Titan Network
Graveyard => Save Paragon Retirees => Save Paragon City! => Topic started by: pandora114 on October 03, 2012, 03:56:38 PM
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http://littledinobug.blogspot.ca/2012/10/call-to-arms-special-needs-parents.html
Let's get this party rocking.
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They want a PR war, now they got one. Special Needs moms are adept at fighting.
http://leilasledger.blogspot.com/
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*puts on a party hat and fighting gloves*
Okay, ready!
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Feel free to adapt and make variations of this to pass around. Use as much of it as you like.:
Dear NCSoft Board of Directors,
On August 31st, you announced the sudden shut-down of the game City of Heroes, and the closing of Paragon Studios. On October 2nd, you announced, effectively, that there were no further plans to sell the IP in any way. This is a game which has proven beneficial to children with autism and speech disorders, in large part because of the game's subject materials. Children care about superheroes. They look up to them, and see them as role models.
The parents of autistic children struggle daily to find something that will help their children in the world. We had one of those resources in City of Heroes. Those heroes who inspired my child, and may have inspired other autistic children, to start speaking and communicating again, will be gone on November 30th.
Of course, there are other games we can look to as possible therapeutic aids. The autism community speaks regularly about new suggestions and therapies which might help our children. When we search for those therapies, we have to ask ourselves a question. "Is this possible benefit worth the risk?" It's often a very hard question to answer due to expense and time. For the $15 a month cost of an MMO subscription, that answer may well be yes. For a $60 game with no subscription fee, and perhaps an occasional purchase in the store, that answer may be yes.
Our children react very poorly to sudden changes. This is one of the diagnostic criteria of autism. And so I find myself asking a very hard question of NCSoft now. You have made the decision to shut down a thriving, active game. This was an extremely sudden, unexpected decision. You have further made the decision that you will not sell or release the IP for that game at this time. And so I ask myself, and I ask the NCSoft Board of Directors and shareholders:
Why should I trust that you will not do this to another game?
I am looking at a company that has just released a new game, and plans to release other games within the next year. Some of these games look very attractive, possibly interesting to children and teenagers. But there is still a very crucial question to be answered.
How can I say to the parent of another autistic child "Yes, try NCSoft's new game. It might help."
When a company has a long history of closing games down suddenly, a practice that could be quite harmful to progress an autistic child has made while playing that game, why should I speak positively of that company? I would like to recommend some of these games, but I cannot in good conscience tell the autistic community, the large and growing autistic community, that I can trust NCSoft not to repeat what they have done with City of Heroes and Paragon Studios.
Please help me find a reason to recommend your games to the thousands of parents of autistic children. Please demonstrate that we can trust your products to remain stable and continuous, even when those products no longer meet the direction of your company. Please reconsider your decision to release City of Heroes, so that I can continue to tell the autistic community that NCSoft can be trusted to support tools that help our children learn and grow.
We are heroes, so our children can become their own heroes. This is what we do. Show us that you're willing to be heroes as well.
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Shared Leila's blog post on Facebook, with the comment "From the point of view of the autistic kid: This is not even a little bit exaggerated. No other game helps the way CoH does."
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Some of these would be well suited to http://www.wired.com/geekmom/, I suspect. They've retweeted some #SaveCOH stuff, so I suspect they'd be sympathetic.
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As a special needs mom I approve this movement and am just getting warmed up! NCsoft and HKstrategies got their warning from me on Twitter the night before their most recent announcement. Unfortunately for them, they didn't hear me so it's time to start making myself clear. Not that I expected them to see my tweets, but at least I can say I gave them fair warning. ;D
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Sweet.
If any of you belong to any groups for your kid's special needs on Facebook, be sure to raise their ire as well. Sure their kids might not be interested but, It's a sisterhood. We all have our challenges. and we all need to stick together. They never know, THEY Might have tried City of Heroes as one of their tools if they had heard about it earlier.
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You ladies are bigger heroes than I will ever be.
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You ladies are bigger heroes than I will ever be.
Dang, no "Like" button.
YO, Moderator! We need a "Like" button here!!!
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In the four hours or so since I posted my blog post I've had 308 page views. Will it help? Will it hurt? Can't answer to either of those questions, but the message is out.
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I posted a link for your blog on the Save City of Heroes Facebook page. People were asking me if they could share that story on their timeline. Your story is having a big effect.
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No problem , please share. :)
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You ladies are bigger heroes than I will ever be.
Thank you.
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Way to go and I'll be adding this to my FB page too. Children and Superheroes should not be separated in this fashion.
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October is Disabilities Awareness Month..(I really hate the word disability) Which means that many newspapers are going to be looking for stories. Now would be the time to send stories to lifestyles editors. hashtag #disabilityawarenessmonth
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October is Disabilities Awareness Month..(I really hate the word disability) Which means that many newspapers are going to be looking for stories. Now would be the time to send stories to lifestyles editors. hashtag #disabilityawarenessmonth
YES. This!
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done :D gonna be using that hashtag w00t.
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October is Disabilities Awareness Month..(I really hate the word disability) Which means that many newspapers are going to be looking for stories. Now would be the time to send stories to lifestyles editors. hashtag #disabilityawarenessmonth
Anyone out there with diabetes have a story about how CoH made their disease more manageable? Would anybody out there want such a story? Because I need to learn more about this sooner or later myself. We could collaborate on a meal plan, activity regimen, medication therapy management... Send me a PM.
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No problem , please share. :)
Sharing is caring?
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Holly R Peete (@hollyrpeete) is a celebrity spokesman for autism ( I believe her oldest son?) anyway the fact that she has a morning talk show (The View) probably doesn't hurt. :)
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Sharing is caring?
absolutely!
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Holly R Peete (@hollyrpeete) is a celebrity spokesman for autism ( I believe her oldest son?) anyway the fact that she has a morning talk show (The View) probably doesn't hurt. :)
Hmm.....tweeted.
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I've reached out to Single Dad Laughing at www.danoah.com - it's not just the moms out there. :)
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I need to speak with Tony V !!!...I sent you a DM.
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So I am a 25-year-old living with Asperger's syndrome (diagnosed when I was a toddler), and while I'm downright terrible in conversation, I'm pretty adept with writing. What I would like to do is write up my own testimonial on how this game helped me - it has, immensely, I have no doubt about that whatsoever - especially in contrast to other games and social media, but I wouldn't know where to send such a thing. Direct me please?
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YES!!!! Please do that! Either Lilabird or myself would be a great place to send it to. Either one of us can put your story in our blogs and get it out there as a testimonial.