NC Soft: My patience is almost exhausted

So you think they suddenly woke up and decided to cancel the game? Sorry, but that's not how it happens. Companies keep on with business as usual right up to the point that they don't, at which point they ask people to pack their bags and they're done. When companies lay off staff, they don't slowly ramp down their workload and phase them out - they call them into an office, thank them for their time, and escort them from the building. That's how layoffs happen. And the people high up the food chain discuss it beforehand.

This was a sudden decision in the eyes of the fans and in the eyes of the employees at Paragon Studios. This was not a sudden decisions by the decision makers at NC Soft.

More to the point, even if they made the decision the same day they announced it - even if that unlikely scenario is true - they STILL would have had enough time to contemplate "we aren't giving customers what they paid for - we need to offer refunds". Sorry, but that's not a complex thought. That's not an arcane calculation that only a genius comes up with. That probably would have been first on the minds of at least one of the people present when the decision was made. And thus they should have had an answer ready for the customers affected.

They didn't.

Two weeks later they still don't.

I'm not waiting any more. (Among the other things I'm doing to oppose the closing of the game) I'm taking a stand and demanding my money back, one final time from NC Soft (here and via private communication) and, if this final time doesn't work, directly from my credit card company. And I encourage other gamers to do the same thing.

The suddenness of everything leads me to believe that in all likelyhood negotiations were underway from day one. Too much secrecy involved that isn't necessary in our market. I'd be willing to bet they think they'll have it handled before the servers go down too..

of course I could be wrong!

Yes, because a bugged tooltip = NO1CURR

Not long. But planning what they're going to do for refunds or credits can take time. And going off half-cocked and announcing partial plans can just get them in more trouble.

Again, a company isn't one guy on the internet twitting every half-hour. Information coming out from large companies that aren't "media" or "news" companies is going to always be (comparatively) slow in coming.

Why do you think NCSoft, AFTER the closure announcement started pimping the upcoming i24 on their website? Because stuff like that was pre-scripted weeks or months ago and inserted with a trigger date.

Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.

Ironic isn't it, when I complained about all the GW2 threads on the official forums, what was the response I got???, oh yes, we have permission to talk about other games now if you don't like them go elsewhere.

Guess if it ain't GW2 praising it's not allowed.

About EQ and EQ2, they do have the slight advantage of also being supported by SOE's Station Pass...

Well, there's also Neocron, Neocron 2: Dome of York and Anarchy Online. Neocron has the dubious honor of outliving its developer (Reakktor). Both games seem to be doing alright for now; the AO team is saying that the recent layoffs at Funcom only affect them in the sense that they won't be able to add members to their team like they hoped to, and thus can't get content or the graphics overhaul out as fast as they wanted.

I would add Myst Online: Uru Live to this list, but I don't think it counts since the game as an MMO has been resurrected and shut down repeatedly. It might stay up for good now, though (I hope) because Cyan Worlds is working on making the game open source, giving people the ability to create their own full-blown Ages (which I think was in their plans the whole time given the DRC's Guilds) ...

My attitude being "actually, there's a very strong possibility after November 30th none of our efforts would have made any difference at all, and in fact NCSoft may even have provisioned for a strong reaction to it which is why they're not saying anything". And you think that's the the same as an anti-Save-Paragon heckler?



Because that's not the attitude I'm having at all. My point is, that just because I'm offering a different point of view, or perhaps trying to keep feet on the ground instead of getting carried away with "Yay look at us and the difference we're making", then I'm pigeon holed as a naysayer or a heckler. Polarised because it's very easy to lose sight of the effect outside the walls of these forums or the game itself. To us, the difference we're making might seem huge - outside of the game, probably not so much.

Again, you're just as guilty as taking all of this personally as you think I am. In the grander scheme of things, the "Wonderful Community of CoH" really doesn't have that much clout. Really. It doesn't. It's too small. You can beat the "We're Heroes" thing all you like. It's wonderful imagery, and is obviously poignant given the nature of the game, but I honestly think it's nothing more than a fantasy that people are clinging on to. Am I a bad guy for thinking that? For attempting to see the bigger picture to try and see if our efforts have a real chance of success?

Everyone is bashing on about the petition having 20,000 signatures. I read an article a week or two ago that said SW:TOR was in decline because its player base had dropped below a MILLION subscribers. 20,000 might seem huge, but in relative terms its a drop in the ocean. That might seem harsh, or heckling, or naysaying, but really, isn't it just true?

Of course not. I was PART of that unity rally, in actual fact. Again, I'm not KNOCKING the efforts. Far from it, I'm just trying to get a bit of perspective, that's all. What's wrong with that? If I came across as haughty, it was only in response to the haughty response that I got for DARING to not think like a lemming and just blindly agree with everyone else.

There is EVERY need to get used to something when it's the only choice you are presented with. More and more companies are working towards a model that is based around making all of our "stuff" stored on line. Microsoft, for example are encouraging that business migrate to a hosted on line solution meaning that instead of paying for an Exchange server that processes and stores all of your emails locally, it's done via Office 365. You pay for a virtual server which they host on a monthly basis. More and more companies are moving towards that, because all they have to do is pay a monthly fee without any worries about maintenance or having to fork out for capital expenditure.

Granted, its not the norm at the moment, but its the direction things are going. It won't be long before we no longer pay for a game and have a hard copy of it installed on our hard drives, we'll just have a thin client and license to play a game on a remote server. The kind of thing that we're complaining that NCSoft are doing NOW is going to rapidly become the norm as more and more services become hosted and not locally available.

I think it's short sighted and idiotic because in the grand scheme of things it achieves nothing. There is another thread where it's reported GW2 has already sold 2 million copies. Do you honestly think in light of that news, NCSoft really give two stuffs about people childishly crossing their arms saying "NO. I'm not buying your stuff".

If GW2 is a good game, the only people losing out are the people refusing to play it on that basis.

*sigh*. I'm labelled haughty because I have my own mind. *shrug*.. sticks and stones.


Nope. Wrong. Again, just perspective. Pull back on the scope and see the bigger picture. Sure it's important to us, I'm not denying that. What I AM saying though is that what's important to us, might not be as important to the people who make the kinds of decisions that will matter, irrespective of the amount of noise we make.

Ironically, that is exactly the point. Or at least it has a very real possibility that after all is said and done that's what we're all going to be left with.

Well I'm doubly glad I'm not a heckler or a naysayer then.

"Spend more of my time belittling people"? Seriously? You've obviously not read all my posts then. Or perhaps you've only chosen to read the posts that I've made which back up that remark?

This is the thing that gets me about these boards. All the time you make encouraging noises, or recount positive things; in other words "tow the line" no one notices. The very MOMENT you say something that's just a bit contrary to that idea, you're pounced on and demonised.

People don't like having their hopes and dreams pissed on regardless of how unlikely those hopes and dreams are to lead to anything positive.

That's the internet for ya.

It's toe. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toe_the_line

As in, don't step over this.

Petty much?

And that's probably why people are attacking you for your tone, bro.

Nope, it was just a peeve of mine. I thought you might like to know you're using the phrase incorrectly. No need to bite.

That's because I've got no dog in the fight between you and LittleDavid. I see both sides and think there's plenty of unreasonableness going on. I'm not gonna pick your points apart either way.

I do hate misuse of aphorisms like "tow the line," "gave X the reigns" and "another thing coming," though. Drives me batty.

I'll remember that when I see someone say "your" instead of "you're" (which happens fairly often on these boards, and yet I rarely see anyone leap in to point out the error)

Wrong, omg! >.<

http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/thing.html

Thing doesn't even make sense!

That would be like running a marathon uphill, sadly.

Also, people KNOW the your/you're thing, they just type without thinking about it. I think a lot of people just don't know the proper aphorism and consider it a heads up.

About a hundred years of precedent disagrees with your last statement, but the link was interesting.