A New Support drive idea "Come Play with us!"

[Premmy]

So is this true?

the.hunter.jlj

 @DanielCulbertson There is still time, Daniel. NCsoft seems to have shut off download of  the client, but check the Titan Forums, and they'll steer you to a reputable site to download. As far as I know you can still create and account, pop into any of the servers and say hi - Virtue and Freedom tend to be the most populous any more.

If it is, I think it would help the efforts alot if we could facilitate a massive Upsurge in numbers. If we start a campaign to encourage large amounts of people to register and play via this backdoor method(if it works as stated) it could support the efforts to get NCsoft to rescind it's decision, as well as sway the minds of potential investors in an Independent Paragon studios. It would communicate the idea that "City of Heroes can get great subscriber numbers if only people had ever heard of the damn game."
So, is this possible, and/or a good idea?

[Aggelakis]

Is what true? That we bought them dinner? Yes. I'm not sure what link that has to the rest of your post, though.

Also, I had heard that registering new accounts has been shut down but haven't verified that myself as I seem to be stuck in some kind of loop of "verify this computer" / "thanks for verifying" / "verify this computer".

[Premmy]

ah, okay, the shared link doesn't relate to the actual comment.
here's what I'm talking about:

the.hunter.jlj

 @DanielCulbertson There is still time, Daniel. NCsoft seems to have shut off download of  the client, but check the Titan Forums, and they'll steer you to a reputable site to download. As far as I know you can still create and account, pop into any of the servers and say hi - Virtue and Freedom tend to be the most populous any more.

[Vulpy]

I'm pretty sure the OP was thinking about organizing a drive to recruit new Free players. To the best of my knowledge, Free accounts can be added to existing NCsoft accounts--some people had to do this in order to make it to the Unity Rally on Virtue--and I've toyed with this very idea. Getting "buy-in" from uninvested potential members of the community could be difficult, but if we could get even a few dozen, it could make a statement.

How would we go about this though, guys?

[Ampithere]

Massively has been pretty helpful with covering our efforts, they would probably be willing to cover this as well.

Maybe if Tony gives another call to action this could be our next thing following the Positron's Ally event. "Come DFB with us!" 

[dwturducken]

The only thing that I would caution is that this could be seen as nothing more than a gimmick to try to sway their opinion, and they wouldn't be completely wrong.  There is the real possibility that it would be equivalent to the "post-convention bump" that we see in American politics, and the subscription numbers would drop off after the resurrection of the game, or at least the active play of those accounts.

I'm not saying this is a bad idea.  I'll be spreading the word, as well. Everything seems to be having a collective positive effect.

[Vulpy]

The only thing that I would caution is that this could be seen as nothing more than a gimmick to try to sway their opinion, and they wouldn't be completely wrong.

One could argue that everything we're doing is nothing more than gimmicks to sway opinions. So is most of politics and other entertainment, if we take the hyperbolic viewpoint. I'd say we'd be better served by saying that we're giving the community a chance to "put their money where their mouth is."

[dwturducken]

I'm not arguing with you on that. The fact that they are making access to the game difficult (there are NO links to City of Heroes on the NCSoft main site!) means that growing numbers would get their attention.  It would be interesting to see whether that elicited a negative response, like accounts created after Black Friday being shutdown (an unquestionable stupid move, from a PR standpoint).

Actually, I think I just contradicted my previous statement! 

[Paindancer]

I have occasionally twittered the link "come see what the #coh hubbub is about"