Exteel supposedly has functional private servers and people are trying to develop private servers for Dungeon Runners and Auto Assault. I don't know how closure of those games was taken but I'm assuming they weren't as vocal of defiant as TR and CoH players so they've been able to stay under the radar.
Speaking for myself, there was some serious annoyance when Auto Assault was canned, but, at the same time, it was pretty much expected.
The whole thing was mismanaged, at least all the way back to the closed beta (when I got involved). This could have been due to NetDevil having to deal with NCSoft, creating the perception of an MPD-like management atmosphere. What ever the case, between that, and some of the boneheaded things I experienced in the early CoH days -- for example, receiving my invite to the beta ONE DAY before it closed; that bugged the heck out of me -- my confidence wasn't that great that the game would take off to begin with. So, when the plug was pulled just a little over a year after it was released, I was irritated, but not surprised.
All of this, plus the ridiculous email fiasco ("We're closing your game, but we like your money, so please try these other ones we publish instead!"), made me re-think any involvement with NCSoft-published games. Yes, I even gave up on City of Heroes, briefly. That most of my friends were still on it brought me back, though, and, yeah, I missed it. Plus, I'd put a lot of work into my characters, and that proved just too much to walk away from. I was already invested.
I can now safely say that I will never invest time, money or energy into an NCSoft product again. This isn't out of some protest, boycott, or dangling a carrot that they might get my piddly $160-some a year back if they bring my games back. This is because, when you're burned enough times by a business, you realize that this isn't a fluke or a bad break, but a repeating pattern, and a normal business practice for them. You realize they just aren't worth doing business with, and just stop doing business with them.
So, back to your original point, no, the protests were nowhere near this big nor vocal when Auto Assault was shut down. But it certainly does make the more recent events affect one's decision-making all the more deeply. And it makes me all the more glad to hear these acknowledgements of "caveat emptor" when discussing the latest shiny new thing NCSoft dangles in front of everyone, with hopes that their memory spans are short. Losing the work I put into Auto Assault was aggravating; losing everything I put into City of Heroes was downright brutal. Anyone who puts that kind of energy into a game needs to know that NCSoft doesn't cater to them. Their way of going business has proven that.
Apologies for rambling. Long time lurker, finally posting. Guess I needed to air my brain out a bit, and mentioning Auto Assault's closure sort of opened it all up. Carry on.
