New efforts!

[Captain Electric]

Let me make this absolutely crystal clear [again]: I am not on FB. I am not on Twitter. As such, I am basically unable to discuss this or anything much on "social media." I avoid social media like the plague, if only because my workplace DOES monitor all employees that they know are on it. I have no intention of being fired for some slip of the lip. Not happening.

So you are safe from me discussing this subject, or any subject on "social media." I AM NOT ON FB OR TWITTER. Or any such discussion platform.

Not to mention, the idea that NCSoft might not have the game backed up much - or at all - does not give you a frisson of fear? It certainly does me. I find the idea terrifying, and I see no reason to apologize for that.

Better here than just about anywhere else, n'est-ce pas? Beside, by the time anything gets to me I assure you it is very much old news.

The Internet:

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSGvNkzk5NN4DOr7dNcb_2m2tKbX5ta2X47l_Z3M6qyeeHSUW1N

You shouldn't apologize for your concern! Sorry, the thought would never cross my mind.

I think you're in the majority by thinking that you're not spreading anything into the ether by way of discussion here. I'll paraphrase something I typed into the SaveCoH FB page yesterday, in order to illustrate why I disagree with the majority:

Just for some perspective, this FB group has nearly 3,000 members. Yet the Titan forums have nearly 24,000 members, not including a constant flow of unregistered guests who are there to read, you guessed it, Ironwolf's information dispensing thread--some of which include members of the gaming industry and press.

That thread is where we're making all the noise, another post every five to ten minutes, and is by far the game's most currently visible gathering place on the Internet. Spamming NCSoft directly on social media, such as on their FB or Twitter pages directly, is not that much of an issue right now; but the arguments and debates and discussion that occur regularly on Titan are far more visible than those which occur here on this comparatively quiet Facebook page.

I think a lot of people are sort of pretending that the Titan Network's forum and Ironwolf's information-dispensing thread is this super secret place, despite the fact that the broader CoH community (including myself) aggressively advertised it as THE place to gather and stick together when the game closed.

Talking about it on Titan is actually far more visible than talking about it on FB. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I'm just saying that, you know, sky's blue and so on.

My point in't that people shouldn't be talking. I'm not saying "shut up!" As someone who IS on social media, I am just trying to explain that anything noteworthy that gets mentioned on Titan will be repeated on social media, regardless of whether the source of the statement uses social media himself or herself. I'm just suggesting, if you wouldn't say it to the world, don't say it on Titan.

[ivanhedgehog]

Im just wanting to create my new spines/regen scrapper......

[Captain Electric]

If I had a spines/regen scrapper, he'd be a mutant with out-of-control sideburns, Clint Eastwood's voice, and after falling into a vat of chemicals, razor sharp claws that came out ALL OVER HIS FREAKING BODY.

[HEATSTROKE]

Fair enough, but if the idea is to bring back players to prep them for a COX2 sequel, that could be stretching the available player base out a bit.  Granted, if done right a lot of people from CO and DC could be brought over to both new games.

again.. no one worries about the player base for the gajillion fantasy games.. no one thinks about the player base for the all the zombies games and first person shooters..

only with this genre do we go.. oh no.. we cant have Two or Three games in the same genre..

even though the superhero craze is at an all time high with these movies bringing in hundreds of millions..

I dont see Fox saying.. oh no.. we cant do a Gotham TV show because Arrow and Flash is on WB..

I dont see DC folding up its tents because Marvel has had more success in movies..

Nope.. only with MMO's do we get the whole.. we can only have ONE games..

Well we tried that.. and when the ONE good one shut down we had NOTHING.. Id rather have choices..

[Power Gamer]

again.. no one worries about the player base for the gajillion fantasy games.. no one thinks about the oplyaer base for the all the zombies games and first person shooters..

only with this genre do we go.. oh no.. we cant have Two or Three games in the same genre..

even though the superhero craze is at an all time high with these movies bringing in hundreds of millions..

I dont see Fox saying.. oh no.. we cant do a Gotham TV show because Arrow and Flash is on WB..

I dont see DC folding up its tents because Marvel has had more success in movies..

Nope.. only with MMO's do we get the whole.. we can only have ONE games..

Well we tried that.. and when the ONE good one shut down we had NOTHING.. Id rather have choices..

HEATSTROKE, you so FUNNY.  8)

And correct.

[Ankhammon]

again.. no one worries about the player base for the gajillion fantasy games.. no one thinks about the oplyaer base for the all the zombies games and first person shooters..

only with this genre do we go.. oh no.. we cant have Two or Three games in the same genre..

even though the superhero craze is at an all time high with these movies bringing in hundreds of millions..

I dont see Fox saying.. oh no.. we cant do a Gotham TV show because Arrow and Flash is on WB..

I dont see DC folding up its tents because Marvel has had more success in movies..

Nope.. only with MMO's do we get the whole.. we can only have ONE games..

Well we tried that.. and when the ONE good one shut down we had NOTHING.. Id rather have choices..

Preach brother! Halley Lu Ja! :)

[Teikiatsu]

again.. no one worries about the player base for the gajillion fantasy games.. no one thinks about the oplyaer base for the all the zombies games and first person shooters..

only with this genre do we go.. oh no.. we cant have Two or Three games in the same genre..

even though the superhero craze is at an all time high with these movies bringing in hundreds of millions..

I dont see Fox saying.. oh no.. we cant do a Gotham TV show because Arrow and Flash is on WB..

I dont see DC folding up its tents because Marvel has had more success in movies..

Nope.. only with MMO's do we get the whole.. we can only have ONE games..

Well we tried that.. and when the ONE good one shut down we had NOTHING.. Id rather have choices..

Sounds great on paper.  The reality of the situation happened in 2012 and is the reason the thread has nearly reached 500 pages...

[HEATSTROKE]

Sounds great on paper.  The reality of the situation happened in 2012 and is the reason the thread has nearly reached 500 pages...

what the what ???

[Illusionss]

Electric: Talking about it on Titan is actually far more visible than talking about it on FB. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I'm just saying that, you know, sky's blue and so on.

I cannot agree with this; I think the audience reading this thread is far smaller by several orders of magnitude than the audience on FB. After all, one need not be following a given person or page on FB to be able to SEE it. No one has any real idea how many people are seeing that page on FB, its certainly more than the stated "followers" or "like"ers or whatever; not to mention I do not believe that 24,000 people are actually monitoring this thread. Several thousand, certainly. But all 24,000.... no. Don't think so.

This forum is where we discuss these issues in all of their frightening, thrilling ramifications. They are scary: this might not work. They are thrilling: we might regain our lost world. But from what I can see FB is the fount of wild theories, not this forum. Every single time I see something crazy, its always: "look what they're saying on FB!!!"

Its never: "Look what they're saying on Titan!"

I reject the idea that there are certain forbidden topics of discussion. Better they be discussed here than just about anywhere else.

[Illusionss]

again.. no one worries about the player base for the gajillion fantasy games.. no one thinks about the player base for the all the zombies games and first person shooters..

only with this genre do we go.. oh no.. we cant have Two or Three games in the same genre..

even though the superhero craze is at an all time high with these movies bringing in hundreds of millions..

I dont see Fox saying.. oh no.. we cant do a Gotham TV show because Arrow and Flash is on WB..

I dont see DC folding up its tents because Marvel has had more success in movies..

Nope.. only with MMO's do we get the whole.. we can only have ONE games..

Well we tried that.. and when the ONE good one shut down we had NOTHING.. Id rather have choices..

...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand THIS. x1000.

even though I want CoX back with the intensity of 1000 supernova-ing suns. I want it back. But I will also give some love to CoT.

..... unless CoT becomes CoX2! would that not be awesome!

[HEATSTROKE]

Add to this the reality that Nc Soft did little to nothing to advertise or promote CoH.. In todays superhero centric climate with more and more movies to come even a LITTLE bit of advertising could reap dividends.

Also the press coverage when the game comes back should be HUGE and a massive help to bolster EVERYONE.. It says loud and clear that this genre has a strong core fanbase with the potential to grow AND support other projects... not just MMO's.. And I hope CoT, VO and HaV all have success !!!!

[Sinistar]

Add to this the reality that Nc Soft did little to nothing to advertise or promote CoH.. In todays superhero centric climate with more and more movies to come even a LITTLE bit of advertising could reap dividends.

Also the press coverage when the game comes back should be HUGE and a massive help to bolster EVERYONE.. It says loud and clear that this genre has a strong core fanbase with the potential to grow AND support other projects... not just MMO's.. And I hope CoT, VO and HaV all have success !!!!

I'd suggest getting ad space in Marvel/DC comics to advertise any return of CoH but somehow I don't think they would..:)....now Darkhorse, IDW and the other third party comic companies may well welcome the ad money.

[Sinistar]

Just got done having a bit of fun with watching some of the CoH vids I made before the shutdown.

While the graphics may be a bit dated compared to current tech, I'd rather see the game return as it was in terms of graphic engine prior to shutdown then save any graphic engine changes for "COH2" or else an event that could be called "The Great Upgrade"

[Illusionss]

Add to this the reality that Nc Soft did little to nothing to advertise or promote CoH.. In todays superhero centric climate with more and more movies to come even a LITTLE bit of advertising could reap dividends.

Also the press coverage when the game comes back should be HUGE and a massive help to bolster EVERYONE.. It says loud and clear that this genre has a strong core fanbase with the potential to grow AND support other projects... not just MMO's.. And I hope CoT, VO and HaV all have success !!!!

Every time I see a CoH poster on "Big Bang Theory" it brings a tear to my eye.

The first thing, the very first thing any hypothetical new development team should do, is of course plug in their server pool. Directly after that should be a planned advertising campaign. This game is worth promoting. Start small. But at least, START. How many people still love it with virtually no advertising?! How many more would love it, WITH advertising!

[Super Firebug]

Every time I see a CoH poster on "Big Bang Theory" it brings a tear to my eye.

The first thing, the very first thing any hypothetical new development team should do, is of course plug in their server pool. Directly after that should be a planned advertising campaign. This game is worth promoting. Start small. But at least, START. How many people still love it with virtually no advertising?! How many more would love it, WITH advertising!

Definitely get BBT to mention the return. In fact, since they've actually talked about playing CoH, I'd be very ashamed of them if they DIDN'T mention that it's back.

[Captain Electric]

Its never: "Look what they're saying on Titan!"

This actually happens quite often on various Facebook groups; in fact every time Ironwolf makes a new announcement or something contentious happens, such as Massively's tip-off. Again, I'm not trying to be rude. But, how would you know, since as you mentioned above, you don't use any social media?

I cannot agree with this; I think the audience reading this thread is far smaller by several orders of magnitude than the audience on FB. After all, one need not be following a given person or page on FB to be able to SEE it. No one has any real idea how many people are seeing that page on FB, its certainly more than the stated "followers" or "like"ers or whatever; not to mention I do not believe that 24,000 people are actually monitoring this thread. Several thousand, certainly. But all 24,000.... no. Don't think so.

This forum is where we discuss these issues in all of their frightening, thrilling ramifications. They are scary: this might not work. They are thrilling: we might regain our lost world. But from what I can see FB is the fount of wild theories, not this forum. Every single time I see something crazy, its always: "look what they're saying on FB!!!"

According to the log accessible at the bottom of the front page, at any given moment, there are around 20 unregistered guests browsing the forum here; almost all of them are browsing this thread. That's not 20 users a day or an hour--it's at any given moment, even at weird hours. We've now had some media coverage based on information being disseminated and discussed in this thread. Not to mention the fact that no news is known to be disseminated at any other source. The reason you're here is the same reason so many other people are watching. If you really want the skinny on the game's possible return, it's the only place to be. This wasn't a secret before Massively's coverage and it certainly isn't now. This isn't a nice, quaint conversation we're all having. It's a conference surrounded by loudspeakers.

I reject the idea that there are certain forbidden topics of discussion. Better they be discussed here than just about anywhere else.

Keep in mind, my position isn't bullheaded. I don't have the wherewithal nor the gall to forbid topics of discussion. But you can't be convinced in any case, because your position is that tact is synonymous with censorship.

By all means, let's continue to discuss the possibility that NCSoft may no longer have the data required to return the game to functionality easily or at all. If I can't beat them, I'll join them. What are your worries about it specifically?

[Ouul]

I'd suggest getting ad space in Marvel/DC comics to advertise any return of CoH but somehow I don't think they would..:)....now Darkhorse, IDW and the other third party comic companies may well welcome the ad money.

Fun fact, back in the Pre-Cryptic sell off days, there was plenty of City of Heroes advertising in Marvel comics. A friend of mine just the other day while going through his comic collection showed me a bunch had full page spreads in them.

There WAS advertising for City of Heroes and Villains, but especially towards the end there, the budget was tiny. As in teeny tiny.

[Surelle]

I for one am thrilled and proud that members of our own player base are willing to do whatever is necessary not only to get CoH up and running again but to bring us CoH2 as well.  Even if their efforts fail in the end, the "never give up, never surrender" attitude is that of true heroes!

Look, SCoRE was reverse engineering the game anyway.  So it can be done.  We already have had a costume creator since forever now!  So this isn't "freak out ville" by any means, whether there are engine tools and code in full anymore or not.  I have no idea how far SCoRE has gotten or who is considering doing it now instead if it winds up being required in this pending NCSoft deal (if not the same people) but I'm sure it's hard.  I don't even know how many are working on it, or who this Mystery Team trying to buy the code/backup/IP/whatever is.  Is it MWM/SCoRE or strangers we don't know (seems more likely it's not strangers though).  But for their sheer tenacity and humanitarian good will we should give all teams rumored and mysterious our support.

It's been *two freaking years* and they still have not given up; efforts are still underway even with no money on their side; they're all volunteers hard at work around their real jobs and families!  So even if NCSoft was not previously planning to sell, and all they've got is a freaking backup, so what, bring on what you've got!   We can financially back this Mystery Team, reward them for their efforts, and wait it out while everything gets sorted.  If it is CoH on maintenance mode after 6 months or a year of reverse engineering, so be it.  I'm old (48):  I blink and another year goes by.

Now before I hop off my soap box, I would like to say that NCSoft has apparently learned a lesson about shutdowns already since the CoH closure, because they put Guild Wars 1 on maintenance-mode life support instead of shutting it down last year.  That says a lot.  They don't want the same $hitstorm of bad press they got two years ago when CoH's negotiations went bad.  Personally, although I feel they fully earned their $hitstorm between CoH, Tabula Rasa, Auto Assault etc. and the way they let their NC-run MMOs like Aion NA and Lineage 2 NA get completely overrun with gold farmers, botters and lag, I am willing to give them another shot to get this right.  Does that mean they should sell to the first well-meaning but incapable person who strolls through the door?  No.  But they should be doing everything humanly possible to pull together every bit of CoH they've got, and help the team trying to take it over as much as they possibly can to do things professionally and reliably-- even if that means they coach them some, give them tips, or help them get servers going and such.  NCSoft owes their player base that much.

[Teikiatsu]

Oh, I can remember trying to get my wife to play. Once I got her to make a toon and got her to sit in the tutorial and play with emotes but that's as far as I could get. Only other game she'd play was Mario Party.. She's just not a gamer  :'( I tried sooo many times. She always whining about spending more time together, but of course, only doing stuff that interests her.

My wife is a die hard gamer.  We met through PnP role-playing.  Superheroes PnP :)  She also likes third-person shooters.  She liked Blasters, Dominators and Defenders.  Go figure.

She came across CoH first.  She started after i1, I jumped on after i2.  We got a second computer and were able to play side-by-side starting with i4.  We found a good RP SG on the Virtue server.  We also enjoyed the newer challenging TF's.  She authored a pretty comprehensive guide on how to run through the Statesman TF for a Master badge.  But even though we were on the Virtue server it got harder and harder to find dependable RP'ers.  (Same with the real-world PnP, sadly :()

Bit by bit the game became less and less appealing to her.  She was also playing Mass Effect and Dragon Age on the side, which at least gave her the option to develop character stories.  In 2010 after she became pregnant it was too uncomfortable to sit in a chair for a prolonged length of time.  After our son was born we had less and less time to play :) I was able to pull her into the occasional TF and server holiday events (Independence Day and Christmas especially).  We tried out The Old Republic when it came out in 2011, that lasted for about 6 months.  She interacted with the gamer community on the forums less than in game.  Eventually she just moved on.  I kept going to the end.

We tried out Secret World for a bit, and she found playability reruns in Mass Effect 1,2,3 and Dragon Age 1,2 and story development in Sims 2 & 3.  We're looking at The Crew for another MMO that our son may like to watch, cooperative racing on and off-road.

So it's unlikely she'll come back to COX1, especially with The Division, The Crew, Dragon Age Inquisition and Sims 4 coming out late this year.  There might be a chance with COX2 if she can get into the Beta.

[Captain Electric]

Fun fact, back in the Pre-Cryptic sell off days, there was plenty of City of Heroes advertising in Marvel comics. A friend of mine just the other day while going through his comic collection showed me a bunch had full page spreads in them.

There WAS advertising for City of Heroes and Villains, but especially towards the end there, the budget was tiny. As in teeny tiny.

I didn't know about that, it was before my comic-reading days. I wonder, would an advertising budget go farther by advertising via a bunch of smaller publishers like IDW, Image and Darkhorse? I almost feel bad saying smaller because they're not really all that small. Those are big publishers with lots of eyeballs on their stuff. At the same time, Marvel and DC earned their 'big two' moniker.

Also, now that Marvel is in the MMO business (competing definitions aside), I wonder if that would affect another super hero MMO's odds of getting ad space?