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 want to take a moment to raise a glass to Jack Emmert and Rick Dakan, and others with names unknown who are no longer associated with the City, but who conceived of it and made it a reality.
You did great work, and laid a masterful foundation upon which we continue to build. Especially you, Jack. You will always be Marcus "Statesman" Cole to me.
Good job, and thank you.
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Here here!
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Agreed! /em toast
Kinda sad they're not with us anymore, but life does that to us all.
I suppose that means States won't be posting anymore as a Redname? Will he at least get to keep his forum name?
Heh, and this makes me wonder how many more people will say the game is now 'free' from his dark grip? It always amused me what people said about Statesman, from having a retarded vision for the game, to wanting the game shut down, all the way to hating the entire game industry.
I sit in my zen of not being able to do anything right while simultaniously not being able to do anything wrong. Om. -CuppaJo
It is by caffeine alone that I set my mind in motion. It is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed, the hands acquire shaking, the shaking becomes a warning. It is by caffeine alone that I set my mind in motion.
Now that I've seen most of what's going on here, I can properly add my two cents. There has been one 'DOOM'sayer on a global channel, who got added to gignore, because every game they played before CoH/CoV were owned by SoE (and they basically killed every game they touched except EQ2. They improved EQ2 from unplayable, actually)
They didn't understand that the franchise was owned by both companies. Now, the franchise is owned by solely NCSoft, with the development house inside NCSoft. More people to work on the project, and to hide some secrets of MUO, and some CoH secrets as well from each other (making two competing games in one building developed by the same people isn't good)
Anyways, that's all that.
Personally, I think this is good news. The dev team remains. The development team can now properly concentrate on the game we all enjoy. Sure, they deserve breaks (and also probably play with us in-game sometimes, we never know because they can't reveal themselves. Well, if they come in-game as their in-game correspondents...)
So, thank you Jack Emmett for allowing NCSoft to purchase the City of franchise. And thank you NCSoft for making the wise decision to allow all of the same developers of the game to remain in the studio to continue making this stellar game. It's the game I play the most these days.
ATs to 50 - TA/A Def, Nrg/Nrg Blaster, EM/EA Brute, WS,ELM/ELA Stalker
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*hits Lord_Of_Time with a sticky plasma grenade, runs away*
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<in best Grunt voice> Ahhhhhh get it off me!
[IMG]http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/2886/coxboardsig.jpg[/IMG][B][SIZE="3"]
The shining world of the seven systems. On the continent of Wild Endeavour. In the mountains of Solace and Solitude there stood the Citadel of the Time Lords. The oldest and most mightiest race in the Universe. Sworn never to interfere. Only watch...[/SIZE][/B]
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I posted this in another thread, but I'd really like to hear the following sentence from NCSoft:
"City of Heroes Developers will not be involuntarily transferred to other NCSoft titles or laid off because of poor performance of other NCSoft titles."
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There's no way in hell they would (or should at least) post that. As an employment lawyer I will personally slap the person who did this the next time I was in California, home of plaintiff friendly employment policy.
The City of Heroes Community is a special one and I will always look fondly on my times arguing, discussing and playing with you all. Thanks and thanks to the developers for a special experience.
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PS: So MUO gets Statesman, Geko, Synapse and Manticore, and CoH gets Back Ally Brawler, Castle, Sexy J and Positron? And you call that a even deal?
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Fixed the question for you before I answer. The answer is no that's not an even deal.....
MUO got screwed!! 
The City of Heroes Community is a special one and I will always look fondly on my times arguing, discussing and playing with you all. Thanks and thanks to the developers for a special experience.
MUO does not get manticore... NCSoft has him, on some other unanounced game
Does not always detect CoH
Not sure if you've already tried this or not, but...you probably have to choose a free character slot and attempt to make a new character. That will then give you the option to make a hero or villain.
If you've already tried that, then I've got nothin'. Sorry.
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I played Tabula Rasa in the closed beta that was offered through FilePlanet. I would SO not pay to play that game.
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I tried that out too. I had a problem with it not letting me use a game controller, and more generally I think games that immediately restrict their players to a specialist class (i.e. soldier) are doomed to a short lifespan.
Superhero is a broad, diverse group that can be adapted to whatever the player desires. 
Receiving the TR updates filled with language like "let's go soldiers! on your feet marines! attennnnnnSHUN!" just made me cringe and drift off. I didn't wanna be a soldier 
The Widow's Dark Hand - leader of Faux Pas
Champion Server
Tee Hee!
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Receiving the TR updates filled with language like "let's go soldiers! on your feet marines! attennnnnnSHUN!" just made me cringe and drift off. I didn't wanna be a soldier
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Heh, this I can agree with. I already did 6 years in the US Navy, and while I'm proud to have served... I don't wanna go through that again.
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Now that I've seen most of what's going on here, I can properly add my two cents. There has been one 'DOOM'sayer on a global channel, who got added to gignore, because every game they played before CoH/CoV were owned by SoE (and they basically killed every game they touched except EQ2. They improved EQ2 from unplayable, actually)
They didn't understand that the franchise was owned by both companies. Now, the franchise is owned by solely NCSoft, with the development house inside NCSoft. More people to work on the project, and to hide some secrets of MUO, and some CoH secrets as well from each other (making two competing games in one building developed by the same people isn't good)
Anyways, that's all that.
Personally, I think this is good news. The dev team remains. The development team can now properly concentrate on the game we all enjoy. Sure, they deserve breaks (and also probably play with us in-game sometimes, we never know because they can't reveal themselves. Well, if they come in-game as their in-game correspondents...)
So, thank you Jack Emmett for allowing NCSoft to purchase the City of franchise. And thank you NCSoft for making the wise decision to allow all of the same developers of the game to remain in the studio to continue making this stellar game. It's the game I play the most these days.
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CoX staff are moving to a new place seperate from their former cryptic place. As it should be but it seems they're getting a major fund/staff flush to help compete with Jack E's new benefactor.
As I've said, I've never been a fan of Jack E. My hope is this change facilitates the game beyond what I percieved to be Jack's limiting/"vision".
Im guardedly please with the announcement... we'll see if they're looking to improve/reform or if this is just like a bid for the 2008 presidency :P
-Storm Revenant-
Fires Within: Lvl 50 Fire/Kinetics Controller (Champion)
Steamed: Lvl 50 Thugs/Dark Miasma Mastermind (Freedom)
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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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i think as you can see....the list is VERY long on whats been promised and pushed off even before you got here
rome wasnt built in a day...but if posi built rome..it would only be 25% done
its time we heard "were going the extra mile" now on issues and not the current standpoint of " whatever is easiest"
i would suggest that issue 12 be extra special and more then the sub par work currently given as "new content"
in other words...flashback is already in the game through 2 different methods.now with 3 in iss 11.
built the next issue with actual "new" content..not stuff we already have through alts and exmplar
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There's a distinct lack of DOOM here.
I find that odd, like everyone's walking down the railroad tracks whistling a merry tune...not hearing the "CHOO CHOO" in the distance, getting louder and louder..."
Business change hands in two situations:
First, cos they are new and extremely, unexpectedly successful and a big company snaps them up.
Second, because the end of the business' lifetime is on the horizin and the original owners want to cut and run so they can pursue better things. The new owner then maintains the products until they naturally wind down.
I don't see how anyone could think the first scenario is active here. The kiss of death for an MMO is the moment when people are no longer required to pay a subscription. This isn't *quite* what we have here, but the "opening up both sides to everyone" smacks a little of that idea.
I'll keep an open mind and see what happens, but I'm worried(tm).
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You'd have a point, except that NCSoft set up an entire new studio just for this game. If this game were on the decline, I somehow doubt that a big multinational company such as NCSoft would set up a new studio for a fading enterprise.
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Germany set up an entire new government HQ (i.e. undergound bunker) in 1945...
But I'll stop being DOOMish now cos really the headline is:
"SHOCK! CoX under new management! What does this mean?! We have no idea..."
In one way, this COULD be a real positive turning point. For me, the past couple of issues have felt like winding down the franchise, with recycled content and increased depth rather than new breadth to the game. However, this might have just been because everyone knew this change was on the way and didn't want to do anything drastic until after it happened. Thus, the change could very well be a return to great strides of changes and optimistic development.
If you want to determine the "smoothness" of this change, keep an eye out in-game for subtle insults against Statesman.
Can we have the CoP and villain Epic ATs now?
The Widow's Dark Hand - leader of Faux Pas
Champion Server
Tee Hee!
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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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No web developer positions 
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There's a distinct lack of DOOM here.
I find that odd, like everyone's walking down the railroad tracks whistling a merry tune...not hearing the "CHOO CHOO" in the distance, getting louder and louder..."
Business change hands in two situations:
First, cos they are new and extremely, unexpectedly successful and a big company snaps them up.
Second, because the end of the business' lifetime is on the horizin and the original owners want to cut and run so they can pursue better things. The new owner then maintains the products until they naturally wind down.
I don't see how anyone could think the first scenario is active here. The kiss of death for an MMO is the moment when people are no longer required to pay a subscription. This isn't *quite* what we have here, but the "opening up both sides to everyone" smacks a little of that idea.
I'll keep an open mind and see what happens, but I'm worried(tm).
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You'd have a point, except that NCSoft set up an entire new studio just for this game. If this game were on the decline, I somehow doubt that a big multinational company such as NCSoft would set up a new studio for a fading enterprise.
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Germany set up an entire new government HQ (i.e. undergound bunker) in 1945...
But I'll stop being DOOMish now cos really the headline is:
"SHOCK! CoX under new management! What does this mean?! We have no idea..."
In one way, this COULD be a real positive turning point. For me, the past couple of issues have felt like winding down the franchise, with recycled content and increased depth rather than new breadth to the game. However, this might have just been because everyone knew this change was on the way and didn't want to do anything drastic until after it happened. Thus, the change could very well be a return to great strides of changes and optimistic development.
If you want to determine the "smoothness" of this change, keep an eye out in-game for subtle insults against Statesman.
Can we have the CoP and villain Epic ATs now?
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ALOT of people feel the same way...rehashed content is getting on my nerves along with a ton of others
i would suggest issue 12 be huge or else it'll get ugly
since posi is the head guy here...i would suggest he start giving us some heads up on the future plans
no more of this "wait and see" stuff only to be dissappointed again and again
only fair that he starts answering questions about the game since we are the reason they getting a new studio
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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 . . . ?
[/ QUOTE ]
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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i think as you can see....the list is VERY long on whats been promised and pushed off even before you got here
rome wasnt built in a day...but if posi built rome..it would only be 25% done
its time we heard "were going the extra mile" now on issues and not the current standpoint of " whatever is easiest"
i would suggest that issue 12 be extra special and more then the sub par work currently given as "new content"
in other words...flashback is already in the game through 2 different methods.now with 3 in iss 11.
built the next issue with actual "new" content..not stuff we already have through alts and exmplar
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You say 'subpar', I say 'freaking cool'.
*shrug*
I am anticipating an impressive I12 simply due to the increased staff and resources, but I am in no way dissatisfied with what has been provided thus far.
"His Imperial Majesty's Minister of Restraints and Leather" -LHF
Two naughty acronym teams / Ascension / Convenient / Artic and the Chillz / Fap / Other teams I can't remember (sorry.. mind is goin')
I think I12 will be a little too early to start seeing the fruits of an increased staff. After all, the devs are already hard at work on it right now while concurrently working on bug fixes and whatnot for the current issue on Test.
IMHO, we'll start to see the really big changes happening with I13, whenever that is.
Just been scanning through all the pages here, and I haven't seen this mentioned yet:
When will leadership of the Freedom Phalanx pass from Statesman to Captain British?
Sorry, couldn't resist.
I have to say, I'm less concerned about this than I would be if another company were taking over; NCSoft seems to be pretty commited to good games, and frankly, if anyone knows how damaging it can be for a publisher to interfere too much in a game, sacrificing quality for the bottom line, it's the Garriott brothers.
Plus, there's one more ENORMOUS bonus to this: no more whiny forumites who know nothing about software development or the game industry posting long, rambling, incoherent rants about how MUO is killing CoX.
Ahem. Boo-yah!
Now then... about those of us that forked out for both games and just want a couple of extra character slots...
@bpphantom
The Defenders of Paragon
KGB Special Section 8
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There's a distinct lack of DOOM here.
I find that odd, like everyone's walking down the railroad tracks whistling a merry tune...not hearing the "CHOO CHOO" in the distance, getting louder and louder..."
Business change hands in two situations:
First, cos they are new and extremely, unexpectedly successful and a big company snaps them up.
Second, because the end of the business' lifetime is on the horizin and the original owners want to cut and run so they can pursue better things. The new owner then maintains the products until they naturally wind down.
I don't see how anyone could think the first scenario is active here. The kiss of death for an MMO is the moment when people are no longer required to pay a subscription. This isn't *quite* what we have here, but the "opening up both sides to everyone" smacks a little of that idea.
I'll keep an open mind and see what happens, but I'm worried(tm).
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You'd have a point, except that NCSoft set up an entire new studio just for this game. If this game were on the decline, I somehow doubt that a big multinational company such as NCSoft would set up a new studio for a fading enterprise.
[/ QUOTE ]
Germany set up an entire new government HQ (i.e. undergound bunker) in 1945...
But I'll stop being DOOMish now cos really the headline is:
"SHOCK! CoX under new management! What does this mean?! We have no idea..."
In one way, this COULD be a real positive turning point. For me, the past couple of issues have felt like winding down the franchise, with recycled content and increased depth rather than new breadth to the game. However, this might have just been because everyone knew this change was on the way and didn't want to do anything drastic until after it happened. Thus, the change could very well be a return to great strides of changes and optimistic development.
If you want to determine the "smoothness" of this change, keep an eye out in-game for subtle insults against Statesman.
Can we have the CoP and villain Epic ATs now?
[/ QUOTE ]
ALOT of people feel the same way...rehashed content is getting on my nerves along with a ton of others
i would suggest issue 12 be huge or else it'll get ugly
since posi is the head guy here...i would suggest he start giving us some heads up on the future plans
no more of this "wait and see" stuff only to be dissappointed again and again
only fair that he starts answering questions about the game since we are the reason they getting a new studio
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I totally agree with this issue oon recyled content packaged with newspaper funny papers' wrapping. And I call on the new leadership to give some concrete plans to address current ingame issues and as well to give a long projection with firm, not vague information on the direction and expectations of the game. We dont want to see this game go down the tubes and in the manner that autoassault went(though it really wasn't that great of a game to begin with).
If they want to take serious leadership, show plan with transparency.
-Storm Revenant-
Fires Within: Lvl 50 Fire/Kinetics Controller (Champion)
Steamed: Lvl 50 Thugs/Dark Miasma Mastermind (Freedom)
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You say 'subpar', I say 'freaking cool'.
*shrug*
I am anticipating an impressive I12 simply due to the increased staff and resources, but I am in no way dissatisfied with what has been provided thus far.
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There's been nothing *wrong* with the last couple of updates, in the same way that there's nothing wrong with an episode of a sitcom that's just a "clips show" of previous episodes.
Issue 9-11 have been very kewl, but they have also focused on narrow areas of the game that built additional content out of older content.
I've said it before and I'll say it again - almost immeditely after the launch of Issue 8, something scary fell out of the sky and slapped both Cryptic and NCSoft across the face. Plans for the player-voted moonbase/rocket launch sites, NCSoft GM support, a new paid expansion, Villain Epic ATs, a repaired CoP trial, and many other hinted/planned developments suddenly froze in their tracks and the game went off on the tangent of issue 9-11, exploring quick and easy wins without tackling the real difficult stuff they originally had planned.
The Widow's Dark Hand - leader of Faux Pas
Champion Server
Tee Hee!
So what happens to all those Cryptic buildings in Paragon City? 
Honestly I am hopeful but as well concerned over this.
Often publishers taking over games can lead to vaste sweeping changes they feel is what we want and often is not.
Though with the current development team being a core part of the transition it gives me hope.
I would like to stress though that I sort of feel a bit cheated in the transition already. Now that both sides will be available to everyone it is sort of IMO a slap in the face for those who actually supported the games and purchased both.
I am hopeful though that crossover will finally come and I can get some of my characters changing sides.
We shall see what the next year brings but after such a great year this year ending with such a uncertainty for the future leaves me personally concerned.
On the other hand NC soft is a good company, and the majority of my interactions with there staff have been quite enjoyable.
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I totally agree with this issue oon recyled content packaged with newspaper funny papers' wrapping. And I call on the new leadership to give some concrete plans to address current ingame issues and as well to give a long projection with firm, not vague information on the direction and expectations of the game. We dont want to see this game go down the tubes and in the manner that autoassault went(though it really wasn't that great of a game to begin with).
If they want to take serious leadership, show plan with transparency.
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My guess is, you'll never see particularly concrete announcements about anything further away than the next issue.
The reason is, NCSoft is a publicly traded company, and, as such, the information they share is governed by various laws and regulations. Also, releasing information haphazardly could hurt their stock price if the market feels that they're not being honest, or not following through. Basically, if they say something will be in a particular update, it has to be, or there could be legal or financial consequences. Now, you're probably saying, "Well, that's a good thing; it means they have to deliver on their promises," but that's not the whole story. Imagine they announce something small, like some new, different type of task force. They get in to it, and it turns out, it's a lot harder than they thought. If they hadn't announced it, they could just roll it back, and put it on hold. If they make it public, however, now they're obligated to follow through, even if it means cutting out much more important features that haven't been announced yet, or pushing back the issue 6 months.
A couple of true stories from my own company: (which went public a couple of years ago.)
On our big, new product, a salesman rather carelessly mentioned that a new feature would be in our upcoming release, version 1.5, due out early next year. However, the people higher up determined that the customers we have right now are more interested in other features, and took it out. However, since the word was out there, we have to have that feature in version 1.5 The result? Our 1.5 release gets pushed out, and the Q1 of '08 release is now named 1.4.
Another example of just how far this goes: our sales staff used to have a gong that a salesperson would ring whenever they made a sale. When we went public, that had to stop, because if someone from outside the company was onsite, and heard that, it could be interpreted as a sign about how well (or poorly) we were doing, which would constitute an SEC violation for making semi-private announcements about our sales.
So, as much as it would be nice to know the dev's plans, there really is only so much they can tell us.
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Just been scanning through all the pages here, and I haven't seen this mentioned yet:
When will leadership of the Freedom Phalanx pass from Statesman to Captain British?
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Richard Garriot: "Jumpstart project Avanger"
Robert Garriot: "With all due respect, that would be a mistake. They're civilians! Super-powered showboaters. They won't take orders from me or anyone else...!"
(you have to be very sad to catch that reference )
The Widow's Dark Hand - leader of Faux Pas
Champion Server
Tee Hee!
*hits Lord_Of_Time with a sticky plasma grenade, runs away*