Where do we stand now?

[Eoraptor]

Agreed, City 2 has always been a fan rumor and nothing more. in fact, at the closing, Paragon was in talks to do a buyout, and cited City of Heroes, and two unnamed IP projects which were unrelated, as potential assets.

[unladenswallow]

But getting City of Heroes back - from NCSoft or whomever - is the holy grail for me. If COH were to be resurrected, that's absolutely going to be where I'll be. And while I love that these successor games are all being put together by former COHers, the harsh reality is that there's only SO much a completely volunteer-based gaming project can accomplish in comparison to a game backed by a profit-driven gaming company.

Same for me. I hope that all three of the other projects well and look forward to playing them but if given the choice I'd like my home back. Even if it's reverse engineered.

Ideally for me it would be picked up by a company either run by players or at least as receptive to the player base as Paragon was and not a subsidiary of a larger company who may one day find that it doesn't fit in with their "long term goals".

I would hope that this has already happened and are keeping it quite for legal reasons and marketing purposes to be released with in the next year or so.

Wishful thinking I know but, I would hope that our overwhelming response to the closing of the game did not go unnoticed by the industry and someone would realize the potential market for such a larger devoted player base.

If that were the case they could put a polish on the game that would only be able to be done by a relaunch. Like redoing that clunky redo that had to do of the veteran rewards when it when F2P. I know they really couldn't get around it given what they had to do by going F2P and given the circumstances they did the best they could but it was still a clunky fix.

That and give a lot of the other zones updates like they did Atlas Park. I'm sure there are some other things that could be done as well but that's all I can think of at the moment.

Even if it's reverse engineered some of those things could be done.

Sorry kinda went off on a Marvel What If...? tangent there but that damn comic book ink got in my blood a long time ago.

[Shenku]

Sorry,  but I think this was debunked in the AUA ("Ask Us Anything") around the time of the 9th anniversary. May have been in something else since the closure, but They (Paragon, maybe even Matt) have said this never got past the concept art phase.

Actually, Matt himself did say that they were working on CoH2 during one of his panels at C2E2 in April, though he did not say how far into development they were...

Forgot to bring my video camera that day when I went, and I'm not sure if anyone else recorded it, so I can't really prove it beyond my word, but either way it's kind of moot point now since NCSoft shut them down and have clearly shown they don't care about the franchise or its fans...

[dwturducken]

Forgot to bring my video camera that day when I went...

 

[srmalloy]

Paragon Studios was working on a "CoH2" when it got closed. As good as the PS engineers were at hacking the engine to make it do things it was never intended to do... at some point, that whole deck of cards will collapse. That's why CoH2 was in the works.

If the original CoH is restarted, that doesn't obviate plans for a type of "CoH2" from any other studio. Don't count on a restarted CoH1 to be developed like PS was developing it unless they were able to hire those specific engineers back who knew the code. New engineers will take years to catch up on how to further hack the engine.

I wonder what gaming engine PS's CoH2 was being built upon?

Positron, in describing their buyout attempt, said that the other two in-development IPs that were part of the assets of Paragon Studios were unrelated to CoH; if there had been any serious development on CoH2, it would have had to have been listed as an asset in the buyout negotiations. Paragon Studios may have done some brainstorming and theory about what they would do to move forward with a CoH2, but NCSoft never agreed to fund development, so there wasn't anything tangible regarding it at closure.

If another company were to successfully buy CoH away from NCSoft, it would be almost certain that they'd at least make an attempt to get as many of the original development team as possible, even if only on a consulting basis to bring their own team up to speed on the code. Although, frankly, having CoH bought out and restarted, but with a completely new development team that didn't have any attachment to the game, would be almost as bad as leaving it dead; it was the devs' personal commitments to the game that was one of CoH's strengths. Without that, what you have is a game whose development is driven by its value as a financial engine, not as a community for its players and developers together.

[JaguarX]

Positron, in describing their buyout attempt, said that the other two in-development IPs that were part of the assets of Paragon Studios were unrelated to CoH; if there had been any serious development on CoH2, it would have had to have been listed as an asset in the buyout negotiations. Paragon Studios may have done some brainstorming and theory about what they would do to move forward with a CoH2, but NCSoft never agreed to fund development, so there wasn't anything tangible regarding it at closure.

If another company were to successfully buy CoH away from NCSoft, it would be almost certain that they'd at least make an attempt to get as many of the original development team as possible, even if only on a consulting basis to bring their own team up to speed on the code. Although, frankly, having CoH bought out and restarted, but with a completely new development team that didn't have any attachment to the game, would be almost as bad as leaving it dead; it was the devs' personal commitments to the game that was one of CoH's strengths. Without that, what you have is a game whose development is driven by its value as a financial engine, not as a community for its players and developers together.

Yeah they may attempt but the likely hood of the old team being back whole as it were again is probably low chance. Even if they were willing, then have to think about relocation and leaving a job. Most people dont like bouncing around job to job unless they have to. Not to mention the sctruture of the team had lot to do with it. I'm sure there were many ideas bounced around that didnt sit well with either the rest of the team or the decision maker. Even changing the decision maker can change direction of a game. I.E. when COX got turned over from Jack hands to Positron. The game took a different direction than the path it was heading under Jack term. Some say for the better some say just different and some say other things.
The most likely scenario would be they probably would start from scratch with the original code maybe or maybe not being used. Even the people that worked on it for years had difficulty working with that tangled yarn ball of a code when it came to certain things. I wouldnt be surprised if someone that buy it would start a new code and use the IP trademarks and stuff and maybe the same engine or updated version. Either way, even if bought by another company the game probably would be different as time go on depending on the team that is hired. It wouldnt be the same. A different perspective on direction, how theg ame should be ran, feature updates (they might decide an issue twice a year average is too much and go an issue release every other year or make it must pay updates).

And any company that picks it up will have to be financial driven espeically the first couple of years to recoup the cost and make even a sliver of profit. Then depending on company, might find them even less community driven than NCSOFT. But on the flip side might find one that is community driven and dont mind running in the red for the sake of warm fuzzy feeling inside and figure out how they are going to keep the lights, eat and keep employees paid later.

[CoyoteSeven]

And any company that picks it up will have to be financial driven espeically the first couple of years to recoup the cost and make even a sliver of profit. Then depending on company, might find them even less community driven than NCSOFT. But on the flip side might find one that is community driven and dont mind running in the red for the sake of warm fuzzy feeling inside and figure out how they are going to keep the lights, eat and keep employees paid later.

I think we'd need a new model. One where the players and the programmers are one. Something more community based. Heck, entire operating systems have been and are being developed that way. Why not an MMO? I mean I don't know, maybe you could mix that in with microtransactions? Instead of money, give your time and knowledge to help code this or that, animate this effect, or build that model. In return you get some in-game credit, extra playtime, a spiffy badge, whatever.

[JaguarX]

I think we'd need a new model. One where the players and the programmers are one. Something more community based. Heck, entire operating systems have been and are being developed that way. Why not an MMO? I mean I don't know, maybe you could mix that in with microtransactions? Instead of money, give your time and knowledge to help code this or that, animate this effect, or build that model. In return you get some in-game credit, extra playtime, a spiffy badge, whatever.

Interesting concept there and probably could work and probably will foster a great feeling of players actually building a game that they can actually call theirs because they actually laid some of the brick work.

On the flip side, probably going be a good number of "have nots". People that cant code, draw or program and feel left out and feel that it's creating and catering to the elite status of players with those perks which then can actually create a bigger rift in the community/dev relationship than the current system because since they cant contribute and get those perks, they may feel they are not in fact considered part of the community and just a number to make stats and finance look good for the elite crowd.
Not to mention I can see already two on the forum and someone shooting back "Well I coded part of the game, what have you done besides take up space?" or the likes. 

(speculation as I don't think anyone tried it yet.)

[Kaos Arcanna]

Actually, Matt himself did say that they were working on CoH2 during one of his panels at C2E2 in April, though he did not say how far into development they were...

Forgot to bring my video camera that day when I went, and I'm not sure if anyone else recorded it, so I can't really prove it beyond my word, but either way it's kind of moot point now since NCSoft shut them down and have clearly shown they don't care about the franchise or its fans...

As I recall it, he said they had talked about it and hadn't been able to come up with anything definite.

[Memorandum]

Sorry, to interfere here, but by reading this:

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/13249-Letter-From-The-Chairman-18-Million

...I simply cannot tell you how I feel by reading this (well, I'll wish them good luck with their game, nothing against it). I mean, we're trying to build up COH or a clone done by ourself, and others easily get the money for building up a game. 18 millions... Something seriously goes wrong here on our side? It's not ranting; I just don't get it. Maybe there is a wrong way of advertising a superhero game or we're really only a few geek players and nobody cares. Was NCsoft right with their decision? (I know this is an offend question, but just think about where we stand after 1 year and why other games got the money support from the community; be sure  the game from the link above will be published). So regarding this thread: Where do we stand now? And I'll add the question: What is going wrong? 

[healix]

I don't think anything is going wrong. There are several things being worked on by many dedicated people, and some of the progress is being posted here. I am just glad that these people that will someday give us back a game as close to CoH as possible, if not the City itself. Remember, the Microsoft organization started in a garage and we were not privy to every phase of its development.

[JaguarX]

I don't think anything is going wrong. There are several things being worked on by many dedicated people, and some of the progress is being posted here. I am just glad that these people that will someday give us back a game as close to CoH as possible, if not the City itself. Remember, the Microsoft organization started in a garage and we were not privy to every phase of its development.

actually for the people that invested in it originally was actually very privy just about every single detail about what was going on from plan to plan for product to development of the OS and more.

It started to get less privy when they grew way beyond garage and into public traded company, which then still is privy due to required financial sheets and reports on product sales and etc.

I suspect that if Mr. Gates took the money, then just answered "soon" to any of his investor's questions and completely left them out of the loop, they probably would have been highly upset and Miscrosoft would not have went anywhere.

Besides, aint we supposed to be treating the customer and the people better than corporations? If we are going to compare to every coporation with every issue or some other company then what is the point of this project even existing if they are going to do what corporations do anyways just because "that is how corporations do it and no one is privy with them" stuff. Might as well hang it up then because then the communication will be no better than NCSOFT's statement of "we are closing the game due to realignment."

but they are not Amazon, they are not Google, they are not Microsoft, they are not Cryptic, they are not Blizzard. They are Missing Worlds Media. So saying "Amazon do it this way." Mcirosoft was like this" "google only speaks this such and such much" is irrelevant because I'm not looking forward right now to invest or get behind a project of theirs. I'm looking to get behind a MWM project and see what new, keyword NEW they can bring to the way business interact with customers. If they are going to do the same thing as companies already do with communication, then what is the point. I might as well just go invest in Microsoft. No that aint right, I already have on a small scale. Might as well go invest in Google.