Update: Lining Up Next Target

[Victoria Victrix]

We will actually have about 2 1/2 weeks before we need you Merry Pranksters to actually do anything.  The "do anything" will be similar to the Disney action: letters and cards.

We are waiting this long because my (Mercedes) husband has a very good friend who is high up in Google Ventures.  To catch the rest of you up, Darren just went on vacation to Panama and, as with many others at Google, will not be back for a couple of weeks.  But we did contact him and he is thinking about the situation and is going to go turn over rocks at Google Play for us.  We might get a positive response from Google Play, at which point Team Wildcard will have revised the pitch package to make it specific for Google (YES we are going to mention adding apps like Auction House monitoring and in-game chat) and we will send it to Google Play.

We may not get a positive response from Google Play.  But this is what my husband has to say.

My feeling on Google is that they will not be the solution but they will lead to the solution. That comes in part from the realization a wise man had about FedEx: they are not a package delivery company, they are a logistics company that delivers packages. Similarly, Google is built inside and out as a problem solver company that executes its tasks by connecting everything. For example Google Labs innovates software for cheap-and-free, but that gets monetized when they specialize it to specific companies and ventures. So I feel like Google's approach will not be "Let's buy your game," it will be "Let's find who will buy your game so we get a cut.Now, a good thing about Darren is that not only is he deep in Google culture he is also in authority. That means that if we can get him to put out the call INTERNALLY at Google that CoH is looking for a home, the Google employees that played CoH will have a rally point.  Again these are big Ifs but they have good stakes despite long odds.

Who knows, we may hear from Disney by then.  We may not, but if Disney gets word that Google is involved, they may decide to get interested. 

Or they may not, we pursue the Google option to whatever the end of that is, then we make our move from there.

So that's the plan.

[Rigo42]

Thank you for the update. Glad there are intelligent people on this case.

[Ceremonius]

Hmm....some might be a good thing to get google involved.
"Getting their cut" doesn't really mean they have to see the allmighty $$$. It also could mean ingame advertisement (wich I don't mind as long as it is in form of NO popup, just a poster on a wall or something) and they would get free apps for their store by the community.
Also it could mean that CoH might get an ingame sort of browser wich directly leads to google.com, from where you can start surfing, checking your mails and so on.

The last one would be a great addition to our game.

Imagine: While you are ingame you have an idea of a build. And by using a web based mids you can check it on the fly. Same goes to apps, while you are not at home .

Sounds good to me - where do I sign?

[TonyV]

<--- HUGE Google fanboy.  When I went to the last player summit, one of our CoH members who is a Googler was kind enough to invite me to the campus there in Mountain View and have dinner.  It was, needless to say, awesome.  I actually made pilgrimages to several historical places (HP garage, Apple's campus, the old Atari headquarters, etc.), but other than the Paragon Studios-hosted festivities, it was the height of my visit.  I have a Galaxy Nexus phone, a Nexus 7 tablet, a first-gen Xoom tablet, and a crapton of swag that I bought from their company store.  If Google can help our cause, I will gladly do whatever I can to support that effort!

Here I am at Google.  Yes, he deliberately lined up the photo so that it looks like the dinosaur is eating my head.  I even took a picture of my visitor badge (inset, bottom right corner) because to me, even that was cool. 

[OzonePrime]

Ready!

[Servantes]

Looking it at a business stand point, There is quite a bit of PR to gain if Google managed to get the game,  it would be a giant advertisement point to anyone that they still see value in this older MMO, the old adage newer isn't always better, also the fact it has 8 years of content, just running the game would a Asset.

 Adding apps to the game would be a good way to update CoH, I know a few who wouldn't like it at first but to be honest in that area they would rather have the option, they could add pretty much anything they wanted.

Detracting from above, they would be taking a game away from NCSoft who clearly don't deserve the game.

[HEATSTROKE]

I honestly think Google might be a better answer than Disney. Id pay a few bucks to have Mids on my phone/tablet or to be able to work Wentworths from my phone YES !!!

[Ironwolf]

Look let's not just take this by sitting and waiting - is there anyone who could convert Mids to a phone app in advance?

Also so maybe the costume creator?

Then you could go to Google and say the game is waiting and here are things you could use immediately!

[Servantes]

Look let's not just take this by sitting and waiting - is there anyone who could convert Mids to a phone app in advance?

Also so maybe the costume creator?

Then you could go to Google and say the game is waiting and here are things you could use immediately!

Having Mids as a phone App would be amazing, costume creator would be awesome as well, but might be a bit hard to fit giving how many costume pieces their are, but if the textures were lowered enough I could see it being possible, would be a nice to see it have a import option as well.

[Ironwolf]

I have never worked on programming a phone app but you know what I will see what I can do

I will download xCode tonight and start learning.

[Ceremonius]

I have never worked on programming a phone app but you know what I will see what I can do

I will download xCode tonight and start learning.

Depends on the OS you are developing for.
Android is far more easy due open source and GNU GPL.
When it comes to iOS...well dunno. Never wanted that closed source

[TonyV]

<sidetrack>

Several years ago, I bought a MacBook Pro, downloaded Xcode, and intended to write some widgets related to City of Heroes (among a few other little iOS app ideas I had in mind). Once I got everything set up, I started learning Objective C and details of how to program for the iOS GUI. I got knee-deep into it and was really close to releasing something, so I sent my $99 to Apple to join their developer program so that I could actually publish stuff.

They e-mailed me back and said that they needed a copy of some official ID to prove that I am who I say I am.  "That's weird," I thought.  What difference does it make?  It's not like Apple has to fill out tax forms for me or anything.  And when I was signing up, it never told me that I'd have to provide any identification, but still, whatever.  So I made a copy of my driver license and snail mailed it to them the next day.  A few days later, I got another e-mail from them saying that they required a notarized copy of my identification.  Again, nothing in what I signed up for or in the first e-mail said this.

This was at the same time that Apple was clamping down on a lot of developers.  Daily, I read stories on Slashdot about people whose apps had been pending approval for weeks or months.  Also, some high-profile apps had either been denied or pulled, including Google Voice, a Commodore 64 emulator, and it was around the same time also that Apple declared that all apps had to be developed in Objective C, screwing over Adobe and Mono in the process.

So after I got the second e-mail, I thought long and hard about it.  Do I really want to subject myself to the walled garden that is Apple?  In answer to that question, I sent them back a reply asking for my $99 fee back, along with telling them that as a developer, I wasn't going to put up with these hoops.  If I had this much trouble just to push out a couple of widget apps for free to my friends, I was inclined to believe the other developers who were complaining about Apple's draconian approval process, and I didn't want any part of it.  A couple of months later, I sold my MacBook Pro, and I haven't looked back.

I might work on some Android apps, but if anyone else wants stuff developed for iOS, they're going to have to find someone else to do it, someone who has more patience for those types of shenanigans than I have.

Oh, and just for the record, Objective C is hideous.

</sidetrack>

So what were we talking about?  Oh right, Google!  Let's do that!

[Ironwolf]

Android will be the thing then

I will see what it's like.

[TonyV]

Well, I don't want to discourage you; if you have a Mac and want to give it a go, have at it.  I was just relating my story in case anyone starts asking me to develop an iOS application.  Not gonna happen, and I don't want to set an expectation that Titan will be doing anything with it, unless an iOS developer comes along and really wants to join the team to develop such apps.

Also, if you're going to develop iOS apps, I'd highly suggest that you go through the developer approval process or get someone else who already has to agree to publish your apps before spending any non-trivial amount of time and/or money on the prospect.  Also, I'd highly recommend reading up on Objective C to get a feel for how easy (or hard) it is to grok, maybe looking at some sample apps to get a feel for the language's syntax.  It's a very different beast from the standard C++/C#/Java class of languages.  It's not as far out there as something like LISP, but still, at least know what you're getting into.

[Ironwolf]

I like most every geek has done some C++ stuff and some old Amiga OS gaming stuff back in the day. But not much else for a long time so it will be fun to tinker again if nothing else.

[Ceremonius]

Wait, wait, wait, Tony! Did I got it right?
You paid them just to be allowed to have the confirmation that you can send them an app/widget that might not get in the store if they disapprove it?

What if you allowed to release something? Lemme guess - they still get a share...

Sounds totaly awful to me :O

[Quinch]

So after I got the second e-mail, I thought long and hard about it.  Do I really want to subject myself to the walled garden that is Apple?

When I look at Apple, I see less of a walled garden, and more of a gilded cage, with a price to match. Just a brief derail.

[Victoria Victrix]

I would absolutely love it if people would suggest apps.  I know nothing about apps.  I *think* Google would probably prefer that apps were for Android since there doesn't seem to be much love between them and Apple.  Apps seem the perfect way to further monetize CoH without being intrusive, and while actually being helpful.

[Surelle]

I would absolutely love it if people would suggest apps.  I know nothing about apps.  I *think* Google would probably prefer that apps were for Android since there doesn't seem to be much love between them and Apple.  Apps seem the perfect way to further monetize CoH without being intrusive, and while actually being helpful.

This is actually a terrific idea!  And yes, I'd think Google and Apple would be arch-enemies by this point, being that Google made Android.

[Wyrm]

So, no shooting me, but what about "early adopter" costume pieces, introduced through the app and being app-exclusive micro-transaction items for 2 months before becoming available for purchase through other channels?

I know, I know...  "This way lies madness..."  But if we are trying to interest them, pointing out ways to leverage technology into revenue streams seems appropriate.