Call to Action: Thank the media

found this article posted about 35 minutes ago, it doesnt look like it mentions any of the activism going on though

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/0...shutting-down/

found another interesting article on massively which was posted today, not directly about coh but definitely of the same concept which is the driving force behind our campaign

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/09...-destroy-mmos/

On a tangent, ow. Ow-ow-ow.

Now, I remember why I stopped writing letters the moment keyboards, printers, emails, and such became viable: they hurt! CSB: I've been writing programs since around 1982. I've been PC gaming with the mouse/keyboard since about 1992. Somehow, to this day, I don't have RSI and I'm incredibly grateful for that fact.

I write one letter by hand, and my thumb is still cramping. My natural handwriting, printed or script, has always been a grotesque scribble. These thumbs, which operate with such precision for hours at a time when gaming, protest after a mere twenty minutes of letter writing to the NCSoft CEO. For some reason, writing legible text by hand is something I do only with intense physical focus.

And of course, it may not help. Still, one more written and mailed. Maybe it will be the one that made the difference.

just posted as of a few minutes ago:

http://www.gamepolitics.com/2012/09/...ve-city-heroes

This sort of stuff is great. It is unlikely (except maybe the BBC thing above) that we'll get major interest, but these sorts of sites are exactly the right people to spread the word. However, it is estimated that 9 million people have played this game, so I'd guess that if we can get enough 5% of those to voice their concerns we could really cause NCSoft to at least rethink about selling the IP.

Anyone thought about translating these sorts of stories for a broader audience? I'm concerned that some of our European fanbase may be left out of the loop do to the language gap (admittedly, there aren't many European/Asian players that can't speak English, but I'd guess that quite a few read non-English sites more frequently than English ones). This might be especially important because NCSoft is planning on shifting to a different market, and may take more heed if we can get some help from media sources in that market.

Hey all, added several more articles in the OP that have been pointed out to me. Great job, and keep an eye out. We've had our coordinators scanning all of these forums and the Internet at large to collect media organizations, and tomorrow we plan on firing off our first official press release. I've made contact with several good media folks, and we're hoping that within a few days, this will be plastered over most gaming, comic, and tech news sites, and after that, possibly even hitting some mainstream news outlets, too.

Massively is sympathetic. Let's see if we can get them to tell our story.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/09...oes-character/

Good to know there's more sites covering our fight! This is somewhat a rehash, but I told somebody I know about the ongoing efforts to get the word out about City of Heroes' death and the player base's attempts to stop it from happening. I showed him some of the articles that have been published already, from Game & Guide and Addicting Info.

His response was,

"So that's two articles from one site I've barely even heard of, and one I've never heard of. Where is Kotaku? Where is The Verge? Where is Ars Technica? FFS, where's Slashdot, even?"

If anybody knows how to get ahold of (or post articles to) Kokatu, The Verge, Ars Technica, or Slashdot, they oughta try.

I sent a mail to TotalBiscuit's mailbox either the day of the announcement or the day after.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUv-aR7_wdY&feature=plcp
mailbox@cynicalbrit.com

He has a fairly popular youtube channel where he gives impressions of (mostly new) games, and mailbox is something he does where he gives his opinion on game related questions sent to him by viewers.

I feel like the enormous success of The Avengers somehow also plays a role in commenting on how ridiculous it is to dump a popular, profitable and quality super hero mmo.

Also, the tie-in of Joss Whedon, his oddball and not always understood approach, the loving fans and what they managed to accomplish when his beloved Firefly show was canceled, and his big-time success as writer/director of this years super hero blockbuster... could all also tie-in for some nice stuff, if anyone is looking for more.

I'm really only mentioning these things as further extrapolations and commentary and angles for this.
The bare bones is simple and obvious and effective, but I'm just tossing these out in case it kindles anything more.

Tony, is Forbes on your list of media contacts? If not you may want to contact one of the gaming/entertainment contributers over there. Paul Tassi comes to mind and I did enjoy his coverage of the Mass Effect 3 ordeal. I could not find a direct email contact but he does have a blog over on the Forbes site and is on Twitter and Google+.

on the day the bomb dropped there was an article on slashdot with a link to the petition

on a more recent note, this was found by a friend of mine

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-8373...feeds%2Flatest

Double posting here, I know, but I wanted to just point out, I caught this within the past hour:

Rumor: Paragon in Discussions to Save City of Heroes

Alpha Wolf's words have been picked up by the press. It also goes on further to detail the community's efforts to prevent the game from getting killed off, listing the vigil, letter writing campaign, and petition.

I like this bit the most:

"This example of gamers banding together for the forces of good is a lot like the kind of quests you'd find in City of Heroes - funny that..."

I know a lot of folks are showing excitement over "hitting CNN"...but that to me looks like a write-up posted by an amateur (likely a player). I assume just about anyone with a login on their iReport site can do that.