Author Topic: "Why save City of Heroes?" website  (Read 11074 times)

Quinch

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"Why save City of Heroes?" website
« on: November 05, 2012, 10:05:04 AM »
I've realized something - if we're going to keep attracting publicity about CoH's shutdown, we're going to need a go-to resource to explain why exactly CoH is worth saving. To us, coming from within, it's self-evident, but to someone coming without firsthand knowledge and with the usual assumptions how MMOs work, the explanations tend to sound either implausible or exaggerated. And with new account creation disabled, the option to see for themselves is... limited.

Given that one of the primary rules of communication is "show, don't tell", would it be possible to set up a small site or a page to show what, exactly makes CoH so unique? A showcase of costume creation and a gallery of costumes, for example, gameplay footage to showcase how it player, or even a narrated walkthrough through the game's basic features on YouTube?

Kaiser Tarantula

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Re: "Why save City of Heroes?" website
« Reply #1 on: November 05, 2012, 10:54:14 AM »
Y'know, IMO this is a fantastic idea.  Aside from these forums, we don't have a centralized location for those outside the effort to get a look at what we're trying to save, at a glance.  Most people look at City of Heroes, see that it's 8+ years old, and go "why bother with such an aged game?"  If we can provide, at a glance, the things that make CoH unique, we might gather a few more voices to speak up against NCsoft's closure of it.

Knightslayer

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Re: "Why save City of Heroes?" website
« Reply #2 on: November 05, 2012, 11:15:58 AM »
I brought this up in some topic a while ago myself, currently the closest thing we have to this is the savecoh.com site - but it doesn't really give an explaination about what happened and what we're trying to accomplish with doing some extra navigating (it's more of a site meant for people who are already following our cause, where they can keep track of the latest developments).

Globetrotter

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Re: "Why save City of Heroes?" website
« Reply #3 on: November 05, 2012, 11:21:16 AM »
I was thinking along the same line, but would it be possible to amend that website?
Gutta cavat lapidem, non vi, sed saepe cadendo.

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Re: "Why save City of Heroes?" website
« Reply #4 on: November 05, 2012, 11:48:56 AM »
This is an important idea. And needs to be promoted.

Especially now, when we have so little time left. I'm sure lots of people have been demo-recording their hearts out. But we need footage. We need screenshots. We need Badge titles that link to articles on things like "Why is there a "Kill Skuls" badge and what's the story behind it?" We need explanations for NPC chatter like "Ascendant who? I'm afraid you have the wrong number!" Or the Freakshow talking about how they used to work in the Brickstown area (or for Crey). Why is there a Cheerleader handing out flyers in front of the Steel Canyon university? (Save the Cheerleader, Save the World!) All the geeky little things that made us love the devs so much!

We need audio too. Sounds. The ambiance of an area. Show how Atlas Park SOUNDS different from Independence Port or Founders Falls!

And we need stories of the Devs and interactions with them - heck - we need to archive stories of In-game GMs and our positive interactions with them! There's a whole thread lauding GM_Lloyd over on the original forums that I hope was caught up in the archive that was saved.

We need to show off the Architect and the Base building to show people what players could create! How much the devs encouraged all of us to make the world our own! To tell our own stories! They did everything short of giving the players Dev tools in the game, and though sometimes they were abused for things like Farming missions, it was WORTH it for some of the classic stories available in the AE!

Show just how robust the character designer was. What it could do. Heck - just showing Leandro's film of over 3000 unique heroes on the Steps of Atlas is only scratching the surface!

If possible - show how the game evolved. How capes and other options were added.

How important Villains were to the game. And how we could create our own.

How deep the lore was. We now have access to the writing bibles. Let's put THOSE on the site!

Those are just some of the ideas that come off the top of my head sitting here. What else can others think of?


Quinch

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Re: "Why save City of Heroes?" website
« Reply #5 on: November 05, 2012, 02:00:29 PM »
I'm glad you all approve - now, the question becomes, is there anyone here actually able and willing to put it into action? I know just about nothing about either web design or wide-range PR, so if there's someone here, or available to set it up, please speak up, otherwise the whole thing will remain just an idea.

Ammon

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Re: "Why save City of Heroes?" website
« Reply #6 on: November 05, 2012, 02:26:30 PM »
I'm glad you all approve - now, the question becomes, is there anyone here actually able and willing to put it into action? I know just about nothing about either web design or wide-range PR, so if there's someone here, or available to set it up, please speak up, otherwise the whole thing will remain just an idea.
Well, I can contribute some time and expertise, but due to professional requirements on my time (I work strange hours and sometimes have a week or so with barely a moment to myself, off consulting far from home) I'd rather not be a lead on the project.  More of a consultant.

However, I do wonder, isn't Paragon Wiki almost precisely the depth wanted if not deeper, and thus, wouldn't the most efficient and effective thing to do to create a new focused sub-section of the wiki that serves as a topical 'landing zone' for people needing a quick overview, with the ability to drill to any depth they like?  And the Wiki is already up there and ranked in search for some related stuff - things that can take a new site months to acheive.

Quinch

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Re: "Why save City of Heroes?" website
« Reply #7 on: November 05, 2012, 02:30:38 PM »
Aaaand there we go. You're right - the Wiki would probably be the perfect place for that kind of thing - not only practically and thematically, but also convenient for visitors to browse through the information that's already been collected.

Knightslayer

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Re: "Why save City of Heroes?" website
« Reply #8 on: November 05, 2012, 03:09:33 PM »
Aaaand there we go. You're right - the Wiki would probably be the perfect place for that kind of thing - not only practically and thematically, but also convenient for visitors to browse through the information that's already been collected.
Maybe someone can make a page on it, with a good description of what's going on? I don't even think it has to be anything fancy page wise, as long as it explains everything well and links to all of our important stuff.

Segev

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Re: "Why save City of Heroes?" website
« Reply #9 on: November 05, 2012, 03:18:55 PM »
And be sure to make a prominent link on the "savecoh.com" site to that sub-section of the wiki.

Quinch

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Re: "Why save City of Heroes?" website
« Reply #10 on: November 05, 2012, 03:23:14 PM »
I disagree with the fancy part - the presentation itself should try to impress people as much as the game itself would, if they could play it. Not just presenting information, but also conveying just how much passion and creativity is invested in it, and how much would be lost if it went under for good.

Ironwolf

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Re: "Why save City of Heroes?" website
« Reply #11 on: November 05, 2012, 03:42:19 PM »
I have an idea for exactly that on making a video of our world.

Start as a young girl in a costume entering Atlas City for the first time and show as she plays - time passing and she ages - growing older and more powerful. Finally show her very old and her getting news the City is doomed by a power even beyond all the combined heroes to save.

I want this all while Louis Armstrong sings What a Wonderful World.

I don't have these skills yet and I intend to try and learn because to me that song completely encapsulates our world.

Visual Fallacy

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Re: "Why save City of Heroes?" website
« Reply #12 on: November 05, 2012, 06:34:12 PM »
While I agree with all the above ideas, if you want to attract new people who never played CoH to the cause maybe it shouldn't be through how great CoH is it should be more about how this affects the digital world in general.  In the past when we lived in a more tactile world and everything came on a disc or a book or some other form that we could touch and keep we for the most part could do what we wanted with it, once we bought it was ours. But as we've moved into the digital age and don't actually have a hard copy of the things we think are ours the rules have changed. We spent money and time on this game and it's just going to be gone, the same can be said for all that DRM music what if that company stops selling gadgets that play it? What about all the stuff we have held in 'clouds' all our online emails, that website that holds my art work, or the one that holds my online journal? All of it could be gone because a company wants to realign it's company focus.

It's time we had some rights in exchange for our money, it's time we stood up for our digital lives and demanded fair use of that which we've paid for. It's time we were allowed to pass on our digital purchases in the event of our deaths just as we can our physical belongings. It doesn't matter if you've never played CoH, it doesn't matter if you think all gamers are some nerdy 20somethings that live in their parents basement and play games for days at a time eating cold pizza and having no social life, if you use anything digital, if you have one mp3 if you have an online email account if you ever saved something on a website you should be joining the cause and fighting for 'your own' rights along with our efforts to save CoH.

TimtheEnchanter

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Re: "Why save City of Heroes?" website
« Reply #13 on: November 05, 2012, 06:54:58 PM »
In the back of my mind, I've been wondering if some kind of a documentary film is in order here, one that would both cover all the amazing things that CoH has done both in and out-of-game, AND all the potential scandal surrounding the shutdown fiasco but that's definitely not a short-term goal.

But then I'm not sure a website is either. To encompass everything, to convey the story to John Doe, we'd essentially be writing a book.

Ironwolf

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Re: "Why save City of Heroes?" website
« Reply #14 on: November 05, 2012, 07:21:38 PM »
In my mind we need a seperate thread to discuss - What made City of Heroes special?

If we hope to ever recreate this ideal and catch Lightning in a bottle, we need to know WHY - what made this different.

TimtheEnchanter

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Re: "Why save City of Heroes?" website
« Reply #15 on: November 05, 2012, 07:31:52 PM »
In my mind we need a seperate thread to discuss - What made City of Heroes special?

If we hope to ever recreate this ideal and catch Lightning in a bottle, we need to know WHY - what made this different.

Anyone know someone with certs in game theory and/or social behavior, who could give some professional analyses?

Sugoi

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Re: "Why save City of Heroes?" website
« Reply #16 on: November 05, 2012, 07:46:00 PM »
Another song that fits the CoH/CoV shutdown quite well in my mind:

This Used To Be My Playground by Madonna

[Chorus (first time without background vocals):]

This used to be my playground (used to be)
This used to be my childhood dream
This used to be the place I ran to
Whenever I was in need
Of a friend
Why did it have to end
And why do they always say

Don't look back
Keep your head held high
Don't ask them why
Because life is short
And before you know
You're feeling old
And your heart is breaking
Don't hold on to the past
Well that's too much to ask

[chorus]
Live and learn
Well the years they flew
And we never knew
We were foolish then
We would never tire
And that little fire
Is still alive in me
It will never go away
Can't say goodbye to yesterday (can't say goodbye)

Hmm CoH Video for this one?


P51mus

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Re: "Why save City of Heroes?" website
« Reply #17 on: November 05, 2012, 08:29:50 PM »
While I agree with all the above ideas, if you want to attract new people who never played CoH to the cause maybe it shouldn't be through how great CoH is it should be more about how this affects the digital world in general.

I agree that we need to make the movement more relevant to people outside of it (because really, it is), but we can do both.

Knightslayer

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Re: "Why save City of Heroes?" website
« Reply #18 on: November 06, 2012, 07:46:23 AM »
I disagree with the fancy part - the presentation itself should try to impress people as much as the game itself would, if they could play it. Not just presenting information, but also conveying just how much passion and creativity is invested in it, and how much would be lost if it went under for good.
I meant that more along the lines of it being more important to get -something- up that describes our cause well, instead of waiting a long time to create a really fancy page (kind of a placeholder while a more advanced version gets developed).

Quinch

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Re: "Why save City of Heroes?" website
« Reply #19 on: November 06, 2012, 07:51:48 AM »
Ah. Well, they're not mutually exclusive - we can put up something ASAP, then polish it as time allows.