shadow35

This.

And Rodion,

That sounds about as plausible as anything, or at least it sounds like something that could have easily factored into their decision. And if Glassdoor.com is to be believed, NCSoft's usual reaction to any situation is a knee-jerk "Kill you NOW!"

Yeah, but how many people even KNOW about that petition? Kickstarter gets millions of hits from everywhere; everyone interested in funding indie games all convenes on that one place. Change.org is hardly somewhere that gamers go en masse every day just for the sake of it, lol.

And even if PS did manage to pull in a couple million in Kickstarter funding, the very nature of that funding, *coming completely from their fan base and not pro publishers,* might turn the heads of potential publishers enough for them to want to be involved. After all, Kickstarter really isn't profitable for those donating; they just really believe in the particular "cause" they're giving to enough to want to help it get off the ground. Publishers and private investment firms *would* actually see profit from the player base, once the game is released.

Haha! +1!

Great reminder-- and yes, this announcement from NC is just a gag order in disguise (and a very thin, pathetic disguise at that). But they can't control us, nor what we say to other gamers, and I feel certain that no matter what happens with CoH/EMUs, or a "spiritual successor" or what-have-you, at this point NCSoft's reputation is totally trashed. And Blade & Soul and Wildstar are going to take the hits for it, not to mention GW2 expansions.

I forsee a day in the not-so-distant future where NCSoft pulls out of the west altogether, because they just can't do business properly here.

I agree on both counts-- I'm not giving up either, and heck, most downed online games only were bought out and came back months or even a couple/few years later. A.P.B., Gods & Heroes, Hellgate: London, Mythos, Saga of Ryzom and Fallout were all rezzed, and many of those took a couple years or more to happen.

This isn't the end of CoH.

And yeah, I didn't see that one til right now, so a thumbs-up from me as well. Hehe!

Bahahaha! Thanks, GG, you just made my day with that one.

And I don't think for a minute that Titan Networks is going to slow its projects down for one minute, I too am still hoping for an eleventh-hour save from Brian, Melissa and Matt and the crew at Paragon Studios, and even if it doesn't come, I doubt anyone has seen the last of City of Heroes.

Alternate worlds and other projects aside, what is NCSoft going to do-- patrol the entire internet from Korea, looking desperately for signs of EMUs? LOL.

Haha, you read my mind, and I actually haven't heard Alanis in years. But I knew right away what you were posting about, lol....

Exactly. What a joke. They made it twice as long to level from 50-60 (as you have to leave fast-track at 50) AND they made it twice as long (and subsequently, twice as expensive) to craft, as you can't craft on the fast-track server either. And how nice of NCSoft to then jack up the prices of XP pots in the shop simultaneously with that update as well.

And now let's talk about the chat being completely overrun with gold farmers non-stop, just like their other NA Truly F2P title, Lineage 2. Both games' servers are also overcrowded to the point that fast melee classes like Assassin-types are virtually unplayable due to lag. (If they actually did something about banning gold farmers, the lag would probably improve some too, but I digress.)

But Lineage 2, even when it was P2P, was exactly like that too to be honest; overrun with gold farmers and the worst lag possible.

NCSoft sold off Aion to GameForge in Europe when Aion went F2P this past April. GameForge's version of Aion is not only way behind everyone else in updates, but their "F2P" version different than NA's Truly F2P and is comically bad. You can't even use the auction house or the mail without paying. Their support is terribad, too.

Hence why Aion NA is so overcrowded (actually NC sold off Lineage 2 EU as well, to a different company, but with similar results). Aion NA only has 4 servers but they're hosting the entire world outside Asia because EU Aion is so bad (and South America doesn't even have Aion servers, perhaps because most of those players admit to hailing from illegal private servers anyway from before Aion NA went F2P).

So with NA Aion being mega laggy I can't really recommend anyone play it (everyone who plays basically pays Leatrix or other lag-lessening services to even get "down" to the 200s for ping, and personally I have 75 megabit FIOS, a 3.6 Gig sandybridge-e with 16GB DDR3 and a Radeon 7970 and I always have lag in Aion, even though I ping 18-21 to speedtest sites outside the game).

Oh, and if you're going to play Aion NA, I sure hope you can speak Brazilian Portuguese. There are a lot of languages flying by on the chat (which makes it near-impossible to take PvP forts in the Abyss), but by far the most non-stop of them all is Portuguese. And they don't speak English, either, unfortunately, so you can't even explain to them when they're doing something horribly wrong, like breaking down the door to let IN the enemy faction instead of keeping them out, lol.

I SO wish I was not kidding.

GG, we are on the same wavelength.

Dear 2Short,

I will repeat for you what my 8-year-old son said to me the other day:

"Mom, why are you upset about CoH closing? It isn't November 30th yet! Keep fighting for it instead!" And I only told him about it once right on August 31st when the announcement was made. It was amazing to me that he remembered the closing date, never mind that he had great advice about the situation.

Ah, but from the mouths of babes!

Every time you think about Christmas, send the petition link to someone you know who games. Or blog about NCSoft and CoH. If you don't blog, start a gaming blog. 1up and other free blogging sites actually house large networks of gamers and many of them really do care about the industry.

Or next time you're stopping by your local gaming store, mention CoH's closure and ask them if they know about it and are already spreading the word. If not, educate them, and ask if they will help you spread it.

Silence and apathy are the only real enemies here. NCSoft is "in talks" with Paragon Studios. Talks wouldn't have been going on for four weeks straight if something realistic and tangible wasn't at least partway in the works.

Well, when CoH is saved, besides keeping AP33, and putting in character monuments to Titan Network and Massively, they can make a PA badge. You can get it for mouthing off or showing apathy toward a mission NPC instead of doing their mission...but then doing their mission anyway. :P

My point too. Are we linking this petition every time we find a new CoH article, column or blog somewhere? I too firmly believe there are many more players that haven't even heard of it yet. In general, only a tiny percentage of gamers even visit official forums. We need to reach out to all those that don't.

Lol, but that's the very reason why their reputation stinks here. They invest as little as humanely possible into their titles, then close them down in as little as a year (or in some cases a couple/few) after they launch.

They have made their own bed. And now with the closure of CoH their reputation has hit rock bottom, and their subsequent launches of Blade & Soul and Wildstar are going to be hurt by it. You can see it in repeated comments on forums and even at gaming blogs like Massively's. "Oh, maybe I'll play that-- oh, NCSoft. Never mind."

Your point is valid, but it is just as valid to note that NCSoft's reputation in the west (and EU for that matter) is hitting rock bottom nowadays. I think CoH is the 8th game they have closed down. Plus, their EU version of Aion was sold off to GameForge, who has made a walkin' disaster out of it (read their boards), and Lineage 2 was hawked off to another publisher in EU too. Not to mention that Aion NA is a complete lag pit, and chat is so clogged with unabated gold farmers that you can barely get a team going (both of these facts being largely intertwined I would bet).

And not only that, but NCSoft keeps pushing new launches of cheesy Asian grindfests like Blade & Soul and Wildstar on us regardless.

Now at what point are NA and EU players at large going to view NCSoft as the cold, quick up-front box fee cash grab publisher here who then closes their games down? I think it's already happening, and it will negatively impact western sales of Blade & Soul and Wildstar as well.

And NCSoft cannot get that box fee in Asia because gamers there don't buy games. They just pay pennies per hour to play MMOs from internet cafes, and that game time rolls into the next month if they don't use it besides. This is why NCSoft feels compelled to grind them to death in the first place-- but they don't adapt their games for the western audience (nor support them well, either) so they don't tend to do as well here.

I dunno. You have a point, but NCSoft's reputation has gotten to the "hit rock bottom and commenced digging" level. And CoH negotiations have been going on for a solid month now. If they were that dead-set on killing the IP off, there would have been no negotiations at all, never mind a solid four weeks straight of them, with our Paragon team in fine spirits at the dinner on 9/26 besides.

Haha, took me a minute to get that, but it's cute.

ZOMG you are awesome! My teenaged daughter fiddles in Blender, but nothing on your scale.

That video is extremely clean, distinctive in art style, and gut-wrenching all at once. It took my breath away. It really, really captures the empty feeling of the shutdown.

And just think, when CoH is saved due to all the hard work of people like you, Tim The Enchanter, TonyV, Mercedes Lackey, and everyone who ever signed a petition or posted a link or blogged about their love of CoH...well, then you can use your amazing video in your online portfolio. :P Go go go!