And the mask comes off.

[Sinistar]

I think the reasons are pretty well known. I can't remember much off hand...and I don't want to misinform, so I'll leave off for now.

Weren't they merging with Nexon or something?  I remember the main reason being "Corporate restructuring and refocus" or some such.

However if my memory isn't too dusty, CoH was still turning a profit at shutdown. Maybe not as large a profit as it once did, but in business profit IS profit last time I checked and killing a still golden goose isn't usually the best way to think. 

However as stated my memory may be a bit dusty, and of course all the facts at the time were not disclosed.

The fact that NCSoft IS talking to people about CoH raises my opinion of them back up to a more moderate level.

[FloatingFatMan]

However if my memory isn't too dusty, CoH was still turning a profit at shutdown. Maybe not as large a profit as it once did, but in business profit IS profit last time I checked and killing a still golden goose isn't usually the best way to think. 

CoH was making a modest profit as far as we know; Paragon Studios, however, were operating at a loss due to the 2 "secret" projects they were working on.

When you're merging with another company, and they look at the books and see a loss making unit, big questions are going to be asked.  CoH was a victim of big business, nothing more.

[Sinistar]

CoH was making a modest profit as far as we know; Paragon Studios, however, were operating at a loss due to the 2 "secret" projects they were working on.

When you're merging with another company, and they look at the books and see a loss making unit, big questions are going to be asked.  CoH was a victim of big business, nothing more.

Ah yes, so that is what it was. 

Hm, too bad NCSoft couldn't just take the game from Paragon Studios and let it sit in maintenance mode instead of shutting down, then they could sit back and shop it around to a new studio while the game was running.  But I suspect that idea has a few flaws.

[Harpospoke]

I think the Atlas Park Revival folks, who are currently trying to recreate Atlas Park in UE4, will then move towards recreating (with some improvements here and there) all of City of Heroes.

Just to chime in.   Give Irish Girl credit...she's already gotten some stuff beyond Atlas Park started.   Check it out:

http://apr.pc-logix.com/gallery/category/2-official-gallery/

[Harpospoke]

Right. But when Ironwolf stated this:

it seems a slightly different path: what they are selling is the ability to license the IP to the new company, in partnership with NCSoft.  I'm fully aware that Ironwolf may have mistyped, or misunderstood since he's not a direct insider, either, but I have no doubt he knows more than I do.  So all I'm asking for is a bit of clarification to see if the way Ironwolf stated it is what's being discussed (NCSoft partnering with the new holding company which is buying rights to license the IP but with NCSoft retaining royalties and some control of the licensing) or if it's an outright sale as Downix's posts seem to suggest.

Just curious, since one excites me much more than the other, is all.

Downix summed it up perfectly at one point with a simple:

Buying the IP
Leasing the Engine

[Harpospoke]

CopyPasta from the Revival FAQ thread:

"Will your updates follow the plans laid down by Matt "Positron" Miller, and the other Paragon Studio's developers?
Personal, I have a great respect for Positron, and the rest of the dev team. However, It is unlikely that we'll stay exact to their plans. There wouldn't be any surprises!"

At first I was like, "Awww...that's not going to be trying to duplicate CoH as much as possible".

But then I thought about it a bit and decided that the game has to change, and there were many different people who had a hand in the direction over the years.   There really wasn't "one vision".

And if anyone has earned the right to be a creative force, you have.

[Zombie Hustler]

Well, to be fair, I think even the Devs have noted in the AMA Lore talks that a lot of the plans they've discussed were not set in stone and that some things they have revealed in those talks in particular might change should they have the opportunity to work on CoH again.

[Cailyn Alaynn]

But logically speaking, to expect the entire fanbase to be back online on day one of relaunch is being extremely optimistic. Granted it would be nice to see but still.......
So let's say ALL the servers come back, and then there is an implosion in terms of players. Some leave again, some never came back, etc.  Then what happens? Will the servers be consolidated as some games have done like SWTOR, and from what I hear Wildstar is about to do the same.  Or will all the servers be up and running with some being dead zones like they were long before CoH was shut down?

Each server was it's own living community. Going from server to server every place was different. The decoration was the same, but the feel was different.
I disagree with closing, or merging servers for a few reasons.
For one, it effectively kills a community of people that have grown to love said community.

Now, you do have to do possibly deal with dwindling server pops. So deal with it creatively, don't just force people somewhere they may not want to go.
Maybe pick a few servers with larger communities, or something else special about them. Make a GMOD letting people know that these are high pop servers, give players free transfers to said servers. -shrugs-

Some players LOVE those dead zones, btw.

[zaran]

There's no reason that the server list has to be halved. Or even one less. Aside from HDD space, it wouldn't make much difference.
All of the Live servers were running on one computer anyways. Then I believe the Auth server it's own machine, as well as Beta.

No technical reason.

The reality is that there is going to be fewer people playing when CoX comes back and having that smaller population spread across 15 servers will make for some empty servers. I think it would be better if a small set of servers were brought up to start and more can be added when load/demand for it arises.

[hopelives]

  Even though the final plan of Positron & team had not left the test-server at that time, I have to say that their final works would be deemed canon, or at the very least
closer to canon than anything that anyone else could or would do. In my humble opinion.

ps. none of that matters atm of course as we aren't near to the game even being back, if it will be back etc.

[Cailyn Alaynn]

At first I was like, "Awww...that's not going to be trying to duplicate CoH as much as possible".

But then I thought about it a bit and decided that the game has to change, and there were many different people who had a hand in the direction over the years.   There really wasn't "one vision".

And if anyone has earned the right to be a creative force, you have.

I should clarify in that post that I'm referring specifically to the Lore discussed in the AMAs/Loregasms.
Issue 0 - Issue 23 I hold true as canon.

[JanessaVR]

I should clarify in that post that I'm referring specifically to the Lore discussed in the AMAs/Loregasms.
Issue 0 - Issue 23 I hold true as canon.

Again, I really think you're doing the CoH fanbase (and yourself) a huge disservice by just arbitrarily writing off Issue 24, simply on the grounds that you hadn't played it yet.  You would have, if they'd just held off the closing announcement for even 1 month, it was that close to live release.  And for that, you would dismiss it entirely as unworthy of any consideration?

[Harpospoke]

Each server was it's own living community. Going from server to server every place was different. The decoration was the same, but the feel was different.
I disagree with closing, or merging servers for a few reasons.
For one, it effectively kills a community of people that have grown to love said community.

Now, you do have to do possibly deal with dwindling server pops. So deal with it creatively, don't just force people somewhere they may not want to go.
Maybe pick a few servers with larger communities, or something else special about them. Make a GMOD letting people know that these are high pop servers, give players free transfers to said servers. -shrugs-

Some players LOVE those dead zones, btw.

Excellent idea.   Let people know what kind of server it is if possible.   People who played the low population servers had no interest in the Freedom type servers.   Those (like me) who did like the high population servers would be equally unhappy on the less populated servers.    I think we'll all end up where we are happy in the end...may as well make the journey easier.

[FloatingFatMan]

Again, I really think you're doing the CoH fanbase (and yourself) a huge disservice by just arbitrarily writing off Issue 24, simply on the grounds that you hadn't played it yet.  You would have, if they'd just held off the closing announcement for even 1 month, it was that close to live release.  And for that, you would dismiss it entirely as unworthy of any consideration?

She never said that.  Try reading her actual words instead of inventing random stuff in your head.

[Cailyn Alaynn]

Again, I really think you're doing the CoH fanbase (and yourself) a huge disservice by just arbitrarily writing off Issue 24, simply on the grounds that you hadn't played it yet.  You would have, if they'd just held off the closing announcement for even 1 month, it was that close to live release.  And for that, you would dismiss it entirely as unworthy of any consideration?

I have not said that, nor is that my intent. I simply stated that I had no intent one way or the other, and my reasoning behind that decision. I have every intent to take some time and dig through the links that were given me, and the i24 patch notes on Paragon Wiki.
It would be inappropriate for me to just dismiss something in that manner, and I have too much respect to dismiss Posi' and team's work without serious consideration.

Typically, if I'm talking about a decision that people might have strong feelings on like this. I lean, publicly, towards the least popular one so that players are prepared for the worst.

[MM3squints]

Each server was it's own living community. Going from server to server every place was different. The decoration was the same, but the feel was different.
I disagree with closing, or merging servers for a few reasons.
For one, it effectively kills a community of people that have grown to love said community.

Now, you do have to do possibly deal with dwindling server pops. So deal with it creatively, don't just force people somewhere they may not want to go.
Maybe pick a few servers with larger communities, or something else special about them. Make a GMOD letting people know that these are high pop servers, give players free transfers to said servers. -shrugs-

Some players LOVE those dead zones, btw.

The good thing about starting fresh is people will now have a choice where to start out at instead of how I originally picked my home server (Triumph: The first server I clicked on) If people want them to go to a small server let them. The only downside is with the population more aware where the larger servers are, hopefully they (the people who are setting up the severs) will take account more people will gravitate to the larger servers and will increase the loads of the server so the servers will never be Red or Grayed out from too many people in the server

[hopelives]

CoH was making a modest profit as far as we know; Paragon Studios, however, were operating at a loss due to the 2 "secret" projects they were working on.

When you're merging with another company, and they look at the books and see a loss making unit, big questions are going to be asked.  CoH was a victim of big business, nothing more.

  It's too bad they didn't choose to spin-off the loss-making units as a separate company, and only keep the healthy unit to be doing the merger, would have made them a lot more "attractive".

[FloatingFatMan]

  It's too bad they didn't choose to spin-off the loss-making units as a separate company, and only keep the healthy unit to be doing the merger, would have made them a lot more "attractive".

Personally, I would have just canned the 2 projects and downsized Paragon Studios to keep the profit making side running, but they chose what they chose. :/

[hopelives]

Personally, I would have just canned the 2 projects and downsized Paragon Studios to keep the profit making side running, but they chose what they chose. :/

yes, I thought of that as well but maybe their was no one strong enough "at the helm" to force those types of decisions. Either way, yes, your idea would have been the best I'd think.

[Aggelakis]

All of the Live servers were running on one computer anyways.

No. No no no no no. All the live servers were *virtualized*....but they were *definitely* run on a whole *stack* of computers, if not multiple banks. Oh, man. There's no way in hell you'd be able to play the game on one computer.