War Witch

I was undercover! I was trying to thwart badness with my "poor" fighting skills and then we all fell down. Bad skillz? Or MAD skillz?

You be the judge.

WW

Hey everyone,

Now that I have got some more “official” information from our publishing/marketing teams in Europe, I figured I’d give you a quick update. I'll paraphrase as best I can.

This isn’t just from me (because you guys already know that I love you), but the EU community is very important to both Paragon Studios and NCsoft as a whole, and have always been passionate about making sure you have a great time in the game. Everyone involved is committed to making sure that you feel loved and appreciated, and I hope that starts to come across, especially as we ramp up marketing and PR for Going Rogue. In fact, I’ve been told that NCsoft is about to announce a number of distribution partners that will sell and promote Going Rogue in Europe, including offering the prepurchase program that kicked off earlier this month. You’re also about to start seeing a lot more coverage of Going Rogue on your favourite gaming websites, blogs, press outlets, and advertising as the expansion nears its launch date. (Ok, that sounded kind of marketing-ish, but it's pretty much verbatim what they said.)

Next up: the box. This is a big issue and I know some of you are pretty cheesed about it. So here is the information I got (which shouldn’t come as a surprise, really): because the game is online, and our consumers are predominantly online, it makes business sense to distribute online. Most MMO gamers in the EU are very net savvy and comfortable purchasing/downloading online. So NCsoft sells online because that is how more and more people are buying games, and we do get most of our new players from online distribution. There are boxes on the shelves in the U.S. because, from a distribution perspective, there is more demand here—a much lower percentage of people in the US have broadband compared to the EU. (I didn't know that part.) Plus online distribution and production is much less complicated in the US, with only a single language version and a handful of major retailers and distributors, versus three languages and dozens of distributors in Europe. So there are no plans for a box on shelves in EU, but you will see Going Rogue available soon in a variety of digital stores across Europe.

Before you scream at me, remember, this isn’t something I have any say in. I’m just the messenger, so don’t shoot me! (If it were up to me, however, I’d have a box. That’s just me. No I don’t have the pull to get one. No, I don’t understand all the financial/technical issues behind it. Yes I’m shooting my mouth off. But I did ask, and point out - several times - that it sure would be nice.) As someone who prefers a box, I get your frustration; although now that I think of it, I did just buy software digital-only, so I’m kind of a hypocrite.

Last topic: servers. Yes, the EU servers feel underpopulated at times, and that makes it harder to group. Last year we merged the forums to bring the EU and US communities together. There are, however, no plans to merge the servers, but we are looking at designing an in-game system that will help solve the problem. One of my big personal goals is bringing people together, and this will help with that agenda. (How's that for vague? What can I tell you, it's "in development.")

Anyway, I'm sure they're not all the answers you wanted to hear, but at least you have "an official word" now, which was the goal of the exercise. So that is progress.

War Witch

I'm going to need to warm up my fingers a bit because this girl has lots to say! (And my fingers are cold; it's early.) I'll give you the play-by-play of my trip to Boston.

So I actually took an extra day and flew out to Boston (my first time ever, by the way) on the Thursday. I lost most of the day due to the long flight and the time difference, but when I arrived at Logan and stepped outside I had to give my head a shake. It was warm! I was all ready to throw on my parka (because I'm wimpy now that I've gotten acclimated to California weather) and I had no need for it. It was positively balmy at 65ish degrees! I'm thinking to myself, "I totally wasted luggage space on those two sweaters and that parka!"

So I had a very vocal horn-honking ride in rush hour to the hotel, which I ignored because I was busy reading, and checked in. It was already getting a bit late, so I wandered around my local area, took some pictures before the sun went down, and then wandered a few blocks over to the Capital Grille for some a-maaaaazing food. I came back, unpacked, and then read my book, until I was ready to sleep. Which, never really came because I was exhausted/wired from the flight and thrilled/terrified/excited about the rest of the weekend. So not much sleep Night 1.

The next day, I woke up and got ready for my all-day Old Town Trolley Tour of Boston! I opened the curtains and it was gloomy and lightly snowing. Sad face for about five seconds, then I grabbed that snow jacket (which my cat secretly started eating the faux fur on, the little punk), some gloves, my knapsack, and went downstairs to eat the most expensive and least appetizing waffle of my life. Oh well. The strawberries were good!

After that, I wandered around aimlessly looking for the OTTT trolley car and didn't realize that one of the stops was right in front of my hotel. I ended up wandering to another hotel a few blocks away. No matter. Exercise is good for me. I had a few issues with the pre-purchasing of my ticket on iPhone (something about a parsing error), but they hooked me up anyway and off I went.

I did the full circuit and got to see the Monoument at Bunker Hill (I even went up those 295 steps - in record time - no less), wandered the Freedom Trail, saw Cheers, had Boston Cream Pie at its originating location, went past MIT, Boston Commons, and got the condensed experience. It made me wish, of course, that I'd had about 2 more weeks of vacation time to truly check it out.

I have a National Park Passport (now that I like to hike a lot) and I got to have it stamped at four different locations because I also visited the Navy Shipyards and the Bunker Hill Monument which are national parks. (If you don't know what the National Park Passport is, you should check it out, not only do you get to see some amazing vistas in your own backyard, (or far away), but every time you visit one, you get a cancellation stamp, and those are like COLLECTING BADGES!)

Anyway, that took pretty much my entire day. By the time evening arrived, the rest of the devs were arriving and we all met up for some great food at Legal Seafood. I had some pretty spectacular scallops, if I do say so myself. By the time we were done eating it was well past 10 or 11 (I can't remember - time difference!) and we had to be at Hynes at 8 a.m. for rehearsal.

So I scrambled off to bed, didn't sleep, tossed and turned, wondered and worried, and finally fell into something resembling sleep. I may have dreamed that I couldn't sleep, too. Up early, went through rehearsal, and then went to the food court for some breakfast. After that, I defeated a bit of time, and then our panel came up in Naga Theatre. I wasn't sure what kind of crowd we were going to get, but I was pleasantly surprised to see every seat filled with some standees at the back!

Everything went great, people seemed to enjoy it, and we had a fun time. After that, I had back-to-back interviews with Massively, TenTonHammer, and MMORPG.com. Really top notch guys, by the way, every one of them. A pleasure talking to them all.

Now I had a bit of down time before the Meet 'n Greet so I went to get some food (which was a good thing, because I had no time or inclination to eat at the Meet 'n Greet later on - too busy chatting!), change my clothes, and slap on some make-up before David Nakayama and I walked over to the Jillian's.

I got a teensy bit lost, but it was half a block. Barely worth mentioning.

We arrived at Jillian's very early and so I went in, dropped off my jacket, and came back out to say hi to some players who were already lined up. I spent the next half hour or so yapping my head off, and handing out necklaces (may as well make myself useful, right?) to the people in line. Once they let us in, I spent the rest of the night chatting with some amazing people, calling a few cell phones of people who didn't show, and taking pictures with the players.

This was, by far, my favourite part of the entire weekend. I had so much fun talking that when the lights came up and they started to wind down I was, like, "Whaaat?" What time is it?" You guys were so kind and respectful and passionate about the game, it just gave me goosebumps. I wish these things lasted longer because they are so much fun!

Once things did wind down and we packed up, then exhaustion hit, and we were all scheduled for an early flight, so I was ready to sleep by the time we got to the hotel. I close my eyes, open them and next thing I know I'm back on a plane to SFO.

Crazy wonderful weekend and I would do it again in a heartbeat. So I wanted to say hello again to all the wonderful people I met and spoke to this weekend and I hope we can do this again!

(Yes, I talk entirely too much, even in text, but if you spoke to me in person this weekend, this is probably not much of a stretch of logic.)

Thank you, every single one of you, for being loyal, passionate, opinionated, and dedicated. You guys are the reason I do what I do and why I love this game so much. It was truly an honour meeting all of you.

War Witch

Hey, everyone

I've been getting some PMs lately from some of you wondering what's going on with City of Heroes and the European community and asking me to post on here to clear things up. After reading the forums, I definitely get the sense that you're feeling neglected. I also understand that some of you have very specific issues and questions about the expansion box, servers, and the general "forgottenness" and that you want answers. So, that's why I'm here.

Since I'm not part of the publishing or marketing aspect of the game, I don't have the insight or knowledge required to answer your questions directly, but I've been bugging people about this (especially lately) because I don't want you to think that your voices aren't being heard. I did want to make sure that I had a direction before posting, even if it was to say, "not yet." So, ehm, not yet. <g> I don't have any answers for you right now, but - like I said - I'm working on tracking some down for you.

However, while I'm playing the role of pitbull and poking my nose where it doesn't belong, if you have any questions about why I love Europe so much, what my favourite chocolate bar is, or why Canadians are so awesome, ask away. That way, I can keep you periodically entertained while we wait. So give me time to get the "official" answers (this won't happen overnight), but know that as soon as I know something, I will pass it on to you.

Thanks

War Witch

Wow, that's ages old. Yes, that was me. Hehe.

WW

Hey all,

Just to clarify before speculation runs toooooo rampant, we're not doing a Nemesis-type system for Issue 17.

War Witch

Is it bad that I'm really looking forward to this contest?

War Witch

Hey, everyone!

As EMpulse mentioned yesterday in her post outlining some exciting staffing moves here at Paragon Studios, we are aware that you would like more information about Going Rogue. While we have plans to share information in the coming weeks, we wanted to tide you over a bit by giving you a visual taste of what’s to come. Since many of you have been affiliating yourselves on these forums with the factions in Going Rogue, we thought you might like to represent! Here are some icons that you can use for your avatar images or in your sigs.

Hey, everyone!

As EMpulse mentioned yesterday in her post outlining some exciting staffing moves here at Paragon Studios, we are aware that you would like more information about Going Rogue. While we have plans to share information in the coming weeks, we wanted to tide you over a bit by giving you a visual taste of what’s to come. Since many of you have been affiliating yourselves on these forums with the factions in Going Rogue, we thought you might like to represent! Here are some icons that you can use for your avatar images or in your sigs.

Hey everyone

I'm not sure if anyone is interested, but the Deadly Apocalypse was my inspiration (with the help from Art, Code, Audio, and Powers) so kudos/blame falls on my shoulders. So let me tell you what inspired the Deadly Apocalypse:

I wanted to come up with something different. The Haunting Banners were a way to get people to spread out a bit, work together, and go looking for their adventure.

We had a very small time frame in which to borrow the Art team since they're neck deep in Going Rogue so I had to get creative! I think they did a beautiful job on the Banners and FX and I am well pleased.

The UI was put in to help you figure out what to do since this event is different from an invasion. This one involves simultaneous objectives and communication even though people aren't necessarily on the same team.

During testing we had some good feedback, which was essentially one of a few things:

a. Totally figured out what to do and it was awesome!
b. Totally couldn't figure out what to do and it sucked!
c. I really wish I knew the backstory on this.

That, and, "You really need to show me how to find the GM. I can't find him."

So we added information to the UI so that players could read the backstory and/or find out some strategy or how the event works and how to get to the GM at the end. I didn't want to give everything away (because what's the fun in that?), but I didn't want to overly frustrate players either with new sets of rules that no one but myself knows. (What do you mean, you can't read my mind?) and

By the way, the ParagonWiki info is great, even though it says it's a work in progress.

So, in reading the above posts about the event, I'll keep plugging through feedback and see what you liked and what you didn't and file it away for future reference (if they let me do this again). Ooo...Deadly War Witch Apocalypse...nevermind.

And I know that the Code team is scanning the forums for issues about stability and crashes so they're on top of that.

That's it from this end.

Have a fantastic Halloween and for those of you attending HeroCon, I will see you in a few days!

War Witch

Wow!

I think that is the first review I've ever had of my book.

Mostly, I just force it on family and friends and they're sort of obligated to smile and nod and say that they like it. So, I'm not going to lie, with major fear and trepidation, I was directed to your thread by Castle and I dragged my feet all the way to the forums. I was very very relieved (breathe, Melissa!) that you enjoyed it!

For the record, the book is "chick lit", which is more geared as easy-reading for the lady folks and never tries to take itself too seriously. I'm a quippy type girl with plenty of failures, mishaps, embarassing situations, and irritated comebacks to draw upon so this book blended plenty of ME in it along with some research and time spent on the internets.

(And since I'm desperately short, of course, the heroine is - as I like to call it - "maxed out height-wise on the costume creator".)

No, I haven't visited Australia, but it's on my bucket list!

Thanks again for taking the time to read it. I'd hoped I might break 20 readers! I think I did!

WW

Thanks very much, Sapphire! What a wonderful way to make us feel appreciated!

*hugs*

War Witch

WHAT a nailbiter!!! That was awesome!