Call to Action: Thank the media

[Knightslayer]

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/5339509/thread/366605#5339509

I posted a little something on their forums.
Most likely the usual "Just let die already!" crowd will respond to it, but hopefully it'll also be noticed by those who actually support us.

Edit: Okay... that was entirely pointless, I thought they deleted the topic, but instead it got moved to a "Paragon City Hall" forum, which isn't even connected to the main forums as far as I can tell. (so it's buried instead of deleted =/)

[Patribot]

Don't know that this would be under the catagory "Thanking the media" but I wasn't sure where else to post this.

Gamenguide posted NCSoft's press release/reply to the community's efforts:
http://www.gamenguide.com/articles/3636/20121005/city-heroes-shutting-down-ncsofts-official-statement-save-coh-movement.htm#qdvtwDYwCACIdSeh.99

In the comments I mentioned that the sentence "We've exhausted all options including the selling of the studio and the rights to the City of Heroes intellectual property, but in the end, efforts to do so were not successful." was inaccurate and posted a link to Tony's response to NCSoft's press release.

[StarRanger4]

..sorry. I'm a journalist by trade, and the idea of running with just one side of the story is just unimaginable to me. Is that just a UK thing?

mabye.  Then again, a lot of news stories do include the observation "We attempted to contact X to obtain their side of the story, but they have refused".  That would be the tactful observation.  Especially when we've all wondered WTF are they thinking, but their corporate culture is apparently "we are monolithic.  we shall entertain no other option than what we have decided.  Even if it means making ourselves look worse"

[Rae]

Addicting went for ncsofts jugular http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/10/06/corps-shut-down-family-friendly-products/

[Rae]

Oops, didn't see that. Brilliant angle :)

[Mantic]

I cannot think of a single article that has done this, and a fair chunk if not mostly all of the coverage has come from US websites.

With the internet I guess there is no journalistic standard. But it seems that this is becoming common in the more mainstream news media as well. I have caught a few conversations among journalist types about the rush to get stories out immediately since everything has gone digital and real-time, but it seems sloppy when things don't need to be pushed out right this very moment.

[Patribot]

The guys over at the Virgin Worlds Podcast did a fairly long piece on the closing of CoH and our efforts to keep it going. You can give it a listen (It's about 1/3 of the way through episode #149) and leave a comment here: http://virginworlds.com/podcast.php?show=1&ep=149

[Rae]

With the internet I guess there is no journalistic standard. But it seems that this is becoming common in the more mainstream news media as well. I have caught a few conversations among journalist types about the rush to get stories out immediately since everything has gone digital and real-time, but it seems sloppy when things don't need to be pushed out right this very moment.

I think ..um..dealspawn? Had a comment from NC Soft that basically said: "There is no-one here to comment on City of  Heroes."

Ah. Found it. http://www.dealspwn.com/neil-gaiman-john-wright-john-kovalic-mercedes-lackey-support-save-city-heroes-campaign-113562

[Rae]

http://lorehound.com/news/savecoh-campaign-continues-responds-to-ncsofts-claims/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LoreHound+%28Lore+Hound%29

I can't get this article to load, but it just turned up on my Twitter feed.

[Segev]

http://lorehound.com/news/savecoh-campaign-continues-responds-to-ncsofts-claims/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LoreHound+%28Lore+Hound%29

I can't get this article to load, but it just turned up on my Twitter feed.

It's a blog post about our continued efforts, and a reprint (with a few alterations to the header-lines such as replacing my email address with "For Immediate Release") of our press release announcing Media Day! Thank you to whoever sent it to LoreHound. (That might've been you, rae, if my memory serves.) Here's hoping they might take us up on it. ^_^_v

edit: It also includes, in the original-post bit written by Lorehound's author, a specific mention of the Game-A-Thon and a statement that Lorehound is also participating. I don't know if they were already doing so, or if they've recently joined up, but either way, awesome!

[Rae]

Hurray! I've been useful! Here's hoping other sites follow suit.

[Knightslayer]

Sweet! Shared and liked it on FB!  ;D

[Rae]

OK.

http://mmofallout.com/2012/10/02/ncsoft-tried-selling-city-of-heroes-no-buyers/

I've sort of lost my patience a bit. Especially when I read this about the guy running the site:

"MMO Fallout is the end product of my dissatisfaction with how the major journalists tend to focus on publishing patch notes and press releases or jumping the bandwagon without necessarily going deeper into the story."

I have now decided I'm going to start leaving comments on articles by people who've just printed the NC Soft release verbatim, asking what investigation they did into NC Soft's claims and for them to report on:

• What attempts were made to sell Paragon Studios.
• What attempts were made to sell the IP, and how they were exhausted.
• Why a number of potential investors who came forward to try and buy the rights, did not receive a response of any kind from NC Soft.
• How NC exhausted all the option, given that the game is not due for closure until November 30, and the fact that there have only been only 32 business days since the announcement of the 'sunset' of the game.
• Why NC Soft did not consider combining servers, putting the game in maintenance mode and keeping it running without further developments or updates, or allowing people to create their own, private servers.
• Why NC Soft won't publicly name a price that they would be willing to accept for either Paragon Studios, or City of Heroes itself.
• Why a game that was running 'well in the black' and had seen an increase in players in the months leading up to the announcement is being closed down, while games such as Guild Wars which are running at a loss, are being kept alive.
• Why NC Soft failed to respond to an invitation from players to play the game with them, or a letter from best-selling author Mercedes Lackey to endorse NC Soft products, free of charge, for a period of five to ten years, for free, if they would be willing to work with players to keep the servers online.

and

• WHY the website/article didn't approach the SaveCOH campaign for their comments on the NC Soft statement.

If the press would put a bit more pressure on NC Soft, maybe they'll be a little more transparent. Or at least we'll know for sure that they're lying through their teeth.

[Knightslayer]

OK.

http://mmofallout.com/2012/10/02/ncsoft-tried-selling-city-of-heroes-no-buyers/

I've sort of lost my patience a bit. Especially when I read this about the guy running the site:

"MMO Fallout is the end product of my dissatisfaction with how the major journalists tend to focus on publishing patch notes and press releases or jumping the bandwagon without necessarily going deeper into the story."

I have now decided I'm going to start leaving comments on articles by people who've just printed the NC Soft release verbatim, asking what investigation they did into NC Soft's claims and for them to report on:

• What attempts were made to sell Paragon Studios.
• What attempts were made to sell the IP, and how they were exhausted.
• Why a number of potential investors who came forward to try and buy the rights, did not receive a response of any kind from NC Soft.
• How NC exhausted all the option, given that the game is not due for closure until November 30, and the fact that there have only been only 32 business days since the announcement of the 'sunset' of the game.
• Why NC Soft did not consider combining servers, putting the game in maintenance mode and keeping it running without further developments or updates, or allowing people to create their own, private servers.
• Why NC Soft won't publicly name a price that they would be willing to accept for either Paragon Studios, or City of Heroes itself.
• Why a game that was running 'well in the black' and had seen an increase in players in the months leading up to the announcement is being closed down, while games such as Guild Wars which are running at a loss, are being kept alive.
• Why NC Soft failed to respond to an invitation from players to play the game with them, or a letter from best-selling author Mercedes Lackey to endorse NC Soft products, free of charge, for a period of five to ten years, for free, if they would be willing to work with players to keep the servers online.

and

• WHY the website/article didn't approach the SaveCOH campaign for their comments on the NC Soft statement.

If the press would put a bit more pressure on NC Soft, maybe they'll be a little more transparent. Or at least we'll know for sure that they're lying through their teeth.

My guess would be that he started out with that attitude, and then eventually found it too much effort to actually stick with it...
And I think those are good questions to ask them, Rae!

[Quinch]

I posted a comment, though it hasn't appeared yet {also, their spambot protection doesn't like Seamonkey}.

"There's a lot of things a lot of people with a stake in what happens to CoH are willing to buy, but that line is not one of them."

[Rae]

Well.

*huff*

I've also put the same questions to H+K for an article I'm trying to place, but they haven't even acknowledged the response. I'll start asking them on Twitter, soon, so all their clients can see they ignore press inquiries :-p

[dwturducken]

OK, I'm not saying that we should discriminate against any site or blogger, because we want as much attention as possible on this, but I'm going to start measuring my response according to the analytics of the site.  I've installed the Alexa and Google toolbars and will be looking at the traffic numbers. The length and depth of my response will be proportional to their traffic.

This guy, for instance, has no US ranking, but is evidently big in Greece. Well, no one there has any money, anyway.

In all seriousness, this guy is out there, so he'll show up in a CoH news search, but I can find nothing on this guy outside of his own website.  Despite his lofty mission statement, it's clear that his effort is proportional to his readership.  Your response was far better written than his story, which is not as backhanded a compliment as it sounds. :)

[Rae]

You response was far better written than his story, which is not as backhanded a compliment as it sounds. :)

Aw shucks.

Good idea on the readership, though. Might have a go at installing those toolbars myself.

[dwturducken]

I can't actually install the Google toolbar on my laptop, because it's still running XP, so I can't run the latest and greatest versions of the browsers, but it's on my desktop.  I was being quasi-facetious, but it's always been in the back of my mind as we're posting and reading new news pieces.  We're finding them because we're looking for them, but, aside from it being on the internet and, therefore, "out there," what are the odds Average Joe Internet User is going to read it?

That said, we're finding them, so we're affecting those analytics, so we should still be responding and thanking these folks.  I have to get moving, so this guy will have to wait until my bus ride to class. :)

[Segev]

Also, that blog has a weird way of detecting spam bots. It said I was one or that I didn't have cookies enabled on my browser, and since neither are true, I suspect his filters are set poorly.