Author Topic: Call to Action: Contact NCsoft Directly  (Read 63329 times)

TonyV

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Call to Action: Contact NCsoft Directly
« on: September 15, 2012, 06:17:50 AM »
UPDATE (Tuesday, September 18)

Hey all, good news.  As I indicated in my update yesterday, I asked for an e-mail address that we could use to send messages to NCsoft without interfering with company operations.  Today, I received the following: "I asked about setting up a monitored email address for players to be able to communicate with NCsoft, and one has been created at: COHSunset@ncsoft.com."  (Emphasis mine.)

Now I know that some of you are thinking, "But that wont do any good!" but I'd like to point out that 1) you don't know that, and 2) they most certainly did not have to do this; I appreciate that not only did they, but they did it very quickly, which shows to me that they are listening.  I honestly believe that someone will be reading these messages.  Accordingly, please don't use it to grind your ax at NCsoft or e-mail bomb it.  If you do, that will most certainly assure that it gets redirected to a black hole never to be read again, which would be screwing over your fellow players, not NCsoft.


UPDATE (Monday, September 17)

I have received a request from NCsoft to remove these addresses from being publicly posted.  I have decided to comply, and I wanted to make sure everyone understands my reasons for doing so.
  • I read up on the legalities of the situation before posting this Call to Action, and I am convinced that I am well within my rights to do what I did.  However, I want NCsoft to understand that this isn't about exercising legal rights, it is about trying to reach people with the ultimate authority to determine the fate of City of Heroes.  I have said all along that this is not a campaign of annoyance or denial of service and repeatedly requested that the community be respectful and positive and constructive.  Having read many of your e-mails, I believe that this goal was achieved admirably and that our community was well-represented.
  • I believe that everyone in our community who would want to contact management at NCsoft has now had ample opportunity to do so.  Accordingly, I do want to minimize the opportunity for others who might have an ax to grind with NCsoft in the future to come along and find this information and use it for ill purposes.
  • I believe that by now, executive management at NCsoft has gotten adequate representation of our community, for better or for worse.  While we could continue sending e-mails, by now I'm sure that they will likely not be read.  If you didn't get a chance to convey your story, I apologize, but such is the nature of some of these calls to action, that they will be time-sensitive.
  • Even though it is not an especially positive response, it is not an especially negative or threatening one, either.  Frankly, I expected a bit worse than it is.  Accordingly, I want to extend them the courtesy of complying with the request as a good-faith gesture.
So I'm going to go ahead and take down the addresses.  In return, I will ask for an address or addresses to which we can continue sending e-mail without interfering with the company's operations.

Again, I want to make this crystal clear: I was not threatened by NCsoft; it was a request, one I am voluntarily complying with as a sign of good faith.  The intention was never to interfere with company operations.  It was to give the NCsoft executive management team an unfiltered glimpse into our community, warts and all, but mostly loyal and dedicated customers making up a community they helped to build and should be proud of.

I'll let you know if I hear anything else.  In the meantime, we're going to consider this project closed, and there is no further need to e-mail NCsoft executives.  Thanks a ton to everyone who did send e-mails.  I've read some of them and they truly were exceptional.


ORIGINAL POST (edited to remove e-mail addresses)

Hey all,

[SKIP TO "TL;DR" TO BYPASS SOME FLUFF]
(but it's worth a read if you think I've lost my mind)

So here's the situation.   Two weeks ago today, we received word that NCsoft is closing Paragon Studios and shutting down City of Heroes.  Since that time, the community has pulled together with amazing strength and clarity.  Our story has been published on over two hundred news sites and blogs, we've gotten notable personalities including Mercedes Lackey (who has unwaveringly supported and promoted this game for years), Neil Gaiman, Sean Astin, Felicia Day, Scott Kurtz, Tara Platt, John Kovalic, and John C. Wright to support us.  I personally have been on an Internet streaming radio show, and a pre-recorded interview from yesterday is due to be played on a broadcast radio station tomorrow.  Our community has reached out even further through social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter, through user-submitted articles such as iReports on CNN (one of which was vetted by a producer), posts on other gaming forums to rally our extended community to our cause, and we have touched literally millions of people.

Over the past two weeks, I have tried my best to communicate with NCsoft.  I have been copying upper-level management on our press releases as well as sending e-mails imploring them to talk to us or provide some sign that our Option A--allowing Paragon Studios to acquire the game--is being seriously considered.  I presented this not as a demand or even as charity, but in clear terms of how this would benefit NCsoft both financially and in terms of public relations not just to the City of Heroes community, but to the community of gamers--their customers--as a whole.  I have tried to convey that I respect their business decision, but that there are alternatives in which we all can win and that our community can avoid being needlessly destroyed as a casualty of a strategic realignment.

Unfortunately, I have heard nothing back from them but silence, the silence is deafening, and now we are at serious risk of losing even if we win.  Our development team is a highly qualified group of people with proven talents in developing successful games.  We have undoubtedly lost some through finding other employment, and we are at the time now where if we don't fall through to our next course of action, our window of opportunity for retaining the people who made this place great will be irrevocably closed.

TL;DR READERS START HERE (yes, I know it's still long, bear with me; this is the most important part of our most important call to action yet)

Before any of this craziness was going on, I managed to get e-mail addresses for NCsoft management.  Not e-mail addresses you'll find on any public publications.  I have stressed that our goal is not to cause NCsoft harm, neither financially nor reputation-wise.  At this point, I am convinced that our message just isn't getting through.  I still think that they do not understand why this game is so important to us.  And it might be my fault; if they have not been seeing the news or our efforts with the rallies or the outreach, what does the word of one random stranger on the Internet really mean?

So for two weeks, I have been desperately resisting doing this because I don't want it to be mistaken as a sign of harassment, but we have to get our message through.  I am now asking you all to contact the following people at the following addresses.  Let them know what this game means to you.  Tell them your stories.  Send them your pictures.  Stress how much our development staff has meant to us over the years, why they are unique in the industry, the story of how fun it was on Game Night before the Player Summit, how nice the artist was who signed your Blue King #1.

[address removed]: Mr. Taek-Jin Kim, CEO (male)
[address removed]: Dr. Song-Yee Yoon, Chief Strategist (female)
[address removed]: Mr. Dong-Il Kim, CFO (male)

Please note that all three are fluent English speakers; there is no need to translate your e-mail to Korean.

I hope that the e-mails will stress positives, reasons why we believe releasing City of Heroes to be acquired by a third party is a good business move that benefits everyone.  However, I know that there are still a lot of hurt feelings in the community, and I suspect that there will be some negative e-mails sent no matter how much I ask them not to be.  I will ask that you at least do this for me: Tell them why you are hurt and angry over a game being canceled.  Express to them what you're feeling, how in the past five years this makes five games now (Dungeon Runners, Auto Assault, Exteel, and Tabula Rasa as well as City of Heroes) that NCsoft has shut down; why that is having a very negative impact on their reputation; why you have started "Boycott NCsoft" movements and why you are telling friends in the gaming community--their customer base--to avoid titles such as Guild Wars 2 and Blade and Soul, titles they need to thrive.  If you are angry over having sunk costs in City of Heroes that cannot be recovered (extended subscriptions, Paragon Points, microtransactions for which you feel you are not receiving the full value of), be sure to point out how these issues go away if the game continues.

Send them e-mails.  Tell your friends, supergroups, coalitions, and teams.  Post on Facebook.  Tweet it.  Yell it out your front door if you have to, but get the word out.

I know some of you might disagree with this strategy and opt not to take part, and I understand; it's your choice.  Please know that this has been a well-thought-out decision that I've struggled with and I was really hoping that there would be some hint that things would be resolved by now.  I wish we had the luxury of continuing our current plan of urging one-on-one communication or waiting until we receive some sign that things are going our way, but we've gotten to the point that now, every day we wait is one more day that our development team is permanently at risk of dissolving through attrition, one more day that we lose players who become demotivated, one more day until November 30 when this all becomes a moot point.

I'll continue posting news and updates on the Titan Network forums.
« Last Edit: September 18, 2012, 08:40:48 PM by TonyV »

Codewalker

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Re: Call to Action: Contact NCsoft Directly
« Reply #1 on: September 15, 2012, 07:00:42 AM »
I'm not a huge fan of doing this, but I think it's necessary. People have been trying to contact them and there has been literally nothing. Not even a blow-off or a stall tactic, they're just ignoring us completely.

2 weeks is the standard amount of notice time before changing employment. If we wait much longer, then even if some third party acquires the IP it's likely that most of the studio will have dispersed, and even in the best case we'll have an inexperienced crew working on it, and at worst some big name publisher tinkering and screwing things up.
« Last Edit: September 15, 2012, 07:26:15 AM by Codewalker »

Zolgar

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Re: Call to Action: Contact NCsoft Directly
« Reply #2 on: September 15, 2012, 07:05:44 AM »
To quote Han Solo:
"I've got a bad feeling about this."

blue storm

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Re: Call to Action: Contact NCsoft Directly
« Reply #3 on: September 15, 2012, 07:10:23 AM »
--


FlamedWarrior

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Re: Call to Action: Contact NCsoft Directly
« Reply #4 on: September 15, 2012, 07:21:32 AM »
I have to agree here, as much as we want to save the game, I don't think it will be as good as it is without our Devs.  We can't wait forever because we will most definitely lose one of the most important aspects of the game...the insiders of our family.  But I do believe it is very important as Tony V states that as mad as we are, we keep the emails professional and just state why the game is so important to us.  They start getting pissy emails it is just going to turn them off to what we are asking for and there is no sense fighting this fight just for them to say "what a bunch of a&^holes, we aren't giving them anything". 

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Re: Call to Action: Contact NCsoft Directly
« Reply #5 on: September 15, 2012, 07:29:31 AM »
I'm going to trust your judgement on this, that it has reached the time for such steps.

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Ultraviolets

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Re: Call to Action: Contact NCsoft Directly
« Reply #6 on: September 15, 2012, 07:29:58 AM »
Bluestorm has a very good point about cultural differences. For those choosing to send emails at this time, I'd recommend at least glancing at a few of these websites before writing your email in order to maximize the effectiveness of your email:

http://etiquette-guide.com/korean-business-etiquette/
http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/south-korea-country-profile.html
http://www.kieff.com/gary/StudentExamples/South%20Korea/SK_culture_ett.htm

Just a suggestion :) If anyone has any issues with any of the links I'll delete this post.

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Re: Call to Action: Contact NCsoft Directly
« Reply #7 on: September 15, 2012, 07:31:15 AM »
This is what I sent

Quote
Dear Sirs,

I am writing you from a state of mourning. It's been two weeks since we were told of the sudden and painful decision your company made to cancel City of Heroes. Friends lost jobs, and suddenly the world was darker.
I received this news from a very good friend, who was meeting me at the local mall to go to the movies. She too plays City of Heroes, and in fact that's how we meet.

City of Heroes has been called many things in the past couple weeks by a LOT of news outlets in the gaming industry and even a couple outside of it. The one thing that stands over it all however has been how passionate the players are about the game, how much we have created from ourselves within it, and how this work of community driven art would be severely, perhaps fatally wounded by your decision.

Petitions began moments after your company released the news, and Paragon Studios told us. Petitions that have reached 16000 signatures! We are all passionate and devoted to this game, and hate the idea of not having it in our lives. Children have grown with they're parents playing this game with them. The community charity drive, Real World Hero, has collected 30000 dollars over three years for charity! This is the strongest knit community perhaps in video gaming history.

We organized a meet and greet for the Baltimore area, without any support from the Paragon Studios, and we had over 40 attendees, most of whom I still talk with Every Single Day! Without this game, those people wouldn't be in my life, especially not one special person, my fiancee, who I meet for the first time in Steel Canyon, Paragon City, Rhode Island... In your game.

My four year old looks forward to a chance to play this wonderful work of art you helped create and now she may never get that chance. That saddens me tremendously.

I hope that between the petition and recipt of letters such as this, you may realize that there is not only money to be made by keeping City of Heroes but plenty of good reasons to do so outside of profits as well.

I hope my fellow heroes and I, can Save the City one more time...

 Mark Taylor

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Re: Call to Action: Contact NCsoft Directly
« Reply #8 on: September 15, 2012, 07:49:41 AM »
So some stupid thoughts I want to point out. Do we know that these higher ups can read english? Is there some one high up in North America operations that we can also contact?

Part of my reasoning is that if we can talk to a North American higher up, one we would know for sure we can communicate to them, two they could send the message up the food chain and lastly since they work with these people they would probably know the best way to approach them on this situation.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't contact these people, far from it. I'm just trying to think of some ways to help us be heard.

Insatiable One

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Re: Call to Action: Contact NCsoft Directly
« Reply #9 on: September 15, 2012, 07:49:49 AM »
For starters, Tony, please do not interpret this as a criticism of your leadership.  You have inspired us and I will follow you wherever you wish to take us.  The last thing we need is any dissension among our ranks. You have nothing but respect and admiration from me.

I'm a bit worried, after learning we have heard NOTHING from NCSoft.  To me this suggests that this was not a business decision that they rendered themselves, and perhaps we are not directing our resources in the correct direction.  As this announcement came on the heels of another entity that acquired a majority interest in NCSoft, and COH was turning a modest profit even after going free-to-play model, after the most robust development period the game has seen... this business decision does not appear to have made on any logical basis, and the terseness of the announcement, the brevity of the sunset period.. do not suggest that the entity involved in making this desision has any familiarity with the product.  Its literally as if someone walked in, started singing the "One of these things is not quite the same" song from Sesame Street while perusing the games managed by NCSoft and went, ok, this one goes.  And by your own observation, you noted NCSoft's history of picking up and killing titles, which strongly suggest a pattern of behavior. 

For what it's worth, I work for Executive Customer Relations at one of the largest financial institutions in the States.  And i speak from experience that an email sent to our CEO, while it does get placed at the forefront of all other customer service complaints, and responded to within hours, it rarely actually gets read by the CEO.  It is just handled by the same associates who handle our other complaints received from regulators and elected officials.  In my job function, I am lately working 10 to 12 hour days, 6 days a week to try to save people's homes.  Sometimes I can help and other times, too much time has passed or we are not empowered to help, with the decision out of our hands, instead being at the prerogative of the entity that stands to collect when the property is foreclosed. 

I havent had a chance to send a letter yet.  Some of my hesitation is attributable to workload, and partly I think I finally got to the point where I can articulate what I want to say, about how much this game means to me and my wife.  In the meantime I have been trying to help by running a little player created website on Facebook where I have been collecting various posts from all the player sites and the forums of COH, most importantly the calls to action from these forums, sometimes up til 2-3 am here only to get up and go back to work 4 hours later.  It's ironic that it has taken me two weeks to get to the point where I am ready to write  a letter, because I write letters for a living.   I just wish I had more confidence in who I should put in the addressee block, any surety that this person on the other side of the world cares what I think or is in a position to do anything.  I honestly think whoever is in charge may have already told me exactly what they think of my opinion by tanking a game with this devoted of a playerbase in the first place.   

I think initially it I thought that this was maybe a good marketing ploy to announce the game was on its way out, get the populace riled, and let the playerbase do all your advertising for you while you sit back and see if you get any bites on the property.  Now I think, maybe they NCSoft has incentive to let this game rot, like a push from their new majority owner or maybe a push from an entity who is going to soon be releasing their own foray into this niche, and who may stand to benefit from the removal of the established and honestly superior competition.....I can come up with no other plausible explanation of their rationale.  I realize the developers may not be in a position to comment on any discussions they may have going with NCSoft, but honestly if anyone would know who to talk to about this decision, it would be the developers themselves.   And from the swiftness these fine people were kicked to the curb, it doesn't bode well.

Victoria Victrix

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Re: Call to Action: Contact NCsoft Directly
« Reply #10 on: September 15, 2012, 07:51:38 AM »
I'm backing this.

And I just flooded Dr. Yoon's email box with the most heart-wrenching of the posts from the Testimonials thread.  If nothing else, I can leave her secretary in tears.
I will go down with this ship.  I won't put my hands up in surrender.  There will be no white flag above my door.  I'm in love, and always will be.  Dido

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Re: Call to Action: Contact NCsoft Directly
« Reply #11 on: September 15, 2012, 07:53:57 AM »
I sent this.  It's relatively short, and I sent it to all three of them.  I'm working on individual emails now, but I might not send them until tomorrow for fear of burning myself out in the wee hours.


Dear Sirs,
I will not pretend to know why you have decided to shut down City of Heroes.  As a college student studying history, I do not know much about business; I do not know where your focus lies or what your profit margins look like.  What I do know is how much I love the game you have published for years now.  I have learned so much and met so many amazing people.  I am not ready to see it go; I still want to learn and grow.  This game has created a group of people who are like a family to me.  We laugh, we fight, we love each other.  We play together.  I am not asking you to reverse your decision concerning City of Heroes. I am asking you to consider alternatives.  Consider selling the game to another publisher, or to the community itself.  Please, please consider something.  I do not want my family to be torn apart as a result of a realigning of your focus.  Please consider preserving the amazing community you have fostered for all these years.  It is heartbreaking to think of it fading into obscurity, and ultimately distant memories.

Warm regards,
Allen Aho     

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Re: Call to Action: Contact NCsoft Directly
« Reply #12 on: September 15, 2012, 08:04:34 AM »
What we are being asked to do is very much like what we have already been doing. We have been speaking out to anyone and everywhere possible that we have loved this game, loved this development team, loved this community. That we still love it. Now we can tell three more people, Mr. Taek-Jin Kim, Dr. Song-Yee Yoon, and Mr. Dong-Il Kim about this vibrant community. Tell them so much that it makes them proud of what City of Heroes is, that they see what we value so much.

I have been inspired throughout my time in City of Heroes. I have added to my life. With others by my side, I have created a charity drive. I raise my children to value service to those in need. I have come to know and respect a multitude of friends from around the world. They are the ones that have inspired me. I can't think of a good reason not to tell anyone, even these three persons, about my experience. I will write and tell them. Will they take pride in who I am. Perhaps they will find their own inspiration...

Victoria Victrix

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Re: Call to Action: Contact NCsoft Directly
« Reply #13 on: September 15, 2012, 08:07:54 AM »
JUST FYI:

Dr Yoon is Mr Kim's wife.  Don't think she would appreciate being called "sir."
I will go down with this ship.  I won't put my hands up in surrender.  There will be no white flag above my door.  I'm in love, and always will be.  Dido

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Re: Call to Action: Contact NCsoft Directly
« Reply #14 on: September 15, 2012, 08:24:56 AM »
I'll be typing something up for this later on tonight. Time to put that degree in the English language to work. I've met some of my best friends in CoH. Some of you might remember them - the old Vent Crew folks from the Ventrilo server that was running a while back - Spartan, Void, Crysei, PratzStrike, Monsoon - these people over the past few years have become very close friends and we've formed an odd society. So much that one of us used it as a base for a paper he had to write for college and managed to ace the damn thing from a lecturer who hadn't given a 100% mark to anyone in close to ten years.

That is what this community means to us. I know people who have found their significant other through CoH. I know people who used it to keep in touch with others while serving overseas. The creativity from the relatively open lore setting has led to so much and you have examples abound in Virtueverse. We have writers in this game, several of which are known to the world. We have writers in this game who work within the genre it is based on. We have writers whose inspiration sparked from the first character they made, the first footsteps they took into Paragon City.

For myself this game has saved my life not once but twice - first, when the woman who I was engaged to decided to not only cheat on me but also to break up with me, three days before we were due to move house together, three months before we would have been married. As friends have put it - at that moment in time the fact I kept standing was incredible. Several other people, years more experienced, far wealthier and with access to so much more would have fallen apart but I kept walking. I couldn't have done that without the folk I met in CoH and spoke to over Vent, Skype and in other ways.

Second was the most recent time - after being diagnosed with long term depression, in part from the events that happened six years back. Again it was people in this game, from the friendships I had formed that kept me going when on the brink of collapse. The depression was so bad they didn't bother with milder anti-depressants to see if my moods adjusted. I went straight onto full strength prozac. That is how strong it was.

NaNoWriMo and Deviantart have several, several people who originated in CoH. I have no doubt that CoH art pieces comissioned from us, the players keep them alive in some part. I have no doubt that we've probably paid several tuition fees and helped several careers spark to life.

Some may not approve of this tactic but tonight I will be composing the email. I will be composing what is probably going to be one of my best pieces yet. Yeah, I know I'm not published. I know I have no sort of fame power. If anything what I gained over the years in CoH was probably closer to infamy.

But this is my home. These people are my family. And I believe strongly in the following...

Scott Kurtz pointed out his main worry with supporting the SaveCoH movement was that he was just one voice. One voice in many and he feared he couldn't be heard by the masses. The man does himself so much disservice it is unreal. For that humilty I think so much more of him. And had to thank him and make the following point.

One voice is a whisper.
One thousand voices is a loud whisper.
One hundred thousand voices is a shout.
One million voices is a roar.

Yes, we are all just one voice. One person amongst many, regardless of our fame, fortunes or personal circumstances. But the more voices that are heard, the louder and louder the message becomes. So far NCSoft have said nothing, taken two weeks to even touch their site as far as CoH was related and still keep up adverts promoting new powersets and the like. The B&S email was a sharp, painful slap for all of us - I'm almost half tempted to point out that their 'new' focus of bringing Eastern MMOs to the West is something that has already been done a few years ago by Perfect World Entertainment, who, I will note have never axed any of their games.

I will write this. And I will let you all see it when done.

Now is the time to be heard. Now is the time to show NCSoft how we roar.

jacknomind

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Re: Call to Action: Contact NCsoft Directly
« Reply #15 on: September 15, 2012, 08:30:26 AM »
Well, how we whisper loudly, anyway.  The responses are going to be in the low thousands at best; I'd expect more like a few hundred.

emu265

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Re: Call to Action: Contact NCsoft Directly
« Reply #16 on: September 15, 2012, 08:31:34 AM »
JUST FYI:

Dr Yoon is Mr Kim's wife.  Don't think she would appreciate being called "sir."
Fixed in the final draft.

Victoria Victrix

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Re: Call to Action: Contact NCsoft Directly
« Reply #17 on: September 15, 2012, 08:40:48 AM »
OK here is what else you can do.

Those of you who have posted in the Testimonials thread: Most if not all of you have children with issues or issues yourselves.

Write a similar letter to Dr. Yoon.  As the North American liaison she certainly has a good command of English.  Then tell her you are posting your letter to every board you can for whatever group you fall under, be it parents with autistic children, ADHD, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, MS, Chronic Pain, St Jude's Hospital....every single one. 

Then do it.  For heaven's sake, parents with autistic children will grasp at anything that offers them a little hope of bringing the kids back to the world, and this game has demonstrated it at least once IT CAN DO THAT and NOW they are yanking it away?  People with Chronic Pain, CFS, all the other things you folks are laboring under are dying to find something that will help a little, and this is a lifeline and it is being pulled!

We want the glaring hot eye of the mundane world on them....and they will get it.

I can't make those posts for you.  I'm just the messenger.  YOU are the message.  Sound it loud and clear.
I will go down with this ship.  I won't put my hands up in surrender.  There will be no white flag above my door.  I'm in love, and always will be.  Dido

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Re: Call to Action: Contact NCsoft Directly
« Reply #18 on: September 15, 2012, 08:45:31 AM »
Dear Sirs, (well i wish i had see the post  a couple back before hitting send but oh well)
 
Thank you for your time and your consideration of this request.  Thank you for your tenure as the publisher of City of Heroes.  I purchased City of Villains hoping this could be a game I could play with my younger brother, who lives 2897 kilometers away from me.  He was not as interested in the game as me, as he was a fan of World of Warcraft (WoW). This was probably his biggest mistake, and now he does not even play WoW anymore, and says that he looked at how many hours he used to play the game as wasted time.  I however played into the wee hours of the morning while I was visiting every night and came home and was unable to play using my computer, it was not sufficiently up to date to run the program.  A few months later, I had a computer built that would run the game.  My wife and I created our first few characters, on my game account.  Soon after, City of Heroes became available, and expanded the worlds to which we may visit, and we are still playing content in the Rogue Isles, Praetoria, and Paragon City that we have not already played, and we continue to enjoy content I am already familiar with. Eventually we moved out of my mother-in-law's house and I had a second computer built for my wife, and go there her own account.  This was four years ago.  Now we have about 15 or 20 level 50 characters, and over this past couple of years we have seen great things accomplished in this game, all made possible by NCSoft and Paragon Studios, working together.  We have even been able to empower our level 50 characters as Incarnates, with no end in sight to the accomplishments that may be achieved.  The character creator in this game is vastly superior to anything available elsewhere. My wife and I actually schedule our vacation days to coincide with Double XP weekends. This is something we share as a common interest and things like these are precious as they are the glue that keeps a marriage together.  I do not pretend to understand why NCSoft chose to sever its relationship with Paragon Studios and to bring the City of Heroes game to an end.  I cannot help but to feel deeply disappointed and saddened that my wife and I stand to lose so many of our beloved Heroes, Villains, Rogues and Vigilantes.  It feels wrong to be hurt by a company like yours that had previously brought us nothing but joy.  I do not feel my time has been wasted, even if it must come to an end, because I have shared this with someone I love.
 
This is why I humbly implore you to consider any reasonable offer which would allow this game to continue.  In my professional career, I work to save people's homes from foreclosure, and I spend 10 to 12 hours six days a week trying to help people.  I do not get much time to my self, and when I have time I love to spend it in this world you have made. I love that not only do we get to play in such a varied world, but we get to create our own worlds using the Architect system.  I appreciate the value of hard work, and I appreciate the beauty that you and Paragon Studios have created and I do not want to see that beauty die.  Please do not let the work you have invested in this world simply fade into nothingness, empower us to keep this world going, or please direct me to those whom we should appeal.  Otherwise, we are left with nothing but loss and the regret of what might have been. 
 
Thank you for your time,
 
two loyal subscribers of eleven years combined

BigAngry

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Re: Call to Action: Contact NCsoft Directly
« Reply #19 on: September 15, 2012, 11:22:44 AM »
Tony, everything you've done up to this point has been amazing and frankly, wonderful, but ... well, I don't want to be "that guy" (and I'm realizing now how often I've been saying that lately...) but I have this horrible feeling that this is going to backfire and have a negative impact on the negotiations between Brian Clayton and NCsoft/Investors. Those negotiations are VERY delicate, and I think that if we're flooding inboxes of the highest of the higher-ups at NCsoft, they'll see it as a nuisance instead of a touching gesture that it's supposed to be.

Though, this is just my cynical view of things, but what if those email addresses get into the wrong hands? People doing baaaaad things with them? It will be our fault and it will be DEVASTATING to the movement.

On the other hand, of course, none of us want to lose this game. I don't want to lose this game, either. I just think that maybe going over this with Alpha Wolf or Misty's contact from the negotiations FIRST would be a better idea before unleashing the masses.

I'm really torn on this.