I'm going to be blunt here and I hope you don't take this personally because you're not the only one who's guilty of this, but I'd rather have a thousand people playing Guild Wars 2 than one person post here that they just don't think that we're ever getting City of Heroes back.
Now to be clear, I'm not saying that I expect no one to ever think that. There are plenty of good reasons to think it. I mean, when a game shuts down, it's gone for good, right? Maybe, but I've never acted like what we're trying to accomplish here isn't a bit unprecedented. I've never said it would be easy, or promised that it would happen within a year. And what keeps me working on this stuff isn't how many people play or don't play Guild Wars 2. I'm not going to give any money to NCosft, but I honestly couldn't care less if other people do. What keeps me working on this stuff is one thing only: how dedicated the City of Heroes community remains to the game.
Several people have asked me this past year, "Tony, what will it take for you to give up and accept that City of Heroes is dead?" My answer is that I will continue fighting until I feel like the community simply doesn't care any more. Posts like this do more damage towards that end--getting the community to not care any more--than anything NCsoft could ever say or do. (Ironically, even including shutting down the game.)
I know that some people have this wild expectation that the Titan Network is going to swoop in any minute now and say something along the lines of, "BEHOLD! We have recreated our beloved game, and now everyone can pick up where you left off!" To some extent, it's our own fault when we release stuff like Icon, because it tends to make people think, "Wow, they're just RIGHT on the edge of making it happen, it will be ANY day now!", no matter how much we say that such expectations are unfounded but that we're making slow and steady progress on it. And then a few months go by, and we have yet another post or two like this. And even though it's not explicitly said, I can't help but take as, "You guys aren't working fast enough."
But I will say this yet again: Write us off at your own peril. Not that anything bad will happen to you if you do, but I'm telling you that we
will have City of Heroes back again at some point. And when we do, the people who stuck with us through thick and thin, those will be the people who get to bask in the epicness of whatever we manage pull off. The people who said all along, "Wow, I knew this was going to be hard, but we believe in you guys" are going to be vindicated. Posts like this, on the other hand, are going to look a bit foolish in hindsight. (Not that I ever expect us to not get posts that boil down to, "This isn't exactly how it was before, so it doesn't count!"
)
If you believe that City of Heroes is dead, such is your prerogative, and while I disagree, you're free to believe what you want. If you're discouraged, then trust me, I've been there, and I know how crushingly demoralizing it can be. But what exactly do you hope to accomplish by publicly declaring it here to a community of people who are working hard to save this game? Did it make you feel better after hitting the Post button, as if a weight had been lifted off of your shoulders, that you no longer have to bear this burden of hope? Because to be honest, that's kind of selfish, don't you think? Doing it at the expense of those of us who are still fighting to see this thing through?
