Jack Emmert re: CoH - "Tell NCsoft to call me"

[Hyperstrike]

Jack stated in an interview about Neverwinter that he's "a regular fixture at GenCon." I know it's a few months away, but a few people have already expressed a desire to go see VV, who has been announced as an author guest of honor. Perhaps he could be "cornered" at a Q&A or some such.

I'd be willing to invite him to the CoH Expats dinner.  Hell, I'd even buy him dinner.

[Kaos Arcanna]

Maybe that should be our call to action. "Buy Jack dinner"  ;D

[Blondeshell]

Please don't contact Carbine or anyone there. They are not a voice inside NCsoft. They have no influence on anything other than their game (and even then they have to get approval for their ideas). They are working very hard on getting their game out. Don't bug them. Don't carpet bomb their points of contact. They can't give you a better point of contact.

Sorry, I was just brainstorming other perspectives/points of view about this, though Jeremy's reaction to Jack was as much of an "ORLY?" moment as I've seen lately.  :-[

[Lightslinger]

We've clarified our Call to Action: Bring CoH Home, right now the only task is contacting media regarding this. A few articles on this subject would be huge for our community. To continue the "Should MMOs die?" conversation keeps NCsoft on the defense and us in control of the narrative.

[JanessaVR]

We've clarified our Call to Action: Bring CoH Home, right now the only task is contacting media regarding this. A few articles on this subject would be huge for our community. To continue the "Should MMOs die?" conversation keeps NCsoft on the defense and us in control of the narrative.

Indeed.  In the immortal words of Light Yagami: "In all things, one cannot win with defense alone. To win, you must attack."

[Heroette]

Indeed.  In the immortal words of Light Yagami: "In all things, one cannot win with defense alone. To win, you must attack."

Death Note reference.  I like it.   ;D

[Ziggy1890]

I never disliked Jack.  I did dislike ED but it was tolerable to the point it didn't ruin the game for me.  Just made it less uber powerful. 

I hope this does happen.  I miss the frick out of my peacebringer, Next Spirit.   

[DarkCurrent]

Why would PWE NOT want CoX?

They'd have 2 super hero mmos.  So what?  How many fantasy mmos does NCSoft own?

CoX is better than their current super hero mmo.  So says the sales reports, the fan voting and the mmo review sites.

CoX has 8+ yrs of development already built and running.  Plus there's another huge issue sitting on a beta server that would have fixed all things.  I imagine I25 was in an alpha state on top of that.  Even if PWE did nothing to further the game it would be years ahead of any other super hero mmo and have several months of new content that would require minimal development on their end.

CoX is running their old engine.  They wouldn't have to do much to bring it into their stable and have it up and running on their servers.

CoX has a rabid fan base looking to spend money.

Owning the top two super hero mmos open some interesting opportunities for a future crossover mmo that would have a cornered market in a time of super hero pop culture saturation with all the movies out there.

This is a win-win for them.

The only one needing convincing is NCSoft.  And at least if they did sell to Cryptic they could say they finally were able to find a good home for the fans of CoX and that's why it took so long to move the IP.

[JaguarX]

Why would PWE NOT want CoX?

They'd have 2 super hero mmos.  So what?  How many fantasy mmos does NCSoft own?

CoX is better than their current super hero mmo.  So says the sales reports, the fan voting and the mmo review sites.

CoX has 8+ yrs of development already built and running.  Plus there's another huge issue sitting on a beta server that would have fixed all things.  I imagine I25 was in an alpha state on top of that.  Even if PWE did nothing to further the game it would be years ahead of any other super hero mmo and have several months of new content that would require minimal development on their end.

CoX is running their old engine.  They wouldn't have to do much to bring it into their stable and have it up and running on their servers.

CoX has a rabid fan base looking to spend money.

Owning the top two super hero mmos open some interesting opportunities for a future crossover mmo that would have a cornered market in a time of super hero pop culture saturation with all the movies out there.

This is a win-win for them.

The only one needing convincing is NCSoft.  And at least if they did sell to Cryptic they could say they finally were able to find a good home for the fans of CoX and that's why it took so long to move the IP.

While I agree that it would probably be a win win for PWE, I dont think sales reports and reviews are only measure of success. Or else, using that as the measure, COX and super hero MMOs are low totem pole peanuts in the world of the MMO and the ones that say there is no market for super hero MMO are absolutely correct, according to sales reports and reviews.

I think success could be measured beyond sale reports and reviews. The way I measure success would mean COX is one of if not the most successful game in the world. I dont recall players having this much passion about any game. And that is the the greatest success that money cant buy. Most games go, the players move on no questions asked. Yet, not this player base. This would imply, that while on the surface COX is a game like any other game, like WoW and such, it is not just a game. It was something more. And that is something not even WoW, one of the trop dogs money and review wise,  have from what I see, and thus I believe COX is a more successful game than even WoW.

[Lightslinger]

While I agree that it would probably be a win win for PWE, I dont think sales reports and reviews are only measure of success. Or else, using that as the measure, COX and super hero MMOs are low totem pole peanuts in the world of the MMO and the ones that say there is no market for super hero MMO are absolutely correct, according to sales reports and reviews.

I think success could be measured beyond sale reports and reviews. The way I measure success would mean COX is one of if not the most successful game in the world. I dont recall players having this much passion about any game. And that is the the greatest success that money cant buy. Most games go, the players move on no questions asked. Yet, not this player base. This would imply, that while on the surface COX is a game like any other game, like WoW and such, it is not just a game. It was something more. And that is something not even WoW, one of the trop dogs money and review wise,  have from what I see, and thus I believe COX is a more successful game than even WoW.

Not trying to downplay our community here, but if WoW were suddenly shut down like CoH was the world as we know it would cease to exist. Simultaneous worldwide rioting, anarchy.

Whereas CoH players have convened at Titan since the closure, ex-WoW players would take the UN HQ in New York by force and start executing people hourly on television for their pleasure.

Whereas CoH players have Plan Z, the riotous ex-WoW players would eventually split off into Alliance and Horde and attempt to rebuild Azeroth in the ashes and ruins of our scorched planet.

[golemjoe]

While I agree that it would probably be a win win for PWE, I dont think sales reports and reviews are only measure of success. Or else, using that as the measure, COX and super hero MMOs are low totem pole peanuts in the world of the MMO and the ones that say there is no market for super hero MMO are absolutely correct, according to sales reports and reviews.

I think success could be measured beyond sale reports and reviews. The way I measure success would mean COX is one of if not the most successful game in the world. I dont recall players having this much passion about any game. And that is the the greatest success that money cant buy. Most games go, the players move on no questions asked. Yet, not this player base. This would imply, that while on the surface COX is a game like any other game, like WoW and such, it is not just a game. It was something more. And that is something not even WoW, one of the trop dogs money and review wise,  have from what I see, and thus I believe COX is a more successful game than even WoW.

To be fair, they haven't tried to close WoW.  I think that would be the measure between the 2.

[JaguarX]

Not trying to downplay our community here, but if WoW were suddenly shut down like CoH was the world as we know it would cease to exist. Simultaneous worldwide rioting, anarchy.

Whereas CoH players have convened at Titan since the closure, ex-WoW players would take the UN HQ in New York by force and start executing people hourly on television for their pleasure.

Whereas CoH players have Plan Z, the riotous ex-WoW players would eventually split off into Alliance and Horde and attempt to rebuild Azeroth in the ashes and ruins of our scorched planet.

Probably. But then again, only an extremely insane person, well actually even an insane person would think it's insane, to close WoW in it's current condition.

[Blondeshell]

Not trying to downplay our community here, but if WoW were suddenly shut down like CoH was the world as we know it would cease to exist. Simultaneous worldwide rioting, anarchy.

Not to mention that many design studios would no longer have a game to copy for making their own product.  ???

[JaguarX]

To be fair, they haven't tried to close WoW.  I think that would be the measure between the 2.

Quite so.  You are correct.

Come to think of it, I might have been wrong to suggest COX being the most successful by that measure as I just thought about the crazy wacky stuff people did for WoW. People actually died due to the love of the game.

Ok WoW may have us beat. But I think COX would be in the upper top 5.

[Harpospoke]

Declining to accept money for a product they no longer want is business, all right. STUPID business.

That's why I say malice. Business is getting what you can for an item you no longer want. Malice is not selling just to frustrate the would-be buyer.

Hard to argue with that.   They certainly don't seem to be making decisions based on "business".   There is something else motivating them on the rights to CoH.

[Ziggy1890]

I honestly didnt think we'd see CoH again.

Now, I feel we will more than we wont.

Feels good man.

[Kistulot]

Honestly I'm kinda confused why people are so excited from this :(

Don't get me wrong. I dislike Jack's lack of filtering more than his game design. ED was good. Making Paragon City so street-sweepable was good. I don't hate the guy, even if things about him confuse and frustrate me... but I would be happy to see him owning the game again.

But does it seem likely?

Honestly, with everything we've seen so far, if it just took someone standing up, waving their hand and saying "hey, I'd love the game. Call me." Then all signs have been pointing to "it would be had" pretty loudly.

I think getting so excited about a 1% chance is unhealthy. Happy that people still care? Sure. Excited by a possibility that seems as likely as Hitstreak passing by Tony in the hall and handing him a thumbstick with all of our characters and server data on it? Kinda seems like setting yourself up for a fall. If Jack says he's committed to getting it back, or shows active ongoing interest, I'll be right there beside everyone cheering. Right now we have less reason to think anything will come of this than Google.

[Illusionss]

Kist, agreed. I am not going to lose my mind until I see something a little more concrete.

[Triplash]

I almost entirely agree with you, Kistulot. I think Jack would take fine care of the city; the things I hear were his call, I actually think were good ideas. And what I saw in that video looked more like positive sentiment than strong intent. This one point though:

if it just took someone standing up, waving their hand and saying "hey, I'd love the game. Call me."

To be fair, he isn't just any old "someone" in relation to CoH. He is its creator, and the studio he runs were its original developers and previous owners. Jack Emmert & Cryptic probably have a better chance than any other party at being taken seriously by NCsoft.

They could tell the story like this: Considering Cryptic already had a competitor in the genre they decided not to make an offer initially, but they've reconsidered since witnessing all the media attention it's been getting. Or perhaps they felt they were too busy, but seeing how nobody else has stepped up to take it over, they decided to rescue it. So now that Cryptic has shown a desire to negotiate, publicly no less, NCsoft could let people think that was the reason for their refusal to deal with any other party. It would even tie in with that BS PR statement about how they just couldn't find a buyer they felt would treat it the way it deserved. Well, who could ever treat it better than its own creators? "Of course! That's who we were waiting for all along!"

So, while I don't really think Jack's statement meant as much as we wanted it to, I do think there's a chance that both parties could be talked into it. NCsoft gets some PR repair and a chunk of cash; Cryptic gets a cash flow with strong positive media attached (and if its only brought back in maintenance mode with a cash shop, it's a lot of return for very little ongoing work).

Personally, I think it's got enough potential that it's a shot worth taking. However, like you said, let's not count our chickens just yet.

[Lightslinger]

I don't think anyone here is losing their minds. No one is breaking out mids getting their next build for their main ready because the game will be back NEXT WEEK CAUSE JACK SAID SO.

I think it's a bit much to say people chasing a lead that could, maybe, probably won't but possibly get our game back are "losing their minds."