NCSoft Declines More Interviews from Increasing Gaming Press Requests

"The Save City of Heroes Campaign Reveals NCsoft’s Firewall of Silence"
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...ll-of-silence/

I know other gaming sites like Massively have seemingly already given up the effort to scale NCSoft's Mercy Island fortress-like wall of silence; but they certainly tried.

But, as we say down here in reality, "Your silence speaks in volumes." Let's see what my wallet has to say about th-- Oh, hang on a sec. I'm getting a call.

It's NCSoft!



What's that, you say, NCSoft? Calling just to say you don't care? That you're bigtime now? That you don't need my wallet?

/emote pauses, restrains his anger, and maintains his composure over the phone.

Well, okay. Fair enough.

Wait, what's that?

No, no, no-- that doesn't mean you've just reverse psychology'd me into opening my wallet, NCSoft. It just means we're mutually parting ways.

Wait, what? No, no, no. I won't tell my friends all about your other games.

/emote looks down at his super hero costume and then rolls his eyes at the telephone.

I'll tell them all about City of Heroes. And then I'll tell them all about YOU. Good luck with your realignment of focus, wherever that focus is. Good bye, NCSoft. *Hangs up*

/emote exits the phone booth, and flies out into Paragon City, to solve a few more crimes, to apprehend a few more super villains, to stop a few more wicked plots and schemes...

Son of a bitch.

...Isn't that telephone booth located in an Alternate Universe... of an ALTERNATE UNIVERSE?!

That conversation probably just cost you like 45K.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shubbie Im very good at taking a problem and making it worse.

At this point it would be difficult for an article with a pro-NCSoft slant to be taken seriously. The general internet talk about the shutdown has been very much in the players' favor and even the few dissenting voices have been generally sympathetic (i.e. 'yeah the game sucked, get over it, but it shouldn't have been shut down.)

If NCSoft was going to have a chance to put a more favorable spin on this, it would have had to been done at the beginning. Their silence on the matter has not done them any good and has let those people sympathetic to our cause control the conversation.

The only thing that NCSoft could do now to regain any kind of positive press about this is to issue a statement explaining their reasoning for shutting down the game and closing that statement with an announcement that they have agreed to sell the game to another publisher.

The longer they refuse to talk, the less anyone will want to listen to anything they have to say.

Well that is true enough EL but, if this does get to the mainstream press, they will want to do some research and they'll go to the internet and 'lo and behold' there will be all this information out there already telling a different story.

The sad truth is that this will probably never get to the mainstream press.

As you say, it's just not a big enough story what with all of the bigger events going on in the world. This is likely to remain a localized story but, the important thing to remember is that the people who are paying attention to this are the very people that NCSoft would like to have as paying customers.

It may be hard to tell but how many copies of GW2 have not been sold because of this? How many people will not buy Blade and Soul because of this? How many people will not play Wildstar because of this?

Negative press is always negative press despite what PT Barnum might have said and it takes a long time for companies to win back customers. If NCSoft had any chance of damage of damage control, they should have gotten to it long ago. Staying silent just reinforces the image that they just don't care. And how many people really want to buy something from a company that just doesn't care about what they sell?

Considering how Save CoH is in bed with the illegal reverse engineering effort, I can't imagine why NCSoft would refuse to talk to them... Gee. Total puzzler.

Does this "journalist" actually do any reporting or is it all copy-paste from Save CoH?

I think to call yourself a member of the press, you actually have to do at least a little work on your own.

I have never been able to work out why people refer to Tabula Rasa as TB.... >.<

I don't think this will be forgotten by many.
For the record, SOE butchering SWG in 2005 has not been forgotten (by players and by companies). That was a situation in mmorpg history that became a bulletpoint lesson for companies running these games.

The lessons of the paying customers come a bit slower, as we're rather fractured (within communities as well as between the many games out there) and we're the ones simply looking for our fixes of fun. Customers have struggles that exist, unending, elsewhere and they come to games for enjoyment, release of stress and freedom from everyday hassles... However, recurring negative scenarios and cold practices seemingly follow these customers around and it adds up. Then again, perhaps that is why subscription services may be fading away from the genre. The wary customers are "fickle" and, instead of supplying quality, care and concern, the business path of choice is to make an attractive welcome via lack of financial commitment.
Of course, all of this is really besides the Captain's topic.
Other than that he is not alone and many will not forget and NCSoft are, indeed, clearly "doodooheads".

What is most sad is that this particular development studio and game was greatly focused on not being such cold-hearted, uncaring, unfun monsters of business.
And, even though that aspect was a great attraction, provided great loyalty and maintained profitability, the business "savvy" would likely claim that this very nature was likely the cause of why the game needed to be shut down.
That's what happens when the perpetrators provide their own analysis.

I for one still haven't picked up GW2 and I don't plan on it.