Status Update (October 2)

[DrakeGrimm]

If it hadn't been for Tony V and the original Titan posters, I would currently be a puddle of tears, misery and (probably) Pomegranate Schapps on the floor.

Tony made us a league, gave us not Plan A, but B, C....and Z.

* DrakeGrimm claps a hand on VV's shoulder and grins.

What are heroes--and friends--for?

[gypsyav]

I too cried when I saw the announcement today thinking it was over. Then I read all the posts here and realized it's not over it's just beginning.

Thanks everyone for giving me hope when I needed it most.

[Mentalshock]

If it hadn't been for Tony V and the original Titan posters, I would currently be a puddle of tears, misery and (probably) Pomegranate Schapps on the floor.

Tony made us a league, gave us not Plan A, but B, C....and Z.

Z for Zoidberg?


   My only thoughts regarding this announcement is this:


   

THEY BLINKED

Summon the Weeping Angels!

[DrakeGrimm]

Z for Zoidberg?


   My only thoughts regarding this announcement is this:


   

THEY BLINKED

Summon the Weeping Angels!

...oh hells, not them again...


...then again, they are preferable to NCSoft. Carry on.

[downix]

Z for Zoidberg?


   My only thoughts regarding this announcement is this:


   

THEY BLINKED

Summon the Weeping Angels!

if I had the money....

http://www.thisplanetearth.co.uk/main/page66.html

[Copper Cockroach]

Z for Zoidberg?

Z for VICTORY!

[Zolgar]

If it hadn't been for Tony V and the original Titan posters, I would currently be a puddle of tears, misery and (probably) Pomegranate Schapps on the floor.

Tony made us a league, gave us not Plan A, but B, C....and Z.

Nothing saying you can't have the Pomegranate Schnapps anyways! ;)

[DrakeGrimm]

Nothing saying you can't have the Pomegranate Schnapps anyways! ;)

..only if she shares with the rest of us. Did you bring enough for the rest of the class, VV? Hmmmmm? :P

[TimtheEnchanter]

...oh hells, not them again...

...then again, they are preferable to NCSoft. Carry on.

Wait, can we deliver a horde of those to NCHQ?

[WanderingAries]

Perhaps NC should rephrase then. Negotiations didn't fail. NC failed to open negotiations.

Or...the wrong Negotiators were used?

https://images.weserv.nl/?url=starwarstheoldrepublic.info%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F04%2Fstar_wars_episode_1.jpg

[Polartica]

          First of all I'd like to say.  I concur with  others. Regarding the NcSoft Status Update. A attempt  to try and pacify, deflect and give up hope.  A political statement, sounds polite but full of holes. So we feel dispirited, weaken our community and stop (a nice way of saying it) making  them accountable. Anyway, I for one will keep striving to achieve our goals.
          Thank you to Tony V, from  many of us. You are a hero, leading, inspiring, a voice of reason and like a counselor.
           Also a great thanks to everyone else who needs a special mention as well. But there are so many.  (A big pat on the pack)
         This is my first posting here, lol (day 1 today) How did it take me so long to join up? (Slaps myself on the back of the head.) 
       Like so many of you. I can't stand by and be meek in the face of  this murder of what we cherish.  Emotions of anger, frustration, empathy. etc.   We all have strengths. Some may not realise theirs yet, some are using them furiously.  I will do what I can. Knowing that our community  will be there to help me.  ;D     
       Cheers!

[TimtheEnchanter]

Or...the wrong Negotiators were used?

https://images.weserv.nl/?url=starwarstheoldrepublic.info%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F04%2Fstar_wars_episode_1.jpg

At some point in the past 24 hours, this crossed my mind.

"It appears negotiations have failed."

"Negotiations never took place."

edit: I don't frigging believe it. The Droid Federation Army song from Episode 1 came on the Cape stream within 10 minutes of me posting this.

[johnrobey]

[Apologies if there are multiple postings of this.  This is the 2nd Reply I've posted but neither appears here, and having felt strongly enough to write, I want to see it, LOL]

NCSoft,
We wanted to let you know that your message has been heard and your concerns have been taken into serious considertion.  We appreciate your response and acknowledgement of our emails, notes and packages we've sent in support of the game.  Closing Paragon Studios and shutting down City of Heroes should not have been easy. Bad decisions never should be, and this was a monumentally bad decision.  Bad for your creative teams, who now operate under the uncertainty of an overseer that doesn't seem rational or consistent. Bad for your shareholders, who have been deprived a positive revenue source, both current and future. Bad for your players, who have entrusted you with the custodianship of the social network.  Bad for your reputation, which continues to be tarnished by your demonstrated lack of the consistent and stable behavior a successful service provider must offer. Bad for the individual players who have brought our own creations to life within this online world.  You have been given options that would dissolve your relationship with City of Heroes and Paragon Studios in a way that preserves that community, reassembles as much of the development team as possible, leaves our creative contributions intact, and possibly even provides compensation for your shareholders.   You have continued to make bad decisions by rejecting those options. 

You say your options are exhausted.

We have not exhausted all our options.  We will provide opportunities to save yourselves from your own folly.  We will celebrate the work of the development studio you so abruptly dissolved.  We will demonstrate the value and strength of the community you are working to destroy. Should NCSoft come around and find an amicable resolution, we will recognize the merits of your actions.  Should you not, we will warn everyone we know everywhere we go of the hazards of placing any trust in NCSoft, protecting others as best we can. 

We are heroes. This is what we do.

(at least, this is what I was going to post.... not sure if I should use TonyV's signature line.)

I very much like what you said in your post, ChaseArcanum.  While NCSoft may be all business, so are we!!  And our motivation is not maximizing our portfolios or profits but the love all enthusiasts have for their chosen hobby.  (Note, one definition of "hobby" is "obsession".)   I imagine NCSoft did NOT anticipate this reaction to their decision to "sunset" City of Heroes, and callously laying off the Paragon Studios development team late Friday afternoon of Labor Day Weekend (U.S.) with no warning probably made sense to bean-counters (accountants) with no vision or thought to the harm NCSoft is doing to its reputation as a MMO publisher, nor what impact this decision and how they handle the on-going situation may make to their future financial prospects in this industry.

As others have pointed out, NCSoft upper managment did NOT work with Paragon Studios; there was no hint that anything was amiss, or that NCSoft needed more profit from CoH (if in fact that's the issue).  Nor were steps taken or even explored that I know of to work with the CoH Community to make CoH a product still considered viable by NCSoft.  As we all know, new Powersets and other market items were released just 10 days prior to the shutdown notice.  Maybe I'm naive, but this seems a very strange way to  run a business.  I've worked for and gotten laid off from companies that went out of business, but always we employees knew/were told by management that things weren't looking good, and everyone worked harder to save our jobs and the business.  Steps could have been taken.  Certainly the dev team should have been in the loop that their jobs were on the line.  NCSoft and the Studio could/should have explored via Community Relations ways to reach NCSoft's goals.  But no one with enough clout at NCSoft did this.  I hope NCSoft gets a clue, quickly, that stonewalling us with silence is counter-productive since it leads only to speculation (some quite unflattering) in how this business decision was reached.  They also should clue in that their recent actions are opposite to and fly in the face of their stated Core Values:  http://global.ncsoft.com/global/aboutus/visiongoals.aspx   Rather than promoting Happiness (or even mere Enjoyment) what NCSoft did and HOW they did this has provoked Grief reactions ranging from sorrow to anger, and turned the publisher into the biggest Arch-Villain ever to menace Paragon City.  Joy-killers! Sorrow-bringers! are epithets NCSoft is earning by its actions.  Yet, they still have a chance to turn this around and salvage this debacle, if only they have the wisdom to do so, and demonstrate with integrity the values they profess.

Pessimistically, I expect NCSoft to revert to more silent stonewalling, especially now when today's PR tactic has backfired and encourages us to continue our efforts to save City of Heroes.  Stonewalling would be a mistake typical of Top-down management.  Despite the fact that we fans are remain upset, NCSoft still has a Golden Opportunity to reach out to us, to work with us, to craft a Win-Win scenario so that we CoH enthusiasts can continue what we love in a way that helps NCSoft reach corporate objectives. 

I can imagine articles published months from now about this our "darkest hour",  about the creative and constructive Community response (in addition to our fan outrage and unhappiness), and how NCSoft rose to the challenge courageously and worked WITH the Community of fans (and previously loyal customers!)  If NCSoft has the vision and foresight to do this, I can imagine them coming out better than ever, re-establishing trust, and adding a layer of patina rather than deeper tarnish to their corporation.

Meanwhile, the pessimist in me believes they'll "raise the drawbridge" and retreat further into their corporate castle of isolation.  That said, What are the next steps Tony and Mr W for figuratively storming the castle walls?  I was rather impressed with the CNN iReporting and Cresting Twitter Trends, as well as other suggestions on these forums--but then, I may be easily impressed.  ;-)

[Timelord Tom]

Frankly, this bit of "news" just seems to be NCSoft's latest efforts to get us to give up. Time to turn up the heat, I say.

Never give up, never give in.

[DrakeGrimm]

Frankly, this bit of "news" just seems to be NCSoft's latest efforts to get us to give up. Time to turn up the heat, I say.

Never give up, never give in.

...dang it. Sorry for the following. *sighs*


...Never gonna GIVE YOU UP, never gonna LET YOU DOOOWWWWN, never gonna run around and desert yooouuuuu!

* DrakeGrimm flees. Fast.

[Zolgar]

...dang it. Sorry for the following. *sighs*


...Never gonna GIVE YOU UP, never gonna LET YOU DOOOWWWWN, never gonna run around and desert yooouuuuu!

* DrakeGrimm flees. Fast.

*lights Grimm on fire*

[Victoria Victrix]

*lights Grimm on fire*

Drunkenly tries to put Grimm out with Pomegranate Schnapps.

[TimtheEnchanter]

*lights Grimm on fire*

*Adds gasoline*

(yes, I know that would probably destroy me in the process)

[Knightslayer]

um correct me if I am wrong because I am not that up on these things.. but isnt Nexon also Perfect World ??

Nope, two different MMO publishers (http://www.nexon.net/ & http://www.perfectworld.com/), though I think both are also big in Korea.

A thought....Maybe reopening that 'admitted forger' wound would help? Or could doing something like that potentially do more harm than good? (I only ask because this is the first I've heard about the Richard Garriott issue from back in the Tabula Rasa days. I wasn't a hardcore gamer back then.)

I never heard about that back in the day either since I didn't play TR and didn't read many of the articles beyond the original one.
So yes, when it's time to play hardball, I would also suggest spreading links around to what they did there.

Edit: Replied before reading VV/Larry's reply - that is a much better idea!

[Stunrunner]

There are plenty of posts on the game forums basically saying that it's time to give up, that there's no point in fighting any more, that it just makes us look bad, like we can't accept reality.

For some people, sure.  If you want to give up, that's your prerogative.  And there's no shame in it.  A man's got to know his limitations.

But even if NCSoft 'wins' by closing the game, they haven't beaten us.  And that's what the quitters don't understand.  It is possible to lose and remain unbeaten.  It's a matter of spirit.

There are several possibilities being discussed here and elsewhere regarding what to do if/when the servers are shut off.  Some talk of setting up private servers somehow.  Myself, I can't be part of that, because of the grey legal area that enters.

My hope?  The spiritual successor.  The idea of a new superhero MMO, built from the ground up, with all of the things that made CoH great, and with the ability to fix the things PS couldn't, due to being shackled to an old engine.  I would want to be a part of that, whether I'd be writing lore, or simply throwing money at a crowdfund.

And so I remain hopeful.  Dauntless.  I refuse to be dragged down.

In closing, I am reminded of this scene.  Somehow, one of these characters sounds like NCSoft, and one sounds like us.