NCSoft and Massively

Not sure this is the right place, but it certainly is CoH/CoV related so here it is.

Massively has a response from NCSoft concerning a rather doom and gloom piece they ran concerning the CoX franchise a few days ago. Not sure if it is anything more than corporate speak, but worth a read I think.

If this should be elsewhere, I apologize.

This interview is just "communication" at its best, you know, Massively is basically saying "Is that okay with business? Is there any problem with CoX?", and the NCSoft guy is obviously answering "Yeah, everything's fine! It's perfect!".
But, the article that leads to NCSoft's response was really, really good. The point made was very important IMO. Now, we'll just have to see what the future hold, because I don't often believe what "directors of communications" say, and especially not when's it's related to NCSoft.

I've got to admit, it's funny that he keeps bringing up that we're the world's most popular superhero MMO, as if it's a huge market.

We've got one direct competitor, and a second coming out in the future. And last I heard, our one direct competitor wasn't doing as well as expected.

Well, CO has to convince people to either A) come over from CoH or B) decide they like super-heroes over fantasy derivative MMOs. So they have their work cut out for them.

Still here, even after all this time!

So, basically, there are people sitting around here waiting to see if the jerk who wrote this article is correct because a certain competing game came out and fizzled, not doing the trick?

To me I see quite a few people siding with the fact that Going Rogue won't pull in numbers rather than be excited and trying to pull people into the game with what was revealed at HeroCon.

Me, as one of the people who had to watch Vids and Podcasts rather than attend (had a writing deadline...and people still haven't figured out who I am *smirk*), I happen to be excited about the future of CoH and view GR as a step some older MMOs should have taken to keep their players.

Take the former "King" of fantasy MMOs, beginning with an E not a W. If they had overhauled the world, graphically, and made things more casual friendly at the higher levels, they might still be at the top of the heap. Where is this game now? Alive, but with population numbers on par with CoH, maybe lower. That game just celebrated 10 years.

Now, look at Paragon Studios...They are listening to what we want and giving us quite a bit more. I have friends who stopped playing CoH, but when I showed them the Hero Con Vids, they re-activated without flinching. One of them commented that the Banner idea for Halloween was truly original and fun and can not wait to see this years winter event.

Point is, Going Rogue is a good thing, not a bad. Do not let the agrivated Doomsayers win. Get people to take a peek, get them excited, get them waiting with baited breath. Join the revolution! Long Live Praetoria....err wait a minute....getting ahead of myself *smirk*

Paragon Studios' motto is "we'd rather give you entirely new zones than revamp the old zones". This is an approach that's focused on pleasing existing customers at the expense of incoming new customers, and it shows with GR.

Something that a lot of older MMOs have been doing is "revamping the new user experience". LotRO has done work on the early level zones to streamline the quest lines and make it more obvious where a character needs to go at which level. WoW is gearing up to wipe the entire world clean and start again. Even Fallen Earth, in the first month after launching, has made changes to the early level zones to account for player feedback.

Most players agree that the 1-20 game in CoH is somewhat stale and lacking. Since the game launched, there's been some updates to the first three zones (Atlas, Galaxy and King's Row) as well as a small makeover for the Hollows. However, the contact progression is still in the same state it was at the game's launch - a whole bunch of interchangable non-characters who send you on endless street-sweeping missions and to doors in distant zones (before you've gotten a travel power, and there is nothing to indicate that there is a way of getting a jetpack to make travel faster).

Paragon Studios' answer? Make an entirely new early game that requires an additional purchase, and leave the existing early game exactly as it is.

New subscribers are not going to compare the best of your content to the competition. They are not going to buy the game, and then buy the expansion, in order to see the better starting experience. They are going to start playing the game to see if they like it, and they are going to wind up in the Steel Canyon and Skyway content, and in the Mercy Island/Port Oakes mess redside. And they are going to compare *that* to other games.

(Granted, those areas still compare favorably to the Champions early game, but that's no reason to get complacent.)

I love what I'm hearing of Going Rogue so far. I'm looking forward to playing my Praetorian characters in the all-new early game together with all my long-time-playing SGmates. But I realize that while making new early game is fun for me, remaking the *existing* early game is important for the health of the game. I'm willing to accept not getting as many all-new zones if that's what it takes.

Interesting.

I'm getting three things out of this:

The original articles are negative, rumour, spin and general shouting off from people who spread rumour, spin and general guff for a living. Lesson one: Don't trust journalists. They lie for a living. (Actually the journo's tend not to, it's the editors that do.)

The rebuttal makes a lot of sense given the user experience (ie me) since CO went live. There was a dip in numbers and now we're back to normal perhaps doing even better than most of 2k9 but execs are also known to lie through their back teeth and no exec in his right mind would ever say "yes, our product's failing miserably, and we're going to can it in the next 12 months."

The last, and most important part is simply this: The CoH franchise is profitable. If it wasn't, NCsoft woudln't have made the heavy investement in buying the IP from Cryptic. They could have canned the game there and then but they know it's a money spinner. It will only ever be endangered if it fails to make money. There is an alternative scenario not discussed: If the CoH franchise doesn't make enough to suit NCsoft globally they might well hive off the operation in a buy out - effectively selling Paragon Studios to a third party. They could do this with CoH where they couldn'twith TR because a) nobody would've wanted TR as a product - it was pretty toxic before it even launched and b)CoH has a proven track record of profitability.

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk