Reply from contact at Google!

[HEATSTROKE]

I hope that Google works for several reasons.. One if Google comes calling at the NCSoft door that is not going to be ignored so easily. They will have a very hard time explaining to investors that they wouldnt sell an IP that is doing NOTHING to Google.. If it got any press that Google was interested an a NCSoft property and they refused to sell it could really hurt their stock...

Now I have been wondering why would Google be interested in a MMORPG. They really dont do games at all. But as I began to ponder this myself is that one thing that I do know is that Google is very aware of communities and we have a strong community.

Google is going to have to move into games as Gaming is becoming a medium through which people connect and interact with one another. Their competitors like Microsoft are into gaming and while Apple isnt a gaming company their hardware is used by many gamers.

How can this be profitable and interesting to Google beyond the subscriptions for players? This is where my mind began to think..

1) Ok I dont know who owns Mids but its obviously an invaluable tool for any CoH players. Could Google purchase the rights to use Mids and then distribute it for a small fee? Or could they develop an alternate program. I would pay a few bucks for a " Mids " I could use on a tablet or smartphone. You know how many builds and respecs I could accomplish in bathroom time alone ???? This is one avenue i though about..

2) Paragon Market.. a ready made Google store. I would totally love to purchase items through my smartphone or tablet while I am away from my PC and have those items ready for me when I got home. New powers.. im buying.. new costume pieces.. Im buying.. Another enhancement on sale and I need more Paragon Points... Im buying.. and Google is making money...

3) Google+ utilized by Supergroups, friends, guilds etc etc as a way of communication and announcing events.. Thats a win for Google..

4) Google can easily see the numerous Youtube videos on CoH related fanfare which creates advertising revenue for Google..

5) Google could think of a way to make a purchasable mini game on your Phone, Nexus etc etc that earns you Paragon Points for use in the main game.. or you do things on that game to unlock certain things in CoH...

Im sure I brainstormed more than this but this is all I can recollect at the moment..

Google pitch could be a winner....

On a totally different note.. VV I lost my mother about ten years ago. You take all the time in the world that you need.. You only get one mom...

[Joshex]

I can promise you that if CallJack gets any real movement from Emmert, and I stop crying myself sick long enough to type, we will put Perfect World on the top of the list right after GooglePlay and rewrite the pitch for THEM.  They are not personally my pick given how they have let Champions languish, but maintenance is better than dead.

V.V.

I have been reviewing MMOs of all sorts I am now confident in my knowledge of what kinda of marketing (both in game and out) works to keep an MMO active profitable and growing. If at any point you need this info I'll be happy to help supply said strategies as the game (once alive again) requires further financial strength.

[Illusionss]

I can promise you that if CallJack gets any real movement from Emmert, and I stop crying myself sick long enough to type, we will put Perfect World on the top of the list right after GooglePlay and rewrite the pitch for THEM.  They are not personally my pick given how they have let Champions languish, but maintenance is better than dead.

Don't cry.  :'(

Even as I know well that tears don't wait to be invited, and they don't give a damn how inconvenient they are; one cries whether one wishes to or not.

[Rae]

The difference between CO in maintenance mode and CoH in maintenance mode is that while CO is severely lacking in content and end-game goals, CoH has tons and tons of content and plenty of stuff to do in the endgame.

If anything, CoH with a skeleton crew adding a new costume set or power set every couple months would still be better off than CO was even when it was getting a full team's worth of support.

Plus: AE. We could keep ourselves going for years.

[dwturducken]

I hate to say it, but this is the only reason I'm landing on the "in favor" side of this question, and it's not by much. A quick read of the discussions on the CO forums is a study in shouting at blank walls. Cryptic's responses over there are actually not that dissimilar to the responses we were getting from NC$oft, and that's on an active game. Morale is low, at least if the forum and random samplings of in-game chatter are anything to go by.

And, honestly, in my 4+ years of playing CoH, I still hadn't done everything. The threads on first surprises and "for the old-timers" are full of stuff I'd never seen, though, granted, that's kind of the theme of the second one. :)

[unladenswallow]

Well at this point I guess adding one more option to the list even though it may be far from idea is a good thing. Even though it's still largely speculative.

It did give us something to talk about at least. ;D

[Thunder Glove]

I've been craving CoH all week, sometimes even seeing glimpses of familiar maps when I close my eyes - everything from Atlas Park to the warehouse in the Summer Blockbuster "Heist" mission.  I was just reading posts on the city_of_heroes Livejournal from last September and my gut is now twisted up all over again, just as it was on August 31 when I first heard the news.

I've tried playing other games over the last four months, and they're fun for a while, but that inevitable thought would creep in: "I wonder if I could make a character similar to this in City of Heroes?"  I'd catch myself, but too late.  The fun would be gone, because I wasn't really playing the game I wanted to play.

I mention all this only as a lead-in to the following:

I'm in favor of anything and anyone that gets the game back up and running again, whether it be Disney, Google, Cryptic, private servers, whatever.  I miss the only game that let me make the characters I want to make, in missions that didn't make me want to tear my hair out due to frustration, with people I enjoy playing with (even if I'd never met them before).

[johnrobey]

I've been craving CoH all week, sometimes even seeing glimpses of familiar maps when I close my eyes - everything from Atlas Park to the warehouse in the Summer Blockbuster "Heist" mission.  I was just reading posts on the city_of_heroes Livejournal from last September and my gut is now twisted up all over again, just as it was on August 31 when I first heard the news.

I've tried playing other games over the last four months, and they're fun for a while, but that inevitable thought would creep in: "I wonder if I could make a character similar to this in City of Heroes?"  I'd catch myself, but too late.  The fun would be gone, because I wasn't really playing the game I wanted to play.

I mention all this only as a lead-in to the following:

I'm in favor of anything and anyone that gets the game back up and running again, whether it be Disney, Google, Cryptic, private servers, whatever.  I miss the only game that let me make the characters I want to make, in missions that didn't make me want to tear my hair out due to frustration, with people I enjoy playing with (even if I'd never met them before).

I am finding re-reading old favorite novels, such as LeGuin's Earthsea trilogy helpful.  There's also newer S-F by Julie Czerneda I haven't tried yet, as well as (ahem) more than a few books written by our own Mercedes Lackey.   Yeah, I know, reading novels is NOT the same as playing an MMORPG and all the cool graphics are usually 100% imagined.  Gee, I didn't know there was a CoH on LJ, but I am currently up to my eyeballs in social networking and hoping to somehow keep up with it all.  Wishing you the very best, Thunder Glove, in getting over those cravings.  Maybe the veteran longevity badge "Addicted" wasn't exactly a joke(?)  Anyhow, here's hoping I'll have even more trouble figuring out how to balance my time when game returns....   :D  Until then, /em holdtorch

[dwturducken]

I found Invasion! at the library, today, while I was looking for something with my son. I had to grab it! :)

[Nightwatch]

I've been craving CoH all week, sometimes even seeing glimpses of familiar maps when I close my eyes - everything from Atlas Park to the warehouse in the Summer Blockbuster "Heist" mission.  I was just reading posts on the city_of_heroes Livejournal from last September and my gut is now twisted up all over again, just as it was on August 31 when I first heard the news.

I've tried playing other games over the last four months, and they're fun for a while, but that inevitable thought would creep in: "I wonder if I could make a character similar to this in City of Heroes?"  I'd catch myself, but too late.  The fun would be gone, because I wasn't really playing the game I wanted to play.

I mention all this only as a lead-in to the following:

I'm in favor of anything and anyone that gets the game back up and running again, whether it be Disney, Google, Cryptic, private servers, whatever.  I miss the only game that let me make the characters I want to make, in missions that didn't make me want to tear my hair out due to frustration, with people I enjoy playing with (even if I'd never met them before).

Totally agree.  Have now tried to get into Champions, Star Trek, Secret World.  All have their fans but none allow me to do what it is I'm missing: creating my own superheroes (and villains) and taking them out on missions.  Am now simply reading more books.  I've discovered I'm not really an MMO person as much as a CoH person.

[Ironwolf]

I also have this as an idea - getting the old Devs to step in occasionally and add something to the game - they could pay them as a contract empoyee not a full time Dev and they could add some cash to their pockets and improve the game for us! A win/win!

[Vistalvaris]

Whether it is Google, Jack Emmett or The Wizard of OZ!!!!----- I would love to see CoH again, play CoH again, continue the back stories that tied all my alts together, Write the second and third AE arcs that I had rough drafted, and Prepare my Incarnates for The the onslaught of the Battalion in The Coming Storm!! I too am not really a MMORPGer I am a COH/COV/Going Roguer. That is the only game for me :gonk:.

I await patiently for the day CoH is brought back to me ;D.

[InOnePiece]

I've discovered I'm not really an MMO person as much as a CoH person.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

[Lily Barclay]

I can promise you that if CallJack gets any real movement from Emmert, and I stop crying myself sick long enough to type, we will put Perfect World on the top of the list right after GooglePlay and rewrite the pitch for THEM.  They are not personally my pick given how they have let Champions languish, but maintenance is better than dead.

Going of of what Jack told Tony, I don't think we need to pitch it to them, we need to get NCSoft to be willing to get to the table. (them being pw, not Google. Pitch away to Google please)

[Kistulot]

. . .we need to get NCSoft to be willing to get to the table.

This is our core problem, and always has been when it comes to the continuing life of CoH and NCSoft.

[Chance Jackson]

I'm not really an MMO person as much as a CoH person.

This

[Richpur]

Totally agree.  Have now tried to get into Champions, Star Trek, Secret World.  All have their fans but none allow me to do what it is I'm missing: creating my own superheroes (and villains) and taking them out on missions.  Am now simply reading more books.  I've discovered I'm not really an MMO person as much as a CoH person.

Sounds like you're trying to find a direct replacement for something irreplaceable. As long as you are trying things that would have been competing with CoX you aren't going to find anything that doesn't have you thinking "but that's not how CoX did it".

[dwturducken]

At the risk of derailing the thread, I've been trying other games, outside the ones just listed.

DDO is visually similar (well, more so than some; it's really more similar to one of the later King's Quest games or the first Tomb Raider, but I digress... From digressing.), and the gameplay is nice, but there isn't anything that draws me back to it. Someone mentions Neverwinter, and I think, "Oh, hey! I haven't played DDO in a while!" So, I start the updater, which runs about five minutes worth of updates, I run a mission/quest, and then I log out and put on Netflix.

WoW keeps my interest, but not in the same compelling way. It's more wrote, like it's a job. I get a time card, so I feel like, for 60 days, I have to spend a certain amount of time on it. I haven't logged in this week, and I feel like I do when I skip a class.  It now has the ability to fly, but you have to buy three expansions and reach some high level that I haven't, yet.

Borderlands and Left 4 Dead 2 are multiplayer and engaging, but I only play them when it's what my Friday night group are doing.

Marvel Heroes is just not a factor.

It's not that we're expecting too much from the games that are similar to CoH. It's that nothing out there has that special something. It's a different something for each of us, maybe. Or it's a short list, maybe. But the fact remains, we're not going to find real satisfaction from anything currently out there or imminently arriving down the line.

And, so, we pin our hopes to Google. And we try another round of pestering NC$oft, this time to #CallJack. Basically, we pound on their door until they answer the g@#$%m thing! :)

[drmanbot]

Hi guys,  been lurking awhile since the initial shutdown looking at the efforts. Not to continue derailing the thread, but I also feel like I've been wandering in the desert so to speak with other MMO's. They're <nice>, but they're not home.

Last night my 11 year old daughter  and I were just brousing Youtube listening to the Atlas Park and Steel Canyon themes and getting ourselves depressed.

Anyhoo, Just letting you know there are two more supporters out there hoping this gets pulled off.

And I repeat my offer from the  shut down servers. I'm a we bit older and settled; if there is some kind of monetary need to bring this down, please ask. I am more than willing to contribute.


Atomic Saint and  Atomic Rose, Freedom

[ahmpizzedoff]

I too, have gone to WoW and it is just NOT anywhere near what CoH was. There's no community there, that I've found, like that on CoH. no teaming like CoH. It just seems to be more of a solo play to me. CoH was the first MMORPG game I'd ever played and I don't believe that there is any other game out there that can take it's place. Oh WoW holds my attention for a while but there's no "Marathon" all nighters or hours on end play time like there was on CoH. DCUO, STOL, Rift, Champions, and Tank something or other. Not one of them grabbed my interest. Champions I tried years ago when it first came out. Didn't like it then, don't like it now. DCUO and STOL, not bad but just couldn't get interested in them. I just couldn't get into Rift and the Tank MMO bored me so much I can't even remember the full name!  :-[ WoW, well just a stopping point till CoH comes back.

I regularly disappoint my self by going to YouTube and watch the many fine videos there of CoH. Should probably stay away from them I get so damned depressed after watching one or two!  :'(