I've emailed Gabe Newell. Not sure how suitable this is, but this is what I sent, in case people are still after a sort of template. I kept it pretty simple.
______________________________
Hello,
I am adding myself to the count of people hoping you will take notice of our plea.
Please consider picking up the City of Heroes franchise from NCSoft.
This is not a one-sided grab for salvation - our community is large, close-knit and loyal. We are willing to donate a kickstarter and/or pay sub fees for this game.
We urge you, please, consider this.
Hopefully and faithfully,
_______________________________
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Earnings suggest around 50-60K subscribers (that is breaking total earnings into $15/month subscriptions)
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Originally Posted by Tyger42
There's a reason this news was a shock: It was NOT dying. It wasn't millions strong like WoW, but CoH was staying consistently in a respectable population range for an 8 year old ( not a decade ) MMO.
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Sent.
Great idea.
Sent.
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I hate to say it, but the chances of Valve buying CoH are next to nothing. Still, one can dream of hats...
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This. ALL of my this.|
Originally Posted by Quinch
Not EA, please, anything but EA. If it has to die, let it die with some dignity.
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EA and NC can both rot in the deepest, darkest, spike filled pit of Dante's Inferno...
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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.
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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.
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EA picking it up would not be saving it. It would be killing it, bringing it back as a zombie slave to be flogged until it gave no more money, then thrown in a pit again. It would only be prolonging the agony.|
Originally Posted by Jack_NoMind
Once you pick a goal to commit to -- like, "Save Paragon Studios" -- you've got to really commit. Don't be so picky about the details; we can worry about whether the devil we're selling our souls to was really a tanar'ri later on.
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Westwood, Pandemic and Bullfrog are all testament to their studio murder.
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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.
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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.
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I would buy so many hats.
You don't know how many hats.
I would have more hats than Zwillinger if this came to be.
I honestly don't expect anything to come from this, but I'm willing to grab at a lifeline even if it might be a mirage. I certainly can't think of another company I'd rather have CoH in the hands of.
Sent.
"Always remember that you're unique -- just like everybody else."
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Basically this. With EA involved, we'd be looking at a Pet Cemetery scenario.
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Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha
EA picking it up would not be saving it. It would be killing it, bringing it back as a zombie slave to be flogged until it gave no more money, then thrown in a pit again. It would only be prolonging the agony.
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That would have interesting implications for fighting a zombiefied Statesman though.
To the naysayers:
Remember the story of the mmo APB. That game died extremely early after launch. Some months later another company bought it, changed the business model up a little and it's been doing well since.
The company who bought ABP took a risk.
*IF* a company were to buy CoH it would be a lot less risky. CoH wasn't dying. It has an extremely loyal and dedicated fanbase who will be here for a long, long looooong time to come if given the opportunity. Taking a chance on CoH would be more of a sure thing than a gamble.
There's hope as long as we keep hope alive. Send the e-mail to Valve. Send it to EA. Send it to anyone! Don't give up before we've even gotten started. Sure it may seem like a long shot if a small handful of people send e-mails to Gabe Newell. But if hundreds do? Thousands?
Anything is possible if you try. So let's try.
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Originally Posted by Xzero45
Hey Debby Downer.
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Ogod. Thank you SO much. I laughed so hard...and it came at a time I really needed to laugh.
By the way...email sent. Petitions signed. Facebook club joined. I'm doing everything I can think of to show my support for this game and the desire to see it continue.
Corporate greed has to be reigned in by the people. This event can be a catalyst for something. Vice Presidents, Chiefs of Staff....corporate boards....they all go home to forty room mansions....while the people that support them often go home to an apartment with forty people crammed into it. Time to end this injustice. You and I, dear gamers....we support them. By buying their products. I "listened" to several broadcast conversations last night while wandering zones, remembering things I love about this game...and throughout all of them was a great love for this, our home. But -also-....several people made mention they were keeping an eye on NCSoft stocks, which were plummeting. We, the people...CAN make them listen. By taking away our support, and supporting each other. Individually...we can't win. Together...we can.
I know all this sounds cheesy...but if anyone starts to think...."hey, maybe it -can- change..." then what I'm saying is valid and true.
But that was a digression. Rodney Dangerfield did the best rendition of this in Back to School.
"Do not go gentle into that dark night...rage, RAGE against the dying of the light."
Let's rage.
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Statesman.|
Originally Posted by Mad Grim
That would have interesting implications for fighting a zombiefied Statesman though.
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Reichsman.
Tyrant.
Olympian Guard Tyrant Clones.
Seriously, I should be surprised we never got a Stateszombie.
Why not invite him to read the forums and play the game briefly to get a feel for what this community and game are about? Talking about business opportunity makes sense as well, but if you want to build value in something you have to sell them something they can visualize. Creating a character and running through content in a PuG is something you can build value in, this community is something you can build value in. Make them become attached to your mission and values.
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Sent.
Sent!
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Valve, as the owner of the greatest free-to-play combat-based hat simulator of all times, Team Fortress 2, should really consider adding to its roster the greatest free-to-play superhero-based costume simulator of all times, City of Heroes. City of Heroes has a very dedicated community of players, and, with the right support, has a lot of room to grow. I think it would fit right into Valve's strategy of free-to-play games supported by micro-transactions. Finally, City of Heroes works well on Mac and Linux, therefore becoming another game helping towards having Steam on multiple operating systems. Please have Yanis take a look at the possibility of acquiring City of Heroes. Thank you very much! |
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Originally Posted by khorak_EU
At some point a long time from now you'll realise how utterly ludicrous it is to be trying an email campaign to Valve, so they'll use their own money to brawl over City of Heroes with NCSoft because you emailed them a bit.
You're asking them to make a simply colossal effort, which is what this is, for very little return. You know what, I think they're going to do nothing and continue to be mind bogglingly wealthy without the effort. |
Fight and you may die; run, and you'll live... at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willing to trade all of that time from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take away our lives, but they'll never take our FREEEEDOM!
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Sent.
Replace "die" with "maybe get a half ***** lawsuit or something", and that's a pretty accurate thing right there.
arcana kind of hit the nail on the head with how i feel about this
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Indeed, in the EU letter campaigns are not that common. But it means hope for all of us, also us Europeans, that all the letter/email/protest campaings will work in the end.|
Originally Posted by Night-Hawk07
Judging by the "EU" in your name I'm assuming you're from Europe? This is by no means my $#*tting you guys, just an observation, but it seems a lot of those saying "don't bother, they'll never go for it" or something similar in other threads are from that region. I don't know how it works on that side of the globe, but in the U.S., letter-writing campaigns actually can influence decisions made by companies. The obvious example is Star Trek, which was saved TWICE by letter-writing campaigns; once to save the original series, and the second time gave Enterprise a 4th season. A letter-writing campaign
They don't always work, in fact most times they probably don't, but that's no reason to NOT try. I've never understood the mentality that because something is an attempt in futility means it shouldn't be attempted at all. Quinch, whether it works or not, thanks for the attempt! |
Thanks to all of you who're trying to save the game.
Sent. I think. That email interface is wonky.
Mr. Newell;
As you are by this point hopefully aware, NCSoft Publishing terminated the employment of the 80+ members of Paragon Software, and is intending to shut down their long-running superhero MMORPG City of Heroes/City of Villains. I should also point out that NCSoft has a history of doing this, and that once they shut down an IP, they are not averse to using their legal department to stifle any fan-based attempt to continue that game, in one notorious case, threatening a fan group that was running servers for their canceled game Tabula Rasa, even though the group was actually operating at a significant monetary loss.
What I, and many others in the CoH community wish for would be, first and foremost, for NCSoft to reverse their decision; however, given the company's past actions, this would seem to be optimistic to the point of foolishness. Another possibility that has been raised is a fan campaign to raise sufficient funds that would allow a new company to be formed, purchase the IP, and perhaps hire some of the Paragon Software team to once again work on the game, but this is admittedly a longshot at best.
However, if someone of your position in the industry were to indicate interest in acquiring the IP, that might get NCSoft to listen to reason. You would of course be making a significant investment, but I daresay that could be alleviated by any number of means, such as fan donations via Kickstarter, reinstituting a subscription-only system, or even increasing prices of purchasable items by 10-20%.
The bottom line, sir, is that you would also be purchasing an IP with an extremely loyal fanbase, of which a notable portion have been with the game for its entire history, spending(with subscriptions) hundreds or thousands of dollars. We simply want the game to CONTINUE, and we are willing to do a great deal in the hopes of ensuring that it does.
I would finish this email by thanking you for the time you spent reading it, and humbly requesting that perhaps at the least, you could have someone in your company do a cost/benefit analysis on this scenario.
Again, thank you for your time,
name
You're asking them to make a simply colossal effort, which is what this is, for very little return. You know what, I think they're going to do nothing and continue to be mind bogglingly wealthy without the effort.