My questions and concerns

[Ixontes]

Whenever I hear that a game is going F2P, it concerns me about it's future. This seems like a death blow to me for a game. Was this the death blow to COH, or was it just a chance to prolong the inevitable for COH?

Also, one of my favorite things about COH was the wait. You had to be at least level 14-15 to get flight. You couldn't get a cape until later than that....etc.....
All of a sudden, I can get flight at like level 6? I think this was one of the killers of Star Wars Galaxies. You had to go through like 6 months of trials just to become a Jedi. All of a sudden you could just about create a brand new character as a Jedi. That was a death blow to that game.

My last question is this,
Are we done? Is this case closed? I just watched a video sent to me from a friend and it gave me chills. It was about our outcries and support, but it seems to no avail. God bless City of Heroes and thank you for reading.

[Rotten Luck]

Most games going to F2P is because of desperation.  (We don't have the members to support our servers... Quick open the flood gates if people get a freebie they try it out!)  This is not City of heroes case.  We had and still have (that the odd thing about this) a player base that strong and supportive.  We were making profits and that increased with the F2P, Premium, and subscribe system remember we didn't go "F2P" we went to a Hybrid system.  Profits were high and the result was the flood of high quality Issues. 

The general idea is that NCsoft change their long term game plan.  CoH was not in the make up of this plan they see it as a 8 year old game that would grow stale at any time (possible risk).  On top of that the big Comic book business are now braking into the Superhero MMO.  DC and soon Marvel will launch it's MMO, Not understanding that the beauty of CoH was more then just.  OH they play in a Cosplay like world.

The Puzzling part is why they won't sell.  One answer to this I thought of is a wait and see approach or the (Coke/ New Coke/ Classic Coke Thinking.)  Turn off Coh, if Marvel and DC bomb bring up CoH2 and sweep the market relaunching a franchise that proven to have a long term functionality.  (Champions is already struggling) If asked why cancel in the first the response might be "We knew the game was growing old the Missions and old content was often talked about on the Forums.  For the past few years before the shut down the players been stating they wanted a CoH2.  However at the time of the shut down our resources was focused on other ventures and we couldn't go forward with other projects with COH and Paragon diverting the resources."

Logic would say CoH was making a Profit and thus should stay.  However this might not be a case of gaining funds but diverting money going to production of Coh to something else.  Say they bought the Duex Ex franchise (just an example) and they are going to fund a Duex Ex: Online game.  They might see it as a greater venue then maintaining the CoH franchise even if it was making a profit. 

As for are we done?  The truth is it was never about changing NCsoft mind.  They are already known as the World killers Coh is the fifth.  Were we going to let it happen with out a fight?  Were we going to go quietly into the night?  Hell no.  There was and might be a chance still (like a chance of waking up and finding out your Billionaire uncle died and gave you all his money) of another game producer seeing how dedicated we are and offering to buy the franchise, or in case of Plan Z fun a new game.

[Segev]

By definition, if they were making a profit, then the money going in to Paragon was less than the money coming back out. All of the "coming back out" could be cycled into whatever they would divert the funding from Paragon to.

[downix]

Logic would say CoH was making a Profit and thus should stay.  However this might not be a case of gaining funds but diverting money going to production of Coh to something else.  Say they bought the Duex Ex franchise (just an example) and they are going to fund a Duex Ex: Online game.  They might see it as a greater venue then maintaining the CoH franchise even if it was making a profit. 

Illogical, as the funds diverted would be less than the profits generated.

I would note you are closer to this analogy than you realize. Paragon Studios was using the profits from CoH to develop 2 new games, an MMO and a casual game, due out in a year or so. So, not only did NCSoft shut down a profitable game, they also shut down two self-funded development tracks for additional future revenue as well. This is bad business practice.

[Visual Fallacy]

I don't think going ftp killed the game but i gotta admit I don't like that everything comes so easily now. I liked feeling I had earnt my travel power and cape and my kheldian. I also liked that feeling I got when I managed at level 5 to get to the eastern hills mission that wincott gave me without dying en route. :)

Unfortunately I think I was in the minority for liking those things and I don't think it is what killed the game I think we now live in a time when people don't expect to put in so much effort to get the things they want.

To be honest, the game wasn't dead and that's why everyone is here trying to save it. If the game had died a natural death poeple would have wandered away in search of new adventures but they hadn't they were still here still making new characters still trying out new powersets still finding things in the game they hadn't tried before. And that is why people are so devestated because it's kind of like being told all the programmes you watch on tv are going to be stopped mid season and you'll never find out what happens. You can go and watch other shows instead that are on the same theme but different but the shows you watch now well they're cancelled right in the middle with no hows or whys.  The time you invested watching the shows getting to know the characters was all for nothing cos you're going to be left with all those characters killed off abrubtly never knowing how things worked out for them.

[Knightslayer]

And that is why people are so devestated because it's kind of like being told all the programmes you watch on tv are going to be stopped mid season and you'll never find out what happens. You can go and watch other shows instead that are on the same theme but different but the shows you watch now well they're cancelled right in the middle with no hows or whys.  The time you invested watching the shows getting to know the characters was all for nothing cos you're going to be left with all those characters killed off abrubtly never knowing how things worked out for them.

R.I.P. Firefly... =/
Though few shows get cancelled mid-season, usually it's a show that's obviously meant to span several seasons that gets canned after one or two seasons - and it's often the television network's fault for shoving the show into a timeslot where it has to compete with an already established major league popular show... Dark Angel VS Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which already had a huge following comes to mind - damn you Fox! *shakes fist!* And then later on you did it again with Firefly!
And yep, VF, it's exactly like that with our characters... and even with the whole setting and the NPC's we've come to know so well over the years - I still remember first encountering Fusionette and Faultline, and then seeing them evolving through the years - not to mention Penny...

[Rotten Luck]

Illogical, as the funds diverted would be less than the profits generated.

I would note you are closer to this analogy than you realize. Paragon Studios was using the profits from CoH to develop 2 new games, an MMO and a casual game, due out in a year or so. So, not only did NCSoft shut down a profitable game, they also shut down two self-funded development tracks for additional future revenue as well. This is bad business practice.

True I must confess I'm still in the trying to understand things phase and grasping at straws.  But the argument could still be sound.  You just stated not only was Paragon focused on CoH, but also two other projects.  That two projects that weren't making funds and one that (from NCsoft view) could be a risk.  It a leap I confess, but one that can be imagined easier then "We don't understand your westerner game so ... no game for you." seeing NCsoft board of directors siting there comparing possible projects to funds to fiance it something they see as Bigger and better could been chosen over That 8 year old game and the other games Paragon was working on.  So I can still see it as "We like this project over those projects so lets divert operations."

[Segev]

I suppose it's possible they want the one-time savings of $(operating cost of Paragon Studios) to divert to something else, but once that's spent, it's gone.

[Zolgar]

Most games going to F2P is because of desperation.  (We don't have the members to support our servers... Quick open the flood gates if people get a freebie they try it out!)  This is not City of heroes case.  We had and still have (that the odd thing about this) a player base that strong and supportive.  We were making profits and that increased with the F2P, Premium, and subscribe system remember we didn't go "F2P" we went to a Hybrid system.  Profits were high and the result was the flood of high quality Issues.

To be fair.. prior to Going Rogue and Freedom.. CoH was not quite on it's death bed, but it was also not doing too hot. It was a slowly dwindling community growing tired of an 8 year old game that had stagnated. There were still die hard fans, but.. nowhere near as many as there once were. Had the game closed then, a lot more people would have been "It was time." Going Rogue saw some improvement in the game's situation, and Freedom saw it  start growing again.. both the community and the game itself. There's been more new content since Freedom than there was  in at least 2 years prior to Going Rogue.

[Codewalker]

I suppose it's possible they want the one-time savings of $(operating cost of Paragon Studios) to divert to something else, but once that's spent, it's gone.

Even that (which seemed very plausible at first), doesn't really make sense. In another thread where the financial reports were analyzed, it came to light that the NCSoft mothership is sitting on a ton of cash, somewhere on the neighborhood of $300-400 million worth.

With that kind of cash on hand, they could fund pretty much any development project they wanted at the drop of a hat. The amount they'd get from saving operating expenses of Paragon is a drop in the bucket compared to that.

Really the only thing that makes sense to me is that they want to adopt a strategy of "Develop in Korea, push overseas, and turn NCSoft West into a shell reseller arm to get what little we can from halfassed localizations". Paragon doesn't fit with that. Neither do ArenaNet or Carbine, so if I were one of those two, I'd be worried.

[downix]

To be fair.. prior to Going Rogue and Freedom.. CoH was not quite on it's death bed, but it was also not doing too hot. It was a slowly dwindling community growing tired of an 8 year old game that had stagnated. There were still die hard fans, but.. nowhere near as many as there once were. Had the game closed then, a lot more people would have been "It was time." Going Rogue saw some improvement in the game's situation, and Freedom saw it  start growing again.. both the community and the game itself. There's been more new content since Freedom than there was  in at least 2 years prior to Going Rogue.

Perhaps that is why they did the shutdown, the game was growing?

[Zolgar]

Perhaps that is why they did the shutdown, the game was growing?

I have pondered this..

I think it's more likely the closure was planned a while back, and they expected the game to die out within a year or so from going F2P, and instead it boomed. >.>

[dwturducken]

So, somehow, Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick are actually running NCSoftcore, and this is The Producers?

[downix]

True I must confess I'm still in the trying to understand things phase and grasping at straws.  But the argument could still be sound.  You just stated not only was Paragon focused on CoH, but also two other projects.  That two projects that weren't making funds and one that (from NCsoft view) could be a risk.  It a leap I confess, but one that can be imagined easier then "We don't understand your westerner game so ... no game for you." seeing NCsoft board of directors siting there comparing possible projects to funds to fiance it something they see as Bigger and better could been chosen over That 8 year old game and the other games Paragon was working on.  So I can still see it as "We like this project over those projects so lets divert operations."

Then the logical move would have been to shelve those two projects and lay off their staff, turning the revenue which had been feeding them into pure profit. To shut down the entire thing over this makes even *less* sense, as it clearly demonstrates the profit potential.

[Piledriver]

Whenever I hear that a game is going F2P, it concerns me about it's future... Was this the death blow to COH, or was it just a chance to prolong the inevitable for COH?

All of a sudden, I can get flight at like level 6? That was a death blow...

...It was about our outcries and support, but it seems to no avail.

That all looks like unicorn-apples to me.

We know that City of Heroes "Freedom" was a hybrid model, and most of us who were long-time players had very little to complain about. Most were still maintaining a subscription. Or multiple subscriptions.

Earlier flight, global unlocks for capes/auras/etc., and faster leveling were positives for most (not a minority), because we had dozens if not hundreds of alts to work on. A new one every time another power-set came out, at least. Who honestly say "I love the grind!?"

Then the clincher, suggesting or stating, multiple times, that the #SaveCOH efforts are futile...

I don't know... maybe unicorns don't poop rainbows, but it sure smells like rainbow.

[Atlantea]

So, somehow, Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick are actually running NCSoftcore, and this is The Producers?

Springtime for Taek Jin-Kim and NCSoft!

NCSoft was having trouble
What a sad, sad story
Needed a new game to restore
Its former glory
Where, oh, where was it?
Where could that game be?
We looked around and then we found
The game for you and me

LEAD TENOR SHAREHOLDER:
And now it's...
Springtime for Taek Jin-Kim and NCSoft
Blade and Soul is bouncy and shiny!
We're grinding to a faster zest
Look out, here comes the massive chests!
Springtime for Taek Jin-Kim and NCSoft...


Okay okay! Stop hitting! I'll stop... :D