Don't spend City of Heroes money elsewhere NCsoft!
By
Acemace,
Posted on: 2009-06-17 06:12 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
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Any particular reason? For the sake of curiosity.
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If the word "rootkit" doesn't give you enough to go by, then I'm not sure how much I'll be able to make you understand, but I'll try.
It's roughly the same level of crap as StarForce. In order to "work properly" and prevent nasty evil cheating jerk hackers to find ways around it, it just has to both install itself as an admin-level device driver, and if you'll follow the link I meticulously added you'll see a quick grab-bag list of the kind of problems every single "anti-cheating" or "copy protection" measure of this kind invariably causes -- software compatibility issues at best, resource hogs, crashes and remotely exploitable security issues at worst.
My characters - all on Virtue.
Gabe's Internet [censored] Theory
RMT spammers WILL steal your credit card.
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If you feel that you have a moral obligation to make sure that any money that you give any vendor for any given product is used in an ethical or moral way, then act on that.
You don't, however, have the right to tell them how to spend money that now belongs to them.
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THis is the reason why won't eat at Burger King. I don't want my money helping them make [censored] commercials.
Yes, I am serious.
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That's why I DO eat at Burger King. That, and I find their foods to taste a thousand times better than McDonald's.
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If you feel that you have a moral obligation to make sure that any money that you give any vendor for any given product is used in an ethical or moral way, then act on that.
You don't, however, have the right to tell them how to spend money that now belongs to them.
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THis is the reason why won't eat at Burger King. I don't want my money helping them make [censored] commercials.
Yes, I am serious.
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That's why I DO eat at Burger King. That, and I find their foods to taste a thousand times better than McDonald's.
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I eat at both.
Brother of Markus
The Lord of Fire and Pain
The Legendary Living Hellfire
Fight my brute!
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If you feel that you have a moral obligation to make sure that any money that you give any vendor for any given product is used in an ethical or moral way, then act on that.
You don't, however, have the right to tell them how to spend money that now belongs to them.
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THis is the reason why won't eat at Burger King. I don't want my money helping them make [censored] commercials.
Yes, I am serious.
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That's why I DO eat at Burger King. That, and I find their foods to taste a thousand times better than McDonald's.
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I eat at both.
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Wendy's FTW.
Mmmm...Baconator
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If you feel that you have a moral obligation to make sure that any money that you give any vendor for any given product is used in an ethical or moral way, then act on that.
You don't, however, have the right to tell them how to spend money that now belongs to them.
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THis is the reason why won't eat at Burger King. I don't want my money helping them make [censored] commercials.
Yes, I am serious.
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That's why I DO eat at Burger King. That, and I find their foods to taste a thousand times better than McDonald's.
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I eat at both.
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Wendy's FTW.
Mmmm...Baconator
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I eat there too.
I'm a total junk food junkie.
Brother of Markus
The Lord of Fire and Pain
The Legendary Living Hellfire
Fight my brute!
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If you feel that you have a moral obligation to make sure that any money that you give any vendor for any given product is used in an ethical or moral way, then act on that.
You don't, however, have the right to tell them how to spend money that now belongs to them.
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THis is the reason why won't eat at Burger King. I don't want my money helping them make [censored] commercials.
Yes, I am serious.
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That's why I DO eat at Burger King. That, and I find their foods to taste a thousand times better than McDonald's.
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I eat at both.
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Wendy's FTW.
Mmmm...Baconator
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The only reason I ever eat Burger King or McDonald's instead of Wendy's is because they're pretty far to drive to from here and there are a couple 24 hour McDonald's around here.
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I wont be purchasing any more MA slots, Respecs, Renames and despite how much I want the SUPERSCIENCE booster pack, I'm now not going to be buying that either.
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And THIS is the type of thinking that hurts companies that are trying to SURVIVE in an EXTREMELY WEAK economy!
Tell you what, for every booster pack, MA slot, respec or rename you would have purchased, I will purchase for myself and not use. Why? Because this game, this company, this community gives YOU so much more than you have in real life, because you choose to spend time in it, rather than go for a walk or read a book.
That okay with you, champ?
This thing that gets me is how many people in this world don't look at how the world works, rather they would complain why things don't work the way they feel it should.
Ok, say that NCsoft took EVERY cent they made from CoH and spent it only on CoH. All of their other games and products that don't do as well will feel it, will have staff lose jobs since they don't make as much, and have to close down divisions. Then what does that mean? It means that as a whole company, NCsoft will be conidered a failure and will not get people to invest in future products which will then cause NCsoft to close down... which also means CoH will close down.
Everything in this world survives because of a food chain. Nothing survives in a completely cyclical world since then only thing left on the food chain is yourself.
/em crymoar
pohsyb: so of all people you must be most excited about the veats
Arachnos Commander: actually, I am
pohsyb: I mean you kinda were one already anyways ^_^
Arachnos Commander:
Honestly? I don't care about this issue at all.
They have expanded the Dev team -massively-. And so long as they don't start randomly firing them that means more money is going into CoH than has been for several years. It means that now we've got more designers and map editors, and power analyzers, and so on and so forth.
Assuming they all get between 40 and 90k per year in a salary we can pay -all- of their paychecks in a few months for the entire -year-. What do we expect the rest of the multiple millions we're putting into NCSoft's pockets to go? Hiring on -new- Devs? We've got 50ish and they're still hiring, aren't they?
We, as players, put about 18 million dollars into NCSoft's coffers on a yearly basis -jst- through subscriptions (assuming 100k players flat and $15 each) Assuming an AVERAGE of $50,000 a year per Developer and 50 Developers that's 2.5 million a year. Costs to maintain and upgrade (replace?) servers, Office Space and Supplies, Employee Events (such as team meetings in exotic locales or group vacations/meetings in Korea) and much much more would -still- cost about 5 million dollars combined with the employee salaries. That's spending 50k a -year- per employee on trips, office space, computer equipment, training...
So assuming that $5,000,000 a year goes into the CoH Dev team pocket for all their expenses over the course of the year that leaves NCSoft with a (are you ready for this?) $13,000,000 PROFIT. What are they gonna do with $13,000,000 a year off the CoH Franchise? Bank it? Or spend it to develop a new Golden Egg for the company?
Which would -you- do.
-Rachel-
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And borrowing money (and paying interest on it) when you have an existing revenue stream to draw upon is generally a boneheaded business move.
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Aion looks pretty nice
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It does, but the GameGuard rootkit -- ahem, "Anti-cheating measure" -- is something of a deal-breaker for me.
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Any particular reason? For the sake of curiosity.
[/ QUOTE ] As a general rule, I'm against invasive, overly restrictive software/hardware. That is the reason I didn't buy Spore, and I don't buy products from companies like Apple(when possible).
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Honestly? I don't care about this issue at all.
They have expanded the Dev team -massively-. And so long as they don't start randomly firing them that means more money is going into CoH than has been for several years. It means that now we've got more designers and map editors, and power analyzers, and so on and so forth.
Assuming they all get between 40 and 90k per year in a salary we can pay -all- of their paychecks in a few months for the entire -year-. What do we expect the rest of the multiple millions we're putting into NCSoft's pockets to go? Hiring on -new- Devs? We've got 50ish and they're still hiring, aren't they?
We, as players, put about 18 million dollars into NCSoft's coffers on a yearly basis -jst- through subscriptions (assuming 100k players flat and $15 each) Assuming an AVERAGE of $50,000 a year per Developer and 50 Developers that's 2.5 million a year. Costs to maintain and upgrade (replace?) servers, Office Space and Supplies, Employee Events (such as team meetings in exotic locales or group vacations/meetings in Korea) and much much more would -still- cost about 5 million dollars combined with the employee salaries. That's spending 50k a -year- per employee on trips, office space, computer equipment, training...
So assuming that $5,000,000 a year goes into the CoH Dev team pocket for all their expenses over the course of the year that leaves NCSoft with a (are you ready for this?) $13,000,000 PROFIT. What are they gonna do with $13,000,000 a year off the CoH Franchise? Bank it? Or spend it to develop a new Golden Egg for the company?
Which would -you- do.
-Rachel-
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The rule of thumb I was taught (back in the UK) was triple the salary to estimate total cost to the employer including overheads, with US health costs, that maybe an underestimate.
You also haven't factored in the server costs (depreciation of the actual servers plus the bandwidth). NCosft as a whole spent about 2.5 million US on their bandwidth in Q1 2009. $100 000/month would be a not unreasonable estimate just for Coh (8% of the total)
@Catwhoorg "Rule of Three - Finale" Arc# 1984
@Mr Falkland Islands"A Nation Goes Rogue" Arc# 2369 "Toasters and Pop Tarts" Arc#116617
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That's why I DO eat at Burger King. That, and I find their foods to taste a thousand times better than McDonald's.
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they're both serving you junk I wouldn't feed a stray dog.
but glad you enjoy it.
The Nethergoat Archive: all my memories, all my characters, all my thoughts on CoH...eventually.
My City Was Gone
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Slow day or something? Complaining about how a business chooses to spend its income? I like it! I only play Defenders and Scrappers; I demand that NCSoft use my monthly payments to develop only those archetypes!
Wait, that sounds stupid. Tell you what, NCSoft/Paragon Studios. You know this game and the business better than me; spend my money how you like. If things start to suck, I will stop spending my money on your game. I don't see that happening anytime soon. If developing other games helps keep you in business and thus keep CoH running, then you do that. Just make sure to give JLove a raise.
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This is a quote from Avatea on the EU forums with regards the upcoming paid for additional MA slots.
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I know how strongly a lot of you feel about micro-transactions, and if I weren't part of the team I would probably feel the same way.
I want to say this though. This is our opportunity to make sure that we get enough funding for our ongoing and future development. Bear in mind that any money an NCsoft game makes serves to finance all NCsoft games, not just ours since we are not an independent game developer.
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Sorry NCsoft, this may be me being selfish but if I buy a Booster pack, respec recipe, rename token or now additional MA slots I don't want that money being spent elsewhere.
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NCSoft is a corporation. General income from any product is allocated to whatever purpose (including just pumping up salaries for executives or dividends to stockholders) the corporation sees fit.
Customers do not really have a viable stake in trying to dictate how revenues are allocated.
My scrapper doesn't need an AoE. She IS an AoE.
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I really like steak. I hate tofu, though.
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same.
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If you feel that you have a moral obligation to make sure that any money that you give any vendor for any given product is used in an ethical or moral way, then act on that.
You don't, however, have the right to tell them how to spend money that now belongs to them.
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THis is the reason why won't eat at Burger King. I don't want my money helping them make [censored] commercials.
Yes, I am serious.
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That's why I DO eat at Burger King. That, and I find their foods to taste a thousand times better than McDonald's.
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Burger King is where I prefer to eat fast food if I do. I will not go to McDonalds except for chicken nuggets. Anyone who says McDonalds fries are good has serious mental issues.
I do like both steak and tofu though. One of my fav dishes is a Spinach Tofu Pad Thai at China Bowl.
Doc Mech-Nec (Exalted): 50 Bots/FF MM
Crey Radiation Tank (Exalted): 50 Rad/Rad Corr
Servers: Exalted, Triumph, Champion
Alts: 32
Steam Profile
I find McDonald's fries entirely flavorless. Like chewing old gum.
You shouldn't insult old gum like that.
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I find McDonald's fries entirely flavorless. Like chewing old gum.
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I'm Canadian.
I find Canadian McDonald's and American McDonald's taste different... for what it' sworth I think American McD's is disgusting.
Brother of Markus
The Lord of Fire and Pain
The Legendary Living Hellfire
Fight my brute!
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I find McDonald's fries entirely flavorless. Like chewing old gum.
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I'm Canadian.
I find Canadian McDonald's and American McDonald's taste different... for what it' sworth I think American McD's is disgusting.
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I've been told that by other Canadians quite frequently, actually - that McDonald's there serves actual food, with taste and nutritional value.
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I find McDonald's fries entirely flavorless. Like chewing old gum.
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I'm Canadian.
I find Canadian McDonald's and American McDonald's taste different... for what it' sworth I think American McD's is disgusting.
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I've been told that by other Canadians quite frequently, actually - that McDonald's there serves actual food, with taste and nutritional value.
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Thou speaketh madness!
In regards to fast food, if I have a choice... I'll go Chick-Fil-A nine times out of ten.
That other time? Sometimes, you just crave something you're really not sure you can properly identify as food. For that, I have McDonald's, KFC, and Taco Bell.
If you don't believe me about KFC, you haven't worked there (or at least the local ones - they're frightening).
Which is an indication that if you've felt over the years that the game has had unrealized potential, and among the disgruntled, that hints and teasers of grand things coming, were just vehicles meant to string your support along.
Then welcome to politics.
I miss White Castle 
Curse you, company that made me move away from White Castle!!!!
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While openly admitting that NCsoft has the right to do with their money whatever they want, I hope that NCsoft has -- frankly -- smartened up enough to have noticed that they had been siphoning money out of City of Heroes to fund the development of other games, ever since they laid off everybody but the Freem 15. And that doing so has been, frankly, disastrous.
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Actually, NCSoft had no direct control over dev staffing prior to NCSoft's purchase of the game as far as I know. Those decisions were made by Cryptic. Cryptic was the developer and NCSoft was the publisher of the game, and the terms of that agreement ultimately ended up with X dollars going to Cryptic. How Cryptic chose to spend those dollars was entirely within their own purview, but I will point out that it *is* true that Cryptic was spending at least some of that money on something other than CoX: namely a side project called Marvel Universe Online.
Now, as to the question of what NCSoft spends their money on, Avatea's quote has to be taken with some real world accounting context. CoX makes a certain amount of money, and that money goes to NCSoft. NCSoft spends a certain amount of money on development and operations for CoX. If the former is higher than the latter, that means CoX is a profitable game. It would be nice if CoX turned a profit, I'm sure we'd all agree.
However, that money ultimately has to go somewhere. It can go into one of two basic directions. It can be spent on some other operational area of NCSoft, or it can be put into a bank account somewhere. Because money is fungible if it makes people feel better, they can think that CoX's profits go into some rich person's pocket instead, and some *other* game is funding other operations.
Whenever someone says words to the effect of "NCSoft should spend all of its CoX income on CoX" they are essentially saying they want CoX to be unprofitable. Now, if NCSoft was diverting too much resources from CoX to non-profitable ventures, that could have a negative impact on CoX's ability to be self-sustaining. But the fact that they seem to be spending an order of magnitude more on CoX development than Cryptic ever did since release suggests otherwise.
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In one little corner of the universe, there's nothing more irritating than a misfile...
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If you feel that you have a moral obligation to make sure that any money that you give any vendor for any given product is used in an ethical or moral way, then act on that.
You don't, however, have the right to tell them how to spend money that now belongs to them.
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THis is the reason why won't eat at Burger King. I don't want my money helping them make [censored] commercials.
Yes, I am serious.