Response from NCsoft Support (About Refunds)

It's been stated in other threads that had this subject brought up, but I think it may be good to do it again here, in regards to bringing up lawsuits I really think that may be counterproductive to what we've been trying to do. I understand the anger that you're feeling, believe me I feel the same, but we need NCSoft to play ball with us, as well as potential investors and talks of lawsuits will either just make NCSoft think they made a wise decision or scare off investors. We're still in the saving the game phase, either by reversing the decision or selling it to another company that'll keep the game going, lets just stay focused on that for the moment.

Class action lawsuits are useless and only encouraged by lawyers to generate money for themselves. Now everyone has this idea that "Oh a game publisher sneezed in a video, I must launch a class action lawsuit because I might have caught pixel flu!"

I wouldn't care if I got a dime back. I don't care if a lawyer makes money. I just want to put pressure on NCSoft and it's investors. If the game does go down on Nov 30th I just want to punish them.

I am not ashamed of that.

PS: I've never sued anyone, not even my doctor for malpractice when a bad mix of medications that never should have been mixed caused me to have a stroke. The doctor made a mistake and meant to help me, afterwards she made sure the pharmacy updated its software and initiated the hospital to do a hand search of all records to make sure the medications weren't mixed up for other patients. That's all I wanted, to be sure no one else was hurt, and she did it.

I want more of my money back, I don't want to play another ncsoft game unless it's Paragon Studios City of Heroes.

I don't personally feel it's my place to tell any individual customer whether they should or should not persue legal action against NCSoft. It's not my money.

I do think it reflects extremely poorly on a company to cancel a service and have no prepared message for handling the fallout. I would not accept a "when we get around to it" message from a cable company, Netflix, pay-per view, concert promoter, or any other entertainment provider had I paid them ahead of time and they decide to cancel services. I think people just tend to think these things should be allowed to slide just because it's a game company, which is weird to me, because its often the same people who keep insisting on the cold business logic behind cancelling the service. If the game can be cancelled on a 12 week window and all strings cut because this is a business, lets let that apply across the board, not just when it's convenient.

Cats.

So this should read as:

"We'd like you to support Aion with your balance..."

[Insert Swear Word] You!

I would be willing to listen if the balance, however it translates, to Guild Wars 2. But if its subscription for subscription they can bite me. I will not support the games that caused this mess.

Actually, Lulipop? Go screw yourself. And congrats on being the first person on my ignore filter.

Repost below.

There might be a likelihood they were planning to push their other (completely irrelevant) games on us as part of the normal sacrificial routine, and now that it's clear it isn't going to work this time on this community, the CEO has ordered his minions to scramble for some other self-serving plan.

What we as a community NEED to keep in mind, is that NCSoft COULD make themselves out to be the "hero" of their industry by caving to our demands. And that would be great! However, big companies do not normally stay ahead by caving to everyone's demands. It only works when it's a very publicly visible demand. If yesterday's Atlas Park rally represents our outcry's crescendo, then we may as well pick up all of our toys and go home. But if we did that (or something just as noticeable) EVERY Saturday? Maybe now we're talking.

This will ONLY benefit NCSoft if it is crystal clear to anyone watching that NCSoft is responding generously to an enormously massive outcry. We keep thinking about our interests, but it's only effective (for them, as a business), if it's an opportunity for them to be publicly recognizable as a company that "listens to its customers" -- not just a company that panders to 'just another angry flash mob crying about the end of their game'. I hope most of us recognize there's a difference. We need to KEEP handing a GREAT PR OPPORTUNITY to them on a silver platter.

Please take all of this with a grain of salt. I'm just another blowhard on the Internet with an opinion. But after yesterday's rally, I noticed that most of the Internet-at-large had branded our community the "City of Children" (and a bag full of other colorful titles) within hours, and completely misunderstood our protest banners as being, well, PROTEST banners. THE PUBLIC AT LARGE IS STILL NOT AWARE THAT WE HAD A UNITY RALLY. And if you want more of my opinion, I think a significant portion of the player base also believed themselves to be attending an angry protest against NCSoft. Someone mentioned that players should have been using the /e lotus emote instead, or other similarly non-aggressive postures. That person is a genius. Wish we'd listened to the genius. Oh, well, maybe next time.

The public at large, the larger media outlets, and bigger celebrity endorsements aren't going to attach themselves to our community if they believe we're just blowing off steam before we give up, succumb to ADHD and move on to our next fix. A dozen EVEN BIGGER rallies (and whatever else Tony and his Titans have up their sleeve, I'm excited to find out) could prove that assumption wrong, and could prove that we're standing up for something substantially meaningful. I can't speak for what you, the reader, is most upset about. You all have your own reasons. But, personally, I came here for the stories. So many stories, intricately tied to such a rich universe, created by developers and players alike, many of which any successful author might have labeled masterpieces of fiction, moral wisdom or insight into the human condition.

For those who are crying out that this isn't just about "a game," I believe many of you are more right than you may realize. There is no humane excuse for NCSoft to sacrifice such valuable cultural artifacts along with its customers interests. THIS IS NO DIFFERENT THAN BURNING BOOKS. City of Heroes and its wealth of shared creations represent a new kind of publication in a new age of media. As we head further into the Digital Age, people will occasionally HAVE to make a stand for the public value of knowledge held within server-based storage media, as well as our inherent right as humans to continued access to the wealth of knowledge, imagination, and experience we build in these shared environments. Otherwise, say hello to a future where the human legacy that has mattered the most since before the dawn of civilization (shared knowledge, from thousands of years of campfire tales all the way to new media) is terrifyingly disposable.