Huge new write-up of CoH/PS closure on Gamasutra

[TonyV]

Link to downloadable PDF version

Hey all, just ran across this, a huge new write-up on the closure of City of Heroes/Paragon Studios on one of the big players in the gaming media.  Definitely required reading.

Edit:

I submitted the following comment to the article.  It's lengthy I know, but I wanted to cover all of these points.  Because I'm a new registrant, it says my comment has to be approved by someone at Gamasutra first.  Hopefully it will pop up a little later and I represented us well.  :)


As administrator of the Titan Network and one of the people heavily involved in the player-run efforts to save City of Heroes, I want to say a huge "Thank you!" to Gamasutra for digging into this topic. I still feel that shuttering City of Heroes was a huge mistake, that the game still had a lot of life--and value--left in it. I'd like to also point out that efforts are still underway even after over four months to get the IP and/or code base transferred to another publisher or studio to relaunch the game. There are also efforts underway to create new superhero-themed MMORPGs, "spiritual successors" to City of Heroes, by trying to capture elements of what made the game fun, but without using the IP of NCsoft. All in all, while the shutdown of City of Heroes was a huge blow to our community, we the City of Heroes community are still here, we are still active, and we are still working hard to ensure that the creative energy and hard work of the developers and players is not forever lost.

I am still in semi-frequent contact with some of the former members of Paragon Studios, and I am really happy to see that so many have moved to other companies where they are continuing the careers that they love. These were top-notch people in the industry, people who were deeply devoted to City of Heroes and who worked on the game with a passion that's rare even in an industry notable for how passionate people are about their products. NCsoft's loss has become the immense gain of many other companies, and I wish them the very best and look forward to seeing the products of other projects they are now working on.

As for NCsoft, I am still baffled at their decisions. Many years ago they broke into the Western gaming market in a huge way and gained a lot of loyal supporters in the process. As a community, we supported NCsoft through their break-up with Cryptic Studios, and I know many City of Heroes players who helped publicize Lineage, Guild Wars, and Aion. Many were very excited about the launch of Guild Wars 2, but when the closure of City of Heroes and Paragon Studios was announced a mere three days after it was launched, it irrevocably tarnished the game's reputation with a lot of loyal gamers who felt kicked to the curb. The worst part of this situation is that other fine development studios such as ArenaNet (developer of the Guild Wars franchise) and Carbine (developer of the upcoming Wildstar game) are paying a negative publicity price for NCsoft's actions.

NCsoft has also changed its story over time. Initially, NCsoft told players that "continued support of the franchise no longer fits within our long term goals for the company." Later, after an anonymous source within Paragon Studios talked to MMORPG.com about the success of the game at the time of the shutdown, NCsoft said, "[Paragon Studios] was unprofitable before the shutdown," and of the conversion to a free-to-play business model, "it wasn't enough to support the studio's needs." I've talked to multiple people within the former Paragon Studios who have indicated that the game was still very profitable and, as Matt Miller indicated in this article, that the conversion to an alternate business model was very successful.

Nevertheless, if NCsoft wanted to disassociate itself with City of Heroes and Paragon Studios, we have never questioned that decision. We have consistently only asked that NCsoft to do what it can to be a part of transferring the game into the hands of a publisher of studio that could continue the game. This would have been a win-win-win scenario: NCsoft wins positive public relations as a company that takes care of its customers even when it no longer feels a game or studio is in its long term goals, 80 passionate employees of Paragon Studios wouldn't have had to lose their jobs and see the product of their immense creative energies simply wink out as the servers shut down, and the loyal fans of City of Heroes who have poured millions of cumulative hours into the game would still get to enjoy the product of their fandom. On October 2, NCsoft released a statement claiming that it had "exhausted all options including the selling of the studio and the rights to the City of Heroes intellectual property," yet as recently as PAX East on March 23 in a panel on the future of online games, Jack Emmert, CEO of Cryptic Studios and the first Lead Designer of City of Heroes, said, "I'll tell you what Jeremy [Gaffney, Executive Producer at Carbine], just tell anybody at NCsoft, pick up the phone, I'm there," saying that if NCsoft wants to talk about City of Heroes, just give him a call. I just don't understand how NCsoft can honestly claim that it has exhausted all options when the option to sell the game to Brian Clayton and other interested buyers has always been and continues to remain within its grasp.

Ultimately, I am still hopeful that NCsoft will come around and eventually salvage what is left of its reputation by letting the IP and code base for City of Heroes go, and I really appreciate Chris Morris and Gamasutra for understanding that there is still a lot to this story that continues to impact a loyal community of players and the gaming industry as a whole.

References
----------------------------------------
City of Heroes Developer Shuts Down
http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/08/31/city-of-heroes-developer-shuts-down

NCsoft's Response to City of Heroes® Player and Fan Suggestions
http://us.ncsoft.com/en/news/response-to-city-of-heroes-player-and-fan-suggestions.php

City of Heroes General Article: Profitable or Not?
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/3/feature/7015/City-of-Heroes-Profitable-or-Not.html

MMORPG.com's Future of Online Games Panel - PAX East 2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aI5CRaQvEg&t=34m20s

[UruzSix]

You forgot to mention it includes parts of an interview with Matt Miller.   ;)

Good stuff, some things answered, some new questions raised.

[downix]

Very interesting insight, and explains a lot of why NCSoft will not budge now.

[Ironwolf]

I don't see anything on why they won't sell when even Matt cites he doesn't know what the sticking points were and he was on the team making the deal.

It is very hard to make a deal when you can't get the other side to even tell you why they are saying no.

[eabrace]

Dammit.  Blocked at work.   >:(

[UruzSix]

According to Posi and Hit Streak on Twitter, there's a lot they still can't say publicly.

[Randomvector]

Well, that just refires my rage at NCsoft.

ONE SIGNATURE AWAY FROM KEEPING OUR GAME!

TWO WEEKS AWAY FROM I24!

So mad again.

[LightBlack]

Hmm, I wonder if the desire to retain the two IP's in progress was one of those sticking points. It makes sense for both the studio and the publisher to want to retain IP's in-development  to get more revenue down the line (and I'm guessing they probably couldn't keep the full studio alive solely on the revenue brought in by CoX). Sad news either way ...

[TimtheEnchanter]

THREE IP's that they'll probably never do anything with...

[Samuraiko]

Now I'm miserable all over again.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

[c-0]

I didn't think it was possible for me to be any more upset, disappointed, and angry with NCsoft, and yet here we are.

[LightBlack]

While it is natural for us to be irked (or worse) by NCSoft here, you have to keep in mind that the sticking points may have been someone from PS's.

[beveri8469]

dang man my ban for ncsoft just got bigger after reading that

[FlyingCarcass]

https://images.weserv.nl/?url=fc07.deviantart.net%2Ffs70%2Ff%2F2010%2F065%2F6%2Fe%2FTable_Flip_01_by_JIHAUS.gif

I wish I could tell that guy that refused to sign where to stick that pen...

[Quinch]

Well, this definitely piqued my curiosity - what was the dealbreaker, if the talks were going well? It seems odd that it would turn up right at the end of the negotiations - do we know when they were taking place, and if there's anything that we know or can find out that might have at NCsoft to suddenly make the entire negotiation moot?

[Lightslinger]

Everyone needs to go comment there, bring up Cryptic and all the community is focused on now.

[Ironwolf]

Seconded, let us rally forth and not use ANY negative veiws on NCSoft let us press the POSITIVE side.

If they were that close lets try and get them over the hump!

[TonyV]

Dammit.  Blocked at work.   >:(

I created a downloadable/viewable PDF of it, linked in the OP.  If you need me to e-mail you copy, let me know.

[Segev]

While it is natural for us to be irked (or worse) by NCSoft here, you have to keep in mind that the sticking points may have been someone from PS's.

Very true.

The thing about sticking points is, they are not necessarily anybody's "fault." Sure, if we're talking about compromise between somebody who wants to murder 100 babies and somebody who wants to keep them all alive, the wannabe-murderer might be willing to "compromise" by killing only 50 of them, or even only 10! See how far he was willing to go to compromise? It's that guy who doesn't want them murdered who's refusing to compromise, who is stuck on the "sticking point."

That example is deliberately designed to make the dual point of how compromise can be a bad thing and how the one willing to do so is still the bad guy.

In other cases, it could be as simple as, "I cannot in good conscience agree to sell this car for less than $5,000. If I do, I will not be able to feed my children next month, and there are ways I can get at least that out of keeping it despite not wanting to use it anymore," vs. "I cannot buy this car for more than $500; it's in rough shape and has a limited but specific use to which only I could put it, but if I spend more than that I won't be able to afford the repairs and the gasoline to make it run."

Neither person is being unreasonable. There's just no common ground. The best course is, in fact, for the car's owner to keep it and milk the $5000 value out of those other avenues.

That doesn't mean that NCSoft or Paragon were being both reasonable, nor that the difference needed to be insurmountable. We simply don't know. But it's possible.

[Technerdoc]

I was so close to forget about all of this mess and now... Oh man, I still can't belive it...  >:(