'CoH is Dying!!!!'

Man, I wish the reputation system wasn't anonymous. I really want to know who can leave that kind of remark without even pausing to think of the irony involved. :v

Really could you extrapolate on this...since I came after Issue 6.

Ah more blind men groping the elephant I see!

I doubt that's the reason, the shareholders are either happy with their earnings per share or they're not. If they are, then they won't worry about subscription numbers. If they're not, then no amount of bragging about subscription numbers will change that.

Originally Posted by eltonio This is over the top mental slavery.

Do Eet!!!

Do you honestly believe they wouldn't be concerned about lagging sub numbers when NCSofts viability is largely reliant on them? Do you honestly believe that those shareholders wouldn't have something to say on the matter when those numbers go down?

In the current economic environment people are looking for investments that can demonstrate growth and show little patience for those that do not. Dropping subscription numbers do not show growth and are more likely to drive away current and possible future investors. And yes, bragging about growing sub numbers can make all the difference between somebody buying more shares or dumping the ones they wish they hadn't bought. It may not be logical, but it's what tends to happen in a recesion.

Actually, if I had to guess, I'd say Issue 6 was the doom upon doom issue of ED.

Ya, I5 was Croatoa, nothing really bad there, was pretty well recieved iirc.

Ah, GDF was with I5, ok. That would be it. Tended to associate that and ED together, but ya. ED just had more flamboyant of a flare point due to the nature of how it broke.

Was it I5 or I4 where they changed how AEs worked?

Have to reply to this one. Hamidon raids in Freedom were far and between, took several hours, and were not an enjoyable experience. Now we do 3 raids a week and we have several experienced team leaders who keep the raid down to about 35-40 minutes from Hamidon spawn time 'til he dies.

All it took was for one of us (ie., me) to ask for help from experienced raiders in another server (ie., Justice), learn the ropes, and come back and apply them in our home server. Now we raid regularly and people actually look forward to them.

You are a part of the community, just as capable of getting things started as anyone else. If something you'd like to do isn't being done, why not try to get its started yourself?

No Doom today, Doom tomorrow. There's always a Doom tomorrow.

Thank you, BABYLON 5 reference. That so needs to be the CoH forums' motto.

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Would you mind sharing that source? Please?

It depends. How do those subscription numbers effect the share price? Are they offset by other financial factors? What's the financial health of NCSoft as a whole? How much of the balance sheet does this game account for? And what are the impacts to the share price if those subscriptions numbers change?

You know, people on these boards will do all kinds of mental gymnastics to extrapolate the subscription estimates by looking at the revenues. Do you really believe forum goers here are SMARTER than serious investors, or is it that you think NCSoft believes the serious investors are stupid?

Because unless you do, hiding subscription numbers does nothing to impact shareholders' decisions.

NCSoft Exec 1: Boy these subscription numbers are so low! I'm worried this will drive away investors!
NCSoft Exec 2: Hey... I have an idea... let's just NOT TELL THEM! If we don't say anything about the numbers... they'll just invest and be fooled!
NCSoft Exec 1: That's brilliant! We'll make millions!

That's not a realistic situation. That's a bad comedy sketch.

I'm an investor (not in NCSoft, but in the stock market) and I do enough research that a lack of subscription numbers wouldn't impact my decisions either way, because my decisions would be based on actual dollar figures on the balance sheet, not a number of subscriptions. A million subscriptions with a high overhead may be less desirable than a fraction of that which is more profitable. I've not done the research on NC Soft itself, but the actual subscription numbers are less important than EBIT and expenses of the company as a whole.

I also know, as an investor, that any information relevant to the performance of the company (in terms of return on investment and price per share) CANNOT be obfuscated from me, in accordance with SEC rules and regulations. If subscription numbers, by themselves, were vital to deciding if NCSoft was a good investment or not, they'd be in the annual report.

You could have a million subscriptions and lose money. You could have a mere 100,000 subscriptions and be profitable. Subscription numbers are, by themselves, entirely arbitrary. There may be a relationship between EBIT and subscription numbers, but that relationship isn't terribly important on the bottom line. Financial performance over time is all that matters.

Because that trend will tell me, as an investor, that should the subscription model not work for NCSoft on one of it's titles, if the company's management could figure out a way to maintain profitability, either by changing models or altering it's investment and development strategies. I don't need, as an investor, to know exactly how many subscribers there are. I just need to know that NCSoft knows it's business and is doing a good job of making money at said business, and it's financial balance sheets over time are showing a trend towards profitability. Subscriptions of one game that represents a small percentage of it's revenues aren't even on my investment radar.

There are many very good reasons why you don't publish subscription numbers and all of them have to do with marketing, not with attracting shareholders. Hiding subscription numbers won't "fool" shareholders. Investors aren't stupid and I doubt that NCSoft believes they are stupid.

PLAYERS, on the other hand...

Originally Posted by eltonio This is over the top mental slavery.

It would be a great motto for the STO forums as well.

I think that Virtue's typically three hami raids every other day, with zones that fill up 30 mins - 1 hour before the scheduled time ,says otherwise. Hell, it seems Hami attendance is INCREASED.

Now if we could only do that redside.

Yes, shareholders would be interested in sub numbers. A game relies on the subs. Any savvy investor is going to look at the main areas of an MMO. If people don't sub then the game will perish. CoX is a small portion of NC Soft but shutting down a game would always cause concern; it'd be silly to ignore this. Anyway, this is for investors.

In my 2 years, the last 5+ months have had the lowest number of players I have ever seen (in my general observations). The game may not be dead at this point but you would have to be silly if it did not concern you. I like this game and want it to strive but if the numbers decrease then there could be trouble. GR might be pivotal in this game's existence.

Sunday afternoons at about 230/3 pm PST - red side Hami raids. Usually 2.

The level of attendance and how fast people show up is lightyears away from what Blueside Hamis experience. Most raids happen right on scheduled unlike Blueside that fills up beforehand. I really wish that more Villains did hami raids, considering it is the one easiest ways to get merits for my villains. :P

Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.

Or it could indicate that the upgrades they got for the servers a couple years back were... up to the task. Yellow or red doesn't equate to population levels (neither does green btw).

Wow. just wow. I lost 133 reputation points due to this post. Some of you are reeeeeeeeeally sensitive.

Exactly. It's stress on the servers, not just an indication of numbers. I see far more people on the US servers than the EU, yet both display green bubs.