Current In-Game Populations...

I know things are greatly different right now for CoH and our community, but as bad as things may appear right now, we are just a few weeks after the completely surprising announcement.

Yeah, population is extremely low at regular playing times for all of us and it can be somewhat depressing...

However, for as long as I have followed this game, people occasionally leave, but often come back after one, sometimes two months... Usually citing, "I needed a break, played some other game(s) and found myself realizing... Nothing out there comes close to being as awesome as CoH".

Now, again, I know things are greatly different right now and the point of logging in and playing has been lost or it is just too doubleplus unfun with the end being so nigh and all... But, there will be people who regain some interest in logging in, some who regain their composure and find themselves enjoying logging in again, some who come back simply because they couldn't leave it behind for good, and some coming back because all the cool kids are doing it.

Oh, those numbers will likely not match what we had going on August 30th, but... it is very possible those numbers will be far greater than they are right now today.

I know that many of us are going to remain. And I only will ask each of you that truly wants to see this game continue to keep track of what's going on, to keep abreast of news from here and/or the Titan Network and/or all the other locations around the net that our community is keeping in touch with... And when we do have good news or events that could help the representatives of Paragon Studios or any other potential investors to free our beloved game from the clutches of NCSoft, please come back to us and join in and represent.

I'm not going to ask people to log in and play just because. You either will or won't right now. I only ask, if you do care, to keep updated and come out if we call for you.

You've seen the press coverage around the net, you've seen the videos, you've seen the red names voicing their appreciation and encouraging us and even asking us to keep it up... And those red names are gathering for dinner tonight, because we wanted them to enjoy a dinner on us.
You've heard the reports that representatives of Paragon Studios have been in negotiations/conversations with NCSoft and those talks continue.
That's all good. That's all worthy. And it's simply not over yet.


As far as I am concerned (and I said this elsewhere)... I'm not a foolishly optimistic person (I've had far too many bad things happen to me for that, hah), but I simply do not care, one bit, about the odds. The only thing that matters are the results. And the results don't come in until the game is truly over. And this game ain't over yet.

FPAEK!

Seriously though, YES. THIS.

I've been sort of selfishly playing on hidey-hole /hideall mode for the past week or so, because I love playing the game but couldn't get far enough away from all the negative discussions and friends egging me on to go join them in other games (though, oddly enough, it's allowed me to get to know some new friends who I ran into between missions, because I was able to give them my undivided attention).

Tomorrow I'll /unhideall and if anyone wants to just play some missions and have some fun and ditch the moping, I'm @Captain-Electric, at your service.

Edit: On virtue.

Yes I'm an "RPer" but since I pretty much just act like myself anyway, a goofball, it's not really much of a distinction.

I will renew a promise I made to myself many years ago...

I will continue to play this game as many days as my real life schedule allows, for as many hours as is practical. And, when the end comes, I will be there to offer to sweep the floors and stack the chairs and switch out the lights.

And a new promise from just a few weeks ago...

Should things turn out better than we expect, I'll be there first thing in the morning with a coffee and a bagel and a to-do list longer than my arm.

But for now, there has to be a task force or strike force or even a DBF that needs doing. We still have two months to enjoy the game as much as we can. While we're waiting for...anything... we might as well pass the time playing the game.

I took a short break after the news hit because it was just too hard to play.

Now I'm back in it, trying to get people to look at these forums and The Titan Network so that they can join our mission to Save CoH! I figure people who actually play may be more willing to get involved.

I will be on this weekend base editing and playing the game. If anyone is looking for a teammate hit me up @I Burnt The Toast (Freedom). All my toons are 50's but I love doing regular missions etc

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paladiamors I love you, I Burnt the Toast!

So, something to note:

Borderlands 2 and Torchlight 2 just came out recently. I'm playing a lot of Borderlands 2 myself. Big titles releasing would have an impact on ingame population no matter what.

I'm still playing every day. I bought the Water Blast set and made a water/dark Blaster the day after the initial announcement. I got her to 50 last week after only 65 hours on Patrol doing Tips, TFs and general teaming. My fastest ever, but then again, I don't have the luxury of spending 3-400 hours like I did for my first batch of characters that did mostly soloing. I must say that I really like Water Blast. It plays like Fire Blast with all the AOEs, but is more survivable because of its secondary effect.

Next week, I may start up a Nature Affinity Controller.

I'm here until the servers shut down.

(As my personal schedule allows :P )

I've been on just as much as I always was, if not more. I've mostly been just logging in my main, chatting with friends, hanging around Atlas or soloing missions. Freedom still has a pretty good amount of activity, hell I still see people trying to sell farm runs in the help channel.

Personally, I've been finding the experience too sombre in-game. It's just not as fun playing on a death clock, and really... I'm not going to "play" something that isn't fun. I'll definitely keep up on the forums, of course, and maybe I'll be able to forget about the end after a while, but here's the thing - the forums won't let me.

Take a browse through the front page of City Life and you'll notice that most of the threads have to do with "90 days to the apocalypse" or various goodbyes, or discussing the game's fate and so forth. It's like you're at a party that's winding down, everyone's getting their jackets, the waiters are picking up tables... And you're being asked to go down to the dance floor and have fun. Not how it works, really.

I honestly wouldn't feel so bad if we weren't so fixated on THE END and could actually talk about something else. Remember how much fun it was when we could discuss a variety of topics, like game design or storytelling or writing and so on? Hell, right now the most fun I've had on these forums in days is discussing the nature of anthropomorphic characters, roughly in the context of Guild Wars.

I apologise for being disruptive, because I know these aren't nice things to say, but... I just enjoy City of Heroes more when it's a game and an idea than when it's a CAUSE!!! It can still be a cause, make no mistake, but I wish it could be more than just that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

I played primarily on the VIP server. VIP is a ghost town. Its supremely depressing logging in and having the feeling you are the only one on the server.

Freedom has entire zones totally empty. During prime-time last night, Atlas had less than 10 players, plus a handful of mourners holding torches. I traversed every zone and /whoall revealed only Indy, Talos and PI had players, usually less than 3 and almost all running a TF "for the last time." Help and LFG channels were silent for 15 minutes at a time.

The thing is, the game is already dying. Even if saved, no amount of marketing is going to restore the population to what it once was. It will always be a shadow of its former glory and never recover.

You know whats rough? I really like some aspects of TSW, but god, the community just is NOWHERE near as nice as the CoH community. Absolutely rubbish in comparision. Everytime I play, I lament the continual loss of the community here, because nothing is as nice.

The only hope I see for us at another game is to try and salvage our community somewhere and hook up with the people who understand us, because out there are a lot of unfriendlies....

I hope something good happens of all this.

I'm here, on Triumph (blue and vig) as much as I can.

On Virtue (red and rogue) somewhat less, but still present.

I will be on a heck of a lot more after October 3 or so. If you are on Triumph, keep an eye on TW 2.0 and LFG. I plan on keeping things going as much as I can with our limited population. Including some Magi farms later next week. I know many out there want to unlock things, get this or that accolade one last time, etc. Many of our goals overlap. Let's team up!

Paragon forever!

Nice to see the replies from everybody!

I had a focused intention when starting the original post, but I may have gotten a bit swept away upon the soapbox!

The thing I really want to convey is just that the current sombre, empty server atmospheres that most are experiencing may not be quite so bad in a little while.
A large number of people have gone on to try out other games right now (completely understandable, given the lousy news we had dumped on us), but, the thing is, that many of them have been here a long time and many of them were here for good reasons. So often, we may take a month or two long break, but we come running back for the goodness that is CoH.

And, while this is certainly a different situation, I suspect that during this three month period, we will see people who were enjoying some other game come back and say, "Yeah, it was fun for a few weeks, but then it lost me and... here I am again...".

That and just, as I said, do keep your eyes and ears out for news and for any really important events.

If we could manage to do another showing like we did for the first Unity Rally, that would be impressive.

Regardless, I absolutely am not advocating to force yourself to log on these days. We play games for fun. Often times, with the limited amount of free time that we have in a day. So, Sam, you are completely right to not want to log on and be bummed out. And I don't want you to.
I took a very brief break (from the forums and the game) just this past weekend and that, alone, did me good.

So: 1) Population might rise up a bit before November comes around and 2) Please do be ready, on call, just in case.

Most importantly... if CoH is saved, I'd hate to see people not realize it, hah!

The sad thing is when something that has a long history be it a comic book, tv serial or a video game announce that is about to close down there is usually a flood of players, readers, whatever that want to be there at the end, but that have no real interest if the game would continue. I am sorry to say this but the last day players don't mean much.