Call to Action: Contact NCsoft Directory
By
2short2care,
Posted on: 2012-09-14 23:19 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
Have to agree that it feels like they set that email just so the big 3 don't get flooded with things that don't pertain to the day-to-day business functions of NCSoft. We made enough noise to get their attention, but it looks like it caused NCSoft to direct us to go make that noise in the back alley away from the front door.
Paragon Unleashed Forums
Twitter: @Alpha_Ryvius
I sent an e-mail, but I share the pessimism of others.
On the other hand, maybe we got their attention and they're curious enough to want to consolidate all the feedback and see just how much there really is and what it's saying. The pessimist in me says "it goes to the trash bin," but if I were guessing optimistically, they might have someone reviewing it and reporting to the senior staff the way Zwill said he reviewed and reported back to the devs on threads here when they're making a decision: "there are this many messages, this percentage say this, this percentage say something else, the general response amounts to this." At any rate, they did feel compelled to acknowledge us and offer an official channel for continuing the campaign, when they could have just bullied Tony with a cease and desist letter and called it a day, and that in itself is a step forward.
"Now, I'm not saying this guy at Microsoft sees gamers as a bunch of rats in a Skinner box. I'm just saying that he illustrates his theory of game design using pictures of rats in a Skinner box."
Hrmmm.... okay... this may be a bit terse, or blunt, or naive, but this is what I put together...
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Honestly, I'm in the camp of low expectations.|
Dear NCSoft Executives, This letter is in response to your decision to shut down Paragon Studios, and "sunset" the City of Heroes game. I am not going to regale you with my personal stories of friendships made, or how great the CoH community is. Nor am I going to impress you with how many years I've maintained a steady subscription, or how many hours I've spent in the game. Neither am I going to point out all the many groundbreaking mechanics and features that City of Heroes has introduced, and that many MMOs have since attempted to copy in one way or another. Frankly, I don't think you give a rat's tail about any of that. What I will tell you is that your actions in this case have reinforced a very negative perception of your company amongst many in the western gaming communities. This is, of course, not the first game that you have shuttered over the years... But it is the first one that, according to most reports, was "in the black". It is also the first one that was cut off mid-development without any forewarning. These actions may have been made from a business standpoint, but they are shortsighted from a customer standpoint. They are not actions that engender trust in your product stability. You have, as the old saying goes, "cut off your nose to spite your face". I have no doubt that you are unconcerned about your nose, as new noses are fairly easy to come by. But customer's memories are not as short as you may think. For many, that "new nose" will just be a painful reminder of the one that was lost, and they will wonder how long it will take before you tire of the new, cut it off, and replace it yet again. To be gracious, why not give or sell the "old nose" to someone who will appreciate and care for it? You lose nothing, but will gain respect and loyalty. In a time of global economic upheaval, loyal customers will be your strength. Please find a way to allow the continuation of City of Heroes. You would lose nothing for it. You would gain much. Thank you for your consideration, |
Doesn't mean I can't hold onto a sliver of hope... just keeping expectations real.
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Don�t say things. What you are stands over you the while, and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary. - R.W. Emerson |
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I'm sorry Tony but I am with the others in this thread. The new email just for us is most likely just a way for them to funnel all our attempts at being noticed into a e-mail account that will either never be looked at, or just automatically sends everything to the delete pile.
I feel what you started this thread for was having the most effect, and that's why they shut you down so quickly, because those were personal e-mail addresses and they couldn't just ignore what we're doinganymore by turning away or having someone else deal with it. We where right there flooding there e-mail.
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I would say that is the most likely circumstance. That shouldn't stop people from sending emails anyway, since all player efforts are extreme long shots in the first place; in that respect the long-shot chance that you happen to be the player with the eloquence to get past the mail reviewers and reach an executive is no more of a long shot than anything else.|
Originally Posted by Sparkly Soldier
On the other hand, maybe we got their attention and they're curious enough to want to consolidate all the feedback and see just how much there really is and what it's saying. The pessimist in me says "it goes to the trash bin," but if I were guessing optimistically, they might have someone reviewing it and reporting to the senior staff the way Zwill said he reviewed and reported back to the devs on threads here when they're making a decision: "there are this many messages, this percentage say this, this percentage say something else, the general response amounts to this." At any rate, they did feel compelled to acknowledge us and offer an official channel for continuing the campaign, when they could have just bullied Tony with a cease and desist letter and called it a day, and that in itself is a step forward.
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What is important to realize is that is the problem you're facing. The problem is not expressing yourself to an executive. The problem is expressing yourself to a screener in such a way they decide to pass your message along. Anything you write that isn't designed to convince a screener to pass your message along directly or indirectly might as well be written on barbeque kindling.
Its the ultimate bank shot: you have to say the right thing to cause a screener to pass your message to a decision maker, such that when the decision maker processes the exact same message causes them to think twice about the shutdown. That's a one in a billion email. On the other hand, expressions of outrage and venting have a zero percent chance of even reaching the targets of that expression, which makes them pointless.
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In one little corner of the universe, there's nothing more irritating than a misfile...
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I'm sure it was having a significant effect, but I am unaware of any human beings that react to being bombarded with unwanted emails by seeking out the senders to commiserate with them. Its important to remember that when considering putting NCSoft on the defensive, we have no actual offense. If they decide to dismiss us permanently, its over: we have no actual counter-move that reverses that in seventy days.|
Originally Posted by Matthew_Orlock
I'm sorry Tony but I am with the others in this thread. The new email just for us is most likely just a way for them to funnel all our attempts at being noticed into a e-mail account that will either never be looked at, or just automatically sends everything to the delete pile.
I feel what you started this thread for was having the most effect, and that's why they shut you down so quickly, because those were personal e-mail addresses and they couldn't just ignore what we're doinganymore by turning away or having someone else deal with it. We where right there flooding there e-mail. |
Did we even know with certainty that the email targets read English?
I'm not as consistently optimistic as Tony appears to be, but I respect the fact that he's riding a very fine line between attracting the attention of the right people, and doing so in a way that pisses them off. Being ignored is bad, piss off the wrong people and its all over, and we will never even know it happened.
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Yes, it was posted on the Titan forums that the people we were emailing do speak fluent English.
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The ability to speak and read English is a lot more common overseas than speaking and reading anything but English is in the US. But on the other hand I know someone that speaks pretty good Chinese and can't read it at all.
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Originally Posted by Knightward
Yes, it was posted on the Titan forums that the people we were emailing do speak fluent English.
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I sent my earlier correspondence to the new address, and I encourage everyone here to do the same with theirs!
P.S. If they'e using any of this material as testimonials to show interested parties and seek healthy bids, you really want to help them put our game's best foot forward.
@Captain-Electric � Detective Marvel � The Sapien Spider � Moravec Man � The Old Norseman
Dark-Eyes � Doctor Serpentine � Stonecaster � Skymaiden � The Blue Jaguar
Guide to Altitis � A Comic for New Players � The Lore Project � Intro to extraterrestrials in CoH
Well, I wrote an e-mail to the new address. Tried to appeal to their business sense to sell off CoH, and gave some light praise about the choice of refunds instead of game credit. Because if I'm ordering tea, I don't want to receive an aardvark.
Culex's resistance guide
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Ah, yes. The ol' bait-and-aardvark.
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Originally Posted by Pitho
Because if I'm ordering tea, I don't want to receive an aardvark.
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Just bumping this to remind people to please take a few moments to copy/paste your earlier correspondence to this address.|
Originally Posted by TonyV
Cross-posted at Titan Network forums
UPDATE (Tuesday, September 18) Hey all, good news. As I indicated in my update yesterday, I asked for an e-mail address that we could use to send messages to NCsoft without interfering with company operations. Today, I received the following: "I asked about setting up a monitored email address for players to be able to communicate with NCsoft, and one has been created at: COHSunset@ncsoft.com." (Emphasis mine.) Now I know that some of you are thinking, "But that wont do any good!" but I'd like to point out that 1) you don't know that, and 2) they most certainly did not have to do this; I appreciate that not only did they, but they did it very quickly, which shows to me that they are listening. I honestly believe that someone will be reading these messages. Accordingly, please don't use it to grind your ax at NCsoft or e-mail bomb it. If you do, that will most certainly assure that it gets redirected to a black hole never to be read again, which would be screwing over your fellow players, not NCsoft. |
Why? Well, this:
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Originally Posted by Sparkly Soldier
On the other hand, maybe we got their attention and they're curious enough to want to consolidate all the feedback and see just how much there really is and what it's saying. The pessimist in me says "it goes to the trash bin," but if I were guessing optimistically, they might have someone reviewing it and reporting to the senior staff the way Zwill said he reviewed and reported back to the devs on threads here when they're making a decision: "there are this many messages, this percentage say this, this percentage say something else, the general response amounts to this." At any rate, they did feel compelled to acknowledge us and offer an official channel for continuing the campaign, when they could have just bullied Tony with a cease and desist letter and called it a day, and that in itself is a step forward.
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This isn't a demand, this isn't meant to be nagging. It's a desperate plea. I am pleading with you to cooperate with the rest of the community, just as strongly as I'm pleading with NCSoft to cooperate with our community. Please hear me. Please respond. Please respond to these calls to action we're seeing from the Titan Network. Please.
@Captain-Electric � Detective Marvel � The Sapien Spider � Moravec Man � The Old Norseman
Dark-Eyes � Doctor Serpentine � Stonecaster � Skymaiden � The Blue Jaguar
Guide to Altitis � A Comic for New Players � The Lore Project � Intro to extraterrestrials in CoH
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And if you haven't sent an e-mail to them before, please send one now.|
Originally Posted by Captain-Electric
Just bumping this to remind people to please take a few moments to copy/paste your earlier correspondence to this address.
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I actually wrote up a new e-mail for the new address.
Culex's resistance guide
Yes, indeed, please send your wonderful emails to the new address.
Whether you believe they will read them or not, they have basically given us a place to send our thoughts.
If it goes in the trash, no harm to us. If it gets read... /gain.
COHSunset@ncsoft.com
@Zethustra
"Now at midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew come out
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan
I can't improve on what I sent before (except a couple of typos... grr,) so I resent it to the new address. Hope it helps our cause! *crosses fingers*
Mike
August 31, 2012. A Day that will Live in Infamy. Or Information. Possibly Influence. Well, Inf, anyway. Thank you, Paragon Studios, for what you did, and the enjoyment and camaraderie you brought.
This is houtex, aka Mike, signing off the forums. G'night all. - 10/26/2012
Well... perhaps I was premature about that whole 'signing off' thing... - 11-9-2012
Also, please note that I received another update today, which I've posted in the top post. We now have an e-mail address set up specifically for us to use to communicate without interfering with company operations.