CoH #1! ...as if we didn't already know...

[Nyx Nought Nothing]

While i only post sporadically i do read these forums several times a week. While i would love to have the game servers come back up, regardless of whether i'd have to start over from scratch, unless i've missed a recent post (highly possible) there's not much to directly do towards reviving the game at this moment. i don't really use Twitter and have no interest in randomly spamming NCsoft.

In the meantime i will concede that i've more or less moved on for the time being. i've been playing pen and paper RPGs and watching The Phoenix Project's work more lately. (And working on a lot more sculptures since the game shut down, so CoH being defunct is something of a mixed blessing in that regard.) If i hear about another push where i can do something useful to revive the game i'm in. Until then i'll mostly keep dropping by and occasionally post as the whim strikes me.

[JaguarX]

The reasons behind Champions' issues are actually a separate thing entirely. As I understand it, it's largely the developers and distribution of talent in Cryptic.

People in Champions might notice that some of the hideouts are unfinished. (Much like SG bases in CoH technically never got finished) The reason is because developers tasked to this, the ones familiar with the code, were moved away from Champions to Neverwinter. The current hope in Champions is that once Neverwinter is released, they'll get their old developers back to make more content.

The problem is, if Perfect World and Cryptic are smart, they'll do no such thing. Pulling away all the developers is what damaged CO was badly back in 2009, when Atari thought the game would work like a single player RPG in that they would only need to leave a skeleton crew to continue work on it.

As it stands, it largely appears to be a failed project that they're keeping active because people are still playing and enjoy it a lot. Which is a real shame because I've been playing CO since the day of the announcement and... Well... It had... It -has- fantastic potential, if they ever decide to delve into it.

Actually, does anyone know the numbers that CO generates? In all the time I've been there, I don't think I've seen nearly the same number of players as I was last summer on CoH. I'm curious what money it makes with such a diminutive developing crew, and a player base that generally appears to be unhappy with what they've been getting. Versus City of Heroes which didn't seem to come even close to that level.

 yup exactly.

I doubt it brings in nearly as much but wouldt be surprised if it's still returning profit from those lockboxes and the lack of crew they have to pay. I think one community rep and a dev hanging around and maybe a tech support person.

[Joshex]

Has anyone read my signiture lately?

theres always a way, sometimes you wont like it and sometimes people are too dumb to think of it (sorry thats the part I left off so I wouldn't seem arrogant) but it applies here;

there are several ways for NCSoft to bring back CoH without any fiasco like you describe with stock holders backing out or such, one of them involves making a few marketing changes to the game (shop related stuff) and saying;

"It's fixed now, we spent all year tryign to come up with strategies to fix it and it's finally done"

another way? a name change "Not City of Heroes" and "Not City of Villains" ok yeah I know thats laughable but legally it would work and they could use the trademark CoH2 as a placeholder to distinguish the identity of this particular game IP.

lastly is the confuse method, aka go and change the text from the CoH shutdown to include "until we can solve certain issues" and let it roll for a month or two quietly then bring it up and a board meeting "the time has come".

these are just some possibillities, the ones that rolled off the top of my head (thankyou subconscious gosh you're a genius what would I do without you, lets face it I'm an idiot the real brains of the opperation are back there)

[Taceus Jiwede]

Has anyone read my signiture lately?

theres always a way, sometimes you wont like it and sometimes people are too dumb to think of it (sorry thats the part I left off so I wouldn't seem arrogant) but it applies here;

there are several ways for NCSoft to bring back CoH without any fiasco like you describe with stock holders backing out or such, one of them involves making a few marketing changes to the game (shop related stuff) and saying;

"It's fixed now, we spent all year tryign to come up with strategies to fix it and it's finally done"

another way? a name change "Not City of Heroes" and "Not City of Villains" ok yeah I know thats laughable but legally it would work and they could use the trademark CoH2 as a placeholder to distinguish the identity of this particular game IP.

lastly is the confuse method, aka go and change the text from the CoH shutdown to include "until we can solve certain issues" and let it roll for a month or two quietly then bring it up and a board meeting "the time has come".

these are just some possibillities, the ones that rolled off the top of my head (thankyou subconscious gosh you're a genius what would I do without you, lets face it I'm an idiot the real brains of the opperation are back there)

I agree there is most likely a way to get NCSoft to sell SOMEHOW.  The above mentions could work but only if NCSoft wanted to bring the game back.  It seem's they have no desire to bring back the game or allow it to be brought back elsewhere.  We know people would buy the IP, we know they could make it look like they weren't the bad guys, we know people would play it.  What we don't know is how to make them want to bring it back.  Because until they decide they want it to come back or want to sell it will remain in MMO limbo.  I mean I guess we could slowly but surely some how manipulate the execs at NCSoft with blackmail, connections, a little fraud and some physical convincing.  That would be a way that not everyone would like but would most likely work. <----- that last part was a joke BTW.  Just to prevent confusion.

[Stellar Agent]

Having tried out Marvel Heroes (MH) in Beta, I can only disagree.

I think I'd rather watch paint dry than play MH for a sustained period of time.

I'm not a fan of DCUO but it's miles better than MH.

Agreed.  I also was in the MH Beta and I just recently quit because, well, (IMHO) there is no way it will ever attain any kind of respectability?  It is definitely targeted at a younger audience than CoX was and I think will suffer for that.  The older players seem to be playing out of a sense of nostalgia more than anything else.

[Joshex]

Agreed.  I also was in the MH Beta and I just recently quit because, well, (IMHO) there is no way it will ever attain any kind of respectability?  It is definitely targeted at a younger audience than CoX was and I think will suffer for that.  The older players seem to be playing out of a sense of nostalgia more than anything else.

the nintendo marketing tactic, advertise and make games for kids and contantly change to update your games for the new generation, that way yeah there will be times when you ahve no players but after that the new generation will cause a boom in product sales.

bassically "to hell with our old fans, they have outlived thier usefulness to our marketing strategy"

[MakoMako]

To be fair, it's where the money is. When Nintendo went through with the Wii, it played the road safe during the economic recession by making lots of cheap casual games while occasionally coming up with stuff for the hardcore fans of Nintendo. End result was a large number of casual games.

I can't say I believe the idea was "Screw our fans" so much as "we're keeping you in mind but we need to still think about ourselves." They still had plenty of material for old time fans, enough so to keep them around.

[Lightslinger]

the nintendo marketing tactic, advertise and make games for kids and contantly change to update your games for the new generation, that way yeah there will be times when you ahve no players but after that the new generation will cause a boom in product sales.

bassically "to hell with our old fans, they have outlived thier usefulness to our marketing strategy"

This could not be further from the truth. First party (Nintendo) titles are what sells Nintendo consoles. Mario, Zelda, Smash Brothers, Yoshi, Mario Kart, etc are just as much for "adults" and "real gamers" as any other title out there.

[MakoMako]

This could not be further from the truth. First party (Nintendo) titles are what sells Nintendo consoles. Mario, Zelda, Smash Brothers, Yoshi, Mario Kart, etc are just as much for "adults" and "real gamers" as any other title out there.

I believe he's actually referring to the statement made by Nintendo a few years ago when they said they were shifting their focus moreso onto casual gamers, in an attempt to maintain financial stability. It's long since been blown out of proportion as Nintendo claiming they don't care about their long time loyal fans of Nintendo titles. (This is in spite of the fact there's been more push on the mainstream titles on the Wii, than either N64 nor Gamecube ages)

[Lightslinger]

I believe he's actually referring to the statement made by Nintendo a few years ago when they said they were shifting their focus moreso onto casual gamers, in an attempt to maintain financial stability. It's long since been blown out of proportion as Nintendo claiming they don't care about their long time loyal fans of Nintendo titles. (This is in spite of the fact there's been more push on the mainstream titles on the Wii, than either N64 nor Gamecube ages)

Yeah, and to be fair joshex's point is right on the money...for third party Wii developers. Too many people saw the Wii as a cheap, easy cash in on this new "casual new gamer" market. So the Wii was flooded with shovelware "casual" games.

You're definitely right about that whole controversy being overblown. Nintendo is trying to expand the video game market to more people? GASP! Just because they were indeed focusing on getting "new" people to try games doesn't mean they sacrificed real gamers.

I'm not being a Wii fanboy either, now that its time has come and gone I can definitely say good riddance. The "waggle" style controls really, really irked me. I didn't mind waggle in Twilight Princess, it was just slight swings of the remote for sword swings, you could actually cast the fishing line, no big deal. Then Skyway Sword comes along and every. single. thing. required some overblown movement to accomplish...yeeesh. For the first time ever I abandoned a Zelda game, could not get past those annoying controls.

Which really, really sucks for the Wii U. I own one and that second screen is AMAZING. There are so many great ways it could be utilized. Yet "floundering" would a compliment for the Wii U at this point. Nintendo turned around the 3DS launch abomination so maybe they can work some wonders with the Wii U.

[Sleepy Wonder]

<--- Lurker

I used to be active, and I've said most of my 0.02c.

As someone else mentioned I tend to choose which call to actions to participate in. I don't honestly believe banner ads will have any effect, and given they cost a lot of money, it's basically a waste in my opinion.

I use adblockplus, so I never really see any ads on the internet (can't stand them), and nobody I know pays much attention to them, so I'm passing that one up.

I've also lost some drive due to the incessant wait time with the Hail Mary CTA. There are reasons given for it's delay that while might appease most people who don't know otherwise, I have certain information I can't divulge that I believe to be one of the causes of its delay and I'm not really happy about it.

I check the forums now about once a week instead of every day.

As far as MWM goes, I can't really seem to get an update from anybody, and leads above me have dropped off the radar. I still wish for the project to succeed, but I'm not going to spend my time in limbo working on things that are going to be shelved due to miscommunication or missed memos.

We would've been better off keeping the number of volunteers to a minimum until a concrete organizational plan and vetting was done beforehand, instead of an array of people getting thrusted into positions they probably were not ready for. The technology and platforms we've been using to form some semblance of a virtual office have changed so many times I've about thrown my hands up and decided to just wait it out until someone can tell me exactly what they need from me. I'm guessing at this point its probably nothing.

All in all, I hope the community keeps in touch with each other, but moving on seems to be the way to go for folks who don't see any light at the end of the tunnel.

Hope can really only do so much before you start realizing the facts. I'm not trying to be negative though, because I do still think there's a chance, at least for another year or two that something may come from all of this.

 

[Tanklet]

I'm not trying to be negative..

 
*reads this part*

 

*re-reads the post*

 

*re-reads post 2-3-4 more times*

 

*re-reads this part*

  

[Ironwolf]

Sleepy Wonder, under the best results if the game was immediately purchased it would take 6 or more months to get it up and running again.

December 1st 2012, it stopped and it is now only May 1st 2013 - 5 months. In 5 months we have weathered deaths in our families, major surgeries, key players moving to different states and a general case of LIFE.

I personally have spent over $200 in helping friends here with problems, buying a website and other goods and services related to CoH. I will help with every possible thing I can within reason. I am not an artist, website builder or overly creative. I am however a fighter with a pretty good job and so I can do what I can.

That is what a hero does, what he can when things seem darkest. When fear, pain or depression weighs you down. You take one more step further, that's all. Sometimes, just sometimes - another person sees you take that step and they pick you up and encourage you.

[Stellar Agent]

Sleepy Wonder, under the best results if the game was immediately purchased it would take 6 or more months to get it up and running again.

December 1st 2012, it stopped and it is now only May 1st 2013 - 5 months. In 5 months we have weathered deaths in our families, major surgeries, key players moving to different states and a general case of LIFE.

I personally have spent over $200 in helping friends here with problems, buying a website and other goods and services related to CoH. I will help with every possible thing I can within reason. I am not an artist, website builder or overly creative. I am however a fighter with a pretty good job and so I can do what I can.

That is what a hero does, what he can when things seem darkest. When fear, pain or depression weighs you down. You take one more step further, that's all. Sometimes, just sometimes - another person sees you take that step and they pick you up and encourage you.

+1

[Tanklet]

Sleepy Wonder, under the best results if the game was immediately purchased it would take 6 or more months to get it up and running again.

December 1st 2012, it stopped and it is now only May 1st 2013 - 5 months. In 5 months we have weathered deaths in our families, major surgeries, key players moving to different states and a general case of LIFE.

I personally have spent over $200 in helping friends here with problems, buying a website and other goods and services related to CoH. I will help with every possible thing I can within reason. I am not an artist, website builder or overly creative. I am however a fighter with a pretty good job and so I can do what I can.

That is what a hero does, what he can when things seem darkest. When fear, pain or depression weighs you down. You take one more step further, that's all. Sometimes, just sometimes - another person sees you take that step and they pick you up and encourage you.

+1

Adds another +1
Well said sir

[Perfidus]

It still amazes me how people expected things like Task Force Hail Mary to work within days or weeks. Am I alone in thinking we should've adopted the calling card of our former developers, and just said Soon(tm)?

[Triplash]

That is what a hero does, what he can when things seem darkest. When fear, pain or depression weighs you down. You take one more step further, that's all. Sometimes, just sometimes - another person sees you take that step and they pick you up and encourage you.

[Ironwolf]

Please remember this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38AZByx548k

[OzonePrime]

It still amazes me how people expected things like Task Force Hail Mary to work within days or weeks. Am I alone in thinking we should've adopted the calling card of our former developers, and just said Soon(tm)?

Non, not alone. But, I can understand the lack of patience. I miss the game so much, I have a hard time doing the tweets because of all of the memories. Hard to type and cry.

[Tanklet]

It still amazes me how people expected things like Task Force Hail Mary to work within days or weeks.

How's about months...?

Jus' sayin' .....