City of Heroes 2

[JaguarX]

looks like only time will tell and all we can do is just wait and see.
Even though they are mum, I have a feeling there is some sort of method to their madness.

[Undercat]

Given the recent trends of many Asian companies to repatriate their workforces, it could be that they'd rather have future titles developed on home soil.

You think that a Korean development team is going to create an American-style superhero MMO when they already know there is virtually zero Korean demand for such content? Suppose they were crazy enough to attempt it. Who does the localization for the U.S. market? Do we play the game in Korean? My proficiency with Hangul is probably considerably worse than their ability to create content that would be appealing to me. Without a team of American developers to translate and localize their game, this "secret project" would never see the light of day here.

Funny, then, that they just fired the very people who would be most capable of doing that localization. Didn't just "downsize" them, mind you---no, they liquidated them wholesale and razed their ashes into the earth.

Keep in mind that this is not a car or motorcycle we're talking about here. It's not going to exhibit easily tractable, objective engineering issues, like which side the steering wheel goes on or what the local regulatory requirements are; games like CoH are very complex interactive systems---they possess inseparable dependencies on cultural, mythological, idiomatic and linguistic traditions that may be very difficult (and not very entertaining) for "outsiders" to grasp. As a rather simplistic example, consider that Asians seem to harbor much more positive impressions of grindfests than many Americans do. This may be because grindy games are predictable in the sense that you can excel at them by brute force, I don't know. Or perhaps it simply reflects Asian educational systems, which are typically more given to repetition and rote than Western primary schools, at least in part because some Asian countries (not Korea, ironically) use the enormous Chinese idiographic character set. On the other side of the same example, twitchy first-person shooters with "insta-kill" mechanics do even more poorly there than grindfests do here. While there are exceptions, as well as a good deal of cross-over, the bias is clear enough that I simply cannot imagine that NCsoft would produce a game in Korea that they intended to sell primarily in the Western market.

Frankly, I think it's pretty clear that NCsoft put a bullet in the CoX franchise.

[JaguarX]

Frankly, I think it's pretty clear that NCsoft put a bullet in the CoX franchise.

Kind of look like two in the chest one in the head.

[Sajaana]

Keep in mind that this is not a car or motorcycle we're talking about here.

You're right.  It isn't a motorcycle or a car.  You don't need to import raw materials, process them, export finished products overseas, and disrupt a manufacturing supply chain.  This is what makes game development much more cost effective to repatriate than heavy industry.  It is, from a supply chain standpoint, probably the best multinational product one can produce.

It is true that there are a lot of escoteric concerns in game development, but I'm of the opinion that the cultural differences aren't insurmountable...especially since they have a working example of what works (City of Heroes).  If they can create significant savings for themselves by reducing frictional costs, while achieving comparable (perhaps not the same) results, they'd be foolish not to do it.

Is it a solution I, personally, like?  Of course not.  But I said the same thing when CoH switched development houses before.  Frankly, I'm not too concerned at this point who brings me back to Paragon City, as long as someone does.

As we said here on these boards, countless times, CoH is not like NCSoft's other cancelled IPs.  This one has legs.  Despite NCSoft's actions as of late, I can't help but think they know it too.

[healix]

https://i.imgur.com/u2vKOl.jpg

[LuchRi]

Sadly most of the environmental causes have become too lethargic and too much like other long-standing causes. There are plenty of good people who go out and clean up oil slicks or plant trees but unlike CoH the whole scene is more a social statement now.  people buy prius cars not realizing how bad they really are for the environment, they they go out and have parties 'for the environment' that use up resources and leave litter everywhere.

CoH is largely just a community of people with one simple desire, one simple focus, and something where the majority of immature players have either grown up over the years or get bored and leave. Honestly I think many other environmentalists could do with the kind of focus we brought to the whole CoH thing... and its not a bad idea.

[Superratz]

It won't be a Coh 2, it be more like another Korean Grinding Game. After all our Protesting and rallys, I think NcSoft is mad at us and won't even bother to make another Coh 2.

[Victoria Victrix]

IF NCSoft was actually thinking of a CoH2 (and it wasn't just a rumor) it would not have been made by our devs.  It would not have allowed us to port over our toons.  It would have been made in Korea and probably would either have been a Korean Grind that was F2P and microtransacted you to death, or would have been a 2d browser sidescroller with a limited number of toon costumes to choose from.

In short: nothing like CoH.

[Jadenator]

City of Heroes 2, I hate to say it, is NOT a rumor.  In 2010 NC Soft bought up the rights to Heroes 2, in July/Aug this year in a community coffee talk Zwil made mention of Heroes 2, and said Paragon was not working on it.

Not only that but almost 2 weeks before our beloved game was shut down NC Soft filed for an extension on the license for a FOURTH time, and it was granted.  The license can be viewed at the link below, look under Prosecution History.

http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=85004613&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch

Also NC Soft is also looking to hire a new development team that will be located at the same studio that Paragon was at.
http://adingworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/15/will-we-see-a-city-of-heroes-2/  linked out to NC Soft's site
http://us.ncsoft.com/en/jobs/index.html

Personally I don't think v2 will be as good as the original since Paragon isn't working on it.  I also don't want to give NC Suck another penny, and hope Heroes will be bought up and maintained properly so we can all play the game we've come to know and love.  I don't think they'd throw money into a title for so long and renew it so many times just to hold onto it and say "Haha you can't have it" and not have plans for something, specially if they're looking to hire a new dev team.

[corvus1970]

Interesting. But I just don't see it happening.

[Perfidus]

It will be salt in the wounds if NCSoft did all this just to make a CoH2 under another studio. I don't want to believe it's true.

[corvus1970]

Until it actually happens, I don't believe a word of it.

[Perfidus]

It wouldn't even make sense to cancel CoH when CoH2 has barely, if at all, begun development. By the time a finished product would ship, the mmo community at large wouldn't have CoH in their headspace as presently as they would with the game still running. They'd be setting themselves up to fail right there. I know NCSoft can be cartoonishly evil but I highly doubt that with their current issues, they'd just shovel money out the window like that.

So yeah. Chalking this up to not happening.

And if it does, it doesn't matter, because I won't play it.

[Golden Girl]

I think they would probably have gone with a linked route like GW1 and GW2.

[Nafaustu]

You'd have to be a little bit 'special' to alienate your entire market while planning a sequel...

[corvus1970]

Exactly.

NCSoft has done some things I consider pretty damned stupid, but I don't see how even they could end CoH and fire the Paragon staff like they did if they had intended on going forward with plans for CoH 2. Its just not going to happen.

[Minotaur]

A not entirely stupid question, they've trademarked City of Heroes 2, does that protect say CoX2 ?

[Perfidus]

They're stupid. But even though they're the enemy, I know they're not that stupid.

[Arctic Force.]

City of Heroes 2, I hate to say it, is NOT a rumor.  In 2010 NC Soft bought up the rights to Heroes 2, in July/Aug this year in a community coffee talk Zwil made mention of Heroes 2, and said Paragon was not working on it.

Not only that but almost 2 weeks before our beloved game was shut down NC Soft filed for an extension on the license for a FOURTH time, and it was granted.  The license can be viewed at the link below, look under Prosecution History.

http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=85004613&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch

Also NC Soft is also looking to hire a new development team that will be located at the same studio that Paragon was at.
http://adingworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/15/will-we-see-a-city-of-heroes-2/  linked out to NC Soft's site
http://us.ncsoft.com/en/jobs/index.html

Personally I don't think v2 will be as good as the original since Paragon isn't working on it.  I also don't want to give NC Suck another penny, and hope Heroes will be bought up and maintained properly so we can all play the game we've come to know and love.  I don't think they'd throw money into a title for so long and renew it so many times just to hold onto it and say "Haha you can't have it" and not have plans for something, specially if they're looking to hire a new dev team.

None of the locations that are on the Ncsoft site are near where Paragon Studios, and the date of the original post is from January 2012,

About the Copyright this is the Fourth of Five allowed extensions of the ITU (Intent To Use) and they have to renew every 6 months at this point. If they do not show use or work by the end of the 5 extension they could lose the copyright. I doubt that they will lose it, but if it does go into default I know a few people that would snatch it up as quick as they can this was actually discussed in another topic before http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/topic,5966.msg70790.html#msg70790

[ohms]

Also NC Soft is also looking to hire a new development team that will be located at the same studio that Paragon was at.
http://adingworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/15/will-we-see-a-city-of-heroes-2/  linked out to NC Soft's site
http://us.ncsoft.com/en/jobs/index.html

That first link is dated January 2012 and is about the super secret project paragon were working on. The NCSoft page shows no job openings at their old Mountain View office. I think you are putting 2 and 2 together and coming up with 3.