Call to Action: Unity Rally this Saturday!

Cross-posted on the Titan Network forums

Hey all, our efforts are really becoming visible. That's great news, and I really hope that it's the shot in the arm of morale that you all need to continue on!

Our next Call to Action is something fun that will be a display of unity, an opportunity for photo ops for press releases and communications to NCsoft, and that best of all will simultaneously give a shot in the arm of morale to people who probably need it badly and deserve our unwavering support: the programmers, designers, managers, marketers, artists, testers, accountants, community relaters, moderators, administrative assistants, and everyone else with a job title that doesn't fit neatly in the above whose incredible talents and awesome work ethic have built the world in which our imaginations live.

Unity Rally
Saturday, September 8, 5:00pm Eastern (2:00pm Pacific) : Atlas Park, Virtue

Please note, this is not a "Virtue" event. It's just a server I picked pseudo-randomly because it was most populated when I just popped in and looked, and I had to pick somewhere. We need all players from all servers to show up! I want ten instances of Atlas Park going with so many people camping City Hall that you can't even see the stairs. Don't have a character on Virtue? No problem, you'll probably need a new one anyway for the contest below! I'm going to take a bunch of pictures for our press releases and communications, so for Pete's sake, wear something nice.

Paragon Appreciation Costume Contest
Saturday, September 8, 6:00pm Eastern (3:00pm Pacific) : Atlas Park, Virtue

After the photo/video ops, the singalong, and the complimentary snacks and fruit punch, stick around because I want to have the biggest costume contest Paragon City has ever seen! Forget nines, you'd better dress to the ELEVENS for this one. Ah, but you can't just throw on any ol' neutrino powered tuxedo 9000 armor and expect to win this one, because there's a theme.

I want you all dressed... (drumroll please)... as your favorite Paragon Studios employee! That's right, I want ten Atlas Parks filled to Zwillinger's brims with Matt "Positron" Millers, Melissa "War Witch" Biancos, Andy "Zwillinger" Belfords, Hosun "Black Pebble" Lees, Keetsie "Tunnel Rat" Braz da Cunhnas, Arbiter Hawks, TheNets,... whoever strikes your fancy! In fact, what they heck, let's recognize some of the old-timers who got us to where we are today. Let's get some April "CuppaJo" Burbas! Some Avateas! Some Zeb "Lord Recluse" Cooks! Some Jack "Statesman" Emmerts! Some Jill "Ex Libris" Hendersons! Some Christopher "Back Alley Brawler" Bruces!

Remember, I'm not talking about the characters, I'm talking about the people themselves. I don't want this:



I want THIS!



"So how do I know what my favorite Paragon Studios staffer looks like?" Good question! There are a few resources. If you attended any of the Hero-Cons, Player Summits, conventions or Meet-and-Greets, just dig out those old pictures from when you excitedly squeaked like a schoolboy, "Oh!!! C'mere, c'mere, c'mere, c'mere!!! I want my picture with you!!!" (What? Was I really the only one?) Otherwise, you can look them up on the Paragon Wiki, a lot of them have pictures posted there. You can also check out some of the Coffee Talk videos on YouTube, Ustream, and Twitch.tv. After that, I guess you're kind of stuck, unless there were some massive searchable index of pictures that one could try... If you actually have pictures of Paragon staffers from events, post them below and identify who they are so we'll know!

The one thing I ask is please don't be mean, don't use this as an opportunity to grind an ax you have. Let's keep it fun and lighthearted. Endearing caricatures of your favorite Paragonster though? Oh yeah. Posi in a red jacket? Matt Thriller. Zwillinger with a bats aura? Andy Belfry. Be imaginative!

So what are the prizes for the contest? Shoot fire, I don't know. (Put down the Incinitron ZX Glove, it was only a figure of speech.) Fortune and glory, kid, fortune and glory. I'll walk around and give out stuff to people who I think are creative, funny, scarily accurate, or whose jib I find cut particularly well. In fact, It's a BYOP costume contest. Bring a bunch of stuff collecting dust in your base bins and be your own judge. I'll be snapping pictures like mad and taking some videos, though, so your "characters" will probably make their way back to the models they're based on, maybe even seen by the original him- or herself.

So come on out this Saturday and let's party like it's 2009!

Please don't drink and fly. Call a Taxibot.

I'll be there... I may break out a tribute costume I made for one of our Devs in the past...

Don't worry, I'll be there. I was just playing one of my Virtue alts today as a matter of fact anyway.

ill do my best to be there, i only have 1-2 toons on virtue cause i pretty much never play there, but gosh darnit i will be there if it means saving the game

*cracks knuckles and starts looking through Meet n Greet photos*

Only thing that may be a down side, unless some dev does something about the VIP / non-VIP status of accounts, people without VIP status and that have already exhausted their global openings, might not be able to properly participate. I'm not sure that new accounts can even be made. It would be a shame to have folks who are no longer VIP but still wanting to help out unable to attend.

I missed the server vigil today due to work, if I can possibly make this, I'll be there.

If I at all can, I will be there. I'm already working on a costume idea.

I24 Proc Chance = (Enhanced Recharge + Activation Time) * (Current PPM * 1.25) / 60*(1 + .75*(.15*Radius - 0.011*Radius*(360-Arc)/30))
Single Target Radius = 0. AoE Non-Cone Arc = 360.

If only I had characters unlocked on Virtue ... ;_;

*grins*

For those interested, I have the demofiles of characters created by @BurninUp for his "Save the Developers" AE arc. You can make yourself look like Matt 'Positron' Miller, Chris 'Back Alley Brawler' Bruce, Joe 'Hero 1' Morrissey, or Floyd 'Castle' Grubb. You've seen them before in my AVATAR: COH STYLE! video.

Maybe I should attend as Rabid Spoo... I think he's still on Virtue...

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

Ill have to be there tooo

You got it, Tony! I havent been on my Virtue lowbies in ages, but my highest level will be there - and I'll probably will have respec'ed him before then. I'm also gonna post this forum's link to 3 SG webpages on guildportal and from there I'm sure it will disseminate further.

For Players locked into P2F, I'm wondering if any have an option of Server transfer so as to attend the gathering on Virtue? (Idea: can the devs adjust the paragon tier reward settings?)

I'd have liked a time that's a little earlier at night, but I'll try to get Adventurer Like You to be there, and maybe others. I'll see how many concurrent copies of the game I can run.

Good Idea about announcing the Unity Rally on Virtue at 5 ESt, Sept 8th on SG Messages of the Day. It will be even more effective if all global Chat Channel moderators announce this also on all the chat channels.

I'll make a character just for that. Count me in, we'll put all 3 accounts on diff comps here.

I need to admit a few things up front. First of all, 5 PM Eastern is midnight on my end, so that should be doable, and if it's on a Staurday with a non-work day the next morning, that should be easy. Secondly, I haven't played City of Heroes since the announcement. I will support the game any way I can, but the game itself has turned into a tragedy where the reality of the game's real-world business model is intruding far too much into the actual meta-game experience.

All of that said, I'll be there, even make a new character for it. But I won't show up as a Paragon City developer. If I'm going to show support for the studio and the game, I wan to do this as "myself." I know I've said many times that Samuel Tow is just a character I made - my first, in fact - whose name I borrowed, but he was the first and only I actually identified with, back 10-15 years ago when my parents were going through a yelling divorce and I needed an outlet for some of my darker feelings. If I want to show up as "myself," Sam is the face I put on, because he's the closes I have to it. He's the only one I've ever been recognised as, and he's been lying forgotten all too long.

Sam needs a new costume, he needs a new sword, and he needs to be used more. Now that I don't have to worry about Incarnate to-hit or Super Reflexes or Inventions or all the other game-wise challenges that kept me playing other characters, I want to resurrect Sam and show up as him. I may not win a costume contest with him, but that's fine. I'm not there to win. I'm there to show support. For the studio, yes, but in my eyes, for the game more than anything else.

"City of Heroes is a place where dreams are born" has become sort of my motto since the notice of foreclosure, and that's the part of the game I most want to emphasise. I want to show people that this is a place where our imagination can run wild and produce things you just don't see anywhere else.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Transferred/renamed a character for this. What can I say? The challenge was an interesting excuse for spending more time in the costume creator.

Went with Ex_Libris, as few know about her anymore and so she seemed less likely to be represented. Also AFAIK Jill is the only redname to actually be in a Roleplaying forum IC thread. Might tweak the costume depending on reception in the Costume (Re-)Design Thread.

Already had fun with it. I came out of the costume creator to see a big red notice in my chat box. Arbiter Hawk was teleporting anyone who wanted into Paragon Dance Party! That was a nice treat. Afterwards I hung out with a rotating dozen other players near our friendly Arbiter (and sometimes car) with his Nemesis ponies in Pocket D, sharing gratitude for all the rednames have done.

I'm hoping the name and floating books emote I used were eye-catching enough to invite people to look at the bio to learn the info about your event on Saturday, TonyV. *fingerscrossed*

I'll be there, without a doubt! Virtue's my home server. If I can't make that short a trip, what's the good of me?

Have you thought about streaming the rally, on Twitch for example? It'll give us a video to link people to both for the live show and after the fact. Footage from an event like this would make it that much more compelling to run with as a story.

I will be rolling a new alt on Virtue today for this event... it will be... well... inspired by a certain Arbiter who has the Power to compell us with his hair!

If only I had a Fez, because Fezs are cool!

I will be there ... hmm maybe all Kirby'd up with the last give a way...

Now if only the store wasn't down so I could buy an extra character slot. Or even just a costume slot on an existing character. Oh woe is me!

Riff posted this on your boards:

Quote:

I'll try and point this thread in Kallandra's direction. The EU Player meet is happening this Saturday in Birmingham, England, and she's the boss of that having been the person who's put it together. The contest takes place at 10pm BST - so that might be slightly tricky given that some of us may be/have imbibing/ed (all of the above.) However, there's also some value in having lots of pics of players playing as we have the cossie contest.

I'll ask all the folks that show up (at present there should be around 30 people showing up that I know about), if they'll be willing to come on to Virtue and participate if they're still at the internet cafe around 10pm.