In my case, I got into CoH by word of mouth. I'd known about the game for a few years prior thanks to friends who played it, but I didn't get into it until 2008, when I played a free trial with some other acquaintances.
CoH didn't hold their attention for more than a month at best, but it sure held mine.
It was pure chance. Then I told other people about it. Most found it to not be their cup of tea. But most gave it a try. Most of them never
even heard about COX prior to me mentioning it to them. And to this day, even serious gamers that can name idependent studios in a basement working on a new game that never see the light of day, even heard of many of NCSoft other offerings never heard of this game. The word just never got out there much. In fact, before I even figured NCSoft was behind COX, a couple mentioned NCSoft to me and their other games but when I mentioned COX they looked as clueless as a brain dead person at a NASA meeting.
One, way back when I first started playing and the discussion of game publishers, one mentioned "oh yeah NCsoft have this super hero game out. Heard it's pretty good." And I piped up, "Yeah, it's called City of Heroes." He tried it out for a few months, then left. Last I heard he's still playing WoW. He said it was too dead. Of course I asked what does he means, at the time, I was on regular hours, so didnt see what he meant at the time. He said that while there is plenty of people on at peak times, the crowd is still small compared to WoW and he could only imagine that teaming is out of the question (his words) off peak times. I work during the day, have to cook dinner, take care of the wife and kids and many days I wont be able to get on until about 9pm (Central) and weekends are all but out of the question Saturday family time, and Sunday is church and dinner with mother law. I play MMOs to team. If I wanted to solo, I'd play console. In WoW and other games with larger population teaming is not worry because better chance in shorter time for finding people that have similar lifestyle." And after a while when I went to Europe I knew exactly what he meant. There wasnt many people on and the pool of people to team with dwindled outside peak hours. Luckily I dont mind soloing much. One stayed, and played until it went dark. But most people never even heard of COX but mention WoW, and I done this, even to non-gamers that never even touched a computer game or in some cases, a console game, heard of WoW.
Advertising works. Hell even a youtube video which dont cost a single penny, and WoW and many other MMOs have plenty of, works too. In a nutshell it's was absolute FUBAR with marketing as far as COX goes. It was a wonder they attracted as many players as they did by mostly word of mouth and an abstract ad way back in 2004 in some unknown magazine that are usually aimed at hardcore gamers which from what I hear among many hardcore gamers is not their style of game in COX. Which is like advertising a G8 jet plane in the coupon section of the food stamp pamplet. Sure maybe a few G6 buyers might heard of and might somehow come across a food stamp pamplet, but wrong target audience.
And how is WoW so well known? Continued reminder here and there that it exist. In the age of where games are played and forgotten, a reminder is sometimes needed especially after the many changes over the years. I5 COH barely even feels like i23 COX. Same game, same concept but so many changes so many additions that anyone who seen i5 and prior ad for COH and played and left due to not liking it, especially the early SK system, might have found themselves having a ball if they knew about the changes. And out of curiosity after contacting a few major TV stations for advertising times and price for slots, it owuld have been few beans they wont even miss. It's gets pricey during major sport events like playoffs, Superbowl, championships, and tier one programs, but plenty of affordable spots between the hours of 7am and 9pm and I'm talking about national syndicate stuff. Even a well off single person of upper middle class could afford it even though they probablywill miss that money. And here, a billion dollar corporation, it would have been pennies even based on the income and profits of COX alone. They just dropped the ball on ad. You see, they ad like crazy with their other games. There is even a Lineage and Guild Wars spot here in the Game Stops here way out here in El Paso. Never once have there been a City of Heroes spot even in it's prime. So out of curiosity I asked the game stop people about what it take to get one of those spots. They said here, they just ask the head manager and the people send out the package (the spots apparently come with games, the carboard display and sign in the window) and he said only one that regularly does it id Blizzard even though it dont cost much and so when Blizzard call they have nothign to say but yeah, we plenty fo room for it and Blizzard sends. The other game companies just dont on a regular basis which explained the Lineage and Guild Wars but not Lineage 2 and Guild Wars 2 even though they have all four game cards at the minimum. One manager even complained that he "feels they lose lot of computer game sales because people think they only carry WoW and Starcraft and thus when they sell less of others they have to order less of the others. But the companies dont send anything to advertise their games. You're the first person in a while that even mentioned COX. We had it, but no one knew it existed, and it didnt sell. But I love that game and many people have no idea what they are missing. NCsoft is stupid for not advertising this game"
So we arent the only ones that noticed lack of advertisment for COX. And those quotes are from people only in El Paso, a small crap hole of at own in the middle no where desert. Imagine in Los Angelese, Atlanta, New York, Dallas, Miami, St. Louis, Boston, Houston, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago and etc.? WoW is known because they made it be known. It wasnt just magically popped up in everyone heads when it was made. It wasnt WoW went live and everyone got a mental psychic message that WoW is live. And that is for any game or any product. Was it a risk that even with advertisment, it wouldnt bring in the money? Possible but even the first few years, considered the peak of COX, when it was raking in the area of 10 million or more in profits a quarter and 150,000-195,000 players, that they was thinkign WoW was sinking and not bringing in enough and that it might not be around by the year end but that is clouded by the success that followed, patience. They took risk, they won. NCSoft played it safe and got so-so results even though they SAID they wanted more but didnt make a single move to make it happen. Paragon Studios wanted it and seen it, but NCsoft dragged feet till the end and guess who paid the price for that folly? Paragon Studios and the players. That is what sucks and quite frankly irks the crap out of me about the entire situation shutdown more than anything.
