Or it is me saying my comments here are like they are in real life: blunt and realistic. I deal with murderers and rapists all day long - sugar coating things isn't the best way to deal with them 
Sugar coating is for children - adults need to learn to communicate in a realistic and no BS manner One of my biggest pet peeves are people who can't say what they think for fear of hurting people's feelings...little white lies are the playground of spin doctors...not realists
And now you made me think of this guy:
And I don't like it when people Bottom Post, but I'm not going to compare their action to farting...because I recognize that people do things that make them comfortable and what they are used to doing and since it doesn't affect me...I just leave it be. To be honest I have never cared whether people Bottom or Top post and would never try to tell people the way they post is against some supposed rule. If I want to "attack" someone I sure as hell am not going to be a netiquette freak and look for something like that, grammar, punctuation, etc....
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Tyger42
I'm not saying the other forums haven't done the good stuff. That doesn't make them not a hostile place overall. The good doesn't automatically nullify the bad. I just know I see a LOT more venom and hate toward other posters on other forums than here.
Learn to read. I said it's not the posting style. It's the overall attitude your response to a complaint about it demonstrates. Which is, honestly, just a spin-doctor way of saying "rude". |
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Paladiamors
I love you, I Burnt the Toast!
|
We will never truly know how much profit or revenue CoH had, but we do know that it was not enough for NCSoft to continue to support CoH. The best guess is that CoH had approx 50-60k current subscribers, and that number was slowly decreasing. Compare that to when CoH had 140k+ subscribers and it amazes me that CoH stayed as long as it did (Granted I am happy it stayed 8 years, just surprised).
CoH was not some cash cow bringing in millions upon millions...it was treading water. Part of the problem; again people don't like to hear this, is that the Freedom model was too lenient on Premium members...it gave them too much. Once someone reached tier 8/9 there was very little reason to continue to pay a monthly sub; especially if incarnate content was not something they were interested in. Incarnate content is the ONLY reason I stayed subbed as long as I did. I had grown bored with most of the game and when they finally introduced an end game it reignited my interest in CoH to a whole new degree.
I personally did not think CoH would shut down when it did, BUT I knew it's days were numbered. I expected CoH to close down in either late 2013 or early 2014; which should have given Project X time to see fruition. But I look at it a lot differently than most people on these forums; it was a great 8+ years and now that is over. I Doubt I will move on to anything else; haven't found anything that remotely interests me. So while I think CoH was unique and special...that is all I think was unique and special. CoH was my first MMO and it will always carry a place in my heart, but it's time to let it go and that's what I am doing...it was a great game which I will miss playing.
I will add that I think Paragon had one of; if not the best, development and CS team out there. When the announcement came I felt bad for them; working so long and hard on a product to simply be told "get out." NCSoft could have handled THAT part of the closing in a MUCH better fashion imo.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Tyger42
Are those figures the raw income or the profit? Generally when a company talks about their revenue, it's after operating expenses...
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Paladiamors
I love you, I Burnt the Toast!
|
Quote:
When trying to guesstimate subscriber numbers, you use money coming in from customers (revenue) which are stated on the quarterly reports...those never mention CoX's profits but you wouldn't use profit anyway for this.|
Originally Posted by Tyger42
Are those figures the raw income or the profit? Generally when a company talks about their revenue, it's after operating expenses...
|
And can't state it enough that the subscriber range are very rough estimates since there's lots of variables that would affect it.
Quote:
Castle wasn't fired. His leaving was of his own choosing.|
Originally Posted by Starsman
Castle and BABs may have never been fired either. |
Here is his comment from his goodbye thread.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Castle
The guys are working on some great new things here, so no real "doom and gloom" should be felt for the future of the game. For my part, it's really just time for something new, you know?
|
If the game spit out 20 dollar bills people would complain that they weren't sequentially numbered. If they were sequentially numbered people would complain that they weren't random enough.
Black Pebble is my new hero.
Quote:
And (post-shard) Incarnate content was why I was considering canceling my sub once I got my invention license. Endless endgame treadmills are a WoW thing so if I want that I'll just log in there. Access to all my characters slots and the bits of new non-endgame content were what kept me subbed.
|
Originally Posted by I Burnt The Toast
Incarnate content is the ONLY reason I stayed subbed as long as I did.
|
Quote:
No, those are straight up revenues according to NCSoft's quarterly reports. They also refer to them as Sales in their Profit/Loss statement. You're thinking of gross profit (which subtracts off just the cost of revenue) or operating income (which is after all other expenses but before taxes and write offs). They don't list those by region or game, just raw revenues.|
Originally Posted by Tyger42
Are those figures the raw income or the profit? Generally when a company talks about their revenue, it's after operating expenses...
|
For some reason the 100,000 number sticks with everyone. Not sure if it's because it's a nice round number or that's what everyone mentally associates as a viable player population for a successful MMO. But as Pebblebrook points out that would be roughly $3.6 to 4.5 million per quarter and the last time the game had those revenues outside of a box release was Q3 2009.
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
Putting the quote below the reply is like putting effect before cause (assuming the posting language is naturally read top to bottom). And the more the reply relies on the context given it by the quote the more illogical it appears. Of course, if the reply doesn't heavily rely on context then quoting may have been unnecessary in the first place.
Goodbye may seem forever
Farewell is like the end
But in my heart's the memory
And there you'll always be
-- The Fox and the Hound
Generally when I quote someone it is more so they know I am speaking to them personally or replying to something they said in general. I have been a Top Posting person since I started posting on forums back in 1995/1996 and I can honestly say this is the first time anyone has every said anything negative regarding it
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Tenzhi
Putting the quote below the reply is like putting effect before cause (assuming the posting language is naturally read top to bottom). And the more the reply relies on the context given it by the quote the more illogical it appears. Of course, if the reply doesn't heavily rely on context then quoting may have been unnecessary in the first place.
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Paladiamors
I love you, I Burnt the Toast!
|
Quote:
There was a time when replies often automatically put the quote to the bottom, particularly when many forums were also accessed via newsreaders (which could lead to terrible messes in newsreaders that also offset a reply directly under the post it was replying to, creating quite tangled trees). But I digress.|
Originally Posted by I Burnt The Toast
Generally when I quote someone it is more so they know I am speaking to them personally or replying to something they said in general. I have been a Top Posting person since I started posting on forums back in 1995/1996 and I can honestly say this is the first time anyone has every said anything negative regarding it
|
The problem is akin to addressing a statement to a group of people and not establishing who you were talking to until after you've finished. Depending on the statement it may not matter, it may cause minor confusion, or it may offend people it wasn't supposed to be directed at.
Mind you, I'm not telling you to stop.
Goodbye may seem forever
Farewell is like the end
But in my heart's the memory
And there you'll always be
-- The Fox and the Hound
Quote:
Yea... I did the Incarnate grind with one character only, and only to unlock the first tier of the slots, and only what i was able to solo in DA.|
Originally Posted by Ogi
And (post-shard) Incarnate content was why I was considering canceling my sub once I got my invention license. Endless endgame treadmills are a WoW thing so if I want that I'll just log in there. Access to all my characters slots and the bits of new non-endgame content were what kept me subbed.
|
I keep thinking they would have been better off just increasing the level cap and adding more content.
The homogenized abilities took a lot away from the AT design, and some of the abilities gave way too much power way too suddenly. The addition of levels with and potentially expansion of the Ancillary pools, plus global slots would have been, in my opinion, a bit more entertaining.
Ahhh, the DA solo grind. So much fun getting a common, two astrals and 10 threads every night after running an arc three times or three different ones. Oh, wait, that's not been fun at all.
As we get closer to doomsday, I'm finding myself at a complete loss on where I'm going. It appears that the answer is nowhere. No other MMO interests me in the least. I have no expectation that the plan z initiative will get anywhere after reading those forums last night.
In the end, it'll just be the end and I'll play single player games.
Be well, people of CoH.
Quote:
For me personally, it was more fun than grinding Trials. Mind you, still talking about preferring to be punched in the stomach than being hit with a hammer to the head. I would rather neither.|
Originally Posted by Bill Z Bubba
Ahhh, the DA solo grind. So much fun getting a common, two astrals and 10 threads every night after running an arc three times or three different ones. Oh, wait, that's not been fun at all.
|
Quote:
| As we get closer to doomsday, I'm finding myself at a complete loss on where I'm going. It appears that the answer is nowhere. No other MMO interests me in the least. I have no expectation that the plan z initiative will get anywhere after reading those forums last night. |
If I can keep it up I plan to make my own super hero game. Not an MMO though just a game for my characters to gain new life.
Quote:
Agreed. If the time gates had been set per arc instead of per day and used the same drop tables as the itrials, I'd have been quite content.
|
Originally Posted by Starsman
For me personally, it was more fun than grinding Trials. Mind you, still talking about preferring to be punched in the stomach than being hit with a hammer to the head. I would rather neither.
|
Be well, people of CoH.
Quote:
I am not sure I would have liked that either. As it is, I felt forced to do 2 arcs per day plus a repeatable to optimize my rewards. Remove the timer and you would make me think I had to do all the arcs every day! (Im not always that OCD but the bug can bite.)|
Originally Posted by Bill Z Bubba
Agreed. If the time gates had been set per arc instead of per day and used the same drop tables as the itrials, I'd have been quite content.
|
The entire crafting thing was messy and the trials... too raid-ish.
I would have gone for this:
You gain Unlock XP
You also gain Ability Craft Points (not a random drop, just a consistent reward, make it not drop from minions or Lts only from Bosses/EBs/AVs and Monsters, for monsters in huge amounts)
Make crafting of any ability ONLY cost "Ability X Craft Points".
Then you add content that grants xp towards every slot that is available. Grinding up this will not be too different from grinding up from 1 to 50, and they dont have to fear players hoarding up Craft XP for future slots because you can't ever earn xp towards them until you actually add them to the game.
Point being: If I play only 20 minutes I should feel 20 minutes of advancement, not feel that I need the full hour to make the entire arc or it will be a wasted day, nor that I got to get lucky to feel any advancement at all (yea I was never a fan of the invention drop system either, although Merits sort of fixed it)
Bah, I'm turning this into the "what will you not miss" thread
With a 100k subscribers, one can expect (very roughly) that there would be around $3.6 million in revenues (assuming all players on $12/mo - yearly plan...unlikely) to maybe $4.5 million ($15/mo - monthly plan).
With that in mind, the last time CoX's actual revenue came close to $3.6 mil was back in 2Q-3Q 2009. Exception to 3Q 2010 $4.8mil mainly because that number is skewed by GR sales.
Immediately after Freedom's sales spike, CoX revenue in 1Q 2012 was $2.6 million. Which might place VIP numbers somewhere in the vicinity of 58k - 72k subscribers *.
* Of course also using the assumption 100% of revenues is only from subscriptions which is unlikely even before F2P, so it's likely to be less than that.
Personally, i would lean towards the lower end range subs.
Virtue Server
Avatar art by Daggerpoint