Leave us alone NCSoft!

[Manga]

I think what TonyV is saying is NC likely *already* has intentions to harm Carbine and shut down Wildstar out from under players.  It's part of their business plan from Day One.  So buying Wildstar is silently condoning that sort of business behavior.

And that's probably true.  NC has shown their business strategy to be "turn and burn" - spend millions making a game, then when it's no longer their new toy, burn it to the ground and force subscribers to try something new.  And usually along with that, burn the studio responsible to the ground as well.

[FatherXmas]

But only in the west when expectations aren't met. 

Tabula Rasa and Auto Assault both never got subscription numbers that they would need to sustain them.  Especially with Tabula Rasa which ranked up there with Daikatana in terms of money and time spent.  Both were pushed out early and at the time of the closure announcement were finally started to show their full potential.

But compared to NCSOFT's mainstays in Korea, even City of Heroes and Guild Wars were not all that impressive even at their best, considering how much larger the market is in NA and EU is compared to Korea.

They haven't closed any MMO in the east they developed and their teams are intact.  Lineage, Lineage II, Aion, Blade & Soul are all alive and well.  Well Lineage II and Aion have started to fade and B&S wasn't the blockbuster NCSOFT hyped it was but it is now out in China (along with Guild Wars 2) and B&S will soon be released in Japan as a follow on to the animated series/commercial that's running there now.  The MMOs attributed to NCSOFT that they shut down in Korea, NCSOFT was only the publisher for that game in Korea.  One or both were picked up by other publishers for the Korean market.

So their "turn and burn" strategy is only in the west.  Except NCSOFT are sort of stuck with ArenaNet and it's possible Carbine has a similar sweetheart deal with NCSOFT.

If there's anything I've learned on the GW2 forums is that there seems to be a very vocal population wanting complex MMOs and that's what I've been seeing during my short time in Open Beta with WildStar.  But whether or not those same players would be willing to pay $15 a month for the privileged, that's a different question altogether.

[chasearcanum]

I'm torn.

I wish the Carbine crew the best in their endeavours.  I've found many of their teasers for Wildstar quite entertaining.
I remain reluctant to give NCSoft any of my business going forward and I'll share that reluctance with others that may consider doing so.

How a game publisher treats both their customers and their employees is important to me, and NCSoft has not demonstrated changes sufficient for me to again consider trusting it. 

There are other things out there that can consume my spare time, and I'll pursue them for now.

[PSI-on]

Sometimes life deals you lemons.

In this case it's the presence of NCsoft for Carbine.

I will not affiliate myself with any game involving NCsoft until they sell or reopen CoH.

Carbine may well be good people but unless they have negotiated a contract that prevents NCsoft from being able to close the game down, I'd give it 18 months to 3 years tops before it bites the dust.

This, also who cares if Carbine are good people? Sometimes bad choices come with consequences. It's mean and harsh, but it isn't as though CoX was there first nasty behavior, what, 4 games were closed prior? And why do so few even mention what happened with Tarbula (spell). They let the creator go on vacation, then fire him while he's gone, fake his signature to rob him of his stock benefits and closed his game down. There was even a court case over it, it's something Carbine, and hell even Molten Games, should have considered before hoping up to sign that contract and whatever horrible clauses it has, especially in today's world where steam green light (which I'm pretty sure we had like 3 years ago at least) and kickstarter can help Developers get stuff done without having to put themselves at the mercy of a profit hungry, delusional monster (point of being even if CoX wasn't making enough profit, it makes ZERO now, better to have set it up as they have the original GW, which was never a sub game, then close it and have to pay to keep the copyright every year, but not make money off it at the same time).

It looks ok. It might be fun, and Carbine might be good, passionate people, but unless it's possible to play and support them without making NCsoft a profit, making them more money, then there's no way I'm going to do that for them. That's a shame for Carbine, but that's what happens sometimes. I'd also like to point out that by going ahead and supporting this game and giving them money, it just reenforces for NCsoft that in the end they did the right thing mistreating their customers and staff, being no real consequences or penalties, and instead back to profit, which will only lead to it happening again and again. I won't vote with my wallet in a way that's going to continue a behavior that harms future players, even new MMO players, in a way that's so disrespectful and cold.