NCsoft is NOT our enemy

Hey all, I just wanted to take some time to (hopefully) quell some frustration and yes, even anger, at NCsoft. Apologies in advance for the book, but I've just got to lay it all out on the table. I'll also be communicating this directly to contacts within NCsoft in a much more succinct form and ask you to try to share my frame of mind in your communications.

Without NCsoft, there would be no City of Heroes. I think it's important to put a little historical context behind the company as it relates to our game. The creators of City of Heroes pitched their idea to NCsoft at a time relatively early in the age of MMORPGs. It was at least 2001, maybe even 2000 when the idea of a superhero-themed MMO was concocted. At that time, the only MMOs that really had any steam were fantasy-based MMOs, things like Ultima Online and Everquest.

When NCsoft green-lit City of Heroes, they were really taking a bold chance. MMORPGs were a niche industry relegated mostly to what were perceived by the mainstream as geeks in their parents' basements. Would it make money? Maybe not, but they rolled the dice anyway, they took a chance and provided the necessary funding to make it happen.

It was at least three years before the game came to fruition and launched. Take a second and think about that. Do you have any idea how expensive it is to fund even a small team of developers, artists, designers, writers, and other people needed to develop a game like City of Heroes for three years? Millions of dollars, from a company that, at the time, was virtually unheard of and was much smaller than it is today. If City of Heroes flopped, it may very well have bankrupted NCsoft. But you know what? They rolled the dice anyway. They scraped up the funding to make City of Heroes happen. Without their scrappiness and faith in the game's founders, all of these posts and discussions wouldn't be happening today.

When City of Heroes launched, it did pretty well in the marketplace. A lot of players latched onto it immediately and became the core fan base that is still with the game today. But just a short six months later in November 2004, one of the most well-funded games launched to a lot of publicity and fanfare. World of Warcraft had finally arrived. Comparing Blizzard to NCsoft is like comparing McDonald's to your local mom 'n pop burger hole in the wall. Blizzard had poured money into WoW's development like an open spigot. They threw millions at slick marketing campaigns. They rented acres of space at conventions, held flashy parties for fans and the media, hired Mr. T, Aubrey Plaza, Ozzy Osbourne, and other famous personalities to pitch their game.

NCsoft was now fighting frickin' Chuck Norris. Who the hell wants to fight Chuck Norris? The answer: NCsoft. In spite of all of the hoopla and what had to be a bit depressing news of watching World of Warcraft's subscriber numbers climb past 10 million under the blitz of vast sums of money and media coverage, did NCsoft back down? HELL NO! They doubled down! They coughed up yet another round of funding and developed City of Villains, which launched in October 2005. And you know what? IT WORKED. Back when MMORPG companies used to publish their subscriber numbers because investors demanded it, City of Heroes reached a peak in the fourth quarter of 2005. Remember, this was when World of Warcraft was also at its strongest. City of Heroes (and Villains!) was not just surviving, it was thriving in the face of one of the most incredible corporate challenges ever.

Shortly after that, we lost several of our key developers. Jack Emmert who, more than anyone else, was the Founding Father of the game, left. As did Zeb Cook, who spearheaded City of Villains. Some even created games to compete directly with City of Heroes in the very genre that NCsoft paid dearly to create. Subscriber numbers started lagging. The studio was left in the hands of people who were inexperienced at running such a large project. It's probably time to start winding things down and go into maintenance mode until the game goes into the red and they kill it off, right? HELL NO!!! They doubled down again! They put their full faith and confidence in Matt Miller and Melissa Bianco who at the time, while nice folks to be sure, on paper were probably ill-equipped to run the development of a project anything close to the magnitude of City of Heroes.

NCsoft didn't just sit on our hard-earned $15 per month, they continually reinvested it. They funded this crazy notion that Mac players might enjoy a popular MMO. They paid to fly developers, marketing reps, community relations folks, artists, and others around the country to events like Comic-Con, PAX, PAX East, various meet-and-greets, and others I'm probably forgetting. They paid to rent rooms at hotels and event venues and funded Hero-Cons and Player Summits. They funded the development of yet another expansion, Going Rogue. When Paragon Studios came to them and said, "Hey, we want to change our entire financial model to something that is new, kind of risky and largely untested, but we think it will make us stronger," did they become complacent and stifle a weird new innovation that would let players consume valuable company resources without even paying if they don't want to? HELL NO! They doubled down yet again, gave the green light, and put their faith in Brian Clayton, Ross Borden, and others who boldly charged forward.

After all of that, do you honestly think that NCsoft is shutting down City of Heroes because they want to? Do you honestly think they've poured millions into the game just because, well, it seemed like a good idea at the time? Do you honestly think that NCsoft is just a heartless collective of accountants, managers, HR people, and even a CEO that didn't agonize over this decision, who, for whatever reason, thinks that cutting Paragon Studios was essential to the company's well being, maybe even survival? Just like Paragon Studios is the spiritual child of Matt Miller, Melissa Bianco, Brian Clayton, and so many others, NCsoft is the spiritual child of Taek Jin Kim, and I assure you that the last thing that he or any other person at NCsoft is out to do is to take food off the tables of our Paragon Studios friends or to alienate a strong community of gamers. Not only does that not make sense, but I genuinely fear that going forward in that mindset is THE most poisonous thing I can think of to our efforts to save Paragon City.

Guys, to paraphrase Sigmund Freud, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. NCsoft isn't just City of Heroes, it is also Guild Wars. It is also Lineage. It is also Aion. They said that City of Heroes no longer fits in the long-term goals of their company. Typically, this means that they have projects that need resources, resources currently being consumed by Paragon Studios and City of Heroes. Maybe it's not money. Maybe it is money but indirectly, such as the ability to borrow enough to fund something else, but not being able to because of their commitments to Paragon Studios if it remains under their umbrella. They need those resources, and while I know how much this game means to you all, it's really unfair for us to ask NCsoft to sacrifice their long-term goals for us, not after they have sacrificed so much and taken so many chances on us.

However...

If you read their statement, it clearly says, "the continued support of the franchise no longer fits within our long term goals for the company." (Emphasis mine.) I really want people to pay attention to how they haven't precluded the possibility that someone else could take up the banner of City of Heroes, and I am very hopeful and optimistic that this is exactly what might happen. Perhaps Paragon Studios and City of Heroes is more like a child than we imagine. Since birth, NCsoft has been our loving and caring parent. They have given us the resources we need to be successful and to build a community that is caring and strong, and we are eternally grateful. No matter what happens, for eight and a half years, NCsoft has been directly responsible for a great deal of my own personal growth. In creating the Paragon Wiki and managing the Titan Network, I have gained technical and management skills I never would have had were it not for their support. If it weren't for NCsoft's greatness, I wouldn't be spearheading an effort to save Paragon City. Aside from the fact that there wouldn't be a Paragon City to save, I would have spent the past eight and a half years probably being a couch potato, completely unmotivated to try to make any kind of difference like I am now.

NCsoft is not our enemy. Apathy is our enemy, because as long as we care about Paragon Studios and City of Heroes as much as we do, I honestly believe that NCsoft would love for us to succeed. If City of Heroes stays afloat and continues to be successful, it won't just be a testament to our community and the staff of Paragon Studios. It will be a testament to NCsoft who took a chance in 2001, who risked so much and dedicated so much to making our community so great. I ask you all to please remember this when you post messages, write e-mails, write letters, or represent our community in any other way. We aren't fighting NCsoft, we are asking them to do what they have always done: to do what it takes to create and support a thriving community.

To NCsoft: Right now, with the decisions you make in the coming days and weeks, this is your chance to join with us. This is your chance to experience what we have, what it's like to be a hero, having people looking up to you with gratitude pouring forth and saying with one unified voice, "Thank you for saving us!"

Well said sir, although I am still mad at NCsoft, for not being more detailed about it.

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Yeah, while the "NCSoft sucks!" attiude is understandable when emotions are running high, it's important to remember that this is a totally out of the blue U-turn on their previouly supportive policy towards the game - and they had such confidence in the developers that they even green lit a new MMO from them, so something has clearly happened within NCSoft very recently to make them change that attitude.

Sorry Tony, but I disagree.

Sure, NCSoft have done a lot for us; but last Friday, our good buddy snuck up behind us, and stabbed us in the back.

well said tony, while i agree that ncsoft HAS helped city of heroes prosper in the past, like FFM says they did up and sudden decided stab us in the back

with the lack of information regarding why its not setting them in a good light for the time being

with the information we do know as you have pointed out coh was prospering, and then for seemingly no reason ncsoft decided to pull the plug

backstabbing is not cool (except in the case of tf2, im sure everyone needed that laugh), and if ncosft was a little more public about what is going on then im sure people could potentially forgive them, but they have played russian roulette with our trust one too many times and many poeple feel that they cant be forgiven with this

This is something I can't agree on, Tony. In my case, I've already had to experience this entire situation when NCSoft killed off other games, and I've seen the lengths NCSoft will go to take down a game they own.

Maybe the reason City of Heroes is getting killed off is because the managers and executives who would have stood by this game are no longer in the company or in positions of influence. Or maybe it's because Nexon's been putting pressure on NCSoft now that they have a majority stake in the company. The exact rationale for NCSoft deciding that City of Heroes no longer fits in their picture may never be known to us, but this is still a game that's been going for eight years and, all things being equal, could have kept going on its own revenue.

There's a big chance we'll never be able to play this game again, especially if NCSoft treats the City of Heroes IP like it does other games it's taken down, like Tabula Rasa.

I am not going to be spending any more money on NCSoft games, that's for darn sure. I said before I don't plan on sending NCSoft reps any nastygrams ... but I've seen how ugly the company can get, and now that they're taking this game down I don't want to be their customer any more.

All respect to you, Tony. You are a classy guy, and I put my chips on your number to lead us through this crisis now.

Everything points towards office politics and some kind of internal power struggle or reorganization at NCSoft - like the "CoH friendly" execs who were happy to support the game for all thse years and green light a new MMO from the studio have, because of NCSoft's curent financial state, been removed and replaced by execs looking to make cuts.

I don't know if this has been posted, but I found this:

http://unsubject.wordpress.com/2012/...e-world-event/

It's bitter, and unpleasant... and most likely why Paragon and Co* got the axe. Sigh.

While we do have reason to be thankful to NCSoft in the past, what they have just done (more to the staff than to us, although taking subs money then closing the servers down before the subs run out without a true emergency is morally fraud in my book) is so far beyond the pale and lacking any class that it is difficult to react with anything other than anger.

I agree that we have to try to deal with them in order to try to get our game back, and while I very much hope that happens, it doesn't mean I have to like them or buy any of their other games.

In the short term I think a lot of attitudes will depend on how their next statement reads - i.e. where they lay out the 'detailed timeline' for the shutdown, how accounts paid past November will be handled, and so on. I'm kind of surprised there hasn't been one already, but it'll make interesting reading when it does come.

In the long term it will all depend on whether they are willing to even discuss giving up the IP.

I just wish we'd get some more solid information about why they decided to do this. I've no doubt it'll come out eventually, but if NCsoft care at all about their PR it's surely in their interest to say something - if only to avoid the most negative rumours and theories spiralling out of control.

Well, all I can think of is this:

If NCsoft allows the game to go on in some form, whether it be a buyout from another company or whatever, I'll be annoyed at the way they handled this, but not actively against them.

If the game goes down, I'm going to want to see NCsoft burn. Yes, I have a strong vengeful streak.

Not to mention, if NCsoft refuses to sell the game, and NCSoft does burn, someone might pick it up in the fire sale of their assets.

Of course, other efforts for now. Burning only if all those fail.