A Message From @SaveCoX

[Fanny]

Since very early September, I have been running the Twitter page, @SaveCoX.

I wanted to post a message here that I could not fit into 140 characters.

First of all, I am very sorry that I didn't keep the page as active as I wanted to. It's not that I gave up, it's that I am only one person and failed to ask for help. I should have asked for volunteers to keep the page running. But I didn't. And all that is past now.

Apologies set aside, I want you guys to know that we did not lose here. The servers may have gone dark, the game may be gone (for now?), but no one is ever going to forget #SaveCoH. We've caught the attention of various companies and media outlets. Our voices were heard. We went down fighting. And that, friends, is the only way to go.

Hope doesn't die with the game. Hope grows despite last night.

Keep fighting the good fight.

Fanny - Justice Server



ps - Anything posted with @SaveCoX in the content that is not civil will not be responded to, retweeted, or even acknowledged. @SaveCoX supports a campaign of courtesy and professionalism.

[Manga]

What upsets me more than anything now is the treatment we got from NCSoft.

Paragon Studios was greenlighted to release Issue 24 at any time, and produce more Paragon Store content, up until they were all suddenly fired on August 31st.  They were lied to, and then caught by surprise.  And these are not disgruntled employees who would take a 60 or 90 day notice badly.  NCSoft shut them down this way just to show that they could.

Players were told that all attempts at selling City of Heroes had failed.  Then we had people who were making offers come out of silence, telling us that NCSoft lied, that they rejected every attempt at a serious offer, and even mocked some of them by adding in crazy terms that no one in their right mind would agree to. 

Then as a final insult, NCSoft supposedly "leaked out" that City of Heroes had to shut down before it could be sold because of legal issues.  That's ridiculous, it was yet another attempt at earning silence from players so they could shut CoH down and make it disappear in peace.

NCSoft has not treated us players, or even their own developers, with the slightest bit of respect, or even as human beings.  We've been lied to, mocked, and t-r-o-l-l-e-d, and treated like garbage.  Even the new game they've been touting so much, Blood & Soul, is poking fun at us gamers, implying that all we need is over-sexualized weird looking models with a stripper dance to stare at for a few hours, and we'll be happy to throw money at them for it.  They expect us to not only give up our home, but also take abuse, and then line up like good little consumers and wait for more.  NCSoft is a gaming company that *hates gamers*, and makes sure we know it.

I know it's not realistic to ask everyone to avoid NCSoft, because some of you already have active subscriptions with some of their other games and are enjoying them, or want to.  But beware, because this sort of treatment awaits you again someday.

NCSoft:  We are insulted and angry.  We deserved better.  Your horrible handling of this will not go unnoticed in the MMO world.

[Menrva Channel]

I just want to say that I've been quietly following your twitter and am just grateful you did it. 

And you're right. We're here. We still love our City--and hopefully, that will be enough. This is when our real battle begins.

[eabrace]

NCSoft:  We are insulted and angry.

And we suddenly find ourselves with a surplus of free time to dedicate to new endeavors.

That may prove to be the biggest miscalculation they ever make.

[Colette]

Fanny, while I am not a participant of Twitter or other social media myself, I applaud every effort to support the SaveCoH movement. Thank you.

TheManga, right there with you. I have grown progressively more annoyed with NCSoft, until that final condescending message last night sent me into full-on, authentic, honest-to-goodness hate. Very rare for me, thank heaven!

[Fanny]

I must have missed a message from NCsoft last night. What was it?


And Manga, I agree. I really do. I just won't give anyone who starts spamming "F--- you, NCsoft!" and other vulgarities the time of day. We're better than that.

[Menrva Channel]

What upsets me more than anything now is the treatment we got from NCSoft...

NCSoft:  We are insulted and angry.  We deserved better.  Your horrible handling of this will not go unnoticed in the MMO world.

Btw Manga, I also agree. I saw that message today and my blood ran cold. We now get to speak with the greatest super power we have--money. I forgot where I read it (here) but someone commented that if a company is not loyal to you or its employees, you have no reason to be loyal to it. I don't care how pretty GW2 is (and it does look pretty), because of the horrible handling of this I won't go near it or any other NCSoft game. I'm not going to get attached to something they feel they can take away on a whim.

They have made the mistake of underestimating us and thinking that the more they say 'shut up and go away', the sooner we'll listen. My City--our city is gone. But it's people aren't. I think if we stick together and hold out, maybe we'll see Paragon rise from the ashes.

Fanny, are you going to keep the Save our City Twitter up? I've noticed their official Facebook, Forums, and Twitter is gone. And I'd hate to see it lose anything else.

[srmalloy]

Paragon Studios was greenlighted to release Issue 24 at any time, and produce more Paragon Store content, up until they were all suddenly fired on August 31st.  They were lied to, and then caught by surprise.  And these are not disgruntled employees who would take a 60 or 90 day notice badly.  NCSoft shut them down this way just to show that they could.

As crude and overbearing as it appears to us, it was actually a very traditional Korean action -- firing an employee out of the blue on a Friday saves face for the employee by not forcing them to come back into work to face their failure. What makes this action so callous is that it is just one more example of how NCSoft is a Korean company, and therefore all parts of NCSoft get treated the way they would in Korea, regardless of where in the world they are -- the company doesn't care that Western culture is different, and is unwilling to make the effort to understand why their actions arouse such ire when applied outside Korean culture. Their announcement of the pending shutdown of the game, and the "exhausted all opportunities" message were, likewise, very Korean in nature -- carefully bland, mostly content-free announcements that, in Korea, would be taken as clear statements that the NCSoft management had made these decisions with all due consideration of the ramifications, and we, mere customers, had been given a carefully-neutral declaration that we were expected to suck up and accept quietly. By NCSoft's lights, we were the ones who were reacting improperly; they'd given out the appropriate announcement, and we were failing to display the proper respect for authority, challenging their decision publicly, raising a horrid stink about it, and attempting to get them to reverse their decision; the "exhausted all opportunities" message was another quintissentially-Korean "we're in the position of authority, you are not; accept this statement that we've done everything possible, go away, shut up, and behave properly" statement.

[Ratstar]

Thanks for setting up the @savecox account, I participated quite a bit with the Twitter action.   
This is likely the end but as someone on these forums said, we went down fighting. Can't ask for more than that.  Hats off and deep respect to everyone that participated in the various calls to action.

[Fanny]

Fanny, are you going to keep the Save our City Twitter up? I've noticed their official Facebook, Forums, and Twitter is gone. And I'd hate to see it lose anything else.

Since the only Facebook page I manage is the Justice FB group, I can't speak for the closing of any Save CoH-related FB pages. I can say, however, that I plan to keep the @SaveCoX page up as long as it is relevant. Which, as far as I'm concerned, it will be relevant for quite a long time.

[Kheprera]

For what it's worth...


My voice has been silent lately due to RL stressors...

But I am FAR from done.  NCSoft won't get any more money from me, but they will get my very vocal derision.

Remember the Alamo?

Remember Paragon!

[Fanny]

I wish we had a "Like" button on these forums because you guys are seriously awesome.

[Lily Barclay]

And we suddenly find ourselves with a surplus of free time to dedicate to new endeavors.

That may prove to be the biggest miscalculation they ever make.

I had the exact same thought today while I was at work. And promptly tweeted it to ncsoft. They actually got a lot of angry tweets from me today. Emotional woman with a sad child, going on 3 hrs of sleep- watch out ncsoft.

[Victoria Victrix]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP4-7VQV42k

This, to NCSoft.

[avelworldcreator]

Love it. 

[Fanny]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP4-7VQV42k

This, to NCSoft.

That is absolutely perfect.

Also, I'm never going to get over the fact that one of my favorite authors is on this board, and played a game I love. /fangirlism

*fistbump from a newbie author!*

[dwturducken]

I would prefer @SaveCoH be relevant for a short time.  Yesterday, we mourned. Today, we plan, for, tomorrow, we fight.

[Quinch]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP4-7VQV42k

I feel more like this.

http://youtu.be/I69X6qJWUws?t=3m51s

[Frostyfrozen]

Just also feel its needed to remind those that have forgotten or missed it. But if I'm remembering it right Paragon Studio heads where called with the news around 3AM pst. that they where locked out and let go.

[Frostyfrozen]

Is not the Message from NCsoft on shut down night the one that comes up when you try to go to City of Heroes offical website?

http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/sunset.php

I think it was typed up from that same person that did up the Sep 2nd letter to us.

[LadyWizard]

I'm still like WTF what final heroic battle?  We got NOTHING for a finale that we didn't do ourselves(okay maybe the rikti infinity took down dropship right before we went dark)

[Frostyfrozen]

Ya I know I was rather surprised at the lack of Dev's appearing and or interaction. I heard on the CapeRadio Posi & Hit Streak made appeariances on Pinnicale & Virtue but that was it. I think I'm goign to make a thread see if people know why.

[Lily Barclay]

Ya I know I was rather surprised at the lack of Dev's appearing and or interaction. I heard on the CapeRadio Posi & Hit Streak made appeariances on Pinnicale & Virtue but that was it. I think I'm goign to make a thread see if people know why.

There were way more than that. There was at least ten. War Witch. Dark Watcher, Black Scorpion, Synapse, Black Pebble (technically not a dev). That's all I can remember of the top of my head. All were chatting in Savecoh global.

[NecrotechMaster]

was there anything of interest coming from the devs there?

[Undercat]

Hmm? There was a global chat channel that was practically taken over by Devs, along with a live twitch.tv stream. They were out in force, but I guess the word just didn't get out. There were less than 500 of us in the SaveCoH chat channel and somewhat fewer connections to the live stream.

[Victoria Victrix]

Positron (who was for a time stuck in invisible mode), Ravenstorm, Zwillinger, Hitstreak, Synapse and GM_Lloyd also turned up.  I think I saw a couple more but I haven't filtered my chat log from that night yet.  Most of them were at (or tried to be) AP33 but were all on the SaveCoH channel.  My husband SWEARS Jack Emmett (Statesman) also turned up.

Remember, they ALL except for Zwill and  Hit lost their dev privileges the day they were fired.  And I mean LITERALLY; I stopped being able to talk to WW except on private correspondence that day; they lost their NCSoft and Paragon email accounts, and were unable to log into their signature toons.  They wanted, badly, to give us a great, epic "last day" and NCSoft refused to allow them to do so.