Author Topic: ...no comment. (For the journos.)  (Read 33144 times)

Steele Magnolia

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Re: ...no comment. (For the journos.)
« Reply #40 on: October 18, 2012, 11:03:47 PM »

I don't want to derail this conversation, so I will simply point out that the Tea Party considers Fox News to be centrist, not conservative. I should know. I'm a Tea Party person myself.

But on whether it matters at all where on the political spectrum a media outlet is in regards to our cause here - I consider CNN to be centrist leaning left and MSNBC to be extreme left. And you know what? I bloody don't give a rip - If it would help our cause here, I'd send these stories to them in a heartbeat to put WHATEVER spin on it they'd like as long as it gets our cause ATTENTION.

However - since the election is coming up on in the first week of November and we have until the end of November before the game closes, there may be enough time between those two points for a non-political story to gain some traction.

Of course this doesn't end on Nov 30th anyway.

At this point I'd wear spandex and let crowds of any political leaning laugh in my face and rant about politics, economics, martians landing, whatever got them to show up as long as it brought attention to the game's unjust closure. I simply chose Fox because it bends more towards their political leanings.



Victoria Victrix

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Re: ...no comment. (For the journos.)
« Reply #41 on: October 18, 2012, 11:33:09 PM »
Quite frankly ANY mainstream news mention of this story, so long as the emphasis is placed on what NCSoft is doing to (USA! USA! USA!  oh, and yeah, you Eurotypes too) customers and not on LOLSillyGamers is going to be good coverage.  Slant it right wing or left wing, it's still good coverage.
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

malonkey1

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Re: ...no comment. (For the journos.)
« Reply #42 on: October 18, 2012, 11:51:55 PM »
I suppose if you needed to find a centrist news outlet, I'd point first toward the BBC. They may not get much respect in the states, but they're pretty highly regarded in the EU, esp. UK. Really, the only reason I'm aware of BBC News is because I bought access to BBC America to watch Doctor Who. (And I'm pretty sure the Doctor would take our side in this... :P)
BadWolf: "The point that JaguarX is trying to make, of course, is that City of Heroes is like a tree. And Google is like a Toyota...Corolla...? Which would make NCSoft a trespasser, shot by...um, Mister T...which is good, because diplomacy...?"

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Vulpy

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Re: ...no comment. (For the journos.)
« Reply #43 on: October 19, 2012, 12:47:15 AM »
I really have no idea which US outlets might be interested in it (sorry, your leaning to the left, leaning to the right thing sounds like a dance to me. I was totally lost :-p), but once the press release is sorted and if Tony doesn't freak out when he sees it, you guys can send it to whoever you think it might be interesting to, and obviously it can be tweaked to appeal to any number of places.

National Public Radio and Public Radio International might be willing to run it as a "human interest" piece. It'd fight right in between the shocking expose on Italian spaghetti farmers and the retrospective on Brazilian folk music. (I kid because I care. I less-than-three public radio.)
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Victoria Victrix

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Re: ...no comment. (For the journos.)
« Reply #44 on: October 19, 2012, 01:04:48 AM »
National Public Radio and Public Radio International might be willing to run it as a "human interest" piece. It'd fight right in between the shocking expose on Italian spaghetti farmers and the retrospective on Brazilian folk music. (I kid because I care. I less-than-three public radio.)

I can certainly see it there.  And since we don't have visuals, we could use audio tracks.  Nice heroic CoH music and the "ooooh"  "aaaah"  "oh yeaaaaah" from the Gon Dance Boobs and Shame clip.  Believe me, that will tell even LISTENERS what is going on there.
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JaguarX

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Re: ...no comment. (For the journos.)
« Reply #45 on: October 19, 2012, 04:09:20 AM »
Quite frankly ANY mainstream news mention of this story, so long as the emphasis is placed on what NCSoft is doing to (USA! USA! USA!  oh, and yeah, you Eurotypes too) customers and not on LOLSillyGamers is going to be good coverage.  Slant it right wing or left wing, it's still good coverage.

Yea that is the side of the line we would want to be on, the NCSoft option. Yet, we know that LOLSillyGAmers and people Nerdraging seem to catch more attention as it fits into the stereotypical view of people that dont play online games. It should be slanted as we the customer and an disagreeable buisness practice instead of "Gamers raging because company shuts down game!! Next up, is Dr. Phil on Gaming Addicts!"

 How did that negative stereotype get assigned to online gamers anyways? The one where we are either socially awkward pimple bespec. nerds that spend hours playing games, or jobless adults living in moms basement living off cold pizza and too lazy to do our own laundry? From the looks of it, I havent came across too many raging nerds or basement dwellers. From the looks of it we at least have an accomplished author, an IT worker, well several IT people, a government person, buisness people, a few law people.

Adrenalin

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Re: ...no comment. (For the journos.)
« Reply #46 on: October 19, 2012, 04:11:18 AM »

I don't want to derail this conversation, so I will simply point out that the Tea Party considers Fox News to be centrist, not conservative. I should know. I'm a Tea Party person myself.

But on whether it matters at all where on the political spectrum a media outlet is in regards to our cause here - I consider CNN to be centrist leaning left and MSNBC to be extreme left. And you know what? I bloody don't give a rip - If it would help our cause here, I'd send these stories to them in a heartbeat to put WHATEVER spin on it they'd like as long as it gets our cause ATTENTION.

However - since the election is coming up on in the first week of November and we have until the end of November before the game closes, there may be enough time between those two points for a non-political story to gain some traction.

Of course this doesn't end on Nov 30th anyway.

You're right, the beatings will continue until morale improves... or until the company goes under, whichever comes first.

Barring any major catastrophe, or hanging chad, the news should be relatively quiet after the election. Might be the perfect time.

dwturducken

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Re: ...no comment. (For the journos.)
« Reply #47 on: October 19, 2012, 04:25:47 AM »
I think we're all familiar with how we're not the typical group of gamers.

<pushes empty pizza box under the couch so mom doesn't see it>
I wouldn't use the word "replace," but there's no word for "take over for you and make everything better almost immediately," so we just say "replace."

Adrenalin

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Re: ...no comment. (For the journos.)
« Reply #48 on: October 19, 2012, 04:30:42 AM »
Here's another angle to consider for your story:

NCSoft is not only doing themselves a disservice by their continued silence. I suggest that in the long run they are poisoning the well of the ENTIRE MMO industry.

When gamers really, truly as a group begin to understand the fact that at ANY time for ANY reason - even a NONSENSICAL reason - a game can be taken away - 

When it becomes crystal clear that your characters, your guild, all the work you put in - the achievements you have made, the bases (or housing or Starbases) you have worked so hard for -  that none of it is actually yours and that you don't own ANY of it.

If players of MMOs really, seriously, have the thin veil of illusion of "this is mine" ripped unceremoniously away and that it can go away at any time without so much as an apology or even get an answer to the question - "WHY?"

Well then. How many MMO players will think to themselves: "What is the point of paying into ANY MMO? For ANY reason?"
 
What is the backbone of real moneymaking in both subscription and free-to-play games?
 
Is it the casual gamer who plays the game for a couple of months and then moves on to the next shiny?
 
Or is it the amount of emotional investment of the long term committed customer that a game can retain?
 
NCSoft is poisoning the well of the latter in favor of the former. THAT is what they have to answer for. They will manage to lose not only the trust in THEIR brand, but the brand of the ENTIRE MMO industry once people figure it out.

Very, very nice. This, I do believe, would catch the attention of not only the players, but the independent design houses like Cryptic started CoH as. Who would want to be purchased by NCSoft, knowing that they could be fired with no notice at the drop of a hat and the sum of all their work summarily mothballed?

Reminds me of a comment by Valve's Gabe Newell. He said he'd rather see the company disintegrate than be swooped up by some big name company that would then wait for their employment agreements terminate. I believe he was speaking of Nexon in that context as well.

Adrenalin

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Re: ...no comment. (For the journos.)
« Reply #49 on: October 19, 2012, 04:34:21 AM »
Yea that is the side of the line we would want to be on, the NCSoft option. Yet, we know that LOLSillyGAmers and people Nerdraging seem to catch more attention as it fits into the stereotypical view of people that dont play online games. It should be slanted as we the customer and an disagreeable buisness practice instead of "Gamers raging because company shuts down game!! Next up, is Dr. Phil on Gaming Addicts!"

 How did that negative stereotype get assigned to online gamers anyways? The one where we are either socially awkward pimple bespec. nerds that spend hours playing games, or jobless adults living in moms basement living off cold pizza and too lazy to do our own laundry? From the looks of it, I havent came across too many raging nerds or basement dwellers. From the looks of it we at least have an accomplished author, an IT worker, well several IT people, a government person, buisness people, a few law people.

Because when gaming was in it's infancy we WERE socially awkward nerds, and then we grew up. They just haven't gotten that memo yet. What they really need to realize is that nerds tend to run the world from the background, like the Wizard of Oz.  ;D


Adrenalin

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Re: ...no comment. (For the journos.)
« Reply #51 on: October 19, 2012, 05:33:01 AM »
Speak for yourself.  8)

ROFLMAO! Okay, my bad, we got older. (Ooooh boy, older...  :'( )

Knightslayer

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Re: ...no comment. (For the journos.)
« Reply #52 on: October 19, 2012, 07:47:27 AM »
Yea that is the side of the line we would want to be on, the NCSoft option. Yet, we know that LOLSillyGAmers and people Nerdraging seem to catch more attention as it fits into the stereotypical view of people that dont play online games. It should be slanted as we the customer and an disagreeable buisness practice instead of "Gamers raging because company shuts down game!! Next up, is Dr. Phil on Gaming Addicts!"

 How did that negative stereotype get assigned to online gamers anyways? The one where we are either socially awkward pimple bespec. nerds that spend hours playing games, or jobless adults living in moms basement living off cold pizza and too lazy to do our own laundry? From the looks of it, I havent came across too many raging nerds or basement dwellers. From the looks of it we at least have an accomplished author, an IT worker, well several IT people, a government person, buisness people, a few law people.
I came across THOSE types more on other MMO's than on CoX - most of the people I met on CoX that were unemployed were either for health reasons or because they couldn't find anything, despite actively looking for a job.
The stereo types -are- out there too though, people who can't even bothered to shower or do their laundry because they'd rather keep playing - but I'm fairly sure that for every gamer out there that falls into that category, there's two others who do the same with their TV addiction.
« Last Edit: October 19, 2012, 08:55:06 AM by Knightslayer »

Vulpy

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Re: ...no comment. (For the journos.)
« Reply #53 on: October 19, 2012, 11:02:58 AM »
How did that negative stereotype get assigned to online gamers anyways? The one where we are either socially awkward pimple bespec. nerds that spend hours playing games, or jobless adults living in moms basement living off cold pizza and too lazy to do our own laundry?

Why is "gamer" a charged word? Why isn't "bookworm" or "sports fan"? What can we do about it? The folks at Extra Credits did a video on this topic some time ago. It's thought-provoking, if you have between five and ten minutes.

http://extra-credits.net/episodes/gamer/
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Rae

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Re: ...no comment. (For the journos.)
« Reply #54 on: October 19, 2012, 02:07:42 PM »
--
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Kheprera

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Re: ...no comment. (For the journos.)
« Reply #55 on: October 19, 2012, 03:19:51 PM »
As a proofreader by trade I noticed a number of mispellings, incorrect pluralization, and other things.  I can go over it later tonight, but the text is too long for me to work with on my phone.


downix

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Re: ...no comment. (For the journos.)
« Reply #56 on: October 19, 2012, 03:34:11 PM »
City of Heroes was winning awards until only a short time ago as well.

It was also the first AAA rated MMORPG according to Cryptics website on it.

Other games such as DDO compare their systems against City of Heroes for game mechanics, it is considered the gold standard for many areas of MMO development such as aggro management, ability customization, class customization, costume customization, flexible playstyles....


Olantern

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Re: ...no comment. (For the journos.)
« Reply #57 on: October 19, 2012, 03:55:08 PM »
Additional note for the "merchandise spawned" sentence: Comics were published by both Blue King and Top Cow (two separate series).

Rae

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Re: ...no comment. (For the journos.)
« Reply #58 on: October 19, 2012, 05:13:16 PM »
Thanks Kheprera, that'd be appreciated.

And noted Downix and Olantern , thank you :)
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JaguarX

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Re: ...no comment. (For the journos.)
« Reply #59 on: October 19, 2012, 06:37:17 PM »
OK. Here's my first attempt at something for the mainstream media....

Alright this is good stuff for a gamer point of view. It details the plight, what we are trying to accomplish and everything. The gaming community will understand what's going on and the actua effect it has on a game community that has grown close over the years and some resulted in real life bonds that has crossed the virtual barrier.

When I have time later, I'm going to re read it but this time from the view point of someone who never ever played a single online game and maybe only heard of WoW, aka, the average audience of mainstream media. In a nutshell, re-read it on an even keel as possible without the personal feeling of the gaming world and pretending I have no idea how a gaming community works.