Considering my history, I've bailed out a lot of money in addition to my 7 year 3 months subscription. And you don't even see the Freedom points I bought except for the 6190 I still had left to spend.
NCSoft, why didn't you want my money anymore?
Disney, shut up and take my money! Now!
Yeah, I hear you loud and clearly. My account profile shows I started in May 2009. (I had to jump thru the hoops with NCSoft Support to get my Master Account password reset after CoH Sunset--I'm guessing that had something to do with how they turned it off--but communication on both sides was polite; I just had to dig for old info.) I was fortunate in being able to subscribe (I mean as in being able to afford to) non-stop until Game Over. I'd only allowed myself to buy extra perks on rare occasions, such as for a couple of the old Booster packs. I didn't spend anything like the amounts friends with greater disposable incomes did. (A disability retirement annuity doesn't go far, even with budgeting and frugal spending.) I let an sgmate convince me to buy $15.00 worth of Paragon points in early July, since he was right and had game continued, I'd have wanted Nature Affinity and various of the goodies in the Paragon Market cash shop.
I was well accustomed to earning everything in-game, since that's how it's done (or used to be) in tabletop and LARP campaigns, often run by friends. Heck, the idea of paying for anything out-of-game for in-game feels
wrong to me. That was one thing I liked about Incarnate. Finally, here was something that was not just another commodity at the Auction House, but something each character had to
earn for him or herself. Cynically, I figured someone had calculated this would result in longer game play, but I enjoyed the leagues and incarnate trials well enough that I didn't mind. CoH experiences are unique; one friend brought the superheroes he'd created in childhood imagination and CoH gave them life, even as his short stories and fiction gave them life in another way. (He's back to writing now, btw.)
I liked my characters, wanted to dress them nice, have cool powers, write good biographies for them, but ultimately CoH has felt to me like a vast and wonderful amusement park, one in which I enjoyed almost all the rides. (I still love a lot of the lowbie content.) Maybe CoH was more like the Renaissance Festivals or Science Fiction conventions, where everyone dresses up in costume, roleplays and participates. I'm also enough of an old school strategy & tactics gamer that I didn't ignore IO set bonuses, only it took me about 2-1/2 years finally to be able to earn reliably enough in-game to have what I wanted for any toon I was serious about. The measly 300 odd Paragon Points I had at the end, I never spent, hoping 1. that Sunset would never come, and 2. I needed a couple of more months worth of points from VIP to buy the next thing(s) I wanted from their Market.
I see I've gone from commiserating to talking about me! Sorry about that, SpinDisc. I feel for you and a whole bunch of people who poured time, money and creativity into this. While the game ran, I felt I got good value. I know others who cannot say the same, and who later regretted, one even prior to the Sunset notice, the money he'd spent on this. If there's a silver lining I hope it's that every dissatisfied MMORPG customer works together and promotes a Consumer or Player Bill of Rights, and that we all boycott games not willing to subscribe to it. Titan's forum thread here:
http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php?action=search2