shadow35
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Posts
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Joined
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Quote:Wow, dang, I'm building a brand-new PC next week. Does the launcher still allow you to download CoH from scratch? If not, it looks like I'll be switching back and forth between computers until the end of November.Originally Posted by Kitsune Knight
The NCSoft Launcher.
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Quote:I agree. We shouldn't be slapping the devs in the face here. If the OP has some fantastic idea for mass publicity, why aren't we doing it NOW to SAVE the game, and get another publisher to pick it and Paragon Studios up?Originally Posted by Atlantea
I'm a little confused, here. I get that we'll need to promote a resurrected City of Heroes like crazy. But as you say - isn't this a little premature?
Or is there something you had in mind for us to do right now? Is there, perhaps, a way for us to promote the game to other publishers?
I'm definitely not ready to pretend CoH and Paragon are long dead and gone. People get these fantasies in their heads about private servers, without having any real idea of the incredible amounts of experience and money it would take to actually do it. Not to mention that, even amongst actual professional programmers and developers, it is mad crazy hard to pick up another team's code let alone add to it. I don't think any of the dreamers really realize how....lowly it all would wind up, if it ever even got off the ground at all. And few are going to want to pay the same money for vastly inferior product, and fewer are going to want to devote the insane man hours to it that it would take for little to no money. And servers definitely don't grow on trees.
Let's keep putting our heads together to find a publisher, if anything, and save Paragon Studios AND Paragon City in one fell swoop. -
Quote:There was never official CoH2 talk though.Originally Posted by Van_Raye
Yes, CatMan, I believe you would have had the capability available.
http://city-of-heroes.livejournal.com/3571564.html -
Quote:Thanks so much for stopping by....and for accidentally mentioning that it is still just a teeny bit possible for CoH to be saved.Originally Posted by Positron
City of Heroes AMA (part 1?)
That's a link to the doc, in case these boards get shut down, and because I don't want to clean it up for our forum posting format (if someone ELSE does, feel free to pad your postcount).
Some answers are not satisfying. Some answers are made up, and that answer only exists in that doc. I tried to get everyone who was involved in the stuff at the end to answer the questions as best they could.
MM: Matt Miller (Positron)
JH: John Hegner (Protean)
JAH: Jeff Hamilton (Arbiter Hawk)
SM: Sean McCann (Dr. Aeon)
RG: Ryan Greene (Viridian)
TS: Tim Sweeney (Black Scorpion)
If there is a miracle and somehow CoH is saved, we reserve the right to change any and all answers given in the doc, to maintain suspense and surprise.
Love ya! -
Haha, you guys are so funny. Thanks.
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Quote:Honestly, I'm thinking that no one of any importance is going to see or care about the emails at this new address, BUT I re-sent my note again anyway, AND I am absolutely gleeful that we seem to have shocked and surprised them so much that they actually broke through their wall of total silence and did something for us, even such a tiny thing as creating some alt email account for five seconds.Originally Posted by Electric-Knight
Huh! That's rather interesting. Indeed, it doesn't tell us much anything, positive or negative, but it is something and something done quickly... and something they didn't need to do, really.
I'm thinking that we might should resend our polite emails to this address?
Give them all that we've said in one place and help to make sure that our solid voices of unity and positive momentum outweighs any late-coming trollish behavior towards this new address.
If nothing else, I think we made them stop and stare, their shocked little mouths hanging open for just the slightest minute over the fact that anyone could even get those email addresses let alone use them. I take it they never expected that to happen, what with their brutish "kill you now, die die Paragon Studios" pink slips and complete lack of communication concerning billing, the cancellation, etc.
Tee hee! Even if nothing else ever comes of it, I'm SO glad we sent out our little emails to the three of them.
Thank you Tony! -
Quote:Tony, how did they find you to tell you to take the email addresses down? How did they know it was you behind it?Originally Posted by TonyV
It was neither. They asked me to remove the e-mail addresses, and I voluntarily complied since I felt that its purpose had been served and leaving them up longer would likely mostly incur more troll e-mails than legitimate communications.
Also, please note that I received another update today, which I've posted in the top post. We now have an e-mail address set up specifically for us to use to communicate without interfering with company operations.
Did NC ask former Paragon workers until they pointed NC to our forums here or Titan's or what? I guess I can't really believe over in Korea they have the slightest clue about all the negative press and forum posts back east here. -
I hope Zwill has more tricks up his sleeves. I'm going to have fun right to the end here, and getting all my favs to 50, even if they're never seen again, just feels like the right thing to do.
Any chance of more double XP, where we probably don't have much time left til the sun sets here? -
Quote:Don't let anyone bully you about the business communications avenues, at least, although I don't think giving out personal cells or personal addresses is right. So personally I don't think you should link or give out those. But if this gag order on business emails is just NCSoft's way of brushing us aside while they've moved on without considering selling the IP for a reasonable amount, then they really can't be upset about player feedback commencing again through their regular company channels like email once CoH's servers go down for good. NCSoft shouldn't be upset about customer feedback, though: They had no problem taking our money at their place of business for over eight years, so they should at least hear our customer feedback at their place of business too, told in a reasonable fashion.Originally Posted by Lulip0p
For anyone who wants the information (E-mails: Personal & Business, Phone + Cell for: Corporate, Personal, Direct Lines & Extensions, Addresses: Business & Personal, including CEO & Executive Staff) I have them on a dox file yet to be released in force but it is publicly available by link. Unlike Tony and others I won't take it down and will freely give out the information upon request, and if the game doesn't have a positive response by November 29th, well, the whole internet will have everything. All nations, all websites (that are the most popular by country) and of course the campaign will really kick off.
Tony's the white knight, but I'm his black hat.
I'll be chillaxin' until then.
Your serve, NCSoft. G/L -
Quote:Okay now, look: We're on the brinks of losing this game altogether, and things aren't looking too hot for ANY sort of CoH to be up and running after November 30th, if we even make it that far. Quit the nitpickin' there, buddy, and just hope we have *something, anything.*Originally Posted by Xzero45
Honestly, if Paragon Studios did reform, I wouldn't mind seeing two or three specific people replaced instead of coming back onto this game. Not gonna name names here but the person who managed our end game and made DA so punishingly grind-tacular can go, and a certain member of the writing team can take a year or two break to practice his skills.
Everyone else, though, particularly folks like Dink and Synapse, are amazing and I'd love to see come back.
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Quote:How nice-- now NCSoft can screw over Mac players again as well as PC players. Well, I guess that's only fair.Originally Posted by darkhawk10
Guild Wars 2 just announced that they have a Mac client beta available now.
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/a...-for-mac-beta/
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Quote:He said on his twitter within the last 24 hours that he's just waiting for a signoff, apparently from NCSoft, to be able to do it. Here, let me find his twitter link:Originally Posted by Knightward
Aren't the marches, rallies, and the Posi runs supposed to be morale boosters? You know, on top of keeping server activity up, which indicates how much the game is still in use despite the looming doom.
For further morale boosting, as was pointed out in another thread, Posi HAS NOT answered the lore questions. It's been about a week since he originally planned to release them. Considering that plot spoilers would only be released for a absolutely doomed game and we're not getting said spoilers.... you get the idea.
https://twitter.com/MMODesigner
Q: Any news on when we might be getting our lore AMA answers, please?
A: Answers are written, waiting for sign off from execs.... -
Quote:Er, not only are there major server consolidations, but TOR is going F2P this November.Originally Posted by SuperOz
It completely tallies up with certain events; the complete closure and minimal support for the European branches and servers particularly.
I was certainly concerned when that happened as I'm in the even more marginal category of the Asia-Pacific region and should've had an inkling then that there were contractions happening in the company.
It's likely given that scenario Guild Wars 2 could be their last big North American game; and it's not alone. The Old Republic announced today server consolidations and that's within a year of release.
S.
Well, that's what you get when you throw an overly linear single player game onto MMO servers and try to charge a monthly fee for it. Bioware should stick to single player games, and I don't think TOR was even a good representation of them at that.
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Quote:Which makes it all the more notable that the "new" NCSoft review from Texas claims all western NCSoft-run NA/EU offices (aka Aion's and Lineage 2's NCWest divisions) will be shut down within two years. Apparently just keeping tiny western translation teams who can't even run basic scripts by themselves is more expensive than you'd think.Originally Posted by Father Xmas
True but it has run up a LOT since late October 2008 when it hit bottom at 24,400 KrW. Then Aion came out, became their biggest game, game revenues jumped 80% between 2008 and 2009 and the stock goes nuts.
Korean grinders don't do well over here anyway though. Aion and Lineage 2 both have only a few servers for NA, and they're only jammed to bursting because NA has Truly Free to Play versions for both those games where other places (EU, SA, Asia) do not (SA has none at all actually), so those tiny few servers basically host the entire world outside Asia. -
Quote:I'd like to believe that, and I guess it helps us cling to the tiny hope that the game can be saved. However, it is a wee bit depressing that Melissa Bianco hasn't logged into the forums since Sept. 4th, and Posi since the 13th.Originally Posted by Quinch
Short version, and I don't remember verbatim, but in the Q&A a week or so back, Zwillinger said they wouldn't because it would completely mess up the game economy. Which is kind of encouraging, I think - it implies there's still something left to lose.
I'd think if they were still deep in negotiations with NCSoft, they'd want to keep an eye on the place here too, to see if player volume stayed cranked to 11 and such.... It almost feels like it hurts too much to look in, and/or they've moved on. Which of course they well should if the lights are truly going off November 30th for good, and I wish them all the best.....
But hopefully I'm wrong there. -
You know what I just thought of?
How did NCSoft know to contact TonyV? Tony, did you send them a heads-up admitting you posted their email addresses somewhere, or did they visit these forums/Titan's and figure it out?
I hope it was the latter. And I hope somehow they see all the publicity about the shut down via links here, etc. They need to know that how they have handled this whole mess badly and that it will affect future NCSoft game launches in the west.
If the amount of business here was so insubstantial, then why would they be continuing to launch games like GW2 and Blade and Soul here in the west? Obviously we aren't quite as unimportant audience as some would like to think, or these games wouldn't launch here at all.
And isn't ArenaNet from North America? And of those purported 2 million GW2 sales, what percentage of them occurred in North America? Were those only North American figures, or worldwide? Because NCSoft's handling of the west may even affect how many people buy expansions for GW2. I know I prepurchased GW2 back in March, but haven't even logged on since the August 31st CoH announcement. They can go jump in a lake; I'm not giving them another penny of my money, GW2-related shop or expansion items included. -
Well, we got an actual response from NCSoft. Even though it isn't particularly encouraging, they obviously didn't expect these and didn't just mass-ignore them, or they wouldn't be asking for a cease-fire so to speak. So we got our feelings relayed directly to executives in Korea at any rate. We at least deserve to be able to communicate how we feel.
I mean, do Korean search engines even pull up articles from places like Massively.com, etc. anyway? I would think you'd have to dredge up an American search engine first, and even at that, your results might be truncated being that Koreans are so far away.... -
Quote:HAHA. That's the first belly laugh I've had on these forums since August 31st.Originally Posted by DarkBlaster_NA
Personally, Those years of computer science and hacking lessons from my brother aren't going to be wasted.
Thank you!
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Quote:This board is getting repetitive with its guesses and go-rounds.Originally Posted by CatMan
Sorry, should have made my post more past tense. Now that NCSoft is killing the game they will more than likely hold onto the IP as with all prior IPs they have killed off.
And Net Devil tried to buy Auto Assault back from NCSoft when they shut it down, but ND (the devs) couldn't get enough money together to do so. So obviously NCSoft can be open to selling off IPs/games, it's just whether or not they ask such ridiculous money that it will never happen, or whether in the case of Net Devil, they just had no realistic investors/backing. NCSoft isn't going to give away anything for nearly free, either. -
Quote:I hate to break the news, but Aion and Lineage 2 don't make crap for NCSoft in the west compared to the east, either. However, they're much more popular (as Korean grinders mainly are) in Asia. So all it takes to support team-wise here is a translation team. CoH didn't do well in Asia-- this has been said before and even since August 31st on these boards, but it bears repeating right now so here you go: NCSoft was basically paying an entire dev team here for a game that was only popular in the west, and mainly just in North America at that.Originally Posted by BrandX
But Paragon Studios is in Washington
What killed the game?
The players who left killed the game. The players that came to Freedom and stayed free. Then NCSoft pulled the plug.
So it's a combination of that.
Don't kid yourself-- F2P or not, if CoH was popular in Korea and Asia it'd still be going. And that's the only thread Aion and Lineage 2 in NA and Europe have to hold onto, and it's a very tenuous hold at that. -
Quote:Aye, captain.Originally Posted by Captain-Electric
I now believe my earlier statements to be incorrect. I do not believe NCSoft deserves my patience or respect, or the patience or respect of investors. I do not believe NCSoft's "internal discussions" are anything but a ploy to exploit our patience and lay our community efforts to waste, while the former members of Paragon Studios disperse and scatter into the workforce. After all, these are the same criminals who forged Richard Garriott's 24 million-dollar letter of resignation.
NCSoft's management has lost face. And they did it to themselves.
They are a disgrace to the entire industry. Their silence shows that they are incompetent, lacking in both strategic finesse and business skills. But most importantly, their disrespectful treatment of their honorable, loyal customers shows how diseased and rotten their hearts are.
November 30th will not be our loss, NCSoft. There are ways for us to continue playing City of Heroes without your permission. Instead, November 30th will be NCSoft's loss, because Paragon Studios fans and MMORPG players across the world will not soon forget what NCSoft stole from us. NCSoft KNEW they would shut the game down and yet CONTINUED to encourage subscriptions and in-game market investments by pushing the creation of new content and new issues, and then cut Paragon's employees loose while Issue 24 was almost out of the oven. NCSoft's management is criminally ruthless and I will never trust them again.
However badly we view NCSoft, though, it was not they who implied there were talks going on. It was Paragon Studios, first announced in-game by a red name and quoted on these forums by Golden Girl. And I KNOW in my heart Paragon would never lie to us like that, especially as they were even more vested in the game than any of us, and more lifted by the outpouring of community spirit that has ensued. And Golden Girl I have found to be quite positive, honest and a voice of reason here throughout this whole mess: She wouldn't make it up. Nor has Zwill, whom I've seen logged on almost constantly, said one thing to deny or debunk it.
So fear not. Whether or not anything comes of it (and I can't help but think that if MORE players wrote emails to those Korean head honchos, they would take us MORE seriously in light of the natural protesting that routinely goes on in Korea, instead of it appearing to their normally-vocal minds that we just don't care because we are holding back)...well, if nothing comes of it, at least we know that we, and Paragon Studios, really tried to get CoH sold.
Maybe we should be putting our frustrated energy into finding investors to take CoH and Paragon Studios to the next step in CoH's evolution, when we're not too busy still keeping the noise going and raising awareness of the situation in the mainstream media. -
What hurts about this article is the reminder that the online petition still hasn't even hit 19,000 names yet. A couple hundred thousand might turn heads. We need to link that petition in a lot more places.
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I'm not giving up. And I'm still playing the game, too.
I wrote emails. I think each paying customer has the right to express their feelings, and if anyone trolls them (I didn't, but someone might) then maybe next time they'll plan their next MMO closure a little better and treat those players a little better (we're far from the first and I doubt we'll be the last). And if they truly have put CoH completely behind them already, then nothing we say is going to bother them in the least anyway.
I'm actually glad people wrote in right away; later, they may block all "CoH" worded emails, or all emails outside of their contacts lists, etc. But as they still haven't directly said word one to us in two weeks even concerning billing refunds never mind anything else, I'm glad a few of us managed to get to a small potential audience (even if it's just their secretaries). -
Quote:Er, Paragon Studios' shut down letter has been linked onto the CoH section of the NCSoft launcher since that letter was posted on August 31st.Originally Posted by SlickRiptide
If NCSoft was doing the "right" thing, then they ought by now to have put something on the launcher about the "sunset". ...
If they hoped to sell the game along with its existing base of users then the last thing they'd want to do is to encourage users to start leaving in droves....
Sorry, but.... -
Quote:Er, now you're just making stuff up, lol. "mostly it's not good" now? Says whom? About what? In what case? C'mon now.Originally Posted by Altoholic_Monkey
I...People have strong reactions to floods of emails, and mostly it's not good.
And the worst they can do is continue to not care. At best, they can reevaluate their decision or add the possibility of selling the IP pronto.
And this idea also involves finding a pro publisher who actually wants an 8 year old MMORPG with millions in maintenance and development costs every year. Heck, I love CoH as much as anyone, but "kickstarter-type fan funding" isn't going to cut it for long with CoH. We need a pro publisher and we need one now, before Paragon Studios fades away completely.
I say any reasonably-phrased attempt to get NCSoft to sell CoH (as they're probably so tied up with Korean disruptions and with whatever their new overlords, Nexon, require of them that they're probably giving no thought to CoH at this point whatsoever) is welcome about now. The squeaky wheel gets the grease and all that.