Call to Action: Contact NCsoft Directly

[eabrace]

The thing about Pandora's Box is that, in the end, the last thing to come out was Hope.

Technically, hope was the only thing that did not escape from the box. ;)

[Segev]

Technically, hope was the only thing that did not escape from the box. ;)

Fair enough. The story gets told in a few ways with slight variants on interpretation. The version I was going for was that Hope was also out there to combat all the rest of the horrors, whether you take that as holding on to Hope in the box so we still have it or Hope also getting out to counterbalance the rest.

[TonyV]

Hey all, I just updated the top post with another communication I received.

[Osborn]

Hey all, I just updated the top post with another communication I received.

I'm glad they gave us a proper channel to communicate to them through, and that you were able to secure such, which I imagine was harder than it sounds.

Fair enough. The story gets told in a few ways with slight variants on interpretation. The version I was going for was that Hope was also out there to combat all the rest of the horrors, whether you take that as holding on to Hope in the box so we still have it or Hope also getting out to counterbalance the rest.

>.> I didn't mean to make us argue over my uninspired turn of phrase.

[TimtheEnchanter]

That new email is pretty double-edged. It could mean one of two things.

A. It's real, and someone actually intends on reading anything we put there.
B. It's a spam folder.

Yeah, I'm a pessimist, but I've been given very few legitimate reasons in my life to trust businesses.

[Segev]

As Tony said, they didn't need to make it. If they just wanted to ignore it, they could have just ignored it.

It still could be a spam folder...but it's effort they put into making it.

[Osborn]

That new email is pretty double-edged. It could mean one of two things.

A. It's real, and someone actually intends on reading anything we put there.
B. It's a spam folder.

Yeah, I'm a pessimist, but I've been given very few legitimate reasons in my life to trust businesses.

Honestly it's more likely the first. NCSoft has had a long standing habit of silence in this matter, and it seems weird they'd break that to give us a spam folder. All they'd really have to do at this point is change their CEO's email addresses and move on. Which is probably something it'd be smart for them to do every few years anyways, if just to avoid compromising leaks of sensitive information.

[Omega Mark V]

... So should we resend messages to the new address?

In case the other ones got deleted?

[Codewalker]

Couldn't hurt.

[Kheprera]

Darn it TA, *sniff*  You made me cry all over again.

*hugs*  I remember when you moved to CA to be with Sassy.

Glad they gave us a way to communicate.  I've tried handwriting but after my first sentence my hand starts cramping.  Filling a page too hard.

Typing, this I can do!  Didn't feel comfortable writing to those  addresses, though.

[Vulpy]

I sent my message to the new, sanctioned, e-mail address. I feel much better about using this route of communication than about e-mailing a CEO directly.

[Codewalker]

Don't feel too bad about it, people have been writing directly to CEOs to air their grievances for as long as corporations have existed. Even before email they would send postal mail. I'd almost go as far to say that it's the American Way!

I'm sure that's part of why CEOs typically get paid so much. In a way, it's their job.

<philosophy101>After all, having someone to hold accountable for its actions is one of the few slivers of humanity that keeps big companies from fully becoming faceless, amoral entities.</philosophy101>

[P51mus]

Well, I've sent a mail to the new address myself.

More! Send more!  Even if they're trashing them they're probably keeping track of the count!

[ObsidianPhoenix76]

I am hoping I can fit my letter for you all to read it.  Please let me know what you think:

Why City of Heroes still matters...

Dear NC Soft,

I would like to thank you for your time and understanding.  Let me begin by saying I have played many NC Soft published games over the years, such as Lineage 2, Aion, Tabula Rasa, and others.  I would like to thank you for your wide range of games your company has worked with.  Now here is what I would like to speak about...

I begin my story in May of 2004.  During the day Monday, it had been a bad day.  I had to say goodbye to my little girl when I dropped her off with her mother the day before.  I needed something to elevate my mood.  Work that day dragged on and on.  Fix this computer, fix that computer.

That evening I was poking around the internet looking for a decent comic book shop or resource.  I was reviewing the results when I saw one of them was advertizing a comic book super hero game.  It was called "City of Heroes".  Suddenly, my apathetic mood turned around.  A game that I could play as a super hero, and interact with other super heroes.  Wow!  It seemed too good to be true.

The next day at lunch I bought a copy of City of Heroes.  Thus, it began. 

I installed it and was completely blown away at the choices I had for powers, costumes, etc.  I think the first night I took 3 hours to create my first character.  I finally got to bed at about 2 in the morning.  But the following night, I started it up and entered Paragon City.

The following months were much the same.  Playing as much as I could.  So much that my wife and sister teamed up and did an intervention, mainly because I was neglecting sleep.  Now mind you I was still going to work, eating, stretch breaks etc.  But my world had become dedicated to 3 things.  My Daughter, my new wife, and City of Heroes.  I finally came to a compromise. I would spend time with them first, then play until about 11pm, and go to bed for work the next day.  In August of 2004, I went to Wizard World Chicago.  It was there I met Jack Emmert, who had led the original design team for City of Heroes.  We chatted, I told him how much I enjoyed the game, and how I would play it until it would go offline, and they had to pry the keyboard from my hands, and only over my dead body.  He laughed and thanked me for my devotion to the game.

In October of 2004, I made a new friend at work.  He and I had talked a few times politely in the past, but we had never really connected as friends, until he asked me one day why I was looking so tired.  I grinned and said I was up late playing a new MMORPG.  His face lit up and he asked which one.  I said "City of Heroes".  His demeanor became like a kid in a candy store and he asked every single question he could possibly ask.  I think he actually started drooling at the prospect of the game.  Less than 2 days later he proudly told me that he had purchased the game as well.  I asked if he wanted to team up, but he said that he needed a few days to get familiar with the game first.  By the third day after he bought the game, our small but faithful Supergroup was born.

That was my routine for almost the next year.  Then something happened.  My little angel of a sidekick, who would sit on my lap and help me play City of Heroes, drowned in a terrible accident.  I was devastated.  My world had come crashing down.  I did not know what to do next.  I sat in front of my computer screen staring at it, and looking down at my lap.  She would never sit there and cheer me on while I fought to protect Paragon City from the big bad bullies.  She would never help me with my next action to make the streets safe.  She had always said that she wanted to be a hero like that someday, and I would tell her she already was.  She was my hero.

So there I sat, looking at the screen.  The login screen for City of Heroes begging to be interacted with and for me to play.  I logged into my ventrilo channel and just sat there and listened to my friends happily saving the day.  They had noticed I had jumped into the channel, but they held off asking what was wrong since I usually would come in guns blazing with some witty remark about one of them, trying to get a laugh.

While they were saving the day, I was busy creating a new character.  The hero's name is Crystallum, the latin word for Crystal.  She has angelic wings, blond hair just like she did.  Her life story is typed into the description.  I logged her in and stood in Atlas Park.  Finally my friend from work and my best friend whom I had convinced to play noticed I had logged in, but had not said anything.

The asked me what was wrong, as I had not said anything.  I instantly broke down into tears.  I could not speak.  I vaguely remember somebody saying something to me in the chat window, asking if what was in the character's story was really true.  It took everything I had to type the word "yes".  I instantly got a private message back expressing their sorrow for my loss.  Then another came in, and then others after that.  I finally composed myself enough to tell my friends what had happened.  They were horrified.  The character Crystallum became a pseudo mascot for the supergroup.

After a few days, I received a private message on the forums from Jack Emmert himself.  He told me he remembered the adorable little girl that was with me the day we met at Chicago, and he was sorry for my loss.  What kind of game has developers that would care enough to go out of their way to contact a person directly, whether to express condolences, or wish another person joy for getting married?  I can tell you the only one I know of, City of Heroes.  Because that is what the development team of Paragon Studios are to us.  Complete Heroes.

Time went on and I kept playing.  I would bring out Crystallum here and there, just to see the way I would like to remember her.  I kept playing for years after that.  The whole supergroup I am part of kept me going.  Every couple of days I still hear from my friends I have made in the game.  One of the people I met early on, she is now the godparent to one of my children.

This community means so much to me as well as everyone else in the game.

When the game was sold from Cryptic Studios to NCSoft, my supergroup and I were concerned.  We felt as though it was being cast off to die a miserable death.  But instead, you NCSoft, you brought with almost ALL of the original developers with when you bought the game.  We were glad that the team was part of the deal.  The next years of City of Heroes became better than we could have imagined.  So many events, so many upgrades, etc.  We were having more fun than ever playing City of Heroes.

Then on the way back from working on my old house in Minnesota on August 31, 2012, I got a request on Facebook from another friend from City of Heroes.  It was an invitation to the SaveCoH group on Facebook.  I was concerned, as it would mean it was closing down.  I read deeper into the news and I was saddened to see that it was true.  I felt like someone had kicked me in the stomach.  My second home was being taken away from me and everyone else. 

This is not just a bunch of pixels that people spend their hard earned money to play, it is a family and a home to thousands of people.  This is a way for people to connect with their friends, celebrate happy occasions, and to unexpectedly find comfort from a stranger when a terrible loss has occurred.  It is a place when a bad day at work is suddenly made better by hanging with friends and comrades, even in many cases, family.  For some people, it is the only outlet the have to interact with others, whether it be because of a disability, or because of challenges such as autism.

I cannot imagine that the community we have built in the game will be gone at the end of November.  I am doing everything I can to prevent it from happening.  I do hope that your company sees the wisdom in letting it continue.  It may not fit into your company's publishing focus, but it is our ONLY focus.  Please do not take this from us.  Let it continue on with another publisher, I beg you.  Our second home is under attack, and we will defend it to our dying breath.  Please do not let it come to that.

Thank you for your time, and your consideration.

Respectfully,

Chad Mershon
A.K.A. Obsidian Phoneix, proudly calling the Guardian server home.

[ObsidianPhoenix76]

The above letter is what I will be sending to the address Tony provided.  As Tony said, they did not have to set up another email address just for this.  We are making a difference!

[Thirty-Seven]

UPDATE (Tuesday, September 18)

Hey all, good news.  As I indicated in my update yesterday, I asked for an e-mail address that we could use to send messages to NCsoft without interfering with company operations.  Today, I received the following: "I asked about setting up a monitored email address for players to be able to communicate with NCsoft, and one has been created at: COHSunset@ncsoft.com."  (Emphasis mine.)

Now I know that some of you are thinking, "But that wont do any good!" but I'd like to point out that 1) you don't know that, and 2) they most certainly did not have to do this; I appreciate that not only did they, but they did it very quickly, which shows to me that they are listening.  I honestly believe that someone will be reading these messages.  Accordingly, please don't use it to grind your ax at NCsoft or e-mail bomb it.  If you do, that will most certainly assure that it gets redirected to a black hole never to be read again, which would be screwing over your fellow players, not NCsoft.

Okay... THAT is reassuring!

[Electric-Knight]

Okay... THAT is reassuring!

*hugs*
I don't think we've ever played together, but I'll fight by your side without pause.
Thank you for sharing your story.

[Hydrith]

Just a lurker having spotted an email address, so I typed out my own letter to NCSoft.  I'd join y'all in game, but between work and school, I have no free time to do so  :(

Anyhow, here's the letter:

To whom it may concern,

I am a concerned gamer.  For the last 7-8 years, I have invested over a thousand dollars (and many hours) into playing City of Heroes, since the Beta of City of Heroes, through the City of Villains release (and Beta).  After this time frame, I became an infrequent subscriber, jumping from game to game, but oft times returning to City of Heroes 3-4 times per year.  I bought all of the costume packs that came out, many of the powersets that were released, and even after the game went Free to Play, I still came back as a paying subscriber on many an occasion.

I have created hundreds of characters, and have never maxed one out, as the process of making characters is by far one of the most innovative in the industry (of Massively Multiplayer Online Games).  My highest level character only made it to 37, had I focused on him, he might have made fifty 10 times over, with all the time invested in designing characters.  This alone, in my opinion, makes the game one of the best available on the market.

Beyond that, the next best thing about City of Heroes (over other games on the market) is it's community.  You've met them.  They've sent written letters to your executives.  They've rallied from across the world, through the internet, to show their displeasure in regards to your decision.  I stand with them, hoping that you will make a decision here in the near future, that allows this community to continue onward.  At the very least, consider releasing the Intellectual Property to the developers who have continued to advance the game to it's current point, to take it somewhere where it will continue to be appreciated.

Your company's realignment should not be cause to end one of your strongest games to date in Western Countries. Many players here (in the US, I've found) find the grinding action games of Lineage and Aion to be boring and incapable of soothing their MMO itch.  With the combination of a strong community, dedicated developers, free-from gameplay, and ground-breaking character development system, it remains probably one of the most innovative games of it's time, and puts to shame many other games on the market.  Most certainly, all games within the same genre.

I ask very plainly:  please, do not end what has become one of my most favorite games ever.  Even if you choose to do so, please release the game to it's developers, so that they might try to let it live on.  Your actions here in the next few months will have a staggering effect on the gaming market, as many prospective players will watch with either joy or horror as the game they have come to love comes to a bitter end, or a happy ending.  I cannot guess what would happen to the embittered, but know that the grateful are a far kinder audience than those with a bone to pick.

Many thanks for your time,

Kevin Fee
a.K.a Ironcyte, Virtue Server

[CapaDevans]

Resent my emails to that address.

[Rae]

Resent my emails to that address.

^ Me too.