NCSoft Is Not Our Enemy, But I'm Really Questioning Their Business Sense

Blood Widow Ricki * Tide Shifter * T-34 * Opposite Reaction * Shaolin Midnight * ChernobylCheerleader

Entropy Legion * Hyperion Force * Hero Heights

If you mean the "publisher's efforts to realign its focus and publishing support" statement, for me it's the opposite.

Due to certain issues in a publicly traded company, press releases like these must be truthful. They should also be ambiguous enough that the player base does not get it out right.

I think the key to confusion may be in grouping of statements. Many may think:

They are putting effort into realign focus.
They are putting effort in publishing support.

The truth is that they are putting effort into realigning "focus and publishing support".

Realign is just a polite way of saying "taking it away from someone and giving it to someone else."

What they are taking away from "someone" [Paragon] is complete support.

Simply put: they took all budget away from paragon, seeking to "focus" it in supporting a different project or studio.

At first I figured it was for Guild Wars 2 (who also expanded hiring efforts at the same time the press got this embargo scoop), or potentially Wildstar. Now I'm thinking it's for this. They may be forming an all-new-studio, or expanding Aion's studio, to localize this game.

As I mentioned in another thread, we still don't know WHAT actually made them think this was a smart choice, and we don't know for certainty what studio will get the money, but we have enough to put it together that the true meaning is simply no more desire in supporting Paragon Studios and desire to support something else with that money.

BTW, this is not just guess work. Back in 2009 they used the same wording (refocusing publishing support) to justify NCSoft West -across the board layoffs. Shortly after ArenaNet came forth to clarify they got extra budget/manpower thanks to the misfortune of the fired employees across other studios.

Negative campaigning will do nothing except make us look bitter and petulant - the 'City of Children' that ill informed blogger wrote about.

So far the SaveCoH campaign has hit all the right notes - I'm frankly astounded that any MMO community could stay as relatively 'on message' as this one has. With no new info coming from Ncsoft about OUR game it's going to be tempting to latch onto other titles to have some way to express ourselves, but I think it'd be a mistake.

If it all comes to nothing, then we can spend the next decade or so reminding people of what NCsoft did. But until then, as much as I've had to bite my own tongue a few times, I think the cooler heads are right and we shouldn't give up the moral high ground for the short term satisfaction of going negative.

Blood Widow Ricki * Tide Shifter * T-34 * Opposite Reaction * Shaolin Midnight * ChernobylCheerleader

Entropy Legion * Hyperion Force * Hero Heights

This.

I know we're supposed to remain mostly positive.

Okay. Fine. Titan and the people in direct negotiations with NCSoft. THEY can remain positive.

But I think a few of the rest of us would be well served to find some back-channels to the gaming media and do a little rumor-mongering here, a little tanking of the meta-scores there. A whisper campaign via twitter over there...

Ok. Sure. Maybe wait a little while longer and let the positive and polite efforts run their course. But when and if it becomes obvious that such efforts are not paying off?

Well then it's time for the heroes to step aside and let the villains take a turn.

Greece almost had a license to print money in 2012, and it meant the same thing to them as it apparently means to NCSoft.

Ooh! Ouch! That burn was a hot one.

Most campaigns targeted at convincing NCSoft to change their minds are a waste of time. They will not reverse this decision.

The best hope CoH has to survive is that an IP transfer can be negotiated. The best chance of this happening is that Paragon Studio management, and associated investors, manage to convince NCSoft to sell it off. Note there may be many reasons for NCSoft to not sell, most of them "selfish" (if you want to attach feelings to a company.)

Even after a sale, we also have to hope full data transfers are possible. There is a huge chance that negotiations can fall apart if the game is forced to re-launch. I don’t care to start from zero, but way too many players do care. Heck, if players need to re-sign up, that alone can make the game lose a huge chunk of its player base overnight, something that may make the game fail even after a successful acquisition.

So… negotiations must be handled very carefully so a transfer, if one happens, goes as transparent as possible for as many players as possible.

I know as much (if not more) than you on that subject, so I know it's not guess work. It's painful to watch nonetheless.

This is the reason why I opted for the "shrug" route. Blade and Soul, or any other NCsoft game, doesn't currently interest me regardless of the issue surrounding CoH and Paragon. There's no need to waste my energy on a smear tactic aimed to not only hurt the company, but other gamers that may actually be interested in their product.


(And I partly forgive B&S because Kim Hyung-tae was mentioned. But only that far.)

Blood Widow Ricki * Tide Shifter * T-34 * Opposite Reaction * Shaolin Midnight * ChernobylCheerleader

Entropy Legion * Hyperion Force * Hero Heights

This has no significance whatsoever. As far as the general public is and should be concerned, NCSoft does not support CoH any more. It would be poor business practice for them to keep an outdated, unsupported product on their website.

Whatever discussions are going on behind closed doors is independent of the company's public face, represented by their website.

Thank You again for making us look like petulant children, it's really helpful.

Take a look at their MMO section. City Of Heroes is there with an Icon/button featuring a pic of Penny Yin yelling at what looks like the door keeper to First Ward...could be mistaken about who or what she is yelling at though..it was small.

Lisa.

Nail on the head. I got to play B&S beta, and its combat is lodged somewhere between Tera and tab-targeting. It's sort of like a fighting game, in that you have dial-a-combo combat, otherwise it's exactly like every other imported MMO, just prettied up (I like his art style, but dat anatomy...)

I'd actually go as far to say it's TOO Korean. Like, if you could cut an MMO, B&S would bleed pure, concentrated Koreanese (Like mayo only...regional?)

At least it has Eli...Lyns. They're very cute.

She is literally the most counter-productive poster on these boards. Which is sort of amazing.

Blood Widow Ricki * Tide Shifter * T-34 * Opposite Reaction * Shaolin Midnight * ChernobylCheerleader

Entropy Legion * Hyperion Force * Hero Heights

What am I supposed to be looking at? I don't see a link.

City of Heroes died squashed between the hentai breasts of Blade and Soul[less]