For those of you who are interested, there're several articles on Cracked.com about the shady ways these games addict customers and milk them of their money.
http://www.cracked.com/article_18461_5-creepy-ways-video-games-are-trying-to-get-you-addicted.htmlhttp://www.cracked.com/blog/5-ways-borderlands-2-remorseless-addiction-machine/http://www.cracked.com/article_18709_6-devious-ways-farmville-gets-people-hooked.htmlIf I may, for the health of the gaming community we really need a name/label for exploitative, pay-to-succeed games like those described above. "Grindfest" implies doing not-fun things to succeed, but games that only allow you to succeed based upon your monetary investment are a new low and demands a new name for us to slap on them as a warning to others.
Moving on, over thanksgiving I finally had the chance to speak face-to-face with a good friend who works in computer games and lent me his insights into NCSoft. I'm confident that he will not mind my sharing, provided I don't divulge the source. Y'all will just need to take my word on it, and I'm sorry what I have to say is discouraging.
He worked for a US-based game company that somehow affiliated with NCSoft. They had expected support in the way of game engines, only to be told, "nope, you need to come up with all that on your own." They got no support from Korea, zero, while the Koreans expected their cut of whatever was generated. Apparently, their reluctance to share anything doomed the project. (He now works in San Francisco. having developed a successful MMO whose name y'all would know. On a personal note, he's also the friend who showed me CoH in the first place.)
His take on the CoH situation is similarly discouraging. Apparently the Garriott fiasco has sparked xenophobia, and NCSoft "just wants the relationship with the west to end." They want to do business now only with fellow Asians. So the arbitrary CoH shutdown and the treatment of Paragon employees is a logical consequence of a corporate temper tantrum. We are, all of us, victims of the messy Garriott-NCSoft feud.
As to the IP, he considers it
in character for Kim and company to shove CoH into an archive forever. I think they might even
erase the code out of spite. The estimated worth of the game is trivial to them. They believe (rightly) that MMO players have limited time and money to invest, and tend to invest in one game at a time. Therefore, why sell CoH to a competitor who will only draw away customers from their own games? (The fact that we don't give a dead donkey's kidney for their freaky Korean underage hooker martial arts fapfest notwithstanding. NCSoft is not known for understanding the audience, except how to addict and exploit them, and doesn't even want to understand the western audience.)
As to Kim himself, my source says NCSoft's current stock slump stems not mainly from our efforts, but from the company CEO abruptly selling all his NC stock to Nexon. This is interpreted as him not having confidence in the company. It badly screws over his employees who now find themselves holding a depressed stock. I believe this speaks volumes about the man.
All our protests and actions, in sum, have little effect except to make them madder, as they literally no longer want our business. Due to language and cultural insulation, we have little power to affect their bottom line in Asia.
So... the advice we arrived at is to proceed with Plan Z. If we want a CoH-like experience, it would be best to approach American game companies and ask for a new superhero MMO, or build and own it ourselves if possible. Forget about dealing with NCSoft in any way (as they are sociopathically exploitative and callous.) Keep in mind that superhero MMOs enjoyed marginal success at best compared to every businessman's secret, impossible dream of rivalling
Warcraft.In any case, the discussion I had with him indicates that lights-out on the first really is the end of Paragon City, barring a pirated copy of the code on a pirate server. Please feel free to fact-check, as I only have hear-say to report. And sorry to be the bearer of such dreadful news.
I'll conclude by once again cursing Jack Emmert for selling his lovely creation to such wretchedly unfit caretakers.