Now with that in mind, wouldn't you want to tell your friends about it? Wouldn't that be an excellent selling point? Ripples. Lots of them.

A success here would speak volumes about our community. And it would all be true, we are that awesome.

Don't give up quite yet.