We need more visibility

[blue storm]

Perhaps you are sharing my feeling that our campaign, successful though it may be in gaming circles and the like, is somehow reaching a plateau as evidenced by the lower rate of signatures of the petition.

We thus need to get more visibility and make people curious about our cause, and I was thinking about this as a possible way :

most of us are present in many social networks (G+, FB etc...) and our more distant contacts may not know about #savecoh. In order to attract curiosity why not change our names on those networks to something like OUR_NAME_#SAVECOH ie : John Smith #SAVECOH

possibly this could :
- get people curious about the campaign and thus help spread the word
- increase the search engine visibility of #savecoh

Just a thought...

[Moonfyire101]

Working on it, have a table at Youmacon Nov 3rd.

[The White Rager]

I'd been thinking, maybe we should run a crowdsourcing and use it to go the next level - genuine advertising. Members have already created enough quality graphics to produce spreads and web ads. Judging by the dinner campaign, raising enough to maintain some well placed banners and such should be easy enough.

[TimtheEnchanter]

My video project may be of use, as soon as I can get it posted.

I kind of designed it to hit the audience with the story in as short a time as possible so the tldr people don't get bored.

[chaparralshrub]

What we need is the attention of the United States legislature. Because NCSoft is based in South Korea, and South Korea currently owes its independence and freedom to the fact that the U.S. has troops stationed there to prevent North Korea from invading, it seems to me that the U.S. could put a diplomatic arm on South Korea and compel NCSoft to behave itself in Western markets and not fire western employees.

.
.

Now I feel like I'm a villain and not a hero at all. Carrying through that threat to its logical conclusion would result in the possibility of a real people fighting a real war with real weapons and resulting in real bloodshed - all over a game. Well, not over a game, over jobs, but over jobs for people making a game.

[Vulpy]

Now I feel like I'm a villain and not a hero at all. Carrying through that threat to its logical conclusion would result in the possibility of a real people fighting a real war with real weapons and resulting in real bloodshed - all over a game. Well, not over a game, over jobs, but over jobs for people making a game.

There is something to be said for the fact that an extranational corporation has destroyed 80 American jobs. If this becomes part of a larger trend in California, it could become newsworthy by virtue of being part of a big picture. I don't foresee blood being shed over it, but even being mentioned in a campaign stump speech as "one of the companies moving our jobs overseas" would make NCsoft nervous.

V.V. started a thread advocating contacting Congresspeole here.

[Segev]

Speaking as one who often enjoys twirling his mustache (metaphorically, anyway; IRL I am clean-shaven) and playing up villainous tropes while actually trying to serve good ends via good (if oft-maligned) means, I think going through legal/legislatorial/real-diplomacy channels on this is...misplaced. Like it or not, it is NCSoft's right to do with its property what it pleases. We cannot have free trade and then try to play "take-backs" when we don't like how those with whom we traded freely use that for which they traded.

That said, we should of course try to pressure NCSoft into working with us, rather than against us. We should do all we can (ethically) to find out what reasons they might have for not selling CoH and all associated rights and properties if they don't want to run it anymore, since it's not an unprofitable venture. We should then seek to find solutions that make their continuing to fail to sell it a truly adverse decision compared to what we've concocted. This will be a lot of work and effort, but given all people have done thus far, it is within our capability, if we pursue it.

Above all else, we need to support Paragon Studios and its leaders; anything we do needs to be aimed at partnering with and aiding them. The last thing we want to do is set up something that battles with Paragon for control of the IP; the more intact Paragon is when it finds its new home, the better off CoH will be.

[jeangray]

I'd been thinking, maybe we should run a crowdsourcing and use it to go the next level - genuine advertising. Members have already created enough quality graphics to produce spreads and web ads. Judging by the dinner campaign, raising enough to maintain some well placed banners and such should be easy enough.

This is a very interesting idea, why aren't we doing this to get more publicity now? 

[Segev]

So far, crowdsourcing efforts have been discouraged as premature. I am not sure "advertising" is the right thing for which to crowdsource, but it may not be an awful idea. The question ultimately is: what is it that blocks Paragon Studios from acquiring the IP and reforming as an independent company? Solutions to THOSE problems are what we need, and in the end, it's finding that out that's going to be the hardest thing for those of us "on the outside."

[SithRose]

What we desperately need is a good, brief, clear "Why this MMO is so different and matters so much to the community" letter that's written for people who don't play MMOs, consider them a waste of time, and generally don't know much about the internet at all.

These are the people that we need to make care too. The ones who could sit up and say "You mean I could have done that...but I can't now?" The ones who never even considered the stories in the Testimonials thread could happen in an MMO, ever.

A FUTURE fanbase. A base of "We would have wanted to..."

That gives us publicity, positive publicity, and people who would be willing to donate in order to help themselves through the COH community.

[RogerWilco]

What we need is the attention of the United States legislature. Because NCSoft is based in South Korea, and South Korea currently owes its independence and freedom to the fact that the U.S. has troops stationed there to prevent North Korea from invading, it seems to me that the U.S. could put a diplomatic arm on South Korea and compel NCSoft to behave itself in Western markets and not fire western employees.
.
Now I feel like I'm a villain and not a hero at all. Carrying through that threat to its logical conclusion would result in the possibility of a real people fighting a real war with real weapons and resulting in real bloodshed - all over a game. Well, not over a game, over jobs, but over jobs for people making a game.

I'm not sure if this was meant in jest, but it sounds very wrong. CoH closing down has very little, if anything at all, to do with NCsoft being a non-US company. We don't know the full story, but what we know, this could have gone down in a similar way in any boardroom of any multinational anywhere in the world. If anything, it's the Anglosaxon western way of doing business that has led us here.

[jeangray]

So far, crowdsourcing efforts have been discouraged as premature. I am not sure "advertising" is the right thing for which to crowdsource, but it may not be an awful idea. The question ultimately is: what is it that blocks Paragon Studios from acquiring the IP and reforming as an independent company? Solutions to THOSE problems are what we need, and in the end, it's finding that out that's going to be the hardest thing for those of us "on the outside."

Yes, I've read all sorts of comments about wanting to save our money until we may need to make a big push.  The idea of pooling a smaller sum of money in order to help spread the word of our fight...like renting ad space on guild portal (or something more popular, not sure what sites gets decent traffic) for a banner that says #SaveCoH and clicking it takes them to the petition and/or titans forums Save Paragon City!...well, that sounds like it might be worth exploring as an option for more coverage for our cause.  Wish I could answer the real problems as well, but we're all in the same boat as far as that goes.   :)

[The-Hunter-JLJ]

My video project may be of use, as soon as I can get it posted.

I kind of designed it to hit the audience with the story in as short a time as possible so the tldr people don't get bored.

Squirrel! What did you say?

[StarRanger4]

I'm not sure if this was meant in jest, but it sounds very wrong. CoH closing down has very little, if anything at all, to do with NCsoft being a non-US company.

It does if we make it an issue.  It can be looked at as a foreign competitor using seemingly legal yet underhanded tactics to remove competition from the field.  80 or 800,000 it is only a matter of scale.  So where do we draw the line?

I say this is only the first round of a financial war that MUST be fought.  Given the entities involved, this crosses national borders; this makes it part and parcel of what has always been considered the FEDERAL Government's responsibility.  And I touched off a firestorm when I first brought that point up.  Doesn't mean its still not true in my mind.

[Victoria Victrix]

What we desperately need is a good, brief, clear "Why this MMO is so different and matters so much to the community" letter that's written for people who don't play MMOs, consider them a waste of time, and generally don't know much about the internet at all.

Will this do?

Dear Dr. Yoon;

I am New York Times bestselling author Mercedes Lackey, and I beg your indulgence in reading this letter to the end.

There is currently an exhibit on video games at the Smithsonian's American Art Museum in DC.  The very first placard had this to say, which I thought rather relevant to our situation:
..................................
Three Voices
Artist, Game, Player
..................................

Video games combine graphics, sound,
story, and interaction to create meaningful
and immersive experiences.  Imaginative
artists and designers use this medium to
create worlds and tell stories.  None of this
is possible, however, without the participation
of the player.  Everyone who plays a game
puts a little of themselves into the experience,
and takes away something that is wholly unique.
The conversation among the game, the artist,
and the player is critical to understanding video
games as art.


The situation with City of Heroes becomes much clearer when you understand that it is not merely a game to the players, it is an ongoing work of community art.  Because of the structure and story within the background of the game, as placed there by the creators, because of other aspects such as the Mission Architect, the Character Designer, and the encouragement to create true original characters, the game has become "playing the game within the context of an ongoing personal drama."

I use that word in the same sense as  한국드라마 which we here know as K-Drama.  Within my circle of players alone, we have written at least the equivalent of 20 full-length novels about our own characters, and have acted out at least half of that in real-time within the context of playing missions and quests within the game.  That is well over two million words of prose.  Some of these stories have come to an end, but hundreds are still going on.   This is interactive, cooperative storytelling, and what one character does or says unexpectedly can entirely change the story that another character had planned.

Now imagine, if you will, the outrage if suddenly, with no warning, You Are My Destiny, The Secret Garden, or Rude Miss Young-Ae suddenly...stopped with no resolution.  And all previous episodes vanished.  Imagine the how the viewers would react.  This is what is happening to us.  We have made these creations, these characters.  In our hands they have won, lost, fallen in love, lost loves to someone else or to death, some have married and gone on to have children that we also created.  Each evening as we get together to create the next episode within the game, we look forward to finding out what new twists will occur in the plot and how our characters will react to them, creating a new story within a story.  As a writer, the idea of losing all of that, the work and the community that helps me create it, is breaking my heart.  I have created many, many characters in the course of writing over eighty books—but I have never had even one taken away from me forever.  When you shut down City of Heroes, you are doing something no one has ever done, to me, and to the rest of those who have done the same as I.  You are destroying our work as thoroughly as if you had gathered up every copy of a book and burned it.

I hope now you can understand why there is such protest over the closing of City of Heroes.  I hope now you can understand why we beg you to allow someone else to purchase it and bring it back to life. 

Please, make a good artistic decision as well as a good business decision.  Sell City of Heroes.  Let the stories go on.

[malonkey1]

Well, my brother's going in to school with a City of Heroes poster on his back...Will that help?

[SithRose]

I was actually thinking more along the lines of your call to contact special interest groups. One of the bloggers I know in the LGBT community *wants* to blog about COH, but...has no actual understanding of MMOs, how they work, or how an MMO could help. A senior center isn't likely to think about using an MMORPG to help residents and visitors keep their minds sharp and active. It's not something that would cross their minds at all. These are the people that I'm proposing contacting...the ones who could write NCSoft and say "I wanted to try this...but now I can't. Please find a way to help my elderly mother stay in contact with us, to keep her mind active and flexible..."

Your letter gets the points of why we, the current COH community, want the game to be saved. What I'm suggesting is, basically, advertising in the 11th hour by word of mouth, and using that advertising as leverage to give NCSoft a way to save face by releasing COH to us, or to another company, and say "While it no longer fits our vision, we recognize that there are many benefits to a game and community of this nature. Therefore, we are encouraging X group to continue development and activity for this game instead in order to keep those avenues of therapeutic use open."

Does that make sense, or do I need to get to bed? :)

[The-Hunter-JLJ]

Nay, when you're making that much sense, you can stay up late. But only if you finish your homework. (grin)

[Segev]

I was actually thinking more along the lines of your call to contact special interest groups. One of the bloggers I know in the LGBT community *wants* to blog about COH, but...has no actual understanding of MMOs, how they work, or how an MMO could help. A senior center isn't likely to think about using an MMORPG to help residents and visitors keep their minds sharp and active. It's not something that would cross their minds at all. These are the people that I'm proposing contacting...the ones who could write NCSoft and say "I wanted to try this...but now I can't. Please find a way to help my elderly mother stay in contact with us, to keep her mind active and flexible..."

Hm. Crazy idea, perhaps, but if any community could pull it off, this one could...

Hold a "Blogger Day" event. Or whatever you want to term it. Everybody who knows anybody gets in touch with all the bloggers they know or people they know who know bloggers or the like, and tells them, "Want to blog on this but don't know what it is well enough to do so? Log on to XYZ chat service at W o'clock on October the Vth, and the CoH community will walk you through the steps to create a free-to-play account on City of Heroes. We'll then take you through a series of missions to get you familiar with the game, how it's played, and what City of Heroes - and by limited extension, other MMOs - are somewhat like. Get to know the community involved in this unique play experience!"

It doesn't even have to be "bloggers" only, but I'm drawing a blank at the moment as to what else to call it to grab exactly the right kind of audience.

If you do it right, this will actually also aid the "dwindling numbers" problem; not only will "Blogger Day" have hopefully low-three-digits new players sign up all at once, but they're new players who will write about it to the wider world.

[Kheprera]

I'm not a videographer, but I had an idea that might get us greater exposure.

The Presidential Election.

How?  Simple.  Make a video featuring CoH promoting people to get out and vote.

"Be a Hero and Vote!"

We can push this to so many political blogs, forums, and other social media with a blurb at the end to #SaveCoH, maybe something like "This video made using City of Heroes MMO, Going Dark Nov 30th. Make YOUR voice heard and vote Nov. 6th. Make OUR voice heard and sign *petition URL*.  Save American Jobs!"

It will get us exposure.