Save Paragon City! efforts coordination

i saw an article on www.slashdot.org last friday which even included a link to the petition

Hi all, to let you know - I'm shooting an email off to PC Gamer to try and get the word out. So far they only have this rather generic coverage up:
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/09/03/ci...-closing-down/

I'll be providing them with the basic background info in the hopes that they can spread the news of our efforts further.

Does anyone have any contact with Penny Arcade or Nostalgia Critic? I bet they'd help spread the word.

By the way, if another publisher makes an offer for the game, writing to them to offer our support, and generally letting media sites know that the community is behind the offer would be a good idea.

FANTASTIC idea on Penny Arcade in particular, Feycat. If noone posts up that they have an inside track in the next couple hours, I'll shoot them a mail too.

I just tweeted (ugh, I can't believe I'm saying that) Tim Buckley, the author of the Ctrl-Alt-Del webcomic, to see if he'd be willing to do any coverage on the game. He used to play City of Heroes and did a couple comics about it when he did.

I24 Proc Chance = (Enhanced Recharge + Activation Time) * (Current PPM * 1.25) / 60*(1 + .75*(.15*Radius - 0.011*Radius*(360-Arc)/30))
Single Target Radius = 0. AoE Non-Cone Arc = 360.

Firefly had the Browncoats, what would be be? Blue, Red, and Gold coats?

(Probably something more Paragon-verse specific. Giant Amoeba coats?)

I put a note on the Kill Ten Rats blog about COH shutting down. Hopefully they'll help spread the word a bit more.

I shot an email to Jo of Nerf Now earlier today. Every little bit helps.

An open letter to NCsoft

Didn't VG Cats' creator play CoH?

Pursuing a broad and aggressive media campaign is GENIUS!!! NO company likes bad PR. And all it takes is persistence and numbers to get things on people's radar screens--and we have both!

I think this could both become really big and really have an effect.

I contacted Chin Soon Sun, of Techmo Koei fame. I don't know about the rest of you, but a good chunk of my SG played several of the KOEI titles... Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors, etc. For those that have never visited "Koei Warriors", a fan site, their community could be compared to ours. Many fans dedicated to a small, niche genre that garners enough sales to be profitable, but never make headlines like other mega-franchises.

Also, Chin is a cool guy. He's a little crazier than Andy, but since they're both community managers to what are very, very loyal customer bases... seemed like a good fit.

If you're reading this, Chin, I appreciate you checking out our cause.

A thought occurs. Nexon is now the largest shareholder. That might mean they have some pull in these decisions. They may well have been a contributing factor to the shut down decision, but they might be usefull in attempts to get NCsoft to sell.

(213) 858-5930137 North Larchmont Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90004

http://www.nexon.net/corporate/business-opportunities/

Are the different contacts I could find for the company.

The goal in contacting them is to convince them that NCsoft selling the IP would be more valuable than just sitting on it. Selling gets them revenue they would not get from a shelved title, as well as goodwill for supporting their most active and dedicated NA/EU community even if it means they are going separate ways.

If we can get them to apply pressure from within that could be a big help.

My Idea for the approach:

1. Burning the game to the ground burns the community. It gets them no revenue, and hurts the relationship between NCsoft and the players

2. CoH is a unique game that attracts a non-standard market. A market that NCsoft no longer targets thanks to the termination of the CoH title. Selling the game does not create unwanted competition

3. Selling the game would be a new move for NCsoft. Nexon could show themselves as leaders focused on the players. The Goodwill and press they'd get would be worth more than the money from the sale.

4. But there'd still be money from a sale. It would help pad NCsoft's numbers and make Nexon look even better with a jump in income right after their becoming the largest shareholder.

5. The community is making a very large stink about this. Contacting gaming sites, creating petitions, ect... This won't be a quiet end, and Nexon will have a large influence on whether the noise is cheering NCsoft/Nexon, or something a great deal less plesent.

There's another company that should be contacted asking them to approach NCsoft to buy City: Wargaming.net.

World of Tanks is currently running with servers in Russia, Europe, North America, China, and South-East Asia. They have World of Warplanes and World of Warships under development. They have an established infrastructure and operatiional and development teams running MMO's. While those games are different from City it wouldn't be as much of a change as it would for a non-MMO company.

This is on the Titan boards : http://www.facebook.com/TheBigBangTh...61180263926547

Penny Arcade have now been emailed.

For reference - this is the text of what I put - the PC Gamer one looks pretty similar. And the brown-nosing IS genuine, before you ask, I'm not just sucking up.

________________

Hi Penny Arcade! Not sure if Gabe's direct address or the PR address would be better for this sort of thing, so forgive me for sending to both. My plea is (hopefully) simple.

PLEASE HELP SPREAD THE WORD ON THE City of Heroes RELIEF EFFORTS!

As you may or may not know, NCSoft are cancelling the game (I've already seen the coverage on the website), a long-standing superhero MMO that's been going 8 years strong now, and has in its time shown true innovation and inspired other MMOs in its footsteps. At first glance this might seem like a fairly standard occurence, given that MMOs are dropping all over the place in the last few years. But to those of us who play, the decision to drop the game makes little sense.

Not only is City of Heroes still profitable despite its age, with a steady playerbase and a dedicated developer team with one of the best communities and developer/player relationships I've ever seen - it was also still very much being improved, kept relevant by the hard-working Paragon Studios. It came as a great shock not just to us, but to them also, when at the end of last week they were told without prior warning that both the studio and the game would be shut down within 3 months.

The way that the cancellation has been handled is a shock. There were plans to implement some things that many players have been waiting for a long time for, that Paragon were proud to be bringing us. In particular, complete power customisation was just around the corner, as part of the upcoming Issue 24 release which was already on the beta servers being tested when the announcement came.

Enough background and getting to the point, then...
The players are not prepared to let the game go without a fight. There are numerous efforts in place to try and keep the game going, but the longer these efforts take, the worse the game will look afterwards as a result. There's a risk of losing the databases that hold all players' current characters, and the community would much rather keep Paragon Studios around, who know (and love!) the game just as much as we do.

Though I've not gotten in touch personally before, I've been following Penny Arcade for a long time and have always been extremely impressed and, well, humbled by the far-reaching "good work" that you do. Please, please please please help us get the word out, with your numerous fans and the fact that a great many industry professionals take your word seriously. Check out the forum thread below, which itself links to the different efforts we're getting involved in. We have a chance to save a unique game, a unique and stable community and an excellent small developer - but we don't have long and we need to get more people involved. More than anything, we need visible high-profile champions to aid the cause and this seems very much like it's right up the Penny Arcade street, so to speak.

We've spent 8 years saving our world from imaginary villains, monsters and crises - we're not about to give up now.
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=296239

Thanks for your time (not just here, but for a fantastic comic and interesting, intriguing site which I will continue to follow).

Yours unflinchingly,
Matt Read

bump

Still looking for more volunteers, people!

This video is dedicated to all you real heroes in game and in real life, take courage heroes and never surrender. Together we will save this game!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4pg6...feature=relmfu