9/06/2012

The Reason NOT to Save City of Heroes


As you can see from many months of entries, I haven't really written anything of substance or thought; mostly pictures, photographs and card previews. I find it easier to write (something gaming related) something of substance when you've got a game to play. I unfortunately won't be playing Guild Wars 2 anytime in the near future and thus must wait to bore my readers about the wonders of Borderlands 2 with Return to Ravnica card reveals instead.

I saw an article that C.Smith wrote at Levelcapped, and at first I was not going to bother (read or have a blog response), but then after reading it a few times, I think it deserves a closer look.


I'm normally not the one to be argumentative, but I don't agree with alot with what was written there.

Companies have no obligation to tell their customers why they are shuttering the servers to an old game. I don't believe they even need to do it with a new game. Say ArenaNet tomorrow closes all their servers to Guild Wars2, "thanks for the money, later!" I believe they can do that. There would be horrific backlash worldwide and no one would ever buy an ArenaNet product again, not to mention there would be more than one legal case put against them.

The obligation they have is to give notice that they are closing the servers. Not on why. 

Does that mean we should just give up, not question The Man and walk away? No. You have the right to question it, write those letters, and make your voice heard. 

One interesting tidbit; CoH is one of NCSoft's longest running titles besides the Lineage series. Apparently its older than the original Guild Wars and the obvious Aion. Does it not make sense to close down servers to an unpopular game so that more resources can be allocated to a newer game or to a game in development?

I wouldn't say that accepting the closure of CoH is being one step above a vegetative state, but more about being realistic, being mature and understanding how the real world works. The bottom line is: does CoH matter? And the answer is: It really doesn't. Just because you don't fight for one instance of a thing, doesn't mean you'll do that for everything. Thats why I don't fight for CoH; b/c it doesn't matter.

I'd argue that CoH IS like a can of beans sitting on a supermarket shelf. It is a product that a company produces and chooses what to do with it however they see fit. What is it other than a online game that allows different levels of interaction with other people. Is it not like an out of date cell phone, countless years old that a company doesn't want to manufacture anymore b/c they are developing even better phones, far superior in every way, with nearly every feature the old phone had?

People waste so much effort in saving things that are a lost cause and won't make a difference. Saving CoH is one of those cases. The decision has been made, and unless NCSoft is full of idiots, they did their research, they have the data, the graphs, the experts to tell them whether this is the right thing to do or not. And its the case that its not worth wasting resources on keeping. A company has many but 2 basic goals: 1) to make money, 2) to have loyal customers. It doesn't matter how loyal they are if you're not making money, b/c if you're not making money, you can't pay the people to support the game. If you can't pay people, unless they're independently wealthy, they won't stay and work for free. If you don't have workers, then you don't have much of a company, do you? (Check this article on some tidbits on their revenue stream)And what happens then? People will argue that NCSoft makes revenue elsewhere, so if CoH bleeds them, its ok. Wrong. Where do you go from it being ok that it is a drain on their company, to it not being ok. Be realistic b/c in this case: everyone loses.

I was writing earilier how CoH doesn't matter. How about what happened with the Islamic Spring in Egypt or currently happening in Syria? Things like.. your government is suppressing you rights and killing you for it. What we're talking about is a game that is being closed that we're spending so much effort on. Gaming has their merits but it isn't everything in life nor should it be given precidence over other parts of life.

If CoH was worth maintaining, then there obviously would be more people playing it and paying for it, but it obviously is not (according to the graph, with less revenues, means less players, meaning you would need to charge them 25$ to have the same amount of revenue, if thats even sustainable). How often do we hear news about CoH? Never, b/c its not a popular game anymore. People are playing GW2, The Secret World, waiting for the next WoW expansion etc.

While both developers and players put countless hours into the game and form emotional attachment to it, that doesn't mean the company loses the right to choose whether they keep it going or close it down. It is childish to think that companies don't know that anyone that has a hand in the product is passionate and attached to it. A smart company will find a new product, a better product that these passionate fans can appreciate.

So while one game dies, many more will be born. Its just the cycle of games; especially mmo games. While there are people that still play the original Call of Duty game, there are possibly 10, 20, 100, 200 times more players playing and savoring the newest iteration. CoH is a super hero mmo game, there has been other super hero mmo's developed (Champions Online & DC Universe)and many more to come in the future. By forcing it to exist, you keep the market saturated and reduce the need to have a newer, better one for today's modern mmo player. 

#SaveCoH is actually doing a disservice to mmo players, especially those that enjoy super hero themed ones. Let it die with grace so the sidekick can step up to the plate or a new super hero appear from the shadows.

46 comments:

  1. I hope the gamer community can support us by signing the petition. We're not asking them to like our game, or even play it if they pledge to support us and take three seconds out of their day to sign the petition, but we need for them to back us.

    Closing down City of Heroes isn't a business decision. It's an act of vandalism.

    We need to show the companies that run these games that turning off a world that people have spent years of their lives and hundreds - if not thousands - of dollars in should be the last resort, not the first. There are people there who have spent thousands of hours in a virtual reality, spent real life money making their characters as good as they can be. We're the people who stayed with them - we didn't go to their competitors, we didn't ditch the game because it's dated, because the population wasn't as high as it was on other games. In many cases, we carried on paing a subscription despite the fact we didn't have to, because we wanted to support the people that had given us such a wonderful world to explore and stay with the friends we made there.

    We need companies to realise that gamers aren't just a revenue stream - that those monthly subscriptions - whatever game it is - is a kid who's being picked on in school, but in a virtual world, he's a badass almost unbeatable PvP champion.Or is someone confined to their house because they're ill and it's the only contact they have with an outside world, that it's the army wife looking for a distraction while her husband is off risking his life in a desert somewhere.

    Our gaming tastes may be different, but the reasons we're in virtual words aren't.

    We need to show that we're not just pixels, that we're a real life community - CoX has a population the size Spain, and we're just going to be wiped off the map. Just because we show up as pixels on a screen, it doesn't make us any less REAL.

    We want to show companies that closing a game doesn't HAVE to tear gaming communities in part, that they should work with their players, perhaps give them ownership of the bases and the groups and the characters and the stuff they've poured time, effort, money and tears into. Offer us up for sale, give us the chance to raise the money and run the game ourselves, let us have private servers so we can stay together.

    I'm not sure where you work, but would your company turn away an almost $10 million yearly profit? If you're so well placed that you wouldn't notice losing that amount of money, what harm is there in offering us up for sale, or giving us a chance to buy it and walk away with a wedge of money in their back pocket and a delirious player-base?

    Please remember, this isn't JUST about City of Heroes. One day your game will face this, too. We want to be a model that threatened gaming communities can hold up and say 'look, you don't have to wipe us off the face of the earth. How about doing /this/ instead?"

    If you don't like the game, if you never even played it, surely you can support the wider principal of 'don't take our money for years and then close down a profitable, virtual world with a rabid fan base'

    Please sign our petition. One day you'll need us to back you, as much as we need you to back us know.

    http://www.change.org/petitions/ncsoft-keep-ncsoft-from-shutting-down-city-of-heroes#://

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    1. My spelling and typing errors in that response are really irritating me now. I do apologise for them.

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  2. How does forcing us into super-hero themed games that are dramatically inferior in almost every way do mmo players who want super-hero games a service?

    I think DCUO seems to be just fastclick play, with little challenge for what I've seen (is there endgame?), though the cutscenes are amazing. Champions, I tried it, it was horrible, bad art (classic comic style though), lousy character creation, ran into douchebags at level 3...I think I hit level 45 before I ran into that on CoH.

    Yes, I do understand the numbers behind it, but when they're announcing new content, content plans years in advance...and then BOOM? Shouldn't there have dialed back the secret project first? Tried advertising the game more?

    The only place the game that I remember the game being advertised was on CoH themed sites, no discs in comic shops, etc. It was mostly advertised to the people who already played...which was silly.

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  3. "Companies have no obligation to tell their customers why they are shuttering the servers to an old game. I don't believe they even need to do it with a new game. Say ArenaNet tomorrow closes all their servers to Guild Wars2, "thanks for the money, later!" I believe they can do that. There would be horrific backlash worldwide and no one would ever buy an ArenaNet product again, not to mention there would be more than one legal case put against them.

    The obligation they have is to give notice that they are closing the servers. Not on why."

    Well said. But I think you miss the point of the effort to save City of Heroes..... We not questioning them for shutting down the servers, We are against them shutting down the servers and telling them we do not want them to do so, Whatever the reason might be.

    "#SaveCoH is actually doing a disservice to mmo players, especially those that enjoy super hero themed ones. Let it die with grace so the sidekick can step up to the plate or a new super hero appear from the shadows."
    A disservice to MMO players by trying to save C.o.H?? Accept the sidekick?? I' assuming you mean by sidekick, Champions Online or DC Universe online??
    Let me put this in simple easy terms, What your asking us to do would be kinda like this:
    Outback steak house serves great Steak. Well Outback has decided Steak isnt the direction they want to go anymore, and removes it off the menu. But your tell us to accept it and go to the place right next door that serves a SPAM steak, cause its just as good and the next best thing?
    I'd just become a vegetarian thanks.

    and now Im going to steal part of the above posters thread because its said so well;

    Please remember, this isn't JUST about City of Heroes. One day your game will face this, too. We want to be a model that threatened gaming communities can hold up and say 'look, you don't have to wipe us off the face of the earth. How about doing /this/ instead?"

    If you don't like the game, if you never even played it, surely you can support the wider principal of 'don't take our money for years and then close down a profitable, virtual world with a rabid fan base'

    Please sign our petition. One day you'll need us to back you, as much as we need you to back us know.

    http://www.change.org/petitions/ncsoft-keep-ncsoft-from-shutting-down-city-of-heroes#://



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    1. Nothing lasts forever. It's bound to happen to all games, especially online games, and COX was no exception.
      I mean, you want people to back you but think about all those other games that players of COH sat back and watch die and did nothing. Yet, wheit's their turn now they want everyone to come to their aid?
      They think they are superior to every player out their especially compared to other super hero MMOs, many are conceited as hell, and that kid that gets picked on at school and becomes PvP champion, what does he do? Do he go online and set an example, no, like most of the pvper on that game, he becomes a foul mouth bragging tea bagging SOB and end up bullying people online.
      You may have plenty of people come to your aid, and hope you have good success but I'm not sure what exactly I would be saving. If you all make it through, hopefull it will bring that community a little back down to earth instead of up turning your nose at everyone and everything, that is until you are staring permanent game death in the face and all of a sudden we one big family? I dont work like that. But good luck on your efforts. 8 years is more than a long enough life time for a game when most dont mae it past 2 or 3 if that. How many times did you go to those games?

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  4. City of Heroes is more than just a game. And our community more than just a regular MMO community. We are a family. We've been witness to weddings and births, mourned our dead and supported our troops.

    Do all games come to an end? Sure. But now is not City of Heroes' time. Just last week we were learning about a new costume set that was going to be released. Issue 24 is trapped in beta hell. More content has been developed. Old, dead games don't get new content. But City of Heroes got something new every week. It may have been something small but we always got something.

    Our City of Heroes family is stuck in a nightmare and the #SaveCoH campaign is trying to wake us up. Only NCSoft can save our family. NCSoft can be the heroes of this story. But we need the #SaveCoH campaign and support from people like you to be our beacon in the sky. NCSoft will only come when that beacon is bright enough to be seen in Korea. And Rhode Island is a long way from Korea.

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  5. http://whyigame.wordpress.com/2012/09/07/coh-to-save-or-not-to-save/

    The linked blog sums some parts of what I feel about CoH and your opinion. It's fine that you don't see the #SaveCoH as something relevant just as I don't see, say, GW2 as a game relevant to my interest (After Ragnarok Online 1, PW, SEAL Online and Lineage 2, I think I've seen too many Fantasy MMOs to my liking...), but please make it clear that the effort and rally don't matter TO YOU; they matter TO ME and they matter to those who is a part of this rescue effort.

    Thank you for expressing your opinion though. Can we agree to disagree? :3

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  6. A brief, but I think quite relevant piece of information. According to NCSoft's latest financial report, City of Heroes was making them money. If it had been costing NCSoft, I would imagine far less of an outcry.
    The news surprised people because profitable games don't usually close.

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  7. According to something I read online, whereby the numbers and data for COH were published, COH was making paragon/NCSOFT 10million dollars a year. I don't care whether you're making 100 million or even a billion dollars. 10 million is nothing to be sniffed at.
    It may be all well and good letting the old girl die with dignity - but think of an entire design studio being closed in less than 3 months. There were.. what, 50 people working for Paragon?
    Give a thought to the designers, devs, and working community behind this. Sure the game doesn't actually MEAN anything, its neither use nor ornament. But if we're basing the worth of something on what it does for us, then art is useless and worthless. to be classed as art, it must be beautiful but have NO OTHER PURPOSE. So. Art can go the same was as COH.

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  8. I would say that money aside, the reason to get rid of CoX as opposed to one of their other games which aren’t selling so well is the fact the CoX doesn't fit into their little niche. The other NC titles all have the same theme in common. Gear swapping fantasy MMO. In my personal opinion it makes better business sense to choose one of the other titles which aren’t making profits and save CoX. Why? CoX is different. Not everyone likes a gear swapping fantasy game.

    With a little advertising the game could have been a lot more profitable especially if they advertised the major updates they do every 3-5 months or so. The game was far from dated as you described because they update it with new content regularly. I can't think of another game which updates with the same frequency of major change and listens to its community on what to do next.

    This also is by far the nicest community I have ever had the pleasure to game with. I play a lot of games. A lot. This is the only one to ever hold my interest for longer than 6 months or so. The constant updates and the ability to completely customize my characters design and powers makes it a completely unique experience every time you play.

    There is no comparison to DCU the online console game and Champions. You may see dated but I see years of fine tuning. The short? There will never be another game that compares to CoX.

    I appreciate you opposing view on the matter and I hope regardless of how you feel you will help us at least try to save our dear old friend. The next game on the chopping block might be yours and it’s always nice to have a community to help.

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  9. It is fairly clear from your commentary that you neither liked nor played City of Heroes, nor it appears did you bother finding out even the basic facts of the situation. For instance, as noted by many above, City of Heroes WAS in fact profitable, and had been so for many years.

    Similarly, CoH has received regular updates (23+ major updates in 8 years), and was by no means showing its age. It is, in fact, one of the most innovative MMOs running, with features that many other games would do well to copy. You're entitled to your opinion, but I do think you should make sure it is an informed opinion.

    Thanks for summarizing concisely the case against saving City of Heroes, but after due consideration I believe I shall continue to fight for some way to continue. A lot of other people have made the same decision. (shrug) We are heroes. This is what we do.

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    1. Fully agree with you, Bladesnow. May I add that City of Heroes is not just a "game", it's a developed community. I shall continue the fight as well. @Madd Mamma

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    2. When people debate this issue they forget that it's really about community. The game can have the most up to date graphics and the best (name something you like here) but if the community isn’t helpful it doesn't really fit the real profile of an MMO. Massively Multiplayer Online games were created to bring a sense of community to games. Without that community it might as well be on console. Heroes was the only game I’ve ever played where a level 1 and a 30 can team, both receive xp, and no one complain that "the newb is annoying he can’t do anything" or the "low level isn’t helping dump him". The game was fashioned in a way to eliminate these problems. In closing, our community sticks together. We are Heroes. @Moonfyire

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  10. Hi,
    Ok let me start by saying I support saving CoH, not because I'm whining, or feel entitled, but because frankly, the game company has the right, and I don't think that is right.

    This is a community, a place that has birthed art, literature, music, and talents all it's own. A place that has supported those in dire need, helped those who were sick, and aided those in need.

    CoH community has raised $30,000 for charity in the last three years. We have players who have meet and begun families thanks to this game. We have families who play together, sometimes entire families! I personally use this game to keep in contact with friends and family around the world, and did so when I was at Camp Victory, in Iraq. (Yes we can get Internet there, and no "playing" was nearly impossible, but I could chat).

    You say things in this blog like we are standing in the way of the next big thing, but we aren't. The next big thing was killed along with Paragon Studios. As has been proven by they're lack of success in the face of competition from Paragon, Champions Online, nor DCUO know how to do Superhero MMOs right.

    We have remained profitable, and gained 2% in our last quarter, according to NC Soft's own internal reports, yet the games that lost money are staying (Aion I'm looking at you), and the one that we love, our work of art is dying?

    That is what is wrong here. That is why I protest NC Soft's decision, and why I say no... this is worth fighting for. We are Heroes, and Heroes save the City... That's what we do, and we CAN and WILL do it again. We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.

    Thanks,
    Mark Taylor/@Liberties
    Sign the Petition: http://tinyurl.com/9s9q9jl
    Keep up to date on our Calls to Action: http://tinyurl.com/TitanNetwork

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  11. Wow, you didn't have many facts straight,
    and you failed to mention that the doesn't matter -to you-.

    This might actually be one of the worst blogs about games I've ever seen,
    since it's about as well-thought of as something "Ã…ke Ohlmarks" might have done back in the eighties about Tolkien and Lord of the Rings.

    By the way, this is the respectful version of what I think, and the value I put on your blog.

    Just reading the comments clearly states one thing:

    You're doing it wrong.

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    1. I was actually quite impressed by the quality and civility of the discussion here, until I got to this comment. Look, we all certainly don't have to agree with his opinion, but speaking for myself at least, it makes me sad when I see comments like this resorting to personal attacks. I for one think his points were well laid out and well thought out, though I am fully in favor of trying to save CoH. It's clear people love the game, have made it a home for themselves, so it's important for them to do what they can.

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    2. Well laid out and well thought out? I have to disagree there...

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  12. "One interesting tidbit; CoH is one of NCSoft's longest running titles besides the Lineage series. Apparently its older than the original Guild Wars and the obvious Aion. Does it not make sense to close down servers to an unpopular game so that more resources can be allocated to a newer game or to a game in development?"

    This is like saying " OK..the Mona Lisa is an old painting. Lets take it down and burn it" or "Let's tear down the Leaning Tower of Pisa because It isn't standing up straight and put up a Starbucks". Something being "Older" does not mean it has lost its value or worth in every case. Would you take your grandparents out behind the shed and give them the Old Yeller treatment? Would you burn every game you own just because it is a year old? Would you burn old books and lose the knowledge and ideas they store? Sure COH may not be your cup of tea but THOUSANDS of people seem to think otherwise. Would you like it ,if someday, this blog gets shut off because the hosting company decided they were "refocusing"? Your hard work and laboring **POOF** gone for no reason. You don't have to like something to see the other side of it. Thank you for your thoughts and ideas but I respectfully have to disagree with them.

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    1. And even if this blog-hosting company did shut down, the articles contained within it, being primarily solely text, could be easily backed-up and/or transferred to another hosting site, and there re-posted for the continued enjoyment of readers and authors alike.

      Sadly, CoH players do not have that option. We can't port our characters to another game or re-host them on a new game server and continue to use them. We can't transfer out the time and money we've spent. We can't even save our own characters onto a personal, localized mini-world on our own computers where we could just be able to look at them. The best we can do is screencaps and an XML extraction program, in hopes that someday, we can bring them back to virtual life again.

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  13. You say fighting for City doesn't matter, then why fighting against it ? If it's so much unworthy, why are there *multinational companies* thriving on its business ? Sure it's not humanitarian business "#SaveCOH" is doing, but if it's so unimportant, if we are going to close anyway, why are you writing this post ? You're juste trying to get attention do you ? Because if it was truly important to YOU, you would be out there working for the little Syrians and Egyptians out there instead of HAVING A FREAKING "TRIVIAL" GAME BLOG.

    I can see points being made by your post, but at least we are not HYPOCRITS !

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  14. Wow...how uniformed. Saying it's not important or that because it's old it's irrelevant and it's fine to shut down for new games (that'll probably be terrible) is basically ignorant.

    The truth of the matter is that a large player base disagrees with their decision. It's not a small player base. I don't know if the author knows this or not...but CoX is one of the -few- MMOs around in the mainstream that is actually -in the black-. They have been making even more money since they went F2P. So much so that they added additional people to the team to handle the new art and such that was required for new power sets that were being made.

    If this was a game with only a few followers...if the servers were dead and you couldn't find anyone else around...if the game wasn't profitable...I'd wholeheartedly agree. As it stands none of those things are true. Just because a game is old doesn't mean it's irrelevant (hells WoW is old and while it's not as popular as before it still is very, VERY relevant to the genre...it makes all other games look like complete failures with the amount of players they have).

    In summery...I disagree. A lot of other people do as well. Luckily there are more of them than there are naysayers like the author.

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    1. "It's not a small player base. I don't know if the author knows this or not...but CoX is one of the -few- MMOs around in the mainstream that is actually -in the black-."

      Thank you for pointing this out. Even the MMO that many gamers treat as the Holy Grail of gaming -- WoW -- has been losing money due to their subscriptions being down. CoH dealt with the downturn by going F2P and it worked. The sad truth (for the WoW true believers and beta buzzards, anyway) is that CoH is actually more profitable than WoW right now. That's all the proof you need that it's not about profits.

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  15. You are certainly welcome to your opinion, and in any other MMO I've played, I'd agree with you. It's just a game. But City of Heroes is different. It's not so much the pixels that make it so, it's the heart of the community behind those pixels. A heart that will dissolve in time with the shutdown of City of Heroes.

    This community is something unlike anything I've seen in any other MMO. The relationship between the players and devs is unbelievable. The relationship between the players themselves is outstanding.

    Will life go on when CoH goes dark?

    Of course it will.

    But CoH and its community have made an honest and true difference in the lives of enough people that it deserves our attempts to save. Take those who are disabled, who can't get out in the physical world easily if at all. City of Heroes gives them a feeling of power that is unmatched in any other game.

    I know, because I'm one of those people.

    Take the example of the parents and children who are playing together, and their kids are learning teamwork, cooperation, how to relate to people, all in a community in which the vast majority of players are supportive. Are there other options? Sure. Are they as good as CoH? No.

    Tell the number of people who have met their spouses on City of Heroes that it's "just a game". Those who had not only a wedding in the physical world, but a second one in the game in order to share their joy with their friends and family -- and had devs show up!

    Will keeping City of Heroes alive make a difference in the world? I don't know -- the community's raised money for charities like Make A Wish. And unlike in WoW, these fundraisers were done not by a quick "hey buy this little in-game widgit and we'll give 1% to charity X" but by the players and devs coming together in an active dialog to take donations for those charities.

    To us, it's more than just a game. It's a family.

    And we'll fight for it.

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    1. Thank you for your eloquent, and true to my heart, statements about CoH. My wife and I have shared our time together for many hours since 2006 playing CoH side-by-side. We laughed, we shouted, we cheered - we shared. Sounds trite, but my wife and I have gleaned way more than just entertainment from CoH.

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  16. The reason, the only reason, that City of Heroes is closing, and that a design team who have won awards for innovation and maintained their MMO in the top ten for 8 years ... is that the CEO of NCsoft is no Mark Zuckerberg ( http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-stock-letter-shareholders ).

    You say this will clear the way for a successor. A successor has had 8 years to come forward, with far larger marketing budgets (e.g. DCUO) and yet nothing has even come close. Champions Online was supposed to be the successor to City of Heroes, from the same lead designer, and based on years of feedback and experience of Cryptic running City of Heroes, and taking suggestions and feedback from the community. It barely made a ripple. City of Heroes, 8 years on, is still the undisputed leading superhero MMO, and still in the top ten list of all MMOs.

    The reason is that City of Heroes was the innovator in the industry. One of very, very few MMOs *not* blindly following WoW's model in the hopes of emulating WoW's commercial success. Game after game is coming out that copies things done first in City of Heroes. City of Heroes inspired better game creation across the industry by being an example.

    Closed down, it is an example instead that the shareholders care nothing for innovation, great game experience, or a game that can inspire huge passion after 8 years of success. Its an example that you either make big profits, or the shareholders would rather make games for facebook and other apps.

    CoH is not making a loss, it makes a profit. Until this decision it was keeping 80 great developers employed and creatively working. Still innovating, and still showing an example of what a game built with passion, not just dollar-signs, could be.

    Your sole argument therefore just doesn't actually seem to make sense. This is not an outdated game but one in active development that has served the entire industry as an inspiration. What does its closure say to future game developers?

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  17. Some facts as the blog seems absent of them:

    1. COH was profitable: NCSoft was making money, not losing it, on this game to the tune of $10,000,000/yr. During a time when even the big names like WOW are contracting or posting a loss to shutter a game that is growing and posting a profit seems odd.

    2. Old does not equal bad. Michaelangelo's statues are old. My grandmother's china is old. I'm old. Walmart sells new stuff. That doesn't make the old bad or the Walmart stuff any good.

    3. Assuming COH players will just go play the newest games is wrong. You have admitted you don't know the game. It sounds as if you don't know the community either. For many players (see forums and in game chat) this MMO is it. They're going back to computer or console or no games at all.

    4. A money bump: NCSoft's posted losses came from Aion's poor in game store sales and the advertising for GW2. I've read their Q2 report, industry info, and nasdaq finanacials. You should too. In shutting down development and maintenance of this game, keeping the servers open 90 days to hold onto 90 days of subs, and not (yet) issuing refunds for beyond 3 months the company gets a temporary boost to Q3 so it can wait for GW2 sales.

    5. The migration effect: In closing any game it can be assumed that at least some of the players will buy your next game, in the case of the newest shiny in the store it can be assumed more. That assumption could be wrong. As seen by the online petition, boycott efforts, and in game chat this community is informed and angry. Just going by the petition alone it's safe to assume that at least 15% of the players won't. Now add to that those who will actively petition their friends, families, and social circles not to buy it either and you're talking real money.

    6. Sell the IP: NCSoft could make money doing this instead of having an old game just sitting on the shelf. Herein you also see that they just don't get it.

    In the scope of things does it really matter about the Arab Spring, upcoming elections, downgrade of EU bond ratings, or who wins Dancing with the Stars? The sun will eventually explode.

    Fallacies and hyperbole tend to bite one in the arse.

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  18. I don't recall when this happened exactly, but I think it was around Issue 4 maybe. I was running a character into City Hall in Atlas Park for something (I forget what exactly for now as well). When I stepped through the door, there was a large group of heroes holding torches standing together in a big circle. I wasn't sure what was happening, so I decided to hang out for a moment. Heroes kept coming inside, finding spots, and lighting up torches. I finally sent a private message to a nearby hero asking what was going on. He told me that a member of their Supergroup was killed in an accident in real life a couple of nights earlier. As most of the Supergroup had only known him from his character, this was their way of paying their respects in-game.

    I had walked into an honest to goodness memorial service.

    I was rather overwhelmed. I had never seen anything like this. And the heroes kept coming in. City Hall was eventually packed in with Heroes. Not everyone knew the person, nor did everyone have any affiliation with the Supergroup, but they were there anyway to pay their respects. Genuinely moved, I found Aunt Bee a perch around the circle and hit my torch emote. I must have been there for almost an hour. The SG leader finally thanked everyone for coming, and passed on thanks from the wife of the player who had died, as she had apparently seen a screenshot of the memorial.

    I never looked at this game the same way after that. I've made quite a few friends in this game. We keep in touch with one another outside of the game, and occasionally get to meet in real life. These are genuine friends--family. The people in this game aren't just avatars leveling up, trying to earn that cape or next accolade. They're much more than wire meshes and textures running around a virtual city. There a real people behind the characters. It's a real community. It's our community, and that's what we're trying to save.

    @Aunt Bee

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  19. Unpopular game? define unpopular ... And considering we're number 1 in the superhero MMO area i find it hard to see it being unpopular

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  20. You trolling at all?

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  21. My first instinct was to be upset at this blog entry and call this guy who wrote it an idiot..... However that would serve no purpose and i'm not going to insult him for voicing his opinion..... Besides which... no one should belittle anyone for simply stating how they feel on this matter even if the content is upsetting....
    What i will say is that the author of this blog entry comes off as severely misinformed and appears to contradict himself a couple of times.....
    Case in point.....

    Contradiction:
    "Say ArenaNet tomorrow closes all their servers to Guild Wars2, "thanks for the money, later!" I believe they can do that. There would be horrific backlash worldwide and no one would ever buy an ArenaNet product again,
    Does that mean we should just give up, not question The Man and walk away? No. You have the right to question it, write those letters, and make your voice heard.
    I wouldn't say that accepting the closure of CoH is being one step above a vegetative state, but more about being realistic, being mature and understanding how the real world works. The bottom line is: does CoH matter? And the answer is: It really doesn't."

    Sir.... do you realize what you've just said here.....? If CoH doesn't matter, why then would you encourage us to "question it, write those letters, and make your voice heard"? Why would you propagate people into fighting a battle that you view as a lost cause? That's cruel sir.... really really cruel......

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  22. (continued)
    Misinformation:
    "The decision has been made, and unless NCSoft is full of idiots, they did their research, they have the data, the graphs, the experts to tell them whether this is the right thing to do or not.
    If CoH was worth maintaining, then there obviously would be more people playing it and paying for it, but it obviously is not (according to the graph, with less revenues, means less players, meaning you would need to charge them 25$ to have the same amount of revenue, if thats even sustainable).
    CoH is a super hero mmo game, there has been other super hero mmo's developed (Champions Online & DC Universe)and many more to come in the future. By forcing it to exist, you keep the market saturated and reduce the need to have a newer, better one for today's modern mmo player."

    Sir... i don't know if you know this... but NCSoft is in fact full of idiots.... evidence to this can be found in this excerpt found on Kotaku.com

    {NCSoft
    Company Overview
    Average Rating: 2.5 ("Dissatisfied")
    25% approve of CEO Kim Tack-Jin

    "Terrible environment, unorganized, lack of leadership and absolutely no support," written by a former employee on March 9, 2011.

    "I could not wish this company to my enemy."
    Cons – There is not enough words to explain how terrible this place is. There were people who would last one day, on average employees would leave every 3 months, just enough time to realize how messed-up the company was. No leadership, complete chaos caused by the HQ and the lack of professionalism in the Seattle office. I could not wish this company to my enemy. The joke at the end of every week was how many emails we would get from HR informing us that people were leaving (though usually, [NCSoft executives request] HR send an email 3-4 weeks after the employees had left). The exec. team tries to hide everything. Employees are treated like idiots. No support, no recognition, no raise.}

    Also to your other point.... many people play CoH.... the game raked in more than 10million net units per year...... and since going F2P numbers have gone up instead of down.... granted those were only small increases.... but that could have been fixed with actual advertising....
    NCSoft isn't canceling CoH because it didn't make money (because it did)... the reason for this decision is because NCSoft decided to take there company in another direction that did not involve Superhero MMOs..... they'd rather focus on Fantasy and Lore games like Guild Wars Lineage and Aion, which (by the way) are over saturating the market with games like WoW, Shaiya, Everquest, Dark Age of Camelot, War of Angels, Allods, Ultima Online, Ragnarok Online, Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Eden Eternal, League of Legends, Tera, Forsaken World, Dark Blood, Drakensang, Vanguard, Runes of Magic, Maestia, Trojan War, Never Winter... i trust you get where i'm going with this......
    [2:26:37 PM] RockDeadman: Now here is the part where i'd like to challenge you sir... you say that there are other Superhero MMORPG's out there... and you have seemingly compared CoH to them..... well sir i'd like you to tell me exactly what makes these games so similar other than the fact that they involve superheros.... i'd like you to list things like gameplay mechanics, in game content, character customization and so on... please stray away from subjects like graphics because it would be a moot point...... Also i would like you to name me a few Superhero themed MMOs OTHER than Champions Online and DCU Online......

    The thing here sir is this.... you have every right to feel the way you feel about the subject of City of Heroes and NCSoft... however you have no right to tell those of us who are trying to save this game that we are wasting our time and that it is a lost cause.....

    ~respectfully,
    Mike Dynamo (Loyal City of Heroes Gamer)
    Moon Fyire

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  23. Chris Adams posted about a wonderful in-game memorial for a player who had died IRL. Compare that to a more popular game: World of Warcraft. When a group of WoW players a while back attempted to hold an in-game memorial for a fellow player who had died ... a large group of other players showed up at the memorial and started killing everybody. That pretty clearly shows the difference in CoH's community.

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  24. A lot of people are telling us to let CoX die with dignity, but that's the thing - NCSoft isn't letting CoX die with dignity. This is a game that was still making quite a lot of money - If you look at the quarterly reports, yes, it wasn't doing as well as some of the other games. You know, the ones that were just released amidst much fanfare? But CoX has always been a robust game with a robust fanbase and a lot to offer its players.

    Certainly, we would have been content to let CoX fade off into the sunset with some server merges, a gradual tapering off of new content, wrapping up the story arcs that had been set into motion. But no, instead of seeing the signs of our aging friend beginning to pass away, NCSoft waltzed into its living room and shot it in the face. We fight for it because it wasn't its time.

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  25. There are so many inconsistencies, that I'm not even sure quite where to begin. And, I believe everyone before me has already said it better than I could've. But, here goes...

    1. Comparing CoH as an old phone, when there are newer better ones ...

    Show me any superhero MMO with the level of character customization, player created arcs, and decision based consequences, and changeable alignment? And let's not exclude bases with storage, global chat channels, and varying levels of (optional) character enhancement.

    2. It doesn't matter..

    Say that to the players who have forged lifelong friendships, met and married, mourned their dead, supported troops that were afar, and got -so- inspired by this "(just a) game" that they themselves became real world heroes saving lives, stopping crimes, and giving back to charitable causes.

    It does matter. It's not 'just a game.' People have gone through life events that have shattered emotions. But being able to lean on friends got them through. Who cares that you met your best friend in an online game. Does it really matter? CoH brought people together in a way no other MMO has or will ever have.

    3. NCSoft had a right to do what they did..

    They had an obligation to do it better... Axing the staff on a Friday before a holiday, with no prep time or lead time is callous .. at best.


    I can respect that you, as a person, care nothing for CoH. But to utilize public venue to tout erroneous information, make erroneous comparisons within genre, and, worst yet, down the efforts of those loyal and dedicated enough to stand up for what they believe in, shows (to me) a quality of character that's left wanting..
    When was the last time you stood up for something you believed wholeheartedly in?

    As much as part of me would want to go as far as to say "If you have nothing nice to say ..." I won't. But I will say this ... Expressing a contradictory opinion is one thing. Doing so with glaringly erroneous information is a "disservice."

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  26. This blog is a fail. Long live City of Heroes and the players who fight to keep it alive!!

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  27. City of Heroes means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, and while this blogger is more than entitled to his own opinion, I sincerely hope that CoH can - and WILL- be saved!

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  28. You know reading all these replies to your article, has brought tears to my eyes. For 8 years, I have played alongside some pretty outstanding people - some I've never met in real life but I would give them the shirt off my back if they needed it. That is how strong this community is. I've witnessed a wedding, I've made lifelong friends, I've dated one guy (granted in hindsight online dating is bad....very bad), and I've had so much fun. Why would I want to see it end? I don't. There is no other game out there for me, I am not a serial gamer. I play THIS ONE and if they shut the servers off on 11/30, I will be very sad.

    As for you, I feel very sorry that you have such a jaded view on an awesome game. Perhaps if you gave it a chance, you would see things differently. Feel free to look me up on the Liberty server - I'd be happy to take you on a tour. @Monkeybutt, @Monkeybutt-, @Monkers and @Monkey But. Liberty has the nicest people and I'd be happy to show you why.

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  29. No need for me to type out anything I want to say. Everyone else already has.

    #SaveCOH

    We're Heroes. This is what we do.

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  30. Dude, you have a right to your opinion that "The bottom line is... COH doesn't really matter...". Clearly it doesn't matter to you.

    But you made no case for this statement: "SaveCoH is actually doing a disservice to mmo players". How dare you suggest that my fighting for what I love is doing a disservice to you. I have a right to my voice, and it's not doing you any disservice.

    COH does matter to me and the way that NCSoft did this is very morally inappropriate. If they offered to sell the game, I would have no problem with their action. Shutting it down to attempt to funnel players into another game, and firing the 80 developers who work for the game is like outsourcing for corporate profits. Sure, it's legal, but I have a right to protest a bad business practice.

    Your essay here does the MMO community a disservice by trying to stifle our voices. I am outraged that you think our raising our voices does a disservice to you - It doesn't, so stop trying to shut us up.

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  31. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  32. They may have the right to do what ever they please, lawfully, but what about respectfully?
    This is upsetting many players, including myself.. some have tried, didnt like and moved on.. but for the millions of loyal players over the globe,. each month they renewed their sub to continue playing, aka keeping ncsoft in the game. yes they may have quite a few titles but i think (since the 31st) this is probably one of their biggest profiting titles. (yes i've heard both sides, they're skint... they made enough profit etc etc)

    Ncsoft making the decision to close the game lawfully.. This will lose MANY customers, who knows. I bet at least 500,000+ will purposely not buy any future titles from ncsoft, after all, isn't this ncsoft letting millions of players down? More to the point, how well did they treat the COH dev teams? turn up to work "sorry lads, CoH is finished, go home?"

    I think a lot has been revealed about ncsoft making this sudden decision. (maybe you should read the article written by one of the CoH devs.. after this event took place.)

    Now IF ncsoft went down the respectful and appreciating road to their customers.. dont you think they would get vote on certain options available? Selling off the game to a different company so ncsoft will be seen as saving CoH rather than 'ruining' some peoples lives (as some put it) Maybe, changing a few things around within ncsoft (regarding CoH)to see where they can make they money to keep the game alive..which from what i've read doesnt seem to be the case.

    I personally believe ncsoft had more than one option here, however acted selfishly, they chose to close CoH so they will have more profitable titles in the future? Afterall, CoH has been successful world wide!

    Gaming started out by creating a virtual world, zone, area etc to entertain/please customers, customer care was spot on... over time people have sided with greed and believe they must have everything.. what happened to making people happy through loyalty and care??!

    One possible option to why ncsoft suddenly decided to piss of millions, could be to do with CoH latest powerset being released... GW2 has a nature set just like the new released CoH update... Maybe CoH were told not to release it (as it could be seen as 'copying' guild wars 2?

    who knows? but at least that would explain quite a lot to the loyal fans which ncsoft has kindly stuck their middle finger up to!

    I will continue to fight and hope that CoH isnt shut down, but this is a VERY RISKY move by ncsoft.. if they choose to go through with it.. i'm certain they will find their future a bit challenging.

    JDH

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  33. First of all, thank you for posting your opinion even though I completely disagree with you. I'm not going to sit here and contradict everything in your article that I disagree with, though I would like to make a few points.

    I have to say that CoH is worth saving...to me. It's not just a game, it's a community. For eight years we've been allowed to make friends, form strong bonds, create art, raise money for charity, and much much more. Now it is abruptly coming to an end and I happen to think that it is wrong.

    Throughout the years that I've played this game, I've met some truly wonderful people.

    Five years ago, when my grandmother died, my friends and SG mates went through the grief with me. They cried with me, made me laugh when I needed to the most, and took my mind off of things I'd rather not have thought about.

    Four years ago, when I got divorced, my CoH friends and SG mates made sure that I knew that it would be ok and they would be there for me.

    Two years ago, when my uncle died, my CoH friends and SG mates once more went through the grieving period with me. Some of them even helped me to plan my uncle's memorial service.

    And when I recently thought I would lose my grandfather to heart problems, they helped me stay calm and even managed to cheer me up.

    They put up with my constant AFKing so that I can go check on my grandpa. I have come to realize that never in my life have I been met with more support, friendship, loyalty, and yes, even love, thank I've encountered from the people who I've met solely because of CoH.

    I'm not ready to see this community go. Yeah I can keep in touch with my friends outside of the game through Facebook, phone calls, and/or other means but it's just not the same. If CoH goes, I can no longer play Superhero in such a well designed world with some of my best friends who've seen me through most of what life can throw at someone.

    We’ve been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It’s time to do it one more time.
    We are heroes. This is what we do.

    @Shahara Wade

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    1. Well...I knew I wouldn't make it through that without a typo. The line should read ...and yes, even love, than* I've encountered...

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  34. You got this about as wrong as you can, CoH was not bleeding NCSoft dry, it appears to have been still making money. It seems NCSoft just want to refocus on what they do best which is to make games for the Korean market. I have little doubt that had GW2 not been so far through its development cycle, it would have gone too like the other project(s) Paragon studios were working on.

    The community in CoH is rather different to most MMOs in makeup and attitude, and as the game was not a basket case, they are trying to save it as in the view of most of the community, there is no viable alternative game to go to.

    @minotaur

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  35. If you read your comments below (which you probably do) you've noted the things that people say and you probably even believe it's repetitive. I want you to understand just a bit more because I won't say what everyone else is going on about.

    We are not so ignorant. We do know what the graphs and the reports say and we understand that if we save CoH that there's a chance that the amount going into it will be far less than before. We also understand an emotional connection, be it people meeting their spouses or celebrating a birth or mourning a loved one who had died.

    There is something special about City of Heroes.
    There is something special about City of Villains.

    There is something there. We KNOW the pros and the cons. This isn't a mindless upheaval of bantering. We also don't care to have the issue addressed in a way when you yourself don't know what's going on behind the scenes. We are doing everything on our part to save something that means something to us and we are even telling people about what we are doing. In regards to NCSoft? Who the heck is to know? We want answers. If they had given a solid explanation when the announcement came, the blow would not have been so bad. Sure we'd still be upset and probably would have tried to help them come up with a way to keep things going, and even if there is no solution we'd have taken it much better. Simple as that.

    The game did not have as much advertising as most others. I got into the game by word of mouth. I didn't see anything on TV, no posters, nothing online... nothing. If things had been done right we would not be here sneering at one another. I saw SOME advertising for DCUO and CO but nothing for CoH.

    Next time you decide to bash and say that it doesn't matter... I implore you to do some research next time because obviously it matters to many.

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