As I sit here and ruminate on City of Heroes (which is something I will probably be doing quite a bit over the next several weeks) I cannot help but be awed at the community, and its reactions to the news.
There was the initial shell shock of the announcement, for it was so very sudden. There was despair, and there was anger. There was blame placed and fingers pointed. But in no short order, there was action.
In less than an hour after the announcement went live, the main petition went live. In the days since, the community rallied and promoted the petition, garnering attention from several gaming websites.
Fans gathered on the official forums to offer solace to the developers at Paragon Studios, and to thank them for letting them be part of this living, breathing, online world. They have sent e-mails, as well as physical mails, and made calls to NCSoft. Some to beg and plead for a stay of execution, some to appeal to reason, others simply to inform the publishers about what precisely City of Heroes has meant to them.
I’m fairly certain some of the corresponence has been vulgar and inflammatory. that’s just the nature of people. But the bulk of what I’ve seen is respectful and informative, and so very wrought with emotion that it brings tears to my eyes and I have to stop for a moment to collect myself.
There are the naysayers, of course. The cynics who say “why bother?” or “It won’t make a difference.” Maybe these people are right, maybe they aren’t. But it isn’t going to stop the community from trying.
It may be these next three months truly are City of Heroes’ swansong, but it’s not going to keep people from pulling themselves up out of whatever despairs or sorrows they’re going through. It isn’t going to make them forgo the bonds of friendship and community they have established.
And it certainly isn’t going to keep them from taking to heart the spirit of the game they all have in common; from standing firm in defense of something dear to them against insurmountable odds, no matter how hopeless or pointless it may seem.
It’s not going to keep them from being Heroes.
Tag Archives: city of heroes
pleasedontsqueezethegreymatter:
Last Friday, NCsoft announced that it would halt development on City of Heroes effective immediately, and shut down the servers for good at the end of November. This came as a shock to everyone, most of all the people at developer Paragon Studios, some of whom had been excitedly advertising things only weeks away from release as recently as the day before. They came to work on Friday and were basically told, “we’re shutting down the game. You’re all fired. Be moved out of the office by the end of the day, and don’t forget to tell the players before you lock up.”
Hard data is tough to find, but the latest estimates indicate two things:
1. NCsoft lost $6 million last quarter, primarily due to the under-performance of properties such as Lineage and Aion. Neither of which is on the chopping block.
2. City of Heroes brought in $10 million in profits over the past year.
If my math is right, that means that shutting down CoH is going to INCREASE those losses. By about $2.5 million per quarter. And that’s not even counting the losses they’ll suffer due to how many MMO players they’ve now alienated, particularly with the way they’ve treated the dev team at Paragon Studios. Which the players aren’t going to let anyone forget, I promise. Treat your employees like crap, and even if they have to take it lying down, we don’t. Treat your customers like crap, and we’ll resist. We’re going to make noise. We’re going to write letters. We’re going to get the word out about this. We’re going to make sure every gamer in the world knows how little their support and your own employees mean to you, NCsoft. We’re going to fight to save our city, because that’s what heroes do.
In less than a week, we’ve amassed over eleven thousand signatures from players who refuse to go down without a fight.
And while it’s still too early to tell if our efforts will bear any fruit, NCsoft is at least listening. Now is the time to act. Don’t let them up off the mat — fight for your city. Fight for our City. If you haven’t signed the petition, sign it now. If you have a CoH account, log in and use it. If you don’t, it’s free — give it a try.
The players deserve better than this. The developers deserve better than this. Paragon City deserves better than this.
Help our community! Save our game!
City of Heroes has been cancelled by NCsoft.
- The employees of Paragon came in this morning and, without warning, were informed that CoH is shutting down. Most of them were fired that moment without any previous notice.
- Save this game, and save these people. Save the developers that put their hard work into this game, and worked on content until NCsoft’s poor marketing came to stop them. Save all the people who dearly love this game and all the people they met on it. There are parents with their kids who play their games together, and married couples who met through this game. City of Heroes has been around for eight years, and continues to make a profit. Let’s keep it going.
- Just petitioning won’t be enough. Call. Send letters. Mr. Taek Jin Kim, CEO NCsoft Corporation 1501 4th Avenue, Suite 2050 Seattle, WA 98101 USA Tel: (512) 225-6359 or 206-588-7200
- Show our support for this game in person! (No date yet, taking roster now.) NCSoft (NA/EU) 6801 N. Capital of Texas Hwy, Bldg 1 Austin, TX 78731 – (512) 225-6359
- NCSoft loses 6 million in quarter. http://bit.ly/TFiZdc City of Heroes takes the fall for the mistake of Aion.
- Lastly: Cryptic/Perfect World still owns the *engine* to CoH. Because they own Champions Online, it’s unlikely they’ll extend the engine license to a competitor. Call them! Save CoH! (650)-590-7700 1001 East Hillsdale Boulevard Suite 800 Foster City, CA
- More information can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/CoHmasterpost