State of the Titan

[Knightward]

I'd love to find out if that was just a coincidental step in shutting the game down, or an tactical maneuver...

I can't imagine how many new people would be loading it up right now to see what the fuss is about.

I know I was about to drag a few people in for just that reason.

[Warthrall]

I Support Save City of Heroes/City of Villeins Stop This nonce right now we all love this game so please stop taring it down

[NecrotechMaster]

IIRC you cannot create a new account just from the website, but you can create a new account if you have a serial code from a boxed version of the game

at least that is what i have heard once the announcement came

[Victoria Victrix]

IIRC you cannot create a new account just from the website, but you can create a new account if you have a serial code from a boxed version of the game

at least that is what i have heard once the announcement came

Tried that.  "Code not valid."

[Absolute]

A lot of PvP IO farmers had free accounts that only had 1-2 characters on it. Accounts they never use. If you wanted, you could start getting those accounts for people who want to try the game.

I have my 2 paid accounts, but I also had 2 other free accounts with barely anything on them. I wouldn't mind giving those up. PvP IO farming lost a lot of it's weight with converters.

[epawtows]

I Support Save City of Heroes/City of Villeins Stop This nonce right now we all love this game so please stop taring it down

Um... if this is a serious post, and not a troll;

The people here are NOT the people who are shutting down City of Heroes.  We *play* it.   Just like you do.  And we are trying to stop the game from going away.

[Segev]

A lot of PvP IO farmers had free accounts that only had 1-2 characters on it. Accounts they never use. If you wanted, you could start getting those accounts for people who want to try the game.

I have my 2 paid accounts, but I also had 2 other free accounts with barely anything on them. I wouldn't mind giving those up. PvP IO farming lost a lot of it's weight with converters.

Hm. That is an idea. It takes one more layer of organization, but...

I'll consider how to organize this and try putting up a thread tomorrow to gauge interest. Remember, I have not had an active account in years, personally, so I can only organize from an out-of-game logistics standpoint.

[Electric-Knight]

Tried that.  "Code not valid."

Yeah, those worked up until the 18th, I believe (when they gave their after-announcement announcement). Seems like they flipped the rest of the switches that day to fully prevent any such account changes.

Shame, because a lot of people were waiting on mailed copies to return to VIP.
I'm glad I'm not one of them, but it sucks none the less.

*raises a glass to when new accounts can be created and enjoyed for some time, away from the shadow of NCSoft*

[NecrotechMaster]

Tried that.  "Code not valid."

might have changed then, or i am mis-remembering it as using a serial code to get VIP access

in either case it sounds like its not possible to create new accounts now

[TimtheEnchanter]

Pretty sure the FAQ said you can't even use a box serial code now to get a pre-existing Premium account back up to VIP.

[StarRanger4]

Pretty sure the FAQ said you can't even use a box serial code now to get a pre-existing Premium account back up to VIP.

Thats' correct Tim. says so right in the sunset faq:

Can I create a free account and play until the end of City of Heroes?

Unfortunately new account creation has been disabled.

Am I able to upgrade my account to VIP untilt he end of City of Heroes?

Upgrading to a VIP account has been disabled


How do I get a refund for an unused City of Heroes Game Card or retail code?

All retailers have been instructed to remove these items from their shelves. If you did purchase a game card or retail code and were not able to use it, please contact the retailer to for a refund.

If they are unable to assist you, customer support may be able to help. Refunds for game cards or retail codes can only be processed if you have not already applied the cod to your account. Please provide the following information when you contact support.

[Vulpy]

Refunds for game cards or retail codes can only be processed if you have not already applied the cod to your account.

Applied the cod? Does it actually say that?

...What if you don't even like fish?

[dwturducken]

OK, that's the title for my next MA project...

"Apply the Cod!"

[No Remorse]

Has anyone tried to contact them through an attorney to request using any of the content for plan Z? There's a lot of "put the cart before the horse" on this forum.

For instance trying to "force" NCSoft to sell the IP when there isn't enough money on the table to be taken seriously. I told Tony this and am going to say it here, them closing Paragon and CoH down can be used as a tax write-off (you know taxes are those thing ALL companies pay and something that no one ever even factored into their overhead). Any offer that isn't more than what they can get as a write-off will be ignored. Depending on when their fiscal year starts and ends, they can potentially write off a whole year worth of earnings ($10m according to some).

So far, I haven't even seen any form of a serious offer, and you can't expect a company like that to even pay attention to an "offer" from an individual through an email. There are channels that have to be used in these scenarios. I tried to talk about this before but I was treated as if I was a troll (I'm sure some of you we're alluding to me in the troll part of this conversation). And instead of asking what I meant or how to go about it differently, people were so convinced that they were right and I was wrong.

Again, if this effort had been put into the game from go, we wouldn't be here. We all waited too late. So, why not focus on the most probable outcome and see IF we can indeed go after plan Z. You're not going to force NCSoft to do anything. You may not even legally be able to do plan Z and may need their approval, so I would stop poking the hornet nest until a clear path has been established and you're sure you don't need anything from them.

Talk to a patent / trademark / intellectual property attorney and see what you can and can't do without consent from NCSoft. Go through the proper channels. Approach this from a business perspective, not a personal one. I'm glad you guys are trying. Don't waste your efforts, channel them in the most effective way.

[Segev]

Seeing as you grossly misunderstand what "plan Z" is - it cannot require any permissions from NCSoft at all because it will not be using NCSoft IP, code, or anything else - and are assuming we're trying to "make offers" out of the blue rather than find these avenues to get a clue as to what the actual dollar amounts might be, I think your post misses the point entirely.

We're not "poking a hornet's nest." We're trying to be very civil and polite while being very visible and audible. We want them to sell the IP to somebody who wants to keep it running. We cannot know what offers are on the table nor who is making them (though we can make some educated guesses in some limited cases), so we are just doing our best to encourage NCSoft to side with us on this and sell the IP to somebody who does make a good offer.

If you do have suggested avenues, I am very open to hearing them. I would like to be, personally, more in touch with the ongoing process. So please do share. But don't accuse the forumites here of "poking a hornet's nest." They're not. They're going to exacting lengths to avoid such behavior.

[Siberian Spring]

Is horrible, or just ironic, that Plan "Z" makes me think of zombies?

[Segev]

Rumors of a villainous plot by a necromancer villain to take over Plan Z are greatly exaggerated. >_> <_<

[dwturducken]

I thought this too.  I even used the word "zombie", referring to the voodoo, or Vodou, version, in suggesting a villain group, and it was immediately siezed upon as the movie kind. I'm not complaining on that point, but it does evoke that association, though, doesn't it?

[No Remorse]

Seeing as you grossly misunderstand what "plan Z" is - it cannot require any permissions from NCSoft at all because it will not be using NCSoft IP, code, or anything else - and are assuming we're trying to "make offers" out of the blue rather than find these avenues to get a clue as to what the actual dollar amounts might be, I think your post misses the point entirely.

We're not "poking a hornet's nest." We're trying to be very civil and polite while being very visible and audible. We want them to sell the IP to somebody who wants to keep it running. We cannot know what offers are on the table nor who is making them (though we can make some educated guesses in some limited cases), so we are just doing our best to encourage NCSoft to side with us on this and sell the IP to somebody who does make a good offer.

If you do have suggested avenues, I am very open to hearing them. I would like to be, personally, more in touch with the ongoing process. So please do share. But don't accuse the forumites here of "poking a hornet's nest." They're not. They're going to exacting lengths to avoid such behavior.

Funny, I thought "Plan Z" was to reverse engineer the game? I've seen posts where basically using as much of the game as they could figure out was discussed. That could very well be copyright or trademark infringement depending on what is used and how. I'm not an expert on this, are you? I have a copyright / tm / ip attorney as a student here at my school and was going to see what he could say about it, but since you're so deadset that you know best, I'll just let it go.

As far as poking a hornets nest, the talk here hasn't been the most civil at all times towards NCSoft. There's been a lot of speculation, name calling, and talk of forcing them to do this or that and hurting their reputation. Not good talk if you actually want them to work with you in any sense. I know when people insult me, I'm a lot less likely to deal with them (look at the response you got in the above paragraph).

By all means keep going on the defensive and trying to tell me how much I don't know. Do this with everyone that doesn't agree wih the methods being used, and watch your resources dwindle.

[chaparralshrub]

Funny, I thought "Plan Z" was to reverse engineer the game? I've seen posts where basically using as much of the game as they could figure out was discussed. That could very well be copyright or trademark infringement depending on what is used and how. I'm not an expert on this, are you? I have a copyright / tm / ip attorney as a student here at my school and was going to see what he could say about it, but since you're so deadset that you know best, I'll just let it go.

As far as poking a hornets nest, the talk here hasn't been the most civil at all times towards NCSoft. There's been a lot of speculation, name calling, and talk of forcing them to do this or that and hurting their reputation. Not good talk if you actually want them to work with you in any sense. I know when people insult me, I'm a lot less likely to deal with them (look at the response you got in the above paragraph).

By all means keep going on the defensive and trying to tell me how much I don't know. Do this with everyone that doesn't agree wih the methods being used, and watch your resources dwindle.

There is - or was - an effort to reverse engineer parts of the game. I don't know what's become of it, nor do I know where the IP limits are. From what I recall, reverse engineering the SERVER shouldn't be hard, but reverse engineering the game itself would be extremely difficult, as well as much more iffy legally. For what content exists on our hard drives (i.e. the CoH client), forcing us to erase that will be difficult, although I think technically NCS is supposed to be able to.

The objective of Plan Z is to develop a completely new game that is in the spirit of CoH, but is our own, community made, community driven, game. Plan Z will have its own IP that will belong to Titan Network, and nobody else. Doing this will require money, but it's a different kind of fundraising effort than trying to buy the CoH IP.