Quote:
Sweet, they're going to pay me to play. I like how these negative subscriptions work.
|
Originally Posted by Obsidius
At this rate of hemorrhage, I'm expecting the game to hit a negative number of subscribers any month now.
Don't ask me how; it's just the way the math works with the current number of subs minus the increasing amount of "hemorrhaging". I'm sure you'll come to the same conclusion once you crunch the numbers as well Arcanaville  |
Quote:
My best estimate is that City of Heroes shut down their servers back in 2008 when the last three subscribers died of bird flu.|
Originally Posted by Obsidius
At this rate of hemorrhage, I'm expecting the game to hit a negative number of subscribers any month now.
Don't ask me how; it's just the way the math works with the current number of subs minus the increasing amount of "hemorrhaging". I'm sure you'll come to the same conclusion once you crunch the numbers as well Arcanaville |
I don't know why people are so anxious to know more about Going Rogue. I mean, there's the two new powersets: Dual Pistol and Adolescent boy Summoning. There's that new zone where everything is clean and crime is severely punished: Singaporia. And side-switching, where people can now play for the other team. Do you really need to know how high ninja run leaps in the Moon Base, or which Praetorian Clockwork transform into jetbikes, or how many nipples the new ultra mode body sliders will max out at? I actually envy you guys, who don't know all these things yet, and can still be surprised by x-ray vision and that new emote BaB made for Dominatrix with the Cheeze Whiz and the velcro (that might not make it to the live build, so test the 3D task force with the special glasses *as soon* as you get into the beta).
[Guide to Defense] [Scrapper Secondaries Comparison] [Archetype Popularity Analysis]
In one little corner of the universe, there's nothing more irritating than a misfile...
(Please support the best webcomic about a cosmic universal realignment by impaired angelic interference resulting in identity crisis angst. Or I release the pigmy water thieves.)
As soon as I get a computer that has sufficient RAM to play CoH, I will do so until that computer crashes!
to 
TO THE END!Villains are those who dedicate their lives to causing mayhem. Villians are people from the planet Villia!
Quote:
We are a very long way past the point where irritation and impatience are unreasonable. The last issue that delivered what I would consider an acceptable minimum quantity of new story content was Issue 12. That was in May of 2008.|
Originally Posted by cursedsorcerer
Just see my sig. Tired of repeating myself.
 |
The last four issues have contained two task forces, and half dozen new contacts (I'm being generous here and counting Meg Mason's repeatable Hollows missions and the Architect introduction guy as story contacts). They also contained the Mission Architect, which is significant, but which we were promised would not result in the development team abandoning us to generate new story content by ourselves.
The four issues immediately before City of Villains was released contained the addition of the Hollows (four contacts and a trial), the Shadow Shard (five contacts, four task forces), Striga (four contacts and two task forces), Croatoa (four contacts and a task force), the Eden Trial, all three Terra Volta Respec Trials, and all of the Kheldian content.
Paragon Studios has made an awfully big deal about how many more people they've picked up, but if there is still a story team at all, they've apparently stopped working on regular issues entirely in favor of a paid expansion. I'm entirely in favor of paid expansions, but those regular issues that we're not getting any story content in any more have always been a big part of what keeps my subscription active.
Going Rogue is going to have to be absurdly huge to overcome my frustration at this point. Big enough that I can subtract entirely a portion of story content that I feel is equivalent to what should have been in regular issues 13-16(+?) and still have enough left to not feel cheated by the box price.
@Eisenzahn
GW2 - Melchior.2135
AIM - Euroclydon23
Email - scorpany@yahoo.com or <sameasmyAIM>@aol.com (for the sheer novelty of an almost 20 year old email address that hasn't been overwhelmed by spambots yet)
Quote:
While you're waiting, you should try out Champions Online.
|
Originally Posted by Perfect_Pain
Maybe if they stopped *screwing around and listened to people...
I do not log into play. No one I know logs into PLAY... ? Why? We are all waiting on news of GR... Why not release information? I do not think they understand that silence encourages nothing. Silence means nothing. Silence doesn't encourage people. It's in fact closer to ignoring people. Ignored people don't log in to play... they find other things to do with their time. |
Speeding Through New DA Repeatables || Spreadsheet o' Enhancements || Zombie Skins: better skins for these forums || Guide to Guides
Quote:
That's odd because I've always found your silence encouraging. |
Originally Posted by Perfect_Pain
I do not think they understand that silence encourages nothing. Silence means nothing. Silence doesn't encourage people.
|
Quote:
Beaten to it by a Guiness swilling squirrel.
|
Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
That's odd because I've always found your silence encouraging.
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Zwillinger
GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.
 |
Quote:
Fix't |
Originally Posted by Arcanaville
My best estimate is that City of Heroes shut down their servers back in 2008 when the last three subscribers died of bird flu.
I don't know why people are so anxious to know more about Going Rouge. I mean, there's the two new powersets: Dual Pistol and Adolescent boy Summoning. There's that new zone where everything is clean and crime is severely punished: Singaporia. And side-switching, where people can now play for the other team. Do you really need to know how high ninja run leaps in the Moon Base, or which Praetorian Clockwork transform into jetbikes, or how many nipples the new ultra mode body sliders will max out at? I actually envy you guys, who don't know all these things yet, and can still be surprised by x-ray vision and that new emote BaB made for Dominatrix with the Cheeze Whiz and the velcro (that might not make it to the live build, so test the 3D task force with the special glasses *as soon* as you get into the beta). |
Arcana is made of win, as ever.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Zwillinger
GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.
|
Quote:
I have to agree with this.|
Originally Posted by Eisenzahn
We are a very long way past the point where irritation and impatience are unreasonable. The last issue that delivered what I would consider an acceptable minimum quantity of new story content was Issue 12. That was in May of 2008.
|
I'm really hoping that we get a number of good story arcs with Going Rogue. Not TF's that I will never see.
Quote:
Echoed. Plus, my global friends list has actually grown. I regularly add new players to it.|
Originally Posted by Dark_Respite
Then you must know the wrong people. A sizable chunk of my Friends list are still on the game on a regular basis, getting characters ready to go for GR, or catching up on badges, and generally still enjoying themselves. I can still field an 8-man PuG without much effort.
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Dark_Respite
Yes, we've lost players in various-sized droves over the years - whether over ED...
|
Folks who cry over ED (in general--I'm not referring to you specifically, because I'm not calling what you said "crying") are totally out of line. It would be as if they made changes tomorrow that caused 300 players to leave but gained 20,000 new subscribers. There would be folks who cry for years about those 300 players who left.
We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.
(If you love this game as much as I do, please read that post.)
Quote:
You're telling that to Perfect Pain? Perfect Pain was in the Champions Online beta testing. She received a lifetime subscription to the game as a gift. She left CoH to play Champions. She was quite active in the Champions forums. Then she eventually got too annoyed with Champions, got a refund on the lifetime subscription, and came back to CoH.|
Originally Posted by Zombie Man
While you're waiting, you should try out Champions Online.
|
How could you not have noticed all her posts about that??
(Okay, most of those posts were in another forum area that you probably don't visit.)
Personally, I can always fall back on The Sims 3 if I get tired of CoH, but since I've been around so long without getting tired yet, I expect to keep playing CoH until the servers shut down.
Quote:
I assume Zombie Man was aware of PP's CO posts. |
Originally Posted by Mirai
You're telling that to Perfect Pain? Perfect Pain was in the Champions Online beta testing. She received a lifetime subscription to the game as a gift. She left CoH to play Champions. She was quite active in the Champions forums. Then she eventually got tired of Champions and came back to CoH.
How could you not have noticed all her posts about that?? (Okay, most of those posts were in another forum area that you probably don't visit.) Personally, I can always fall back on The Sims 3 if I get tired of CoH, but since I've been around so long without getting tired yet, I expect to keep playing CoH until the servers shut down. |
total kick to the gut
This is like having Ra's Al Ghul show up at your birthday party.
I don't think some of you reside in reality. You went so far past fanboi that you no longer have a firm grasp on what people are saying, if they do not just praise the heck out of the game.
It has been this way for some of you for quite some time, all the way back to 2005. I have not stated that the game is "dying". What I am saying is LESS people log in. Alot of those people who are not logging in or who have let their subs lapse, are not logging or paying for time when nothing is happening. Nothing is being marketed. Nothing is being said.
Yes we know... they are working on it. Yes we know there was a big holiday that just passed. Ok. Now what? the game is awesome. Yeah. it is. Its a heck of alot more awesome if there is new stuff to do. TF's and SF's dont really cut it. I dont have interest in them, and by reading this thread alone... it would seem others dont really care for TF's and SF's either. The whole MA thing was a debacle. It could have been so awesome. But there were some fatal mistakes, ratings being one of them. the whole spam Atlas thing made people quit. I know this because the few times lately I logged into CO... People actually asked me if it was fixed yet?!
The goal of any 5+ year MMO is to retain it's loyal customers while trying to net new people. When your loyal customers don't renew their subscriptions based mostly on No new information/new updates... There is a problem.
I wonder how many subs will be lost befor new information comes out?
I hope as I do everyday that they will finally get off their nubs and say something. It is important to keep people interested. Marketing should know that. Hype is half the battle when it comes down to it. And I am sure they have a whole slew of stuff planned for closer to release of the product. BUT?! there is all this time before that happeneds where they could be advertising leaving little tidbits here and there. I see none. As someone else pointed out, it has been Months since Herocon... and months since Posi posted anything, anything at all. I see Castle and Babs posting here and there but nothing about whats coming.
It's like making the choice to put a blindfold on, and go try and do your everyday normal stuff without tripping on a curb or getting smashed by a bus.
It's one thing to stay positive. It is another to...
I never left City of Heroes.
I just didnt play.
Same as I dont play now...
I am currently subbed to like 5 MMOs and I find them all to be borefests...
Kill X to get Y.
Is there an MMO out there that doesnt follow this format?
Might I respectfully suggest, then, that you contact our Riktified mods via PM and ask if either a) there's an email address to which you can submit suggestions to the Marketing Department, or b) ask if they might be willing to FORWARD an email on your behalf to the Marketing Department? For that matter, ask if c) submitting a ticket to the GMs might be acceptable?
(BTW, I mention that latter because of my time working technical support when people would use the online troubleshooting submission forms to air their grievances about us, our products, or our services - it was part of my job to either address them myself or direct them to the higher-ups that handled said matters.)
I think we have, as CLEARLY demonstrated through direct observation, proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Marketing Department does not read these forums. Standing here howling like rabid wolves high on angel dust, demanding information and pretty much threatening to leave if we don't get it, is having about as much effect as me persuading the Mississippi to detour through Nebraska.
I am not denying anyone's right to an opinion - I'm not denying anyone's right to air it here (so long as it abides by forum rules, otherwise said Riktified mods will come and smack it down). I am hoping people will realize that these forums are NOT the means to get Marketing to listen.
BTW, Arcanaville, I tried to rep you again and got told to spread it around first.
Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite
Dark_Respite's Farewell Video: "One Last Day"
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
I do wish they'd look at the 'sort of' competition once in a while...
Lets look at WoW Cataclysm..the expansion pack isn't probably going to come out until the very end of the current year (november releases for Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King tend to suggest that Cataclysm will follow the same pattern).
Yet every other week or so they release tidbits of information, a hint here, an annoucement there to keep people excited until open beta comes along and the real news gets out.
Here we get a big info dump during one month and then that's it, it's quiet for a long period of time before we hear anything else...
I will also agree that the recent Issues have lacked any decent form of story content a TF and a Strikeforce does not story content make.
I predict 'The Coming Storm' is now going to languish in an unforgotten realm of backstory the same place the Avians and the Blood of the Black Stream (which have ingame hints to by the way) now languish. It's going to suffer from 'Duke Nukem Forever' syndrome where even if the Coming Storm is eventually released people are going to go "we waited 3/4/5 years for that? Well that wasn't worth the big build up..."
Quote:
This.
|
Originally Posted by Dr_Mechano
I do wish they'd look at the 'sort of' competition once in a while...
Lets look at WoW Cataclysm..the expansion pack isn't probably going to come out until the very end of the current year (november releases for Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King tend to suggest that Cataclysm will follow the same pattern). Yet every other week or so they release tidbits of information, a hint here, an annoucement there to keep people excited until open beta comes along and the real news gets out. Here we get a big info dump during one month and then that's it, it's quiet for a long period of time before we hear anything else... |
Quote:
And PvP'ers leaving in droves over i13 is a myth...|
Originally Posted by TonyV
This is a myth I'm trying to break. Yes, some players left the game over ED. But if you're talking net, there was a huge net gain in players when ED hit--it was at the same time City of Villains was released.
|
BaBs is quoted as saying at least one thousand players quit over ED, so whatever numbers of new subscribers were generated by a new game release is irrelevant to ED's negative impact on subscriptions at the time.
Another way to look at that would be that many of those subscribers could've been retained had ED and GDR been implemented better (minus the "no more changes guys, we promise! >>>>> BAM! >GDR!!!<).
-ahem
It's always popular to decry the doooomers on these boards, but since we're bandying the topic around, are there any actual numbers to solidifie Co* solid standing, instead of just the gut feeling that it's doing well?
I mean the last time subscriber numbers were revealed it wasn't a trickle of player loss it was a lump sum of ten thousand subs Q to Q lost.
And then the subscription information was hidden, for the first time.
While I don't wish for an end to peoples pastime, denouncing any negativity about the games health with such certitude is just silly given the omissions in the quarterly reports.
Because we know there is nothing more then anecdotal information, basically an individuals 'feeling', from which to base a conclusion anymore.
Which is no different from subscribers who believe the game is steadily losing players who are not in turn being replaced by new ones, as in Co* earlier seasons.
Which is also why many of them bemoan the horrible job the marketing department does in trying to stem the losses by keeping players interest piqued.
.
Quote:
Oops. Sorry, I wasn't actually here for the whole ED thing (I came in at the tail end of I-9), so I stand corrected. Thanks for letting me know! |
Originally Posted by TonyV
Small quibble... This is a myth I'm trying to break. Yes, some players left the game over ED. But if you're talking net, there was a huge net gain in players when ED hit--it was at the same time City of Villains was released.
Folks who cry over ED (in general--I'm not referring to you specifically, because I'm not calling what you said "crying") are totally out of line. It would be as if they made changes tomorrow that caused 300 players to leave but gained 20,000 new subscribers. There would be folks who cry for years about those 300 players who left. |
Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite
Dark_Respite's Farewell Video: "One Last Day"
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
I must be the only person on the forums completely nonchalant about GR. None of the features announced so far have impressed me.
Don't intepret this as a whine regarding the state of the expansion. The devs can't make an expansion to please everyone, I'm still enjoying the game as it is now, and if some recent changes are indicative of future development direction (PvP IOs, the AE nerfs, etc.), I remain generally optimistic. I just find it odd how everyone has now tied their enjoyment of the game to the release of GR-related information.
I'd like to have some more GR info, just like everyone else, but I'd really, really like to see 'City of....' commercials. I mean, how hard is it really to get some hot looking people into spandex in California?
Quote:
I knew a poster in the Tanker forums who quit over ED. A year later, I had to restrain myself from jumping on his virtual grave. Sometimes, the players a game looses to change aren't the ones the game would want to keep anyhow |
Originally Posted by TonyV
Small quibble... This is a myth I'm trying to break. Yes, some players left the game over ED. But if you're talking net, there was a huge net gain in players when ED hit--it was at the same time City of Villains was released.
Folks who cry over ED (in general--I'm not referring to you specifically, because I'm not calling what you said "crying") are totally out of line. It would be as if they made changes tomorrow that caused 300 players to leave but gained 20,000 new subscribers. There would be folks who cry for years about those 300 players who left. |
Quote:
I don't think that phrase means what you think it means. I like this game. GR will get here when it gets here. More or less information in the interim won't change when it gets here, nor will it cause me to cancel my subscription.|
Originally Posted by Perfect_Pain
The goal of any 5+ year MMO is to retain it's loyal customers while trying to net new people. When your loyal customers don't renew their subscriptions based mostly on No new information/new updates... There is a problem.
|
Okay, now let's see if that results in brainless fools calling me a fanboi.
Paragon City Search And Rescue
The Mentor Project
Quote:
It's worth noting that giving actual subscriber numbers was not a common practice (and still is not). Maybe the numbers got so bad they felt they had to hide them. Or maybe they felt that giving such detailed information wasn't a good idea and they changed their policy to conform with the market.|
Originally Posted by Tank_Washington
I mean the last time subscriber numbers were revealed it wasn't a trickle of player loss it was a lump sum of ten thousand subs Q to Q lost.
And then the subscription information was hidden, for the first time. |
Either explanation is reasonable in the absence of facts.
Paragon City Search And Rescue
The Mentor Project
I am sure there are some people who log in everyday... but, it is less than before.
New information would help this game, not hinder it...