Who killed City of Heroes
By
Arson_NA,
Posted on: 2012-09-17 02:42 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
I killed City of Heroes.
Quote:
Simple answer NCSoft
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Originally Posted by katnap
What or who killed City of Heroes ?
It's easy to look back at the game and think what worked, what didn't work, what should have been done, and what wasn't done, the important thing to remember is that, even with all it's faults, COH was/is the best super hero online game in exsistence. We can look for reasons why Ncsoft are pulling the plug, but lets face it, COH was doing well, it was making a profit, there is no good reason that we know of for it to go. There is a lot of online games out there, and there aren't many that come close to COH, but somehow they survive. The only thing that killed COH is Ncsoft. |
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Nemesis did it!
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by katnap
The only thing that killed COH is Ncsoft.
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No. The economic realities of the game are what killed it.
Had Paragon been located in an area where cost of living and doing business wasn't positively stratospheric, the revenue-vs-profit outlook wouldn't have looked so bad.
Again, simple economics killed the game. NCSoft is just the one getting **** for making the tough decision to pull the plug on life support.
Personally, I'd think they should have given their business strategy a full year to pan out. But, with everything else going on, they were probably under pressure to "trim the fat".
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
Quote:
Let's not kid ourselves. NCSoft made the call to shut down the game. They weren't "forced by economic realities". They made the call. It does no one any good trying to shift blame unto some kind of intangible vaporware.|
Originally Posted by Hyperstrike
Again, simple economics killed the game. NCSoft is just the one getting **** for making the tough decision to pull the plug on life support.
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Re-purposing the resources you are spending on the game is all well and good, if you disregard the customers that are currently enjoying said resources. Some companies are happy with the "low-but-steady income" scenario and doesn't actively seek to antagonize their user base. NCSoft isn't one of those companies.
That's fine. Their choice. But let's not make up excuses for them.
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I think Friggin Taser did it.
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Ironically enough J.R. did it.
Quote:
While NCSoft is largely responsible. And could have handled this without killing the game outright, this is an interesting point. |
Originally Posted by Hyperstrike
No. The economic realities of the game are what killed it.
Had Paragon been located in an area where cost of living and doing business wasn't positively stratospheric, the revenue-vs-profit outlook wouldn't have looked so bad. |
California is a state that currently is extraordinarily hostile to businesses of all kinds. Not just in the stratospheric costs of living there - the insane housing prices - the ridiculous gasoline prices. But a crushing personal and corporate tax environment and onerous environmental regulations that not only make the cost of doing business more and more prohibitive, but make it nearly impossible to actually run a business without running afoul of some arcane law or regulation. This has caused a steady exodus of businesses and the moving of corporate headquarters out of the state of California or the outright closure and sale of smaller businesses and made the job market one of the most severely depressed in the US.
As an example - One of the more interesting departures is that of XCOR Aerospace. That company is leaving Mojave, California and moving to Midland Texas (my home state). Why?
Well for one thing, all of their employees instantly get a 9% raise all across the board. California's income tax rate is 9.3% and that's in addition of course, to your Federal Income Tax.
Texas does not have a state income tax. So in general rounded off numbers, everyone in XCOR gets to keep another 5-10 Grand per year. And then, of course, there's the tax on the company itself. But that's not even it.
XCOR's rocket engines are designed to be not only safe to run, but safe to fuel. Nothing exotic, just liquid oxygen and alcohol. When a new design needed to use kerosene - we're talking garden variety kerosene - the proposed new California EPA regulations say they will need to log every gallon of it. Paperwork will have to be filled out for every... single... drop... Of kerosene. Now you multiply this one simple regulatory burden by several hundred THOUSAND and you can begin to see why businesses are leaving the state in droves.
But - in a roundabout way this just points up the fact that NCSoft management is either corrupt, incompetent or simply doesn't understand what it takes to to business here in North America. They had 8 years and more to figure out that they had alternatives to the placement of the Paragon Studios development offices. Hell - the server farm IS IN TEXAS ALREADY!! If Paragon Studios had moved to Texas as well. Or Nevada, or almost any other state in the union (other than the Eastern seaboard, which is nearly as bad) they could have cut the cost of operations by one third or more.
So - bottom line: Still NCSoft's fault. Exacerbated by doing business in a business hostile state. But still - they had choices that they did not take.
But Paragon Studios is in Washington 
What killed the game?
The players who left killed the game. The players that came to Freedom and stayed free. Then NCSoft pulled the plug.
So it's a combination of that.
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Quote:
I hate to break the news, but Aion and Lineage 2 don't make crap for NCSoft in the west compared to the east, either. However, they're much more popular (as Korean grinders mainly are) in Asia. So all it takes to support team-wise here is a translation team. CoH didn't do well in Asia-- this has been said before and even since August 31st on these boards, but it bears repeating right now so here you go: NCSoft was basically paying an entire dev team here for a game that was only popular in the west, and mainly just in North America at that.|
Originally Posted by BrandX
But Paragon Studios is in Washington
What killed the game? The players who left killed the game. The players that came to Freedom and stayed free. Then NCSoft pulled the plug. So it's a combination of that. |
Don't kid yourself-- F2P or not, if CoH was popular in Korea and Asia it'd still be going. And that's the only thread Aion and Lineage 2 in NA and Europe have to hold onto, and it's a very tenuous hold at that.
A face that didn't fit and a trashed South Korean MMO industry did it judging by current speculation. And that's all NCSoft have left us to piece together.
Frankie says it best.
NCSoft killed City of Heroes.
If "economic realities" forced their hand, there were likely many ways they could have divested themselves of the game that wouldn't have involved the immediate termination of a studio of developers, the immediate cessation of their work, and as of November 30 is disenfranchisement of the player-base from the game. They chose not to avail themselves of any of those options, at least not to date.
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Quote:
So I killed it. I'm the Big Evil for attempting to bring about change by voting with my wallet. Ok, fair enough. I'll carry this burden.
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Originally Posted by BrandX
But Paragon Studios is in Washington
What killed the game? The players who left killed the game. The players that came to Freedom and stayed free. Then NCSoft pulled the plug. So it's a combination of that. |
Be well, people of CoH.
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Right. The game wasn't dead.
All the conjecture about what did it is silly... ah, but I like silly... but not this kind of silly... this kind of silly is just silly!
The obvious answer is NCSoft.
If we're going to say that the game is being shut down because it is not popular and profitable enough, then... America killed it.
How can such a great game not be more popular and profitable?
It had to be saved by a Korean company, but the American consumer-base couldn't match their lofty expectations...
Shame on you, Americans!
More seriously though...
The real answer is...
Jerkhackers.
@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
Quote:
HA!!! |
Originally Posted by Electric-Knight
More seriously though... The real answer is... Jerkhackers. |
I see what you did there.
Nicely done.
And... the more important question is...
Who will save City Of Heroes?
@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
Quote:
It's all a Bill Z Bubba plot?|
Originally Posted by Bill Z Bubba
So I killed it. I'm the Big Evil for attempting to bring about change by voting with my wallet. Ok, fair enough. I'll carry this burden.
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Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
Quote:
And no one ever noticed that we both have spiky hair. Also, William Zed Bubba is an anagram of Bawled Labium Biz, and we all know what that means.
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Originally Posted by Hyperstrike
It's all a Bill Z Bubba plot?
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Be well, people of CoH.
Quote:
"I," said the sparrow, "with my bow and arrow."
| Who killed City of Heroes |
Having Vengeance and Fallout slotted for recharge means never having to say you're sorry.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Electric-Knight
The real answer is...
Jerkhackers. |
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Electric-Knight
And... the more important question is...
Who will save City Of Heroes? |
I was sitting at my desk, staring at a pile of unread bills and a bottle of bourbon and wondering which would kill my brain cells quicker, when she walked in. She was the kind of dame that you'll never forget no matter how long you live or how many cold showers you take--legs that curved like an Italian sports car, and a face that could make angels sin. She walked over to my desk and said, "I hear you're a detective."
I shot her my best 'who, me?' stare. It's saved me once or twice from an angry wife who didn't like some of the pictures I took. Although if I'd taken pictures of this woman in the altogether, I'd never have given them away. "People say a lot of things. Who's asking?"
"A client," she said, eyeing the stack of bills on my desk. "I'm a gamer, gumshoe. An inhabitant of a virtual world. Two weeks ago, it was killed stone dead, even if the body hasn't stopped twitching yet." She leaned over the desk, giving me a view men would crawl over their own grandmothers for. "And I want to know who did it."
What or who killed City of Heroes ?
It's easy to look back at the game and think what worked, what didn't work, what should have been done, and what wasn't done, the important thing to remember is that, even with all it's faults, COH was/is the best super hero online game in exsistence.
We can look for reasons why Ncsoft are pulling the plug, but lets face it, COH was doing well, it was making a profit, there is no good reason that we know of for it to go.
There is a lot of online games out there, and there aren't many that come close to COH, but somehow they survive.
The only thing that killed COH is Ncsoft.
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