Tom's Hardware "article" on the refunds... so much misinformation

[Pheonyx]

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/City-of-Heroes-Refunds,17736.html

Obviously, the person who wrote this article has no clue about what happened to CoH or even cares, so much so as to basically say outright lies because they couldn't be bothered to fact-check. The one part that is completely off-base is this comment:

Publisher NCSoft had a "realignment of company focus and publishing support", presumably because the MMO wasn't turning a profit.

(Emphasis mine of their words)

We all know this is an outright lie (since we know that CoH was a steady profit earner), and I think Tony V needs to have a few words with this person about their mis-information about what really happened. Also, Paragon Studios can't be giving out the refunds like the article says, since Paragon Studios ceased to exist as of August 30, 2012. NCSoft is giving the refunds.

[TimtheEnchanter]

*facepalm*

[DrakeGrimm]

Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.

* DrakeGrimm facepalms so hard the world quakes

[Aggelakis]

Our in-game currency is "Veteran Points"? How the heck did they even come up with that? Our "veteran currency" is "Paragon Tokens", and our in-game currency is "Paragon Points".

It's like she looked at a bullet-point info list of some things written by someone who saw a bullet-point info list of some things a year ago and was going by memory.

[Atlantea]

***PICARD/RIKER DOUBLE EPIC FACEPALM OF FAIL***

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v38/feather333/lj%20stuff/picard-riker-double-facepalm.jpg

[Zolgar]

From the 'Authority on Tech'.. hah.. hah hah..

That is painful.

I fact check better than that when I'm spouting random bullshit on forums for no reason...

[CapaDevans]

Lazy. Just lazy.

[QuantumHero]

Sent him a politely worded correction and told him to contact tonyv for info....and that he might wish to look into the real story of our grass roots efforts. 

Full agreement with the facepalms..lol

[Vulpy]

Feel free to post comments--constructively address any misinformation you find in the article. Hyperstrike and I have already done so. It doesn't require registration, or even an e-mail address. :)

[Luna Eclypse]

Commented. That article did nothing but get me riled up. DO YOUR RESEARCH, JEEZ!

[padathir]

THG makes a habit out of being wrong about things, so can't say I am surprised.  :roll:

[Victoria Victrix]

Does anyone know if that Tabula Rasa refund PREDATES or POSTDATES Richard Garriott's lawsuit?

That's kind of important information, since if it POSTDATES the lawsuit, that kind of changes things.

[eabrace]

That quoted post appears to be dated Nov. 2008.  Garriott filed suit in 2009 and was awarded the initial $28M in July 2010 (later increased to $32M after NCsoft appealed the decision.)

Seems that places the TR refund prior to Garriott's lawsuit.

[Victoria Victrix]

*nodnod*

I am going to hazard a complete guess here, and say that at some point people who were paid ahead on previous games and wanted a damn refund went after NCSoft via their credit card companies.

I don't know if you guys are aware of this, but if a credit card company gets too many of these disputes against a particular entity, they take away the privilege of charging their card from that entity.  And IIRC, at one point some time around that period (Auto Assault/Tabula Rasa shutdowns) you could use only one of the two major credit cards (either MC and not Visa, or Visa and not MC) to charge your CoH renewal.  Methinks they didn't want to risk another such debacle.

[darkquill]

What is curious is that while TR's and AA's closings resulted in an offer of free time in other NCSoft games in addition to the refunds, we're only being offered refunds.  Maybe it's because Aion and Lineage II are already free to play and GW and GW2 aren't subscription-based. That would leave the (not yet launched) western version of Blade and Soul -- and our VIPs are not even being offered beta slots in that game.

[uninventive]

*nodnod*

I am going to hazard a complete guess here, and say that at some point people who were paid ahead on previous games and wanted a damn refund went after NCSoft via their credit card companies.

I don't know if you guys are aware of this, but if a credit card company gets too many of these disputes against a particular entity, they take away the privilege of charging their card from that entity.  And IIRC, at one point some time around that period (Auto Assault/Tabula Rasa shutdowns) you could use only one of the two major credit cards (either MC and not Visa, or Visa and not MC) to charge your CoH renewal.  Methinks they didn't want to risk another such debacle.

Actually, it's common practice for closing MMO's to have a plan to refund/reimburse players of an end-of-life product.  What didn't make sense was NCSoft announcing it weeks after laying off the staff and announcing the closure.  Most games have this information within hours or a couple of days of the closure announcement, even if the refund dates are off into the future to give the accounting department enough time to handle processing everyone.

This just reeks of haste.

[uninventive]

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/City-of-Heroes-Refunds,17736.html

Obviously, the person who wrote this article has no clue about what happened to CoH or even cares, so much so as to basically say outright lies because they couldn't be bothered to fact-check.

Being its Tom's Hardware, I'm not too worried about their perspective on video games.  Most folks on that site aren't interested in a fringe MMO anyway.

Now, for a site like this one: http://my.mmosite.com/801718/blog/ritem/city_of_heroes_shutting_down_but_are_recent_demands_from_gamers_going_too_far.html

https://images.weserv.nl/?url=s12.postimage.org%2F7jv5hj5b1%2F600full_fear_and_loathing_in_las_vegas_screensho.jpg
You people voted for Hubert Humphrey! And you killed Positron!

[eabrace]

Who are these dingbats that keep saying that we're demanding to keep a game open that we aren't paying subscription fees to play?  If we weren't paying for subscriptions, NCsoft wouldn't have to refund anything.

[DrakeGrimm]

Who are these dingbats that keep saying that we're demanding to keep a game open that we aren't paying subscription fees to play?  If we weren't paying for subscriptions, NCsoft wouldn't have to refund anything.

it's the internet. anybody with a computer and a wifi connection can post whatever drivel they want and call themselves "web journalists" these days.

[uninventive]

Who are these dingbats that keep saying that we're demanding to keep a game open that we aren't paying subscription fees to play?  If we weren't paying for subscriptions, NCsoft wouldn't have to refund anything.

No kidding.  By that reasoning, folks might reach the conclusion that NCSoft is giving money to current players for free after the game closed, and "how can I get in on this?"