The main reason people are fighting so hard to save CoH is that it's more than a game. It's our community. It's our version of Facebook, or MySpace, or Twitter, or Reddit. It's where we go to talk, to hang out, to pass information and connect with our friends. So...
Has anyone approached NCSoft with the angle of saving CoH from that point of view? Facebook is a social media system where you can play games. CoH is a game with a social media system. The line between the two is blurrier than one would think at first glance. If I want to play games, I can fire up my PS3. If I want to have basic chat and IM, I can use the Playstation Network. But if I want to actually hang out with my friends and do stuff, there's nothing out there like CoH. NOTHING.
If NCSoft simply kept CoH alive, no further development and only basic maintenance, the costs for doing so would be minimal: servers (which they already have), server space, skeleton crew for maintenance (which would most likely already be employed to maintain servers for other games as well, so no new hires would really be necessary), electricity (which is negligible, particularly if the servers are maintained at a central site). Many of us would still continue to pay monthly subscription fees to maintain access to the already existing VIP content, and CoH could still have many FTP customers pass through.
What would the financial upsides be for NCSoft in keeping COH alive as social media? Well, ongoing subscriptions, to begin with. Ingame ads (which is an argument for another time, but bear with us for just a moment) could raise quite a bit of money. Ability to cross-promote their other products without advertising costs in the CoH world. Maintaining goodwill from the CoH community and the gaming community in general. Being the first to debut an innovative concept that will generate a tremendous amount of buzz in the online gaming community and a significant amount of mainstream mention as well.
I think this is a possibility that someone needs to pitch to NCSoft. It has no risk of releasing property rights which someone else might make more profitable, very little financial risk or drain, a pre-built customer base, and it lets them look smart and caring instead of cold and aloof. It has almost certain profitability and potential to become much, much more. Facebook is one of the biggest software companies in the world, and CoH is a lot more fun. There's room to turn this situation in a win for both us as players (keeping our community) and NCSoft (maintaining steady profits as a definite with potential for greater profits).
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I originally posted this on the CoH forums, but I wanted it to be more readily visible to all of us instead of buried on page four of another post. If this counts as a cross-post and I offended anyone, my apologies; I just want to make everyone aware of another possible pitch to save our world.
K
