NCSoft acquires "City of" Franchise!
By
2Negative,
Posted on: 2007-11-06 13:34 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
This is being presented as a Win-Win-Win situation. Now we KNOW that this is TOTALLY impossible. SOMEONE has to loose.
So who is the real looser here?
The answer is clear
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So who is still here?
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Everyone except Statesman.
"Null is as much an argument "for removing the cottage rule" as the moon being round is for buying tennis shoes." -Memphis Bill
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So for the people that bought CoH and CoV what do we get.
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Debt wipe and free prestige.
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okay Ex since your fielding questions, does this mean that the ENTIRE City of Heroes and Villans staff is staying on? like say...Jlove, Warwitch, and all the rest?
And this is kind of wishful thinking but since you guys are now officially with NCsoft...does this mean we can have CuppaJo back?
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Everyone from the current team signed on with NCsoft, this includes.
Sexy Jay
Ghost Widow
War Witch
BAB's
Castle
Positron
all the programmers and other design staff that are not currently under signature names.
CuppaJo is working on Tabula Rasa and that is a project that she has been on for over a year and is very dedicated and excited about. Not to say she didn't love COH/COV but she made the choice to move to that project and I don't foresee that changing in the near future, especially since they just launched last week.
Ex
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So the (very soon to be) legends of this mmo genre are staying.
Good to hear it. 
Blazara Aura LVL 50 Fire/Psi Dom (with 125% recharge)
Flameboxer Aura LVL 50 SS/Fire Brute
Ice 'Em Aura LVL 50 Ice Tank
Darq Widow Fortune LVL 50 Fortunata (200% rech/Night Widow 192.5% rech)--thanks issue 19!
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How much control do the current devs (namely Positron) have over CoH with the new management?
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Well what has in essence occurred is the publishing team and development team have merged to form a new studio. That studio will now have a major reinvestment of resources to help to grow the Intellectual Property of COH/COV which is an established award winning MMO. We obviously have a reputation to maintain in the MMO world and we intend to be there step for step in the future.
Ex
People with GvE or who simply bought both games separately have already had access to both since the date of purchase, which is our benefit 
Of course, if they want to give us something additional, like a free month or some other sort of cookie, I won't complain 
Post deleted by Ex Libris
Blazara Aura LVL 50 Fire/Psi Dom (with 125% recharge)
Flameboxer Aura LVL 50 SS/Fire Brute
Ice 'Em Aura LVL 50 Ice Tank
Darq Widow Fortune LVL 50 Fortunata (200% rech/Night Widow 192.5% rech)--thanks issue 19!
(QR)
There's also a FAQ up on the Cryptic Studios site.
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So who is still here?
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Everyone except Statesman.
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Which doesn't surprise me, given his pet project (myth based) that was mentioned with Cryptic, and how tied he is with MUO...
Very glad, seeing that list, that Posi, Babs, Castle and (most of all... hey, I'm a fan) war Witch stayed on.
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People with GvE or who simply bought both games separately have already had access to both since the date of purchase, which is our benefit Of course, if they want to give us something additional, like a free month or some other sort of cookie, I won't complain
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Neither would I. hehe.
Blazara Aura LVL 50 Fire/Psi Dom (with 125% recharge)
Flameboxer Aura LVL 50 SS/Fire Brute
Ice 'Em Aura LVL 50 Ice Tank
Darq Widow Fortune LVL 50 Fortunata (200% rech/Night Widow 192.5% rech)--thanks issue 19!
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So for the people that bought CoH and CoV what do we get.
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Asked the same thing.
My *gut* feeling is nothing, as GVE has been out for... what, a year? Longer? so seperate COH/COV purchases have long been ... eh, not sure what the word would be, but "evened out" or "melted together" works.
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I don't see them giving everyone the extra 4 character slots in this move. So we still have that.
total kick to the gut
This is like having Ra's Al Ghul show up at your birthday party.
Issue 12: Statesman is dead!
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How much control do the current devs (namely Positron) have over CoH with the new management?
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Well what has in essence occurred is the publishing team and development team have merged to form a new studio. That studio will now have a major reinvestment of resources to help to grow the Intellectual Property of COH/COV which is an established award winning MMO. We obviously have a reputation to maintain in the MMO world and we intend to be there step for step in the future.
Ex
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Side benefit, I'm sure, is that there'll be one less layer of communication to try to get through, as opposed to "Cryptic tells NCSOft, NCSoft tells Cryptic, Cryptic tries to test, issue, wait for NCSoft, NCSoft tries to figure otu what Cryptic's talking about since it doesn't match what they see..."
... IOW, getting rid of all the inter-company communication hurdles.
Without being overly negative, what possible downsides does this deal have?
* Some staff may be unwilling or unable to move to the new office.
* NC Soft bigwigs may usurp more creative control than is healthy for the long-run of the game.
* A true sequel may be released, making upkeep and new content for the original a lower priority.
Anybody else think of anything? Will my purely hypothetical guesses be debunked?
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Issue 12: Statesman is dead!
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But will he be replaced by four claimants to the fancy-cape of the Statesman (one of which is actually Tyrant in disguise), or by his former protege, who will take the character of Statesman in a gritty, dark new direction?
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Without being overly negative, what possible downsides does this deal have?
* Some staff may be unwilling or unable to move to the new office.
* NC Soft bigwigs may usurp more creative control than is healthy for the long-run of the game.
* A true sequel may be released, making upkeep and new content for the original a lower priority.
Anybody else think of anything? Will my purely hypothetical guesses be debunked?
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I think a sequel is basically inevitable now. But I don't think the original game will be given lower priority.
Blazara Aura LVL 50 Fire/Psi Dom (with 125% recharge)
Flameboxer Aura LVL 50 SS/Fire Brute
Ice 'Em Aura LVL 50 Ice Tank
Darq Widow Fortune LVL 50 Fortunata (200% rech/Night Widow 192.5% rech)--thanks issue 19!
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Issue 12: Statesman is dead!
[/ QUOTE ]
But will he be replaced by four claimants to the fancy-cape of the Statesman (one of which is actually Tyrant in disguise), or by his former protege, who will take the character of Statesman in a gritty, dark new direction?
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Nah, it will be a Riktified-clone of him made by Nemesis.
total kick to the gut
This is like having Ra's Al Ghul show up at your birthday party.
Lets be honest here, lets not pretend no one saw this coming, with Cryptic taking on Marvel Online, it did kind of create a conflict of interest for them, not impossible mind you, but a difficult position. Im sure thats one of the major drivers here.
For NcSofts part, the CoX is a successful sold franchise, for any MMO that isnt WoW. I can actually see them wanting to invest more in the game to expand the subscriber base.
Marketing wise, this might mean they may be more aggressive.
Looking in my crystal ball, Id predict,
-Some sort of NcSoft Station Pass, a sort of like the Sony Station Pass.
-Them continuing the free issues, but I would expect within a year or two, well see some sort of major paid expansion( that expands the game to the extent CoV did, rather than to the extent a standard issue does)
-If their willing to put more resources in it, take a look at some of things where City is lacking w/o taking away where it is strong, example is pvp.
Now actions for the community, It would be nice if we had some sort of far well party at pocket d, as a send off to Statesman and anyone else remaining at Cryptic.
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So for the people that bought CoH and CoV what do we get.
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Lots and lots of play time, plus a likely boost in villain population thanks to new players checking it out.
The Nethergoat Archive: all my memories, all my characters, all my thoughts on CoH...eventually.
My City Was Gone
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So for the people that bought CoH and CoV what do we get.
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Asked the same thing.
My *gut* feeling is nothing, as GVE has been out for... what, a year? Longer? so seperate COH/COV purchases have long been ... eh, not sure what the word would be, but "evened out" or "melted together" works.
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I don't see them giving everyone the extra 4 character slots in this move. So we still have that.
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I kind of assumed they would, actually. It would make sense.
I mean, by now I'd *assume* most of the active playerbase has both COH and COV. GVE went on sale a while back, so anyone new would pretty much have that... with opening up access, opening up the last four slots for those that don't *have* them would be fair and bring them to parity.
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Without being overly negative, what possible downsides does this deal have?
* Some staff may be unwilling or unable to move to the new office.
* NC Soft bigwigs may usurp more creative control than is healthy for the long-run of the game.
* A true sequel may be released, making upkeep and new content for the original a lower priority.
Anybody else think of anything? Will my purely hypothetical guesses be debunked?
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I don't think point 1 is a problem. From the sounds of things, this was hashed out a while ago.
Point 2 is always a potential problem >.> So no disagreement there. NCSoft certainly knows MMOs, but their big seller is Lineage...
Point 3 wouldn't bother me much. CoH 2 would presumably be like CoH 1, but BETTER! If we maintain the same quality of free issues, and they start charging us money for BETTER issues (ie, expansions), I won't shed a tear.
I hope we get to keep the Cryptic Studios logos on buildings in the game.....
Please read my FEAR/Portal/HalfLife Fan Fiction!
Repurposed
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Without being overly negative, what possible downsides does this deal have?
* Some staff may be unwilling or unable to move to the new office.
* NC Soft bigwigs may usurp more creative control than is healthy for the long-run of the game.
* A true sequel may be released, making upkeep and new content for the original a lower priority.
Anybody else think of anything? Will my purely hypothetical guesses be debunked?
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It sounds like your first concern is already not an issue, if I'm understanding Ex correctly.
The second is, unfortunately, always a potential issue with joining a big production studio. Only time will tell on that one.
For the third, just remember: Not only did EQ2 not kill EQ1, EQ1 still has a larger playerbase than its sequel and has been getting regular content additions. If CoX 2 does get made, I'm not immediately worried that the original will fall by the wayside.
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Without being overly negative, what possible downsides does this deal have?
* Some staff may be unwilling or unable to move to the new office.
* NC Soft bigwigs may usurp more creative control than is healthy for the long-run of the game.
* A true sequel may be released, making upkeep and new content for the original a lower priority.
Anybody else think of anything? Will my purely hypothetical guesses be debunked?
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I think a sequel is basically inevitable now. But I don't think the original game will be given lower priority.
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Exactly, EQ and EQ2 come to mind. EQ is still going strong.
But it's MY sadistic mechanical monster and I'm here to make sure it knows it. - Girl Genius
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How much control do the current devs (namely Positron) have over CoH with the new management?