Titan Network
Graveyard => Save Paragon Retirees => Save Paragon City! => Topic started by: TonyV on September 02, 2012, 02:55:04 AM
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As mentioned in the introductory message of this forum (http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/topic,4882.0.html), our first task is to get the word out among the City of Heroes that we are gathering for a coordinated effort to save Paragon City. In order to do that, we need all of our various subcommunities--server communities, coalitions, fan site owners, Internet radio personalities, developers...everone--to be on the same page.
So our first call to action is to let everyone know that we are here to save Paragon City. To let everyone know to check here on this forum for news, information, needed expertise, and actions that are being taken in that effort. Please contact everyone you know and let them know that we are here, and we're not going down without doing everything we possibly can to keep City of Heroes up and running. Once we're all on the same page, we can start efforts to coordinate projects like publicity, write-in campaigns, crowd funding, or anything else we need to do to convince NCsoft that this game needs to stay.
Thank you for your efforts, and if you have any questions or comments, please post them below.
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On it.
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Getting the word out asap, everything i got.
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Im on it.
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gonna do whatever i can to spread the word and support you guys
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definitely in
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Doing everything I can to spread the word Tony, let me know if there is anything else that can be done.
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Tony, I am rallying a letter-writing campaign and posted the info here, also sent you a PM with the text of the appeal.
I am happy to accept any other suggestions or work with you in any way to push forward on this.
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I got it, and I definitely plan to coordinate a letter-writing campaign. We've talked a little bit about what needs to be said for maximum impact. Not so much to develop a form letter or anything, but just to give some ideas for what to say to people who just know that they want the game to continue.
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I'm publicizing this forum on Facebook.
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Question: in a physical letter writing campaign, to whom do we address our dismay? I am not stupid but if we have 10000 letters to 5 different companies as opposed to 10000 to one...I think you get the point.
Please let me know. I will get on this right away.
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We'll be talking about that within the next few days. I don't want folks jumping the gun quite yet.
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I signed the petition and am getting friends to sign also.
Update:- - - - - -
just wrote an email to the VALVE option- also instead of getting decent sleep.
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I am in, Tony. I will do all I can.
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Question: in a physical letter writing campaign, to whom do we address our dismay? I am not stupid but if we have 10000 letters to 5 different companies as opposed to 10000 to one...I think you get the point.
Please let me know. I will get on this right away.
I'm dropping a letter in the mail in the AM to:
Mr. Taek Jin Kim, CEO
c/o NCSOFT
158-16 NCsoft R&D Center B/D, Samsung-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea 135-090
Phone : +82-2-2186-3300 E-mail : webmaster@ncsoft.com
I don't know if it's the best address, or that it will help - but it's all I found, and I'm going to try it :]
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Singed the petition on facebook/changes.org to save CoX
Bear
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Standing by Tony. I'll do what I can.
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Guys I think I found a backup solution if ncsoft doesn't sell or donate the goods to us. I'd like to talk with someone here from the titan network on vent asap. I won't be online much longer because its late here but I'll be here most of all day sunday.
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Trib, standing by, ready to help!
Added link to the "Memories of Pinnacle" FB group.
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I bought lottery tickets in case the chance to buy Paragon Studios and CoH was possible.
Actually won $5 on the first one, the next one draws tuesday. Using the first to buy more.
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http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/about_freedom/freedom_overview.php
Please look at this link, it may be a possible leveraging tool for making the argument that the game legally has to stay at least playable. Hopefully I linked it right. I hate to say it, but due to the claims of this page as the introduction to "Freedom" we may at least have an arguement for them having to refund all money spent on the game since it went free to play, the fear of paying back that much money may force them to at least keep the game operational if it is possible. It's just a thought, trying to find what I can. Please at bare minimum save a print page image of this to your computer so that it may be used in the insuing legal matters if they do succeed in shutting it down... I am very angry, but I'm trying to be rational and logical here. If they do shut the game down I am doing to make sure they pay me back and I think everyone should. If we make it look like a large enough wall of debt and legal actions coming their way, they might rethink it.
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I broadcasted the message to all chat channels I could. I'm concerned. Not enough optimism/fighting spirit. Too much fear and pessimism.
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http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/about_freedom/freedom_overview.php
Please look at this link, it may be a possible leveraging tool for making the argument that the game legally has to stay at least playable. Hopefully I linked it right. I hate to say it, but due to the claims of this page as the introduction to "Freedom" we may at least have an arguement for them having to refund all money spent on the game since it went free to play, the fear of paying back that much money may force them to at least keep the game operational if it is possible. It's just a thought, trying to find what I can. Please at bare minimum save a print page image of this to your computer so that it may be used in the insuing legal matters if they do succeed in shutting it down... I am very angry, but I'm trying to be rational and logical here. If they do shut the game down I am doing to make sure they pay me back and I think everyone should. If we make it look like a large enough wall of debt and legal actions coming their way, they might rethink it.
I think anything advertised there would be canceled by the EULA.
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Oh, I guess I should say, the reason this page is so important is the fact that it says, Play for Free. Forever.
Within the first paragraph, it says specifically that again at the end of the last sentence. There is no astrix saying "until we shut the game off". It says Forever!!! Plain and simple.
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I broadcasted the message to all chat channels I could. I'm concerned. Not enough optimism/fighting spirit. Too much fear and pessimism.
Well, what we're trying here is pretty crazy - but we've been doing crazy stuff for over 8 years now in the game.
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You may be correct Golden Girl, but I thought it may be worth a shot. I'm not sure that the EULA ever mentions completely ending the game being an option. But, I'm not sure... Like many others I just click past it because if I don't "Agree" I can't play the game.
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Will do what I can Tony.
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Quote
Yeah, if we can take down Tyrant, we can take down NCSoft and make things right! We may not be Incarnates IRL, but we have NUMBERS, LARGE NUMBERS, LARGE ANGRY NUMBERS!
7: I'm ANGRY! I WILL SMASH YOU!
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I couldn't agree with you more, GG: what we are doing here is crazy - but CoH/V is one of a kind, so it deserves this kind of crazyness. :) Would be cool if some gaming news site were to pick this little story up - this would certainly help convincing people like Valve that there is money to be made here.
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I couldn't agree with you more, GG: what we are doing here is crazy - but CoH/V is one of a kind, so it deserves this kind of crazyness. :) Would be cool if some gaming news site were to pick this little story up - this would certainly help convincing people like Valve that there is money to be made here.
Great idea! Anyone able to get into contact with someone from one of those sites?
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When the show Jericho went down after it's first season, the fans bought peanuts and had them shipped to the networks offices. This showed a seriousness about it, as well as a awareness of the show's would of been final line, Nuts...
I think we should all buy children cap/mask combos, superhero memorabilia and even custom artwork of our characters, and screenshots and send it in with our letters. Show them our passion for this game, in a way they cannot deny.
~Mark
aka @Liberties
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I broadcasted the message to all chat channels I could. I'm concerned. Not enough optimism/fighting spirit. Too much fear and pessimism.
Please keep in mind that everyone is still reeling from the sack of bricks that was dropped on us. Fear and pessimism are natural and expected. It's extremely important to not let it dampen your own spirits and to be respectful of people still coming to terms with the news. It might take them a little more time, but trust me, they will come around.
Everyone wants to be on the winning team, to be the ones to have known all along how things were going to turn out. Right now, a lot of people understandably think that the game shutting down forever in November is a good bet. After all, that's what happens whenever a company announces that it's shuttering the servers, right?
Wrong. What they haven't accounted for is that we are heroes. This is what we do. Once everyone else sees how focused, determined, and clever we are, how mighty we can be, they will come around.
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TonyV, I don't care about win or lose, I want to be on the team that is known for not stopping the fight no matter the odds, often they are the winners, but even when a group like that suffers a loss, they are remembered in the annuals of history as victors of spirit.
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Thanks Tony and the lot of you - yesterday I had lost heart myself, but now I am determined to do what I can to fight for a game that has become kind of a second (virtual) home for me. It is a privilige to share a hobby with people like you guys! :)
If we are going down, we will do so fighting!
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I made a post about this on Mercedes Lackey's Facebook page - she played the game quite a bit, and even did a guest author arc for the AE.
EDIT: Another place to contact could be the webcomic PvP: http://www.pvponline.com/ - they were the ones who did a series of CoH strips for the launch of the game, which were included in a booklet in the box.
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I'll do whatever I can TonyV. If we must go to Valhalla, I would prefer it be in blazing glory,.. not at the flick of a switch. Let us know what you need. And remember all...This time there's no team size limit. >:(
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i dont have fear pessimism, i have sadness/depression coupled with blistering rage hotter than a thousand suns
ncsoft taking coh away from us will not end well for them
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I know Jim Butcher plays CoH/V as well - he actually had a bit of a scrap with NCSOFT support before he could use 'Harry Dresden' in game - maybe someone who is on Facebook could reach out to him? :)
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I will do whatever I can, just let me know.
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This is great. I'm in.. but I do admit those stone-hearted pencil pushers at NC soft, don't really care. But we have to do something. At least we can say we tried.
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I am behind you all the way. COH is so much more than just a game. It is a social event. An escape from the harsh realities of the day, A place to laugh, blow off steam, run around and kick up your heals and at times a salvation after a really bad day. I will do whatever I can to get the word out for all of us.
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As soon as I found this, I started pasting the link in on Freedom in the Help channel where most of the discussion is happening tonight, I will do what I can to help in any way. This game has been here for me when times were dark, and this became a big escape from reality after my mom passed away, I used to wish that I could live in CoH... kickin ass and takin names later. I dont know what I will do if the day comes and there is no CoH to escape to. Let's do this Heroes of Paragon, don't let them take away our City...
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As a joke I offered to put up a CoH MUD, but right now it is almost looking tempting.
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On it Tony! I have told everyone I know in real life and I knew in CoH to spread the word and check in to see what they can do. I will spread the word to the far corners of the world if necessary but I still want to do more so I will be checking in several times a day to fight for the best damn MMO!
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Already on it, was thinking about trying to coordinate a picket in Seattle at the head quarters of NC Soft any thoughts?
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I'm also doing what I can.
Paragon must be saved! It's our home!
Thanks for starting this mission Tony V! *hugs*
*waves*
DeeDee
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Here to help!
came across this petition! It's to make the source code open source.
http://www.change.org/petitions/ncsoft-corp-open-source-the-code-for-city-of-heroes-villains
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Already on it, was thinking about trying to coordinate a picket in Seattle at the head quarters of NC Soft any thoughts?
While the decision may have come through Seattle, I suspect that this came from the home office over in Korea. Picketing the Seattle office might not have the impact that would be necessary to get the exec board's attention. But you never know unless you try, I suppose. :)
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The word got me here! and im spreading it,
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I'll do what I can.
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On it.
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I just sent an email to Tycho of Penny Arcade. Not sure if he'll be very interested, though I do know he played the game once. (If memory serves, he eventually stopped playing because his XP debt got too heavy, though I think he did say that he noted the care and attention to detail that players put into things like their Bios, even if they weren't RPers.)
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I just sent an email to Tycho of Penny Arcade.
Actually, that's not bad timing. Tomorrow is the last day of PAX 2012.
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I have posted this forum on the Defiant Events facebook group.
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Trying to wake up and motivate the French community that was on Vigilance. We can't go down without a fight, this was the worst MMO to do that, NCSoft !
I would urge somebody that was still inside the devs to make a usb backup of the game, just in case. I know this is illegal but... I just so happen to hope for it right now, if everything else fails !
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Have you guys noticed that the shutdown of CoX is unexpected enough to count as actual news for the gaming community? As in, I was away for a few months on a break, but then I saw an actual news article on Escapist Magazine informing me. Don't just spread word to CoX communities (although, for obvious reasons, we will get the most traction there), go for any large, general gaming community you're already a member of.
Emphasis on "already a member of," though, do not sign up for a community and make your first post shilling for your cause. If anyone here has an account on the Penny Arcade forums, that'd be helpful, I already threw up a post on Escapist. Unfortunately, though I've been around years, I mostly lurk, so I'm certainly not getting any traction as an entrenched member of the community.
EDIT: Oh, hey, on the subject of effective action, we've only got three months to make this work so let's try to skip the "blind flailing in the direction of everyone who seems like they might have any sort of culpability at all" stage. We need to figure out exactly who has the power to make CoX's ongoing existence an actual thing that happens. There's a rumor circulating that NCSoft has been asked a prohibitively large amount of money to renew the license to the CoX engine in order to cull the competition for a game being pushed out by the current owners of the engine. Unfortunately, even who those current owners are seems to change from one iteration of the story to the next. If this is true, it presents a significant problem for our plan. While NCSoft can potentially be convinced to relinquish the IP for CoX to fans if we could raise enough money for it, getting the Mystery Corporation to give up the engine to CoX, the most popular game ever made in this little niche, is going to require more money than could ever be conceivably raised by anyone, including, apparently, NCSoft themselves.
Know thy enemy and know thyself, find victory in a hundred battles. The very first thing we need to do is find out who is actually responsible for shutting CoX down. NCSoft might not actually be in a position to start it back up, and in fact it's likely they're not, since the move makes no sense from a business perspective and clearly came as a surprise to the development team. I have no idea how we're going to solve the problem of the engine license being withheld if that's the case, but at least we'll know what problem we're trying to solve, and hopefully with enough time left to do something about it. So we need to know who would know and how we can get them to divulge the information. Can anyone get the dev team to open up with anything approaching reliability? It's unlikely they know what's going on, but they're far more likely to tell us than suits in Seattle or the distant Korean overlords.
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It seems I did return to Paragon City in its time of need...
I have been on a kind-of-hiatus from CoH for months now, which was due to exams, private reasons and other things. I only popped in once in a while to get to talk to the friends I made there or creating costumes for my characters.
And now, as I just wanted to get back into the game more frequently again, I heard it's going to go offline before the end of the year. I was really shocked about it and I'm still quite upset. I probably wasn't playing it as long as most of you (I started in April 2010), but it still means alot for me and was an important part of my life.
However, from what I've heard, I think the chances to get NCsoft selling the game or making the CoH's code open source are quite low. But don't get me wrong, I don't want to say that it's wasted time trying to save CoH.
Who doesn't fight, has already lost. So count me in.
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To TonyV and the Titan crew,
I think it's outstanding, people willing to do what they can to keep something they care so much about. I've been a player since I-2, and I love this game...no... it's more than that, it's a community. I've made so many RL friends from being apart of it. My wife loves it too, and she wasn't even a gamer until I introduced it to her.
I can't do as much as I'd like (being in the military and currently deployed, the net sucks out here and depending on mission I can't always get on), but...I'm in and I'll do what I can. I've already have been signing every petition I can, and will continue to do so. Also I have been contacting everyone in the States I know that's apart of the community to help were they can.
Keep Fighting...this is one of those things that worth it.
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What's the best thing I can do? I'm just normal active player. Not rich or anything...
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Hey guys thanks for helping organize this. I will do everything I can to help. Keep us posted on what we can o to assist in this the most important league event of our CoH careers.
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To TonyV and the Titan crew
Although I haven't been very active on these forums, I've been using your tools (Mids, Paragonwiki, hell even CoH Faces) for years.
When I got word of this yesterday morning I wanted to die, I couldn't believe it, it wasn't a matter of "ok we have no new ideas to bring so we are closing the game", which could have been expected anytime due to the longevity of this fabulous game, but "NCsoft let his axe go for a walk".
Before I start crying again, I wanted to tell you that I'm myself a Moderator of a Spanish website named http://auraycapa.superforo.net/ (http://auraycapa.superforo.net/), devoted to explain and share all the news, activities, task forces, etc from CoH to the spanish players that have no knowledge of English, and we've been taking and translating most information from your different websites, you've been an inspiration for us and we couldn't let you down now, so in the name of our website and our nearly 520 registered users, I've spreaded word about your initiatives asking them to share and spread them even further.
After all, we're all heroes, right? this is what we do 8)
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Members & former members of Defiant server EU being kept posted on our facebook group https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/groups/1194227840716426/
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What a shock. I was on a short break from the game (I tend to need a break for a couple of months every year or so or I get burnt out), and had decided to take a look at the forums real quick to see if anything would entice me to come back and play. I never would have thought the game might not be there for me to come back to. I've signed both petitions, and will do anything I can to try and keep the game alive in some fashion or another.
I actively post on both the Giant in the Playground forums, and Jim Butcher's forum, and have posted messages in both places about the game being shut down and the efforts to try to save it. Hopefully something will come of it.
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An idea came to mind about keeping City of Heroes alive. It would involve the team at Paragon Studio, us and probably my lawyer to check on what rights need to be acquired, but a Kickstarter campaign can be started to either buy the franchise or remake CoH if the Paragon team would be willing. So far just a thought, but I own a small chain of Card, Comic and Gaming stores and recently watched one of the companies I order miniatures from have over 3 million dollars funded via Kickstarter.
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An idea came to mind about keeping City of Heroes alive. It would involve the team at Paragon Studio, us and probably my lawyer to check on what rights need to be acquired, but a Kickstarter campaign can be started to either buy the franchise or remake CoH if the Paragon team would be willing. So far just a thought, but I own a small chain of Card, Comic and Gaming stores and recently watched one of the companies I order miniatures from have over 3 million dollars funded via Kickstarter.
Kickstarting is becoming a rather popular thing, everywhere, they're making a Wasteland 2 just off of kickstart money. Hell, I could be part of CoH 2, I'm a good sculpter, modeler and rigger, and this here certificate isn't doing anything but picking up dust. Why can't we, the community, just pick up CoH?
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An idea came to mind about keeping City of Heroes alive. It would involve the team at Paragon Studio, us and probably my lawyer to check on what rights need to be acquired, but a Kickstarter campaign can be started to either buy the franchise or remake CoH if the Paragon team would be willing. So far just a thought, but I own a small chain of Card, Comic and Gaming stores and recently watched one of the companies I order miniatures from have over 3 million dollars funded via Kickstarter.
Kickstarter came to my mind as well. There have been some projects that have gotten some pretty serious funding through there. If there were some sort of kickstarter to save CoH in some manner or another, I'd definitely donate.
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So I'm here and ready to suport in any (for me) possible Way.
I think, all other Players of Zukunft cross there fingers too.
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My wife and I would be happy to support any efforts to keep the game alive!
Even a static version forever (Issue 24 would be great!) would be better than gone forever.
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I'll look into getting more support from the Virtue server when I get home today. You have a big supporter from me and I'll do what I can. IF we manage to get this (and that's a big IF but I want to be optimistic) I plan on taking college courses for graphics design to perhaps make it better. So it's gone that far for me.
Another thing I'm weary of is pointing fingers. I'm hearing a lot of rumors about who is to blame but until someone comes outright and says it, I don't know what to believe. A lot of the rumors are very believeable at this point but as far as I know right now? I don't know. I'll do what I can but I'm fighting the pit that the news set in my chest. This is something that was yanked from me and I don't appreciate it so I'll do what I can on my end.
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Reading around seeing what i can, Not sure but if i can do something.. HardRider is gonna make sure it's done ^^
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Roger, I copy and wilco.
I don't know how effective this is going to be, but I never was the type to go out without a fight. And if CoX is going to go out no matter what we do, I'd help see it out kicking and screaming.
Ironically enough, today is V-J Day, the day the U.S. forced Japan to sign the formal surrender documents that ended World War II. I'd really like to be there for V-NC Day, when we force NCsoft to stop being boneheads.
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I never found any enemy in CoH/CoV that I wouldn't take a shot at, and you can expect the same from me in this fight. I'll do whatever I can to save this world that all of us love.
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I'm in. Count on me to be an active advocate for this.
Money talks and time is critical. I've seen / studied the demise of a couple of scify shows I love and time seems to be key to a movement like this making ANY impact; symbolic or otherwise.
The kickstarter idea I think is best since I've seen things (like Wasteland 2) just explode when there is enough buzz. My suggestion, and personal step one is: Find an experienced Kickstarter supporter NOW; someone who has DONE this sort of thing and can save us time and guide us away from mistakes.
Step 2 (imho) is raise enough money for an IP lawyer. They will know what we can do, and need to do, to "get" the game from NCsoft. The other plus to the Kickstarter idea is that it should focus the community voice. This forum is great, but there are probably half a dozen similar going on. Numbers (with money) speak so getting concentrated, coalesced as a group is only going to help.
All my 2 cents. Take it or leave it, but I work for one of those evil corporate giants so I know how 'they' think. {Maybe that's why I like to play villains?!?!} But I need my heroes to bash around so my last evil master plan, is to save the City I love (to hate :)
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Is there a way to convince NCsoft to let paragon studios go independent with COH? Or how much funding/investing would paragon studios need to go independent with coh?
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What's the best thing I can do? I'm just normal active player. Not rich or anything...
You don't have to be rich! You are a hero, you are a Titan! As for what you can do, keep watching this forum. I'm going to be posting things we need--many of them which don't require any money at all. Some of them will be expertise, and you might be the key piece of the puzzle for this to come together.
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Reporting for duty!
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I want to Thank you Tony for starting this Task Force. I hope all the heroes and Villans of Paragon City join it and we can all together defeat this threat. I 'm asking for permission to come aboard and put all my powers at the service of this TF. I think one of the first things we need to do is like you said get all of us in the same page. There are a lot of heroes out there still in shock and not knowing what to do. A little advertising on all the servers should be good. We need all the help available, we are running out of time to save our beloved City.
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Facebook page, made you the Defiant community to saty in touch, but everyone is welcome.
Look for Defiant event son facebook
or:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1194227840716426/?ref=ts
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Thanks a TON everyone! I'm working on our next Call to Action post, hopefully to go up just a little bit later. Keep your spirits up, and we can make this happen!
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To TonyV and the Titan crew
Although I haven't been very active on these forums, I've been using your tools (Mids, Paragonwiki, hell even CoH Faces) for years.
When I got word of this yesterday morning I wanted to die, I couldn't believe it, it wasn't a matter of "ok we have no new ideas to bring so we are closing the game", which could have been expected anytime due to the longevity of this fabulous game, but "NCsoft let his axe go for a walk".
Before I start crying again, I wanted to tell you that I'm myself a Moderator of a Spanish website named http://auraycapa.superforo.net/ (http://auraycapa.superforo.net/), devoted to explain and share all the news, activities, task forces, etc from CoH to the spanish players that have no knowledge of English, and we've been taking and translating most information from your different websites, you've been an inspiration for us and we couldn't let you down now, so in the name of our website and our nearly 520 registered users, I've spreaded word about your initiatives asking them to share and spread them even further.
After all, we're all heroes, right? this is what we do 8)
I sign in in your site but I cant post or respond anything. what is the deal there?
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Im in, I'll speak to all my OPM ppl's to join too we are still pretty pissed off but if theres anything we can do to help we will, we will def join the wave
my global is @exodius i was the person giving out EVERYTHING i had to people who wanted it on freedom server pissed off because of the news.
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I'm ready to help in whatever ways I can.
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I just need to say thanks Tony. Thanks for the hope. Actually, thank you everyone. Will do what I can.
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I'm standing by your side. Whatever the outcome...
I'm pushing it to G+ / Twitter since Facebook seems already in good hands....
Let's start spreading the news as much as possible. make some noise people !
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I'm not sure if I can be of any use to CoH. I'm a Counselor by trade. Yes, a mental health therapist. At first I thought I had nothing to offer, and then I realized that maybe I can put my skills of understanding how people work or think into storylines, as in making sure that stories makes sense given a character's personality, values, etc.
Oh, and my wife knows coding, databases, websites...little things like that. :)
Akry
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Ready to help!
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I will do what I can.
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My 10 year old son, who has been playing since he was 3 (back then it was more him sitting in my lap and pushing the arrow keys to move) does not want to let it go, so has begun tearing apart the world he's built in Minecraft over the past two years to turn it into Atlas Park.
I am actually in tears.
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Im exremely disappointed and sad that this game is about to end. I will help with whatever is needed within my means, so count me in!
We shall not go down without a fight, even if the tide is against us!
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Wow I know this game is loved, but picketing city halls and national monuments? With all that's going on in the world, a video game shutting down should get national attention? I get it you're upast, as am I. Been playing since May of '04 myself. We need to be reasonable though.
Everyone should understand a few things just to save yourselves an emotional roller coaster.
City of Heroes was grossing less than a million dollars a month, meaning less than 12 million per year. When you deduct operational costs including paying the 80 people that they had working in the game, the game was barely breaking even.
NCSoft knows they have a 100,000 ish player base. They know they are going to piss off this 100,000 ish player base by closing the game. They did it with Tabula Rasa and Aion already, so they know what to expect. In order for this petition to do any good, you will have to show them not only did they underestimate the player base, but that these people are willing to financially support the game. Unfortunately, when compared to other mmo's, we don't have the numbers. We would need approximately 1,000,000 players willing to pay.
They will not release the game, unless it will bring them a decent price. They won't risk one of their own games becoming competition for their other titles. The only way I see this happening is if Cryptic offers to buy it back, which it won't since it's competition for their game "Champions Online".
I am sorry, I know how much this game means to everyone, again I've been playing for 8 years now, but it WILL end. Do your best, but please don't pin all hopes on succeeding. And please don't make all us gamers look like complete morons by tryin to tell the rest of the world that this is a life altering event worthy of an "occupy" movement.
Michael
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As stated before, figure out the costs, get paragon studios on board and then we will have two words. KICK STARTER.
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I understand what its like losing a community, I really do, I cant offer much to help, but I will do what I can, please though dont blame PW about this epecially dont go hating on CO players, they the majority have been very supportive of COh on their forums.
However we do need to try and do something I am glad to see on this website folks are doing just that, sure it may fail we all know this but such things have worked before no reason why this wont, and if COH was losing money well may make it easier for us or somone else to buy the IP, though I don't think it wa slosing money. Anyway we all knew it cant last forever sure I think how it was handled though was the worst possible way to do it, I really wihs everyone luck with this and wish I could help, I am not a social butterfly as it were and most of my friends are not gamers, so I hope my good wishes and offering support, why yes even a bit of money are enough.
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I'm glad to see a group of intelligent people getting organized quickly to try and do something useful to save the game.
Please let us know what we can do, Tony, and keep us informed.
I've posted your call to action and links to this forum on a CoH related site I can post to.
Laufeyjarson standing by.
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Wow I know this game is loved, but picketing city halls and national monuments? With all that's going on in the world, a video game shutting down should get national attention? I get it you're upast, as am I. Been playing since May of '04 myself. We need to be reasonable though.
Did I say to go do picketing? No I Merely was putting down one more of the many numeral possibilities of actions players may take.
It was only suggestions do, not try and tack things out of context.
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100% I'll do whatever I can!
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I've done a couple things. First off I sent links to the Titan Network and this forum collection to all my fellow supergroup members and coalitions (Golden Age Heroes on the Virtue Server).
Second I submitted a letter to both www.superherohype.com and ign.com electronically regarding the whole picture, from the abrupt announcement to this coalition we are creating to try to save COH.
I'm not sure if they will do anything about it, but considering they write about everything superhero media related, perhaps it's worth a shot.
I'll keep doing what I can.
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You heroes are awesome! This is just the kind of spread-the-word efforts we need!
Keep it up!
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Positron and Co. are still on the COH forums...has anyone tried getting ahold of them via PM to see if we can get any insight, help or feedback from them?
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I posted the following on City of Heroes FB page earlier;
This was a message to the webmaster of comicbookmovie.com and it's 2 website owners;
(pasted)
I am not sure who or how to ask this.
I am not even sure if you are aware of the fact that the MMO game City of Heroes is to be shut down on November 30th as of this past Friday.
NCSoft the publisher of of the game fired the 80+ employees (Paragon Studios)who develop, design, create and update our beautiful and escapism game of awesomeness.
There is a huge online petition at http://www.change.org/petitions/ncsoft-keep-ncsoft-from-shutting-down-city-of-heroes
and I want to share this info with as many people as I can who enjoy super heroes, comics and the like.
Since comicbookmovie.com is the one, true place I get a LOT of news and influence about the genre.
I am asking, if not in fact begging to see if this information would please be shared on this site.
Thank you in advance,
Patrick Wheeler
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I am in for whatever I can do.
I have sent a letter to both addresses.
Please let us know what else we can do!
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I've been in tears [on and off] since the news hit. I've signed all the petitions, posted in Facebook, joined all the CoH groups on Steam - added every CoH person from the Steam CoH groups as friends. I'm just in shock.
It's just such a WTF. I've always paid [thru time cards] since I joine 3 years ago. Since CoH opened the market, in the last 6 months I've spent more than $150 on ... stuff - random cards, rare sets, costumes, auras ... and they will be going away too.
CoH timecards became my main option for 'gee family, get me a timecard for Xmas if you want to give me a present I'll like'. I'm paid up thru October & have [2] 30 day and [1] 60 day timecards that are unused. I felt like I was set .... and now the game I love is being killed. In a way, this is like some awful death in my family - and I want to do something to make it all be better.
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Sounds crazy....
But the writers of "The Big Bang Theory" use COH teeshirts and banners in the backgrounds of their show....
Someone on that shows writing / props team is a fellow COH player....
Someone find a way to get them involved maybe????
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Just dropping this by for what it's worth. Longtime player, but unlikely any of you know me, I'm one of those quiet soloists for 90% of my game play and losing CoX is devastating, since no other MMO has ever been even a fraction as friendly to the solo playstyle.
My partner is also a longtime subscription payer, and as shocked as I at this unexpected bombshell.
We both agreed instantly that we'd pay *more* than 16.23 any month of the year, all year, to be able to keep playing this fantastic game which has become a home within our home.
Thank you Tony V and others for your efforts and add us to the list of folks who will happily chip in whatever we can in monetary support (it won't be much but we're rock solid reliable), and whatever we can offer of our talents to help. Neither of us are programers, but I can offer support in the web arena as I'm a profession web designer and consultant.
I know not to "get my hopes up" but sometimes unexpected GOOD things happen as well as bad. Thanks for leading the charge.
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http://www.change.org/petitions/ncsoft-keep-ncsoft-from-shutting-down-city-of-heroes#news
We've just reached 9000 signatures. Keep up spreading the word.
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Thank you so much for all of your hard work TonyV, not only with Paragon Wiki but with working on continuing our game and helping coordinate the different efforts underway right now. I plan on helping any way that I can in order to help save our game. While I had a feeling the game was going to wrap up sooner or later, the way the ending happened (basically a boot out the door and not even letting devs at least wrap up loose story ends) is incredibly disheartening and a huge disappointment.
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I want to Thank you Tony for starting this Task Force. I hope all the heroes and Villans of Paragon City join it and we can all together defeat this threat. I 'm asking for permission to come aboard and put all my powers at the service of this TF. I think one of the first things we need to do is like you said get all of us in the same page. There are a lot of heroes out there still in shock and not knowing what to do. A little advertising on all the servers should be good. We need all the help available, we are running out of time to save our beloved City.
Task Force? No, no no no. We're gonna make a Hami Raid look like a ballet recital!
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Task Force? No, no no no. We're gonna make a Hami Raid the Rikti War look like a ballet recital!
;D
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And for the record, I thought of a way we can get more support. Someone tell Dark_Respite/Samuraiko to maybe find the time to make a rally video encouraging people who either play or were thinking about playing the game to visit this forum and join our cause?
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I believe she's already hard at work on a video, but I think it's intended to be a "farewell" video.
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I've also got some custom 3D art assets that can be used for promotional purposes, including one currently unseen one that could be useful for creating the most impact and recognition amongst former players.
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And for the record, I thought of a way we can get more support. Someone tell Dark_Respite/Samuraiko to maybe find the time to make a rally video encouraging people who either play or were thinking about playing the game to visit this forum and join our cause?
I actually have something special I'm hoping to get Samuraiko's help on.
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Second I submitted a letter to both www.superherohype.com and ign.com electronically regarding the whole picture, from the abrupt announcement to this coalition we are creating to try to save COH.
I'm not sure if they will do anything about it, but considering they write about everything superhero media related, perhaps it's worth a shot.
Dang, I was about to do the same... would it be worth doing it again?
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I sign in in your site but I cant post or respond anything. what is the deal there?
I've revised the website and you're there, guess you could solve the problem?
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Just a note on the petition and meida strategy - we should try and push for 10k signatures, or close to it, by Tuesday, which is when gaming and other news sites will be fullt back to work, so the likng weekend gives us a bit mroe time to push for 10k.
10k is one of those "dramtaic" numbers - the difference between it and 9k or 11k is bigger, because it simply sounds like an impresive number, so we should used it when promoting our rescue effort to gaming and other news sites - and emphasize the amount to time it's taken to get the signatures in a positive way - for example, "a player signed petiton has gathered almost/over 10 thousand signatures in under/just 4 days" - it helps give an impression of momentum and scale, rather than just a few individuals making a fuss.
Another thing to emphasize is how NCSoft has refused to clarify their reasons for closing the game - it hightens the sense of injustice being done to the player base, and creates an element of secrecy about their motivations - add that individual players have been trying to contact them, but haven't gotten a reply yet - this should trigger any sensible journalist to make enquries themself, with the result that NCSoft has to start fielding qustions from the games media about CoH, which adds a lot of weight to our campaign, as it pushes it beyond being just the players looking for answers.
There's also some stuff we can do on Twitter with hashtags that can give a worldwide platform to anti-NCSoft comments, but that's something we should keep in reserve for now.
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Just a note on the petition and meida strategy - we should try and push for 10k signatures, or close to it, by Tuesday, which is when gaming and other news sites will be fullt back to work, so the likng weekend gives us a bit mroe time to push for 10k.
10k is one of those "dramtaic" numbers - the difference between it and 9k or 11k is bigger, because it simply sounds like an impresive number, so we should used it when promoting our rescue effort to gaming and other news sites - and emphasize the amount to time it's taken to get the signatures in a positive way - for example, "a player signed petiton has gathered almost/over 10 thousand signatures in under/just 4 days" - it helps give an impression of momentum and scale, rather than just a few individuals making a fuss.
Just to let you know we got 5,000 Signatures in 10:00 hours on the first day after we learned the news.
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The big one is almost at 10k, at least it was a few hours ago when I finally remembered that I still needed to sign it.
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I just signed the petition, it was at about 9'200 when I signed.
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We would have EASILY hit 10k in petition signings already except it IS Labor Day weekend afterall.
LOTS of travel a goin' on :roll:
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Just to let you know we got 5,000 Signatures in 10:00 hours on the first day after we learned the news.
That's a good figure, but is also shows a decline in momentum, which is not what we should be putting across - it undercuts the positive "almost/over 10 thousand signatures in under/just 4 days" part - the 5,000 in 10 hours can be reported as "at one stage the petition was receiving almost 10 signatues a minute", which is true.
So we can report a totally factual "a player signed petition has gathered almost/over 10 thousand signatures in under/just 4 days, and at once stage was receiving almost 10 signatures a minute" - the feeling of positive momentum and gathering speed is kept, along with the truth.
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In this Moment, 788 til 10k.
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Has anyone gotten ahold of TenTonHammer and informed them of our efforts yet?
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In this Moment, 788 til 10k.
778 now, just added mine.
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Has anyone gotten ahold of TenTonHammer and informed them of our efforts yet?
It's Sunday on Labor Day Weekend - news sites are only really going to get back to life on Tuesday.
I'd suggest levaing a few messages for various sites now and on Monday, so they see a backlog in their inbox about the subject, then reinforce the ongoing concern of the player base by sending further messages during Tuesday, to let them know it's still an active story, and not just a blip that they missed during the weekend.
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I will keep knocking at their doors.
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Sounds crazy....
But the writers of "The Big Bang Theory" use COH teeshirts and banners in the backgrounds of their show....
Someone on that shows writing / props team is a fellow COH player....
Someone find a way to get them involved maybe????
There is lots and lots of CoH stuff used in that show. Many of the clips taking place in the apartment from the 1st and 2nd season on cbs.com have the bookcases with City of Heroes game boxes in the background. Plus the Captain Sweatpants, the CoV stand-up in the comic book store, they mention CoH in one episode, etc.
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There is lots and lots of CoH stuff used in that show. Many of the clips taking place in the apartment from the 1st and 2nd season on cbs.com have the bookcases with City of Heroes game boxes in the background. Plus the Captain Sweatpants, the CoV stand-up in the comic book store, they mention CoH in one episode, etc.
What can we do to get the work out to the makers of that show, if they don't already know?
If some of that show's staff are COH players, we need to recruit them!
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A rumor, but maybe an interesting one:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=296535
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A rumor, but maybe an interesting one:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=296535
Golden Girl....
I hope to GOD that the rumor is REAL!
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Checking in! :)
A long-time vet of the game, I played from August 2004 to late 2009, when circumstances(and relocating to New Zealand for 2 years...looooong story!) forced me out...but I've always kept up with CoH's progress....
So the recent news was more than a gut punch...I'd say it was like getting put through a table...that was wrapped with barbed wire...and that was on fire.... :(
Already putting the word out to some of my friends on Facebook...we'll think of something!
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Golden Girl....
I hope to GOD that the rumor is REAL!
At first, it seems a little weird - SOE already has a superhero MMO - why not just let NCSoft shut it down and reduce the spandex MMO amrket to just 2 titles?
But then, when you consider than DCUO is an action based console beat-'em-up with a poorly done PC port, and CoH is a classic PC-only MMO, then it could be a move to cover every area of the superhero MMO market.
Also, with EQ 1 and 2 both still going, and SWG shut down only becasue LucasArts decided not to renew the license, there might even be the possibility of greater security in the SOE stable than the NCSoft one.
Plus, the Station Pass raises some interesting revenue and player increase possibilities.
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Not to rain on anyone's parade and please forgive my impatience, but if these new SOE rumors are just that, do we have a plan to get in touch with someone at NCSoft and feel out their willingness to sell the IP? I feel like almost our entire effort hinges on the outcome of that discussion.
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Yes, we do, part of this is Tony's request on the forums to find someone who speaks fluent Korean.
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At first, it seems a little weird - SOE already has a superhero MMO - why not just let NCSoft shut it down and reduce the spandex MMO amrket to just 2 titles?
Or, to be a pessimist, they're worried that somebody else might buy it and see this as an opportunity to snag the IP and make sure it stays locked up -- eliminating their biggest competitor in that market.
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Yes, we do, part of this is Tony's request on the forums to find someone who speaks fluent Korean.
I don't speak it myself...but...there are a number of churches around who have sizable Korean followings...I'm not a religious person, but if necessary, I suppose I could try contacting them....
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Yes, we do, part of this is Tony's request on the forums to find someone who speaks fluent Korean.
Thanks, Codewalker. I didn't see that posted earlier.
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I don't speak it myself...but...there are a number of churches around who have sizable Korean followings...I'm not a religious person, but if necessary, I suppose I could try contacting them....
That would be helpful! I'm already in contact with one fluent speaker of the language, and he has been immensely helpful. I really could use at least one or two more, just to make sure that he doesn't miss something.
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I'm not sure that this has been mentioned, but social media moves mountains in this day and age. I would suggest having Save City of Heroes hashtag for twitter and try to get it trending. If, and this is a big if, it's possible to get it trending for more than one day straight, that could possibly alert mainstream media. As far as I know the only media it's hit is gaming media. If it hits mainstream media it could generate enough buzz that NC Soft can't ignore.
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I would suggest having Save City of Heroes hashtag for twitter and try to get it trending.
Getting #savecoh trending would be interesting.
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Would it also help if we would contact journalists or someone that broadcasts news?
Now I'm in the Netherlands, so they won't bother here, but maybe in the US?
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I'm planning to do a youtube video appeal to the french gamer community, we have some famous broadcasters here (Le Joueur du grenier, Bob Lennon, diablox9), maybe some will hear and support us by spreading the word.
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ive been doing my best in game and out of game to make sure where to direct all my friends to cause there are a few friends of mine that didnt even hear about the tragic news until about a day ago
ive been posting every available resource, petitions, forums, and what are the best places to try contacting to spread the news
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Went to Change.org and signed all the petitions there. Only 4 petitions that I saw there, but signed all of them. If anyone knows of any others, please send the info my way.
So far this one; NcSoft: Keep NCSoft from shutting down City of Heroes!- 9526 signed
NCSoft Corporation: Work with the player base to keep the City of Heroes servers running.- 439 signed
NCsoft Corp.: Open source the code for City of Heroes/Villains- 852 signed
NcSoft: Instead of Shuting down the MMO "City of Heroes" sell the rights and data !- 35 signed
Gonna get started on the letters to NCsoft.
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I don't have a lot in the form of money but I do think of my self as decent photoshopper so I have made a face book banner for any one that wishes to use it.
(https://images.weserv.nl/?url=www.deviantart.com%2Fdownload%2F325034286%2Fsave_our_city_fb_banner_by_greenlantern24601-d5dim26.jpg)
http://fav.me/d5dim26 (http://fav.me/d5dim26)
please feel free to visit my DA page Dl and use
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I for one will stand for this fight ,, what i can do for this game to stay up and running .. This is the best game i have ever played and it would hurt me if a grand trasrue like this would just go offline :gonk:
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Tony
I'm a casual user but happy to help in any way I can - $$, spreading the word, a little legal research, you name it. Will you be setting up a forum where we can see whatever courses of action have been decided?
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Xenophage, that's an awesome banner. :)
I wonder if all of us could somehow put something like that along with links to this forum in our signature in the City of Heroes forum...at least to let others know we're here and fighting.
There is power in numbers.
I'm not that familiar with the code needed to add to my signature there, but I'd welcome something I could copy/paste there.
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Xenophage, that's an awesome banner. :)
I wonder if all of us could somehow put something like that along with links to this forum in our signature in the City of Heroes forum...at least to let others know we're here and fighting.
There is power in numbers.
I'm not that familiar with the code needed to add to my signature there, but I'd welcome something I could copy/paste there.
I have made a smaller version for forums go in to your profile under signature copy and paste this [url= http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/board,134.0.html][img]http://www.deviantart.com/download/325051840/save_out_city_banner_small_for_forums_by_greenlantern24601-d5dizls.jpg[/img][/url]
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Thanks...and done. :)
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I've got my guild helping out with a support tweet, we're a big guild that's mostly dedicated to Planetside 2, but they supported my request to save city of heroes!
@ArchangelsPS2
I've also contacted Valve about this, I'm about to contact Square Enix also; since they saved True Crime: Hong Kong from death recently.
Trying my best to get the word out there!
Omega Mark V, out.
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Been spreading the word. Also came across this:
http://www.change.org/petitions/ncsoft-corporation-work-with-the-player-base-to-keep-the-city-of-heroes-servers-running
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when i was checking news sites i noticed that someone made a post on www.slashdot.org which included the "big" petition
link for reference: http://games.slashdot.org/story/12/08/31/2040222/ncsoft-closes-city-of-heroes-publisher-paragon-studios
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I've been sent a reference published in a spanish website named "Zona MMORPG", but it was badly translated, in the sense that it looked like if this ending was due to a new Super Hero MMO, which is not, so I've posted there explaining the whole thing and adding the link to the petition, here you can see it, my post is under the name of "auraycapa", the spanish forum I've been devoted for years as Moderator alongside @Nando, Administrator, and @Drowen, also a moderator, grabbing information from Mids, Paragonwiki and Red Tomax and translating it into Spanish for those spanish players that couldn't understand English:
http://www.zonammorpg.com/2012/09/03/city-of-heroes-cierra-el-30-de-noviembre/ (http://www.zonammorpg.com/2012/09/03/city-of-heroes-cierra-el-30-de-noviembre/)
Defcon Kid, out
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First let me say that I want to thank each and every one of you that has jumped on board to save our beloved community. You are all heroes for taking your own time away from real life to undergo this task.
Secondly, I'm in. I'll do what ever I can to help. I don't bring a lot to the table. I'm not rich if I was I would attempt to purchase the City of Heroes myselfand put Paragon Studios back to work. I'm not versed in tehcnology so I can't help there either.
I can sign petitions,write letters and give moral support.
Long Live City of Heroes!
Mariner
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Im in and i help in whatever i can!
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Go here and get the word out.
http://www.facebook.com/SaveOurCityOfHeroes#!/TheBigBangTheory
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Just thought of a Canadian Video Game developer that has created games such as: Assassin Creed III.
Ubisoft
Not sure how or if they would be interested. Maybe they can be convinced They are based out of Montreal. Maybe a Canadian company can save the day! lol!
I found this contact info on their website: ubi.com
Technical Support
For technical support on Ubisoft games, visit the Support Section.
Phone: 1-866-824-6515
Address
Ubisoft Divertissements Inc.
Ubisoft Canada Inc.
5505, St-Laurent blvd, suite 5000
Montreal, Quebec
H2T 1S6
For media contact: presse@ubisoft.com
Anyways, this was just a thought. May not be a good option but one never knows.
One of my favorite quotes from a fun movie: Never Give Up! Never Surrender! at least not without a fight.
Tammy
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Anyone try contacting G4 TV? If they mention the petition it would give it a broader audience.
http://www.g4tv.com/
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Anyone try contacting G4 TV? If they mention the petition it would give it a broader audience.
http://www.g4tv.com/
i dont know if G4 is really watched much anymore, since it got cut from directv as well as adam sessler and kevin perera(sp?) leaving, ive had no interest in G4
im not saying the extra publicity is bad, but i think we will not get a lot from them either
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http://www.change.org/petitions/ncsoft-keep-ncsoft-from-shutting-down-city-of-heroes
over 10,053 signed and counting.....also a friend of mine and SG buddy for almost 8 years (also a long time fan of CoX who's also trying to help) just sent me a email;
"Word is, SOE (sony online entertainment) was the first among a number of companies to have already made a bid. SOE is the only one they've taken seriously (so sources say) but at least there are some looking to get it and there's a chance they're considering it. I'm hoping that's the case, as NCSoft has a track record of 'slash and burn' policy when they shut down a game. There are also campaings to get Blizard and Valve to make a bid too. Plus, of course there's TonyV and the Titan's projects. Even though SOE owns DC online, I doubt seriously they'd buy it to bury it, as previously mentioned NCSoft policy of slash and burn would have done that anyway. If anything, I'd think they'd use everything to either making DC online better, or port a lot of DC over to the City of system in a series of 'game updates'.
Also, while original speculation is that the blame could possibly be placed on Cryptic>Activision>PWE (Perfect World Entertainment) because of the game engine's liscence belonging to them and them messing with that liscence to make NCSoft drop the game is patently UNTRUE. This was corroborated by officials from both Paragon Studios, and Cryptic (who are upset by the news as well- and are hoping to offer a lot of Paragon employees jobs if they can- who knew?). No, this is squarely on NCSoft's shoulders. "
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http://www.change.org/petitions/ncsoft-keep-ncsoft-from-shutting-down-city-of-heroes
over 10,053 signed and counting.....also a friend of mine and SG buddy for almost 8 years (also a long time fan of CoX who's also trying to help) just sent me a email;
"Word is, SOE (sony online entertainment) was the first among a number of companies to have already made a bid. SOE is the only one they've taken seriously (so sources say) but at least there are some looking to get it and there's a chance they're considering it. I'm hoping that's the case, as NCSoft has a track record of 'slash and burn' policy when they shut down a game. There are also campaings to get Blizard and Valve to make a bid too. Plus, of course there's TonyV and the Titan's projects. Even though SOE owns DC online, I doubt seriously they'd buy it to bury it, as previously mentioned NCSoft policy of slash and burn would have done that anyway. If anything, I'd think they'd use everything to either making DC online better, or port a lot of DC over to the City of system in a series of 'game updates'.
Also, while original speculation is that the blame could possibly be placed on Cryptic>Activision>PWE (Perfect World Entertainment) because of the game engine's liscence belonging to them and them messing with that liscence to make NCSoft drop the game is patently UNTRUE. This was corroborated by officials from both Paragon Studios, and Cryptic (who are upset by the news as well- and are hoping to offer a lot of Paragon employees jobs if they can- who knew?). No, this is squarely on NCSoft's shoulders. "
hate to tell you SoE might do just that (buy CoH to bury it), Sony is one company that can afford a lose in profits w/o it being a big deal.
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But why bother to spend money to bury it when that's what NCSoft is already doing for free?
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But why bother to spend money to bury it when that's what NCSoft is already doing for free?
To prevent someone else from buying it and keeping DCUO's biggest competitor alive?
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Tell me what I can do to help best!
I am not most famous personlity.. but I am DJ Ginger with the Radio Paragon (.com). And our station decided we are there til the bitter end! I can make a station break to remind people of petition ..and to remember to check here. But I need a "prompt Card" to be sure of proper information being passed
: )
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This is the facebook community for EU Defiant server... not sure if this has already been posted.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1194227840716426/?ref=ts
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Tell me what I can do to help best!
I am not most famous personlity.. but I am DJ Ginger with the Radio Paragon (.com). And our station decided we are there til the bitter end! I can make a station break to remind people of petition ..and to remember to check here. But I need a "prompt Card" to be sure of proper information being passed
: )
Well, you're known by at least many people, Ginger... I, myself saw you dancing your tail off near Citadel this morning in Talos. ;) (I was Gabriel Rath). :)
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I've never seen it mentionned anywhere, but didn't you guys got the idea to ask, in addition to Steam, to GamersFirst ?
This was the company that resurrected All Points Bulletin when it got fuel shortage midflight. And given their name, they would be willing to fight the good fight with us.
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I've never seen it mentionned anywhere, but didn't you guys got the idea to ask, in addition to Steam, to GamersFirst ?
This was the company that resurrected All Points Bulletin when it got fuel shortage midflight. And given their name, they would be willing to fight the good fight with us.
Not that I know where the idea came from, but does it really matter? we can worry about who gets credit for what IF we can save our game
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After my earlier actions, last Night I wrote a letter to the big man himselfMr
Taek Jin Kim, Chief Executive Officer of NCSoft -using the address you posted.
Polite but to the point letter. 8)
so all I can do now is read here for further ideas.
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I've revised the website and you're there, guess you could solve the problem?
Yes ty very much. I was lost at the begining but I found everything all right.
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Hi there
I am deeply saddened by the news as most of you are, but i thought of one idea id mention to try and help
https://www.youtube.com/user/SourceFed?feature=watch
tweet at these guys, post on their facebook, try and get them to do a story on this. Sourcefed does 5 daily news stories every day and they have a pretty sizeable viewership. Plus, ive seen them pick up stories like this, they talk about kickstarter stuff and game company injustices quite often, for a legit news outlet anyways. Also, their boss Phillip Defranco, does a daily video where he has the luxury of mentioning a smaller story like this - Link - https://www.youtube.com/user/sxephil?feature=results_main
hit these people up, or any others you can think of on youtube, they speak to quite a number of people
Heres hoping we can save the city one more time
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I submitted an article to my bosses to see about putting it up, as we get several million views a month. We're a political site, so had to play up the corporate angle a lot more, so I hope they'll accept it to put up. Crossing fingers.
*edit*
It was approved, a first to get a game onto the site:
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/09/03/city-of-heroes-being-shut-down/
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I submitted an article to my bosses to see about putting it up, as we get several million views a month. We're a political site, so had to play up the corporate angle a lot more, so I hope they'll accept it to put up. Crossing fingers.
*edit*
It was approved, a first to get a game onto the site:
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/09/03/city-of-heroes-being-shut-down/
I've spread it across all the CoH Facebook groups I know - it helps to let players see that what's happening isn't being ignored.
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I just found this forum today. I didn't even remember that I made a Titan account until few minutes ago. Anywho, I gotta say... I am so pumped. Well, filled with hope is more like it. After the announcement I couldn't bring myself to play CoH until earlier tonight, when I started my blueside total playthrough, which I thought would be my last project. After reading through TonyV's threads and other posts... I sincerely believe we can save Paragon City. I am going to do everything I can to help, starting with writing NCsoft and publicizing the crap out of this forum. Let's do this!
Beyond excited, hopeful - this can happen!
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This community never seizes to amaze me! It is great to see our story making it into non-gaming news sites and can now be read by people who aren't gamers. It has the opportunity to spread even further now and it would not be the first time that one of the major networks pick up a story like this - probably a small chance but it might happen.
Sterling work, Downix, I hope your kid (it was heart-wrenching what you wrote about him demolishing his Atlas Park construct) nows that he has a true hero for a parent - hopefully he will be able to continue growing up in a world with Paragon City!
Zos
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I submitted an article to my bosses to see about putting it up, as we get several million views a month. We're a political site, so had to play up the corporate angle a lot more, so I hope they'll accept it to put up. Crossing fingers.
*edit*
It was approved, a first to get a game onto the site:
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/09/03/city-of-heroes-being-shut-down/
THANK YOU!!!!! And as a side note, it's a site that even appeals to my political leanings. Bookmark'd! 8)
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THANK YOU!!!!! And as a side note, it's a site that even appeals to my political leanings. Bookmark'd! 8)
While I think that we should avoid any mention of politics, as that only leads to trouble, I do think that there's potential for a bit of TV coverage of the story if we contacted Fox with a write-up of our situation designed to appeal to them and their viewers.
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The petition to prevent NC Soft from shutting down the game has reached over 10k signatures. We need more dangit lol
http://www.change.org/petitions/ncsoft-keep-ncsoft-from-shutting-down-city-of-heroes#
There is also a petition to release the source code for the game. At the time of writing this it is showing almost 1k and that only a measly 12 more is needed :o
http://www.change.org/petitions/ncsoft-corp-open-source-the-code-for-city-of-heroes-villains?utm_campaign=new_signature&utm_medium=email&utm_source=signature_receipt#
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I've done everything I can think of, I've signed the Petition, i've gotten friends to sign it. I've posted it on Facebook. I've even written a letter to NCsoft. I feel I should do more if there's anything anyone can think of that I can do please let me know.
Exaultedninja
@Thurmal Fallout (Justice, Virtue, Guardian)
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This occurred to me earlier and I don't know if it's been mentioned anywhere but I think Real World Hero could be a very good thing to mention to folks when discussing the pros of keeping the game around. RWH has raised millions for charities in the past and has used City of Heroes as its rallying point, and the server donation competitions every year always seemed to be a big hit.
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This occurred to me earlier and I don't know if it's been mentioned anywhere but I think Real World Hero could be a very good thing to mention to folks when discussing the pros of keeping the game around. RWH has raised millions for charities in the past and has used City of Heroes as its rallying point, and the server donation competitions every year always seemed to be a big hit.
That's an excellent point.
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This occurred to me earlier and I don't know if it's been mentioned anywhere but I think Real World Hero could be a very good thing to mention to folks when discussing the pros of keeping the game around. RWH has raised millions for charities in the past and has used City of Heroes as its rallying point, and the server donation competitions every year always seemed to be a big hit.
So how would we go about setting something like that up?
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I don't know if any of your guys watched either SourceFed or PhillyD, but I shared a link into SourceFed's facebook page. Hoping that they would, at the very least, take a look at this.
EDIT: Also posted on Philip DeFranco's facebook page. Knowing how many subs he has in his youtube channel, the smallest exposure with his help would be quite good. Fingers crossed.
MOAR EDIT: Jensen010, are you, by chance, a member of DeFranco nation? :3
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Just a little idea ,
get your server channel mods to put this url in the game start up chat. http://www.change.org/petitions/ncsoft-keep-ncsoft-from-shutting-down-city-of-heroes (http://www.change.org/petitions/ncsoft-keep-ncsoft-from-shutting-down-city-of-heroes)
ive allready done Union server for badge hunters and union chat i hope to do later today when a mod comes online.
But get it to as many ingame chat groups as you can
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Yes indeed :)
Seriously though, I think sourcefed and phillyd are a really good route to try, they're on the internet only and speak to what, a million people daily? I think a good way to present it to them is taking the angle the news article posted and linked to here and trying to mention this in a "can social media affect change in corporate decisions" type of story. So I say lets all try to get them to do it, itd be really good exposure
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Here's a shortened bit.ly link to the online petition: http://bit.ly/savecoh
Also please start using the hashtag #savecoh on Twitter.
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Also: we'd been discussing this a couple of weeks back anyway, but it would seem that now is a good time to fire up the Titan Twitter feed again.
Edit: And just like that, we're up and running again! @thetitannetwork
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Golden Girl suggested I come over here, which was a good idea.
I'm located in SoCal (Long Beach, specifically), and would like to be part of and/or help organize some kind of efforts to get the word out. Perhaps we could start a charity drive in the name of Paragon Studios and CoH, or maybe do some viral videos (there have to be some actors and actresses and videographers out here!).
I'll try and brainstorm some ideas, but I've always been more of the creative support guy, and less the actual organizer myself. I really want to do something to try and raise the profile of this, so that we might better bolster our chances of getting CoH back.
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I have an idea, but need feedback. What if we did a campaign asking people to register for F2P on the game to show their support? Its more than just signing a petition, it would actually work towards increasing our customer base and community.
Are we still able to sign up for F2P accounts?
Something like, "Save Paragon City! Become a Hero!", or something...
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I have an idea, but need feedback. What if we did a campaign asking people to register for F2P on the game to show their support? Its more than just signing a petition, it would actually work towards increasing our customer base and community.
Are we still able to sign up for F2P accounts?
Something like, "Save Paragon City! Become a Hero!", or something...
i dont think you can get an account for coh period anymore unless you happen to enter a serial code from a box set
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Someone mentioned Real World Hero. It made me think of another promotion CoH did a long, long time ago involved with sending copies of the game overseas to military serving in a combat zone.
I'll see if I can find some kind of link to it in my archives somewhere.
[Edit: Found it] http://us.ncsoft.com/en/news/press-releases/ncsoft-gives-20.html
It would also be great if someone who received one of these copies is a player would be willing and able to share their story with us and the media.
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Is there a central blog or website that we can set up to be the main source of info for this? It'd be easier to get press coverage if they knew that they could always go to one website, which is constantly updated with all of the news.
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I'm doing what many here are doing: writing letters, spreading the word about the petitions (including to non-players), and contacting various media who might be interested in this sort of thing. I also live less than 3 miles from NCsoft in Austin, TX. I wonder if there is anything else I specifically might be able to do, due to my proximity. I've contacted friends here in town who might know NCsoft employees, but so far nothing has materialized. Gonna keep trying! I have a co-worker with a tenuous connection to Richard Garriot, but from what I've read I'm not sure that would be much help to our cause.
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I'm doing what many here are doing: writing letters, spreading the word about the petitions (including to non-players), and contacting various media who might be interested in this sort of thing. I also live less than 3 miles from NCsoft in Austin, TX. I wonder if there is anything else I specifically might be able to do, due to my proximity. I've contacted friends here in town who might know NCsoft employees, but so far nothing has materialized. Gonna keep trying! I have a co-worker with a tenuous connection to Richard Garriot, but from what I've read I'm not sure that would be much help to our cause.
If they're rank & file NCsoft employees, they probably can 't do much. And I don't think most of the decision makers are at NCsoft Austin. It's either Seattle or Korea.
I definitely think hitting up celebrities such as comic book writers, actors (Wil Wheaton) via Twitter would help. Sometimes they've been known to get behind a cause like this.
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If they're rank & file NCsoft employees, they probably can 't do much. And I don't think most of the decision makers are at NCsoft Austin. It's either Seattle or Korea.
I definitely think hitting up celebrities such as comic book writers, actors (Wil Wheaton) via Twitter would help. Sometimes they've been known to get behind a cause like this.
Mercedes Lackey is throwing her support behind us. Very helpful.
What we need is nonstop (social) media coverage of this effort. Exposure will elicit a response from NCsoft sooner rather than later, and we can adjust our plans accordingly.
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This in-game quote has just been posted on Facebook:
"[Admin] Alpha Wolf: Sorry guys but I don't have any new update. I know Paragon management is having discussion with ncsoft and investors. Continue get people to sign online petitions, post on game forums, and just continue to make noises so ncsoft cannot ignore players."
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This in-game quote has just been posted on Facebook:
"[Admin] Alpha Wolf: Sorry guys but I don't have any new update. I know Paragon management is having discussion with ncsoft and investors. Continue get people to sign online petitions, post on game forums, and just continue to make noises so ncsoft cannot ignore players."
Don't forget about Twitter. That will get the word out fast if everyone signs up for a account online and tweets Keep COH alive! Or We're here, We're here! Keep COH alive! or something that we all can tweet. Just a thought
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Don't forget about Twitter. That will get the word out fast if everyone signs up for a account online and tweets Keep COH alive! Or We're here, We're here! Keep COH alive! or something that we all can tweet. Just a thought
#SaveCOH
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I've been playing COH since 2005 on the Liberty Server, the thought of loosing it is ripping me apart!
I run a small decal company out of my basement, while I'm a nobody (and I operate at a loss), I do actually get a bit of traffic to my site, would it be alright to put a main page banner up with a link to the thread that lead me here?
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This in-game quote has just been posted on Facebook:
"[Admin] Alpha Wolf: Sorry guys but I don't have any new update. I know Paragon management is having discussion with ncsoft and investors. Continue get people to sign online petitions, post on game forums, and just continue to make noises so ncsoft cannot ignore players."
To be perfectly honest, I was terrified that when a Paragon Studios staff member spoke out it'd be something like, 'Sorry guys, but it's not happening'.
This, however, is amazing news. To hear that Paragon management is trying as we our ups are chances that much more.
edit: words are really hard right now. I've been up for too long. In fact, "too" just came out as "two"... but at least I caught it this time >.>
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I am currently attempting to get several older players to come back and join our cause. Also, I reached out to a few major FB groups that have large fan bases to see if they would help by posting for support on their pages. Some of them have nothing to do with online gaming, but I think may be good people to help us rally support and get more notice. I may have them contact you Tony to get info about what we wamt them to say in their posts if thats ok. I'm not always the best at keeping my emotions in check when dealing with these things and can come across as angry, mean or even hurtful at times... I would prefer this not to be the case in the dealings. Once again, thank you for leading the charge.
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This is a copy of a text I recently sent a fellow player who has kind of given up playing in the wake of this announcement.
Me: We need the player base to stand strong right now. We have a chance here to make this thing work. An administer came on today and actually posted in chat that paragon management, ncsoft and investors are speaking. This is a huge step in the right direction. He said keep signing the petitions, writing letters and making as much noise as we can till they realize the player base will not be ignored... His words, not mine. We need all players new and old to come back and share our voices. Stand up and be counted, etc. Look at it like you are fighting Reischman with a pug group. It's gonna be hard, we may not win and hell if he ain't got a crap ton of HP. But, its doable... and his health bar is definitely moving, even if it is very slowly. What we have to remember is that we've come this far and if we don't try now it'll all be for not. You won't get another chance to stand up for this. The time is now, but even if we loose... At least we will know that our heroes went down with their heads held high. *meaning us*
Just wanted to share this.
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This is a copy of a text I recently sent a fellow player who has kind of given up playing in the wake of this announcement.
Me: We need the player base to stand strong right now. We have a chance here to make this thing work. An administer came on today and actually posted in chat that paragon management, ncsoft and investors are speaking. This is a huge step in the right direction. He said keep signing the petitions, writing letters and making as much noise as we can till they realize the player base will not be ignored... His words, not mine. We need all players new and old to come back and share our voices. Stand up and be counted, etc. Look at it like you are fighting Reischman with a pug group. It's gonna be hard, we may not win and hell if he ain't got a crap ton of HP. But, its doable... and his health bar is definitely moving, even if it is very slowly. What we have to remember is that we've come this far and if we don't try now it'll all be for not. You won't get another chance to stand up for this. The time is now, but even if we loose... At least we will know that our heroes went down with their heads held high. *meaning us*
Just wanted to share this.
Good call sharing this. I don't know who else has noticed, but a lot of the in-game chatter is centered on doom-and-gloom and trolling. I encourage every one of you to get out there and champion this effort. Not just to your supergroups and channels, but in broadcast, help and even LFG. More people on our side will not hurt us.
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Not sure if this link has been put out yet or not but we made CNN iReport and it seems a lot of people have been posting on it so far...keep it up! ;D
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-837330?ref=feeds/latest
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Fox news has one a UReport, if someone would like to try and get them on board also.
http://ureport.foxnews.com/
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If they're rank & file NCsoft employees, they probably can 't do much. And I don't think most of the decision makers are at NCsoft Austin. It's either Seattle or Korea.
I definitely think hitting up celebrities such as comic book writers, actors (Wil Wheaton) via Twitter would help. Sometimes they've been known to get behind a cause like this.
I'm in Seattle and already considering trying to arrange something. Show them that we're real people, not just account numbers and statistics. Ask them to look into our sadfaced eyes. Etc.
As for hitting up celebrities, I also took a longshot and wrote to Stephen Colbert. You never know.
-- C.
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I told my local game stop...if you are a regular at any gaming related location spread the word
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I've been playing COH since 2005 on the Liberty Server, the thought of loosing it is ripping me apart!
I run a small decal company out of my basement, while I'm a nobody (and I operate at a loss), I do actually get a bit of traffic to my site, would it be alright to put a main page banner up with a link to the thread that lead me here?
May I please steal your little banner in your sig? I want to put it up on my FB wall?
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Absolutely!
I've also made two graphics as well, both with transparency
(https://images.weserv.nl/?url=www.nerdfitti.com%2Fimages%2FCOH%2Frip-coh.png)
and
(https://images.weserv.nl/?url=www.nerdfitti.com%2Fimages%2FCOH%2Frip-cov.png)
Please feel free to use them
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O.k., this just came out of the blue to me....
There's an eerie parallel here between us and a little sci-fi show that a network wanted to cancel once after a single season...the fans did not like this...they did not like it one little bit...they rallied...they WON...and that little show became a juggernaut that's still merrily rolling along to this day....
NCSoft, if you're listening, I've got two words for you....
STAR TREK.
I say we appeal to long-time fans of Star Trek...they've been through this before...perhaps they can help...and who knows, maybe a few of the cast members from over the years are aware of us.... ;)
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Been spreading the word, tapping a few of my comics industry contacts.
---Dave aka @dvandom
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I'm at work and the site's blocked, but has anyone posted about this on Cracked.com? I'm pretty sure our demographics have some common denominators, and they've got a lot of folks over there. Also, Mr. Swaim or Mr. O'Brian would probably give a shout out if asked politely.
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Sent a tip, with the Examiner link, to ShackNews.com; that's the site Gamefly uses for their news updates, so we could reach many Gamefly subscribers that way.
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Wouldn't it be a huge boon to NCSoft if they were able to market a game that was so beloved and so awesome that its fan base rallied sufficiently to save it? They'd look good, and people would want to come find out what all the fuss was about.
All this publicity could be turned to their favor . . . if only they'd see it that way.
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COUNT ME IN
Deon Moore
Last of the PURE EVIL COV
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Wouldn't it be a huge boon to NCSoft if they were able to market a game that was so beloved and so awesome that its fan base rallied sufficiently to save it? They'd look good, and people would want to come find out what all the fuss was about.
All this publicity could be turned to their favor . . . if only they'd see it that way.
We don't know that they're ignorant of that fact. I mean, they are at least talking with the management of Paragon Studios. So let's rally even harder and drive the point home.
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You guys, please, for the love of all that is good in the world, please check your work for spelling, grammatical, and formatting errors before posting it anywhere that may get picked up by the media - and that means letters sent to professionals or celebrities, blog posts, article submissions, etc.
I know it sounds extremely petty of me to bring this up right now, but there are many people who will flat-out ignore a submission that requires heavy editing, uses chatspeak, or is difficult to understand. If you're not sure, Google it or ask someone else to read it over. We can't afford to have even one of the things people have been writing thrown away without being seen.
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Thanks, Downix! Great job!
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For anyone contacting NCSoft directly, use material from here:
http://global.ncsoft.com/global/aboutus/visiongoals.aspx
The whole thing reads like one big sick joke when their actual actions are compared to their words.
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Doing a quick Google search for "City of Heroes" had the following news article listed at the top:
http://www.examiner.com/article/efforts-underway-to-save-city-of-heroes
It was posted just a few hours ago. Much love to Cecil Adkins at Examiner.com. :D
Also this from Joystiq. Maybe we can take the time to tell them about our efforts while submitting entries to the contest.
http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/09/04/we-want-your-most-creative-city-of-heroes-character/
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I've begun to send the petition link to friends who don't play the game but know my love for it....will continue to do so!!
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For anyone contacting NCSoft directly, use material from here:
http://global.ncsoft.com/global/aboutus/visiongoals.aspx
The whole thing reads like one big sick joke when their actual actions are compared to their words.
If it's as silly as you describe it, I'm going to write to Jim Sterling with this right away. They won't escape the Jimquisition.
And I've just read it. He will love making a video about it.
Edit: Some precision:
He is famous for itchy comments, so he won't be taken harshly. I know we shouldn't blame NCSoft, but sarcasm and viral video could help get us coverage. Do we aim for the tradeoff or do we refrain from doing possibly misinterpretable videos ?
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I know we shouldn't blame NCSoft, but sarcasm and viral video could help get us coverage. Do we aim for the tradeoff or do we refrain from doing possibly misinterpretable videos ?
If it's a completely binary choice, I definitely prefer the latter course of action. Remember, the people we offend or look foolish in front of may well have the authority to redlight our favorite game. We don't need to provide them with any reasons to do so. In fact, if we're unrelentingly dignified, it becomes easy for them to unwittingly villify themselves (a fate I think they'll be keen on avoiding).
I know that sounds self-interested, but I accept that simply asking people to behave in a polite, personable manner won't be enough to sway everyone to my viewpoint.
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I know we shouldn't blame NCSoft
The ball's in their court - they're the ones being unreasonable, so they are to blame for not selling the game.
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The ball's in their court - they're the ones being unreasonable, so they are to blame for not selling the game.
Furthermore, it's just sarcastically pointing at how funny it is to "want to please everyone" in their "About us page" while closing overnight the online game even though it was [being profitable[/i].
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The ball's in their court - they're the ones being unreasonable, so they are to blame for not selling the game.
Regardless of their original motivation for deciding to shut down NCsoft, I'm personally waiting to see the outcome of the negotiations between Paragon management and NCsoft before declaring them entirely unreasonable. I'm sure that the original decision to shut down made perfect sense in their minds.
(Doesn't mean NCsoft will be getting any more money from me, though.)
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Regardless of their original motivation for deciding to shut down NCsoft, I'm personally waiting to see the outcome of the negotiations between Paragon management and NCsoft before declaring them entirely unreasonable. I'm sure that the original decision to shut down made perfect sense in their minds.
(Doesn't mean NCsoft will be getting any more money from me, though.)
Was coming up to this. If we unleash possibly negative content, we have to wait a bit. It's still less than a week old. They're a corporation, these things take time.
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Was coming up to this. If we unleash possibly negative content, we have to wait a bit. It's still less than a week old. They're a corporation, these things take time.
agreed, we must try to remain civil minded for now
ncsoft has not released any PR statements regarding this just yet since we are still getting the word out
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"You can attract more flies with honey than with lemon."
Come into my personal space, spatting in my face, yelling profanities or using harsh sarcasm and I shut down.
Approach me as a mature, respecting/respectful individual, with a calm tone and as an equal, and I'll be receptive.
I'm not sure I'm unique.
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"You can attract more flies with honey than with lemon."
Come into my personal space, spatting in my face, yelling profanities or using harsh sarcasm and I shut down.
Approach me as a mature, respecting/respectful individual, with a calm tone and as an equal, and I'll be receptive.
I'm not sure I'm unique.
sounds pretty normal to me ;D
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I'm reluctant to suggest this, with Tony calling for patience, but what about an ad in a gaming mag? When viewers are trying to save a favorite show, they pool resources and take out an ad in Variety. What about putting an ad in Game Informer or MMO Games?
It costs, but we're all verbally willing to throw money at this without any real way of doing so, yet. I'm not sure how the wording would have to be in setting up a crowd funding account, such that the overage could be retained in support of whichever future direction this movement ends up going, and it may still be jumping the gun, but I felt it bore pointing out as an immediate option.
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agreed, we must try to remain civil minded for now
I know - but there's also a time limit - if they don't say anything at all this month, then we might need to step it up a bit.
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I just contacted radio program "This American Life," which routinely spotlights themes in contemporary society and looks for interesting stories to tell. This was my message, edited to remove some identifiable information and without hyperlinks.
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This American Life,
Hello. I'm writing to you today to tell you part of a story that I think illustrates something deeper and more profound in modern America. It's the story of an electronic community fighting, as we speak, for its very survival. This community just so happens to be centered around a video game, and the video game just so happens to be centered around the nerdiest of fantasies: living a vicarious life as a super hero. The video game is titled City of Heroes, and it's a massively-multiplayer online game that challenges its players to create a comic-book-inspired alternate persona and fight (or perpetuate) crime in the fictitious, not-at-all-related-to-The-Big-Apple setting of Paragon City.
It's also a game that I've gladly paid a monthly fee to play for over seven years now.
It's also a game that is dying.
On August 31st, the game's publisher--the company that provides the infrastructure and support to operate the game--announced that continued support of City of Heroes no longer fit in the company's plans. The publisher, South Korea-based NCsoft, has had a hard time making ends meet of late and has apparently decided that the funds invested in the game would provide a higher return on investment elsewhere. The game's servers would be deactivated, effectively killing the game, by the end of the calendar year. The game's developers--the people that provided the intellectual capital and artistic knowhow to grow the game--were relived of duties effective immediately, and tens of thousands of subscribers--who pay up to $15 a month solely for the privilege of connecting to the City of Heroes servers--were shocked.
You see, the game isn't just a game. It's a community, and a remarkably tightly-knit one at that. People have met, fallen in love, and even gotten married with Paragon City a a backdrop. I personally enjoy talking, on a regular basis, to fans from Las Vegas, Quebec, New Zealand, and Bulgaria from the comfort of my home in Tennessee. We, the City of Heroes community, write. We share, we create, and we get to know one another in a relaxed setting--a sort of virtual Bohemia. And we learn: we learn how to be heroes. The game is known for the fans' advocating of gay rights and the real-world charity drive aptly named "Real World Hero."
So, yes, they--we--were shocked with the news that all of that would be gone. As far as we all knew--and still know--the game is profitable. We couldn't have seen it coming. There was silence. There were tears (which, as a grown man, I'm slow to admit that I personally contributed to in no small quantity). Then, just when it looked like the electronic world we'd invested financially, intellectually, socially, and emotionally into would vanish in a fit of corporate greed that would've made Superman's archenemy, Lex Luthor, proud, we remembered more things we learned from the heroes we pretended to be.
We remembered how to band together. We remembered how to hope. We remembered how to fight the good fight.
We wrote letters to the publisher, NCsoft. We reached out to anyone and everyone with the smallest amount of celebrity to lend to our cause. We started plans to reverse-engineer the City of Heroes server needed to make the game work, with or without NCsoft's support. In the hopes of pressuring NCsoft into bringing the game back to life or, failing that, selling the game to another publisher that would, we began a public relations campaign.
In the interest of full disclosure, that PR campaign is the reason I first thought of This American Life, but it occurred to me later that this is a story with themes that apply to modern America: a grassroots movement against perceived corporate heartlessness. Rallying via the Internet to create change. Even the very idea of a subculture coming to life virtually ex nihilo through online communications and existing entirely in the aether speaks to where America is and where it's going.
I think this is a story worthy of This American Life. I wouldn't be writing if I didn't feel that way. These players have wonderful stories to tell--if you want to hear from players whose lives have been touched by the game and its community, I could produce dozens within a day. I know personally of lives that have been saved because of the social network the game provided. And we will fight, with poise and grace, to save the game that made all of that possible.
If you're interested in following along, the efforts to Save Paragon City! are being coordinated by longtime fansite Titan Network, led by Tony V.
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I sent a similar email to Science Friday and am investigating sending one to the All Tech Considered blog. Also sent an email to the editor of DVice on the SyFy.com site.
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I sent a similar email to Science Friday and am investigating sending one to the All Tech Considered blog. Also sent an email to the editor of DVice on the SyFy.com site.
I already hit up Monkey See, which is mostly a printed blog. Do you think All Tech Considered or SciFri would be interested, though? It's an intriguing thought!
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I'm reluctant to suggest this, with Tony calling for patience, but what about an ad in a gaming mag? When viewers are trying to save a favorite show, they pool resources and take out an ad in Variety. What about putting an ad in Game Informer or MMO Games?
It costs, but we're all verbally willing to throw money at this without any real way of doing so, yet. I'm not sure how the wording would have to be in setting up a crowd funding account, such that the overage could be retained in support of whichever future direction this movement ends up going, and it may still be jumping the gun, but I felt it bore pointing out as an immediate option.
The problem with an ad in a magazine is that it can take 2-3 months for it to go out, by which point it'll be too late.
An ad in a newspaper would be quicker, but then it's not necessarily the right audience.
A quicker and more relevant options might be an ad on website, like a site take over of MMORPG.COM. But those can cost $10,000+.
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There are a number of reasons I wasn't enthusiastic about a print ad. cost and timing ware big ones.
With ATC and SciFri, it's the virtual "uprising" angle.
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Wonderful letter there, Vulpy! *thumbs up*
...also, you're from Tennessee, too?? ;D
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Wonderful letter there, Vulpy! *thumbs up*
...also, you're from Tennessee, too?? ;D
I was actually kicking myself for not mentioning the petition, or the fans offering to buy the IP from NCsoft outright if that's what it took... But what's done is done.
And, yes. I'm in the far northeastern corner of Tennessee--depending on traffic, I could drive to Detroit before I could drive to Memphis.
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Interesting little thing I've noticed in game: many people are starting to say things like, "IF the game shuts down". My supergroup channel's MotD reads: "Be sure to post your email on the website to keep in contact if the game shuts down"
Everyone is starting recognize the possibility of this. Morale is a powerful thing.
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I emailed io9 (sci/fi, science, and tech blog in the Gawker network) about our plight. It's sister site about gaming, Kotaku, might seem better suited for the story, but I think the human element of this is more compelling and more likely to generate interest outside the gaming world. io9 has a little broader cross section of society in their readership than Kotaku so...fingers crossed they'll deem this newsworthy.
I definitely applaud trying to get this story on This American Life's radar. This seems like the kind of thing that would baffle them enough to want to learn more about it, and I think we need to reach out to people who don't entirely understand what we're trying to save. Years ago, before I knew what an MMO even was, I read an article about people rioting in Ultima Online. The main thing I took away from that was there was a virtual world, inhabited by real people who were trying to change something, and that was damn fascinating to me. Now, so many years later, I'm a converted and impassioned MMO player trying to do the the same thing. Damn you, fate.
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I sent a message to Ian McConville and Matt Boyd. They run a beautiful webcomic named Three Panel Soul and used to run one called 'Mac Hall". I know they were players once upon a time.
Every little bit helps, right? And if you're curious about their stuff, check on this comic...beautiful....
http://machall.com/view.php?date=2006-04-07
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just wanted to let everyone know, don't forget comic book stores!
i'm lucky enough to be friends with someone who works at one, and is an avid CoX'er with lifetime subscription. anyway, i had him post the link to the petition on the store's facebook page and website. even if we get only a handful of sig's from people outside the community, it was all worth the effort. if nothing else, maybe try to go and "cold sell" our cause to people at the store. even the slightest bump on a website or facebook page will come in handy! :)
(sorry if this was mentioned before. just kinda breezed through al....ok..MOST of the posts...ok ok!...the first couple pages. lol)
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just wanted to let everyone know, don't forget comic book stores!
i'm lucky enough to be friends with someone who works at one, and is an avid CoX'er with lifetime subscription. anyway, i had him post the link to the petition on the store's facebook page and website. even if we get only a handful of sig's from people outside the community, it was all worth the effort. if nothing else, maybe try to go and "cold sell" our cause to people at the store. even the slightest bump on a website or facebook page will come in handy! :)
(sorry if this was mentioned before. just kinda breezed through al....ok..MOST of the posts...ok ok!...the first couple pages. lol)
I have a comic shop to visit this weekend! Thanks for the idea.
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also, just as a thought. take it and run with it as you wish, but i've posted the petition link on my facebook. letting others who might not play or even be a gamer, "if you've always wanted to be a superhero, THIS is your chance!".
remind them that they might have a favorite superhero, or villain, anti-hero, whatever. or point out how much they loved (insert comic book movie here). trying to connect with people on a more personal level, get's them a bit more motivated to do something.
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Has anyone thought of asking Harry Knowles at Aint it Cool News?
He seems to delve in everything entertainment related, DVDs,comics,toys, etc..
Just a thought, I already sent my letters to NCsoft and signed the petition.
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I'm hesitant to mention it (if no one else has), but has anyone thought about making the rounds of the various *chans and dropping posts about our fight on their video game/MMO boards? "Hive of scum and villainy" and that (many of them anyway, not to mention the stomping grounds of a multitude of internet tough guys who like to rag on anything just to try and get a rise from people), but it might be one way to help get the word out directly to some gamers if we tread carefully.
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Holy cow, the petition has 13.5k signatures on it now. I'm sat here watching the number go up by the minute.
It's awesome :)
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Holy cow, the petition has 13.5k signatures on it now. I'm sat here watching the number go up by the minute.
It's awesome :)
I actually asked a co-worker who has never played to sign it as a favor for me. "You owe me" she growled as she signed it. :D At this point, I'm doing my best to think of anyone I can get to sign it.
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I got a reply from Robert Peeler (Community Manager for Square Enix) via Square Enix Member message, he said he knew a few of the Devs from Paragon Studios, so this decision to close Paragon studios holds a little more weight for him.
As for square enix acquiring the IP, they don't have any plans for it at the moment, but if it changes (hopefully) they'll post it on the site.
I'm constantly praying for our success in some form, I want CoX in another publishers hands at least. Having the game live would be enough for me, and probably a lot of us. If we can get the Dev team back also, that would be even better.
Omega Mk V, out.
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I got a reply from Robert Peeler (Community Manager for Square Enix) via Square Enix Member message, he said he knew a few of the Devs from Paragon Studios, so this decision to close Paragon studios holds a little more weight for him.
If nothing else, at least you've just endorsed any Paragon developer who might be looking for a new job at Square Enix. I'm sure they'll appreciate that. :)
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After almost a week I would have thought my drive to save COH would have abated....somehow it's getting stronger. I'll be certifying some more letters on Friday and next Monday.
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After almost a week I would have thought my drive to save COH would have abated....somehow it's getting stronger. I'll be certifying some more letters on Friday and next Monday.
Good to hear. I love this game more than ever and saving it is taking up every free second I have. I don't plan on changing that.
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I have added a brief notice of the fact that efforts are underway to keep the game going to the Production History section in the Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Heroes), referenced to Massively. This is probably as good as it's going to get in terms of Wikipedia coverage unless and until major non-blog-type media get involved. Being somewhat invested in this, it's hard to be impartial. There was a longer section added earlier, with links to the petition pages and such, that was reverted and got the page semi-protected; you can't edit it unless you've opened an account and have it open for some time. Please read the talk page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:City_of_Heroes) and history (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=City_of_Heroes&action=history) if you want to get involved in editing the article. Anyone can leave a message on talk.
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Did anybody think about Kevin Smith. I mean, he is a huge celebrity, he owns a comicbook store and I bet he knows about CoH. I think we can give it a Try to contact him.
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I have added a brief notice of the fact that efforts are underway to keep the game going to the Production History section in the Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Heroes), referenced to Massively. This is probably as good as it's going to get in terms of Wikipedia coverage unless and until major non-blog-type media get involved. Being somewhat invested in this, it's hard to be impartial. There was a longer section added earlier, with links to the petition pages and such, that was reverted and got the page semi-protected; you can't edit it unless you've opened an account and have it open for some time. Please read the talk page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:City_of_Heroes) and history (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=City_of_Heroes&action=history) if you want to get involved in editing the article. Anyone can leave a message on talk.
Nice work, Heraclea. Thanks for the assist. :)
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Hey guys I don't know if this has been mentioned but remember to reach out to all of your gamer friends. I don't care if you play WOW, SWTOR, GW, GW2, TSW hell Modern warfare 3 and Halo this could happen to them all a game can be stopped on a whim and we should all get together as a gaming community to stop this from becoming a common scene. If we stop this now we can show big business that games can be so much more thant just a sub each month. We are all pationate let's use that to get the other gmaers involved.
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SO i have started getting the word out by replying to any and all gaming FB uploads from other games letting them know that I cannot play as I am busy saving COH a pioneer in the superpowered MMO genre and a game worth saving. Is this ok or should I cease this ?
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SO i have started getting the word out by replying to any and all gaming FB uploads from other games letting them know that I cannot play as I am busy saving COH a pioneer in the superpowered MMO genre and a game worth saving. Is this ok or should I cease this ?
It's certainly amusing. :)
I'd say as long as you aren't initiating by just dropping that into random people's pages (and it sounds like that's not the case), then you're good to go.
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Cross-posting from the forums by Phillygirl, in regards to the CNN iReport post:
"More importantly please scroll to the end and sign up and click the "this belongs on CNN" button. We need 2000 recommendations and we only have 425 with over 4000 views wtf. Click the recommendation or a producer will not look at it and it will go no further. We want this on CNN not as an ireport. "
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?p=4384293&posted=1#post4384293
We should be able to easily break the 2k barrier, please everyone go sign up for CNN even if you never go back, and up-vote this!
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-837330
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Cross-posting from the forums by Phillygirl, in regards to the CNN iReport post:
"More importantly please scroll to the end and sign up and click the "this belongs on CNN" button. We need 2000 recommendations and we only have 425 with over 4000 views wtf. Click the recommendation or a producer will not look at it and it will go no further. We want this on CNN not as an ireport. "
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?p=4384293&posted=1#post4384293
We should be able to easily break the 2k barrier, please everyone go sign up for CNN even if you never go back, and up-vote this!
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-837330
Done and done. Get at it guys!
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I would sign up and vote, however the sign-up does not play with my Android phone... it keeps dropping my screen-based keyboard. I will try again tonight when I get home.
That accounts for one page view with no vote. :(
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I was actually kicking myself for not mentioning the petition, or the fans offering to buy the IP from NCsoft outright if that's what it took... But what's done is done.
And, yes. I'm in the far northeastern corner of Tennessee--depending on traffic, I could drive to Detroit before I could drive to Memphis.
In Chattanooga here, right on top of the TN/GA stateline.... :D
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I have added a brief notice of the fact that efforts are underway to keep the game going to the Production History section in the Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Heroes), referenced to Massively. This is probably as good as it's going to get in terms of Wikipedia coverage unless and until major non-blog-type media get involved. Being somewhat invested in this, it's hard to be impartial. There was a longer section added earlier, with links to the petition pages and such, that was reverted and got the page semi-protected; you can't edit it unless you've opened an account and have it open for some time. Please read the talk page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:City_of_Heroes) and history (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=City_of_Heroes&action=history) if you want to get involved in editing the article. Anyone can leave a message on talk.
Sounds really good, that was a great idea.
I've also just signed-up on BBC and posted a comment on the article mentioned earlier.
Maybe we should also try to get a godfather on our side. He could make NCsoft "an offer they can't resist". Anyone on here got connections to the Mafia, maybe? ...sorry that's just my gallows humor.
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I just discovered that my non-tweeting self is followed by YNN Austin. I linked the CNN article in a tweet. Hopefully they might see it and report.
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...sorry that's just my gallows humor.
Sometimes you need it.
My favorite is still the one about finally knowing why the figures on the Mayan calendar are all wearing little capes.
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Sounds really good, that was a great idea.
I've also just signed-up on BBC and posted a comment on the article mentioned earlier.
Maybe we should also try to get a godfather on our side. He could make NCsoft "an offer they can't resist". Anyone on here got connections to the Mafia, maybe? ...sorry that's just my gallows humor.
Maybe as a last resort :P
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I've signed the petition, and linked things in Facebook and G+.
Thanks to someone on G+ I found the petition and this site. I want to help anyway I can. I've been with CoH since the beginning, and I'll be there until the end. Whether that's in November or years from now.
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I've signed the petition, and linked things in Facebook and G+.
Thanks to someone on G+ I found the petition and this site. I want to help anyway I can. I've been with CoH since the beginning, and I'll be there until the end. Whether that's in November or years from now.
Welcome and thanks for the support! There's a lot you can do, as you can see by poking around this board. Thanking the media is a good start, it's easy and extremely important. See TonyV's thread on that for more info. Plenty of links to all the press we've gotten too. There are lots of other things, of course. Take a look around!
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Sometimes you need it.
My favorite is still the one about finally knowing why the figures on the Mayan calendar are all wearing little capes.
I was also connecting it to the Mayan belief that the world will come to an end in late December (on the 22nd or 23rd, not sure right now). I was thinking like: "Well, the world of CoH might will come to an end a little earlier."
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Cross-posting from the forums by Phillygirl, in regards to the CNN iReport post:
"More importantly please scroll to the end and sign up and click the "this belongs on CNN" button. We need 2000 recommendations and we only have 425 with over 4000 views wtf. Click the recommendation or a producer will not look at it and it will go no further. We want this on CNN not as an ireport. "
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?p=4384293&posted=1#post4384293
We should be able to easily break the 2k barrier, please everyone go sign up for CNN even if you never go back, and up-vote this!
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-837330
Done as well and even linked it to my facebook page. Anything else I can sign out there? Looking to help in any way I can! (Already got both petitions)
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Done as well and even linked it to my facebook page. Anything else I can sign out there? Looking to help in any way I can! (Already got both petitions)
If you're up to it you can sift through all the different media sites we've appeared on and leave an appreciative comment! Always helpful. Most the links should be somewhere in this thread :)
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I'll do whatever I can.
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I've also posted a message on the Age of Conan forums (http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?p=3057108#post3057108) sending them here and informing them of the situation. The closure had not come up in their off topic forum over there yet.
That isn't the world's greatest community over there, but how could it hurt?
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Sent emails to SourceFed, Phil DeFranco, and Dodger from Press Heart to Continue youtube channel.
Also sent an email to Penn Jillette in hopes he will spread the world on his Sunday Podcast. Hell even signed up for Twitter to tweet him. I have no idea how that works and if he got it as I don't see my post but hope it got it.
NCSoft, I signed up for twitter of all things, keep the game. Please?
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Can't remember if I mentioned it, but I sent a "tip" to XPlay either yesterday or the day before. They have to be aware of the shutdown, but I figured getting this on their radar wouldn't hurt.
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We should be able to easily break the 2k barrier, please everyone go sign up for CNN even if you never go back, and up-vote this!
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-837330
If this is destined for any one of the main pages on a stage as big as that, we're going to want it to look as sharp as humanly possible before it gets there--this could be our debut on the global stage, if we can get past one member of production staff. Is there a chance we could give our iReport a pass to see if it conforms to CNN's recommendations (http://ireport.cnn.com/toolkit.jspa)?
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Not to be competing with the very emotional ireport existing, a few hours back I created one, with an intentional push to reach out to a larger audience.
In a few hours, it has over 1000 views.
so far so good.
If you dont mind, see it, fav it, recommend it.
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-838027
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Not to be competing with the very emotional ireport existing, a few hours back I created one, with an intentional push to reach out to a larger audience.
It's like you read my mind!
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Not to be competing with the very emotional ireport existing, a few hours back I created one, with an intentional push to reach out to a larger audience.
In a few hours, it has over 1000 views.
so far so good.
If you dont mind, see it, fav it, recommend it.
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-838027
Very nicely written. It really captures the essence of what we're trying to do.
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last night i got the crazy idea that we might be able to be featured in a bump on adult swim, this sunday is the robot chicken DC comics special so featuring a save coh bump around a comic themed special would be excellent coverage
my OP is here in the other media thread:
You know what also is conveniently appearing on sunday night? the robot chicken DC comics special
if someone were to get a hold of adult swim it could be possible they could mention save coh in one of their little "bumps" during commercials
i found some resources which might be useful:
adultswim [bump] builder: http://www.adultswim.com/bumps/ (http://www.adultswim.com/bumps/)
adultswim contact info: http://www.adultswim.com/footer/contact/index.html (http://www.adultswim.com/footer/contact/index.html)
its a longshot to be featured but hey it will theme well with the robot chicken special which i know i will definitely be watching anyway
edit: i have submitted an email to adult swim asking for them to feature our movement in a bump when they air the robot chicken DC comic special, here is what i wrote:
Last Friday City of Heroes was declared to be shut down by NCSoft out of nowhere even though City of Heroes was a doing fine and still has a very loyal fanbase. City of Heroes is the first and best superhero themed MMO on the market and with a risk being shut down is gonna dishearten superhero fans everywhere.
Since the DC Comics Special of Robot Chicken was going to be airing this Sunday, August 9th. I would deeply request that a message be put out in the form of bumps about the plight of the fans of City of Heroes.
There has been a petition circulating to help keep the game alive (source: http://bit.ly/savecoh) as well as a massive spearheading effort by TonyV and the Titan Network who have been running the ParagonWiki as well as numerous other resources (source: http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/topic,4882.0.html).
You can be a hero and help support our cause by featuring a bump on this subject!
after i did that i spitballed the idea to a friend and they went ahead and created this bump:
in regards to my post about an adult swim bump, elvnsword has designed a bump which is short sweet and to the point
link here to rate up: http://www.adultswim.com/bumps/elvnsword/savecoh.html (http://www.adultswim.com/bumps/elvnsword/savecoh.html)
spreading that around *might* get us some TV coverage even if it is only for 15 seconds
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Thanks guys! Promote the hell out of it if you think its worthy.
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Would using NCSoft's own mission statement be ok, especially if it was used as part of a campaign to be posted across all their Facebook sites? We've already swamped their GW2 Facebook page with comments about CoH, so i was thinking of taking it to the Aion page too.
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Would using NCSoft's own mission statement be ok, especially if it was used as part of a campaign to be posted across all their Facebook sites? We've already swamped their GW2 Facebook page with comments about CoH, so i was thinking of taking it to the Aion page too.
There is no more of a stinging attack then using someone's own words against them.
GO FOR IT.
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as long as its not flaming and stuff all is fair in love and war
we dont want to get ncsoft mad because then they might be less receptive to the idea of selling the rights of the game
we all have been doing a very good job of keeping mostly mild mannered reports and stuff, it would still be nice to hear some statement from at least ncsoft about it though
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Would using NCSoft's own mission statement be ok, especially if it was used as part of a campaign to be posted across all their Facebook sites? We've already swamped their GW2 Facebook page with comments about CoH, so i was thinking of taking it to the Aion page too.
There's a right way and a wrong way to go about it, of course. I tried to make my letter to Mr. Kim (in the Letters to NCsoft thread) use those words in a very respectful way.
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Hi all!
Im just overwhelmed by all the work and effort the community is pouring in to this, and I thought heck I need to do my part (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7-PQIuWwLo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7-PQIuWwLo)) :D
So I have emailed the national television in both Denmark and Norway (I live in Denmark, come from Norway), writing them a lengthy letter about our cause.
I know that they are both small countries and cant pull that much weight, but I'll be damned if you yanks and poms (prisoner of her majesty) or gonna have all the fun.
I encourage all other players from other countries to do the same.
Team Tios
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I know that they are both small countries and cant pull that much weight, but I'll be damned if you yanks and poms (prisoner of her majesty) or gonna have all the fun.
As a yank, I'm touched by your efforts.
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Fragworld is on our side!
I sent a message to triggerpappy, the site's admin, and they agreed to set up a blog/page for their users to start some support up.
They try to set up meetings with the players and developers/publishers, which I also asked of triggerpappy. So lets cross our fingers that he can get us in touch with NCSoft, and have a direct meeting with them through Teamspeak 3!
I'll post an update with the link to Fragworld's blog for Saving City Of Heroes once they get it up.
Omega Mark V, out.
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So I have emailed the national television in both Denmark and Norway (I live in Denmark, come from Norway), writing them a lengthy letter about our cause.
I know that they are both small countries and cant pull that much weight, but I'll be damned if you yanks and poms (prisoner of her majesty) or gonna have all the fun.
I encourage all other players from other countries to do the same.
Just posted something to this effect in the other thread, but I wholeheartedly agree. We are a global community, not just one niche group of gamers in one corner of the world. The more we can make this clear, both to the media and to NC Soft, the better chance of our message being heard, IMO.
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A question for TonyV....
I haven't read through all 15 pages of this thread, so please excuse me if Im repeating something, or, if the idea has already been acted on.
A post from Sals Badgehunters Facebook page...
quote "Isn't Serenity made because fans of Firefly never gave up? They haven't managed to save show, but they did something. If enough people join their efforts everything is possible.
Maybe doing something like "If you tolerate this then your game might be next" among other MMO societies could help?" unquote.
Has anyone actually sought help from players/forums of other games to see if they would rally behind the CoX players? Asking how/what other gamers would feel/do if it was THEIR game that was being closed, and asking them if they would show their support to our predicament. I'm sure if I were asked such a question, I'd be happy to get behind their cause.
Worth a try maybe, and again, sorry if this has happened and I am duplicating.
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there has been postings about this on several other games forums i believe
ones that i remember atm are league of legends, aion, and diablo3
the general consensus is that nobody is happy with what ncsoft is doing
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Has anyone actually sought help from players/forums of other games to see if they would rally behind the CoX players? Asking how/what other gamers would feel/do if it was THEIR game that was being closed, and asking them if they would show their support to our predicament. I'm sure if I were asked such a question, I'd be happy to get behind their cause.
I'm not TonyV, but I've alluded to the fact that I encourage people from outside our community to ask themselves what their reaction would be if their favorite hobby was lost. It goes over well, but we have to make sure we're not accidentally breeding an "us versus them" mentality with respect to NCsoft; the publisher isn't a bogeyman. The publisher is a businessman. We need to talk to them civily and make business sense, not villify them.
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the petition seems to be moving a little slow atm, its very close to 15,000 supporters now
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the petition seems to be moving a little slow atm, its very close to 15,000 supporters now
I think anything like this is bound to plateau.
Regardless, 15,000 people is TREMENDOUS... it's a statement in, and of, itself. :)
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I think anything like this is bound to plateau.
Regardless, 15,000 people is TREMENDOUS... it's a statement in, and of, itself. :)
yup, and in only 1 week too, i can see it continuing to grow as well
in the last 10 hours or so it has gone up about 250 signatures still (last check was around 3 am eastern time which it had about 14500)
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I think anything like this is bound to plateau.
Regardless, 15,000 people is TREMENDOUS... it's a statement in, and of, itself. :)
I'm sorry, I hate to be "this guy", but no it's not tremendous. It's 10 - 15% of the population of the game. They're not going to consider that players hold multiple accounts, they're going to take the amount of active accounts and divide it by the amount of people on the petition and they're going to make a judgment based on that. If they're willing to piss off 100% of their player base, why would they care what 10 - 15% wants?
This isn't like Firefly, they didn't know how many people were really into the show. NCSoft knows VERY WELL how many people they're cutting off based on their data (even though it's probably not completely accurate from the before mentioned players using multiple accounts). We need MORE signatures than they thought they had, not a percentage of what they were willing to lose before.
I'm sorry guys, I WANT to be positive but none of you are helping the cause by being completely unrealistic. If this was as big of an issue to everyeone, why is it that this effort is only now being put into bringing attention to the game? Why didn't anyone do this to try to increase the player base before to ensure the game would stay profitable? If we had done this from go, the game could have been kept safe from cancellation instead of trying to save it once cancellation has been announced. I applaud you guys and hope what you do works. Sorry if I pissed anyone off, I'm just a realist.
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its the fact we got that in a week and looking through some of the comments, there are bunches people who have signed who arent even coh players but still feel our cause is worth supporting
so just ncsoft assuming that everyone who signs the petition is a coh player is just another bad error on their part
yes 15k is kind of low assuming you look at all the accounts for the game, but the peitition has only been around for a week, the last few days its still been getting around 500 new signatures every 24 hours, if that continues for lets say another 7 days, thats 3500 more signatures, if this continues to keep pace its very likely to hit 20k or even more in the following weeks
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NCSoft knows VERY WELL how many people they're cutting off based on their data (even though it's probably not completely accurate from the before mentioned players using multiple accounts).
It's not just about NCsoft, though. If I can present a document with approximately 15,000 people willing to pay $15 a month to another publisher, who won't have to spend any development or startup costs beyond purchasing an IP and codebase, that radically changes a cost/benefit analysis--that's approaching $3 million a year before we've even begun to consider the "casual" market, which CoH has historically been seen as very friendly to.
I'm a realist, too. I know what we're doing probably won't have the desired effect. But I also know that if we don't try, the odds of attaining the desired outcome drop dramatically. I'm willing to do what I can to maximize our chances.
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It's not just about NCsoft, though. If I can present a document with approximately 15,000 people willing to pay $15 a month to another publisher, who won't have to spend any development or startup costs beyond purchasing an IP and codebase, that radically changes a cost/benefit analysis--that's approaching $3 million a year before we've even begun to consider the "casual" market, which CoH has historically been seen as very friendly to.
I'm a realist, too. I know what we're doing probably won't have the desired effect. But I also know that if we don't try, the odds of attaining the desired outcome drop dramatically. I'm willing to do what I can to maximize our chances.
OK, then let's keep up with the realism. $3m is nothing to these guys, or even another publisher. Anyone interested in buying the game will not be interested in having it remain at the level it's at. People keep assuming that the game is profitable, why? It's grossing less than $1 million per month, somewhere around $10 million per year. Once you divide that by the 80 + employees, rent / mortgage on a building or suite large enough to house that many people, utilities, bandwidth and other operational costs, I'm betting the game is barely breaking even. I'm willing to put a significant bet down that the game nets less than $2 million per year, probably less than $1 million. Why would someone gamble say $10 million buying the rights and operations on a $1 million per year return?
They won't. The logical decision for anyone interested is to either let the game simply break even and hope to recoupe their investment long term, or to acquire the game and put extra money into marketing to try to grow the player base. The other thing to look at is if this doesn't happen like immediately, then the game will have a transition period that will likely go past the game being cancelled, risking the game going black for a time. If this happens, you can't guarantee that ALL players will even come back. You also can't guarantee that all 15,000 people on the petition will even pay a subscription fee. How many of them are free players? How many of the are even real players instead of friends who were coherced into signing by a player?
It's not your perception or mine that will decide the game, it's NCSoft's and a potential buyer's. Investors want a return on investment (ROI). The question is can we even assure them of one? We're not going to change NCSoft's position on cancelling the game by showing them that a percentage of what they're willing to lose doesn't want to be lost. The only future I see is someone, individual or company, willing to take that risk. In this economy risk isn't the name of the game.
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\The only future I see is someone, individual or company, willing to take that risk. In this economy risk isn't the name of the game.
Then, again, I reiterate: shouldn't we do what we can to maximize what chances we have if we want to see the game saved? I'm not lying to anyone: this is a long shot at best.
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OK, numbers are being bandied about. What I'm seeing is people getting discouraged, and that's fine. It's healthy. This has never been done before. Then again, a group of people, meeting in secret, never developed a movement that was able to win a war for its own independence from the most powerful nation on earth and lay the foundations for a nation run by a form of government never before seen in human history. And this is WAY easier than that, 'cause no one's going to hang us.
What I really wanted to post, though, was that I want to take Taki's primary two emblems, the ones for each of the original two sub-games but with the black mourning band through them, and print up a few dozen of each with a couple of modifications: I'm thinking about a 2 to 3 inch square "card" with one emblem or the other on an alignment-appropriate background color, and I'm going to add #SaveCoH in the band in a white game font (Red Circle, I believe). I have to play with it in Photoshop for the background color. Then, I'm going to start pinning them on bulletin boards around my college, the libraries, maybe the big one at the grocery store.
Thoughts, comments, or concerns? (Except for two: if you tell me I'm @#$%ing crazy, I'll just agree with you and continue along my merry way; if you tell me someone else is already doing it, I'll still continue but with far less self-congratulation at my own cleverness. :D )
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I agree with you Vulpy. I think we all know it is a long shot at best, however, with all the attention being drawn to our situation, I feel that we may be able to increase the base of players. Someone that signs a petition only because they are a gamer from another platform or genre may very well want to check out what all the fuss is about. If we can interest or re-interest those gamers/people in City of Heroes then we possibly increase the potential for greater roi. At any rate I will continue to support the efforts here as long as there is a breath of life or a grain of hope. And I am also a realist.
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Absolutely.
The more we can reach out beyond the COH poulation and get people to pick up the story, the better.
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I assumed that the petition was more about publicity. Sure, 15k does not a blockbuster make, but it's also 15k that - calmly, firmly- disagree with this decision, the manner in which it was done, and (if you choose to interpret it this way) contest the sunsetting of MMO's in general. The entire, "If it's digital property, is it right to deny people of it?" question. If I was NCSoft or one of their investors, I'd have to weigh the potential financial status quo and/or sale of the IP versus the bad publicity and erosion of good will. Also, it gives those devs that are talking to NCSoft and their investors something to use.
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I saw nothing recent about CoH ON THE DeviantART forums, so I posted there (http://forum.deviantart.com/entertainment/gaming/1779580/) myself, with links to Titan and the main petition.
N. B. my DeviantART site is quite unsafe for work. FWIW, for the foreseeable future I will be uploading pinups of Heraclea and other CoH characters primarily to dA. I have added links to Titan to all of the relatively family safe art that was inspired by CoH.
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yup, and in only 1 week too, i can see it continuing to grow as well
in the last 10 hours or so it has gone up about 250 signatures still (last check was around 3 am eastern time which it had about 14500)
In the words of the eternal scribe:
Woot!
Very cool indeed! :)
I think I'm going to post something on my Facebook page:
"You all know me as a big kid at heart. Well, this big kid needs your big help. 'City of Heroes', a game I love to play is at danger of closing down. Please consider signing the following petition and keep the streets of my video world safe! Thank you very much and feel free to share the link with any other "kids at heart" in your life! :)"
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In the words of the eternal scribe:
Woot!
Very cool indeed! :)
I think I'm going to post something on my Facebook page:
"You all know me as a big kid at heart. Well, this big kid needs your big help. 'City of Heroes', a game I love to play is at danger of closing down. Please consider signing the following petition and keep the streets of my video world safe! Thank you very much and feel free to share the link with any other "kids at heart" in your life! :)"
I'm sorry but THIS is what I was talking about. People signing a petition for a game they have no intention of playing actually detracts from the message. The message is that the people on the petition want the game to stay, and if we were to use those numbers to try to solicit the company to either keep the game online or consider to sell, and to use the numbers to seduce a would be buyer, then muddying the waters by getting anyone willing to take 5 seconds to sign it isn't going to help. The petition becomes unreliable and no longer stands for potential income. It's just reduced to a plea for publicity.
In the CoX forums someone posted graphs of NCSoft's income based on region and then game. We were a "low hanging fruit". We need to be made higher. The Devs have said all renewals have been ceased, and I'm not sure if all billing has been disabled, but if we can't even get more people to join the game, showing an increase in profits based on our marketing attempts, it's going to be a hard sell at best.
I think the kickstart idea is the most plausible IF NCSoft is willing to play ball. Most if not ALL of our efforts should be towards this goal right now. 15,000 people willing to put $100 towards this is $1.5 million. If we could raise that, then someone could use it as seed money to finance the purchase. Empty promises aren't going to do it. Tony if you read this, approaching with empty pockets isn't going to get their attention. We have to start getting the money together or we won't look credible. If we approach them with an empty offer then they won't entertain another from us.
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First of all, re the Wikipedia edit, the Adult Swim bumps, the CNN iReports, the banners, the everything... Absofreakinghugely AWESOME. Thank you SO MUCH for all y'all doing what y'all have done! I just don't feel like I've been able to do that much to help, so this inspires me to work extra hard at trying to whip folks up at the Unity Rally.
As for "what good will this do"... As I understand it, folks from Paragon Studios are working hard to pursue options to get investors and NCSoft to support them setting up shop to continue the game under their management. Player efforts like this go a long way toward helping those investors come to the table, as I understand it.
Over and above that, TonyV has been reaching out to see if we can have an option to purchase the IP & related licenses, etc., which would lead to crowdfunding efforts to hit the number quoted. Efforts like these keep the momentum for that possible future.
Right now though, there's just not much nailed down regarding what those two above options might be entailing, details about how we can make them happen, and so on. There's also other potential buyers, etc., who could get wind of this level of dedication and make their own determinations as to what it would cost for them to pick up the game, and the resulting benefits...
Long story short (cause I've got to go) ... EVERY POSITIVE EFFORT HELPS. Every single one. In this "black box" phase of negotiating possible timelines, it's the continual Random Acts of Solidarity that make the biggest difference.
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First of all, re the Wikipedia edit, the Adult Swim bumps, the CNN iReports, the banners, the everything... Absofreakinghugely AWESOME. Thank you SO MUCH for all y'all doing what y'all have done! I just don't feel like I've been able to do that much to help, so this inspires me to work extra hard at trying to whip folks up at the Unity Rally.
As for "what good will this do"... As I understand it, folks from Paragon Studios are working hard to pursue options to get investors and NCSoft to support them setting up shop to continue the game under their management. Player efforts like this go a long way toward helping those investors come to the table, as I understand it.
Over and above that, TonyV has been reaching out to see if we can have an option to purchase the IP & related licenses, etc., which would lead to crowdfunding efforts to hit the number quoted. Efforts like these keep the momentum for that possible future.
Right now though, there's just not much nailed down regarding what those two above options might be entailing, details about how we can make them happen, and so on. There's also other potential buyers, etc., who could get wind of this level of dedication and make their own determinations as to what it would cost for them to pick up the game, and the resulting benefits...
Long story short (cause I've got to go) ... EVERY POSITIVE EFFORT HELPS. Every single one. In this "black box" phase of negotiating possible timelines, it's the continual Random Acts of Solidarity that make the biggest difference.
Well said, Paula. We know too little to be making decisions on our focus, so we need to keep pushing forward as hard as we can with just about everything. If it's positive, it's helping in some way.
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Well I don't expect anything to come from it, but I did contact my Senators and Representative (along with the delegation from California and Washington since that's where the companies are located) with a polite if slightly hyperbolic e-mail (quoted below).
I'm writing to inform you of the actions of a foreign corporation named NCSoft. This company sells entertainment products in stores in Kentucky and across the entire United States via the internet. They own a subsidiary company in California called Paragon Studios.
Recently NCSoft suffered financial losses of several million dollars. In order to somehow save Korean jobs they have shut down their American subsidiary, Paragon Studios, costing America 80 good paying jobs in the Technology sector. Paragon Studios by all news accounts was turning a profit for NCSoft.
Should we just let foreign companies close profitable American firms and cost us jobs without a protest? It's a scandal when an American firm closes a profitable branch, so shouldn't there be an investigation into just what it is that NCSoft is up to? It doesn't make sense to close profit-generating branches of a company when you're already running at a deficit.
If I may, I'd like to suggest a congressional investigation into this act of economic sabotage against the American people by a foreign corporation.
It probably won't do any good, but if just one of those Congressmen has his secretary send out a letter to NCSoft asking what the deal is, it will help apply some subtle pressure on our Korean overlords. Maybe. Like I said, probably won't do much since this is a little out of congressional purview, but in these times of economic hardship it might get some traction for the purposes of electioneering. And maybe someone else will want to give it a shot now that I mention I've done this.
edit: And if you do want to do this, your congressional delegation can be found with ease and contacted through their online web forms: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/
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I recently passed along an email to Giant Bomb's Patrick Klepek, who's the resident news guy at that site. They already ran the standard issue article about the closure and plan to livestream the game shutting down on November 30th as well. I basically informed him about the fan efforts, the rumors of the closure that were debunked, and the efforts from the Titan folks here. He emailed me back saying thanks, and that he would look into it further.
Might just show up in the weekly "worth reading" column lumped in with other smaller stories (or not at all, I have no idea), but it's certainly better than nothing.
I also shot an email to the folks over at Rooster Teeth with similar information. Only really considered them because of their work on Captain Dynamic. Haven't heard back from them at all, so I'm guessing that's a no-go. It might show up on their weekly gaming news/info short show "AHWU" at the very least lumped in with other general news.
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as long as its not flaming and stuff all is fair in love and war
we dont want to get ncsoft mad because then they might be less receptive to the idea of selling the rights of the game
we all have been doing a very good job of keeping mostly mild mannered reports and stuff, it would still be nice to hear some statement from at least ncsoft about it though
My idea was for this simple message:
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Dear NCSoft,
This is your official website:
http://global.ncsoft.com/global/aboutus/visiongoals.aspx
This is your official mission statement:
"The ultimate mission of NCSoft is to make each and everyone on earth happier. That is, to make people's lives more enjoyable"
Please make the lives of "City of Heroes" players happier and more enjoyable by selling the game instead of shutting it down.
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By putting the link in the message, it lets everyone see the corporate insanity of the webpage, as well as confirming that the quoted mission statement is true.
It's an all-purpose protest message that can be used to bomb NCSoft's various Facebook pages, as well as be used in comment sections on any news site articles about our fight.
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Don't want to distract from GG, and I'm not sure where else to put this, but the petition is only 7 away from 15K.
Make that 6.
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Don't want to distract from GG, and I'm not sure where else to put this, but the petition is only 7 away from 15K.
Make that 6.
15,000 :)
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My idea was for this simple message:
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Dear NCSoft,
This is your official website:
http://global.ncsoft.com/global/aboutus/visiongoals.aspx
This is your offical mission statement:
"The ultimate mission of NCSoft is to make each and everyone on earth happier. That is, to make people's lives more enjoyable"
Please make the lives of "City of Heroes" players happier and more enjoyable by selling the game instead of shutting it down.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By putting the link in the message, it lets everyone see the corporate insanity of the webpage, as well as confirming that the quoted mission statement is true.
It's an all-purpose protest message that can be used to bomb NCSoft's various Facebook pages, as well as be used in comment sections on any news site articles about our fight.
This is good, I like it.
It's not hateful or disrespectful, merely asking them to comply with their own guidelines.
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Unfortunately, there are people in game claiming that it was 23 (when I was in there) signatures needed to save the game. Echoing some of the more negative posts in this thread, no one is doing the cause any good by pretending that 15K signatures automatically achieves our goal. We need as many signatures as possible, preferably from everyone playing, in addition to people sending letters to NCSoft/news outlets/government officials, and everybody telling everyone they know about the game. Please don't misrepresent the value of the number of signatures, but when change.org says "x needed", it means until the next threshold (in this case, 15K), not that we've magically won. It currently says, "9,986 needed", and that means until the total reaches 20K, not until the petition magically changes NCSoft's minds.
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This is good, I like it.
It's not hateful or disrespectful, merely asking them to comply with their own guidelines.
I just posted it on the Facebook walls of each of their games.
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Unfortunately, there are people in game claiming that it was 23 (when I was in there) signatures needed to save the game. Echoing some of the more negative posts in this thread, no one is doing the cause any good by pretending that 15K signatures automatically achieves our goal. We need as many signatures as possible, preferably from everyone playing, in addition to people sending letters to NCSoft/news outlets/government officials, and everybody telling everyone they know about the game. Please don't misrepresent the value of the number of signatures, but when change.org says "x needed", it means until the next threshold (in this case, 15K), not that we've magically won. It currently says, "9,986 needed", and that means until the total reaches 20K, not until the petition magically changes NCSoft's minds.
i agree, there is no "magic number" to change ncsofts minds, i believe those thresholds are more of goals to help keep the movement strong, its kind of like badges in a way (like the ones for healing, dmg, ect)
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i agree, there is no "magic number" to change ncsofts minds, i believe those thresholds are more of goals to help keep the movement strong, its kind of like badges in a way (like the ones for healing, dmg, ect)
The reason the petition does this is to motivate people who look at it to sign. It's 'sales' technique, essentially.
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This thought just popped into my head, and I wanted to pass it along. Has anyone else thought of contacting the staff at PCGamer magazine? I wonder if they would run a story on what we are doing? It seems that Tony V would be the best to plead our cause. He is able to put into words what many can't, and has all the resources available to give PCG all the info they need. Perhaps those who subscribe can also post comments in the mag itself, describing what is going on. It seems like a great way to get the message out to a lot more people.
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I agree this is a long shot. But I also know that City of Cox never really got any advertisement on this level either. There are people who have never heard of City of Heroes, now may, and give it a chance. I find that a silver lining.
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15,000 :)
Go Team Titan!
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This thought just popped into my head, and I wanted to pass it along. Has anyone else thought of contacting the staff at PCGamer magazine? I wonder if they would run a story on what we are doing? It seems that Tony V would be the best to plead our cause. He is able to put into words what many can't, and has all the resources available to give PCG all the info they need. Perhaps those who subscribe can also post comments in the mag itself, describing what is going on. It seems like a great way to get the message out to a lot more people.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/09/06/players-protest-city-of-heroes/
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YAYYYYYYYY! Thanks so much for posting that, DW!
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Go Team Titan!
... That reminded me of 'Teen Titans'.
It brings back nostalgic thoughts.
That could be somewhat of a meem by the way; 'Team Titans.'
PS: Don't forget the Titans.
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... That reminded me of 'Teen Titans'.
It brings back nostalgic thoughts.
That could be somewhat of a meem by the way; 'Team Titans.'
PS: Don't forget the Titans.
I definitely thought the exact same thing.
Team Titans... GO!
*Japanese-I-can't-remember-but-sounds-catchier-than-the-English*
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I definitely thought the exact same thing.
Team Titans... GO!
*Japanese-I-can't-remember-but-sounds-catchier-than-the-English*
The opening theme was how you could tell if it was going to be a serious or a funny episode...; English song: Serious episode
Japanese song: Funny episode
'Larry' song: 'WTF were they smoking when they wrote that' episode O_o;
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I apologize and I certainly don't have to do what I said I would do.
I was just trying to help.
Again, I'm sorry. I really don't want to make matters worse for all of us.
I'm sorry but THIS is what I was talking about. People signing a petition for a game they have no intention of playing actually detracts from the message. The message is that the people on the petition want the game to stay, and if we were to use those numbers to try to solicit the company to either keep the game online or consider to sell, and to use the numbers to seduce a would be buyer, then muddying the waters by getting anyone willing to take 5 seconds to sign it isn't going to help. The petition becomes unreliable and no longer stands for potential income. It's just reduced to a plea for publicity.
In the CoX forums someone posted graphs of NCSoft's income based on region and then game. We were a "low hanging fruit". We need to be made higher. The Devs have said all renewals have been ceased, and I'm not sure if all billing has been disabled, but if we can't even get more people to join the game, showing an increase in profits based on our marketing attempts, it's going to be a hard sell at best.
I think the kickstart idea is the most plausible IF NCSoft is willing to play ball. Most if not ALL of our efforts should be towards this goal right now. 15,000 people willing to put $100 towards this is $1.5 million. If we could raise that, then someone could use it as seed money to finance the purchase. Empty promises aren't going to do it. Tony if you read this, approaching with empty pockets isn't going to get their attention. We have to start getting the money together or we won't look credible. If we approach them with an empty offer then they won't entertain another from us.
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The opening theme was how you could tell if it was going to be a serious or a funny episode...; English song: Serious episode
Japanese song: Funny episode
'Larry' song: 'WTF were they smoking when they wrote that' episode O_o;
akjfgahbfj,nf!?!?
I never knew that but my God you're totally right!
And to Soundtrack: I don't think you're wrong. Please don't let any arguments stop you from trying to help in whatever way you can. No Remorse may be onto something, but please please please don't let it bring you down. If we can debate this in a more positive manner and come to a conclusion as a team, we'll be better for it. Until then, let's avoid negativity.
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we have to remember the petition is only a small portion of the publicity that we are working with here
not everyone who comments on all the news articles may sign the petition, nor will we be able to get EVERY coh player to sign it as well
the petition i feel is basically a consolidated effort to try to keep focus because ive talked to several poeple who feel helpless about what they could do and they feel better somewhat knowing they signed the petition and ive also tried to direct poeple to these forums if they want to try to do more than sign the petition
everyone knows the petition by itself is pretty useless, however, it will be another piece of leverage that the devs can use to potentially sway ncsoft to try to sell the game to them
the petition +85 news articles + whatever else we can get publicized will make a bigger impact
reaching 15000 supporters in 1 week is still an accomplishment and that means we will only get more
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akjfgahbfj,nf!?!?
I never knew that but my God you're totally right!
And to Soundtrack: I don't think you're wrong. Please don't let any arguments stop you from trying to help in whatever way you can. No Remorse may be onto something, but please please please don't let it bring you down. If we can debate this in a more positive manner and come to a conclusion as a team, we'll be better for it. Until then, let's avoid negativity.
Thanks, Emu... I hold nothing against No Remorse. I appreciate his input.
I just want to make sure I'm HELPING our project and not HINDERING it. :)
I definitely see his point. In fact, a petition isn't really that valuable. What stops each of us from creating a totally different account and signing it again, thereby doubling the number.
In my opinion, the real postal letters are going to hold more weight.
Again, just my opinion. :)
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Hey all, sorry I haven't replied sooner, but man, these forums are exploding and I've been trying my best to keep up with e-mails, PMs, and threads like this that explode kind of get really hard to keep up with. Sorry if I ramble a bit incoherently; this is the seventh straight day I've gone to bed after 5:00am and had to get up at 9:00am the following morning. (But I do get to sleep late tomorrow, friggin' YAY!)
I did want to say, though, that when I say "get the word out," I mean, get the word out to everyone.
What do I mean, "everyone"?
EVERYONE!!! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyfbRz4ObFY)
If I had my way, we'd top a million signatures on that petition. The only thing I ask is that you not try to fudge the numbers; don't sign it multiple times, don't sign it "Mickey Mouse", etc. But people from other communities signing it? Oh hells, yeah. I want NCsoft to realize that people are watching. It's not about how many may or may not pay for City of Heroes; if the game is shut down, that's a moot point. It's about a metric multitude of people turning their eyes collectively to NCsoft and saying, "We want you to do the right thing."
If they do, and they allow the game to continue, especially if they express willingness to work with another company or organization to keep the game alive, they have the potential of scoring a major positive PR victory. I'm not being facetious when I say that if NCsoft works with us to save City of Heroes, I'll have a lot of gratitude for the company in helping the community continue on even when a game doesn't fit into the long term goals of the company. It's a sign of maturity and respect, one that would impress me greatly. If they don't and they allow City of Heroes to die, then I want players across other communities to see what can happen to them if they pour their hearts into an NCsoft game.
So... Yeah. Share the petition with your friends. Share it with your neighbors. Encourage anyone who is passionate about something--and that's pretty much everyone--to sign it and provide them updates with what's going on.
Also, I've seen a few references in this thread about the game becoming unprofitable. I really, really, really, really, really wish we could nix this rumor once and for all. City of Heroes was well in the black. The game wasn't unprofitable, it was going strong. There seems to be this misguided belief that if a company kills off a game and closes a studio like it did, then the game must have been sucking air, right? I mean, if it were making a profit, then why would they close it down? That wouldn't make sense!
TL;DR version: Yes, it very well might.
I could post a wall of boring business-speak text here, but what it boils down to is that Paragon Studios has a bunch of liabilities, things that are sunk costs no matter how well the game does. Things like Matt Miller's salary, Andy Belford's health insurance, that copy of whatever artistic wizardry software that David Nakayama uses, and any other corporate resources allocated to the studio and the game, such as engineers, accountants, marketers, human resources goobs, etc. It's making money, but if you're an investor, you can't assume that its revenue stream will continue unscathed; it's a variable. That variable income matched with fixed liabilities results in an element of risk, and that means that you might be a little reluctant to pour as much money into a company than they're asking for.
Right now, NCsoft is working hot and heavy on other projects, the most obvious of which is Guild Wars 2. Paragon Studios, even if it's profitable, could very well be presenting a problem in cash flow to NCsoft. If NCsoft closes Paragon Studios and shuts down Paragon Studios, all of a sudden, look what happens: you've shed your fixed liabilities, which even with the simultaneous shedding of your variable income, means that there's no risk there. By sloughing off Paragon Studios and City of Heroes, NCsoft has a consistent record of making money but without those pesky liabilities. Now, as sad as it sounds, banks and investors are more likely to put money into the company and enable a much more flexible cash flow to support its other projects.
I know that conspiracy theories are enticing, and that it doesn't seem to make sense to shut down a profitable studio, but sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and this kind of organizational restructuring is exactly what I think NCsoft is going through right now.
...But I still don't think the game is dead yet. I've REALLY got to go to bed, so I can't expound on this, but I don't think that NCsoft had a grasp of how invested in the game we are. I honestly think that they thought they'd make the announcement, the players would grouse a little bit about it, and move on. They would have had to invest in lawyers and complicated business plans to do something like split off Paragon Studios or sell off the game property to another publisher or studio. That would take valuable resources that, frankly, aren't really worth pouring into doing something that no one will really care about in a few months anyway.
Our mission, our goal, is to make sure that we make NCsoft understand that it is in their best interest to pursue spinning off Paragon Studios or releasing the property to be acquired by someone else; to pay for those lawyers and the inconvenience of letting go of City of Heroes.
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You were probably out cold by the time I was half into reading that, but I'll say it anyway: THANK YOU. That was exactly the morale boost I needed. I just logged off the game because of some... more negative... outlooks on the part of other players. I think it's just them trying to deal with the loss, but I couldn't handle it anymore. Server traffic is starting to slip and people are starting to "accept reality".
I am not ready to give up. I believe many people still want to hope. If anyone else was beginning to get discouraged, don't. We can do this. Let's fight.
"Reality" is represented as the November 30th shutdown. Let's change that. People are utterly unwilling to accept the fact that they don't know. They cling to either positive or negative extremes. We're like that too. Don't fault them and don't get discouraged. All I can offer in my sleep-deprived stupor is don't give up. You can't. I can't. We can't.
Thanks again Tony. This message may seem like a jumbled mess, but the overall point is that your post cheered me back up.
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/16195898@N04/7954828824/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/16195898@N04/7954828824/)
just did this and now 3 x that many people here
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Also, I've seen a few references in this thread about the game becoming unprofitable. I really, really, really, really, really wish we could nix this rumor once and for all. City of Heroes was well in the black. The game wasn't unprofitable, it was going strong. There seems to be this misguided belief that if a company kills off a game and closes a studio like it did, then the game must have been sucking air, right? I mean, if it were making a profit, then why would they close it down? That wouldn't make sense!
TL;DR version: Yes, it very well might.
I could post a wall of boring business-speak text here, but what it boils down to is that Paragon Studios has a bunch of liabilities, things that are sunk costs no matter how well the game does. Things like Matt Miller's salary, Andy Belford's health insurance, that copy of whatever artistic wizardry software that David Nakayama uses, and any other corporate resources allocated to the studio and the game, such as engineers, accountants, marketers, human resources goobs, etc. It's making money, but if you're an investor, you can't assume that its revenue stream will continue unscathed; it's a variable. That variable income matched with fixed liabilities results in an element of risk, and that means that you might be a little reluctant to pour as much money into a company than they're asking for.
Sorry, but I'm going to have to respectfully disagree here. The numbers I've seen did not suggest they were "well in the black". We don't know what salaries they were paying or what their operational costs were (unless you have access to info that the rest of us don't). I own a business, and am very familiar with hidden costs of doing so. Their published revenue divided by their employees and averaging general costs doesn't suggest they were making a ton of money. It's also in the eye of the beholder. Where you and I might think $1 million is a lot of money to bring home, I'm sure NCSoft doesn't. When you compare it to other MMO's that would net in a month what this game has been netting in a year, then yes it's perfectly understandable that they did it for financial reasons. Those things you listed as liabilities are overhead, and it counts against the gross profits, reducing them possibly to the point of them disappearing (depending on how costly they are).
I'm sorry Tony but unless NCSoft has released their full operational costs to you, or you've found a way to discover them, you're making an assumption here, one that could cause a critical error in judgment. I get it, this is a crusade, and I'm trying not to rain on anything here. There is a LOT of misinformation going around, and if you're not careful anything done will look very amateurish. It's one thing if you're just trying to get attention, but if you're trying to seriously broker a business deal, that's not an image you want to portray. When people start hassling senators and congressman about a video game closing, then it's a really ridiculous scenario. With all the screwed up things going on in this country, there are much more important things for those people to be focusing on, and a video game shouldn't even be on Washington DC's radar.
For everyone else, please don't let what I say discourage you from expressing yourselves. You have a right to say what you feel and make noise all you want. If this is to be taken seriously though, it's going to take a LOT more than that, and it has to be done in a professional manner, taking the facts and NCSoft's perception into consideration. I'm going to refrain from posting again, as I'm not trying to be a pessimist, but please remember that THIS isn't a game, not to NCSoft, not to politicians, not to a potential investor. In the end keep your priorities straight, as that's what the businesses will be doing. Good luck guys.
One more thing Tony, have you considered making an update message for Mids that directs people to the forums? There are a lot of players that have Mids that don't visit your forums here, I was one of them. If they open Mids, and it says "there's an update on the game, click here", with a link directing them to the forums here I think that would bring more people to your cause. Just a thought.
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No Remorse, I think you make some interesting points here and I agree with you to a degree. I certainly am willing to believe that shedding Paragon Studios makes business sense for NCSoft. What I find baffling is the way that they've done it. I don't want to bash NCSoft here--I wonder whether there are some cultural issues going on that I don't understand--but the way they're handling the shutdown borders on contemptuous.
I don't get why they don't want to at least try to sell the game, and it seems to me that the dev team shouldn't have been blindsided the way they were; to me, that's not ethical, whether it makes good business sense or not. But I really don't understand their lack of respect for their customers. I mean--I own a business, too, and I can't imagine ever treating my customers the way NCSoft has treated us. This must have been in the work for a month or more, but they kept stringing us along with promises of powersets and a new issue. We're a week in and there's been no communication from NCSoft at all. We don't know what's happening in regard to the money we've already spent. We don't even know if they're going to give us double XP and the ski chalet before we close! It's really kind of ridiculous.
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Sorry, but I'm going to have to respectfully disagree here. The numbers I've seen did not suggest they were "well in the black".
Disclaimer: I do not have access to the financials of Paragon Studios, so take what you're about to read worth a grain of salt. I absolutely, positively, hate it when people say "just trust me, I know more than the average schmoe out there," so let me preface it by telling you that you don't have to believe me. But I am absolutely convinced that what I said is correct, that Paragon Studios was operating at what is considered a decent profit, that it was certainly enough to sustain ongoing operations and future development efforts. And I really do mean beyond a "I just really want to believe this" kind of way.
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based on stuff that i have read in the various threads talking about the quarterly earnings summary of ncsoft, ncsoft may have lost $6 mil last quarter, but coh still made $2.5 mil
ill have to do some digging around to look up those threads but im pretty positive that coh was NOT losing money and was still bringing in a steady profit
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STILL not sure how you can help we have Banners and Forum signatures you can use on forums and Face book here http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/topic,4898.0.html and printable flyers here http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/topic,4994.0.html I will be going down to the comic book store this weekend to post the flyers
write letters to NCsoft, tell friends... I'd say Write your congress men but they can't figure out how to do easy things like fix health care i don't think they can help us save our game :P
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Been all over twitter (@Leila_L) trying to get mainstream media to pick up. Wrote letters/emails to CNN, FOX NEWS, NPR. Not very computer Savy, but if I can contribute more, please let me know.
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I just posted a story on the Tech News Today Reddit (http://www.reddit.com/r/TechNewsToday/ (http://www.reddit.com/r/TechNewsToday/)). If you go and vote it up they may at least mention it on Monday's show.
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based on stuff that i have read in the various threads talking about the quarterly earnings summary of ncsoft, ncsoft may have lost $6 mil last quarter, but coh still made $2.5 mil
ill have to do some digging around to look up those threads but im pretty positive that coh was NOT losing money and was still bringing in a steady profit
I believe it was Guild Wars 2 and another game that lost money, makes very little sense to go "well let's shut down one of the ones that didn't lose us money".
Don't know about everyone else but even if they just kept the game running and never released any new updates I'd still play it. ^_^;
Got enough stuff to do on my characters to keep me busy till retirement, surely just keeping the servers running wouldnt cost them such a horrible amount.
And if they later down the road could get a team to make updates again then they wouldnt have lost everyone who used to play it.
My BF suggested doing the same that got done on Virtue but doing it on other NCSoft games, don't know if you think it'd be too aggressive.
But probably very hard to ignore CoH players if they clog up zones protesting or crash servers on games they are planning to keep. ^_^;
Should be a fair amount of people who play atleast one of the other games.
Oh and I added a post about the petition and effort on Gaiaonline's gaming discussions forum.
Odd place I know but who knows there might be some kind hearted people willing to sign it as their good deed of the day.
Aimed it at MMORPG'ers in general who would hate this to happen to a MMORPG they love.
Got some people from browser-game Bloodmoon to sign the petition aswell. =^_^=
Get's very addictive to refresh the petition page doesn't it... 16100 signed now. *clickity clickity*
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I just wanted to throw props to Syrusb/Liz, one of CoH's more active fanartists (whereas I would be inactive lol), because I don't think her boost to the signal has been addressed yet (or I didn't find it, even with a search)...
Her Ghost Widow fanart got a Daily Deviation a few days ago, over at Deviantart AND was featured on DA's FaceBook. The DD blurb itself even mentioned CoH's impending shut down. Right this second? 18,449 views on DA and 2,015 likes/125 shares on FB
http://fav.me/d5cww20
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Has anyone tried submitting an article, or the suggestion for one, to the Wall Street Journal?
The "pitch" for it would have to be somewhat different than the "save our city" aspect, but the undertone of that could remain.
However, the use of the social network, the rallying of the fan base, the addition of "big name" support from artists and authors - all of this is breaking new ground in the business environment when paired against what was (likely) supposed to be a "routine" shuttering of a business asset.
As such, it ought to be worthy of note from a business perspective, lest other companies run afoul of similar responses. Or should they want to leverage such resources for support and sustainment reasons. And, from those perspectives, WSJ might well take an interest in our case!
And, given the readership of a publication like that, the exposure for our cause would be significant!
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Been all over twitter (@Leila_L) trying to get mainstream media to pick up. Wrote letters/emails to CNN, FOX NEWS, NPR. Not very computer Savy, but if I can contribute more, please let me know.
One of the reasons I submitted to Science Friday on NPR was that one of their community interfaces is through Second Life. They have an "actual" island in Second Life where you can go during the show to submit questions. The last computer that I had SL installed on died before Going Rogue came out, but I could see what sort of activity they have on the island during the next show.
Point being, though, they utilize a virtual world for their real radio show. It just seemed right up their proverbial alley to watch and report on how this develops.
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I'd say Write your congress men but they can't figure out how to do easy things like fix health care i don't think they can help us save our game :P
Word it like this: "Foreign company puts American software designers out of a job without warning" and I bet some of them would eat it right up. :roll:
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I believe it was Guild Wars 2 and another game that lost money, makes very little sense to go "well let's shut down one of the ones that didn't lose us money".
Where that breaks down is in the amount of effort and money put into developing and marketing the new product. GW2 was pretty highly anticipated. They would look even worse if they chucked it in the bin, instead of their oldest actively supported property.
That said, someone feel free to correct me, but I believe people are talking about this more than they are GW2, and as much of the GW2 exposure is relative to this. That can't be going unnoticed by TPTB.
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This off the previous subject, but it's an idea. Alyssa Milano https://twitter.com/Alyssa_Milano is asking her celeb friends to donate to St. Jude for her son's birthday. ( Looks like they are dropping the ball.) If we put out the call to the #saveCOH community to spend the $15 they were going to use to pay subs, to St Jude, in Alyssa Milano sons name.
A) That helps a good cause, showing we still are a heroic community
B) Shows NcSoft the money is there
C) May get a celeb endorsement.
Longshot, I know.
What you think?
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Hmm... You know, that's not a bad idea.
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This off the previous subject, but it's an idea. Alyssa Milano https://twitter.com/Alyssa_Milano is asking her celeb friends to donate to St. Jude for her son's birthday. ( Looks like they are dropping the ball.) If we put out the call to the #saveCOH community to spend the $15 they were going to use to pay subs, to St Jude, in Alyssa Milano sons name.
A) That helps a good cause, showing we still are a heroic community
B) Shows NcSoft the money is there
C) May get a celeb endorsement.
Longshot, I know.
What you think?
I like the way you think. What other celebrities/media outlets might pay attention if we step up to the plate for St. Jude's? Real World Hero probably already has infrastructure in place to accomodate a drive like this.
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Real World Hero probably already has infrastructure in place to accomodate a drive like this.
Was just thinking that myself.
Edit: I lit the RWH signal. Let's see what input they might have.
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Was just thinking that myself.
Edit: I lit the RWH signal. Let's see what input they might have.
If it works out for September, maybe make it a monthly thing--find a different cause each month through November, a famous person who backs said cause, and try to divert all the game's subscription fees there.
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This is a freaking fantastic idea - if we end up with a lump-sum donation of several thousand dollars, that *can't* go unnoticed.
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We could for the next 3 months pick one charity a month, and use the money we would normally spend on subs, and send it to a charity... Shriners Justin Timberlake holds a golf tournament in Las Vegas every year.), Wounded warrior ( lots of Country music stars here)..etc.
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I would propose we consider doing this on a monthly basis...even if it manages to keep City of Heroes going.
It's one thing giving $15/month in the hopes of getting a celebrity's endorsement.
It's another thing continuing AFTER we get the endorsement... shows the world we're doing it for the right reasons...NOT to just get some good press. :)
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Ian Somerhalder (Vampire Diaries) and Misha Collins (Supernatural) are both huge into charities and have crazy followings on Twitter.
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Was just thinking that myself.
Edit: I lit the RWH signal. Let's see what input they might have.
Hi everyone. ( A little twitter bird told me to come on by and say hello.)
Mrs. W and I have been thinking hard about the things RWH can do to add our support to #SaveCOH. It's great that RWH has such wonderful support in our community and can be one of many heroic examples COH players can hold up to others. There is still so much that we don't know about the future of COH and what the efforts to save COH will need from all of us. So, for now, RWH has decided to hold off on fund raising activities while we wait to see what TonyV and the Titan Network need from all of us most, be that a crowd-funding effort or other activities.
If you feel strongly that you should be donating to a charitable cause, by all means do so. RWH has always encouraged donations to charity, whether through our annual drive or otherwise. WE WILL CONTINUE raising money for charity in the near future and would love to count on participation from all of our heroic friends, wherever we may find ourselves.
Please follow RWH on Twitter (http://twitter.com/realworldhero) and Facebook (http://facebook/realworldhero) to make sure you are in the loop.
Heroic regards,
@Mr. Wentworth
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So, for now, RWH has decided to hold off on fund raising activities while we wait to see what TonyV and the Titan Network need from all of us most, be that a crowd-funding effort or other activities.
As long as this is one option being considered. :)
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For what it's worth, which I'll humbly admit is not a great deal, I work in the games industry and have somewhere between 150 and 200 connections on LinkedIn. I have started to get the word out on there in the hope that some of those connections are compassionate enough to help spread the word even further and show their support to our cause.
Keep up the good work, heroes. For great justice!
@Dwarf EU
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For what it's worth, which I'll humbly admit is not a great deal, I work in the games industry and have somewhere between 150 and 200 connections on LinkedIn. I have started to get the word out on there in the hope that some of those connections are compassionate enough to help spread the word even further and show their support to our cause.
Keep up the good work, heroes. For great justice!
@Dwarf EU
I'd say that's a hell of a start! Thanks for your support!
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For great justice!
Take off every 'sig' ! (http://youtu.be/gAJlQ6o8p9g) ^^
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Now that was informative and entertaining!
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RWH could be exactly what we need for celebrity awareness. If no charity right now, is it too much to ask for a few tweets and posts to link here to the forums?
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I'm going to go ahead and sending out a tweet to plant the suggestion of donating this month's subscription fee to a charity. We'll see where that goes. :)
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RWH could be exactly what we need for celebrity awareness. If no charity right now, is it too much to ask for a few tweets and posts to link here to the forums?
We are hitting up RWH media contacts for any support they can offer. Unfortunately, I don't think we are any better connected than any other community members, but we are doing what we can.
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Felicia Day made one of our guild members' tribute to her Tallis character a favorite. Today we returned to her with the hope she retweets again and brings more visibility to this cause. It's a reach perhaps but if we get enough pings maybe it will grab enough attention to garner her support or someone else's... www.twitter.com/PSGotter to retweet or please make your own.
(https://i.imgur.com/54qt7.jpg)
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I was server hopping again yesterfay, and the ralley seems to have done a good job with keeping people positive.
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I was server hopping again yesterfay, and the ralley seems to have done a good job with keeping people positive.
Indeed. Public Opinion (click the terminals on 3!!one!11!) has shifted greatly since the rally. Gotta maintain to succeed. (But please, longer than 30 seconds!)
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it would be nice to hear something from ncsoft about what they want to do, but i know its prolly still a little early before a final decision is reached
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it would be nice to hear something from ncsoft about what they want to do, but i know its prolly still a little early before a final decision is reached
It would, but those kinds of decisions are not made without careful consideration. The fact that they're taking their time means they're aren't dismissing us or Paragon entirely, which is good.
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It would, but those kinds of decisions are not made without careful consideration. The fact that they're taking their time means they're aren't dismissing us or Paragon entirely, which is good.
agreed
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Being silent and secretive isn't something new for that region of the world whether it's political or business, so I wouldn't be surprised that if/when we do hear from them, it could be weeks or months, not to mention the possibility of never getting any real answers. Just read this article: http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/11/world/asia/china-vice-president/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
I too have no clue what the finances were like, but I can only imagine if they were doing bad that Paragon wouldn't have been ready to release a new issue, working on other projects, etc. Hell they would have killed the game years ago if profit and subscribers were doing that bad. If I had to guess I'd say they don't care too much for the NA market and to focus on the Asian market would mean more fantasy and/or slack and hash, and are putting all their eggs in one basket.
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I will be discussing the shutdown of CoH and how social media is being used to help save it on KRNV (Reno, NV) live tomorrow (Sept 12, 2012) at 11am Pacific via Google+ Hangout. Please join in and show support!
https://plus.google.com/u/0/118209080840351347370
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I will be discussing the shutdown of CoH and how social media is being used to help save it on KRNV (Reno, NV) live tomorrow (Sept 12, 2012) at 11am Pacific via Google+ Hangout. Please join in and show support!
https://plus.google.com/u/0/118209080840351347370
I will do my best to be there!
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Has anybody contacted Gearbox Software?
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Has anybody contacted Gearbox Software?
If they have, I'm unaware. Do you think they'd be interested? If so, write them a letter! Mention the dedicated community, Real World Hero, media coverage--Massively's pages would probably be the best one-stop shop for a business insider, but the newly-vetted iReport should have some legs, too. Just getting the names of their favorite publishing insiders could give us people to talk to.
They are a developer, not a publisher themselves, but I'd settle for insider information. If you're familiar with their works, personalize the letter--how would CoH stack up to, say, Borderlands? (If nothing else, we know they know people that can throw funds into a black hole with little hope of return--DNF, anyone? Hey-yo!)
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Hello everybody! This evening we at the Victory server tried to have a small Unity Rally! we did just that and lots of people supported us with there words of encouragement and also by doing missions and such I looked on Atlas park and there was a fair number there when I did the /search command.
I have a pic of my two characters plus a several others. Again I would like to say this was a small group trying to do what we can.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4236743091101&set=o.130731358777&type=1&relevant_count=1&ref=nf (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4236743091101&set=o.130731358777&type=1&relevant_count=1&ref=nf)
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Hi hi all, @Frostyfrozen chatted with me in game tonite and has, I think, a great idea.
We want support coming from players in NCSoft's other games! Frosty has been in contact with players on 2/4 of the NA Aion servers, and they want to help us out. I'll let Frosty give you the details, but the theme used has been 'Help us keep our capes, too.'
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Hello Everyone
As Syrusb has said I've been visiting the NCsoft game Aion looking for support. In the idea if thier other games start showing support for us they just might have no where else to turn. Now I'm just 1 person and so I got word out to the Israphel & Siel servers.
When I say that it means I have 3 or 4 of the largest Legions on each server in formed and in support of a rally on this coming Saturday with a 2- 3 group rally. In Elyos Square but we will need some way to get the word out more and media coverage. I not know how to do the media coverage though.
I was thinking for the protest they could all show thier Legion capes in support for your capes.
and thats what is sweet about this every NCsoft title has Guild/Legion orSG capes we all SHARE that and being GAMERS.
I also pushed with them Aion is not a large game also but all gameing communitys deserver more for thier hours spent and beloved toons.
Thankyou for your time.
Frostyfrozen
PS: First post :D
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I'm sure we could help spread the word. *eyes the Titan Twitter feed* Once it hits Twitter, it'll quickly get picked up on Facebook, too.
So, "Aion Rally to support #SaveCOH. Saturday <time> - <time>, <server>, Elyos Square"?
Something like that?
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I have read this forum from top to bottom and I haven't seen any NEED for Big Money mentioned yet, but I was thinking, that if it came to that, someone should show up on ABC's Shark Tankhttp://abc.go.com/shows/shark-tank/casting (http://abc.go.com/shows/shark-tank/casting), and ask the Sharks for some backing! At least two of them made their money in the internet, so they are savvy as to the medium and its potential. Just an Idea!
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When I say that it means I have 3 or 4 of the largest Legions on each server in formed and in support of a rally on this coming Saturday with a 2- 3 group rally. In Elyos Square but we will need some way to get the word out more and media coverage. I not know how to do the media coverage though.
I wonder if someone from Massively might think this was worth at least writing a couple of paragraphs about?
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Hello Everyone
As Syrusb has said I've been visiting the NCsoft game Aion looking for support. In the idea if thier other games start showing support for us they just might have no where else to turn. Now I'm just 1 person and so I got word out to the Israphel & Siel servers.
When I say that it means I have 3 or 4 of the largest Legions on each server in formed and in support of a rally on this coming Saturday with a 2- 3 group rally. In Elyos Square but we will need some way to get the word out more and media coverage. I not know how to do the media coverage though.
I was thinking for the protest they could all show thier Legion capes in support for your capes.
and thats what is sweet about this every NCsoft title has Guild/Legion orSG capes we all SHARE that and being GAMERS.
I also pushed with them Aion is not a large game also but all gameing communitys deserver more for thier hours spent and beloved toons.
Thankyou for your time.
Frostyfrozen
PS: First post :D
That's really cool. Support from other NC Soft gamers would be awesomesauce.
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That's really cool. Support from other NC Soft gamers would be awesomesauce.
I agree. It's not insane to suggest that a game such as Aion might be next. We should probably take care not to annoy them to death, however.
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Ladies and gentlemen, Filk superstar Tom Smith is now VERY aware of us...:
http://filkertom.livejournal.com/1604669.html#comments
;D
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Im setting up the event in Aion to be on Israphel server. 2 - 4 pm pst Saturday 15th of Sep.
It's hard going for they have a odd chat system only 1 chat line per 30 seconds. and as a game community they not to up on other NCsoft news or titles other then thier own I get the feeling rather often. Wit hthat said we do have support . . how much . . I cant say. more then 5 less then 1,000 lets say.
Suggestions welcome.
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It's the morning of and I dont feel confident enough to run the event today. It seems to be the "Thats your house on fire not mine." mind set I'm going to give it 7 more days and see if I can work past that mind set. As I have some understand but not as many as I's like.
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I got to thinking about Media, and NcSoft main offices.
We have saturated our media here in America with our efforts, easily ignored in Korea. So I thought why not take the message to the Korean Media.
So I used Google and found a list of newspapers in South Korea.. What do you think? Does the idea have merit?
http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/skorea.htm
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Now that the story of Titan's efforts have gained some traction in western media, yes. We still are an industry-related story, at this point, so the same will likely hold true, there.
I should point out that games are taken very seriously over there. On the one hand, as has been pointed out, game addiction is treated very seriously. One thing that I have not seen brought up, though is the positive ways in which they view games. There are Starcraft tournament champions who are treated the way westerners treat professional athletes.
How to approach their media is outside my ability to comment on intelligently, however.
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Not sure how much it will help spread the word, but I've contacted the youtuber, Tobuscus, and asked him for his help spreading awareness and support. With his large number of subscribers, he could really make quite a difference I hope. Once he told his audience to post on Mtn. Dew's facebook page, that they should make a Mtn. Dew of Darkness, then Redness, then Whiteness and The next day, guess what Mtn. Dew came out with...
Hope it helps.
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Not sure how much it will help spread the word, but I've contacted the youtuber, Tobuscus, and asked him for his help spreading awareness and support. With his large number of subscribers, he could really make quite a difference I hope. Once he told his audience to post on Mtn. Dew's facebook page, that they should make a Mtn. Dew of Darkness, then Redness, then Whiteness and The next day, guess what Mtn. Dew came out with...
Hope it helps.
My kid watches Tobuscus. I tiny part of me just died a little... :)
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Well I've not given up trying to get Aion onboard and supporting us. But as youll see they have a very different vision od this. I'm hopeing my lastest post helps them see.
http://forums.na.aiononline.com/na/showthread.php?p=1458085&posted=1#post1458085
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I'm also planning a new idea ;D
Here it is taking a few dozen not business cards but smaller tags. With the icnn news article web address on one side and the petition web address on the to my local comic shop and see if they willing to give them out at point of sale or at less place them on the counter.
Any tips or suggestions always welcome.
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Right now, Im sitting at a table at ConQuest in Buffalo.
I'm sitting here hand-drawing savecoh propoganda, and wearing my home-made duck tape hat and vest to help draw attention to myself.
So far, only a few people have talked to me about it, but hopefully lots of gamers have taken notice, even if they haven't spoken to me. Luckily there's still a good 6-7 hours beore i leave so more people should notice.
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Right now, Im sitting at a table at ConQuest in Buffalo.
I'm sitting here hand-drawing savecoh propoganda, and wearing my home-made duck tape hat and vest to help draw attention to myself.
So far, only a few people have talked to me about it, but hopefully lots of gamers hae taken notice, even if they havent spoken to me. Luckily there's still a good 6-7 hours beore i leave so more people should notice.
Right on! We have boots on the ground! 8)
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Following up on my previous post from Queen City ConQuest; I was there for a good 12 hours (including breaks for food) and while some people had never heard of the game, I was aproached by multiple people who said that they used to play CoH, but had to quit due to real life and other things. They did agree that NCSoft shutting down the game was the wrong course of action.
One person in particular questioned that with CoH's avatar creation system, why newer games would do anything less. Which I agree that its a major advantage CoH has over other MMOs.
Well, That's about all I have to report. Carry on. 8)
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Another thing I do is linking the Cohtitan (Save Paragon City section) along with the petition in my signature when posting on other gaming forums.
Might have been mentioned before, but in case it hasn't - there we go! ;D
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I tweeted a bunch of gaming websites and magazines who haven't covered us yet, asking them to do so. @PCGiA gave me a retweet this morning.
I did put the link to Massively's article and Tim's Youtube vid in my original tweet, so hopefully that got us in 7,000 new eyes.
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I just realized something brilliant: If Valve did end up buying CoH, that means it could theoretically have a Steam Workshop, meaning that it could hypothetically have community-made costume parts added to the game! Possibly...Now, how do we get Valve to buy. I want my Portal Gun Beam Rifle.
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Villainous in-game mission chain wherein Aperture Science buys out Portal Corp.?
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Villainous in-game mission chain wherein Aperture Science buys out Portal Corp.?
Nah. They buy out Aeon Corp.
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Nah. They buy out Aeon Corp.
GLADOS and Dr. Aeon. Mortal enemies or love at first sight? FOR SCIENCE!!!!
...you monster.
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And all of a sudden the mental image of the end of SSA WWD mission - the one with the island in space - after you defeat Rula-Wade...
... cannot be complete without a little orb floating by...
"spacespacespacespacespacespacespacespacespace!!!! I'm in SPAAACE!!!... space space space!!!"
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And all of a sudden the mental image of the end of SSA WWD mission - the one with the island in space - after you defeat Rula-Wade...
... cannot be complete without a little orb floating by...
"spacespacespacespacespacespacespacespacespace!!!! I'm in SPAAACE!!!... space space space!!!"
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/JustForFun/MadeOfWin
All I gotta say.
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Villainous in-game mission chain wherein Aperture Science buys out Portal Corp.?
Heh, this idea had crossed my mind recently. In fact I think I said something in a group in the past week or so, wondering if there was anything below Portal Corp, on levels way further down beyond what is known. Experiments with giant potato plants. Or something.
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@GeekMom blog just retweeted us. They've got 5k Twitter followers :)
Ooh, and I just realised we got a retweet from the editors at http://www.wired.com/geekmom/ off the back of that. Maybe they'll do a story if we ask nicely. Or if some of the lovely Mums in here or the press people would want to send some information their way?
Corrina Lawson, Senior Editor, Geek Mom
corrina(at)geekdad.com
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I'm having some luck today @geekgirlcon gave me a RT and promised to throw in some additional tweets too. They have 10.5k followers :)
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Great work, Twitter Powerset users!
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And a retweet from @GAppleComics (Comic Shop to the Stars, apparently.) 5k and a bit followers :)
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Jason Scott has just tweeted that he's not happy about COH being closed. I googled him and he's an internet/tech historian, and the guy behind textfiles.com
He's got 6k+ followers, but sadly he didn't link here, or to the petition. He wrote:
Jason Scott @textfiles
The Archive Team has decided we're reeaaaalllly pissed off about Webshots and City of Heroes going under. WARRIORS, START YOUR MACHINES.
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Jason Scott has just tweeted that he's not happy about COH being closed. I googled him and he's an internet/tech historian, and the guy behind textfiles.com
He's got 6k+ followers, but sadly he didn't link here, or to the petition. He wrote:
Jason Scott @textfiles
The Archive Team has decided we're reeaaaalllly pissed off about Webshots and City of Heroes going under. WARRIORS, START YOUR MACHINES.
Have you send him a tweet with pertinent links? :)
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Just this second :)
ETA: Sorry. My internet-fu is not strong. As far as I can figure out this guy runs around archiving everything he possibly can when people pull sites? I imagine someone like TonyV or someone even slightly techie would probably be more aware of him than I am.
This guy could be REALLY helpful.
Jason Scott @textfiles
There we go. 446gb of audioblogging files from Cinch.fm before it deletes everything this month. http://archive.org/details/archiveteam-cinch
Jason Scott @textfiles
P.S. @archiveteam downloaded a copy of cinch.fm for later generations. You know, since wiping out 6 years of audioblogging isn't cool.
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Rae, any chance he can be convinced to download the entire CoH official forums before lights out?
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It may be what he's working on. I've sent him a DM to ask.
ETA: He seems to use this, if people want to get involved and help out?: http://archive.org/details/archiveteam-warrior Sorry, I'm the worst person to try and figure this out, anything more complicated than turning on a computer and I go into a cold sweat :-p