To the future of City of Heroes (2)

It has been over two days since the announcement of the closure of City of Heroes and hopefully by now most of you have vented your anger and/or sadness over this news. So if you are done your raging and weeping, I believe it is now time we analyze and find a solution to our common problem. Have a seat, grab a drink, and get comfortable.



THE PROBLEM

The problem is of course that NCSoft is shutting down City of Heroes. This is a blow to all of us, that our favorite MMO game will be no longer available after November 30th, 2012. The reason for this shutdown has not been explicitly stated, however one rumor has it that NCSoft is running out of cash and decided to axe City of Heroes as a cost-cutting measure. Another popular rumor has it that NCSoft was unable to renew the license of the game engine, thus unable allow City of Heroes to be available. And if Paragon Studios could afford to keep City of Heroes going without NCSoft, it would have.

Regardless of the real reason for the shutdown, the real problem is this: MONEY. Neither NCSoft nor Paragon Studios have enough of it, so City of Heroes is being shutdown because no one can afford to keep it going.

Unfortunately money is a Real World problem that can only be solved in the Real World.
What we need is a Real World solution.

What we need is City of Heroes 2.



CITY OF HEROES 1 and 2

Let's face it: City of Heroes was in a rut. It is an old game, well over 8 years now. It's game engine is as old if not older. Paragon Studios does not even own the game engine, instead it is licensing it from another company. It is difficult to work with, with some parts simply too complex and/or time-consuming to fix (see bases). The playerbase is slowly and steadily shrinking, being sustained mainly by long-time loyal veterans such as you and I. It is not getting enough new players despite City of Villains and Freedom. The gameplay mechanics can be argued as outdated and while the game is (supposedly) profitable, it obviously not enough profitable enough to keep it from being shut down. At the current rate, these profits will cease to be and instead become a loss, so business-wise it makes sense for NCSoft to give Paragon Studios and City of Heroes the axe early (especially if the cash from cutting employee salary and benefits > returned company profits).

City of Heroes had a good run despite all its problems, 8+ years is a long time. We've had our fun and we all knew deep down that it had to end someday. All good things must come to an end, they say, and they were, of course, right. It might have happened sooner than we expected, nor in the manner we wanted, but it has, and we have to move on.

So what does that leave us? It leaves us with the future. Good things end so that we can have another good thing. This is an opportunity for a big change, bigger than the Battalion, bigger than the blaster updates, bigger than issue 24 and 25.

It is now time for the sequel of our favorite MMOG to surface. It is now time for City of Heroes 2.



THE HOW

Has any of you read PVPonline? It is a webcomic starring Cole and his crew who run a video game related magazine. During one arc (http://pvponline.com/archive/2010/11/01), Cole has a problem: his company is running out of cash and will soon be bankrupt. To prevent this, he needs money. He needs an investor.

So Cole goes to his millionaire friend Rob and asks him to invest into the company. Rob, who used to work under Cole, refuses. Due to bad economic times and several bad investments, Rob has become cautious of spending his money on risky ventures. Stating that it would be unwise to invest in a magazine that is constantly losing money, Rob request that Cole submit a new business plan, one that makes drastic changes to the current business model.

Hopefully you see where I'm going with this. Right now, the City of Heroes franchise is in trouble. With not enough money to go around, the game is shutting down. If the franchise is to continue in the future, we will need an investor, someone (or several someones) with lots of cash. However asking them to invest into something than has already failed is sheer business lunacy. We will need a new business plan (i.e. game) to convince them to invest in the City of Heroes franchise.

Here's what I propose we do:

To the developers Paragon Studios:
I sincerely hope your super-secret project is City of Heroes 2. If so, then you will already have a head start on building up that business plan. Now that the end has come, you will need to really gear up and build that plan. It will have to be a plan focusing on the future, using newer technologies and game engine as well as the knowledge and experience you have earned from the first City of Heroes to build and create the sequel we all need and desire.

To the players, you and I:
What we need to do is spread the word. Spread the word that, yes we want a new City of Heroes game and that, yes we are willing to pay for it. We need to constantly do this for a long time over and over until they get the message that the City of Heroes franchise is worth investing into. Several of you have already proposed that some other company/entity acquire the franchise, be it Valve, crowd-funded or even Blizzard. While I applaud these efforts and would be happy to see any of them come to pass, I sincerely doubt they will without a new business plan (it just does not make financial sense). I am not asking that you cease these efforts, rather I ask that you also tell these companies that you would are willing to pay for any future game in the franchise, that investing into the City of Heroes franchise is a wise business move.



SCREW THE END

I will admit that I am a lurker. I almost never post anything on the forums, but I do read them, and I understand that we all feel the same pain, sadness and anger over the shutdown. The City of Heroes franchise is one that I adore, and I do not wish for it to end. If City of Heroes 1 must close, then let there be a City of Heroes 2. My proposal is for this eventuality, that we may now focus on the future of the franchise. I apologize for any inconsistencies or mistakes with the above or if I just did not make any sense. I sincerely hope you understand my message. Feel free to reply with suggestions and other ideas to flesh out the plan or just flames if you like, and hopefully we will never have to see the end of City of Heroes.



You can find me in game on the Virtue server @SpinalBunnii.

There are several options available, but right now, the focus is on getting NCSoft to release the IP and the server code to allow us to continue the current game.
If we're only able to get the IP, but not the engine, then an attempt would be made to rebuild the game in a new engine.
If we don't even get the IP, then an attempt would be made to set up a player funded and run superhero MMO that would follow the same design goals and spirt as CoH, and with a new IP that was as close to the CoH IP as possible without attracting any lawyers.

What ever option we end up with, there's a huge wish among the players for as many of the Paragon Studios dev team as possible to be involved - they gave it everything while they worked on the game, so now we're going to give it everything we've got to save it and them in some form.

I would not mind Building Whole New Characters for a COX2. The people I have come to know here are a good breed. If the old COH engine is "past due", I am OK with that.

A New COH2 Engine and a Time to Rebuild. Here's to Level 1... AGAIN!!!

Not trying to be a pessimist but....

Won't any "future" version of CoH be MONTHS away??? I'm not a huge techy person, but it seems to me that if/when the servers shut down - trying to rebuild everything is going to take lots of time? yes? no?

Don't get me wrong...I LOVE CoH and all of my friends here, but is saving CoH going to also mean a huge amount of time between Nove 30th and a restart? Or is a simple reboot to new server/servers something that can be done quickly if all things fall into place?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paladiamors I love you, I Burnt the Toast!

Ok so here's the thing. Based on past experience we know that NCSoft will never allow anyone to pry CoH from their cold un-dead hands. NetDevil tried it with AutoAssault and they flat out refused, and that game was an actual loss.. so instead of breaking even or making a small profit they held onto the IP no matter what.

Even if NCSoft were willing to sell the IP they'd want so much money no investor in their right mind would pay it.

So where does that leave us? well here's the BEST CASE SCENARIO:

It leaves us with the best damn development team in the MMO Industry. Paragon Studios done? Sure is. How about they form Rogue Studios and start working on a new superhero / modern MMO?

Lord knows the genre needs a new title that isn't aimed at little kids or totally sucks b/c they tried to develop it to please everyone and anyone.

The problem with Posi and crew going independent is Money.. yup you guessed the old might dollar. Some people would say "Go to kickstarter" but guess what.. no kickstarter project has ever raised enough to build an MMO that could replace City of Heroes.

Most MMO's are 50-100 million dollar projects or more. Star Wars the Old Republic.. 200 million. If by some miracle Posi and crew could find a couple of investors and star work on a new game next week.. it would still be a couple of years before we'd even hear about beta sign ups, let alone a launch date.

Sadly there is no solution that will make everyone happy b/c that solution would have been for NCSoft to never have done this in the first place.

For now all we can do is sit, wait and hope that the folks from Paragon Studios have their MoG ready to pop as the servers go offline.