Titan Network
Community => Task Force Hail Mary => Topic started by: Joshex on January 17, 2013, 06:34:05 PM
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I jumped the gun a bit and made a general business proposition to Aeria games, some of it was about thier own current games which have no relation to city or heroes or super heroes so I wont even summarize it.
the rest of the proposition can be sumarized as this:
I Reminded them of City Of Heroes being killed off last fall. and referenced all current Superhero MMOs as 'garbage' in our eyes.
I blantedly stated there was a hole in the MMO market left behind by city of heroes. and suggested they might try to fill it. referencing also that they currently don't have a modern age/futuristic Super hero MMO.
I hinted at 2 possible things they could do:
1: buy city of heroes and continue it
2: make thier own super hero MMO
I was specific in the second option making sure to highlight some of the aspects that made CoH work, and then directed them to the titan network forums for information regarding the player base's desires.
I also mentioned for the sake of our current efforts that we were courting Disney and Google trying to get them to by CoH.
this morning the status of the ticket changed from unopened to: 2013-01-17 15:46:16 Status changed from 'new' to 'resolved'
no comments
I wonder if this means aeria games has already noticed the hole left behind by CoH CoV and intends to fill it in some way?
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(Accent:Russian :Movie: 2012) Good. Very good. (end:accent)
But I seen a bit of an orange (a little beyond yellow but not quite red) flag go off in my head when I read "ticket". Did you makea buisness proposition through an in-game bug/help/tech support/"insert what ever you want to call it" line? If so, and mind you I'm totally jumping the gun here, then resolved could also mean that the ticket is resolved as in no issue to be solved and thrown out.
I dont think making a buisness proposition, any one that is be taken serious, should be made through ticket support. If not and it's just a general email ticket, which some places actually have for incoming emails and the likes through contact information, then belay everything after end:accent.
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Ticket system? Resolved?
Hah. That's a tier 1 monkey saying "WTF is this? LOL. Closed."
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Ticket system? Resolved?
Hah. That's a tier 1 monkey saying "WTF is this? LOL. Closed."
yeah, that was my gut feeling.
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Ticket system? Resolved?
Hah. That's a tier 1 monkey saying "WTF is this? LOL. Closed."
agreed with this, sounds like they sent in a support ticket which was more of a suggestion
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Gosh, now I'm having horrid flashbacks of all the flak some other guy got for using the NCsoft support system to get answers about the shutdown.
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Gosh, now I'm having horrid flashbacks of all the flak some other guy got for using the NCsoft support system to get answers about the shutdown.
Yeah, that poor chap got flamed pretty decent.
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Should I get out marshmallows?
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Kind of late now but there was plenty of marshmallow roasting in that flame.
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This is a joke thread right? Or does someone actually think that sending in a support ticket to some lowest totem pole GM is going to make it up the corporate ladder to the CEO and board of directors who are then going to pass along their decision via a 'ticket closed' response?
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well if you would of asked me around Sept. if I thought it was a joke, I would have easily and quickly said yeah. But it has happened before by a person who was a veteran in the gaming business (according to them and their website), so I'm not sure if it's a joke here as it seems to be made by a just a person who is trying to get it to the right person that may not be a veteran in the gaming producing business.
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Thats not good news.. thats not even news at all..
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Status: New -> Resolved with no comment - much less explanation - is equivalent to whoever got your ticket dismissing it on face value.
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sigh not through an ingame report system.
this was just how that particular company Aeria Games handles business discussions. they use a ticket system for all business issues.
this had nothing to do with a 'support ticket' system, it was strictly for business.
heres the description:
Business
This category is for anyone looking to advertise with us, is a developer looking for us to produce their game, or has a business opportunity that they would like to share with us.
http://www.aeriagames.com/contact/business
it's both a game I'm asking them to produce and a business opportunity I am sharing with them.
thier listing the issue as 'resolved' without making comments most likely implies they have somthing planned for a future release but currently must be kept hush hush (due to uncertainty? or due to having not much to show yet?)
oh, NEWS the status was changed to 'hold'
though I did enquire rather meekly and calmly as to why it said 'resolved' when no reply had been given.
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sigh not through an ingame report system.
this was just how that particular company Aeria Games handles business discussions. they use a ticket system for all business issues.
this had nothing to do with a 'support ticket' system, it was strictly for business.
heres the description:
http://www.aeriagames.com/contact/business
it's both a game I'm asking them to produce and a business opportunity I am sharing with them.
thier listing the issue as 'resolved' without making comments most likely implies they have somthing planned for a future release but currently must be kept hush hush (due to uncertainty? or due to having not much to show yet?)
oh, NEWS the status was changed to 'hold'
though I did enquire rather meekly and calmly as to why it said 'resolved' when no reply had been given.
Ah ok. I knew I jumped the gun.
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Well hey now, they are a worldwide developer and publisher of F2P MMOs with offices in the USA after all. And they don't have a Superhero game, but they ARE used to F2P! It might be a good thing if this ever worked out. They're a professional company primarily handling MMO development and distribution already. It's not going out on a limb to picture them taking on another MMO, especially one in a sub-genre they don't already cater to.
So quit being mean and jumping on the OP for coming up with what could be a good thing, you big mean peeps you! :P
Ideas are not exclusive to one or two people, you know. Try to remember that we don't want to cut off our noses to spite our faces here. We all want the same thing: For CoH to get picked up by a reputable, professional MMO dev/publisher. Wouldn't it stink if the right opportunity came and went and people were so busy immediately shooting everything down that they didn't even notice? Or that so much time went by that the press forgot CoH (which has basically already happened) and any pressure NCSoft had been feeling to sell it faded away?
I mean, wouldn't it be good if *something* good and reliable from an experienced company worked out? Why should people be put down for trying? Are YOU trying? And what of a concrete nature is coming of it if you are?
Though I think it is going to be a lot harder to convince NCSoft to sell to anyone than it would be to get Aeria interested in buying CoH, keep us posted if you hear anything, Joshex! (If you even still feel like posting here anymore after the reaction you got, lol.) Let's hope this idea has merit both with Aeria and NCSoft (but I still tend to doubt NC will sell to much of anyone).
At this point, since the door has been opened and nothing concrete is happening otherwise, wouldn't it be a good idea to send the 31-page pitch to Aeria now? (The whole Google thing supposedly wouldn't even involve Google itself buying CoH anyway, so who knows, maybe they could just nudge NCSoft into selling to someone like Aeria, although why Google would bother becoming some sort of intermediary for CoH simply out of the goodness of their hearts, without getting paid, is beyond me, no matter who if anyone wants to buy CoH).
Here's a blurb on who Aeria is, and they don't appear to launch games in Asia, so maybe NCSoft wouldn't see them as much of a threat:
With a rapidly growing community of over 45 million core players and a deep portfolio of development partners, Aeria Games is a leading destination for free-to-play online multiplayer games. Founded in 2006 and with offices in the US, Germany, and Brazil, Aeria Games publishes and develops high quality online games in nine languages - English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Italian, Turkish and Russian - covering more than 30 countries.
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Normally I would discourage people from scattershotting efforts onto too many companies. We DO NOT want to get into a bidding war, where the price of CoH ends up being inflated past what an investor can expect to see out of it.
However, this company wasn't on my radar at all, and I think you seem to be going about this in a good solid fashion, so please continue to pursue.
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Mercedes,
Do you think Team Wildcard should ship Aeria a quick copy of that 31-page "selling" document for CoH? It would time nicely with Joshex's work, and I'm sure it would help our cause. If you need help with the money to mail this out, I will happily pay it. I'm a single working mother, but I would pay a lot more than a Fedex bill to get CoH back. It would be worth it.
Joshex, I hope you're still out there for us to contact. :)
And is there any way Joe in Korea could give us a quick....update on NCSoft or blurb in the Korean times somehow, to step on NCSoft's toe and remind them all we're still here, so that it could time properly with any efforts Aeria might soon make?
Timing is everything in a sale. 30 years in sales have taught me that. And the media *can* have an impact. I reviewed for Computer Gaming World magazine for the last four years they were in print (and ultimately became their MMORPG reviewer), so I know that as well. (I even reviewed CoV for them when it came out. ;D There, now you know.)
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Joshex, i sincerely hope you had someone else proofread your proposal before sending it to Aeria, or at least it wasn't written just like your posts in this thread. While your posts convey your thoughts clearly enough the profuse spelling and punctuation issues do not project a very serious and professional image.
Nevertheless i do like your idea, and Aeria wouldn't be the worst candidate to acquire CoH, especially since they are focused primarily on MMO-style games and are based in the US.
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Joshex, i sincerely hope you had someone else proofread your proposal before sending it to Aeria, or at least it wasn't written just like your posts in this thread. While your posts convey your thoughts clearly enough the profuse spelling and punctuation issues do not project a very serious and professional image
Nevertheless i do like your idea, and Aeria wouldn't be the worst candidate to acquire CoH, especially since they are focused primarily on MMO-style games and are based in the US.
I don't think he has "profuse" grammar and spelling issues at all. He's obviously going a little easy on the shift key when posting here, but lots of people do that (including yourself ;)). Even if he did, I would give the guy the benefit of the doubt to know the difference between writing a business proposal and posting to a gaming forum.
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Mercedes,
Do you think Team Wildcard should ship Aeria a quick copy of that 31-page "selling" document for CoH? It would time nicely with Joshex's work, and I'm sure it would help our cause. If you need help with the money to mail this out, I will happily pay it. I'm a single working mother, but I would pay a lot more than a Fedex bill to get CoH back. It would be worth it.
Not without substantial revision, so there is no "quick" copy available. We intend to do a new proposal tailored for each new pitch.
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I'm still waiting on thier reply, and still checking every day, when it's something important like business I always make sure to watch my punctuation and grammar.
indeed they're a good company, I don't know how they do it, heh they have like 3-4 games that are medieval fantasy MMOs each presented in a different way and yet each game has a ton of players. and thier game shop... yeah it's making money for certain.
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Not without substantial revision, so there is no "quick" copy available. We intend to do a new proposal tailored for each new pitch.
You forgot to include a SASE with the Disney pitch didn't you? :P
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You forgot to include a SASE with the Disney pitch didn't you? :P
Now that would just be silly.
The pitch package itself is on GDrive so all of us could work on it at the same time. However, to avoid making it look like a "cookie cutter" approach (which is insulting), we opted for the more labor-intensive personalized approach. While this means that we can't just print off a new copy and send it to a new prospect, and it means that we need to put a lot of work in, each time, for the new prospect, it does make us look more professional--that we have done our due diligence, researched the prospect, and are displaying all the ways in which the potential prospect and CoH are a perfect match.
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So you're saying you can't just black-line the address and salutation with a Sharpie or sticker over with a handwritten label?
Dear Disney CEO Google CEO:
Attached below you will find our pitch for Disney Google to purchase the MMO City of Heroes.
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So you're saying you can't just black-line the address and salutation with a Sharpie or sticker over with a handwritten label?
Dear Disney CEO Google CEO:
Attached below you will find our pitch for Disney Google to purchase the MMO City of Heroes.
From what I know of business, that's something you just can't do. Think of a business proposal as a resume & cover letter (only much more detailed and refined). Companies want to know what you will do for them. What do they get out of investing in you.
There is no one size fits all for this. This requires research. Finding a 'hook' as it were, that will let Disney/Google/etc know that you've studied the way they do business, and just aren't throwing something random at them. From the cover page, to charts, graphs, paragraphs, you have to tie every detail tailored specifically to that particular audience.
Feel free to correct me if I'm speaking out of turn (or my arse), but from what I know, that's how it goes.
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From what I know of business, that's something you just can't do. Think of a business proposal as a resume & cover letter (only much more detailed and refined). Companies want to know what you will do for them. What do they get out of investing in you.
There is no one size fits all for this. This requires research. Finding a 'hook' as it were, that will let Disney/Google/etc know that you've studied the way they do business, and just aren't throwing something random at them. From the cover page, to charts, graphs, paragraphs, you have to tie every detail tailored specifically to that particular audience.
Feel free to correct me if I'm speaking out of turn (or my arse), but from what I know, that's how it goes.
from my experiences, this is how it worked.
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So you're saying you can't just black-line the address and salutation with a Sharpie or sticker over with a handwritten label?
Dear Disney CEO Google CEO:
Attached below you will find our pitch for Disney Google to purchase the MMO City of Heroes.
It's too bad two people in a row didn't catch your humor, cos I thought it was pretty good. :p
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It's too bad two people in a row didn't catch your humor, cos I thought it was pretty good. :p
I'm not too good with tongue in cheek text based humor. It's all words on the screen to me. Even getting the tone that the author is trying to get across is troublesome to me so now I view it all as mere text on the screen and assume it is no emotions, and just text.
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Really? You actually thought that was an honest question? Really? "Black-line with a Sharpie"? To a business? Really? Really?
lol
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Really? You actually thought that was an honest question? Really? "Black-line with a Sharpie"? To a business? Really? Really?
lol
Hey hey, when I assumed emotion intent and tone in the past, it blew up in my face. I'm not making that mistake again.
Only judging words as I see them with no assumptions. They didnt say they was joking so I'm not assuming they was joking.
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So you're saying you can't just black-line the address and salutation with a Sharpie or sticker over with a handwritten label?
Dear Disney CEO Google CEO:
Attached below you will find our pitch for Disney Google to purchase the MMO City of Heroes.
(https://images.weserv.nl/?url=affordablehousinginstitute.org%2Fblogs%2Fus%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fbrilliant_681.jpg)
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[...] 31-page "selling" document for CoH?
Isn't that... a bit... novel-esque to expect anyone at a business to actually peruse (let alone read) before any kind of formal discussions have even begun? Really?
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Isn't that... a bit... novel-esque to expect anyone at a business to actually peruse (let alone read) before any kind of formal discussions have even begun? Really?
I don't have much experience with business, but I thought that would be about normal for a well written proposal. Again I have no clue. Then again you could be joking in referral to the above theme in which case *woosh* right over my head lol.
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I don't have much experience with business, but I thought that would be about normal for a well written proposal. Again I have no clue. Then again you could be joking in referral to the above theme in which case *woosh* right over my head lol.
I think it's fairly common. Kinda makes me glad I don't have a job where each day there's a stack of those waiting for me when I get in the office! :P
And I thought it was rather entertaining too, Aggelakis.
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It's too bad two people in a row didn't catch your humor, cos I thought it was pretty good. :p
;D
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It's too bad two people in a row didn't catch your humor, cos I thought it was pretty good. :p
Hey, I caught right on, too! Hehe, +1 for DarkCurrent!
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AeriaGames like any respectful company will probably not respond to a simple pitch or pitch package regarding a game such as this. I still have gotten no reply.
it's been a while now so I'd like to step-up the game, as nintendo used to tell me when I complained to them abotu how thier games stunk "go to the forums and get the player community to agree with you and we will be delighted to consider it" Paragon Studios also used to say such things inreply to support requests with new ideas.
so, well, I don't want to jump the gun and honestly I can't do it alone I sheerly don't have the content.
I want to make an advertisement post to the Aeria Games Forums of City of heroes and villains to try and show the players what our game had to offer.
I want to both illustrate it in words and of coarse because these are players Slap in a bunch of videos!!!
I have some videos of general zones and some gameplay. but I could use more as well as supportive comments in said thread once it gets started. I could also use help with video ordering putting them in a good order.
so heres what I have so far (no I didn't post it there yet, and it is in thier forum's formatting):
Subject: Save CoH
Subject Description: A game that was killed
Hi, Yes a BIG hello to all the fans of Aeria Games, truely a wonderful and remarkable company bringing us gaming entertainment of all sorts.
I bring to everyone here's attention a game. the purpose of this title is to interest You the fans of Aeria games in this former game City of heroes for the purpose of gaining a desire for Aeria to possibly pick it up, you the fans of aeria will decide whether this game is good enough.
if you don't like reading you can skip to the links.
this is regarding a game that once existed as of pre november 2012.
after which it was brutally murdered and shutdown by it's hosting company NCSoft a south korean based company.
the game City of Heroes and it's counterpart City of Villains were MMORPGs where players could create thier very own superpowered hero or villain. it was originally owned and created and published by Cryptic Studios and then bought by the MMO killer NCSoft.
NCSoft is a heavily futurist philosophied company they are constantly pruning games from thier lists as they feel they become too old or not marketable to asia or smart phones.
with that out of the way, I want to introduce you all to the game, I happen to have a series of videos showing some of the game zones and gameplay, I honestly wish I had more, and I wish the videos were of better quality. but when I was recording I had limited time to get it right.
the game boasted both PVE and PVP Zones, hero and villain allignments as well as intermediary Vigilantes and Rogues, player architypes, character leveling, super power choices, power enhancement, Stories of grandure, and even a trip to ancient rome at LV35!!, the game had missions of multiple different varieties including the ability to make your own missions!! with your own unique stories and enemies!
every aspect was customizable, especially, your character!, from your powers and thier colors and animations to your costume to even your body type and colors of your character; everything was fully customizable and it didn't alter your statistics, you could look however you want and still be an awesome player.
Enjoy, I may get other CoH payers to post videos here too.
And Most important of all REPLY and let everyone know what you think of the game!.
Videolinks go here:
http://www.livestream.com/joshextech/video?clipId=pla_17eea173-9377-4fbc-bda7-12febbc36f69
http://www.livestream.com/joshextech/video?clipId=pla_67b69189-74a4-4273-995e-cb45e44cb362
http://livestre.am/4cZYX
http://livestre.am/4cZYW
http://livestre.am/4cZYV
http://livestre.am/4cZYU
http://livestre.am/4cZYT
http://www.livestream.com/joshextech/video?clipId=pla_78711258-4b8d-4bf9-b1a0-862ea757f8cd
http://www.livestream.com/joshextech/video?clipId=pla_0c2d11f6-b031-49fa-8f05-65dbb367eeac
http://www.livestream.com/joshextech/video?clipId=pla_5edcbb72-306b-4da6-8081-73ca2b03354e
http://www.livestream.com/joshextech/video?clipId=pla_f369f9b3-f885-4576-a4ed-f13ce77dadc0
http://www.livestream.com/joshextech/video?clipId=pla_f444a604-ea02-453f-af18-c1996ee40a15
http://www.livestream.com/joshextech/video?clipId=pla_475255ae-168a-4928-b60a-a90512a3267e
http://www.livestream.com/joshextech/video?clipId=pla_e811a671-2fcc-48b1-965d-ba409040d1ce
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Just be careful firstly of your wording because it isn't up to Aeria's fans, or CoH's fans, it's ultimately up to NCSoft whether or not they will even sell CoH. And of course, publicly both before the shutdown and then again this month in that MMORPG article, NCSoft High Command as it were said again that they aren't selling.
It's a double-edged sword appealing to Aeria's fan-base-at-large out of the blue; hopefully there are some warm memories there for at least some of them and not a lot of trolls or younguns who've never even heard of CoH if this winds up being the route taken. I am not sure if we should just stick a toe into the water first in maybe their off-topic forum, and gently see if there are many CoH supporters there. And be careful of sticking a CoH post into any of Aeria's games' General forums. Usually in any gaming forums, posts about other games immediately get deleted. Most mods are very strict about that sort of thing.
I have reviewed and played many MMORPGs over the years, but surprisingly, I have never played any of Aeria's games. I'm not saying they're not good, I've just never run into them. But then again, they specialize in F2P, and back in Computer Gaming World's days, that sub-genre didn't really exist outside of Asia, and being published in the USA and Canada we tended to stick with North American releases.
Is there anyone here at CoH Titan who already has a forum login over at Aeria's game forums, and thus would not be perceived as an immediate "outside salesperson crashing the forums?"
I'm almost wondering if we should focus more on Aeria themselves. Giving their current subscriber base exposure to CoH would of course be a wonderful opportunity to grow the game, but we do already have an established, paying customer base for CoH that it wouldn't hurt to remind them of, and many of us were probably not Aeria customers, so there conversely exists the opportunity for cross-selling their other games to this CoH customer base as well.
What does everyone else think? I mean, we all want CoH back, just not Joshex and I after all. :P
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It can't hurt, but I agree about making the references to NCSoft a bit more diplomatic.
I would suggest that you consider which features really set CoH apart (ease of PUG-ing comes to mind as one example, in addition to the obvious costume creator which you've already mentioned) and give those a much more prominent treatment than the basic details like PvE and PvP. The discussion of alignment might be done in a more "broad strokes" fashion without mentioning specifics like vigilante and rogue, just to minimize confusion or detail fatigue. Just some thoughts.
Also, there are a lot of typographical corrections that you'll want to make before posting it to the forums.
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Isn't that... a bit... novel-esque to expect anyone at a business to actually peruse (let alone read) before any kind of formal discussions have even begun? Really?
It's business standard.
You begin with an Introduction, which is a 1-page sum-up. Generally the Big Dog reads that, then hands the rest of the package on to one or more of his underlings to do a full read and a fiscal analysis, and get back to him.
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thanks for the replies, indeed I'm glad to have the input on the changes needed before puting it on thier forums.
I also would like a few demo record videos of gameplay if anyone has them?
I know someone demo recorded an ITF and an STF those would be great.
I know it's not upto the players, buy if I can get the playerbase talking about it that could be a very beneficial thing.
I already have an account over there, I play 2 games from aeria; Grand Fantasia and Shaiya, so I already have a good foot in the door so to speak. but indeed it wold be helpful to have more than one of us heh.
it's sad to hear NCSoft says they aren't selling. if we get a company willing to buy I would be interested in some of our legal members opinions on a lawsuit of NCSoft on the grounds of shutting down a game and having no visible future plans for it and refusing to let others have it.
sitting on a dead IP has to be illegal in some regard.
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Sadly, I don't think it is...
By law if you own an IP it is yours to do with as you please AFAIK.
Hopefully someone will tell me I'm horribly wrong there! x.x
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You're not wrong. The P in IP is, of course, property. Nuff said.
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Sadly, I don't think it is...
By law if you own an IP it is yours to do with as you please AFAIK.
Hopefully someone will tell me I'm horribly wrong there! x.x
Unfortunately you're not wrong.
There are a few famous examples of character IP's being lost and regained later - Oswald the Lucky Rabbit springs to mind.
It took Disney nearly 80 years to get that IP back though .....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswald_the_Lucky_Rabbit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswald_the_Lucky_Rabbit)
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we do have and advantage point that they didn't originally create the IP they bought it and killed it, we could try to prove they bought it for the purpose of killing a rival MMO. thats bad business.
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we do have and advantage point that they didn't originally create the IP they bought it and killed it, we could try to prove they bought it for the purpose of killing a rival MMO. thats bad business.
uhmmm...corporations do it all the time. Usually as part of a hostile takeover. Buy the competitor, destroy product that isnt going to be used, one less competitor, rinse repeat until someone hits ya with a monolopy lawsuit when there is few or no one left to destroy. Some do buy the competitor and use it to their own financial gain.
Plus that is kind of hard to prove they bought it just to kill it off given that the game grew over those years (iirc) and has been kept running for around 5 years, longer than most other MMO games' entire life span. Not to mention I think since the beginning they owned 50% anyways as publisher and just bought out Cryptic holdings in the game giving them 100% and thus Paragon Studios was born.
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we do have and advantage point that they didn't originally create the IP they bought it and killed it, we could try to prove they bought it for the purpose of killing a rival MMO. thats bad business.
We wouldn't be able to prove that, anyway. They bought it years ago and poured money into it and got money out of it. That's not bad business. That's just 'business'.
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hmm... troubling maybe it's time for plan ZIB that is to say Alphabetical Plan ZI Beta, I have contacts in south korea... Crazy insane Contacts with high level contacts, I could make NCSoft shamed over this issue..
but as I said thats plan ZI Beta that comes after ZA ZB ZC ZD ZE ZF ZG ZH and ZI Alpha.
JOKEING
OR AM I? MWAHAHAHAHAHAH
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I am currently going through a few of the local gaming developers in Michigan - contacting them and checking on the viability of using the Michigan technology grant to buy the IP and develop the game.
I have a list and I am going one-by-one.
Stardock was number one.
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieve it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Dylan Thomas wrote this as his father was going blind - but it applies to us beautifully.
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on a serious note no reply yet, I wonder if they will reply or just consider the topic with no answer.
or I wonder if they ignored my comments due to the requests for thier own games I made before the CoH comments.
I will repost the business topic with only CoH oriented talk on monday.
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lets try to keep my mind on good things shall we? right, let me write another proposal for Aeria Games completely focused on CoH while letting them know of our current moves with google.
I want to get some sort of reply from them about if they'll consider buying it if google says no.
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To Whom it may concern,
Please direct this towards the officials who need to make the decisions regarding this information of a business opportunity. and respond accordingly as per the question at the end of this document.
Recently the MMORPG City of Heroes and it's counterpart City of Villains was shut down by it's host company NCSoft, the players of the game find themselves without an MMO that fulfills their tastes for Superhero and Super villain fantasy, they have tried DCUO, Champions and others and have found them all to be nothing in comparison to City of Heroes.
And so there is a hole in the market, a smart business could develop a game similar to city of heroes in order to pick-up these 10's of thousands of fans as customers.
I am not joking, there are really over 21,000 dedicated fans not to even count the others who found the game enticing enough to pay a subscription fee each month.
Of coarse developing an MMO to fill the shoes of City of heroes is no small feat, it would take alot of time and effort, so there is another option:
The host company NCSoft has officially said "they have no more plans to do anything with the Intellectual Property (IP) of City of Heroes" and are currently being stubborn and merely sitting on the IP claiming "they have tried to sell it but negotiations were not successful."
The second option other than making your own Superhero MMO is to By the IP to City of heroes and launch an already existent game on your own servers for instant guaranteed profits.
They (NCSoft) are currently benefiting in the fact that all their negotiations over the IP are being done in silent.
A suggestion if you are willing to pick-up the IP of City of Heroes/Villains and it's paying fan base; While entering into talks with NCSoft for the IP make a news article about it before during and after, even take a video of the discussion if necessary. This will push NCSoft to sell the IP or look bad trying to ask for too much money or completely unprofessional demands on the buyer which will label them 'shameful in business practices' for trying to sit on the IP with no intention of realistically considering selling.
Finally, one issue of business remains to be discussed, currently the City of Heroes fan base is petitioning various Conglomerates to try and pick-up the IP to City of heroes, so far this has received no response or noted motion from either of the 2 companies they have tried (I.E. Disney and Google) they still remain in talks with Google. So care must be taken not to act too soon and instigate a bidding war between yourselves and another company.
In closing, please respond to this with your decision on the following question;
If Google decides not to Pick-up the IP to City of Heroes/Villains are you willing and interested in trying to Acquire the IP yourselves?
Submitted to thier business inquiries department.
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Didn't Mercedes list a number of subscriber and F2P users somewhere?
Probably a bit late to mention now, but I'd refrain from using the number on the petition as a referrence to subscribers, since every smart company will know that it doesn't reflect the truth.
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Didn't Mercedes list a number of subscriber and F2P users somewhere?
Probably a bit late to mention now, but I'd refrain from using the number on the petition as a referrence to subscribers, since every smart company will know that it doesn't reflect the truth.
I'm getting the number from the number of signitures on the save coh petition on change.org, those are obviously the people who really care abotu the game then theres more who may be F2P or subscribers but not avid enough to sign the petition and then of coarse theres the ones that died so they can't sign the petition.
moment of silence, especially for my friend.. if the game is not ressurected.. then the only thing left of him.. his characters and SG base, it's all gone.. I have pictures but still.. only NCSoft could be heartless enough to kill the memories of the dead.
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I know that at least a few of those are friends of mine who never even touched CoH, nor had any interest in it - they signed up to help out a friend.
And I'm fairly sure there's quite a few friends and family of other players on there too, not to mention the people I've seen that said "Signed it even though I don't play the game I do support your cause!".
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I have been using the actual number given by Positron of 60,000 subscribers active when the game closed.
That didn't cover the F2P people though but it is a measurable number.
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Adjustments made. I included talks about Positron's comment and talked finances, roughly taking the subscribers at face value ; 60000 * 10 (dollars per month) * 12 months = $7,200,000 - taxes, maintenence and payroll = around 2-3 million in capital.
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Except many were on monthly subs - like me so it was $14.99 a month.
I personally would round it out to $12.99 a month to balance month-by-month versus yearly subs.
So if you run 60,000 x 12.99 = $779,400 monthly
$2,338,200 quarterly
$9,352,800 yearly
Those numbers are pretty close with the last year since F2P where they went UP and the game was closed, yes the profits were going UP when they closed the game.
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Except many were on monthly subs - like me so it was $14.99 a month.
I personally would round it out to $12.99 a month to balance month-by-month versus yearly subs.
So if you run 60,000 x 12.99 = $779,400 monthly
$2,338,200 quarterly
$9,352,800 yearly
Those numbers are pretty close with the last year since F2P where they went UP and the game was closed, yes the profits were going UP when they closed the game.
Aeria games makes money off of thier AP (Aeria Points) sales, the average player doesn't buy AP much, but those that do might buy 20+ dollars worth of it a month, averaging the halfway point as around $10 per month.
bassically I was just supplying a rough estimate, even 7,200,000 is alot and somehting to spark interest for Aeria. thats probably what they average from each of thier games, though maybe a bit less for some.
another interesting thing about Aeria games, most of thier games have completely linked servers, aka all the same guilds ETC. are on each server and you can switch servers as simply as logging out changing server and logging in, your characters are automatically transferred cause they technically already exist on that server.
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I don't want to stick my nose in too far, here, but has it already been sent? There is at least one spelling error ("coarse" instead of "course"), and the language could use a little polish.
(I know it's easy for that to come off sounding dickish, and I don't mean to.)
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I never send an email or letter without stopping for an hour or so and then reading it again - saves you worlds of hurt at times.
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I don't want to stick my nose in too far, here, but has it already been sent? There is at least one spelling error ("coarse" instead of "course"), and the language could use a little polish.
(I know it's easy for that to come off sounding dickish, and I don't mean to.)
dang heh you're right about course, though the syntax is precise enough.
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I never send an email or letter without stopping for an hour or so and then reading it again - saves you worlds of hurt at times.
Excellent policy, I do much the same myself. I've caught some things I would never have wanted to send. A little proofreading goes a long way.
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Excellent policy, I do much the same myself. I've caught some things I would never have wanted to send. A little proofreading goes a long way.
A second set of eyes goes even further.
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No reply from aeria games yet, they still haven't viewed it.
heh when I think about them using this sort of system for business, I think "hey at least it's not the nintendo method, they use a forum not that much different to this one"
oh well it's probably a good thing they havn't seen it yet as V.V. seems to be having a little luck with Google VS. NCSoft, word to the wise Keep mashing those buttons and work that control stick out!!.
NCSoft will not be an easy battle, especially when armed with thier main attack "Silent Rejection of terms"
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I think Google has the clout to get a polite reply
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I think Google has the clout to get a polite reply
yup.
I doubt NCsoft wants to piss off Google and end up on page 48 when someone types in keyword NCSoft.
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yup.
I doubt NCsoft wants to piss off Google and end up on page 48 when someone types in keyword NCSoft.
you think like an american business man, you know not the subborness of asia.:
google sends properly composed request to purchase CoH.
NCSoft replies "we are not selling"
google tries to enter into talks
NCSoft "that is fine but we are not selling, we have already decided you cannot have it, no one can, it is our decision, we are nto selling"
Google tries the american final approach method: "thier lawyers send a fat check to NCSoft with a legal order to purchase the game"
NCSoft replies "your money is not the issue, we are not selling"
Google asks what is the issue
NCSoft replies "you must agree to our terms and conditions of sale, in specific at no time do you fully own the IP, buying it will be on a lease agreement and we have the right to refuse to let you operate the game and the right to recall the IP at all times, if you cannot agree then we do not have an agreement"
asian companies can be rather stubborn, you honestly cannot do business the polite american way, you need to 'hard ball' you need to go in strong and confident with demands and money at the ready, one slip in confidence will give them an opening to not take you seriously and make you their &%$#@.
trust me I have talked with asian CEOs in china before and my friends in korea agree this is the way business is done over there. it's all abotu the pokerface and presentation.
guilt is a strong ally too as blackmail is allowed to a certain extent in asian business. buying NCSoft expensive gifts and then coming out of the blue and making a strong bold talk for the IP to CoH would be the right method.
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you think like an american business man, you know not the subborness of asia.:
google sends properly composed request to purchase CoH.
NCSoft replies "we are not selling"
google tries to enter into talks
NCSoft "that is fine but we are not selling, we have already decided you cannot have it, no one can, it is our decision, we are nto selling"
Google tries the american final approach method: "thier lawyers send a fat check to NCSoft with a legal order to purchase the game"
NCSoft replies "your money is not the issue, we are not selling"
Google asks what is the issue
NCSoft replies "you must agree to our terms and conditions of sale, in specific at no time do you fully own the IP, buying it will be on a lease agreement and we have the right to refuse to let you operate the game and the right to recall the IP at all times, if you cannot agree then we do not have an agreement"
asian companies can be rather stubborn, you honestly cannot do business the polite american way, you need to 'hard ball' you need to go in strong and confident with demands and money at the ready, one slip in confidence will give them an opening to not take you seriously and make you their &%$#@.
trust me I have talked with asian CEOs in china before and my friends in korea agree this is the way business is done over there. it's all abotu the pokerface and presentation.
guilt is a strong ally too as blackmail is allowed to a certain extent in asian business. buying NCSoft expensive gifts and then coming out of the blue and making a strong bold talk for the IP to CoH would be the right method.
hmmm. So buy the CEO a G6 plane with a platinum/diamond encrusted walkway and the finest cow hide seats in the world or up it a notch and make it baby seal and a live in servant, with a free 70,000 gallons of jet fuel voucher then say that ya buying the IP?
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(https://images.weserv.nl/?url=imageshack.us%2Fa%2Fimg7%2F4703%2Fmodhat2.jpg)
Don't make potentially-racist comments about what someone of a certain ethnicity/country-of-origin does or does not do due to their ethnicity/country-of-origin. We've all basically agreed to leave out the "Asian culture" "Korean culture" "toeing the line of racism" type of comments. They don't belong here.
You don't know for sure; you don't know these particular business men. Therefore, don't comment about what their "culture" (this is a cover-up word for "ethnicity" in most uses) makes them do/not do.
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And I will continue deleting posts defending the use of culture (ethnicity) in an attack on NCsoft or any other business or person.
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But we can still say that it seems NCSoft * business strategy meetings are conducted in a "Reality-filtered room" and that they have made absolutely arse-hatted decisions as a result. **
*want to keep this PG13 can't really say what I want to about them otherwise it be pancake for about 3 lines.
** trying for understatement of the decade ;)
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Well Google has a lot of experience in doing business in Asia. A LOT of experience.
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But we can still say that it seems NCSoft * business strategy meetings are conducted in a "Reality-filtered room" and that they have made absolutely arse-hatted decisions as a result. **
*want to keep this PG13 can't really say what I want to about them otherwise it be pancake for about 3 lines.
** trying for understatement of the decade ;)
Yes. NCsoft made a hugely idiotic decision, stupendously idiotic, GINORMOUSLY batshit fucking insane decision, possibly big enough to have permanent ramifications, but we can't lay blame on their culture or ethnicity because we simply don't know.
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Yes. NCsoft made a hugely idiotic decision, stupendously idiotic, GINORMOUSLY batshit fucking insane decision, possibly big enough to have permanent ramifications, but we can't lay blame on their culture or ethnicity because we simply don't know.
Wouldn't want to accidentally insult someone with the possible implication that they have something in common with NCstupid.
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Folks likely the buyout attempt made someone at Corp feel like that Paragon Studios just whizzed in their Cheerios.
They said you know what at only $4 million profit a year - we don't need you - goodbye and rolled them up. I would bet on it.
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you think like an american business man, you know not the subborness of asia.:
google sends properly composed request to purchase CoH.
NCSoft replies "we are not selling"
google tries to enter into talks
NCSoft "that is fine but we are not selling, we have already decided you cannot have it, no one can, it is our decision, we are nto selling"
Google tries the american final approach method: "thier lawyers send a fat check to NCSoft with a legal order to purchase the game"
NCSoft replies "your money is not the issue, we are not selling"
Google asks what is the issue
NCSoft replies "you must agree to our terms and conditions of sale, in specific at no time do you fully own the IP, buying it will be on a lease agreement and we have the right to refuse to let you operate the game and the right to recall the IP at all times, if you cannot agree then we do not have an agreement"
asian companies can be rather stubborn, you honestly cannot do business the polite american way, you need to 'hard ball' you need to go in strong and confident with demands and money at the ready, one slip in confidence will give them an opening to not take you seriously and make you their &%$#@.
trust me I have talked with asian CEOs in china before and my friends in korea agree this is the way business is done over there. it's all abotu the pokerface and presentation.
guilt is a strong ally too as blackmail is allowed to a certain extent in asian business. buying NCSoft expensive gifts and then coming out of the blue and making a strong bold talk for the IP to CoH would be the right method.
I've put this in several other topics and I am surprised to STILL see comments like this. NCSoft is an international business, they aren't some shut ins that only do things the Korean way. At a certain point cultural goes out the window when dealing with so many different types of cultures. Also NCSoft has ALREADY done business with American and European companies several times before, these men and women are highly educated and familiar with international business methods. To assume that NCSoft only does business the "Korean" way just doesn't make any sense from any stand point because if what everyone keeps saying is true, they would never get any business done anywhere else in the world, ever. I don't know how business' and the way they are run vary around the world. However, I am sure that a company that deals with partners and investors from ALL over the world, are only stubborn in the sense that any business person is. And that is to make the most money they possibly can off their product. Greed is the same in every culture.
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Greed is the same in every culture.
Greed is greed and is not picky.
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News news news!!!
Headline: Aeriagames buys MMO IP
ok well they didn't reply to the business proposal, but one of the game masters replied to the thread in the forums saying he personally loved city of heroes. ok that is actually old news, I should have reported it a while back.
the newest news, Aeria games has just picked up the IP to DMO Digimon Masters Online.
so why is this big news? it shows they are not affraid to pick-up titles previously run by other companies. and not affraid to do buy-outs for the sake of running a game.
if google doesn't bite on the pitch I highly suggest aeria as the next target as they already show that they Know how to actively pursue the buyout of an IP to a video game. where as for google this would be new territory and there may be rules of the trade that google and thier lawyers don't know because it isn't thier normal business style.
that will actually make google look like they don;t know what they are doing if they approach NCSoft without the proper game administration syntax, or in the wrong manner of business for a game company.
now I'm not saying that google is incapable of stepping up to the plate! merely saying this will be new for them and thier lawyers, videogame business terms are not normally in thier vocabularies, if what they are saying sounds odd NCSoft might not take them seriously or might try to pawn them off.
presentation, not many people are aware of this but in videogame buiness theres this thing called a 'game design document' now I'm sure some people here on the forums know about this, but for google they will have to write one for the first time and it wont be a standard GDD it will be more like the pitch package that VV and Tony V and such have written, of coarse everything needs to be in a certain order and it should be short and straight to the point in Videogame Business Terms.
again, it doesn't matter what person/company approaches a video game company to do anything, it's all about if you can talk the talk and walk the walk. (I know cause thats how I got into talks with nintendo back when I was a nobody)
Google will have to learn a bit of Videogame swagger, AeriaGames already has the swagger and they are metaphorically dancing hardcore.
just an Update, again I fully support the push for google and I hope it bodes well, and I'm not gonna say what I think the executives will decide cause it might be counter-positive.
wait a min joshex, you talked to people at nintendo professionally? why didn't you say so why not hook us up and get them to run coh? - I will not reply to this, I am sure the Titan community has made it clear there is a difference between the Console community and the PC community, on top of this I have other reasons I do not want to indulge on.
I would also suggest to avoid sony and as for microsoft... I would avoid them as well, I would suggest nintendo before either sony or microsoft. but even nintendo...... END COMMENT
on a separate comment, BEWARE progressively futurist companies, Futurism is a game dev philosophy shared by many game companies all over the world, it bassically sums up as "ooh darling, that is sooo last year!! out with the old, tomorrow is the future!!" which means they might only run CoH for a short time until they feel it's too old (ring a bell? *cough* NCSoft *Cough*) or might Mutilate.. er I mean 'modernize' it. (aka, Try, try as you might; Hold on to everything you hold dear about City of heroes cause It's going out the window!! to be replaced with all sorts of fads and novelties which we can't be told wont entertain the new generation of gamers.)
thats as much as I can say.
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ok, I just got done talking with what I presume to be confused persons at aeriagames. devs finally talked to me.
did I miss something? I was told that the only thing aeria needs to actually pick-up City of Heroes is the Code not the IP, they would pick it up with only the code no need for IP.
and apparently they said Paragon Studios owns the code entirely and refused to release it.
is thier information incorrect? or could CoH have been ressurected by now if we just knew this info?
Please VV, Tony, Aggel, someone, anyone correct this info.
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NCsoft owns the code, the IP, and all that entails. They need to deal with NCsoft for any of this. Paragon does not exist anymore to accept or refuse anything.
Yes, you can buy the code of a game and not buy the IP; but without the IP, the game's flavor changes entirely and I for one wouldn't want to play a game that behaved exactly like my favorite MMO but was not.
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NCsoft owns the code, the IP, and all that entails. They need to deal with NCsoft for any of this. Paragon does not exist anymore to accept or refuse anything.
Yes, you can buy the code of a game and not buy the IP; but without the IP, the game's flavor changes entirely and I for one wouldn't want to play a game that behaved exactly like my favorite MMO but was not.
thats what I thought thanks for clearing that up.
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ok, I just got done talking with what I presume to be confused persons at aeriagames. devs finally talked to me.
did I miss something? I was told that the only thing aeria needs to actually pick-up City of Heroes is the Code not the IP, they would pick it up with only the code no need for IP.
and apparently they said Paragon Studios owns the code entirely and refused to release it.
is thier information incorrect? or could CoH have been ressurected by now if we just knew this info?
Please VV, Tony, Aggel, someone, anyone correct this info.
Whoa, Joshex! Er, that sounds like Aeria did indeed look into this in some fashion, and all because you touched base with them through their contact page?!
Whoa!
I mean, it sounds like somebody(s) has their wires a little crossed because Paragon Studios is no more, so either Posi/Brian/Melissa owns code personally (doubt it) or Aeria is confusing NCSoft with PS, but still.... I can't believe you got a response that showed some sort of action on Aeria's part!
You know, Brian, Melissa and Matt all have LinkedIns. Maybe it's time you touched base with some or all of them with a few polite questions, or had Aeria do same?
Aeria wouldn't have showed some forward motion unless they were indeed interested in acquiring CoH!! Don't let the opportunity slip by I say!
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NCsoft owns the code, the IP, and all that entails. They need to deal with NCsoft for any of this. Paragon does not exist anymore to accept or refuse anything.
Yes, you can buy the code of a game and not buy the IP; but without the IP, the game's flavor changes entirely and I for one wouldn't want to play a game that behaved exactly like my favorite MMO but was not.
Was the game's flavor one of Statesman and Paragon City vs Recluse and the Rogue Isles, with assorted Rikti, Circle of Thorns, etcetera, thrown in?
Or was it the ability to fight 10 mobs at once and win, or to have an AV fight without needing a tank, or other ways that mobs and PCs interacted?
Of course, it's both, but if you had the option of playing in the CoH universe... with CO's system... or in CO's universe with CoH's system... which would you choose?
We want CoH brought back exactly as it was. But if you could only bring back the gameplay OR the game universe, which is more important?
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Was the game's flavor one of Statesman and Paragon City vs Recluse and the Rogue Isles, with assorted Rikti, Circle of Thorns, etcetera, thrown in?
Or was it the ability to fight 10 mobs at once and win, or to have an AV fight without needing a tank, or other ways that mobs and PCs interacted?
Of course, it's both, but if you had the option of playing in the CoH universe... with CO's system... or in CO's universe with CoH's system... which would you choose?
We want CoH brought back exactly as it was. But if you could only bring back the gameplay OR the game universe, which is more important?
Well I'm mostly hoping it can be brought back in a form that it can still progress. While some stay for community, which actually can be done anywhere any game, one of the main things that compelled me to stick around COX so long was the evolution of the game. Some games, you play stop for 5 years go back and it's exactly the same which can be good or bad. While with COX when a person take a two year break, the game was different in many ways when they returned. Me personally I liked the COX lore and storyline, although the missions got repetative but love the CO system (would love it even more if they did a little clean up on the bugs but then again even COX had bugs.)
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We want CoH brought back exactly as it was. But if you could only bring back the gameplay OR the game universe, which is more important?
I liked the setting and the stories plenty; some of them were pretty darn good. But I can get a lot of that from the wiki even now. What I played the game for was the gameplay. If I had to sacrifice one to keep the other, for me it'd be keep the gameplay and lose the setting.
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Was the game's flavor one of Statesman and Paragon City vs Recluse and the Rogue Isles, with assorted Rikti, Circle of Thorns, etcetera, thrown in?
Or was it the ability to fight 10 mobs at once and win, or to have an AV fight without needing a tank, or other ways that mobs and PCs interacted?
Of course, it's both, but if you had the option of playing in the CoH universe... with CO's system... or in CO's universe with CoH's system... which would you choose?
We want CoH brought back exactly as it was. But if you could only bring back the gameplay OR the game universe, which is more important?
The game's FLAVOR was the lore and stories. The game's BEHAVIOR was the mechanics.
I separated those two pretty clearly in my previous post.
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Whoa, Joshex! Er, that sounds like Aeria did indeed look into this in some fashion, and all because you touched base with them through their contact page?!
Whoa!
I mean, it sounds like somebody(s) has their wires a little crossed because Paragon Studios is no more, so either Posi/Brian/Melissa owns code personally (doubt it) or Aeria is confusing NCSoft with PS, but still.... I can't believe you got a response that showed some sort of action on Aeria's part!
You know, Brian, Melissa and Matt all have LinkedIns. Maybe it's time you touched base with some or all of them with a few polite questions, or had Aeria do same?
Aeria wouldn't have showed some forward motion unless they were indeed interested in acquiring CoH!! Don't let the opportunity slip by I say!
indeed I'll see what I can do. from what it sounds like, the Aeria reps seemed certain if they could get the game code they can run it, they stressed they are just a publisher and have no capabilities to edit or change a game. I find it odd though that they wouldnt need the IP, only the code.
though, technically to my knowledge if someone was gutsy enough they could Run CoH with only the code and even if they got caught they could still run the game but they'd have to pay royalties. (which are usually exorbitant) but thats from my own understanding of the way copyrights work. I may be incorrect.
indeed I think for any publisher we should look into asking the PS devs if they legally own any (all) of the code.
though I only hope the PS team wont ignore me as the nobody I am lol..
cause I am only a game developer in the workings, I've never made an entire published game by myself. hhopeflly that will change this year :D but it may take longer..
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Paragon Studios was wholly and completely owned by NCSoft. Anything they produced was wholly and completely owned by NCSoft.
NCSoft owns the code and the IP.
Paragon Studios was closed and all assets taken over by NCSoft as of Sept 1. There is no longer a Paragon Studios for you to ask anything of. There is no physical office anymore, all email addresses come back as "not found" and any mail would probably come back "no such address" or would be forwarded to NCSoft.
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Paragon Studios was wholly and completely owned by NCSoft. Anything they produced was wholly and completely owned by NCSoft.
NCSoft owns the code and the IP.
Paragon Studios was closed and all assets taken over by NCSoft as of Sept 1. There is no longer a Paragon Studios for you to ask anything of. There is no physical office anymore, all email addresses come back as "not found" and any mail would probably come back "no such address" or would be forwarded to NCSoft.
ok indeed, I suspected as much, I guess the people at aeria didnt look into anything they just presumed paragon Studios owned the code and gave an answer off of that and the media they may have read.
ok well thats that news taken care of.
hopefully the next news will be from google.
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ok indeed, I suspected as much, I guess the people at aeria didnt look into anything they just presumed paragon Studios owned the code and gave an answer off of that and the media they may have read.
ok well thats that news taken care of.
hopefully the next news will be from google.
Has Aeria even tried to contact NCSoft about a possible purchase? I'm just curious. Although NC *has* made it quite obvious, at least publicly, that they don't want to sell, lol.... But nothing ventured, nothing gained as they say.... If Aeria really is that seriously interested, it couldn't hurt for them to draw up their own offer and make contact with the Korean mothership....
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Has Aeria even tried to contact NCSoft about a possible purchase? I'm just curious. Although NC *has* made it quite obvious, at least publicly, that they don't want to sell, lol.... But nothing ventured, nothing gained as they say.... If Aeria really is that seriously interested, it couldn't hurt for them to draw up their own offer and make contact with the Korean mothership....
Technically, I think the last thing they said was just that they had exhausted all options. I don't think Aeria had been one of those.
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Has Aeria even tried to contact NCSoft about a possible purchase? I'm just curious. Although NC *has* made it quite obvious, at least publicly, that they don't want to sell, lol.... But nothing ventured, nothing gained as they say.... If Aeria really is that seriously interested, it couldn't hurt for them to draw up their own offer and make contact with the Korean mothership....
from what we have deduced here in this thread based on aeria's response, they Did Not infact contact NCSoft regarding the issue, they responded based on thier own percepttion of the MMO industry and that is all.
there is still a chance aeria might consider the title, but indeed it seems they will need a propper pitch package to get them knocking on NCSoft's door.
we will see what happens with google first.
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Yes, you can buy the code of a game and not buy the IP; but without the IP, the game's flavor changes entirely and I for one wouldn't want to play a game that behaved exactly like my favorite MMO but was not.
Okay. Making sure I understand this one. IP = Intellectual Property?
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Okay. Making sure I understand this one. IP = Intellectual Property?
Yes.
Er..Independence Port :P
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Aeria Related news incoming
ok this news is again somewhat old (gosh why do I always report it so much later than I get it) you may have noticed lots of advertisements featuring a skimpy scantily clad doll faced girl with the Aeriagames logo beneath it.
well time for the headline:
NCosft's Blade and Soul PWNed, Trumped and made to look like it's initials represent; B.S.
Sub header: Aeria counter's NCSoft's Move with Scarlet Blade
ok now to begin, niether of these games is for kids. at least to my knowledge the ESRB rated Scarlet Blade M 17+ for mature, due to; yes, Nudity.
you must provide a valid account with a valid brith year that matches it in order to download and install the game.
so, how exactly can it compare to NCSoft's Blade and Soul?
Blade and Soul is a PVP centric game, much like exteel, this was... Undesireable, scantily clad overly exajuratedly proportional ladies or not, a game that gets it's 'Soul' from a PVP system without much of a world to explore will flop.
Scarlet Blade, hey look at that they reversed the initials! although the game features 2 seperate factions and allows PvP content, this game features an actual PVE world with archetypes that are dare I say Close to CoH of coarse the costume designer is limited and you need to unlock your costume peice by peice. still SB is already beating B.S. in terms of market strength.
Why?
a valid question that comes with any real comparison, the conclusion is not based upon opinion, but rather marketing strategies.
B.S. chose the road of forced PvP, and lets face it; no one likes to be forced to PvP, especially as the only method of game play. the game also was debuted with a pay to play system much like CoH it requires subscriptions. - end result; pretty bodies, pay to be forced to get PWNed by hackers.
SB chose a different and proven marketing strategy (Aeria has yet in it's many years to actually close down a game) they use the same tactic with all titles they take on. this is, first and foremost, the game can be dowloaded and played for free without any restrictions,
Being able to see marketing strategies at thier face value, I couldn't help by chuckle and give SB a well deserved Clap and a comment of 'well done', the stories in the game's initial phase are easy and short (However don't dare press the skip button on dialogue screens or you will be repremanded!!) The Dialogue; obviously the dialogue is pushed, because if you read it there are countless adult references being made between you and your character, yes the character talks to you calling you 'commander' and they are your 'Arkana', in the first few missions your relationship is referenced as 'like marriage but without the commitment' fist pounding laughter ensued as I read that. then I was won over by the playfully said comment of "this whole thing seems unfair, us Arkanas are out here risking our lives, while you're sitting in your comfy arm chair, and I know you're probably stairing at my butt."
the main world is PVE mainly however PVP does exist in sanctioned areas, there are also special Extreme hard zones as in all of aerias games these 'dungeons' are usually set to force players to enhance to the max, which brings them to the Aeriagames Shop where the low prices entice people to spend a few dollars each month for permanently enhanced gameplay at thier current level and above.
yeah, it may just be a money making plot, but the games have to make money to stay active (and to pull the weight of other titles) so that all games can remain active for generations to come and supply fnds for new titles, and with that marketing strategy, each generation brings new customers.
niether game shows a significantly option-filled costume designer, though scarlet blade (aeria) allows for more customization at the moment. SB (aeria) also boasts a purchase only 'langerie unlocker' to allow the removal of undergarments of 1 character. (however it you are lucky you can get it for free from the Loot Box in Aeria's 'Aeria Ignite' game launcher.) it is also a tradable item so if you save up the game cash you can buy it from another player.
so thats the difference, not just a switch of initials, not just two games marketed towards the large population of perverts and people of all genders that like to play as a volluptuous lady, but significat line is drawn in the interactions between character and player and in the presentation of the game world and Marketting strategy.
I must admitt, even I was tempted to spend the $20 to get the Starter Founder's pack to obtain the langerie unlocker from it. though I didn't end up doing so as I'm a bit smarter than the average bear. no offense but I hear russian bears are intentionally going to small remote airports and getting high off of the fumes from barrels of jet fuel these days and passing out in the grass with all limbs sprawled out staring at the sky..
So how is this related to CoH? it show's Aeria's fearlessness in the face of NCSoft, even going so far as to completely PWN them at thier own game.
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<.<
>.>
/facepalm
Ok, I have to admit, I read the whole thing and had a very good laugh. TY Joshex, that was the funniest thing I read on Titan Network in the last 3 months.
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<.<
>.>
/facepalm
Ok, I have to admit, I read the whole thing and had a very good laugh. TY Joshex, that was the funniest thing I read on Titan Network in the last 3 months.
:D
my pleasure, I'm glad someone can appreciate my humor :)
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:D
my pleasure, I'm glad someone can appreciate my humor :)
So when Aeria games releases "Heroine of City" I know who to blame. :P
Actually, I would have a hard time deciding to pull out the torches and pitchforks or pulling out big $ to support a company that just thumbed its nose at NCSoft.
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Read it, lol'd
Thing to keep in mind though, is that Scarlet Blade is the localized name of Queen's Blade, even though it has little to nothing to do with the anime/image series aside from the massive amounts of T&A (So far; no clue where the story goes...). So you read too deeply into it, but it was still amusing.
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So when Aeria games releases "Heroine of City" I know who to blame. :P
Actually, I would have a hard time deciding to pull out the torches and pitchforks or pulling out big $ to support a company that just thumbed its nose at NCSoft.
true in a way, but to me that depends on the 'why' of NCSoft's CoH Shutdown.
Read it, lol'd
Thing to keep in mind though, is that Scarlet Blade is the localized name of Queen's Blade, even though it has little to nothing to do with the anime/image series aside from the massive amounts of T&A (So far; no clue where the story goes...). So you read too deeply into it, but it was still amusing.
hehe, I like to read deeply into thngs, and yeah I became aware it was part of queens blade only recently (I have never watched that anime or seen much of it's content other than a few pictures and I think one poorly made 3D animation.)
time to go post another article in titan general/unrelated as I have just read very deeply into somethign I feel I need to write a long article on.
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Its nothing new, games like Variable Geo are pretty old.
(I'll leave comments about Dead or Alive in the Crey's Folly dumpster)
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Last Chaos seems to have some promise for me. Not too demanding on the old computer, interesting clases to play and I'm not confined to wearing skimpy anime costumed if I don't want to wear em. As a female player I want equal opportunity rights to ogle the males in the party.
Any old CoH groups playing in this one yet?
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Last Chaos seems to have some promise for me. Not too demanding on the old computer, interesting clases to play and I'm not confined to wearing skimpy anime costumed if I don't want to wear em. As a female player I want equal opportunity rights to ogle the males in the party.
Any old CoH groups playing in this one yet?
several, Supes is a former CoH player and he's a Game Master at aeria, he plays last chaos and alot of other people I talked to over there say they used to play CoH but like to play Last Chaos now.
and actually, the korean version of Scarlet blade had a male character as an option. they removed it for the USA version.
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bumping this oldish thread.
right so, Scarlet blade has gone live or at least into open beta from closed beta. I started playing it more indepthly.
guess what, they have a costume designing option, so long as you have the costume peice you want a specific part to look like you can make it look like that. and of coarse there are other options as well.
Recently they had a promo going for it asking players to fill out a survey about the game and it's context (mission text) and of coarse asking players weather there should be unique story lines for each side (royal guards and free knights).
I suggested them to take a hint from CoH and do a heroes and villains concept, I also suggested exemplaring and a missions system. and poked at them to elaborate on thier costume designer especially on the note of body shape and details.
Word is they plan to introduce the choice of a male character as time runs on, the original korean version had a male character, but that would have meant translating the mission texts 2 times based on gender, aeria decided that seeing as most players feel more comfortable making female characters they would start with only female characters. to save work load.
lastly I hinted at a flight power being a good optional choice, and wished I had suggested ninjarun/jump and powerpools.. but alas I didn't think of it at the time.
PVP, ok so I tried thier PVP, they have events rather than zones, the events are set to minimize cheating and make cheating not really matter too much. so far I'm at LV 19, with only basic given items, I can actually take part in PVP without much hassle.
now granted if they allow too much enhancement to carry over into PVP there will eventually be the same problems as in every other MMO with people loosing interest after only trying it a few times cause they are already severely outgunned by the pros.
it's not exactly CoH, but if they take my input I hope they get it relatively close.
though I still miss the enhancement system in CoH, it was straightforwards and easy and had no chance of failure, but then again thats how aeria makes it's money.
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bumping this oldish thread.
right so, Scarlet blade has gone live or at least into open beta from closed beta. I started playing it more indepthly.
guess what, they have a costume designing option, so long as you have the costume peice you want a specific part to look like you can make it look like that. and of coarse there are other options as well.
Recently they had a promo going for it asking players to fill out a survey about the game and it's context (mission text) and of coarse asking players weather there should be unique story lines for each side (royal guards and free knights).
I suggested them to take a hint from CoH and do a heroes and villains concept, I also suggested exemplaring and a missions system. and poked at them to elaborate on thier costume designer especially on the note of body shape and details.
Word is they plan to introduce the choice of a male character as time runs on, the original korean version had a male character, but that would have meant translating the mission texts 2 times based on gender, aeria decided that seeing as most players feel more comfortable making female characters they would start with only female characters. to save work load.
lastly I hinted at a flight power being a good optional choice, and wished I had suggested ninjarun/jump and powerpools.. but alas I didn't think of it at the time.
PVP, ok so I tried thier PVP, they have events rather than zones, the events are set to minimize cheating and make cheating not really matter too much. so far I'm at LV 19, with only basic given items, I can actually take part in PVP without much hassle.
now granted if they allow too much enhancement to carry over into PVP there will eventually be the same problems as in every other MMO with people loosing interest after only trying it a few times cause they are already severely outgunned by the pros.
it's not exactly CoH, but if they take my input I hope they get it relatively close.
though I still miss the enhancement system in CoH, it was straightforwards and easy and had no chance of failure, but then again thats how aeria makes it's money.
I haven't been in scarlet blade in a hot minute. Might start it up again to see the changes and progress. Almost forgot it was on my computer.
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I haven't been in scarlet blade in a hot minute. Might start it up again to see the changes and progress. Almost forgot it was on my computer.
awesome, I think us CoH players should start a guild or group or what ever they call it, I saw 1 guild called atlas and I joined but was kicked after going offline for the night...
to me SB is only a placeholder, if CoH returns I will gladly jump back in.
laugh as you may I'm on venus server as a royal guard with the name 95TibblyBits. (a whipper) seems appropriate as I was gonna make a CoH whip melee demo before it went down..
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I loled at that video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpwBG2Dtpmk) (As it's a video of SB, not safe for work unless you have lightning fast alt-tab)
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meh, it's playable.
most of aeria's games have the "walk to mission" buttons you can do it manually but I really want to super jump or fly.
you know what I found out yesterday? the skills don't auto upgrade lv, I was a LV20 with LV1 skills... why? cause in all the tutorial junk it never told me how to use the skills window. it showed me the skills window but not how to use it.
the skills window has about as much figuring as power choosing and slotting but contains no enhancement capabilities.
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I loled at that video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpwBG2Dtpmk) (As it's a video of SB, not safe for work unless you have lightning fast alt-tab)
Heh that made me laugh as well. Thanks for the link
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The Video was very biased and it didnt hit my Humor.
If you dont read the quests, dont want to know about the background, then every current mmo is a Chain of Get Quest -> Kill X Times n -> resolve Quest , repeat.
There are (few) good point to Scarlet Blade, for example the solo mode for Dungeons.
Im no SB Fanboy, I didnt play more than lvl 22 before uninstalling, but that video is far from objective.
Lydia Frost MM
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The Video was very biased and it didnt hit my Humor.
If you dont read the quests, dont want to know about the background, then every current mmo is a Chain of Get Quest -> Kill X Times n -> resolve Quest , repeat.
There are (few) good point to Scarlet Blade, for example the solo mode for Dungeons.
Im no SB Fanboy, I didnt play more than lvl 22 before uninstalling, but that video is far from objective.
Lydia Frost MM
I agree, it may not be city of heroes but it is a decent game, I too was surpprised I could solo a dungeon, most guildy games make you be lv 30 to tak on the lv 10 dungeon etc.
the game is only about boobs if you make it so, infact alot of people will despise you in game if you openly talk sexually about your character.
they plan to add male arkana at a later time, but it would mean two different mission texts for each mission, also you must remember it is being translated from korean, to get it out quiker they decided to only translate the female text, because more players of all genders can feel comfortable playing a female character.
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If you dont read the quests, dont want to know about the background, then every current mmo is a Chain of Get Quest -> Kill X Times n -> resolve Quest , repeat.
I've never been able to grasp why MMO's haven't been able to reach a point where everything stops feeling like a mundane sequence of linear objectives.
"Click X # of these."
"Kill X # of those."
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I've never been able to grasp why MMO's haven't been able to reach a point where everything stops feeling like a mundane sequence of linear objectives.
"Click X # of these."
"Kill X # of those."
cause they aren't CoH, they are built to be simple and make money. not to entertain. CoH sold entertainment, the others just sell marketing strategies
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To be fair, a lot of CoH's content can still be summed up in many of those same ways.
Click the glowies. Kill alls. Hunts. Fedexs.
There was enough there that made CoH special beyond that, but we can't say that there wasnt plenty of content that is entirely not dissimilar to those things. Numina's hunt is a pretty big kill x of this thing. The Lambda trial has a big section devoted to clicking the things.
On its own that isnt bad. It's the lack of additional substance that's the problem. And frankly at least we knock out 10 devouring earth, we didnt have to do it until we got tree bark.
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the game is only about boobs if you make it so, infact alot of people will despise you in game if you openly talk sexually about your character.
Seriously? The way the game is marketed and advertised and they get pissy if someone plays the game for what it's obviously intended for?
That would be like getting angry at someone in City of Heroes for roleplaying a super hero...
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Well, yeah. Of course I'd be angry. When I'm playin' Redside, quit with youre goody twoshoes act already! We're goin' MAIMING... and stuff.
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Awwww, Houtie...
(https://i.imgur.com/84aiH1N.gif)
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I fully agree of coarse, but it's true, many people play it as if it's just an MMO, no emphasis on boobs or butts and if you talk about it in the main chat channels people will make snotty remarks about your maturity.
yes though again I fully agree it is counter productive but, if you read the korean developers notes on the ingame nudity "it is against thier moral code to include such nudity, but for the sake of marketing they will allow boobs", however on the same note they will say "we will not show any nudity on the sentinel because of our morals due to her flat chested form and bottom side nudity will never be made on any characters cause that also is against korean moral code."
so really the fact the game was made in korea is it's own worst enemy
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Well, you can't argue with their logic
(https://i.imgur.com/XoAP8ed.jpg)
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Well, you can't argue with their logic
(https://i.imgur.com/XoAP8ed.jpg)
yep, can't argue, it does get results. they even found a way to make non-hormonally crazed people interested in the lingerie unsealer, you see, theres special rare lingerie, that as you might be able to figure out; gives you huge bonuses, but of coarse you can't wear lingerie ontop of lingerie so the initial lingerie (the seal) must be removed.
"Got any mepsipax? no, no doesn't matter.. erm, 10 dollar; manuel, 10 dolla you love manual long time"
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One thing I'll never understand is the obsession with gear-based appearances.
Who cares if it's "realistic?" (as if less armor is more protective than less) Let people look how they want to without having to sacrifice stats.
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One thing I'll never understand is the obsession with gear-based appearances.
Who cares if it's "realistic?" (as if less armor is more protective than less) Let people look how they want to without having to sacrifice stats.
indeed a huge thing CoH fixed, it says you can do so in SB, but apparently you need to have aquired the clothing you want to make yours look like, kinda hard to ahve an inventory full of costume types and still play the game.
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I've never been able to grasp why MMO's haven't been able to reach a point where everything stops feeling like a mundane sequence of linear objectives.
"Click X # of these."
"Kill X # of those."
I dont know if you ever played Everquest Online, the first, not 2.
There wasnt a quest Tracker or anything. you had to find the NSC and say some Keywords in chat, Something like: Hail, Trevin, I want to go to the Gates of Discord, what Ragebringer, and so on.
Then you got an answer, and better made a screenshot.
You had to search the right Zone, the right Contact or Monster to continue with the Quest.
That was difficult as Hell, without any Forum Help or Quest Guides.
If you solved a quest it meant something.
Now EQ has Simpler Quest Mechanisms too.
Times change.
The Autorun feature to the quest is the easy way and i know it from some games now.
Only one Game I know of ( Forsaken World ) lets you setup an ingame Bot after lvl 60 to do the fighting for you. They have acompaing quest like kill 240 Dark dwarf Miners. The Bot does this for you. ( It has Nice Quests befor Lvl 60 though )
I think the Storytelling is lost from the modern MMOs now, they either drown you in X times n Quests or concentrate on PvP to make the Player the Content.
I Miss CoX for the Storys.
Lydia Frost MM
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One of the things I'm really excited about in the Phoenix Project is our "leads" system for investigating/planning missions and heists. Leads are clues, tips, evidence, and rumors you acquire as inventory items. (Possibly in their own inventory space, possibly shared; we've not decided yet and it will depend on a number of factors.) You can acquire them from talking to contacts, from skulking about the bad part of town and listening for information, from beating up thugs on the street and discovering a clue to a larger plot, during missions from investigating glowies, reading the paper/newsfeed online/listening to the radio/police scanner...all sorts of ways.
You then put them together, police-crime-drama bulletin board style, and a mission is "built." It's the result of your investigations that allow you to discover something is going down at the docks involving Commander Creepvine and his mutagenic experiments, or that the Thirty and Third street museum is displaying the priceless works of Leonardo De Vinci, while you have the ingredients to replace them with the works of Leonardo DiCaprio when you steal them.
In the end, you are just doing another mission...but it's one you built out of numerous leads. You're investigating and discovering and planning. And collecting the leads make up their own mini-game that ensures progression along story arcs in ways that make sense.
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I fully agree of coarse, but it's true, many people play it as if it's just an MMO, no emphasis on boobs or butts and if you talk about it in the main chat channels people will make snotty remarks about your maturity.
Yeah that is what I play it for.
Although like any mmo you have different people with different maturity levels. Some act like B&S is the first time they ever seen a pair and butt before and cant control themselves from humping thier computer screens, while others, it's just another MMO, no different than seeing nudity or rather lack of clothing in a sex scene in a movie. Some people can pick up a playboy read the articles glance at the pics, put it down like nothing happened. While other even see the word Playboy they immediately release their reproduction cells onto their inner clothing.
Although i dont pay much attention to people getting "carried away". One one hand I understand. They are playing an avatar that is basically walking around without apparel. In many areas and many people mind, it's taboo. To me, it's just the human body. No big deal, especially the virtual version that I cant do anything with to begin with, coupled with the sex drive of a sterile 95 year old, it's not even a stir of anything sexual meaning to me. Many of the innuendos actually went over my head until someone actually pointed them out and it took a bit to even realize the meaning.
Hell even in real life, when a woman shed the clothes half the time that I walk in or in the situation it's more like, "Hey what's up. I like your hair. " and keep it moving when most other males would be humping her leg like no tomorrow. It has its ups and downs. Ups many feel more comfortable I'm not salivating over them like a dog over meat. Down, they may think I dont find them attractive and may make some feel even mre self concious. :-[
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One of the things I'm really excited about in the Phoenix Project is our "leads" system for investigating/planning missions and heists. Leads are clues, tips, evidence, and rumors you acquire as inventory items. (Possibly in their own inventory space, possibly shared; we've not decided yet and it will depend on a number of factors.) You can acquire them from talking to contacts, from skulking about the bad part of town and listening for information, from beating up thugs on the street and discovering a clue to a larger plot, during missions from investigating glowies, reading the paper/newsfeed online/listening to the radio/police scanner...all sorts of ways.
You then put them together, police-crime-drama bulletin board style, and a mission is "built." It's the result of your investigations that allow you to discover something is going down at the docks involving Commander Creepvine and his mutagenic experiments, or that the Thirty and Third street museum is displaying the priceless works of Leonardo De Vinci, while you have the ingredients to replace them with the works of Leonardo DiCaprio when you steal them.
In the end, you are just doing another mission...but it's one you built out of numerous leads. You're investigating and discovering and planning. And collecting the leads make up their own mini-game that ensures progression along story arcs in ways that make sense.
It is a brilliant idea. Personally, I think they need their own inventory (CoH could have used some cleaning up with it's multitude of inventories, but I thought having separate ones for different things was better then bunging everything into one inventory and leaving the player to organise them. Maybe press I to open an inventory with separate tabs for each type or something)
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no offense to the pheonix project.. I was all for it when it started.
but the more time passes on, the more different it becomes and the less I want to play it, at this point I just want CoH back..
[inane babble about knowing the future removed]
there comment done, I'll not flap my lips any more today.
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no offense to the pheonix project.. I was all for it when it started.
but the more time passes on, the more different it becomes and the less I want to play it, at this point I just want CoH back..
I can understand feeling that way, for sure. Keep in mind though that describing a game just with words is almost never enough to give you the true feeling of playing it. It's too soon to count out any of the three projects just yet. Once they get playable alpha builds out the door, and have had a chance to act on our feedback, then we can start forming opinions. Personally though, I wouldn't say Like or Dislike until at least the second or third beta build, minimum.
Hang in there, my friend. Let's see what they've got. You wouldn't want to miss something great :)
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I can understand feeling that way, for sure. Keep in mind though that describing a game just with words is almost never enough to give you the true feeling of playing it. It's too soon to count out any of the three projects just yet. Once they get playable alpha builds out the door, and have had a chance to act on our feedback, then we can start forming opinions. Personally though, I wouldn't say Like or Dislike until at least the second or third beta build, minimum.
Hang in there, my friend. Let's see what they've got. You wouldn't want to miss something great :)
my videogame philosophy is a Historical philosophy, as a videogame Historian I have seen too many already existent games torn to bits in a scrum process and put together with all the bits that weren't there before so that the game entity is too wildly different to even be considered close to it's old premise. and so wildly different there of that it would mean rebuilding the game mechanics from scratch inorder to compensate.
I have learned that the only way to fix it, is to nip it in the bud before the ideas leave the scrum process, otherwise it will never change.
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I loled at that video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpwBG2Dtpmk) (As it's a video of SB, not safe for work unless you have lightning fast alt-tab)
I love that narrator, he seems like a fun guy to know. Also completely agree with his assessment of the game. At least you do get SOME choice when picking out which boobs you want to play, which is more than many games can say.
I'd like to know where this idea comes from that boobs are naturally filled with weighted helium, but what do I know.
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At least they are not B&S's lemon boobs.
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I love that narrator, he seems like a fun guy to know. Also completely agree with his assessment of the game. At least you do get SOME choice when picking out which boobs you want to play, which is more than many games can say.
SB is just pretty much B&S spelled backwards. But it still fits my general description of what the entertainment industry is always pushing.
Stilted Boobes.
I could scarcely believe what I was seeing when I first saw an ad for that game. Just... wow. I guess it was only a matter of time before before someone decided to just abandon the idea of subtle sexual advertising and actually make it the entire plot.
Whipper? Seriously?
Sadly though, probably the only reason that "porn" MMO's aren't already the norm, isn't because businesses don't want to do it. It's just because there's no way to make sure that underage kids don't snatch their parents' credit cards and log on.
Pretty sure there was an online Sims game that actually got taken down because some kids were using the game for sex. And sex wasn't even the focus of the game.
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I'd like to know where this idea comes from that boobs are naturally filled with weighted helium, but what do I know.
I'm not supposed to tell you this since I could get kicked out of The Guys Club for it, but here goes. In the year 7, a group of the world's most trusted men was commissioned to seek out every last piece of confirmed knowledge about the female gender and collect it all into a single book, henceforth to be known as "Thee Officiale Scholare's Guide to Woemankinde". We rely on it immensely; it's our primary tool for female-based research and communications. To this day we still hand out a copy to every new member when he enters the Club. Sadly however, it hasn't been updated since that first printing. It was supposed to be, but... well you know how guys are.
In all fairness though, you should've seen how primitive the world was before we put that book together. Those people thought some crazy-*** stuff, I tell you what. ???
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Not to mention, the idea that women cannot fight witheout displaying boobs is simplistic and sort of insulting, like that is all we are good for: boobs. All the other things women can do are nullified, our whole worth is tied to boobs - or lack thereof.
What about a game where "real" women really fight? [as opposed to the silliness linked above] That would be interesting. They could even be good looking women.
As a real-life aside, I found this article really interesting: its about women's combat experiences IRL. I am not sure where I stand on this issue, there are issues on both sides of the pro/con women-on-the-front-lines argument. But these ladies.... wow. From the article:
....After we were captured, there was a mock execution where they have a gun at the back of your head and they're trying to get you to talk. The gun goes click, and I guess you're supposed to be scared so maybe you'll be more forthcoming. I had nothing to say. Part of the mistreatment included being sexually assaulted. There's a thought that says if a woman with them is sexually assaulted, men will do some stupid heroic thing and get themselves killed. A fellow POW was there; he didn't try to do anything about it. They grabbed my broken arm to pull me upright and displaced the bone. Nobody ever died of pain.
RESPECT.
http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/201305/united-states-military-women-gq-may-2013?printable=true
Kind of puts the "women-warrior" helium boobs where they belong: in the kiddy sandbox.
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Well, you can't argue with their logic
(https://i.imgur.com/XoAP8ed.jpg)
Same game, different race
(https://i.imgur.com/RA4VBq9.png)
Death comes for us all. Sometimes, death is tiny and huggable.
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Okay, those character models look incredibly like Tera's Castanic and Elin, respectively.
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Okay, those character models look incredibly like Tera's Castanic and Elin, respectively.
Maybe Tera is cross-licensing to Scarlet Blade?
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Okay, those character models look incredibly like Tera's Castanic and Elin, respectively.
They are from Tera. People like to not do their homework. Scarlet Blade's models are, honestly, hideous titty-monster plastic people. Some Elin in Tera enter uncanny valley territory as well...
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indeed a huge thing CoH fixed, it says you can do so in SB, but apparently you need to have aquired the clothing you want to make yours look like, kinda hard to ahve an inventory full of costume types and still play the game.
Aion did something like that a while before I gave up on it -- you could go to a particular vendor in your capitol (paying the obligatory teleport fees both ways) with an armor item you wanted to wear and another armor item whose appearance you liked, and for a fee the vendor would destroy the second piece to give its model to the piece you wanted to wear. Given that everything except the lowest grade of armor was already bind-on-equip at a minimum, it was essentially just a money sink for people who'd outleveled armor they liked the apparance of (or discovered the armor gave them the wrong stats, etc.). I much preferred CoH's take on the process, but that would eliminate one of the time-and-money sinks in an MMO -- learning and crafting the various grades of gear that differ minisculely in the stats they convey.
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PSO2 took a lesson in "appearance detached", but the costumes are basically a static item with the only differences being colors. Casts (the android race) can mix and match arm/leg/torso slots. It also has a robust character creation system, kind of halfway between CoH's and everyone else's.
But yeah a lot of other MMOs are using the "apply this look to this armor for a fee" system.
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Aion did something like that a while before I gave up on it -- you could go to a particular vendor in your capitol (paying the obligatory teleport fees both ways) with an armor item you wanted to wear and another armor item whose appearance you liked, and for a fee the vendor would destroy the second piece to give its model to the piece you wanted to wear. Given that everything except the lowest grade of armor was already bind-on-equip at a minimum, it was essentially just a money sink for people who'd outleveled armor they liked the apparance of (or discovered the armor gave them the wrong stats, etc.). I much preferred CoH's take on the process, but that would eliminate one of the time-and-money sinks in an MMO -- learning and crafting the various grades of gear that differ minisculely in the stats they convey.
MMO's need money sinks to survive, it might be one reason NCSoft thought CoH needed killing. CoH could be fixed, I have come up with several non-game-breaking Money sinks that I'm sure people wont be appauled with.
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Speaking from an old-school MMO player from Ultima Online up to the just released neverwinter and all in between. And MMO's are a world better. Money use to weigh you down, in Everquest you would have to never carry copper because it was too heavy. Your bags were always full and you were lucky to get an item that you could use let alone looked cool. The games were always broken because of a lack of money. Banks? Sure if you could live long enough to get back to town and actually put your stuff in it. No recall scroll/back to town button/leave instance it was a walk. Some that took you weeks to get back to a town you can use. I bring this up because MMO's have gotten a lot lot LOT better. The fact they or the player can even worry about customization goes to show they no longer have bigger fish to fry. You use to be lucky to even have armor, and really lucky if looked cool. These money sinks have allowed the games to be expanded, especially in a F2P world. WoW doesn't need money sinks (not refereing to ingame) because they have so many subs they never have to worry about funding. But other games need some kind of source of income. Personally I have never had to spend real cash(not including subs of course)on any MMO to ever compete with anyone else, they do make it so you don't have too. And if you can survive the old MMO's you can do the new ones without money sinks just fine. However customization has never been important to me(looks wise not character build wise) so it has never been a make a or break. But for people it is an issue for I do feel their pain in the sense as many games lack customization.
Sorry not real point just rambling.
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Heh, I agree... if I could handle the PK and dry looting and such from ancient UO times, worrying about money sinks to look better or get a bit more efficiency in MMOs nowadays is peanuts as far as problems go.
Though I do beg to differ about the lack of Recall scrolls, at least in UO. Between the spell, scrolls that you could cast with relatively low Magery, and party members casting Gate back to Britain, travel back to town wasn't much of an issue.
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Heh, I agree... if I could handle the PK and dry looting and such from ancient UO times, worrying about money sinks to look better or get a bit more efficiency in MMOs nowadays is peanuts as far as problems go.
Though I do beg to differ about the lack of Recall scrolls, at least in UO. Between the spell, scrolls that you could cast with relatively low Magery, and party members casting Gate back to Britain, travel back to town wasn't much of an issue.
Ya good point:) I was thinking of EQ at that time, but ya in UO I think it was like 40-50 magic to recall
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some day, we will know we have truely advanced beyond all expectations when "that dumb adventure game" (the old text based one with nothing more than a black screen and a white box with white letters explainign the situation and asking you what you want todo) anyways we'll know we are sper advanced when that dumb adventure game becomes the world's most popular MMO.
why? cause it's incredibly individualized, it has the best graphics you can immagine and the costume designer really has some thought put into it lol.
my first computer had Windows 3.1...
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Which dumb Adventure game? The original Colossal Cave? Or Zork? Or...?
Colossal Cave is *awesome*. You had to create the rooms and such with your mind. The words were all you had, and with that... I had the entire cave in my head. I really REALLY wanted to see the volcano, the Plover room... man. Good times, good times. This was way way before the Internet, I don't mind telling you, so there wasn't any looking up very easily any solutions to problems. Such as the giant green snake. It took literally *forever* for my *family* to figure out how to get rid of that dang snake. And I did it, then told the others. It was a big dang thing. I'm grinning remembering it. :)
It also helped me learn to type. Since all the commands were text, and I started a new adventure each time I got frustrated or something with the old one, and the computer had a mistake-ahead buffer, I would fling the important commands I always used, something like 16 of them, and then wait for it to catch up. :D
Now, MY first computer was a H/Z-89 with HDos (Heathkit Dos, and Hard Sector 5.25" floppies), then we moved up to a Z-90 with CP/M, Soft Sector 5.25" floppies, and then later, a 6MB Corvus Hard Drive. Good GRIEF it was huge. I mean, it was worth a LOT of floppies on it for storage! And there was a 20MB model, but it was just too much.
Anyway, those adventure games were anything but dumb, Josh. They were interactive books, and while I'm glad to have the 3d realish time stuff we have now... they were really really good sometimes to play.
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Which dumb Adventure game? The original Colossal Cave? Or Zork? Or...?
Colossal Cave is *awesome*. You had to create the rooms and such with your mind. The words were all you had, and with that... I had the entire cave in my head. I really REALLY wanted to see the volcano, the Plover room... man. Good times, good times. This was way way before the Internet, I don't mind telling you, so there wasn't any looking up very easily any solutions to problems. Such as the giant green snake. It took literally *forever* for my *family* to figure out how to get rid of that dang snake. And I did it, then told the others. It was a big dang thing. I'm grinning remembering it. :)
It also helped me learn to type. Since all the commands were text, and I started a new adventure each time I got frustrated or something with the old one, and the computer had a mistake-ahead buffer, I would fling the important commands I always used, something like 16 of them, and then wait for it to catch up. :D
Now, MY first computer was a H/Z-89 with HDos (Heathkit Dos, and Hard Sector 5.25" floppies), then we moved up to a Z-90 with CP/M, Soft Sector 5.25" floppies, and then later, a 6MB Corvus Hard Drive. Good GRIEF it was huge. I mean, it was worth a LOT of floppies on it for storage! And there was a 20MB model, but it was just too much.
Anyway, those adventure games were anything but dumb, Josh. They were interactive books, and while I'm glad to have the 3d realish time stuff we have now... they were really really good sometimes to play.
lol that what 'we' refer to it as weather or not it really is dumb or not we call it 'that dumb adventure game' after Kat in Red dwarf accuses a rather shocked Lyster of playing it when he types "I have a tarrantula in my boxers, dear god man get it out" to which the Kat replies "buy a potion from gandalf the magic wizard thats what I always do"
I grew up watching the old D&D cartoon and playing magic the gathering, yes indeed I have played the above mentioned game but forget which one. yes it was awesome. thats why I jjokingly said it would show just how advanced our technology is when someone develops an MMO like that.
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lol that what 'we' refer to it as weather or not it really is dumb or not we call it 'that dumb adventure game' after Kat in Red dwarf accuses a rather shocked Lyster of playing it when he types "I have a tarrantula in my boxers, dear god man get it out" to which the Kat replies "buy a potion from gandalf the magic wizard thats what I always do"
I grew up watching the old D&D cartoon and playing magic the gathering, yes indeed I have played the above mentioned game but forget which one. yes it was awesome. thats why I jjokingly said it would show just how advanced our technology is when someone develops an MMO like that.
Their names are Cat and Lister.
Amusingly enough, I am rewatching the series right now with my husband. An episode (or two!) a night over dinner. Love that show.
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Their names are Cat and Lister.
Amusingly enough, I am rewatching the series right now with my husband. An episode (or two!) a night over dinner. Love that show.
yeah, I typed that late at night, my subconscios had turned off for the night a few hours earlier, can you tell the difference in my post quality lol.
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in the future I strongly suggest we avoid contacting aeriagames inregards to picking-up city of heroes. even in the event that all other options have been used.
Aeria's MMO's seem to have a fad going. in this fad we would be able to look forwards to Tankers who can't hold thier own weight in PVP or PVE and blasters and trollers that are gods both in PVP and PVE.
yep. they have no concept of the whole 'balenced archetype' methodology. and it's present in each and every one of thier MMOs, Tankmages are present and there are melee tanks that can be killed swiftly in a single second assault.
then they claim that your armor wasn't good enough and you should buy items to enhance, then if you show proof of doing that they claim you should have better strategy, when you tell them how your tank can be killed in 1 second without even seeing your opponent (cause they are ranged) they still insist it's your fault. uncounterable sleep, stun and hold (no breakies) and no inherent defense or resistence to Sleep, hold or stun avaialble to tank classes.
over all they have broken PvP systems and a failure to admit it. but thats not all, in each and every one of thier games the market spirals out of control, thats right they would remove the Inf cap in city of heroes and place it at around 999 billion inf maybe even 1 trillion 999 billion that way the market can hopelessly inflate so that no-one can buy anything of use unless they first buy items from the item shop and sell them (OR) spend months saving inf to buy one small thing. they would also remove most Very rare drops from the drop pools and make them purchase only.
they also supply NO game moderation so if you're stuck you might need to wait a week or longer to get unstuck. also the game mods will argue with you if you try to report someone for cheating. "no that wasn't a UFO you saw. it was the light of the moon igniting swamp gasses"
not to mention all thier games are filled with spammers and hackers. spammers are needed because the inflated markets require so much gold that the only way to get it is to have an army of melee bots grinding gold all day. so the spammers do that and sell it.
yeah they may be a free to play company in america but they don't know the first thing about making games work, they only know how to make money, I mean why even have melee tank classes if they are trumped by ranged tanks?
PVP is mandatory in Aeria's games, though they'll tell you it's optional and technically it is, the grinding rate of XP is so slow that if you don't PVP it will take you months upon months to get to 30 and you will never grind enough money to buy the important stuff in the shops unless you PVP (cause PVP has better more worthful rewards than the rest of the games)
lastly, they keep upping the pluses, yep City of heroes got enhancement boosters to +5, in aeria's games it starts at +9 to +10 and wont stop there, eventually they will raise it to +15 then +20.
yep a scheme to keep people buying more enhancement items and taking higher risks of failure.
I used to suggest we give them a chance, but now I suggest we ignore them even if they made an offer. because they would hoplessly break our game and it would never be the same.
Also Aeria likes to disable regeneration and recovery especially during battle, in thier newest MMO's HP and such wont recover if you are fighting.
the reason for that is so they can sell 'pots' in the item mall, aka consumable HP regen and end recovery potions.
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Before CoH, I played a good deal of Shaiya (one of Aeria's games). I played a Tank, and not only did the game not feel broken at all, I never had to PVP even once to progress through the game.
Are these recent developments?
Also, I'd ignore the playerbase complaining about unbalanced archetypes. While we love to talk about how balanced CoH was now, in the years I played the game the community -never- shut up about bad components to the system. Going so far as claiming one powerset was gamebreaking compared to others (Super Strength + Rage, anyone?) or that others were broken completely (I can count on one hand the number of people that claimed Kheldians were an effective class). Do -not- take community complaints on these matters seriously. The vast majority of the time it genuinely is a problem with players being elitist or bitchy about a system in place not being quite what they want. (I recall reading pages upon pages of complaints regarding the drop system for incarnate salvage, and how many -many- players accused Paragon Studios of lying about their rates.)
People complain. They always have and always will, regarding a "broken" number system. Furthermore, CoH already has a defined system in place that won't require Aeriagames interfering with it. I think they're still worth a try.
Also, if you're really going to bring up awful mods... You apparently didn't deal with NCSoft mods very often, when having troubles in CoH. I'd have to consult my E-mail logs, but I still might have a copy of a GM verbally insulting me back in 2009. I know GM Lloyd was renown for that sort of thing.
Really, I think you're splitting hairs on a few bad aspects of Aeriagames' retinue. I'd still support an initiative for them, should google fail.
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Before CoH, I played a good deal of Shaiya (one of Aeria's games). I played a Tank, and not only did the game not feel broken at all, I never had to PVP even once to progress through the game.
Are these recent developments?
Also, I'd ignore the playerbase complaining about unbalanced archetypes. While we love to talk about how balanced CoH was now, in the years I played the game the community -never- shut up about bad components to the system. Going so far as claiming one powerset was gamebreaking compared to others (Super Strength + Rage, anyone?) or that others were broken completely (I can count on one hand the number of people that claimed Kheldians were an effective class). Do -not- take community complaints on these matters seriously. The vast majority of the time it genuinely is a problem with players being elitist or bitchy about a system in place not being quite what they want. (I recall reading pages upon pages of complaints regarding the drop system for incarnate salvage, and how many -many- players accused Paragon Studios of lying about their rates.)
People complain. They always have and always will, regarding a "broken" number system. Furthermore, CoH already has a defined system in place that won't require Aeriagames interfering with it. I think they're still worth a try.
Also, if you're really going to bring up awful mods... You apparently didn't deal with NCSoft mods very often, when having troubles in CoH. I'd have to consult my E-mail logs, but I still might have a copy of a GM verbally insulting me back in 2009. I know GM Lloyd was renown for that sort of thing.
Really, I think you're splitting hairs on a few bad aspects of Aeriagames' retinue. I'd still support an initiative for them, should google fail.
I played shayia too a good deal, word is it's successors are a bit different and follow the new fad posted above. yeah it is a new thing, I think it's more a slow development due to player abuse and demands of paying players for more focus on thier particular preferences.
aeria's newest games all follow this fad, Ranged ATs are the kings and queens of PVP and tanks are expensive and can't hold thier own. it's all marketing cause aeria knows that once players make a character that works really well they wont want to make more.
so they have taken the tank out of tank and made thier games about damage, distance, speed and first hits. naturally ranged players have the upper hand and in many knew games have incredible armor.
I'm absolutely certain Aeria would hire a studio to maipulate the classes so blasters pawn all, they will support thier choice by saying "the majority of our paying customers are ranged players so we wish to cater to thier choices.
it's not just about that though the markets are screwed lol the caps are set so high it's crazy, seems the prices for stuff goes up 100g a day.
meanwhile tanks and other melee ATs will get nerfed heavily. I really suggest leaving aeria for much later if at all.
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The vast majority of the time it genuinely is a problem with players being elitist or bitchy about a system in place not being quite what they want. (I recall reading pages upon pages of complaints regarding the drop system for incarnate salvage, and how many -many- players accused Paragon Studios of lying about their rates.)
People complain. They always have and always will, regarding a "broken" number system. Furthermore, CoH already has a defined system in place that won't require Aeriagames interfering with it. I think they're still worth a try.
Yeah. I at one point in time thought the drop rate looked suspect but thinking on it after while and seeing how some get multiple drops (not uncommon three per mish and a few as high as four per mish), it seemed to even out to the stated rate. Just not evenly. Some people got none while some got more than they knew what to do with, which made it some people in one mish could make more than a billion inf, while some got stuck with Pacing the turtle which was barely worth the trip (maybe 1,000-2,000 inf iirc.).
But that is how it goes. The ones that dont have it or dont benefit see it as a problem, those that do benefit think the ones that have a problem with it is over reacting. Of course they wont see a a problem they make billions as the system stand so why would they see a problem with that? Human nature
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Yeah. I at one point in time thought the drop rate looked suspect but thinking on it after while and seeing how some get multiple drops (not uncommon three per mish and a few as high as four per mish), it seemed to even out to the stated rate. Just not evenly. Some people got none while some got more than they knew what to do with, which made it some people in one mish could make more than a billion inf, while some got stuck with Pacing the turtle which was barely worth the trip (maybe 1,000-2,000 inf iirc.).
But that is how it goes. The ones that dont have it or dont benefit see it as a problem, those that do benefit think the ones that have a problem with it is over reacting. Of course they wont see a a problem they make billions as the system stand so why would they see a problem with that? Human nature
for about the first year I played CoH no one told me that purple enhancements don't drop in the enhancement tray they had to be crafted from a recipe and no one told me my recipe folder needed to have room in it for the purple to drop in.
after I learned that I got about 1 purple a week, then when I finished my tank and was farmin the new DA I would get 1 purple recipe and 1 enhancment catalyst per day. talk about rolling in it. I could easily amass 700mil in a day if I played all day.
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Ya good point:) I was thinking of EQ at that time, but ya in UO I think it was like 40-50 magic to recall
Unless you used a scroll you still need magic skill but not as high and you recalled back to a bank and never your property only port to your property from the bank. Also if you spelled cast you had to carry reagents it would suck when you die and your body would get looted and you have to run all the ay back because you could no longer recall back to town. I had a toon with a 100 magic in UO. I was also the one that figured out you could steal loot from a monster while other people where fighting it and my thief had 95% hiding. Then the copycats started and like a month later they patched that feature.
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Unless you used a scroll you still need magic skill but not as high and you recalled back to a bank and never your property only port to your property from the bank. Also if you spelled cast you had to carry reagents it would suck when you die and your body would get looted and you have to run all the ay back because you could no longer recall back to town. I had a toon with a 100 magic in UO. I was also the one that figured out you could steal loot from a monster while other people where fighting it and my thief had 95% hiding. Then the copycats started and like a month later they patched that feature.
lol thats nothing, in scarlet blade the have 'Item Seals' for players who want to keep thier items safe, see, they know the game is so very hacked that any hacker can easily hack into anyone's account at random and steal all thier items. so they made Item locks so players have some protection of thier rare items.
but I digress, in another year or less scarlet blade will not exist to be compared to. the 3 servers it started with have been merged into 1 server because of a lack of players to fill 3 servers., I said it before, this game was broken in record time., it sarted with gold spammers and hacking in it's beta, and then the market went out of control and players realized there were exploits to the system and exploits to allignment. it's.. it's a broken broken game and a very fastly killed broken game at that. I think it's a record, an MMO down to 1 server after less than a year.
I hope aeria learned a marketing lesson from this.