Discussion: NCsoft Acquires City of Heroes!
By
AaronH,
Posted on: 2007-11-06 13:55 in News, Events and Announcement Discussion
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I don't know who decided that fit the definiton of "thanks," since that's a slap in the face.
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Sweet! I was afraid we were going to hit 50 pages without a 'slap in the face' comment. Glad to see I was worrying for naught.
I think the announcement is good news. The pace of change in the game has picked up markedly in the past year, and hopefully this will just further the momentum. Glad to see the development team is staying intact! This is the only game out of many that has kept me coming back year after year.
Killjoy - AR/Kin Cor | Grimwind - Dark/Cold Corr
Fallowlord - Plant/Ice Dom | Game Warden - TA/A Def
Thought Police - Mind/Psi Dom | Gammarauder - Rad/Traps
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Full Access to City of Heroes and City of Villains®
All players with City of Heroes retail* accounts will now have access to City of Villains, and all City of Villains retail* accounts will now have access to City of Heroes. Players that didn't previously have access to "the other side" will find that they do now. Just log in to check it out!
Evey thing sounds great but kinda feel a little shammed on this part since I paid for both games and now players who just paid for one will get both. IMO they should do something to also thank those who purchased the two games. Some ideas should include more Char slots per server for those who own both games. Just my two cents but over all, Keep up the great work!!
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well, we'll have to see how this all plays out and for all you people whining about compensation, shut it, there was no way of knowing this would happen, sometimes you gotta bite the bullet and take a loss.
Sounds harsh don't you think? If they want to reward all players fairly, then this is something they should take into consideration. And I am not just "whining" but also am offering an idea they can implement to make "all" of the players happy. In the end it's all about great costumer service and keeping your entire pool of consumers happy not just a select few.
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I'm inclined to aggree, with Sir Q, I'm not one to agree with chomp'in that ole bullet when something can be done to equal it out.
I know full well there was no way of knowing this would happen but just as they can give away a game for free to all who only have one, the dev's can easily give extra character slots to those who had both games or not give the dual game extra slots to the ones who only had one game.
Of course there can be other ways for compansation, nothing big just something to equate our extra expense( for some, it was many extra expenses, 3 accounts both coh/cov and all) . I dont think any costumers should bite a bullet, Apple tried to compansate those who bought the more expensive iphone when it went down in price, I think this would be less complicated.
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Guys, can we please cease with the UO discussion? Thanks!
Lighthouse
Community Relations Manager
If you have a specific in game, account, tech or billing problem please contact our Customer Support team via The Knowledge Base "Ask A Question" page.
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For those interested in gainful gaming employment, check out the NCsoft North America Jobs Listing. Positions for "Mountain View" would be in our newly formed NCsoft NorCal Studio.
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Dang! The Windows PC Technician/Administrator description could have been cribbed directly off my resume. (End users of varying technical knowledge... I've supported PCs in public school and at Boeing; some of those engineers can't tell a PC from their spleens.)
But no, twice before I've been dissuaded from pursuing a career in computer programming. Not this time. Look for my resume and portfolio to hit your HR department in June.
All in all, this announcement still improves my chances of working on the CoH dev team, since a larger team means more frequent openings. Go ahead, feel like you're being stalked. I'm that obsessive. 
If not before, I'll see you at PAX 2008.
This post brought to you by the Thunderfire Campaign to Out-Weird the Internet.
Score so far: Thunderfire-0, Internet-157893678
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From the stratics interview
"NCsoft NorCal will be focusing exclusively on the City of Heroes franchise and will be doubling, if not tripling, the size of the development team in the coming months. "
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This really supports the idea that NCSoft wants to grow COX. It looks like they want their cash cow healthy and giving them calves.
But it's MY sadistic mechanical monster and I'm here to make sure it knows it. - Girl Genius
List of Invention Guides
To comment on the "Thank you" changes, the granting of CoH or CoV to those accounts who don't have it was done with the intent of giving players more people to play with.
Hopefully, those who are receiving it will be interested to see how the other side lives and be leveling up a new character. Hopefully that will translate to more people to group with. Hopefully that will lead to more character being interested (and able) to take advantage of the great feature that Supergroup bases are! Hopefully, by giving some renewed focus on bases, everyone can take advantage of the prestige grant and have fun with their base!
That was our thinking anyway. Your mileage may vary.
Lighthouse
Community Relations Manager
If you have a specific in game, account, tech or billing problem please contact our Customer Support team via The Knowledge Base "Ask A Question" page.
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To comment on the "Thank you" changes, the granting of CoH or CoV to those accounts who don't have it was done with the intent of giving players more people to play with.
Hopefully, those who are receiving it will be interested to see how the other side lives and be leveling up a new character. Hopefully that will translate to more people to group with. Hopefully that will lead to more character being interested (and able) to take advantage of the great feature that Supergroup bases are! Hopefully, by giving some renewed focus on bases, everyone can take advantage of the prestige grant and have fun with their base!
That was our thinking anyway. Your mileage may vary.
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Not bad thinking . . . but let's take that further, then, and give bases a purpose besides for just storage and insta-TP-travel.
Like, maybe the original intent they were to have 2 years ago . . . ?
Well they appear to be doubling or tripling the dev team so maybe some of these items will get done. Keep in mind the biggest hold up on features for each issue is lack of dev time to do things. Increasing the dev team means more tasks can be taken on.
But it's MY sadistic mechanical monster and I'm here to make sure it knows it. - Girl Genius
List of Invention Guides
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PS: So MUO gets Statesman, Synapse and Manticore, and CoH gets Back Ally Brawler and Positron? And you call that a even deal?
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No offense intended here, but State's Vision not being around could be considered a good thing. The game was so locked into the Vision and we were going to be forced into it come Hell or highwater. He did have some really good ideas and gave us a great sandbox to play in, but things like the 1 hero=3 minions and comparing an MMO with a sidescrolling shooter...well...
Also, BAB is doing pretty good and we get to keep _Castle_, Jay, and War Witch.
Edit - That's not to say Jack himself is a bad person. He's pretty neat and definitely had his own way of thinking and did a pretty good job on the project. It's just that that way of thinking didn't really match up with what the playerbase was wanting/needing from a superhero MMO.
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One thing that I hope comes about from this...
Some actual advertising.
While I don't want CoX to hit WoW numbers (and the associated increase in jerks:non-jerks ratio), it would definitely be nice to see some fresh blood.
Things like Who Wants to be a Superhero and Heroes are so obvious venues for a TV spot or something. "Hey, you're watching superheroes, why not play one?"
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Yep. Just...don't market to teenagers. PLEASE.
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Why? That's how I found out that this game existed.
A City of Heroes advert in my monthly copy of MAD Magazine. Best buying decision I've ever made.
Do you have something against teenagers? Do you think we all act like how Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny did on the WoW episode of South Park?
Granted, I don't have a main character that others could use as an in-game reference point, but you could, say, look back through my posts to see how teenagers are largely NOT what the stereotypes suggest.
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Not bad thinking . . . but let's take that further, then, and give bases a purpose besides for just storage and insta-TP-travel.
Like, maybe the original intent they were to have 2 years ago . . . ?
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Rome was not built in a day - but scripts to grant prestige, clear debt and flip authentication are not far behind that. Sure, while perhaps we could have pulled some dev time for something else as a "thank you" we do have Issue 11 beta in full swing and the team has the grindstone turning hard to polish that up and get it ready for launch.
Lighthouse
Community Relations Manager
If you have a specific in game, account, tech or billing problem please contact our Customer Support team via The Knowledge Base "Ask A Question" page.
i still <3 you lighthouse... but go to bed
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i still <3 you lighthouse... but go to bed
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Don't you know? Lighthouses do their best work at night...
first after dark one
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Oh boy.
I guess after disappointing North American sales of Lineage II, Auto Assault's colossal failure, and the six-year money sink better known as Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa, someone in Korea wanted to hang on to at least one title that's proven successful.
I'll be holding my breath on this one. Oh yeah, d000000m!
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lmao!
I played Tabula Rasa in the closed beta that was offered through FilePlanet. I would SO not pay to play that game.
But yea, I'm pretty happy about this. A dedicated studio for CoX and we keep all of our devs with the exception of States. I have another question though....
With NCSoft hooking up with Sony to bring their some of thier PC titles to console, will CoH/V be making an appearance on the PS3 to be more of a competitor for Microsoft/Cryptics PC/360 release of MUO?? I'd definately like to see this happen.
Edit: OMG I HAVE TO CHANGE MY SIGNATURE NOW!!! 
lol
Lighthouse, as I told you last night in open beta, "you're welcome"! that goes for everyone at NCSoft who's giving us every kind of "thank you".
here's to hoping that (nearly) everyone will still be saying it in a year or two
Kevin
There is no such thing as an "innocent bystander"
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A serious question here: CoH/V was developed and maintained using the proprietary Cryptic Engine and toolsets. Is NCsoft NorCal doing to be licensing these applications from Cryptic?
Or does NCsoft Norcal plan to develop its own toolsets to develop for CoH/V?
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A serious question here: CoH/V was developed and maintained using the proprietary Cryptic Engine and toolsets. Is NCsoft NorCal doing to be licensing these applications from Cryptic?
Or does NCsoft Norcal plan to develop its own toolsets to develop for CoH/V?
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"As part of the agreement, NCsoft is licensing Cryptic's engine technologies for use with future games." -- crypticstudios.com
Here I take "future games" to mean COV-like expansion boxes which may be in the works and they could market as separate games. I don't think NCsoft would be releasing another game based on this engine, but what do I know.
www.SaveCOH.com: Calls to Action and Events Calendar
This is what 3700 heroes in a single zone looks like.
Thanks to @EnsonsDeath for the GVE code that made me VIP again!
I've skipped around pages since this has become 37 long but I'm getting the gist of it. The only thing I'm unclear of does this mean people who had only one version, either CoH or CoV, do they get 12 slots for characters now or stay with 8?
And since I am one of the dissenters sharing a point of veiw of feeling just the slightest bit gipped, let me say that those against this view are being a bit harsh by telling us to stop complaining, whining and shut up. That's not how it works when a customer is expressing concern over something they've invested money and time in. So please disagree but don't tell people to shut up and stop whining. It belittles grown people.
Anyways I feel that not monetary compensation, but something should be given to those who did buy both games. I understand the notion that somethings do devalue as time goes on so I wouldn't expect to have money returned to me, but if you want to thank a customer you do it by at least applying something that might be useful to them individually. Debt amnesty: I don't need, just playing the game fixes that. SG prestige: Nice but what if I don't join SG's, this is more a shared reward and doesn't tie into my buying both CoH & CoV. If my account remains with 12 slots a server and the people who didn't buy both games remain 8, I could accept that. It's not a reward for me, but it does show to me that my buying both games means I spent the extra money for something.
I bought 4 accounts for this game, 2 for friends and 2 for myself. Each account I bought both CoH and CoV at I'll say 30$ each (wasnt the case but Ill be polite). Just giving this option to people who own only one of the games (regardless if they are a minority) kind of insults me and what I spent to be able to have all options available to me and my friends for this game. And again disagree with me, I have no problems about that, but telling me and others to shut up or stop whining is just as insulting.
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I wonder if all those people crying about being owed money return their clothes to the store when they see a shirt that they bought at full price on sale.
I think that people who bought either side that they didnt have RECENTLY (2-3 mos maybe) should get a refund or something. Microsoft gave people who bought PCs with Windows XP MCE a free copy of Vista if they were bought within the 5 months prior to Vistas release. So something like this I'm all for. However, for all those who bought it frikkin 2 years ago...get over it....
OMG! A price drop on the PS3?? I want the hundred dollar difference refunded to me! I just bought mine a year ago!
...ugh....please....
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A serious question here: CoH/V was developed and maintained using the proprietary Cryptic Engine and toolsets. Is NCsoft NorCal doing to be licensing these applications from Cryptic?
Or does NCsoft Norcal plan to develop its own toolsets to develop for CoH/V?
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"As part of the agreement, NCsoft is licensing Cryptic's engine technologies for use with future games." -- crypticstudios.com
Here I take "future games" to mean COV-like expansion boxes which may be in the works and they could market as separate games. I don't think NCsoft would be releasing another game based on this engine, but what do I know.
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Thanks for that - I missed it in my skimming of all the different info that was out there and it wasn't in the FAQ.
My only prob with this is alot of people have been paying for both coh and cov for awhile.Plus had to buy both games.So we had to pay more then some of the others that are getting give the game for free and yet people who been getting both at full fee and had to buy game.And we get nothing but debt gone 
kind of bits.Not fair that they are givin game and all they do is get it increased a month.Wheres are reward? I mean come on.I pay yearly in large amount can i have like 20% off my next renewal :P hooks us up.
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Not bad thinking . . . but let's take that further, then, and give bases a purpose besides for just storage and insta-TP-travel.
Like, maybe the original intent they were to have 2 years ago . . . ?
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Rome was not built in a day - but scripts to grant prestige, clear debt and flip authentication are not far behind that. Sure, while perhaps we could have pulled some dev time for something else as a "thank you" we do have Issue 11 beta in full swing and the team has the grindstone turning hard to polish that up and get it ready for launch.
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Me thinks you misunderstood my post.
I wasn't refering to a "Thank You" gift in the form of actually getting bases functional to a purpose other than Storage or Insta-TP. I was refering to: once this transition is complete and your new Devs are hired to fill-out the ranks, let's also start working on some of those promised features. Like for those of us that thought Base PvP and IoP would be cool to also take part in, and bought CoV partially predicated on that marketing . . . would be nice to see Bases have real use in-game.
Otherwise, all that 20k Prestige my group gets between all the players/characters doesn't do much in the end. (And debt is easy enough to get rid of now as it, by the way.)
As it stands, I have a very wait-and-see position on this turn of events. Been in the business and entertainment industries log enough to know that all the hype done during such an acquisition does not equal to actual results 12, or even 6, months from now. Also, the timing of all this sounds very odd, so definitely watching press releases in the coming months.
A doubling or tripling of the Dev team? Okay. For how long? Because if that is to be maintained, I also know enough to know that the current CoX Business model is not going to sustain it (too many freebies and not enough, constant, influx of sustained, new subscriptions . . . as NCSoft quarterly reports show).
(Note to readers: I do not claim any inside knowledge of the physical business model or plan for CoH/V, but do claim strong knowledge of business operations and product support/expansion as it pertains to running a business.)
Not to mention that "next generation" super-hero MMOs (aka Marvel and DC) have the pros and cons of the CoX engine to also refer to in order to make an even better game. So, there could be some good competition there that will also require a steady influx of add-on franchise games, expansions, et cetera to compete with them in 2008/2009.
So, I'm interested in seeing the eventual press releases down the line on the new business model for CoX revenue this is going to require.
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I wonder if all those people crying about being owed money return their clothes to the store when they see a shirt that they bought at full price on sale.
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There it goes again. Have to be nasty just becuase someone is expressing an opinion contrary to your own. Your analogy isn;t the same thing. The shirt vendor doesn't want to thank me for being a long time buyer but the game does. This thank you though does nothing for me personally, despite them giving something for free that I've had to buy 4 times on 4 accounts to get. There is a difference.
Also I'm not trying to get you to change your opinion. But please no reason to denigrate mine. I do have a problem, I am expressing my problem and that is all. Do I expect to really be heard by the company and its representatives. NO. But if I voice my views do I really need the people who I play with in this game and who share my mutual enoyment of it to put me down. Be fair, you don't like it or don't agree with me say so, saying that I'm crying though is just you being insulting where its unecessary.
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To me, this is the best news ever.
I've noticed a distinct lack of enthusiam for CoX from Cryptic for a while. Possibly it was just me thinking it, but I seem to recall a bug introduced a while back that was earthshatteringly game breaking (unique art objects disappearing in missions) that took an excessive amount of time to fix. When that was occurring, my mind kept thinking, "Are they too busy playing with the Marvel code?"
Now we have a team dedicated JUST to us, with the sole purpose of making CoX a money-machine and insanely popular.
I fail to see how this is a bad thing.
...and I bought: CoH, CoV:CE, GVE (x2 - but my wife didn't like the game
...and I was prepared to buy: "Galaxy of Heroes", which is what I figured the "secret expansion" was they kept hinting at while showing us Rikti stuff.
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Some good points in here.
So what your saying is that "since Statesman and his boys left CoH/V for MUO, we've been stuck with the 2nd string devs and they aren't as good as the original staff"?
Guess what, the team has just been bought out, and the 2nd stringers are now your starting line-up. Lets hope that the new owners bring in some big name free agents and get us back to the super bowl.
I wonder what John Romita JR is doing these days....?
The ICBM
Nuking the world since 1972