Feel free to adapt and make variations of this to pass around. Use as much of it as you like.:
Dear NCSoft Board of Directors,
On August 31st, you announced the sudden shut-down of the game City of Heroes, and the closing of Paragon Studios. On October 2nd, you announced, effectively, that there were no further plans to sell the IP in any way. This is a game which has proven beneficial to children with autism and speech disorders, in large part because of the game's subject materials. Children care about superheroes. They look up to them, and see them as role models.
The parents of autistic children struggle daily to find something that will help their children in the world. We had one of those resources in City of Heroes. Those heroes who inspired my child, and may have inspired other autistic children, to start speaking and communicating again, will be gone on November 30th.
Of course, there are other games we can look to as possible therapeutic aids. The autism community speaks regularly about new suggestions and therapies which might help our children. When we search for those therapies, we have to ask ourselves a question. "Is this possible benefit worth the risk?" It's often a very hard question to answer due to expense and time. For the $15 a month cost of an MMO subscription, that answer may well be yes. For a $60 game with no subscription fee, and perhaps an occasional purchase in the store, that answer may be yes.
Our children react very poorly to sudden changes. This is one of the diagnostic criteria of autism. And so I find myself asking a very hard question of NCSoft now. You have made the decision to shut down a thriving, active game. This was an extremely sudden, unexpected decision. You have further made the decision that you will not sell or release the IP for that game at this time. And so I ask myself, and I ask the NCSoft Board of Directors and shareholders:
Why should I trust that you will not do this to another game?
I am looking at a company that has just released a new game, and plans to release other games within the next year. Some of these games look very attractive, possibly interesting to children and teenagers. But there is still a very crucial question to be answered.
How can I say to the parent of another autistic child "Yes, try NCSoft's new game. It might help."
When a company has a long history of closing games down suddenly, a practice that could be quite harmful to progress an autistic child has made while playing that game, why should I speak positively of that company? I would like to recommend some of these games, but I cannot in good conscience tell the autistic community, the large and growing autistic community, that I can trust NCSoft not to repeat what they have done with City of Heroes and Paragon Studios.
Please help me find a reason to recommend your games to the thousands of parents of autistic children. Please demonstrate that we can trust your products to remain stable and continuous, even when those products no longer meet the direction of your company. Please reconsider your decision to release City of Heroes, so that I can continue to tell the autistic community that NCSoft can be trusted to support tools that help our children learn and grow.
We are heroes, so our children can become their own heroes. This is what we do. Show us that you're willing to be heroes as well.
