Call to Action: Contact NCsoft Directly

[Olantern]

This doesn't feel like the right thing to do at this point to me.

I don't like the lack of feedback any better than anyone else, but it hasn't sent me into panic mode yet, either.  I expect delays and stonewalling, purposeful or inadvertent, in a situation like this.  I also don't expect communications, whether through letter, e-mail, or otherwise, to have a great effect.  (If someone wants, I can edit my post and explain why based on what I've seen in government, but I'm trying not to make this about my issues.)  I'm particularly concerned about those e-mail addresses getting out elsewhere on the internet, having someone misuse or simply send nasty e-mails with them, and that coming back to bite us.  I don't think protests, boycotts, or grassroots anything have the same significance to your average Korean businessman as they do to your average western MMO player.  All these things on top of NCSoft and Nexon planning to shut the game down and expend no further effort on doing so are likely to combine to create a lot of silence.

All that said, whether to do this, or anything at all related to the rescue of CoH, really, is a decision each of us has to make for himself or herself.  For those who are writing in, I see plenty of good advice being posted in this thread.  I'll add one more.  It may sound intuitive, but I see a lot of students miss it, so it might be helpful here.  When writing this sort of e-mail, draft it as you would a letter, with multiple drafts, complete sentences, paragraphs (they really help with breaking up those walls of text), you name it.

Good luck to everyone.  Speaking of dreams, in the one I had before waking up and writing this, I said to someone in a very bad situation, "We must survive this."  I know we will.

[Papi-Desire]

[GuyPerfect]

I did decide to wait to email until Monday at the earliest.

Imagine a world where Monday is too late...

...

[padathir]

the silence is deafening

Indeed it is. I can't understand it. It is super disrespectful and honestly a bit creepy. You make decrees without explanation and ignore attempts at discussion when you believe you are dealing with inferior beings. Even saying something outright belligerent like "We're canceling because we hate this game and don't care about your complaints" would at least be acknowledgement that we exist.
 
(Further, I've seen a lot of noise about cultural differences in this situation, but honestly I think that is nonsense. You don't stay in business anywhere in the world if you convince all your current and potential customers that you are untrustworthy. This is not a "Korean" thing happening here, it is an NCSoft thing happening.)

[Codewalker]

The other risk of waiting too long for something like this is attrition of our own numbers. The Save CoH movement is at its strongest right now, but is starting to plateau (look at the numbers on the petition for instance). Closer to Nov. 30, people may have given up by then.

What's the old saying about striking while the iron is hot?

[Myriade]

Damn. It was time! I'm happy you consider this kind of action now that you have seen peaceful community action does not get heard at all - NC does not care. Sadly, as beautiful and pure as it is, in real life it does not work.

Let's do this respectfully again. But for the last time. Cause Time is running out.

But prepare already a more violent step 3. Mark my words. Cause Step 2 is probably doomed to fail. They don't respect us so far. Why should I respect them?

[SkyStreak]

I'm going to join the chorus of 'too soon' here.

The announcement was made on a Friday before a holiday weekend.  A lot of places in North America run on reduced staffing the week following Labor Day. 

There have been statements about behind the scenes meetings going on for the past two weeks.

NCsoft only updated their site to remove CoH stuff this past week.

Flooding a less public email account might not be taken too positively.

We've been doing an amazing job keeping things positive up until this point, and doing this seems so contrary to what we've done so far that I was actually wondering if Tony V's forum account was hacked. 

[Myriade]

I'm going to join the chorus of 'too soon' here.

=>Some consider it's "late". Me included.

The announcement was made on a Friday before a holiday weekend.  A lot of places in North America run on reduced staffing the week following Labor Day. 

There have been statements about behind the scenes meetings going on for the past two weeks.

NCsoft only updated their site to remove CoH stuff this past week.

=>Yes but it has been said those talks were just "talks". Talks about what? With who? For What? No positive sign from NC.

Flooding a less public email account might not be taken too positively.

=>As well as closing the game the way they do, not refunding people, and not even saying something about our actions.

We've been doing an amazing job keeping things positive up until this point, and doing this seems so contrary to what we've done so far that I was actually wondering if Tony V's forum account was hacked.

=>I was not expecting Tony to go that route neither but the absence of facts is here. In my opinion it's the only righteous thing to do and still i find he keeps it way too 'soft'. But i'm probably an extremist.
Anyway I prefer Tony to lead the action and keep it under control. If he did nothing, believe me, the situation would have become chaotic with individual violent but useless actions. Even if I still disagree with the high level of kindness we put in our messages, I'll do what is written in the action strategy cause Tony said so. We don't need 50 leaders. We've got one. He's our Statesman lol. For the nay sayers, if you don't "feel" it right, don't do it. In the end each one leads his own life the way he feels it's the best.

[eabrace]

All I'm going to throw in here is this:  I'm going to trust Tony's judgement on this.

[DrakeGrimm]

But prepare already a more violent step 3. Mark my words. Cause Step 2 is probably doomed to fail. They don't respect us so far. Why should I respect them?

You don't need to respect them, but you sure as hell need to appear to respect them. If we come at them from a rude, angry, and belligerent angle, their hearts will turn to stone and they will dismiss us as a bunch of mewling, immature children. You get more flies with honey than vinegar.

[Myriade]

You don't need to respect them, but you sure as hell need to appear to respect them. If we come at them from a rude, angry, and belligerent angle, their hearts will turn to stone and they will dismiss us as a bunch of mewling, immature children. You get more flies with honey than vinegar.

We'll talk about this again in Mid november. So far let's follow Tony's words.

[elizibar]

http://consumerist.com/2007/05/how-to-launch-an-executive-email-carpet-bomb.html

1. Exhaust normal channels

Check!

2. Write a really good complaint letter.

Working on it.

3. Determine the corporate email address format.

Tony took care of that for us!

4. Compile a list of the company's top executives

See 3.

5. Combine the names from step 4 with the format from step 3 to create an email list

See 3.

6. Send your complaint to the list from step 5.

Some people don't want to emulate the Consumerist's track record of getting corporate executives to bow down to their customers.  We can't proceed with this step en masse.

7. Sit back and wait.

Hm...

[Mantic]

I don't think anything positive can be gained by trying to bully NCSoft.

[SithRose]

However, polite emails MAY result in a positive response.

I am very polite when I choose to be. I also will be noting the possible benefit to the autistic community...since South Korea has recently done studies indicating a very high incidence of autism in their population, that may sway opinion more....

[Soundtrack]

And if this email spamming doesn't help? What will be our next recourse?

[Grower]

I have to say, I am behind TonyV on this one... I too have been increasingly worried about losing our Devs to the job market.  They are amazing, talented people and they won't have trouble finding another home.

While the intellectual property, the billing info, databases and all that might be saved by more sedated long term protest before November 30, or even after that date - the GAME will be lost, because what makes it amazing is not just the digital data - it's the people who created it.  The people with the tongue in cheek humor we love so much, with the vision and amazing drive to put up with our antics and stick to their guns making CoH what it is today.

Without them... we will have lost the battle, even if we win.  And they will NOT wait until Nov. 30 to find other jobs.

So... without an answer from NC, we have to do SOMETHING to step up our game.  It may make things better, and it may make things worse... but at this point, if we don't try it is guaranteed to make things worse.

[Chaos Ex Machina]

Frankly, if any developers get another job, that is a thing you should celebrate.  No matter what you accomplish through these efforts some of the developers will be getting new jobs.

[Electric-Knight]

As I posted in the other forums:

Sending emails to these addresses is no worse (and possibly no better) than sending physical letters (or packages of capes and masks) or emails to publicly listed addresses.

I'm not a follower (hah, that is quite the understatement, but how do you express such things via text to strangers... it just comes off as arrogant blah-blah-blah-ing, but I put it here just in case you choose to believe me... I'm a frick'n independent artist that gets along with neither the established industry nor most artists that are supposed to be my peers and I've been sticking to my guns and will do so until I die for whatever good or bad it does), believe me I tend to lead my own initiatives through most everything I do (no doubt, sometimes to a fault).

However, in this case, I trust in TonyV's judgment call here. He could certainly be wrong. He may not know a thing more than I do... But I am 1) figuring that he has more of an inside track, regarding the people of Paragon Studios (again, I could be wrong. And I have no belief that TonyV would or should out any such information he may have gained through such possible contacts, but I figure he's more in the know than I am regarding that aspect) 2) following his lead on this, because I am in with him and this movement.

If he makes this move without our full support, it'll pale in comparison to the move with our support.
So, he's called for this... and I'm backing him, because I believe it's in our best interest for what we want.

Again, I do not tend to follow another at all, but I understand the concept of sticking together and I am sticking with TonyV on this.

Oh, if I have an issue, I will question, I will voice my opinions and I may balk... But, for me, this is not one of those times where I feel any need to do as such.

Was I surprised to see this step now? Yep!
Do I recognize TonyV's own uncertainty and displeasure at taking this step now? Yeah, I think he expressed himself very well in this message.
We're all just humans (out of game) and I'm willing to move forward and go along with the informed decision that a guy (who I have been trusting, relying upon, and benefiting from through all of this so far) has made. That's just it. We've been benefiting from his lead (for longer than this SaveCoH movement) and I am going to place trust and give my support back to him for it (for all of it). I'd rather be proven wrong and fail with him than to abstain. Still, I have no reason to think that he's wrong to make this move now.

I'd never ask anyone to step beyond what they truly believe is right. However, this is just a case of sending emails to another address. It's not really that large of a deal.
It may have a beneficial impact. If this company is really going to sell things and/or play ball, any potential "spam" is not going to stop that or make them look less favorably upon us and/or the business aspects of allowing CoH to continue (legally).

At best, in my opinion, this (just as the cape and mask initiative) may lend a result something like the trial in the movie "A Miracle on 34th Street" -  A clear outpouring of support, unmistakable in size and intent.
It could impact the person behind the screen.
It could make a difference.
It very well may not help at all, but the lack of doing saves nothing but your time and energy to be spent on something else.

Such a direct showing could connect with them and that could add the human element that may be necessary to make them interested in allowing CoH to continue.
No matter how negatively such a showing could be taken by these people, that type of negativity would not counter a business move that they believe would be smart and/or are taking action towards or are contemplating.
While the likelihood may be small, the positive impact could be a spark that kindles something more... but I cannot see the impact of this being a negative that extinguishes the flame.

Please, let's stand together and not splinter, leaving our efforts far more feeble than they would be otherwise. Together, we are more than we are apart.

[Sunlover]

I am blown away by the thoughtfulness and intelligence and excellent viewpoints of all the posters here.  Kudos and cheers to you all -- if I needed a new Wise Council for Lord of the Rings, or a solid Kryptonian Council to pass judgment on criminals before banishing them to the Phantom Zone...I'd want you all. (forcing a smile out, even in our darkening situation)

That being said, and I *do* love all the viewpoints posted herein...I wanted to humbly offer my 10 cents of opinion to the pile.

I'm afraid I agree -- not in spirit of course, but in matters of practicality -- with all the people who are saying "...This is a mistake."  Here's why -- and this is all in my envisioning, your mileage may vary...(paints with a virtual paintbrush for you all): 

My fear is that, regardless of how wonderful or terrible we collectively decide to be, the CEO of a major company comes in Monday and sees 5000 emails staring him in the face (or even 500), and has very heated words with his IT department -- wherein the IT department creates a completely new email address for the exec and deactivates the old one to go into the giant spambucket in the sky -- or worse, filters out any email with the phrase "CoH", "Heroes", or "City of Heroes".  It's a grim possibility -- and if I was in that CEO's shoes, that's what I'd do.  A CEO [I imagine] doesn't have time to sit down for what would amount to days, avidly reading every email that comes in.  He's got a company to run (even if he chooses to run it into the ground in a possible PR nightmare)...

That's my worst fear regarding this situation; it echoes many other postings I've seen here in this forum.

Secondly, and I think this is probably a MUST DO for TonyV -- I do understand his passion and probable exhaustion at this point -- I would also make the suggestion [a very smart one, I think], that the email addresses in the original post be chopped up "Craigslist style": breaking it down for you, Craigslisters are very savvy about bots and spam-email-address-collectors and what not; many of them when they post an ad for sale say "Contact me at eight 6 7 five 3 oh 9" or "Email me at bogus [at] moocow.com".  This way the stereotypical format is broken up and is far harder to detect for "sniffer" programs out there.  It would also, I believe, probably deter some percentage of letter writers who cannot get over their anger and want to blast, or trollers who are hellbent on destroying our efforts.  Because you've got to *think*, however briefly, to format that text into a real email address -- you can't just cut and paste it.

Anyways...those are my thoughts.  I want to email the execs -- and I plan to, after I have time to craft a letter -- and may very well copy it to a real Word document and send a real letter through the "proper" channels -- but seriously: if *you* were an upper-level exec and came in and found yourself deluged with emails...what would *you* do? (Highlight all, press the "delete" key? Get your IT department to filter out anything with the words "COH", "Heroes" or "City of Heroes" out of your mailbox? ...I would.  )

I wasn't going to bring this up, because I didn't want to dent anyone's hope -- but I question whether this approach is refined enough to actually work.  It's very risky.  And I hate saying that, because I am a hardcore realist through and through and the last 2 weeks, have been wearing the cape and the suit and being the encouraging optimist.  Thanks for your collective time reading this...I will follow what TonyV is suggesting...tempered by all your intelligent viewpoints. 

Hugs and support to all,
~@Sunlover (95% on Virtue, 5% on Infinity: Transcendent Man, Cinnamon Girl, Kiss of Light, Alluring Arsenal, Fabulous Cash Prizes, Sonyk Boom, Big Ba-Da Buum, Taxibot Alien and Taxibot Stonestrike -- my 9 "active" 50's [and from his dusty, unplayed-for-years tomb, Mister Negative, my 50 Undead Mastermind])

[The-Hunter-JLJ]

Let me throw in my insight based on years as a tech in a huge, soulless corporation. Don't waste any sympathy on executives at any company. They are there to do exactly what they are doing, and they get paid plenty well to put up with little problems like a few thousand emails when their customers think they screwed up. If they can't be adult about it, then they don't belong in that position in the first place. (Admittedly, many people in corner offices DON'T belong there, but that's a whole 'nother argument.)

And as Electric-Knight says not far above me, when you get right down to it, I'm standing with TonyV's judgement on this.