An article written with PURE AWESOME!

[JWBullfrog]

Now wouldn't that be something.

exterior: a prison facility.

Walking slowly but proudly out of the gates is a man wearing a Paragon Star. Leaning on his shoulder, obviously weary from his long captivity is another man in science fiction armor. Behind them, very much worse for the wear are another man in faded drver's clothes, a man in faded medieval wear, and finally, another man carrying a box of mechanical parts from some kind of machine.

[Colette]

Bullfrog, I do believe you just found our new meme.

And would it be possible... how would we go about recruiting former players of those games to our cause?

And perhaps Mr. Garriot?

Any ideas?

[Xieveral]

Undoubtedly.  Though I'd make a Super-Strength/Willpower brute called 'Underestimated Resolve'.

And I'd petition for a new villain group loosely based on NCsoft. 



I suspect that they'd become the new 'Council' in no time at all.   ;)

I was going to protest that but there isn't any other side thy could fit :(

Such is the life of a redsider... being lumped in with jerks like NCsoft.

Can they be like... brownside or something?

[downix]

I was going to protest that but there isn't any other side thy could fit :(

Such is the life of a redsider... being lumped in with jerks like NCsoft.

Can they be like... brownside or something?

Backside, so evil even redside looks down on them. Rularuu, when invited to their xmas party goes "uh, I have to be, er, elsewhere, ah, you know, universe destroying... it's a hobby."

[Electric-Knight]

I think of NCSoft more as Crey...

[Kaiser Tarantula]

I think of NCSoft more as Crey...

If I were a Crey industries employee, I'd be insulted.  Crey manages to have at least a little bit of class.

[Samuraiko]

Love that fact they are even getting looked down upon at home :D

It also looks like they could be adding even more trouble for themselves in the Seattle-based offices of Guild Wars 2 as well
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/12/04/ncsoft-undergoing-realignment/

The Seattle office does not handle Guild Wars - that's done through ArenaNet over in Bellevue.

The Seattle office is where Marketing, Creative Services, and if memory serves, the Aion team is. (Not sure about Lineage.)

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

[Electric-Knight]

If I were a Crey industries employee, I'd be insulted.  Crey manages to have at least a little bit of class.

Hey... it's called artistic license!  ;D

Okay, I know of some green superadine-mutated NPCs that resemble NCSoft's style...

[faith.grins]

I was going to protest that but there isn't any other side thy could fit :(

Such is the life of a redsider... being lumped in with jerks like NCsoft.

Can they be like... brownside or something?

Hey, Redside fights Council and Arachnos as much as those self-styled "heroes" do.  Oftentimes moreso in the case of Arachnos, although that has more to do with being unable to walk twenty feet in Cap Au Diable without tripping over some Wolf Spider on lunch break.  Just because they're evil doesn't mean they're villains, and vice-versa.

[Xieveral]

Hey... it's called artistic license!  ;D

Okay, I know of some green superadine-mutated NPCs that resemble NCSoft's style...

They can be Malta Sappers. Nobody likes those guys, they don't even like themselves.

Hey, Redside fights Council and Arachnos as much as those self-styled "heroes" do.  Oftentimes moreso in the case of Arachnos, although that has more to do with being unable to walk twenty feet in Cap Au Diable without tripping over some Wolf Spider on lunch break.  Just because they're evil doesn't mean they're villains, and vice-versa.

They're not cool enough to hang out with the red team.

[pogoman]

It was a fantastic article. I also love the fact that their stocks took a significant drop after the article was published. Yes, it was dropping already, since the Unity Rally, but a severe drop occurred right after the article was published and continues to do so.

[corvus1970]

I was going to protest that but there isn't any other side thy could fit :(

Such is the life of a redsider... being lumped in with jerks like NCsoft.

Can they be like... brownside or something?

I like your ideas and would love to subscribe to your newsletter!

[Little David]

The baffled analyst made my day. Its independent verification of our belief that CoH was turning a profit, when various commentators were saying we were wrong and they'd call us a waaaambulance.

Hard to accuse a Korean business analyst with no ties to CoH of being biased and deluded.

It seems like those same commentators are still at it over at Joystiq. I've noticed that the exact same gaggle of them that were smugly deriding the CoH player base as whiny self-entitled children who should be happy that they had eight years to play their game are still at it on the Massively article covering this shindig.

To me, that they continue to treat the playerbase this way even with outside business analysts questioning the wisdom of the shutdown suggests that they have some ulterior motives for being so negative.

[Taceus Jiwede]

They can be Malta Sappers. Nobody likes those guys, they don't even like themselves.

That is very true, I often found sappers sapping themselves.  Even though Malta Sappers ARE pretty terrible.  They are slightly better then NCSoft's Treachery, at least they never succeeded at destroying Paragon City.

[epawtows]

It seems like those same commentators are still at it over at Joystiq. I've noticed that the exact same gaggle of them that were smugly deriding the CoH player base as whiny self-entitled children who should be happy that they had eight years to play their game are still at it on the Massively article covering this shindig.

To me, that they continue to treat the playerbase this way even with outside business analysts questioning the wisdom of the shutdown suggests that they have some ulterior motives for being so negative.

Never attribute to conspiracy that which can be explained by incompetence. 

Or, in this case, jackassery.

[faith.grins]

That is very true, I often found sappers sapping themselves.  Even though Malta Sappers ARE pretty terrible.  They are slightly better then NCSoft's Treachery, at least they never succeeded at destroying Paragon City.

They did it a lot more if you had [Confuse].

Oh, that doesn't work here. le sigh...

[Ziggy1890]

Dudes..

We all know NCSoft is the hamidon.  Now let's raid this b****

[Little David]

Never attribute to conspiracy that which can be explained by incompetence. 

Or, in this case, jackassery.

Not necessarily conspiracy, just having a more personal stake in pooh-poohing the CoH crew.

I've noticed that some of the people who are really eager to play Blade and Soul, for instance, are equally eager to dump all over City of Heroes.

[Mistress Urd]

I live on the dark side. With the frozen water. And the organic materials. <.<

* DrakeGrimm noms organic materials

Quite tasty with ketchup.

You must live on a rolling house then.

Lots of fiction was messed up when we found out Mercury rotates in 59 days not 88 days.  :P

[Undercat]

You notice something about that article? It looks to me like they wanted to write it that way.

Hmmm.

I think now might be an opportune time to introduce NCsoft's shareholders---especially Nexon---to a question I posed in my very first comment on this forum: is the closure of City of Heroes, and the apparent retreat of NCsoft from the Western market, a reactionary response to what Kim perceives as a hostile legal climate in the United States? Specifically, did NCsoft feel that the Garriott judgment was unfair, in light of the fact they fired him for what they described as a poor work ethic after he flew into space while his multi-million-dollar game was floundering?

I think it would be very interesting to have a large investor put that question to NCsoft's management and have them respond formally. They have no obligation to respond to us with anything more than their "corporate realignment" drivel, but they cannot dismiss their largest shareholder quite so tritely, and it is entirely possible that Nexon has not pieced that question together yet.

I think I should start off by saying that I feel NCsoft is perfectly within their rights to decide where to do business, and if the legal climate with respect to employment law in this country is not to their liking, they should by all means feel free to develop at home in order to avoid potential future losses from litigation. But that alone does not explain why a company would choose to burn its U.S. assets to cinders. The logical thing to do would be to liquidate those foreign holdings in order to maximize recovery. Now, it may be easy to overlook the burying of a game that was not profitable, as was undoubtedly the case for many of NCsoft's previous closures (though it might well be argued that NCsoft just wasn't patient enough); however, as we all well know, City of Heroes was neither unprofitable nor unpopular. Simply burying a revenue-producing property without recourse to market smacks not of strategic business behavior, but of simple vindictiveness---something more akin to a personal tantrum. And if that were the case, it might raise serious questions about the fiduciary integrity of NCsoft's management.

There's just one problem: all of the above is pure speculation on my behalf, though I actually suspect the staff writers at Korea Times are thinking along similar lines. They have all the facts, and they're certainly not idiots. Elsewhere on the 'net I have read editorials penned by some of the writers who cover NCsoft for Korea Times. One of those editorials lamented the arbitrariness and insanity of our patent system, specifically with regard to Apple's lawsuit against Samsung for infringing on the "look and feel" of the iPhone---an editorial that I, personally, happen to agree with. He cannot be alone. There may well be an undercurrent of resentment in many other countries about the casino-like mentality of our system of jurisprudence. So why wouldn't Kim fall into the same boat?

Maybe he does, but even if the writers at Korea Times suspected that Kim may be on an ill-considered rampage that could be damaging his company's shareholders, they would never dare put those words to print by their own hand: without someone to attribute it to, and with no first-hand experience in the matter, it could easily lead to a libel suit, because it damned sure would inflict harm upon the management of NCsoft.

But what if they could attribute it to someone who had first-hand experience?

Collette, in a post you made on another thread, you claimed to have spoken with an individual who had direct dealings with NCsoft as a developer, and the comments of that individual exactly mirrored my own. While I don't expect that you will necessarily be able to convince that individual to come forward and make a statement to the writers of Korea Times, perhaps you could put out feelers through him to find other people in his circle of associates who also had first-hand experience in the matter and who are not under non-disclosure terms. If one or more such individuals could be persuaded to come forward and make statements about their experiences---specifically, the exchanges they had with NCsoft's management and the timing and nature of management's actions vis-a-vis the Garriott incident---it might give Korea Times the defensive position they need to ask the very question we most want NCsoft's shareholders to see right now.

Mercedes may have given Korea Times a shield they needed to blow open NCsoft's corporate doors (thank the gods she's on our side), but it could be you, Collette, or anyone else who has access to similar people, who can help drive a bunker buster through that door and blow the CoX IP clean out of their castle.