Word from NCSoft (from IGN)
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
What a contemptible example of corporate euphemistic boilerplate. That NC Soft announced laying off all of Paragon Studios employees right before Labor Day weekend is just a twist of the knife they already planted right between the shoulder blades.
I -really- wish people would stop reposting that BS story about the Engine and Cryptic when a freaking Cryptic Employee (and ex PS employee) has said ON THESE FORUMS that it's most likely not an issue at all. It's just a last tempt ditch effort to badmouth another company that is one of 2 competitors CoH had.
Both NCsoft and Paragon Studios are incredibly proud of the success of City of Heroes, but unfortunately, the continued support of the franchise no longer fits within our long term goals for the company. All employees at Paragon Studios are affected by this decision, including the management team.
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I don't want to sound excessively bitter, but it's unfortunate that accepting the several hundred dollars I dropped into the game in the past 6 months doesn't "fit within NCSoft's long term goals." My fault for putting trust in the company to provide longer term support for what it has sold me.
IMO a service cancelletation letter shouldn't read like a layoff email, like this one does. I consider this a lesson learned about dropping money on NCSoft games (I do own GW2 but after this won't be purchasing from their cash shop, since they've illustrated they are not willing to provide support for relatively recent purchases, and will cut off players like a boyfriend breaking up in a post it note.)
This is what I don't get. They could have sold it. They didn't. They could have appeased the player base (who seems to be rather upset at NCSoft now...) and moved the IP to whatever place it needed to go.
But they chose to kill it.
That's the part that I really don't get. Except it is to try to move players to their other shiny, and this player is NOT DOING THAT.
I'm sure I'm not the only one. Nor am I going anywhere else... and on that, I'm not so sure I'm the only one either. I will ride a motorcycle instead, rather than put 8 years (admittedly, here and there hours wise) into a few somethings I rather like a lot only to see them pulled out from under my control... even if they were NCSofts to deal with... they were MINE.
And now they're gonna die.
NCSoft can bite me. Unless they let CoH live somehow. Then I'll be ok with them... mostly.
Mike
August 31, 2012. A Day that will Live in Infamy. Or Information. Possibly Influence. Well, Inf, anyway. Thank you, Paragon Studios, for what you did, and the enjoyment and camaraderie you brought.
This is houtex, aka Mike, signing off the forums. G'night all. - 10/26/2012
Well... perhaps I was premature about that whole 'signing off' thing... - 11-9-2012
Houtex, your avatar is killing me. Every time I see it, I want to reach out and comfort the little guy. "Aw, come on, little Houtex avatar dude, it will be okay. Don't despair yet, we still might be able to save it!"
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.)
This is what I don't get. They could have sold it. They didn't. They could have appeased the player base (who seems to be rather upset at NCSoft now...) and moved the IP to whatever place it needed to go.
But they chose to kill it. That's the part that I really don't get. Except it is to try to move players to their other shiny, and this player is NOT DOING THAT. I'm sure I'm not the only one. Nor am I going anywhere else... and on that, I'm not so sure I'm the only one either. I will ride a motorcycle instead, rather than put 8 years (admittedly, here and there hours wise) into a few somethings I rather like a lot only to see them pulled out from under my control... even if they were NCSofts to deal with... they were MINE. And now they're gonna die. NCSoft can bite me. Unless they let CoH live somehow. Then I'll be ok with them... mostly. Mike |
SU: "Is the game owned by Koreans?"
me: "Yup."
SU: *laughs* "There you go. You knew one day this was gonna happen, 'cause that's how they roll. They're notorious for it."
He then went on to say that he knew I could face a new challenge [a new game], but this does not make me one bit happier over my main [especially] dying. My alts dying is like having to watch pets be euthanized.
I am done with NCsoft. I will never purchase another product with their name on it. I still have till the end of Jan on my sub, and over 5k paragon points. As a customer all of that is lost, and that is just bad business.
On a personal level, I love the Devs of this game. This game was there with me through the birth of 2 of my children, paramedic school, and my fight with cancer. I will miss all of you dearly.
NCsoft I will not miss in the least. I will also tell every gamer I know (and I know a LOT) to never buy a product from this crappy company. I want to say so much more, but in truth most of it just boils out as rage.
Types of Swords
My Portfolio
I dont doubt the rumor. But I personally have some insight into the minds of NCSoft. I knew someone that worked on Tabula Rasa. Several months before the game went down NCsoft had an all hands meeting to which they basically said the parent company decided that company efforts were going to be more focused on AAA (Triple A) titles only. At some point in time if a game is not making enough money they will shut it down or if there is no potential in a product to become a AAA title it will be shut down. This move as much as it peeves me does not surprise me. I'm sure CoH Was making money and if the license thing is true and was going to cost them too much to renew the license then if fits into the model that they established. Not enough money, its not a AAA title then shut it down. They don't give a damn about the game the developers or any petition that people are going to set up. The game no longer fits in their business model. End of story. Those are the facts Im afraid.
Houtex, your avatar is killing me. Every time I see it, I want to reach out and comfort the little guy. "Aw, come on, little Houtex avatar dude, it will be okay. Don't despair yet, we still might be able to save it!"
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What? Yes, it's right... it's the Fourth Post After TonyV, so there.
I feel sorta famous now.
![Smile](images/smilies/smile.gif)
I am hopeful, Tony, that indeed, it is saved. I'll do what I can on my end! And wherever the CoH forums wind up, Gir will be there. Hopefully a happy one again!
Mike
August 31, 2012. A Day that will Live in Infamy. Or Information. Possibly Influence. Well, Inf, anyway. Thank you, Paragon Studios, for what you did, and the enjoyment and camaraderie you brought.
This is houtex, aka Mike, signing off the forums. G'night all. - 10/26/2012
Well... perhaps I was premature about that whole 'signing off' thing... - 11-9-2012
I -really- wish people would stop reposting that BS story about the Engine and Cryptic when a freaking Cryptic Employee (and ex PS employee) has said ON THESE FORUMS that it's most likely not an issue at all. It's just a last tempt ditch effort to badmouth another company that is one of 2 competitors CoH had.
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biggest barrier of entry for this game has been neglected since launch, the GUI. It's terrible. I got some people to try the game and it's horrendous.
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I'd have to dig through the forums to find the post, but the way I remember it, what BABs said wasn't so much "I don't know" as "I've never heard of anything like that" (not exact words, obvs, but my basic understanding), which sounds a little more emphatic to me. Add salt to taste, I guess.
Hi, my name is @Bouncing Betty, and I... am an altaholic. (Hi, Betty.)
"I seem to remember only centuries of heroic war, in which you were always heroes - epic on epic, iliad on iliad, and you always brothers in arms."
-- G.K. Chesterton, "The Man Who Was Thursday"
Heh, I do hope you win a large fortune and soon, Michelle aka Samuraiko.
Rangle, it's nice to see you here. I'm gonna miss the Rangle Plots(tm).
aka @Kristoff von Gelmini, leader of small SG bases (Infinity/Victory/Virtue/Protector), member of The House of Tera (Justice) and various others (Champion/Infinity/Victory/Guardian/Freedom).
It's all about the subtext. Korea and China are their biggest markets, so they're going to deep-six anything that doesn't play to how they want to profit from their games.
"But in our enthusiasm, we could not resist a radical overhaul of the system, in which all of its major weaknesses have been exposed, analyzed, and replaced with new weaknesses."
-- Bruce Leverett, Register Allocation in Optimizing Compilers