News?

[Flamazing Sally]

Thank you, Horror_Frost, for the link.  Good to know that wizards in the financial community agree with us.  NCsoft has really dropped the ball and isn't doing much to retrieve it.

[darkquill]

Zwill, from the community digest, so I'm sure most of you've already seen it:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?p=4396775#post4396775

Update: I'm working on some messaging regarding the cessation of player services right now. There's some details that are still being worked out by NCsoft, but I would expect something in the next few days.

This was an update to this post from 9/6:

As a heads up; We still do not have final details surrounding VIP status or the state of player services moving forward. As soon as NCsoft provides an update myself or another of the remaining team will update and hopefully answer any questions you may have.

[TimtheEnchanter]

Well, I guess that just about sums up any good things we thought we were hearing.

Gotta love Electric_Knight's response though. "Please relay to them that we have a cave troll. "

[Ampithere]

Well, I guess that just about sums up any good things we thought we were hearing.

Gotta love Electric_Knight's response though. "Please relay to them that we have a cave troll. "

Not necessarily. It's possible, in fact I'd argue it's probable, that the people working on cessation of player services would be completely different people than those in any negotiations about the future of the product.

Besides, even if the negotiations bear fruit it's possible that CoH will no longer be an NCSoft product. In that case, it's possible that we will have to create new game accounts and that Titan Network will have to collaborate with Paragon Studios to get exported characters back into the game.

[Electric-Knight]

Not necessarily. It's possible, in fact I'd argue it's probable, that the people working on cessation of player services would be completely different people than those in any negotiations about the future of the product.

Besides, even if the negotiations bear fruit it's possible that CoH will no longer be an NCSoft product. In that case, it's possible that we will have to create new game accounts and that Titan Network will have to collaborate with Paragon Studios to get exported characters back into the game.

Agreed. Any potential bad news we hear from this does not necessarily have a single thing to do with any successful deals to keep CoH running.
And, yeah, I don't think NCSoft will have anything to do with our future subscription/player services (as I don't believe NCSoft will simply reconsider and continue backing the game... I just hope they will sell it!).
So, no worries if/when Zwill drops some cold, hard cessation information.

Also, haha, thanks, Tim. I am glad to give people a smile or a laugh. 

[TonyV]

Agreed. Any potential bad news we hear from this does not necessarily have a single thing to do with any successful deals to keep CoH running.

I'm 99.99% sure that regardless of what happens, NCsoft will be ceasing providing services for City of Heroes players.  Right now, NCsoft owns all of the accounts, billing systems, hardware, etc.  If the game transfers to someone else, whether or not it stays up and running, we'll have to go through this process.  Don't read too much into this yet.

[Victoria Victrix]

I have no updates.

[Paindancer]

Sometimes, you have to hand it to where my wife heralds from:

Stay calm.

Carry on.

Single biggest thing we can do.

[Mistaken Bambi]

[Burnt Toast]

Not sure if it has been mentioned, but it seems to go very quickly from AP31 to AP33... Was there no video of AP32?


And yes I keep watching it over and over...and crying.

[Clave Dark 5]

I wish I would have read this earlier...I just teamed with a DJ Kitty this morning.

I happened to team with DJ Kitty this morning and asked about this.  He/She told me that TR had been on a chat channel and had said something good.  DJ Kitty wasn't all that chatty or detailed in what they said, so this sounds as if it could just be a round of telephone game and whoknows what was said or what was meant.

But I agree that no news may be good news.  If NCSoft had ROFLed at the idea of talks, we'd have heard so by now; if talks are still on-going, then hope still burns...

[Wammo]

Time...
We have seen quite a bit of it pass now and the lack of information is deafening. None of us need be anymore discouraged  than we already are but the lack of information is starting to gnaw at the hope I still bear in my heart for the salvation of this game. Can the developers who are supposedly talking with NcSoft give us any reason to believe this thing is going to be pulled out before the clock strikes? Anyone anywhere have anything new at all???

[Golden Girl]

Well, I guess that just about sums up any good things we thought we were hearing.

Because the entire billing and account system is integrated into the larger PlayNC system there'll have to be work done to remove them, no matter what happens.

[Ampithere]

Time...
We have seen quite a bit of it pass now and the lack of information is deafening. None of us need be anymore discouraged  than we already are but the lack of information is starting to gnaw at the hope I still bear in my heart for the salvation of this game. Can the developers who are supposedly talking with NcSoft give us any reason to believe this thing is going to be pulled out before the clock strikes? Anyone anywhere have anything new at all???

1.) Any and all talks should be expected to under NDA. Anyone that knows anything can't talk about it.

2.) Start complaining about the length of time when it's at least been a month. The time that has passed so far hasn't actually been that significant when it comes to this sort of thing.

[emu265]

1.) Any and all talks should be expected to under NDA. Anyone that knows anything can't talk about it.

2.) Start complaining about the length of time when it's at least been a month. The time that has passed so far hasn't actually been that significant when it comes to this sort of thing.

Yeah, this sums it up pretty nicely.  What it doesn't mean, however, is that you should start losing faith.  It's not over yet, we just gotta wait.  Keep morale up!  Play the game, keep tweeting, etc.

[Teege]

Yup we cannot lose steam on our efforts. We need to do our part in and out of game as much as possible and those such as Tony or Andy will undoubtedly inform us as soon as something new hits the front lines. Until then remain strong, continue our current Call to Actions (and brainstorm new ones) and consume large amounts of Grandpa Gerald's Old Tyme Broot Beer! I wonder if anybody remembers that and other advertisements I made up in Broadcast during one of my Costume Contests?

[Victoria Victrix]

Time...
We have seen quite a bit of it pass now and the lack of information is deafening. None of us need be anymore discouraged  than we already are but the lack of information is starting to gnaw at the hope I still bear in my heart for the salvation of this game. Can the developers who are supposedly talking with NcSoft give us any reason to believe this thing is going to be pulled out before the clock strikes? Anyone anywhere have anything new at all???

I can guarantee that the developers ARE talking with NCSoft.  That much I have the solid word of Brian Clayton, the former manager of Paragon Studios, on.

I would suggest we are dealing with three things here. (1) Business negotiations are generally slow, unless fire is applied to the tail of one of the parties.  (2) It takes time to raise venture capitalist money, and NCSoft is going to be all about "show me the money."  (3) WE are in a hurry to see something settled before Nov 30.  NCSoft is in no hurry; they have already cut their expenses by shutting down the studio, and do not have a fire applied to their tail.

Applying fire is our job.  We need to make them see that the longer they drag this out, the blacker an eye we can give them in the (Western, anyway) press.

I have two strategies I will make threads for.

[DrakeGrimm]

Hmmm. Maybe I'm just not saying it loudly enough.



ACTIVATE YOUR PATIENCE DEFENSE POWER SETS!



...maybe that'll do it... >.>

[TimtheEnchanter]

DAMN, I shoulda bought Patience when the Paragon store was still open. 

[Copper Cockroach]

"As the long history of City of Heroes draws to a close...."

"Thank you for your support and patience as we work to smoothly close this chapter with the sunset of the City of Heroes franchise."

Zwill's no amateur; he knows how to write this stuff. The eyes of the Community were on him. He probably spent 48 hours sweating over his keyboard trying to figure out exactly how to word it.

It's over. NCsoft has no intention of being reasonable and never did. We'll probably never know if there actually were "discussions" going on or not. (Smart money's on "not".)

So ends the strange saga of The Most Disgraceful and Contemptuous Closing of a Title in Gaming History. Our descendants will not envy us for having experienced it.

And so we move on to "Plan Z". If NCsoft won't run the World's Most Popular Superpowered MMO, and won't release it to another publisher...

We'll just make a new one!