Author Topic: Call to Action! Team Wildcard needs YOU! TF Hail Mary LFM  (Read 177244 times)

Quinch

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Re: Call to Action! Team Wildcard needs YOU! TF Hail Mary LFM
« Reply #200 on: November 28, 2012, 02:53:57 AM »
Ms. Lackey, I am nearly in tears over this. This is truly a "Hail Mary", but it fills me with hope. I will, indeed, write letters. I will tell them about the friends I made because of this game, and the other friends I stayed in touch with through this game. I will tell them about how playing CoH was instrumental in getting me to write my novel (as yet unfinished, but over 65,000 words currently). I will tell them about the back-stories, the grueling costume design decisions, and the the brain-wracking struggle to come up with cool but unique superhero names, so that my characters were mine, and no one else's. And I'll tell them about the time I was "saved" from "certain death" by Jesus Almighty. ;-)

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

--@Archimagos
aka Eben Brooks
creator of the CoH filk songs "Beat Up the Scum", "Personal Archvillain", "Don't Wanna Be Defeated", and "Regeneration"

Heeey, welcome to Titan, mr. Brooks!

Shadowhawke

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Re: Call to Action! Team Wildcard needs YOU! TF Hail Mary LFM
« Reply #201 on: November 28, 2012, 03:19:35 AM »

Corporate, but far from heartless

*crosses fingers*

Victoria Victrix

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Re: Call to Action! Team Wildcard needs YOU! TF Hail Mary LFM
« Reply #202 on: November 28, 2012, 06:26:11 AM »
I think there is a number that will clinch this.

100k letters.

It is a truism in business, an accepted business practice and statistic, that for every person who physically writes to a business, either to complain, to request, or to praise, there are 100 more who did not. 

To Disney that would mean if we manage to muster 100k letters, there are a million people who would potentially be interested in the game.  And that is not only enough for the game to break even, it is probably enough to pay off the whole investment in a year or less.

Can we do that?  I don't know.  I think we should damn well try.

If you are a member of any other fangroup that has brought its property back from the brink (or from death) please contact them and plea for their help.  Browncoats.  Trekkies.  Galacticans. Anyone who might see us as a reflection of them.  Please.
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mikoroshi

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Re: Call to Action! Team Wildcard needs YOU! TF Hail Mary LFM
« Reply #203 on: November 28, 2012, 06:41:33 AM »
If you are a member of any other fangroup that has brought its property back from the brink (or from death) please contact them and plea for their help.  Browncoats.  Trekkies.  Galacticans. Anyone who might see us as a reflection of them.  Please.

Now that's brilliant.  I will do so myself.

EDIT: Just discovered who VV is IRL.  And that I'm way behind on this information.  FPACelebrity? :P
If you see me posting here, you need to tell me to stop it and get back to writing.

Stygian Outlaw

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Re: Call to Action! Team Wildcard needs YOU! TF Hail Mary LFM
« Reply #204 on: November 28, 2012, 03:28:24 PM »
Done!

Not one for writing, especially since my hand writing skills are horrid, but I managed to churn out four hand written letters to each of the points of contact.

((Crosses fingers))

~Styg

Blackbird71

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Re: Call to Action! Team Wildcard needs YOU! TF Hail Mary LFM
« Reply #205 on: November 28, 2012, 05:24:32 PM »
Put Frozone in Icon, shouting "WHERE IS MY SUPER-SUIT?!" at tailor contact Edna Mode.  (Although Edna might not let you add a cape.)

(I have to credit Szybko for that.)

I love it!

johnrobey

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Re: Call to Action! Team Wildcard needs YOU! TF Hail Mary LFM
« Reply #206 on: November 28, 2012, 06:22:30 PM »
I think there is a number that will clinch this.

100k letters.

It is a truism in business, an accepted business practice and statistic, that for every person who physically writes to a business, either to complain, to request, or to praise, there are 100 more who did not. 

To Disney that would mean if we manage to muster 100k letters, there are a million people who would potentially be interested in the game.  And that is not only enough for the game to break even, it is probably enough to pay off the whole investment in a year or less.

Can we do that?  I don't know.  I think we should damn well try.

If you are a member of any other fangroup that has brought its property back from the brink (or from death) please contact them and plea for their help.  Browncoats.  Trekkies.  Galacticans. Anyone who might see us as a reflection of them.  Please.

Will do!!  Fandom Unite!
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mikenovember

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Re: Call to Action! Team Wildcard needs YOU! TF Hail Mary LFM
« Reply #207 on: November 28, 2012, 06:33:14 PM »
Something we should also do with our letters is point out that even with the closure, we're one of the most fanatical (probably the wrong term - dedicated, is perhaps better) fan bases out there who WILL return to the game if it's reopened.

There is always an argument of "Well, the game is dead, how many would return?", so it's something we might want to address.  Not only WILL we return but we will do so heartilly, and we will bring with us an increased membership to assure it's success.

We may want to - as bizare as this sounds - have a membership drive on this last few nights, signing up new accounts to the last breath, as it were.  Nothing sells like sales, as they say, and having new members created in the final hours says a lot.  If we have a new membership drive it won't stop the shut down, but it's one more nail in the coffin against the argument that the game was dying off.

Shadowhawke

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Re: Call to Action! Team Wildcard needs YOU! TF Hail Mary LFM
« Reply #208 on: November 28, 2012, 06:35:44 PM »
I think there is a number that will clinch this.

100k letters.

It is a truism in business, an accepted business practice and statistic, that for every person who physically writes to a business, either to complain, to request, or to praise, there are 100 more who did not. 

To Disney that would mean if we manage to muster 100k letters, there are a million people who would potentially be interested in the game.  And that is not only enough for the game to break even, it is probably enough to pay off the whole investment in a year or less.

Can we do that?  I don't know.  I think we should damn well try.

If you are a member of any other fangroup that has brought its property back from the brink (or from death) please contact them and plea for their help.  Browncoats.  Trekkies.  Galacticans. Anyone who might see us as a reflection of them.  Please.

Do we actually HAVE that many people interested in seeing this game come back?

Segev

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Re: Call to Action! Team Wildcard needs YOU! TF Hail Mary LFM
« Reply #209 on: November 28, 2012, 06:46:45 PM »
Well, we CAN'T sign up new accounts. So that won't work. But getting people interested can't hurt.

dwturducken

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Re: Call to Action! Team Wildcard needs YOU! TF Hail Mary LFM
« Reply #210 on: November 28, 2012, 06:49:28 PM »
Like VV has said here and in other threads, we have to look beyond subscribers to "sympathetic" groups. I doubt that the multiple mediums (cards, letters, etc.) will have as much impact as getting as many people as possible involved, but you never know.
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."

mikenovember

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Re: Call to Action! Team Wildcard needs YOU! TF Hail Mary LFM
« Reply #211 on: November 28, 2012, 06:54:32 PM »
Will it be cool to play Wolverine or Magneto? Hell yeah it will...initially. I agree with no customizing of characters, the burnout time on this one is going to very short indeed. Ultimately, I would have no attachment to those characters. Every character I played on CoH had a purpose and backstory, even if they a homage character I gave them an origin that fit them into Paragon, sometimes with humor. I am a very concept-driven player, but I know I'm mainly preaching to the choir here, as there are Role Play Congress members in this thread. I can see Marvel appealing to the 5-15 year-old crowd, but not the mature gamers that VV was making the case on.

Well, in all fairness to what Marvel is doing - it's Not an MMO, and they probably know that.  That was never the reason for doing Marvel Heroes.  Marvel Heroes is based on the concept of selling the Marvel brand, so customization isn't a top priority for them and even dilutes the brand.  But CoH is an excellent feeder for it, because it extends the life of the genre constantly.  It's a good way to keep not the brand of Marvel, but the genre for which Marvel relies on it's business hot.

Every person who creates a superhero in CoH is a customer at some level.  The more you keep those customers focused on super heroes and comics in general - the less likely you are to lose the market entirely when everyone suddenly decides the real 'cool' is in other types of genres.  CoH allows people to embrace those genres (horror, steam punk, sci-fi, warrior, fantasy, soldier) in a way that keeps the over all genre of comics and heroes hot and accessible. 

Do they provide competition for Marvel?  Uh, to some extent, in the lesser picture of game vs. game.  But to Marvel, or Disney no, not at all, in fact they act as a defense to Champions, DCUO or anyone else who walks into the gaming arena by deadening the blow, and they act offensively as a proactive way of drawing the 'agro' as it were, from these competitors.  CoH also plays the more important passvie role of keeping the genre hot at the same time.

Logically this would make a very wise financial move for them really.

mikenovember

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Re: Call to Action! Team Wildcard needs YOU! TF Hail Mary LFM
« Reply #212 on: November 28, 2012, 06:55:13 PM »
Well, we CAN'T sign up new accounts. So that won't work. But getting people interested can't hurt.

No, we can't.  But we can get them to sign a petition that says they would have if they could have can't we?  :)

Shadowhawke

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Re: Call to Action! Team Wildcard needs YOU! TF Hail Mary LFM
« Reply #213 on: November 28, 2012, 07:38:02 PM »
Well, in all fairness to what Marvel is doing - it's Not an MMO, and they probably know that.  That was never the reason for doing Marvel Heroes.  Marvel Heroes is based on the concept of selling the Marvel brand, so customization isn't a top priority for them and even dilutes the brand.  But CoH is an excellent feeder for it, because it extends the life of the genre constantly.  It's a good way to keep not the brand of Marvel, but the genre for which Marvel relies on it's business hot.

Every person who creates a superhero in CoH is a customer at some level.  The more you keep those customers focused on super heroes and comics in general - the less likely you are to lose the market entirely when everyone suddenly decides the real 'cool' is in other types of genres.  CoH allows people to embrace those genres (horror, steam punk, sci-fi, warrior, fantasy, soldier) in a way that keeps the over all genre of comics and heroes hot and accessible. 

Do they provide competition for Marvel?  Uh, to some extent, in the lesser picture of game vs. game.  But to Marvel, or Disney no, not at all, in fact they act as a defense to Champions, DCUO or anyone else who walks into the gaming arena by deadening the blow, and they act offensively as a proactive way of drawing the 'agro' as it were, from these competitors.  CoH also plays the more important passvie role of keeping the genre hot at the same time.

Logically this would make a very wise financial move for them really.


It's interesting, given what you said regarding Marvel, especially since DCUO did just fine pushing the DC brand...BUT the whole Luthor-steals-exobytes-from-the-future thing was a solid way to introduce all those characters we want, and not take away from DC's core. All in all, I think DCUO did very well on it- the problem lies in the fact that DCUO still feels like a MMO half-finished. As a long-time SOE gamer, I really want to like it more, but it needs work.

Codewalker

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Re: Call to Action! Team Wildcard needs YOU! TF Hail Mary LFM
« Reply #214 on: November 28, 2012, 07:41:55 PM »
BUT the whole Luthor-steals-exobytes-from-the-future thing was a solid way to introduce all those characters we want, and not take away from DC's core.

Ironically, that particular plot point was one of the biggest things that turned me off of DCUO and made me not want to play it. I don't like being shoehorned into a particular origin story.

Shadowhawke

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Re: Call to Action! Team Wildcard needs YOU! TF Hail Mary LFM
« Reply #215 on: November 28, 2012, 07:51:40 PM »
Well, being as none of our custom characters would exist in the 'real' DC universe, I thought it was a decent approach. Was it best way to handle it? Well, I'm sure someone out there could have put a better explanation in, but for those of that are story and/or RP focused, you can always avoid some nitpicking and just say you were an unknown hero, from another dimension...whatever.

Have you by chance played Age of Conan? EVERYONE there gets the same origin. And by that I don't just mean the same origin arc, I mean you're all effectively the same person. The one who carried an Acheron spirit as a slave of Thoth Amon, have to gather the pieces of the Phoenix Medallion, work with King Conan, etc. That's a very limiting origin, much more so than DCUO, but if you can get over it, AoC is a stellar game.

mikenovember

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Re: Call to Action! Team Wildcard needs YOU! TF Hail Mary LFM
« Reply #216 on: November 28, 2012, 08:24:41 PM »

It's interesting, given what you said regarding Marvel, especially since DCUO did just fine pushing the DC brand...BUT the whole Luthor-steals-exobytes-from-the-future thing was a solid way to introduce all those characters we want, and not take away from DC's core. All in all, I think DCUO did very well on it- the problem lies in the fact that DCUO still feels like a MMO half-finished. As a long-time SOE gamer, I really want to like it more, but it needs work.

Well, we're hijacking the topic here - so I'll keep it brief and we can pick this up in another thread somewhere. 

But my point is that DCUO does only push the DC brand, and not the genre itself, which is in large part where it fails as an MMO and getting that feeling.

I think Mercedes and others have said, far more brilliantly than I ever could, that the community of CoH is what has kept it alive all this time.  Thats because it is a true MMO.  It's massive in scope because it doesn't force us into origins.  We can be werewolves or villians, scientists, mutants whatever we wish - and remain within this very inclusive family.  If you browse the shelves in comics stores the books there cover almost any possible venue from horror to heroes, fantasy to hard core sci-fi... but they all seem to fit there don't they? 

This is what COH managed to do so well, in large part because of us.  We made that.  That's US in the game and that's why even if NC did create a new hero game, or anyone else does... it won't be CoH.  Marvel could completely buy up CoH and add all the functionality to it... but without our input it will never be a truly massive multiplayer online game. 

Because it may be massive, and it may be online, but that multiplayer aspect - which is us - which is what you experience at the comic shop - that all concepts are openly welcome feel... comes from us.

We're the real IP which needs to be sold.  Everything else could be replicated.  That's what Disney, or any other buyer will be looking to purchase.  Something they can't just buy anywhere or have copied.  We let Disney know they have us... they know they have a long term prospect.

Nafaustu

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Re: Call to Action! Team Wildcard needs YOU! TF Hail Mary LFM
« Reply #217 on: November 28, 2012, 08:40:28 PM »
You know, Disney originally struck me as an odd choice for the game.

Then I remembered that I first picked up a copy of CoH after watching "The Incredibles." 

<snip>

Every time my boyfriend watched the Incredibles, he resubscribed to City of Heroes.  Maybe I should put that in MY letter.  :)

Colette

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Re: Call to Action! Team Wildcard needs YOU! TF Hail Mary LFM
« Reply #218 on: November 28, 2012, 08:49:32 PM »
"If you are a member of any other fangroup that has brought its property back from the brink (or from death) please contact them and plea for their help.  Browncoats.  Trekkies.  Galacticans. Anyone who might see us as a reflection of them.  Please."

I just did a search of Star Trek Online's forums and didn't find anything about us. Anyone plays that game wanna change that?

dwturducken

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Re: Call to Action! Team Wildcard needs YOU! TF Hail Mary LFM
« Reply #219 on: November 28, 2012, 08:53:02 PM »
I mentioned that we're on our third copy of The Incredibles and were about to add a paid CoH sub, but not that I had Incredibles-themed characters. I didn't want to imply copyright infringement in trying to convince them why the IP was a good buy. :)
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."