Author Topic: Star Power  (Read 68184 times)

jordanhb

  • Underling
  • *
  • Posts: 12
Star Power
« on: September 03, 2012, 05:37:33 PM »
One thing that I've heard mentioned a couple of times is that we should try to get some "stars" (or at least some recognizable names) involved in the efforts to try to save City of Heroes.  Even if it's something as simple as a message posted on their forum or website saying "Hey, this is City of Heroes, it's a great game that's getting shut down, and these folks are trying to save it.  I played it, and it's really cool, and you should help them save it if you can" it could get more people interested in the game, and in our cause.  As part of that, I thought it might be a good idea to try to make a list of any 'celebrities' that play(ed) the game we might be able to reach out to.  For example, I know that Jim Butcher played for a number of years.  I've also seen a lot of City of Heroes stuff on The Big Bang Theory, leading me to think someone involved in that show plays (or played) the game.  I've also heard several people mention Gabe and Tycho from Penny Arcade.  If you have other ideas, please share.  If possible, I'll try to keep the list updated with other people's suggestions, so it's all in the first post.

Celebrities to reach out to
Jim Butcher
The Big Bang Theory (would be great if we had a specific person's name)
Gabe and Tycho (Penny Arcade)
Felicia Day
Neil Gaiman
Tim @ CAD
Kurt Busiek
Grant Morrison
Mercedes Lackey
Wil Wheaton
Ben "Yahtzee" Crenshaw
George Takei
« Last Edit: September 03, 2012, 11:21:58 PM by jordanhb »

Soundtrack

  • Boss
  • ****
  • Posts: 178
Re: Star Power
« Reply #1 on: September 03, 2012, 05:41:51 PM »
My first thought was Felicia Day, who has made quite a name for herself in the world of Geekdom, creating such awesome web series as "The Guild" and now starting up her own company "Geek and  Sundry". I thought about contacting her and seeing if she couldn't mention us in one of her flogs, etc.

Maybe if more than one of us contacted these people, they'd be willing to lend their support.

TonyV

  • Titan Staff
  • Elite Boss
  • ****
  • Posts: 2,175
    • Paragon Wiki
Re: Star Power
« Reply #2 on: September 03, 2012, 06:05:40 PM »
On this, too.

Soundtrack

  • Boss
  • ****
  • Posts: 178
Re: Star Power
« Reply #3 on: September 03, 2012, 06:07:49 PM »
I just sent an email to Ms. Day, care of her flog address:

theflog@geekandsundry.com

I would imagine if more of us email her, it might make an impact. (And no, I don't mean spamming the lady!) :)

Mister Bison

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 686
  • *psychotic grin*
Re: Star Power
« Reply #4 on: September 03, 2012, 08:46:55 PM »
Will soon send an appeal video to, in particular, NOOB, a french not-so-amateur-anymore webserie team
« Last Edit: September 04, 2012, 02:26:36 PM by Mister Bison »
Yeeessss....

Tazhyngarth

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 2,085
    • Titan Network
Re: Star Power
« Reply #5 on: September 03, 2012, 09:13:38 PM »
I shall also reach out to Felicia Day.

Xenos

  • Lieutenant
  • ***
  • Posts: 67
Re: Star Power
« Reply #6 on: September 03, 2012, 10:00:14 PM »
Some suggestions:

Neil Gaiman: Got a ton of followers, known to support causes and (lately) crowd-sourced projects (thanks AFP), not exclusively associated with one comic book publisher, etc.

Tim @ CAD: Totally reaches our audience and has shown some love to COH (though that was many moons ago)

Kurt Busiek: Very active on twitter and re-tweets often. Also independent.

Grant Morrison: This one is a little strange, he's not really that publicly active...though he does have morrisoncon coming up later this month. BUT...when I first started to imagine that moment when they turn of the servers and thousands of heroes disappear (hopefully not forever...), I was immediately reminded of his stories, especially Animal Man, Doom Patrol, etc. He made breaking the the 4th wall an art...and I think he could really intellectually get behind our efforts.

Anyway, these are my top suggestions for now. I don't have a direct wire to these guys (of course I have their twitter accounts), and I don't think bombarding them with our messages will help much. Let me know if you want me to deal with them, or if you have someone else who is handling these efforts.

biomekanic

  • Underling
  • *
  • Posts: 8
Re: Star Power
« Reply #7 on: September 03, 2012, 10:35:38 PM »
Additional suggestions:
Mercedes Lackey played for a long time, and even had a special dev event when she retired one of her characters

Uncle Wil, aka Wil Wheaton. The sudden closing of the studio was (let's all admit this) a dick move, and Uncle Wil does not approve of dick moves.

Ben "Yahtzee" Crenshaw reviewed CoH on his show "Game Damage", and didn't hate it; and he hates MMOs.

a bit more out there is George Takei, but I think it would be worth a shot. George is very nerd positive and I'm sure there's a huge crossover between the fandoms.

sabbatha251

  • Underling
  • *
  • Posts: 7
Re: Star Power
« Reply #8 on: September 03, 2012, 11:01:32 PM »
Sent my email to Geek and Sundry today.

Soundtrack

  • Boss
  • ****
  • Posts: 178
Re: Star Power
« Reply #9 on: September 03, 2012, 11:10:48 PM »
I also thought about Mr. Wheaton. While he and I don't see eye-to-eye on many philosophical points, I've always admired his tenacity and fierceness...he's not one to reckon with.

I definitely support him being contacted.

He also works with Felicia Day on many Geek & Sundry projects...so it couldn't hurt to contact them both.

jordanhb

  • Underling
  • *
  • Posts: 12
Re: Star Power
« Reply #10 on: September 03, 2012, 11:22:55 PM »
Definitely some good names in there.  It may not be true, but I've heard rumors in the past that Rick Astley and Keira Knightly both played at one point.  Anyone know if there's any truth to them?

Vrghr

  • Underling
  • *
  • Posts: 4
Re: Star Power
« Reply #11 on: September 03, 2012, 11:58:39 PM »
Something in the back of my head says Diane Duane did an arc in AE. Or perhaps I'm mus-remembering. I may be thinking of Mercedes Lackey.

chief536

  • Underling
  • *
  • Posts: 8
Re: Star Power
« Reply #12 on: September 04, 2012, 12:02:34 AM »
http://www.geeksaresexy.net/ might also spread the word. They are very nerd friendly :)

jensen010

  • Underling
  • *
  • Posts: 7
Re: Star Power
« Reply #13 on: September 04, 2012, 12:14:03 AM »
i posted this in the other topic, but ill put it here too:

https://www.youtube.com/user/SourceFed?feature=watch
tweet at these guys, post on their facebook, try and get them to do a story on this. Sourcefed does 5 daily news stories every day and they have a pretty sizeable viewership. Plus, ive seen them pick up stories like this, they talk about kickstarter stuff and game company injustices quite often, for a legit news outlet anyways. Also, their boss Phillip Defranco, does a daily video where he has the luxury of mentioning a smaller, in perspective, story like this - Link - https://www.youtube.com/user/sxephil?feature=results_main

hit these people up, or any others you can think of on youtube, they speak to quite a number of people

Heres hoping we can save the city one more time

dwturducken

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 2,152
  • Now available in stereo
Re: Star Power
« Reply #14 on: September 04, 2012, 01:22:25 AM »
I have a letter composed for Mr. Whedon.  Not sure where to send it...   ;D

Joss Whedon
Creative Artists Agency
2000 Avenue of the Stars
Los Angeles, CA 90067
USA

Someone recommended sending letters to NCSoft execs via certified or registered mail to ensure the letter's best chance of getting into said exec's hands.  I would suggest we not do this with celebrities. We don't want to annoy them.  :)
I wouldn't use the word "replace," but there's no word for "take over for you and make everything better almost immediately," so we just say "replace."

Kid Snowflake

  • Underling
  • *
  • Posts: 3
Re: Star Power
« Reply #15 on: September 04, 2012, 02:35:54 AM »
I sent an email to Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics, a personal hero of mine. He may not be as famous as some of the other names on the list but he's hugely influential and has a massive fanbase, and he's a man who gets things done. I was also considering emailing Zach Weiner of smbc-comics, another webcomic artist who has had a lot of success with kickstarters and crowdsourcing, having recently funded a new book via kickstarter and recorded an audiobook version with Wil Wheaton.

Lady Luck

  • Minion
  • **
  • Posts: 32
  • Formerly of the Victory server
Re: Star Power
« Reply #16 on: September 04, 2012, 03:19:32 AM »
Another celeb who might be sympathetic to our cause is Kevin Smith. I know he's into comic books and superheroes.
I found the crappy town where I'm the hero!
But then NCSoft took it away :(

Kid Snowflake

  • Underling
  • *
  • Posts: 3
Re: Star Power
« Reply #17 on: September 04, 2012, 04:00:26 AM »
Scott Kurtz of PvP might be a good contact, he did a lot of comics for CoH in the early years and guest-authored an AE arc.

TonyV

  • Titan Staff
  • Elite Boss
  • ****
  • Posts: 2,175
    • Paragon Wiki
Re: Star Power
« Reply #18 on: September 04, 2012, 04:32:25 AM »
Someone recommended sending letters to NCSoft execs via certified or registered mail to ensure the letter's best chance of getting into said exec's hands.  I would suggest we not do this with celebrities. We don't want to annoy them.  :)

Agreed.  Please do not annoy the celebrities!  NCsoft has people specifically dedicated to the purpose of receiving letters.  A lot of the celebrities I've seen in this list aren't the multi-million-dollar blockbuster movie celebrity types, are really busy with their projects, and probably don't have much in the way of personal assistants and such to handle such things.  Please be mindful of the people we are asking to help us.

Gunaro

  • Underling
  • *
  • Posts: 8
Re: Star Power
« Reply #19 on: September 04, 2012, 10:29:29 AM »
yeah, it might be worthwhile to just take a look at who made the 'celebrity' AE arcs. I think we had someone from red vs blue...I don't have time right now to look it up.

I also know that the folks at the mac hall webcomic had some city of comics back in the day. They now run a comic called three panel soul (http://threepanelsoul.com/) . They might spread some words about this.

Also, it was said to not harass celebrities / the people we are asking. Do we want a point person to send the letters, that way only a few are sent? For this reason, I have not sent anything out yet (though I am composing my NC soft letter)