NCsoft is NOT our enemy

Sorry, but seeing as how NCSoft decided to pull the plug on City of Heroes as far as I'm concerned they are the enemy.

I know people at Arenanet and they were just as shocked by this as the rest of us. Did they take their time with Guild Wars 2, yes. But they are nitpickers for quality and that should be appreciated. They could have shoveled out Guild Wars 2 early, but chose to wait until it was, indeed, ready.

NcSoft made some risky business decisions, not Arenanet. They made a big aquisition and didn't retool Aion for the American audience (we hate grinding.) Closing Paragon Studios to shovel money at Aion, here, is a huge mistake and will probably cost them in the long run. The MMO market is not what it once was because of online support in many games that aren't MMOs. This takes away part of the dynamic of what made MMOs unique. It's not NcSofts fault, entirely. And hating Guild Wars 2 will only hurt our efforts even more because, if that game fails, NcSoft will shut down another truly remarkable company that also listens to its playerbase. I, for one, do not wish to see that.

There is also the possibility that Arenanet could convinve their publishing arm to allow them to take CoH under their wing. Please, as TonyV stated, let cooler head prevail.

When a company goes rabid, and discontinues my world. That makes them the enemy. Anyone who acts in only they're own interest, even when doing otherwise wouldn't hurt them is inherently your enemy.

If the only thing that they will listen too is this then I will cry it to the mountains.

"Not One More Penny"

If all you care about is the bottom Line NC Soft I can assure you this is going to effect it.

Anyone who fires my friends (and yes anyone I would buy a beer for no questions asked is a friend), and ends my online home without a good reason, is my enemy.

If all I can do to hurt that enemy is vote with my wallet in the end, then that is what I will do. NC Soft has 87 days from now to rescind this decision, open source the game, or sell it to another developer, or they will never see a penny of my money again, and until those decisions are made they will not see any of my money either.

I know your trying to be peaceful in this. And heaven knows I signed the petitions and made the phone calls and wrote the letters, however TonyV, I will only be so kind to one who would make me they're enemy.

Elvnsword/@Liberties

Currently protesting on Freedom in perpetuity...

TonyV, you may be spearheading efforts to save CoH, but you aren't our spokesperson or our leader. Trying to defend NCSoft and make it out to be some noble corporation is ignorant both of the history and nature of corporations, but is also irreflective of the manner in which NCsoft chose to shut down our game. You claim NCSoft did this unwillingly - well yes, I'm sure they did. But it was not for any love of the game or loyalty to its players. NCSoft may have realized that the game wasn't turning much of a profit, and chose to invest money in an alternate project for which it had greater aspirations. Never forget that NCSoft is a corporation. It exists to make money. Your flowery, stupendously ridiculous speech to the contrary, there is no reason to suspect that NCSoft ever did anything for this game that wasn't specifically and solely designed to turn a profit. Unlike Paragon Studios, NCSoft chose to be an inhuman, soulless corporation without care or regard to the players of the game. Ample evidence exists for this in the manner in which they chose to shut us down without warning or stated reason.

In this scenario, NCSoft is like a supposedly loving husband telling his wife to pack her things and GTFO after some decades of marriage so he can have a skinny young blonde in his bed; and you are claiming the man only did it because he has special needs that must be met.

In short, please keep your nonsense to yourself. Trying to save CoH is one thing - I think it's a pretty hopeless battle, myself - but do shut up about what you clearly don't know or understand. It's insulting to us.

... Welp. Guess the Anger is back at last.

NCSoft is not our friend. NCSoft is not our enemy. NCSoft is not a bean counter, or a back stabber, or any of those things. NCSoft is a company. Its a building and some masthead. NCSoft doesn't have feelings, doesn't make decisions, can't be reasoned with or argued with.

NCSoft is a container of people. Some of those people probably wanted City of Heroes to go on. Some of those people wanted City of Heroes to end. That's probably always been true. On Friday, the latter group got what they wanted.

But while those people may deserve our antipathy, there are lots of others who don't. NCSoft is an easy target for anger, but its also a completely unfeeling target for that anger. NCSoft won't care if we're angry. NCSoft won't care if we boybott the company. NCSoft won't notice if the world ends tomorrow.

The important thing to understand is that while a certain amount of corporate-directed anger is understandable, its rather like hating Korea, or Earthlings.

Someone at NCSoft gave us a chance when not many others would have. Someone at NCSoft gave us the resources to expand the game beyond our expectations for five years. Those people may still want to see the game continue. They don't deserve our spite. Maybe some bean counter at NCSoft made this call. Then again, maybe this was not a financial decision at all: I've seen many corporate restructurings happen for political reasons more than financial ones, and political fights often have the most corporate bystander casualties.

Maybe someone at NCSoft could help us save the game. Hate NCSoft as an abstract entity, but remember that people make decisions, and NCSoft is composed of lots and lots and lots of people. As I've said for over eight years about Paragon Studios, NCSoft is not a Hive mind. While you hate the abstract entity, remember the people that exist within it.

I find the guy responsible for the shutdown, and he and I will have some words. Anyone who knows me in the real world, and has seen me in meetings, knows they will be interesting words. I'm definitely not known for being discrete. But I won't lob bombs at people I don't know for a crime I don't know they committed. That goes for the people behind Aion, the people behind Guild Wars, and even the suits at NCSoft. NCSoft is an easy target and I catch myself doing it as well, but NCSoft is not a thing that cares if I'm angry, and its not something I can extract revenge on. NCSoft is a thing on paper that doesn't care if it even exists or not.

People are the important thing. The developers and community people at Paragon are the important thing. The players of City of Heroes are the important thing. And for good and for bad, the people at NCSoft are the important thing. And the most important thing is to protect the innocent people while we punish the guilty people. Not burn an entire building down to catch a couple of twits.

That's should be the City of Heroes way. Except for Villains, but the devs hated villains anyway.

[QUOTE=TonyV;4379773] I have a crazy conspiracy theory that they were actually doing us a favor. Disclaimer: This is speculation, so please don't link back to this post as proof of anything. Bear with me here.
[QUOTE]

Sorry Tony V. Props to you and what Titan is trying to do but... Your speculation is the equivalent of the kid playing in a mountain of feces shouting "There has to be a pony in here somewhere!"

The truth is closer that on a Friday afternoon a bomb was dropped and the Rikti won. Paragon Studios: wiped out, CoH: irreparably harmed (best case) or gone (probable case). It did not have to happen this way but it did... and I'm well aware of the corporate entity responsible.

While I am not a rabid burn NCsoft down type I as a consumer have a right to be angry. There was a right way to go about this and they did the opposite. No one had an inkling this game was on the chopping block...not even the devs. They were still working on issues and costumes and powers up until the day the rug was pulled out from underneath them. The reason why so many people are angry is because no one saw this coming.

Now I am not the active boycotting type but I will not give money to s company that behaves in this manner.

NC is neither an enemy, nor a friend. They're a company, one that has made its share of good and of poor decisions (lately).

They're also extremely unlikely to be swayed in any constructive way by anger, venom, boycotts, or threats. While I personally have no plans to give them money again, after the disgraceful way they handled Paragon Studio, neither of those facts is helpful to this conversation.

They're also not a huge media company with an audience of tens of millions across North America; i.e., the sort of corporation that might be in a position to feel an impact from massive Facebook protests, Twitter campaigns, and so on. There are too few of us and too few people aware that NCSoft exists, for that kind of thing to be effective.

Being polite and positive may not help our cause either, but at least it won't hurt.

Yeah, I don't think our tone matters much one way or the other -- but we don't want to make ourselves look like nutjobs, either. NCSoft made a business decision of the kind that employers all across the world make every day. NCSoft could have handled it better, but if there's an aggrieved party, it's not the players; it's Paragon.

There really isn't any way NCSoft could have altered their approach to the game's closing to be more fair to the players; we got three months' notice. Paragon's staff were hit with an ambush-style layoff on the eve of a holiday weekend (and believe me, I know how much that sucks), and we can and should express our sympathy for the developers who've brought us all so much joy over the years, but as far as we players are directly concerned, we got about as much as we had any reasonable cause to expect.

So although I'm not totally on board with everything Tony said in his first post, I have to echo the Arcanester here: let's try to moderate the anti-corporation vitriol just a tad. It may not end up doing us any good, but our best hopes do lie with business of one sort or another.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iggy_Kamakaze Nice build

I'll give them until Friday before I get nasty. My husband knows that when I'm still angry and yelling or arguing I can still be reasoned with. When the talking stops is when I'm at my most dangerous.

I'm still talking.

Interesting how the belief that NC is a monolith that will be unaffected by anything we do goes hand in hand with calls to treat them kindly and think well of them.


**** those ********, I hope their company dies a horrible death from corporate Ebola and they find themselves evicted from their HQ with a cheery "Sucks to be you!"






Oh dear, where are my MANNERS.

Is it too late to Ragequit?