Something that the various movements may want to avoid

[Osborn]

To be fair, thanking somebody for the publicity when it is something you need is not being disingenuous. You're not claiming to be an old friend, you're saying, "Thank you so much for your help, now, when I need it. It really is appreciated."

The problem comes in if you're acting entitled about it, not if you're being grateful.

Not to mention it's impossible to know a publication is going to be 'your friend' until they do something to help you, unless you're psychic. That's why thank-yous (and actual thank yous, not like "Oh, finally? Thanks, jerk!") can he helpful. But we should word them as such and not just as stealth requests for more help.

That said, this is a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' situation. Had we not pestered some publications for air time, we would had been invisible and dismissed in a week.

Though if people are posting hateful comments at Massively or whatever, that should stop. That's kinda stupid. But posting or viewing articles at all is something we kind of have to do.

[eabrace]

Something to consider as people make comments: are you interested in understanding where the person who wrote the article is coming from, or are you more interested in taking things personally and getting offended because the author dared to not unequivocally appreciate our appreciation and comments?

I guess from my unique perspective, it's a little of both.  If they're getting bombarded by traffic they weren't getting before, I can't help but think I might be partly to blame for that.  After all, the Titan Twitter account had been silent for how long?

(Sekoia already knows this, but just so that the rest of you know what I'm talking about...)

Prior to the sunset announcement, we were talking behind the scenes and I had volunteered to start sending out tweets when we had new updates for Mids or Sentinel.  But at the time only Tony had the login info for Twitter.  It wasn't until the shutdown announcement that Tony got around to sending the login info to me to start posting updates.  Since then, I've tried to either link directly or re-tweet any links to articles about CoH to help bring some publicity to the sites that were covering us.

In the process, the number of people following us on Twitter has exploded from just over 350 to (currently) just over 1000.

I can't help but feel a little personal guilt if they're upset that we're flooding their site with traffic.

And in that vein, I'd really like to understand where Bree's coming from and whether or not there is something that I can personally do to help make that right.

The last thing I'd want to do is urinate in the oatmeal belonging to an organization that has given us an amazing amount of coverage.

[MVEliot]

And in that vein, I'd really like to understand where Bree's coming from and whether or not there is something that I can personally do to help make that right.

I figured this would be a place for me to chime in.  I'm Eliot Lefebvre, the author of A Mild-Mannered Reporter and Bree's fellow longtime City of Heroes fan.  Also the other person who was really pushing for us to cover as much as possible about the Save CoH movement.

Without talking a whole lot about behind-the-scenes stuff, let me just open off by saying that both Bree and I kicked into overdrive on the movement.  If we could figure out a way to cover something being done by the community, there were no questions asked.  I was collecting every bit of information I could regarding the movement, I read these boards every day (I tend to lurk), and I was certainly using my column as a platform to discuss what was going on.  This having been said, I'm not Bree; it's possible she felt an annoyance I didn't somewhere along the line, or that there are tips/feedback/whatever that I've just forgotten about in the interim.

Bree's comment has less to do with the Save CoH movement itself and more with what led up to the movement.  Specifically, the fact that we had always given CoH a lot of coverage, due in no small part to the fact that we're both fans.  It was after the horrible news hit that all of that coverage started getting noticed by the community, and that was when we started getting swarmed by tips about various activities around Save CoH and the like.

Which was great.  The tips we got, by and large, were helpful and positive.  But we also got a few emails asking, for example, if we were aware the movement existed.  After we'd been running columns and news pieces about it.  Or asking if we had seen something an hour after we posted a story about that exact same topic.

Personally, I never mind getting a tip about something I haven't heard before.  But sometimes I think people are a bit too quick to jump the gun and send in a tip when we're already aware of what's going on.  At times, certain tipsters seemed to just know that Massively liked Save CoH and didn't bother to actually look at what we had already done to cover the movement and support saving the game from shutdown.  That was on the irritating side.  It wasn't volume, nor was it urgency, nor was it passion.  It was a case where someone wanted our coverage but didn't want to see if, in fact, we had already provided the coverage of our own volition.

Not to mention it's impossible to know a publication is going to be 'your friend' until they do something to help you, unless you're psychic.

Well, at the time that the shutdown was announced, I had been writing A Mild-Mannered Reporter for nearly three years, and Bree and I had both stated our unabashed adoration for the game so many times that I can't even remember how often it happened.  So while it might not have been an entirely certain thing, with a regular column devoted to the game, odds were high.

[eabrace]

Thanks for the feedback Eliot.

I can't say that I've been a diehard reader over the years, but I always enjoyed your A Mild-Mannered Reporter column when I had a chance to sit down and read it.

[Kistulot]

If we could figure out a way to cover something being done by the community, there were no questions asked.  I was collecting every bit of information I could regarding the movement, I read these boards every day (I tend to lurk), and I was certainly using my column as a platform to discuss what was going on.

I dont read a lot of gaming journalism these days, but I want to thank you for your part in helping get the word out. I might not have ever read Massively, but your posting here tempts me to give it a try due to your sheer awesomeness.

[Osborn]

I figured this would be a place for me to chime in.  I'm Eliot Lefebvre, the author of A Mild-Mannered Reporter and Bree's fellow longtime City of Heroes fan.  Also the other person who was really pushing for us to cover as much as possible about the Save CoH movement.

Without talking a whole lot about behind-the-scenes stuff, let me just open off by saying that both Bree and I kicked into overdrive on the movement.  If we could figure out a way to cover something being done by the community, there were no questions asked.  I was collecting every bit of information I could regarding the movement, I read these boards every day (I tend to lurk), and I was certainly using my column as a platform to discuss what was going on.  This having been said, I'm not Bree; it's possible she felt an annoyance I didn't somewhere along the line, or that there are tips/feedback/whatever that I've just forgotten about in the interim.

Bree's comment has less to do with the Save CoH movement itself and more with what led up to the movement.  Specifically, the fact that we had always given CoH a lot of coverage, due in no small part to the fact that we're both fans.  It was after the horrible news hit that all of that coverage started getting noticed by the community, and that was when we started getting swarmed by tips about various activities around Save CoH and the like.

Which was great.  The tips we got, by and large, were helpful and positive.  But we also got a few emails asking, for example, if we were aware the movement existed.  After we'd been running columns and news pieces about it.  Or asking if we had seen something an hour after we posted a story about that exact same topic.

Personally, I never mind getting a tip about something I haven't heard before.  But sometimes I think people are a bit too quick to jump the gun and send in a tip when we're already aware of what's going on.  At times, certain tipsters seemed to just know that Massively liked Save CoH and didn't bother to actually look at what we had already done to cover the movement and support saving the game from shutdown.  That was on the irritating side.  It wasn't volume, nor was it urgency, nor was it passion.  It was a case where someone wanted our coverage but didn't want to see if, in fact, we had already provided the coverage of our own volition.

Well, at the time that the shutdown was announced, I had been writing A Mild-Mannered Reporter for nearly three years, and Bree and I had both stated our unabashed adoration for the game so many times that I can't even remember how often it happened.  So while it might not have been an entirely certain thing, with a regular column devoted to the game, odds were high.

We appreciate your help, and I don't want you to think that anything said here is meaning anything otherwise. And nobody should had been sending nasty emails to you for any reason, period, really.

I was just commenting that until we ask or make noise, it's impossible typically for us to know who is going to be sympathetic to us. A lot of people who loved CoH were fast to give up on it under the direction that it's not our job or our right or our anything to ask for it to stay running. Because they felt it wasn't right for us to ask NCSoft to do anything they didn't want.

Also, without people talking about this, it's easy to fall into the trap that you're the only one that cares about something. If it wasn't for the Titan forum, I honestly would have already given up hope on CoH. Call me a pessimist if you will, but if I feel like I'm the only person in the room that cares about something, I'm quick to keep it to myself.

But either way, I'm sorry that there was elements that had been sending you mean or nasty mail. Again, that's pretty stupid of people and never should have happened.

[Lily Barclay]

I'll admit it. I didn't know massively even existed before the Save CoH movement. I didn't read anything in the gaming press. Now I've got a few of the online mags on my twitter feed, massively being just about the only one I actually click the articles to read. So yeah, I started commenting on their stuff because of #savecoh, but it also made me a reader. Now I comment on articles concerning several different topics, and I tend to trust their reviews over the other mags. So yeah, I jumped on board because of the whole CoH publicity stuff, but I stayed there because the journalism is good. I'm likely not the only one. Granted I never bugged them to cover anything, just commented on a few articles, and emailed them once for one shots when they requested CoH screen shots. I guess I can understand them being annoyed at a few people that were obviously not reading the site, but it probably wasn't in the best taste to mention that publicly if it wasn't really a large amount of people.

[FatherXmas]

Fortunately Elliot I learned a long time ago to bookmark the link that shows all the articles tagged as City of Heroes.  Just as I have links to other tag indexes on your site.  However I could sort of understand, because you cover so many games, that if you simply looked at your home page or even flip back a page or two somebody may not see an article about CoH.  Your Mild-Mannered Reporter series was only weekly and if somebody looked for a COH article the day before it's normally published, your previous one may have been pages back.

Yes, some people are lazy.  Some won't (well they seem like they won't) every use the search tools available to them to see if someone already posted an article or on a forum, started a thread about a particular subject.  It's true here, it was certainly true back on the ol' CoH forums. 

Others won't investigate the tag filters, even the obvious ones like those at the top of the page labeled "Heores" to at least narrow the search, especially when there's only what five, super hero MMOs being kicked around versus a million in the fantasy genre.

But sometimes passion, panic and/or desperation causes a perfectly reasonable individual to not notice the Exit in Case of Emergency signs or drown out the blaring instructions of what to do with their own blather.

Sorry you had guys got swarmed by either first timers at your site or simply those who aren't use to using it to follow their games.

[therain93]

They've been covering City of Heroes for five years. No doubt they got some traffic from our community. But did we thank them every time they posted something? Did we comment extensively in response to those articles? Were most of us even aware of those articles?

We're like that friend who only comes calling when they need something.

I'm sure they appreciate our appreciation. But it probably also irks them that they're getting SO MUCH feedback now that we need something and most of it's primarily because of our own self-interest ("you're giving us publicity!") rather than an actual appreciation for their publication.

If City got saved tomorrow, how many of us would be reading Massively's regular columns about City a year from now? How many of us would be thanking them then, or commenting in them then? I imagine it'd be more than it had been before, but still far fewer than during the past several months.


The biggest thing I take away from it is that if you're going to contact someplace, make sure you show an actual interest in their publication and not just in our own needs. (And don't come across as an entitled jerk, obviously.) I imagine most of us have been doing that, though. Other than that, I'm not sure there's much we can do about it.

So, I think it's time to come back to this now and acknowledge that door swings both ways.  Some of the best selling magazine covers ever are the ones that feature Princess Diana.  I suspect mmo/gaming news sites (most notably mmorpg.com) have realized that tapping into the CoH controversy is turning into a similiar ad sales generator (although not to the same scale) for them as many of us swarm to the latest article, regardless of how much journalistic integrity is in it.  And there's nothing wrong with that.  We're using them and they're using us -- I absolutely agree we shouldn't turn into spammers that intrude into every thread topic out there, but I say please spare us the indignation of "oh, now you're interested in reading us because it serves your purpose".