detroitfrost

Originally Posted by APhantasm

The question is not whether or not Cryptic has the option to take it back.

Let's assume they do for a second. The question is would Perfect World let them. Its entirely possible Perfect World may not want competition for Champions Online, so they may not let Cryptic take it back even if they can.

Originally Posted by gec72

I'd be worried that we'd be easily mocked by Colbert/TDS as anything.

Originally Posted by seebs

I mentioned this to a friend and he pointed out that there's a pretty reasonable explanation, which is that large companies will sometimes:

1. Borrow a lot of money to buy a smaller company.
2. Transfer the debt to that smaller company.
3. Pay themselves large bonuses.
4. Somehow make it someone else's problem.

I didn't really follow the details. But apparently, one way to handle a thing like this would be to shuffle some logical paperwork debts to a subsidiary, then fold it because it's obviously not viable with all that debt.

Originally Posted by knight_of_armor

this is the whole part of this i can't quite wrap my brain around. This game didn't become a desolate town with tumbleweed rolling thru it, which makes the decision to end the game quite easy. This game still has quite an active customer base, still actively playing this game. It was a game still in the black (perhaps i should say blue), and not in the red, therefore still on the side of profit, be it whatever that amount truly was. How do you just axe that scenario? It makes no sense.

And the game holds characters and work created by its customer base, many like me who started playing this since back in 2004, who want to keep it running for just those reasons. All of their works, their lives, the lives of their superhero characters, who become in ways part of their lives.....like pets. I don't know about other people, but to us these characters we put so many hours of our lives into and watched them grow are almost like living beings, and now they'll "die".

The problem is, if you can't find a gaming company to support this game who does understand how mmorpgs work....trying to explain it to $ individuals who have no earthly idea of this type of world and the ip it includes, well, it's a whole marketing/educational job in and of itself trying to do that.

Speaking of marketing, just as a side note, i gotta say this game never had any visible, legitimate marketing or advertising campaign or strategy whatsoever (w/exception to being at gaming conventions). And look at the customer base it has, without it. that is a big thanks in part to us, the players, by way of word of mouth. Had ncsoft put any type of marketing budget / advertising behind this game at all, their profit margins would have been much higher. I put that squarely on their heads. I can't tell you how many times i'd tell someone about this game (and some avid-gamers no less) -and they're like, "city of heroes? What is that? I never heard of it." and they'd try it, and get completely addicted! "i love this game!! Why did i never hear of this?" as they fly around paragon city. This just happened recently with a friend of mine (fly at a much earlier level, now, made my sales pitches so much easier, thank you for that developers!).

Countless times this happens. Why have i never heard of this game? I've been playing this game since 2004 for cripes sake, and people still hadn't ever heard of it unless i told them about it.

Alright, now i'm just venting. But i had to get this point across. It's frustrating. And so now if we have to basically take it upon ourselves to market this freakin' world ourselves in a matter of 2-3 months, then so be it. We'll do it ourselves!

I've never been a big forum poster here over the years, tho i'd read it all the time. But admittedly, that felt pretty good.

Thanks.

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 Obsidius

Quick notes (view the recording of today's TwitchTV stream here):

• This may be the last livestream (maybe not, who knows?)
• <Zwill gets a little verklempt on the coffee talk>
• Trying to enable VIP for ALL players & Double XP on ALL servers, as well as "as many holiday events as possible" (probably just one at a time, lamentably)
• Due to possible stability issues, I24 will not be launched to Live, but it is on beta.
• Beta Server is now open to ALL PLAYERS (even non-VIPs)
• I24 is on Beta, and all the Market items are zeroed out (will not do on Live "just in case"; they don't want to possibly ruin the economy (presumably in case the game is saved via deus ex machina))
• Cryptic did NOT kill CoH by witholding an engine license; the license was purchased in perpetuity for CoH and another unreleased project
• SOE is not interested in purchasing CoH
• NCSoft is actively helping the staff look for new employment.
• Paragon Studio employess have to sign NDAs upon their termination which keeps them from discussing the closure of the studio.
• <SkippySidekick shows Zwill how to use the "Magisterium Nuke" power (it's only an effect, but a huge one>; Zwill's favorite power is the "Hamidon Defeated" effect.>
• CoH cannot be Kickstarted because it is not a new project
• Indie studio aspirations are unlikely, but they would love to do it if there was capital, backing, etc.
  
• If fans could raise enough funds, could CoH be saved? Unknown, ask the folks in Korea.
• Ultimately unfeasible MA wish list items (due to dev hours required) - changing the rating system to a "Like" system; branching dialogue trees; UI work; map maker (would require base fix first); hooking up LUA (scripting language) to MA.
• You'll never get to see the moon base (presumable was in development)
• Base redesign - possible monotization options for apartment system, but never got past discussion phase
• Servers run on Linux (of course)
• Server maintenance must be run once a week to keep things running straight
• Game/Engine will Never be released released for free to the public (presumably because the game code is proprietary and the engine is licensed from Cryptic)
• No dev swag giveaways because it requires legal (legal is no longer available, the studio is closing)
• There was a lot of stuff still in development
• Last Friday was a very hard day, but ended up being inspirational, a last party and a sharing of memories, with beers afterwards.
• Is there any hope? There's always hope...
• Probably no I24 trailer
• Unfortunately no word re: refunds, but wait for NCSoft to send more word.
• Zwill and others will stay on as long as possible to turn the lights on/off
• Turn on base raids? No, would require hard code.
• Will VIPs remain so until close? Unknown, will verify to try to ensure that no one drops VIP.
• No schedule of events b/c staff needs to be on moment's notice for job interviews, but will randomly pop in and do stuff
• No ideas re: Omega slots
• No special End of World event due to no devs, maybe spawning a bunch of stuff instead
• Hugs for all!
• Servers still scheduled to go dark Nov. 30th
• Don't know what will happen to server/data assets when game ends
• Devs play different MMOs (part of their job, actually)
• If there is a pending lawsuit (ex: Worlds.com), they wouldn't be able to talk about it
• Best bet to see where people end up? Follow them on social networks (Twitter, etc.). Can't talk about that stuff.
• Zwill & staff appreciate the groundswell of support/ petitions/ etc. from the community!
• Nothing in the works for *huge* PvP changes; Arbiter Hawk proposed a lot of changes, but it would have required a lot of time & resources required for other projects
• Probably could NOT dedicate teams of devs or resources to PvP (PvP would never be the primary focus). Also, with the release of new powersets so frequently, PvP balance would have been "a nightmare".
• Super secret project? Under NDA, and cancelled with the studio closure.
• No new ATs were in the works
• Matt Miller on Twitter: @MMODesigner
• Melissa Bianco on Twitter:@MelissaBianco
• Jesse Lawrence on Twitter: @HitStreak
• Zwill's fondest memories: Player Summits (and player interactions on the forums)
• NCSoft still has the right to use your characters (technically; whether or not they would choose to exercise that right is doubtful ("IANAL"))
• I24 included mouse pointer scaling to change the size of the pointer
• Private server possibility? "IANAL", but probably not legal.
• <Zwill summons Cthuluh (a lot of Lusca tentacles)>
• Discussion of CoH as a dating service due to RL marriages of CoH players
• Half Life 3 is a MYTH!
• Went 1/2 hour over their normal coffee talk duration
• "Thank you to everybody who tuned in today. Hopefully today won't be the last coffee talk, but if it is, it's been an honor and a pleasure. Thank you all."

Originally Posted by Clave_Dark_5

I was just thinking about a server merge to hold down costs last night. It's not an easy thing nor liked by everyone, but if it'd help... I'd happily give up some names just to help out anyone who's name conflicted with mine.

Originally Posted by -Urchin-

New Account Configuration

~ That sounds an alright addition, depending what the extras were.

In Game Ads

~ If they did this I'd drop the game immediately, unless it was limited to f2p players. The whole point of paying subscription fees is to not be exposed to in game annoyances such as advertising.

Reduce the Amount of Servers

~ How are you going to deal with name conflicts?

Pay For Content

~ They already had that. I paid for new content with my subscription fee. I paid for extra things with my monthly stipend of points. Non-subscribed players paid for things with Paragon Points purchased with cash.

DCUO content packs are free to subscribers. DCUO also gives a monthly stipend of points to spend in their market to subscribers, like CoX did. F2P paid for points to exchange for content like they do in CoX. Essentially, the economic models of the two were virtually identical.

Originally Posted by Fido1

Looking over the numbers shed some light into their thinking... if you can call it that. While Aion's sales dropped, it was still making more overall than CoH and with Guildwars 2 coming out to cover Guildwars.. it left CoH in the crosshairs.

I get why now, it was pure business... Do I like it? NO! Will NCSoft ever get any more of my money? OH HELL NO!

Originally Posted by Ozmosis

I know at this point we all feel like NCSoft just shot our dog, heck even I do, but I would like to keep this thread flame free and constructive. The truth is, there were 2 ways this could have gone down: either NCSoft turned off CoH, or NCSoft itself shut down. Either the case we would loose CoH.

With all the information that has been put out there, either on these forums, facebook or other website interviews, it seems the possible reason CoH is getting shut down is because CoH was not as profitable as NCSoft needed it to be. I'm creating this thread as a brainstorming for possible options to increase the profitability of CoH.

I know, you might be thinking what power do we have over that? More than you think actually! You have to realise that WE are the source of their case flow. However, NCSoft might not have been willing to try certain options out of fear of scaring off clients. I'm hoping they will read this thread, and see what we, as their customer, are willing to do.

NEW ACCOUNT CONFIGURATION

Alot of people on Facebook and on these forums are suggesting that they increase the cost of subscriptions. Heck, even I would pay an extra 5-10$ a month if it meant it would save this game!

However, this option could also alienate other players, who can't afford to pay more per month. So by doing this they could end up loosing subs, and scaring off potential new customers.

Here's what I suggest: add a new account type.

Currently we have (to my knowledge, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) Free, Premium and VIP. What I'm suggesting would be something like Free, Premium, VIP and Gold. All current account types would be there, so players would not loose the options they already have. The new account type would cost more to allow NCSoft to charge more money and allow the players who do have the extra cash to choose this option. As for what the different benefits this new gold account would have, I'll leave that up to others to speculate. But the ideas are out there, like maybe a freeform character perserver for that account, Or personal nemesis.

IN GAME ADDS

Adding in game advertisement is something that was mentioned in the past. I don't know why it was not implemented, or if it was and it just flopped, but maybe this needs to be revisited. Maybe reduce the cost for in game adds? a little money is better than no money, right? Or NCSoft can use it for free advertising of their other games.

I remember the community being up in arms and saying it would break game immersion, that they didnt want to pay for this game if reall world advertisements were going to be included, etc,etc,etc. At this point, I'm sure people would rather have in game adds breaking immersion than not having immersion period!

REDUCE THE AMOUNT OF SERVERS

The monetary impact of this would be minimal, but 2 fold.

First, having/maintaining a server costs money. It consumes electricity, it needs hardware, it needs room, etc. Currently we have 16 servers. If we reduce the number of servers to 8, we would ideally be reducing the cost of running these by half.

Second, community would be modified. In the past, merging servers was a great debate; some people wanted it, others didnt. Again, at this point, I believe we would agree to merge servers, over not having servers to log on to, period. Tho an increase in numbers/players on every server would defenetly look more appealing to new players, so this might help attract new customers.

PAY FOR CONTENT

CoH is known for adding new and free content. Over the years they added 23 free issues, which were awesome and we love you guys for doing so. But now I believe that it's time to have us pay for it, because paid for content is better than no content at all.

What I would suggest is a model similar to DCUO, when they have download packs of content, and that must be paid for. This would allow people to keep playing the game, even if they pay for the content or not. It would work like CoV did; you buy it, you have access to it, you don't, you can't acces it but can still play CoH.

This is all that I had off the top of my head. Feel free to add more ideas.

Originally Posted by Scheol

Just got home now. We had a long talk and he said the venture capital market right now has been contracting, but after telling him about the situation with as many details as I have (which isn't a lot), he did say that investors either private or institutional should show signs of interest based on the fact that a lot of the infrastructure could potentially be maintained and a marketable product with a black track record acquired. He's going to try and get me a list of a few people and firms he knows of in the NorCal area but no promises. At the very least, some positive words from a big financial insider is good.

Originally Posted by dougnukem

After seeing the numbers and watching a couple in action, I decided to give the new Beast Mastery set a shot with Sonic. Despite it's shortcomings (which I feel will be looked at), Beast offers some nice synergy, albeit not the *very* best.

Originally Posted by Reppu

Flat and Brutal: Sonic and Force Field are inferior, on Masterminds, to Thermal and Traps for a few specific reasons. Primarily that healing is really good on Masterminds, and Traps debuffs more than outweight the paltry Defense gain from Force Fields

IF you're dead set on these two...

Force Fields: Robotics, IguessBeastMasteryUgh, Ninjas, Thugs, Demons
Sonic Shield: Demons, IguessBeastMasteryUgh.

Synergy up there. As I stressed before, Traps and Thermal do it these jobs FAR better, but yeah.