The Best Time of My Life

Soooooooo.


Is it finally okay to spill the beans on just ~how much~ the CoH marketing budget was?

Some friends and I have had a long running bet going and it would be nice if it could be finalized.

It was kinda easy to kick against the marketing part of Paragon, i never knew who was behind it, so i just did my angry thing and called you guys stupid.

How different it is, once u see who's behind it, who's doing the job that has to be done, be it hard or very hard. (i gues very hard, not a big budget on marketing i asume?)

Still sad CoH never came to Gamescom, Europe was kinda 'left alone' after Brighton closed, looking back.. i dont blame anyone.

Nevertheless, you rock (get it, pebble, rock.. funny? .. nvm) big time!

I love reading everything this guy says. True story.

Pebble, the only thing I have been able to think while reading your posts since Friday is that I wish to God you'd been posting more.

Incidentally, I now picture you and Tunnel Rat working together as something like Galactus vs Bugs Bunny; two indestructible cosmic grigori, one embodying an ominous soul-crushing terror and the other a hilariously violent anthropomorphic rodent.

I didn't always understand you, but whenever I got to see you speak (and the jokes your co-workers made), I thought you were pretty funny, so I liked you.

Even if you had no soul.

Vaya con dios, sir.

Never hated marketing or even understood the faux hate... It *was* faux hate wasn't?

Thanks for all your hard work BP! Best wishes on finding something to carry you onward. I also hope to see you at lunch tomorrow.


...but that would be really weird, and probably a little jarring. Still, it's on me!

Thank you for injecting levity into this whole ordeal, it was a much-needed shot in our arm. I laughed so hard at your post! I can't tell you how much I think you rock. When we went to the focus group and the Pummits (Yes, Pummits!), hanging out with you was the highlight of my trip.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Black Pebble ...coming up with crazy things to do in the game, from the Facepalm emote, to the Rocket Board to SOMETHING WHICH I CAN'T TALK ABOUT.

My first instinct was to bust your chops about how moot not talking about stuff any more is and asking for the super secrets, but on second thought, I don't want it any other way. You just wouldn't be our Black Pebble if you didn't have a comment like this in your post.

Rock on, man. We'll keep in touch.

BP,

I was on skype with a friend a little bit back when you assaulted Atlas Park on virtue with a ton of monsters and AVs. Including spawning lusca to attack the statue of Atlas. I wasn't able to get into the zone or I'd totally have been there too. But for a good 20 minutes it was all laughing and "OMG you won't believe what's happening now!" And now I have a picture of Atlas having a proctology exam from lusca as well.

I'll be taking that memory with me and I wasn't even there to see it in person. Just caught the laughter second hand.

Bless you, and thank you! Not just for that one day of laughter in this hour of need, but for everything all along. thank you!

BP - how does one prepare panda?

Thank you for everything you've done and all the people you've frustrated doing it

I will always remember how Black Pebble left me stranded at an airport in the middle of the night. I didn't even have a kitten at the time so he was only torturing a human. It still would have been cool if I didn't end up having to take the Zwillmobile and share Andy's car with his favorite set of Mountain Dew bottles (is that spelled with a Z or an S? I keep forgetting).

Funny only now you mention demorecords. I've been known to hack a demo or two. I was one of the first to figure out how to use those to time attacks for the Powers Quantification Project way back when. I used them to do all sorts of cheaty things like find blinkies - I used demorecords to hunt down and help some players take down Caleb. And I've edited them to figure out how the demo command system works. Oh, and how to hack the animation system. Yes, its hackable. Some of the stuff I did, 50/50 I was going to get Bug Hunter, or a lifetime ban, so I kind of kept it to myself.

I'm sure I sent you some info about this when I first looked at it (through Zwillinger, possibly before you had a red name: coward!) but I'm trying to see if I can maybe do one last thing with demorecords for the community: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?p=4369050

I would have been harassing you to figure out a way to get these made to offer to the players, incessantly, until no amount of puppy-kicking would soothe your nerves. I think it might have been you that said the models CoH uses could not be used to make 3D figurines. Arcana 12: Rednames: 0. Mu hu ha ha ha!

I never did take the pictures to explain my signature line so I'll just tell the story here.

At the 2010 Bay Area Meet & Greet held in San Francisco some of the Devs and players were wearing the /facepalm shirt that was the promo shirt for (I think) the San Diego ComiCon that year.

I was wandering around the room talking to various people, players and Devs alike, and spotted Black Pebble near one wall. I wandered over and introduced myself and mentioned that if they would sell those shirts on the NCSoft Store site that I was sure several players would buy it. We chatted about the shirt and merchandise for a bit and I eventually wandered off to visit with some others that were there.

After I'd gotten home I was on the Beta Server one night when I got a tell from Black Pebble asking me to send my contact information to TheOcho. I promised I would and though "ok, he's going to send me one of those shirts, that's cool". I sent a PM with the info to TheOcho and promptly forgot about it.

A week or so later I got home and there was a Fed Ex package at my front door. When I picked it up I noticed the address and remembered Black Pebble asking for my info. I sat down and opened the package and found, not just a /facepalm shirt but also a Going Rogue Razer Sphex featuring Desdemona but also a copy of the CoH Trade Paperback. I didn't even know that was in the works until that point.

I immediately changed my signature to reflect my appreciation for what he'd done. Even if no one else knew why, he did. I had always planned to take a picture of it and post it, but as I have no camera it was easy to keep putting it off.

I'm sorry I never got the picture taken, but at least now you all know why Black Pebble is my new hero.

It's been a pleasure getting to talk to you at the Meet & Greet and at both Pummits. I wish you the best in the future.

Thanks for all you did for the players.

Wishing you luck on your future endangered species consumption related endeavors.

Thanks for helping the ride along, BP.

@Kyuu

*takes notes*

Hate that Movie...

I'll remember the time you were on my team as a present in i23 beta and we were doing the DA story arcs!


Or the times where you summoned Kronos Titans after a successful UG(s) in beta....or the other times when you summoned....


I'm sensing a pattern here....



Good luck to you and thanks again!

I always giggle when I watch this video. I can't believe most people have never seen it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24yn0leXykI

This is an example of compelling storytelling for the MMO market. Making trailers of this type for upcoming issues (even if it's just for the hardcore fans/forumites) would have been awesome. I'm not kidding. In-jokes can be a fun and great community builder (RE: Kill Skuls, GONE TO THE AMERICANS).

Seriously though, the CoH video I love comes not from NCSoft, Paragon Studios or Contest entries. It was made by Samuraiko for Issue 11 using the excellent music of Danny Elfman and telling a great story by just using visuals and the mood set by the music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJ7YGA8WVmM

It's always her video I re-watch first. Every official video that came out, I always compared to this one and found they never measured up. (So sorry, BP! I liked the ones you've showcased!)

Even if I never get to play CoH again or interact with the community, I still have gigs and gigs of all types (official and fan-created: music, film, desktops, contests, screenshots, CCG, RPG, bases, costumes, icons, badges and more) that I can still share with others.