Account information still existing, server fate undecided

[Mister Bison]

This is a message sent in response to a French player support ticket asking to remove his account information:

Objet
Suppression de compte
Bonjour C*****,

Sachez que nous ne pouvons effacer un compte de jeu.

La raison en est que l'enregistrement d'un code d'accès sur un compte est définitif. Les informations relatives au compte de jeu City of Heroes étant conservées sur nos serveurs, la désinstallation du client de jeu n'est pas possible. De plus nous ne savons pas encore que vont devenir les serveurs de City of Heroes.

Cordialement,

GM laurent
Service Clientèle de NCSOFT

Translation:

Subject
Account deletion
Hello C*****,

You must know that we can't erase a game account.

The reason is that the registering of an access code on an account is permanent. The informations relative to a City of Heroes account being kept on our servers, it's impossible to uninstall the game's client (sic). Moreover we don't know yet what will become of the City of Heroes servers.

Cordially,

GM laurent
NCSOFT Customer Support

Except the gibberish about the removal of the game's client, this information is pretty ground-breaking. They didn't delete all our information yet, maybe didn't touch anything.

Or it's false hope. Could a few US-based customer question the Customer Support about "Will you delete my personnal information ?" to know what's the state of our game information ? Maybe we can save our characters ! Maybe they are still alive ...! Maybe...

[The Fifth Horseman]

Not deleting it would make sense if they were planning to sell off the game (or at least considering the possibility).

[Mister Bison]

Not deleting it would make sense if they were planning to sell off the game (or at least considering the possibility).

Or, it's just bureaucracy for you.

[Colette]

"...we don't know yet what will become of the City of Heroes servers...."

Laugh with me! MWAHAAHAHAAhaaaa...!

[Blue Pulsar]

Laugh with me! MWAHAAHAHAAhaaaa...!

MUA HAH HAH HAH HAAAaaahhh...

Ahem...

[Septipheran]

"...we don't know yet what will become of the City of Heroes servers...."

Laugh with me! MWAHAAHAHAAhaaaa...!

Hopefully that doesn't mean, "We can't decide if we want to use them for Guild Wars 2 or sell them yet."

[V-Mink]

"...we don't know yet what will become of the City of Heroes servers...."

Laugh with me! MWAHAAHAHAAhaaaa...!

Very interesting.  I wonder what this means.  It could just be bureaucracy.  But if not....

And VvG is still my favoritest mad scientist.

"For a brief moment I thought I was done with science, but this lights the three-foot-tall Bunsen burner flame of madness! It heats the crucible of science within me, and the noxious vapors that issue forth are nothing less than the poison fumes of MAD SCIENCE!

"Laugh with me!

"AAAH - HAH - HAH - HAH - AHAH- HAAAAH!"

Vernon von Grun. Best. Mad Scientist. Ever.

[saipaman]

My impression was that the City of Heroes server(s) were leased by NCSoft.

[eabrace]

"...we don't know yet what will become of the City of Heroes servers...."

Laugh with me! MWAHAAHAHAAhaaaa...!

Probably more accurate to say "we don't know yet what will become of the City of Heroes server databases" since the servers were virtualized for shared use.

[Rigo42]

Yeah,

Generally when they are done with servers, they get put to use somewhere else

Hopefully in this case, reopened.

[corvus1970]

Not deleting it would make sense if they were planning to sell off the game (or at least considering the possibility).

Or, it's just bureaucracy for you.

Yup. It could be either/or at this point.

[dwturducken]

MUA HAH HAH HAH HAAAaaahhh...

Ahem...

Blue Beetle?

[JetFlash]

Yeah,

Generally when they are done with servers, they get put to use somewhere else

Hopefully in this case, reopened.

Virtualized servers can be run on any hardware, provided you've got enough horsepower on the VM host.  Reviving the servers would be a simple matter of taking the VMs (Virtual Machines) and running them on a new host(s) somewhere.

[Perfidus]

Here's hoping.

[Rigo42]

Virtualized servers can be run on any hardware, provided you've got enough horsepower on the VM host.  Reviving the servers would be a simple matter of taking the VMs (Virtual Machines) and running them on a new host(s) somewhere.

Ah yes, Cloud FTW

[Surelle]

At first this got me all excited, but then I thought,

"Well, just because a French GM doesn't know what will become of the CoH servers doesn't mean NCSoft Korea doesn't already know...."   :'(   But let's hope I'm wrong. 

And more importantly, let's hope SOMEONE is getting/has gotten enough financial backing together to renegotiate with NCSoft to buy our baby back!  While all the random shots in the dark are firing at unsuspecting targets here and time is ticking by (hasn't it been 2 weeks for Disney already?), has anyone at all who has contact info for Brian Clayton/Melissa Bianco actually talked to them lately about that Korea Times article and the possibility of re-offering for CoH?

[Colette]

"Blue Beetle?"

Nope! That would be "BWAH HAH HAAWWWHHH!" It's right here on page three of the evil laughs textbook. That's what you get for sleeping in class.

[Victoria Victrix]

At first this got me all excited, but then I thought,

"Well, just because a French GM doesn't know what will become of the CoH servers doesn't mean NCSoft Korea doesn't already know...."   :'(   But let's hope I'm wrong. 

And more importantly, let's hope SOMEONE is getting/has gotten enough financial backing together to renegotiate with NCSoft to buy our baby back!  While all the random shots in the dark are firing at unsuspecting targets here and time is ticking by (hasn't it been 2 weeks for Disney already?), has anyone at all who has contact info for Brian Clayton/Melissa Bianco actually talked to them lately about that Korea Times article and the possibility of re-offering for CoH?

I've been giving it a bit of time to percolate (and finishing the edits on Melissa's book so she owes me  8) ) before I put that to her.

[Mister Bison]

"Well, just because a French GM doesn't know what will become of the CoH servers doesn't mean NCSoft Korea doesn't already know...."   :'(   But let's hope I'm wrong. 

That's what I thought too, especially since, well, I have to admit it, french ones didn't seem to be the most informed. That's why I would like somebody from the US to ask it again: "what happened to my account information".

[Surelle]

That's what I thought too, especially since, well, I have to admit it, french ones didn't seem to be the most informed. That's why I would like somebody from the US to ask it again: "what happened to my account information".

It would also be cool if we could get somebody in to buy the IP BEFORE NCSoft decides to wipe all said accounts off those rented-but-no-longer-needed-since-two-weeks-ago servers.   Timing is everything in a sale.  And if nobody does have the backing to try and buy the IP (again), then it isn't going to hurt us to know that, too.  Sometimes the truth hurts, but I'd rather face it and plan our next moves around it, whatever they may be.

[dwturducken]

"Blue Beetle?"

Nope! That would be "BWAH HAH HAAWWWHHH!" It's right here on page three of the evil laughs textbook. That's what you get for sleeping in class.

Ironically, I was reading a chemistry book during that class. :)

If the servers were virtuallized (or, really, regardless of that), they most likely were making regular image backups to a networked storage drive. That sort of drive tends to fill up quickly, but, if it's not getting those images, anymore, the likelihood of the images being deleted for space goes down considerably. The people in charge of managing those sorts of things tend to be overworked, so it would be very easy for the images to be saved more from absent-mindedness than altruism or any kind of emotional or business attachment to them.

[Felderburg]

While this is very interesting, it seems to me that the part here:

You must know that we can't erase a game account.

The reason is that the registering of an access code on an account is permanent.

...relates more to a master NCSoft account - i.e., you can't delete the CoH registration from it, and every time you log in (if you log in) to your plaync.com it will have your CoH account info.