New efforts!

[Golden Girl]

I could live with re-creating characters.  But if I lost all of the purchased costume packs, etc...  that would be a deal breaker for me as far
as returning to the game.

They could take the route of saying that re-buying the packs would help the restarted game - or they could decide to make all the old purchasable items part of the default game, and focus on making new purchasable packs.

[Mindscythe]

The reason it just rambles at times is to allow folks to blow off steam. I once went 3 weeks or so with no comment and it about killed everyone.

I don't bother the folks doing the buying often. They occasionally will tell me stuff out of the blue and I will ask them every 2 weeks or so. Part of what is taking so long is the securing of assets. Once it is known what we are getting it likely will be them NOT me - telling you. I will be quietly fading into the background and going full on fanboy!

I hope they'll fully recognize what a good job you've been doing and retain your services even after whatever comes. :)

[downix]

I could live with re-creating characters.  But if I lost all of the purchased costume packs, etc...  that would be a deal breaker for me as far
as returning to the game.

If they had no user data, how would they know what was purchased, and what was not?

[Codewalker]

I highly doubt that character data and account transaction data would be kept in the same database at all. Maybe even not in the same country.

[chuckv3]

I highly doubt that character data and account transaction data would be kept in the same database at all. Maybe even not in the same country.

If starting from scratch is the only way to play again, I'm still "in". Although not ideal, a clean slate DOES have advantages, like many SG and character names being freed up.

[Ironwolf]

Once the market is restored even if they don't have all the data it is fairly cheap to get most of the time rewards. How someone can say - if I don't get my stuff - I give up, is completely foreign to me.

[mrultimate]

I would love to have all the items I purchased back. I think most any of us would. The exception being those that want names that were not available to them but that is a wholly different discussion.

The only folks that any blame can be laid upon if our account data etc etc is lost is NCSoft.

The new buyers have my support in whatever fashion our games comes back. Whatever we have will be more than we have now and for that I will be grateful.

[Tyrannical]

Perhaps instead of having to re-buy/re-earn all the additional items, they could be released for free (or half price maybe?) and all the planned upcoming market content such as the new powersets, costume packs and so on would be purchasable as normal. A new veteran reward scheme might be appropriate, considering... well, most of us -are- veterans at this point.

So, instead of having to buy/earn all our old things back, we have them from the get go, then everything that's WIP would be purchase/reward, and anything thereafter would be too.

Though naturally, I just like the idea of getting the game back, and would happily pay the same subscription as I did before, though it'd be a pain in the wallet trying to remake all my characters and costumes when half that content would need purchasing (again).

[Noyjitat]

Let's just worry about getting to play again. The other details later...

[Taivas]

I don't care if I have none of the costume pieces, booster packs or veteran rewards I was entitled to - I just want to play City of Heroes again. If starting again from the beginning is the only option, I will be thankful that I can even do that. I'd happily re-buy all of the perks and items with my own money to support the rebirth of our game. Whether we're given a bare CoH with no data or our characters and items fully return, the important thing here is that we're quite possibly going to have an online home to call our own again.

Focus on that, at least for now.

[The Fifth Horseman]

I've got a bridge to sell you, and I'll tell you where it is, if you know where to look...

And while you're at it, would you like to buy mining rights on mars? :p
All I'll say is that it pays to be observant. Had you paid attention, you'd have a good idea as to at least some of the people involved. And I'll say this much: I see no reason whatsoever to question their ability.

[Ezuka]

I am completely okay with having to start entirely over, and I am somewhat okay with having to repurchase anything I've already purchased. I just want to play my game again. Hell, I'd probably be saving money even if I have to rebuy everything because my attention (and wallet) would be drawn from Steam and other websites that I waste my money on.

[Nightmarer]

Once the market is restored even if they don't have all the data it is fairly cheap to get most of the time rewards. How someone can say - if I don't get my stuff - I give up, is completely foreign to me.

An easy solution would be to some kind of bundle sale really cheap for, let's say first week or so, in any case:

Step 1: Get the game back
Step 2: Who cares

I am the only one who got it right, right?  ;D

[kiario]

No problem at all restarting for me since I was an altoholic anyway :) and I would gladly rebuy all things I bought

[BadWolf]

I've got a bridge to sell you, and I'll tell you where it is, if you know where to look...

:P

Don't take this the wrong way, I have no particular dog in this fight. But it's an interesting position to take, stating "I don't know who's involved, how long they've been working on things, what stage of progress they're at, or what kinds of resources they have devoted to their work. But I'm pretty sure they're failing!"

Again, feel free to stick with it, but I don't know that I'd be that firm in mocking an effort while self-avowedly admitting you have absolutely no information about it. :)

[Tyrannical]

I'll be okay with getting CoH back and having to re-buy everything, since I know the money is going towards helping the game get back on it's feet. Though as much as people say not to focus on what happens after the game is acquired, you can't help but feel curious and inquisitive.

But I guess since so many have asked the big questions it'll be addressed sooner or later when the team are in a position to answer them. Questioning is good, it allows people to identify concerns, though we can't expect answers so soon I suppose.

[CheerGunbunny]

That's great for them, but not when I was on their team.  Usually they had their difficulty set to +4 so I was facing purples, and doing little damage if I hit at all.

I came to despise said characters when I was on a team of them.  I generally played scrappers or blasters, and was not needed on teams of 7-8.  I felt useless as the mobs died around or in front of me, so I ended up soloing nearly all the time in the last many months of the game because I wanted to actually play and contribute when on a team and not watch others play.

In short, when teaming with said characters it affected HOW I PLAY.

I frequently got kicked from teams for that reason...i didn't use IO's, let alone sets on 90% of my characters.  Look me up when City is back...I love to team with other casual players.  I use this name as my global.

Yes, I said "when", not "if"....hope and faith, man, hope and faith.

[Harpospoke]

But I would rather be speculating about the game coming back then just mourning and remembering.

Truth.

[LaughingAlex]

The number of disgruntled people would be exactly equal to the number of non-healers who'd gotten all the healing badges :P

Hey, I'm a person who generally ensured healers got no progress on those badges in teams if they ended up in the same team as me.  Damage mitigation yo.

[Harpospoke]

I'd prefer this option, could make things a lot easier, yes there would be a few disgruntled people. Let's just get the game back :)

If I were a gambling person, I would take that bet.

I don't know exactly how you are defining "a few" here, but methinks long time players who lost everything they ever gained through years of play are going to have some thoughts about it.

I know at first everyone will be happy just to be able to log in.   But what about a month later when everything around you in game is reminding you of all those other characters you had but can no longer play?

Clean slate

Advantages:

1-names are available on a first come first serve basis.  Act quickly because you know a lot of people will make 20 characters the first day.   Good luck getting "Firestorm" or something.

2-Everyone starts out the same.  (I guess that's a good thing?  Some seem  to want that)   This will last about a week due to some people playing more than others and some even actively striving to level up quickly and acquire wealth.

Downside:

1-You lose all the time invested achievements you ever obtained.  Characters, badges, vet rewards, inf, base and base items, crafted items.

2-You lose all the things you bought.

I think the downsides far outweigh the advantages.   ...And I don't really even care that much about the costume packs I bought.   Money is one thing...but time is what my life is made of.  I would of course join a power-leveling club to shorten the time needed to truly "get my game back"....but that's going to look like an impossible task.   How do you get those years of your super hero career back?   It's not hard to imagine that I would never get a few of those characters back no matter how long I played.   There were a couple of characters whom I liked playing....about once a month.   Would I really devote all that time to get them back?  I wonder.   I would still miss them but probably realize it wasn't worth the effort.

Given a choice, I would rather find a new name for my characters than lose them completely.

That probably only makes sense to a person like me who actually loved playing his lvl 50 characters and only started new ones on an infrequent basis.   The clean slate game would be dramatically different for me.