I'll be boycotting...

That's not what I'm saying.

I've seen a LOT of people posting "I was going to buy/try GW2 but now I won't" or "I bought GW2 and now I feel bad," and I urge people NOT to tar the innocent along with the guilty. If you want to play GW2, by all means DO give it a go. It's a fantastic game, and I certainly would like to see my CoH brethren happily ensconced in a new game, especially if it's one I play, where I might see them now and then.

Anet had nothing to do with the closure of Paragon, and in fact they are probably highly displeased at not only seeing another studio of great developers unceremoniously kicked to the curb, but at the timing of this, and the way the wrath of CoH players will undoubtedly turn on THEM, though GW2 had nothing to do with this.

(Oh forum logout bug. I will even miss YOU. No, not really. Well, sorta.)

Well, what if they don't want to be subject to this treatment a few years on down the line? I can tell you that this is the third time I've personally been affected by a game published by NCSoft getting killed off. That was the charm for me, especially considering that in two of those three cases that I know of, the game itself was reasonably healthy. And in one of those cases, some really dirty tricks were involved in getting the game shut down.

Vowing not to touch another NCSoft game isn't the same thing as blaming ArenaNet for the death of City of Heroes. It may well be that all the effort spent on Guild Wars 2 was a factor in NCSoft's decision to kill City of Heroes and Paragon Studios, but in refusing to ever play another NCSoft title I am not putting the blame on the studios it owns.

Just NCSoft itself.

Believe me, this is something that is certainly "keeping me up at night" regarding the future health of the game. OTOH, GW2 is selling far past expectations, and if NCsoft wants to kill something, it will probably be GW1.

I have NO IDEA why they wouldn't just consolidate the servers (it seemed like only Virtue and Freedom had a healthy population most nights) and leave it running. It CANNOT take that much resources to just let the server run stagnant, with a skeleton crew and no more new development. Heck, AC, DAOC are still running, and Warhammer's been running with nothing but a skeleton crew for years. The logic of doing this, and doing it in such a casual, cruel way really boggles me.

That's you, yes. But I have seen people directly blaming GW2 for this development, saying that GW2 was "losing money" (ridiculous) and so they had to pay for it with PS being shutdown, or that NCsoft shut down PS in order to "force" all their players to move to GW2.

I've been in GW2s beta for some time now, I love the game. I think it's a great game with some real innovations to it, some of which may in fact owe their inspiration to some of the unique features of COH. I am devastated over the loss of COH - I hate to see people taking their rage and grief out on the other game I love

Both Tabula Rasa and Auto Assault just had *pure* lack of numbers as the main reason for closure. Dungeon Runners was iffy in numbers and had been gutted staff wise before the announcement. Exteel, no idea as to why

Although around the time of the Tabula Rasa closure announcement, it was also the *huge* NCsoft West rearrangement with management (and possibly dirty tricks to get the Garriotts out of NCsoft West)... unfortunately, this also led to to the gutting of the Brighton office, with pretty much all the community staff having to shift over to the US if they wanted to keep their jobs.... Avatea and SnowStorm (Guild Wars) moved to be employed directly by the *studio* whose game they were working on (so Avatea moved to Paragon Studios, SnowStorm moved to Arena.net

Rockjaw, Spaff and Aero (Creative Concepts team) all ended up leaving the company... Aero is the only one that i know of who isnt still in the Games Industry (along with Avatea who is now in China, status unknown).

Kerensky and GhostRaptor were also let go at the same time. All of these people were community staffers for City Of X (EU) at one point or another.

I wish I knew. But honestly, with the abrupt announcement of City of Heroes shutting down, I think all bets are off as far as NCSoft goes. This was the one game I thought was "safe" to pay money for out of all of NCSoft's titles, given its age and strong player base.

Though maybe I should have learned that lesson with the way Richard Garriott got the heave-ho so they could shut Tabula Rasa down.

Well, I have seen NCSoft use that tactic before with Tabula Rasa. In the game's final month, especially on the final day, NCSoft was pushing Aion very hard on people in-game. That left me pretty bitter.

But again, that's a doing of NCSoft, not the guys behind Aion. The real tragedy here is that there are so many software development studios signing on with NCSoft (or getting bought out by them), despite the treatment they've shown to many titles.

Read the Joystiq link I posted. Garriott won his lawsuit, too, and won it again when NCSoft challenged the ruling--so there's more to the story than "low subscription numbers." TR didn't have as many people playing it as City of Heroes, but it was apparently turning a profit from some statements I've read in the past.

I was just looking at those numbers, and the thing to remember with all of that is that CoH doesn't sell in Korea (or Asia at all really), but Aion does. On the other hand, Aion is doing spectacularly poorly in the West, but CoH does well.

In other words, if you just stripped out the numbers for the Western sales of CoH vs. Aion, CoH would likely have larger numbers than Aion; when you compare Eastern only sales numbers, CoH vanishes against Aion.

This is just a guess, however - I can't find a good analysis or breakdowns of the numbers (if anyone has a lead on these sorts of things, please PM me).

The combat in TERA is pretty fun in my opinion. I've been playing it for over a month now, and in some ways despite being a fantasy game I'd say it does many things better in action-MMO combat than Champions Online. Were it ramped up and expanded upon it could be superheroic combat. I'm not sure how long it will hold my attention, but I've already done more in it than I've ever managed to do in any other fantasy MMO I've played.

It certainly has its share of flaws, though. I'm not saying it's a shining example of perfection, but I've been enjoying it.

QFT

I think I've got NCSoft figured out.

Notice that none of the games they've shut down (with the exception of the archaic, original Lineage) were developed outside of Korea. Even if their games are hemorrhagic, for so long as they're of Korean origin they will get a free pass while American games get the ax. I don't know if this is based on nationalistic roots or has something to do with how licences are handled, but it's clear to see that they're favoring Korean IPs even when they no longer turn a profit.

In the business world, there is something called Churn. The idea is that if your customer grows weary of one of your products, you want them to migrate to one of your other services to keep the cash influx steady and avoid Churn (which is when a customer moves to a competitive company for their service). It is easier to maintain a customer than it is to make a new one.

It appears that while NCSoft understands what Churn is, they do not grasp how to properly deal with it.

That said, NCSoft has "coincidentally" created a new incentive program for one of the factions in Aion this week. I have no doubt this is a ploy to avoid Churn. But, what NCSoft doesn't realize is that the CoX community are among the most intelligent, and vindictive, lot of internet users in the world. They will NOT get a free pass on Churn like they did with Auto Assault, Tabula Rasa, and Exteel. A majority of us grew up with City of Heroes. They are going to lose an enormous sum because they have violated a sacred trust - keep the money coming and they keep the game operating. I doubt anything but a small fraction of players here will offer them even one cent after today.

And that is how it should be.

Oh, they didn't get a free pass with Tabula Rasa's crowd, either. I saw some very vitrolic opinions expressed about all the attempts to get people to play Aion once TR went down.

You gotta remember, people in those player bases were as devoted to those games as we all are, and they've pursued similar means to rescue their games as well. Heck, I still miss Tabula Rasa like I'm gonna miss City of Heroes. But City of Heroes lived for much longer than most of the games NCSoft's shut down so far, and it certainly has a bigger player base. So who knows ... maybe this time something will give if the community tries hard enough.

And Westwood. And Pandemic. And many others...

Rot in Hell, EA

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.

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

The power of CoX was always in its global community as opposed to the game itself. The game brought us together and captured our imaginations, but it was ultimately the quality of its base that made the game what it is. Even now, there are players organizing efforts to sustain and organize the mass of us ( http://www.facebook.com/groups/438489949523705/ for example).

That aside, I haven't a doubt in my mind that NCSoft will not err from the direction they've taken this. Disbanding Paragon Studios was a clear indication of such. They have committed to this decision.

I'll drink to that, Technobot!

*spams purples*

Yeah, I'm not doubting that. I'm just saying, don't doubt the other fanbases left shipwrecked by NCSoft; they've explored many of the same options that we as a community are. (Heck, Tabula Rasa's fanbase got pretty far with their community server project before NCSoft C&D'd them ...)

Also, curse Facebook for keeping me from viewing that without registering first!

*Spams Level 4 Yellows and Reds*

Oh, child, I'mma gonna beat you so hard...

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.

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

"I'll find time for both." Chico Marx

don't forget EA and Spore...

Never got into Spore... although EA were responsible for the closure of Bullfrog (eventually). But this was back in 1995 when EA got a stake in the studio. Last game from them was 2001, although it took until 2004 for the studio to be closed *properly*

They only shut down Lineage I in NA and maybe the EU. Lineage I accounted for 45% of NCSoft's revenue while Lineage II was only 13% and Aion 28% in their second quarter of this year. It's their leading revenue source. It was their WoW.

Now NCSoft thought Aion was going to be have the same long and active success that Lineage had but it's numbers have been on a steady down slope since it's huge debut. It just doesn't have the same legs, and that might have to do with it's higher hardware requirements.